Sage spa

Are you lean flank steak or fatty rump roast?

As an older person and a committed athlete for all of my life, I wonder... how fit can I be as I get older and how long can I keep up the pace?  The answer, as it turns out,  is very, very fit and for a very, very long time.  I recently went back to ballet class, though I had kept up a decent fitness level in the interim by doing running, yoga, Zumba and other exercises.  I have been amazed though that, with perserverance, you can up your fitness levels EVEN MORE THAN YOU THOUGHT POSSIBLE ... and I'm a pretty positive person to begin with.  In the same vein, I came across this video ( Senior Basketball Ladies) of basketball competitors, all ladies and the youngest of whom is 65.  Watch and believe.  If you are older or are destined to get older (and who isn't?) you should take steps right now.  It WILL pay off in all ways including body and mind.  I now can't wait to get older and be even better!  If you have a story of fitness to share, please do so.  We would all love to be inspired by you.

Warm Compresses During Labor Help Prevent Trauma

Help me pass the word to all of our moms-to-be.  New research shows the warm compresses on the pelvic floor during the second stage of labor help prevent tears.  This is really good news, and it's such a nice low-tech solution.  Midwives have been doing this for generations; but, the medical establishment is just starting to get a clue.  According to the research, warm compresses reduce the incidence of tears by 52%. Unfortunately, they don't give the details of what materials, what temperature or how often to use the compresses; but, I bet your midwife can tell you  If you want to read the scientific data look here MORE

Looking for an excuse to get a massage?

Low back pain is one of the most common complaints of our Sage clients ... and the rest of America too so don't feel alone.

New research shows that massage alleviates low back pain better than traditional medicine treatments like medication or physical therapy.

 This is important because low back pain is a major cause of absenteism, disability and 'presenteeism" (you're actually at work but can't perform well because of the pain.  The massage participants in the study were required to get (lucky them) one massage a week for 10 weeks.  At the end of that time, their back pain was significantly reduced or gone entirely.  If you're looking for an excuse to get a massage, I think you've found it!

I've Got Feet On My Mind

The New York City Marathon is 1 day away and, in the past few months, runners have been coming into Sage for relief from various physical pains or just to relax prior to the race.  Combine this with my return to ballet dancing after 20 years and you can see why I've got feet on my mind.  Mostly painful feet, mind you. Sore ankles, achy ball-of-the-foot, bunions, bent toes, sprains and of course calluses and blisters, oh my!

Massage can most certainly help with soreness and sprains after they occur; but, what could possibly help runners and dancers to prevent these injuries from happening in the first place?  I've been looking around and have found a product called the AFX or Ankle Foot MaXimizer.

Its unique design has a variety of resistance bands which allow a post-injury patient or a high performing dancer to achieve balanced stretching AND strengthening.Balancing strengthening with stretching is often key to preventing injury.  Some sports focus too much on stretching and not enough on strengthening or vice versa.  

 

Progressive Health Innovations' Innovative Resistance System provides balanced strengthening from early stage rehabilitation to high-performance athletic training. I plan on buying it.  It may not help you out with this year's marathon or next week's ballet class; but there's always next year!    

 

 

 

Smokin' Shoes!

Just 3 more days until the NYC marathon.  We've been massaging a lot of runners who want to be in top-notch form for the race and we are very excited about our clients' and friends' prospects for running a great race.  

The race passes only a block from Sage Spa in Brooklyn and we will be walking over to 4th Avenue to watch everyone from the elite runners on down to those amazing average joes who do what I can never myself imagine.

As I was thinking about the race, for some reason it reminded me of Hermes, the ancient mythological God.  He is described in Wikipedia as "the great messenger of the gods"  and also as "the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them...". Here's to all the marathon runners who pass boundaries they never thought they could.  You inspire us all!

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Run Faster Run Smarter

Marathon Runners

Massage helps: 

• Increases circulation
• Decreases stress
• Relaxes, rejuvenates
• relieves muscle spasm
• reduces blood pressure
• increases athletic performance
• improves posture
• reduces inflammation
• enhances well being
• slows heart rate, respiration and heart rate
• reduces the recovery time after workouts
• reduces the recovery time of injuries
• relieves pain
• strengthens the immune system
• increases mobility and range of motion

But the most popular benefits:

• Reduce Injuries
• Improve SPEED!

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Top 10 Running Tips

Increase your training volume –

 Unless you're already running 150 kms or more a week, you probably have room to make gains by simply putting in more kilometres. If you normally run 3 or 4 times per week, try increasing to 5 or 6. If you normally average 40 minutes per run, try to push the average to 50 minutes or an hour. Running is no different than any other sport or skill; the more you practice, the better you get.

Increase the training intensity –

 If most of your running is a conversational pace or slower, picking up the pace 2 or 3 times a week can lead to gains. This faster running can take the form of repeats (repeated bouts of faster running with jogging recoveries e.g. 5 x 3 minutes hard with a 2 minute jog recovery), tempo runs (a fast steady run of 15 to 45 minutes), or hill repeats. Note, it's important not to get carried away with intensity. The vast majority of your running should be at conversational pace or slower.

Reduce the volume or intensity

 – If Point #1 or Point #2 haven't worked, it may be time to back off a bit and let your body recover. Particularly if your performance has degraded over time or if you find yourself constantly tired, it may be time for a few easy weeks. Sometimes you need to go backwards for a bit before you can move forward.

Increase your leg speed –

 Improving your sprinting speed has a number of benefits. In addition to allowing you to outkick your opponents in the finishing straight, higher top-end speed also improves your running economy. In other words, increasing your ability to sprint will allow you to spend less effort when running at slower speeds. Incorporate a set of strides (i.e 8 x 100m fast and relaxed runs with full recovery) into your routine once or twice a week is an easy way for you to improve your leg speed.

Get stronger

 – Spending a bit of time in the gym or on the mats can pay off. Core strength is particularly important for maintaining good form while running. Also, strength training can help reduce muscles imbalances,which may cause injuries, and it promotes increased lean body mass. Of course, like anything else, you can over do strength training with counter productive results. However, 2 or 3 thirty minute sessions a week might just be the ticket to improved running performance.

Improve your running form

 - Good running form allows you to maximize the return on the physical energy you put into running. For many of us, focusing on running relaxed, particularly in the arms and shoulders, is the key to improving running form. Apart from focusing on relaxation, there are a number of other things you can do to improve form – sprinters' drills, hill bounding, core strength, strides, and video analysis are all possibilities.

Cross train

 – As alternative to running more (see point #1), you might choose to incorporate other aerobic activities like swimming, pool running, cycling, x-country skiing, or the elipitical trainer. These other activities can improve your cardio fitness without the added stress on your legs that extra running would entail.

Improve your diet

 – While a good diet alone will not make you a champion, a poor diet can limit your performance. It's important to be burning the right fuel in the right amounts. Following the Canada Food Guide (or equivalent) is a good start. Pay particular attention to post workout nutrition. For optimal recovery, it's important to eat something with carbs and a bit of protein with 60 minutes post workout. A glass of chocolate milk is not a bad choice.

Try regular massage, physiotherapy, or yoga

 – Ignoring little muscle imbalances, minor pulls, or misalignments is a recipe for getting injured. If you've been losing training time due to injury, a little preventative maintenance can go a long ways towards avoiding down time. There's nothing wrong with visiting the physiotherapist every two months or so for a check up. Don't wait until things start to hurt. Similarly, regular massage or yoga can help to keep you off the injured reserve list.

Choose a new goal

 – As runners, we often fall into routines – daily, weekly, monthly, and even yearly. Routines are a good thing, they keep you consistent, but taken too far, routines become ruts. Every so often, you need to get out of your rut. If you've been running marathons, maybe target running a good 5 km or completing a triathlon. If 5 kms have been your focus, consider running the mile or 1500m, or maybe move up to the half marathon. Switching your training emphasis from speed to endurance (or vice versa) for awhile can pay big dividends when you return to your favorite distance.

Bonus Tip: Hire a coach

 – A competent coach can guide your training, provide feedback, and act as an ongoing source of motivation. Paying for professional advice often increases your commitment to a training or fitness goal.

 

Cap'n Crunch No More: CC Sabathia And His Surefire Weight-Loss Plan

The following article by Dr. Nick Campos from Optimal Health Blogspot, was written earlier this past year at the start of the 2011 baseball season. A thinnned CC Sabathia (lLEFT) reported to camp, 15 lbs thinner. He said that he lost the weight by backing away from his favorite cereal. Now some ten months later, the baseball season has ended, and CC (RIGHT) has gained back all of the weight plus more. Again, he blames Captain Crunch cereal. ONE 16 oz. lg. box per day with milk was his favorite snack. Sugar is the culprit in more than one way.

CC Sabathia Before & After

The Average Adult Male needs approx 2000-2500 Calories/ DAY! 

CC's Snack

One 16 oz. Box of Captain "Crunch Cereal = 1365 Calories/ 151 g. Sugar
2C. 2% Milk= 260 Calories /16 g. Sugar (lactose is a Sugar)
 Grand Total - 1625 Total Calories/ 167 g. Sugar
THAT'S AN AMAZING 41.75 TEASPOONS OF SUGAR!

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Changing the Way the World Thinks About Health
by Dr. Nick Campos
February 17, 2011 

New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia is reporting to spring training 25 lbs lighter.  The secret: He kicked the Cap'n Crunch.  

Aw yeh, the former fat-boy is weighing in at a svelte 290, not bad for a 6'7" frame.  And to think he did it all with one simple change.  Just think of what that might mean for you or your kids!

Sabathia, the Yankees ace, weighed in at a whopping 315 lbs last season, when he was knocking down a full box ofCap'n Crunch every day!  Each box of Cap'n Crunch has 12.59 servings, each serving has 12 grams of sugar, making a box of the sugary cereal contain a total of 151 grams of sugar.  Further, the nutritional info on the box lists the number of calories at 217 per double serving.  Therefore, a full box of Cap'n Crunch contains 1,366 calories.  Dang!

To put this into perspective, a soda (Coke, let's say) contains 40 grams of sugar and 150 calories per 12 oz. can.  More perspective: one teaspoon of sugar equals about six grams; therefore, a can of soda has about seven teaspoons of sugar.  Even more perspective: Most sugar packets found in the U.S. have approximately 4 grams of sugar, thus a can of soda contains ten packets of sugar (U.S.).

Now back to Sabathia.  His one full box of Cap'n Crunch a day gave him a sugar equivalent of drinking 4 sodas, 25 teaspoons of sugar, or 38 sugar packets.  Nice, CC...nice.

*A report released in 2009 by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale gave Cap'n Crunch's Crunch Berries the worst nutritional score of any cereal marketed to children and families. ~ from Wikipedia

How about your kids?  Do they eat Cap'n Crunch?  Fruit Loops?  Frosted Flakes?  Do they drink soda?  These cereals and soft drinks have been staples in the American diet for the last fifty years, and it's not because people aren't consuming them.  It's not just 6'7" professional athletes eating this junk, either.  It's little Timmy, and little Rainflower, and maybe even you.

Listen, next time you're thinking about feeding Junior the Cap'n Crunch, why not just give him a Snickers bar?  Same amount of sugar as in a two-serving bowls of the Crunch.  And is it any wonder we are in the midst of an obesity (and diabetes) epidemic?

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Sugar found more addictive than Cocaine
in Bordeaux Univ. Research Study

 Refined sugars (e.g., sucrose, fructose) were absent in the diet of most people until very recently in human history. Today overconsumption of diets rich in sugars contributes together with other factors to drive the current obesity epidemic. Overconsumption of sugar-dense foods or beverages is initially motivated by the pleasure of sweet taste and is often compared to drug addiction. Though there are many biological commonalities between sweetened diets and drugs of abuse, the addictive potential of the former relative to the latter is currently unknown.  MORE>

Is happiness contagious? Research says yes.

Happiness is a fundamental object of human existence, so much so that the World Health Organization is increasingly emphasizing happiness as a component of health. Happiness is determined by a complex set of factors [...] including lottery wins, elections, income, job loss, socioeconomic inequality, divorce, illness, bereavement, and genes. A new study, addresses perhaps the most key component in your happiness: the happiness of others.

MORE from this British Medical Journal Study>

 

A Woman's Sleep Is Just Different From A Man's

• Starting at birth, females have more slow-wave sleep than males. Slow-wave sleep, which occurs during stage 3 and 4 sleep, is the deepest, most refreshing, wake-up-and-feel-great sleep.

• Girls tend to wake up during the night less frequently than boys.

• Women continue to have significant deep sleep well into their 30s while men's deep sleep begins to decline in their 20s.

• Women's sleep systems appear to age more slowly than men's.

 

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Touch is powerful. We know it; animals know it too.