metabolic syndrome Articles

One may ask, what is balance training and what are the benefits?

It can benefit a person in so many ways and it starts with the spinal cord.

The spinal cord is involved with voluntary and involuntary movement where information is carried up and down the spine by bundles of fibers in the central nervous system (CNS) where sensory and motor information signal a movement. The goal would be to build a faster reaction with technical movements. First, try dribbling a basketball and notice how little concentration is involved. Now, try dribbling a Reaction Ball -- WOW, what a difference! Concentration and level of difficulty is 10 fold and one can feel the impulses to react!

This is just the beginning of the effects of balance training…

Proprioception is the ongoing awareness of body position or joint position and it is regulated by sensory organs (i.e. eyes, ears, and specialized receptors in tendons, joints, and muscles). Proprioception gets challenged in balance training too! The visual sense gives pertinent data about external stimuli and are extremely important in skilled performances. Try a simple “eyes shut” exercise, while standing on one foot to see how your proprioception is challenged in balance training. Sometimes you may feel like you want to wave your hands around to maintain equilibrium. This signals coordination involvement in balance.

Coordination involves an involuntary response that results in specific motor response with that response being dependent on the type and duration of the stimulus received. So in everyday activities coordination is rarely challenged. However, try to balance on 1 foot -- turn one arm clockwise, the other arm counter-clockwise, and the other leg clockwise then counter clockwise. Now, we are talking about coordination! The results of working on that exercise over time will be building stronger somatic reflexes (reflexes involving skeletal muscle contraction).

Balance training is challenging body equilibrium and teaching nervous and sensory receptor systems to perform highly skilled movement patterns.

How can balance training help the elderly?

As I trained patients with high-level neuromuscular and neurological conditions, the best results came from combining “eyes shut” exercises with coordination exercises all while doing a light aerobic activity. Results and graduation to a new fitness level were achieved in 4-weeks. Aerobic activity alone produced no results and coordination drills with eyes open only produced minor results. So to get the most out of balance try an array of activities such as the examples above.

How can balance help kids and adults?

When in good health, a person wouldn’t even recognize their nervous system and muscles executing a simple movement, but when there is a problem their nerves and muscles can become impaired. People can easily begin reaping rewards from balance training and apply them to sports like tennis and basketball. Balance training also strengthens muscle stabilizers, so if you are apt to get ankle sprains -- then regular balance training can fix that problem!

Watch my client master a very difficult balance exercise that also works the core and quads!

Do you want to lose a few pounds or half your weight? If you wanted to lose half your weight in 6-months, while eating everything you wanted, would you believe it could be possible? It is possible!! I am Alicia Weber a nutritionist and fitness trainer here today to tell you about a very exciting way to lose weight the natural way. While there are no Universal Laws to weight loss the “Gastric Band Without the Band” way to weight loss really works wonders!

Each person needs to find his/her own exercise routine that works. They may want to hire a fitness trainer to develop a program. As far as exercise goes, a person will want to do exercises and exercise intensities that are comfortable. There are no real rules to exercise, but there are rules to nutrition.

RULES
1.) Eat 5 meals a day the size of your fist (i.e. fish would be fist size, while a salad would be less than a fist size as you will imagine it condensed.

2.) Drink as much water as you want.

3.) Eat anything you want as long as it’s the size of your fist or smaller! (i.e. chocolate, desserts, etc)

Restrictions: No alcohol allowed! It’s useless with no nutrient value and empty calories.

Results: A 300 lbs Nevada man lost half his weight in 6-months by following this plan! He says that eating the fist size meal servings was key to massive weight loss! Fred, a recreational athlete into running and aerobics, wished to lose 10lbs. Due to his high intensity exercise and high metabolism, he got away with eating 6 meals a day the size of his fist. In a short amount of time, he met his physical appearance goals! A person with a higher activity level and metabolism could safely eat 6 fist size meals and achieve great results.

Alicia’s Weight Loss Jokes

Q. The obese people attending the Fat Farm rebelled against their fitness trainer one day and demanded that they be in a “weight free” environment. Now, where do they meet for fitness training?

A. Outerspace

Q. The 400m runner had finally “settled into the blocks” and put on 25lbs and threw in the towel! However, after taking a trip to Atlanta he rekindled his flame for Track and Field as he passed the Atlanta Olympic Stadium where Michael Johnson won double gold in sprints! He began aerobic training to get back on track. He began with fist only speed bag punching in sets of 5 strikes at a time. Why?

A. He wanted a constant reminder of the 25lbs he needed to lose through fist size eating 5 meals a day (see above article for details).

Large stomachs are tied to dementia, and that equals less brain power. Big stomach smaller brain is not what I would call a good trade. People in their 40’s who have large stomachs are more likely to have dementia by the time they reach their 70s. There was a study done with 6,583 people aged 40 to 45 in northern California. They took the abdominal fat measurements of all the participants.  They found that the people with the most abdominal fat were three times more likely to have dementia than those with the lowest amount.

Since, we have an army of people with too much abdominal fat, this nation will be losing its brain power. Having a large belly was a risk factor whether the people were normal weight, overweight, or obese. This happened irregardless of other health conditions such as diabetes, stroke or cardiovascular disease. The overweight crowd with a large belly was 2.3 times more likely to develop dementia than a normal weight individual.

We know that a large waist alone is a risk for metabolic syndrome. That means an increase in strokes, diabetes, and heart disease. Women are more likely to have abdominal fat. High abdominal fat in elderly adults was tied to brain atrophy. This research was published in the March 26, 2008 online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

This is a matter of big belly small brain. So now we have a new way of checking a future employee’s qualifications. With a slow job market this just narrowed the field. Belly fat releases hormones and chemicals that are harmful to the brain. From all indications fat in the abdomen area is the most harmful. Having an spare tire has been linked to diabetes, heart disease, and stoke. Now it could be linked to unemployment.

Belly fat is not just hard on the eyes it is harmful to all your organs. The risk of dementia increases as the belly enlarges. Fat thighs are now starting to look better. They do not pose the same risk. The easiest fat to lose is from the stomach area. In middle age is when you start to notice the weight in that area.

This beer belly has been implicated in making people hungrier, which in turn causes more weight gain. Dr.Yang and his colleagues at the University of Western Ontario Institute have found that abdominal fat tissue can make a hormone that stimulates fat cell production. The reason why fat lands in the spare tire is because that area has more cortisol receptors than other places.

Stress causes your body to release cortisol, and this hormone signals your liver to release excess sugar your body isn’t using. This release of sugar makes you feel hungry. The only way to deal with this issue is though weight management and some form of exercise. Walking and exercise lower stress levels, while trimming the fat. We know that large stomachs are tied to dementia, so its time to get moving.