Exercises To Strengthen Your Back

Hip Bridge                          

How to do it: Lie on your back, feet flat and hip-width apart, arms relaxed, and knees bent. Squeeze your buttocks as you lift your hips, creating a straight line from the knees to the shoulders. Hold for a slow count of two, then lower slowly. Build up to 10 to 12 repetitions.

 What it does: This move counteracts the effects of too much chair time, which puts excessive pressure on the spine. It stretches the hip flexors and strengthens the muscles that stabilize the spine, including those of the lower back, the gluteals, and the large, stabilizing abdominal muscles.

Make it harder: Lift one foot off the floor and hold it straight up toward the ceiling, foot flexed, keeping the hips even. This is much more challenging, so start by holding this pose for just a count of 2. Repeat 10 times, then switch legs. 

You can also do this exercise with one leg bent as shown.  Hold for a count of 2, lower, repeat on same leg ten times.  Switch to the other leg.

                                                  





 

Leg Lifts Lying On Ball

Lie face down with stomach on the center of a stability ball, hands and toes on the floor. Keeping your legs straight, lift right leg to hip height, lower, and repeat 10 times.  Repeat leg lifts 10 times on left leg.  Do a total of 3 sets each leg.

Seated Rows

This exercise strengthens mid back.  Keep back straight when performing the exercise.  Squeeze shoulder blades together as you pull the weight toward chest. Do 10 reps, 4 sets.

 

 Seated Row Machine

Lat Pulldowns

This exercise strengthens upper and mid back.

Pull bar to front of chest while leaning back slightly. Do 10 reps, 4 sets.

Sunscreen Rules

Sunscreen Rule #1:
30 is the minimum SPF you should use.  Look for  water resistance and broad spectrum formula.


Sunscreen Rule #2:
Apply sunscreen 20 minutes before you go out in the sun.


Sunscreen Rule #3:
Use about 1 ounce of sunscreen to coat your body to provide the SPF listed on the label.  If you're using lotion, that's about the amount that would fill a shot glass.  If you're using a spray, that's 30 to 90 seconds of spraying--enough to create a visibly glossy sheen as it goes on.


Sunscreen Rule #4:
The number of hours you can go without reapplying sunscreen IF you're not sweating or in the water is --2 hours.


A Sunscreen Pill?
British scientists are working to create sunscreen in pill form, after discovering that coral in the Great Barrier Reef creates its own UV protection by consuming a compound in algae.  Human testing hasn't begun yet, but someday we may be able to swallow our sunscreen.


Courtesy of Prevention Magazine.

Bloomberg Says A Big Fat No To Big Sodas

New York City Mayor Bloomberg is asking the city to enact the first ban-in-the-country on super sized sodas.  The sale of any sodas larger than 16 ounces-the size of a medium coffee-would be prohibited in restaurants, fast food chains, movie theaters, sidewalk carts and sports arenas. The ban would not apply to diet sodas.  He's hoping to get the ban enacted by March 2013.

Bloomberg's proposal requires the approval of the Board of Health-members who are all appointed by him.

“Obesity is a nationwide problem, and all over the United States, public health officials are wringing their hands saying, ‘Oh, this is terrible,’ ” Mr. Bloomberg said in an interview on Wednesday in City Hall.

“New York City is not about wringing your hands; it’s about doing something,” he said.

In New York City, more than half the adults are overweight or obese.

                                                           

Calcium

Your body can't absorb a full day's worth of calcium at once, so space out your servings.  Your body can handle only about 500 to 600 mg of calcium in one 6 to 8 hour period and absorbs only about 30% of that.
The Institute of Medicine recommends 1,000 mg a day for women ages 19 to 50; 1,200 mg for those over 50.  For men, they recommend 1,000 mg a day for ages 19 to 70; 1,200 mg a day for men 71 and older.
Osteoporosis is often thought of as a women's illness, but men aren't immune.  Their bone loss is more gradual than women's because they don't undergo menopause.  One out of every four men over age 50 will break a bone due to osteoporosis---making it more prevalent than prostate cancer.