HolidazeWritten by Deborah Caruana RN, MES, CPT
It’s travel time, meaning hours spent sedentary. It prepares me for visiting, when I know there’ll be no activity. I try to see it as winding down to catch up with where our lives have gone in past 6 months. A semiannual sharing and reflection with family. An enchanted time when reality is lived through a rose tinted holidaze. Rules of day to day no longer apply as you surrender to hearts and minds of those closest. Conversation, food and wine are intoxicating. You can’t leave table conversation is too good. The holiday food keeps coming. I fall back into silken warmth of family stories and recollections of past years. I generally eat until I am sated but now… its quest for space, I must keep up, I can’t be that… “I don’t eat that wimp”. I can’t spoil this mood and bring everyone down to reality! Somehow I manage to find space for that piece of dark nutty chocolate beckoning me to come home to my pallette, where it would receive all comfort love and warmth I need to express in this state of holiday bliss. I have now surrendered….. The conversation wonders back to a particular chocolate that sister in law is passionate about and as she unfolds its mysteries you must taste and discover. This is no time for excuses.
| | REAL PEOPLE, REAL SITUATIONSWritten by Deborah Caruana RN, MES, CPT
This is a new addition to newsletter where I can take time to address in full detail questions which current clients confront while in process of making real changes to their body, lifestyle and well being. TO DO OR NOT TO DO? … ABS TWO WEEKS PRIOR TO WRITING ARTICLE: Jeanne is a client I have worked with for a number of years, and through a couple of births with very quick recoveries. She is naturally tall and thin with wide hips and very flat abs. She has that perfect body for wearing couture as you can see from her Vogue magazine write up in October of 2003. She is type that doesn’t want muscle showing at all, just long sleek ‘feminine’ lines. We have stepped up her workouts of late because she is getting stronger and we do need to keep up challenge to maintain that high metabolic burn rate for caloric expenditure, without creating muscle definition. Jeanne doesn’t like doing cardio so that's not a solution. Recently when beginning our workout Jeanne stops, pulls up her t-shirt and shows me her abs. Iam very pleased with what I see, which is definition of where lower obliques end and rectus abdominus (your quadrants, also known as ‘6 packs’) begin. There was strong deliniation indicating muscles beneath. Jeanne points to it and says " I don’t want this." In my shock only thing I can think to say is "If there were a group of women in hear watching us, they’d all groan at you." Everyone is different and has different goals. So Jeanne now thinks that she should just not do abdominal exercises and asks "Why do I need to do them, my abs are fine way they are? Can you write about this in your next newsletter so I better understand why I need to do abs." I then launch into an explanation of importance of core work(abs). About how your abs stabilize you and help prevent injury by bracing and tightening. The brain sends a message to transverse abdominus (remember that girdle muscle we all spent time on, with breathing exercises) before it tells any other muscle to move. For example, mind tells knee to lift but before quadricep muscles initiates lifting response transverse abdominus recieves message to react by tightening for balance, control and strength. So essentially you brace yourself from your abs and then you initiate movement, braced and centered. Which is why I constantly repeat "pull your navel in and wrap it around your spine." The more this response is practiced, more proficient, balanced, coordinated, centered and strong you are plus flatter your abs are.
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