Important General Terms

There are many different terms that are thrown around in the athletic and healthcare fields and I wanted to set things straight for people who aren't familiar with kinesiology, the study of human movement. Feel free to ask me to put up more if you have some terms you'd like to clarify :)

Overweight - this refers to a person who is between 25-30 pounds over the recommended weight for their height, or with a BMI between 25-29.9

Obesity - the condition of being considerably overweight, a person who is at least 30+ pounds over the recommended weight for their height, or have a BMI of 30+

Another bunch of terms that are important to learn are what are referred to as anatomical locations. These are terms which describe specific landmarks and locations on the human body. Actually several of these terms can be used for more than just the human body...also animal species now that I think about it!

Reference point - usually the center point of the body the following terms are all used in reference to this reference point

Superior - positioned above the reference point

Inferior - positioned below the reference point

Proximal - positioned nearest to the point of reference (eg. Shoulder)

Distal - positioned farthest from the point of reference (eg. Fingers)

Anterior/Ventral - front of the body

Posterior/Dorsal - back of the body (like a shark or dolphin's dorsal fin!)

Medial - positioned near the middle line of the body

Lateral - positioned toward the outer parts of the body

Contralateral - positioned on the opposite side of the body

Ipsilateral - positioned on the same side of the body

I'm gonna stop here for now, there are more terms to be had, but they shall be added along with pictures later on!

Camping, S'mores, and Tents

It's camping time! I leave a week from Sunday for a 3 night camping trip with some college friends, super excited! I haven't been camping in a long while, so this will be my first time tent camping in over a year. Being outside is always fun and one can find something to do no matter what the weather throws at us. So, I'm going to share some of my favorite camping activities, for multiple weather scenarios. Oh! We are going tent camping, so that will make it even more fun!

For a sunny day:

-hiking - you're already outside and in nature, why not go out an explore?

-take pictures - momentous for after you leave. Try taking a photo of every place you visit and using them as starters for stories of what happened on each trip!

-campfires - s'mores, good company, (and drinks for those over 21) need I say more? 

-fishing - I'm not a big fisher myself (pun not intended) but catch and release is always fun

-swimming - in a natural or man-made lake or a swimming pool, swimming is always a good choice

-picnic - campfire frosted kabobs or burgers....mmmm

-mountain biking - riding a bike over rough terrain, you can find trails of different difficulty levels or ask your campground what they'd suggest your level be for their trails

-rock climbing - not all places have this (obviously) but its a lot for fun for kids and adults of all ages, just stay safe
-collect pine cones, leaves, or any nature related object of your choice for later crafts

For a rainy day:

-splash in puddles - yes I am a 5-year-old who loves to splash in puddles, but make sure you have dry cloths to change into after

-board games/card games in the tent - if its really raining so much that you'd rather stay inside, card games are always a good bet
-talking - when was the last time you sat down and talked to your fellow camper(s), tell them about your thoughts or just about whatever comes to mind, trivia and fun facts are always a good way to go

Anyways, what are some of your favorite camping activities? Any suggestions for additional things I do while camping?

First Long-ish Bike Ride

Since I've gotten out of my boot I've gone for one or two short bike rides down into town to the library to get new books, however today was a little different. Going into town is about 5 miles there and back total which is a nice ride, but not really a workout. I got super antsy and kinda cranky at home so decided that it was time to head out on a longer ride since my foot is still sore from being on it for 11 hours of work yesterday (not fun) so a run was looking less appealing. I went out and headed north on the Wisconsin bike trail. I put on the album "Awake" by Skillet and proceeded to bike until I reached the end of the album, then turned around and listened to in on the way back. I wasn't going for distance or for speed (though I did get up to 14 mph at one point) but was aiming to make it home in the same amount of time as it took for me to get out there. This was a success! I biked a total of 13 miles and I'm still feeling quite good! I'm actually feeling much happier, got those endorphins flowing! :P This was also the first time I got to wear my brand new helmet! :D We misplaced my other one (seriously.....I'm not sure were it is!) and so I got a new one about a week or so ago. 

I'm aiming to get out and ride my bike like 2-3 times a week? That's a little ambitious but I wanna get back into shape! What are you doing this summer to keep in shape? Where are your favorite places to ride? Any suggestions for more music to listen to while I ride?

Panic!

Wow...I have been seriously neglecting this blog...I am so sorry!

In order to help, why don't people send me updates on things that they want to learn about. I do research and look up what I've heard before posting I promise, so I'd really find that helpful. I have been trying to keep up on my regular blog, but since I just got done with the musical last night and I work more than twice the number of hours this week as I did the last few weeks, I'm hard pressed to find time :/

The time for my test is drawing near and I'm realizing that I'm not making nearly good enough progress on my studying so I also need to start doing that daily, which will help with my posting, since I will have information that I will have wondered about that I can post!

I'm super sorry guys! I'll just have to do better! A new challenge? Any thoughts?

Statistics on Chronic Disease

I'm sure that many of you have already heard many of the statistics concerning what we call chronic diseases. For those of you who don't know chronic disease is defined as a "incurable illness or health condition that persists for a year or more, resulting in functional limitations and the need for ongoing medical care". This definition goes so far as to include cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and even allergies and asthma. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2006 chronic diseases were five of the top six causes of death in the United States, of these nearly 80% of those caused by cardiovascular disease and cancer (over 50%) could have been prevented by a healthier lifestyle (1). We hear all the time about how our schools are getting less and less healthy and the obesity rate in children is increasing. Over nine million of today's young people are obese or over weight, and it has been predicted that this nearly 1/4 of all American children will be overweight by 2015. The issue with this shows itself in the health of the nation. It has been proven that excessive body weight has a very high probability of leading to chronic diseases later on in life as well as a general decrease in the quality of a person's life.
Now what I'm doing here is not saying that we should all be super skinny, that's not the point here at all! However, if anything other than numbers can be taken away from this then I hope that people understand that it is very important to monitor your health, a healthy lifestyle is something that we can all live with and is something that is, thankfully, becoming more and more popular throughout the nation. Hopefully, we can decrease these percentages of overweight and obese children, and a great example that is set for them by their parents. I also understand that a healthy lifestyle isn't always possible or easy. But I will tell you that if you are willing to put just a little more effort into making homemade meals and eating closer to the correct portion size can make a big difference. At my house we have meatless mondays (well, I'm vegetarian so I'm always meatless, but none the less) and even just trying new foods and replacing some of the unhealthy snacks with healthier ones or even no snacks when we realize we are bored and not hungry. Why not give it a try? It will not hurt if it is done right! Keep that in mind!
Good luck and good health to you all! :)

Figure Salons and Rolling Machines

As you may have heard, I'm getting ready to take the CPT exam, either in September or October (yes, I'm going to need that long to study...). CPT stands for a Certified Personal Trainer, which is what I am aiming to be. I got my study book today, which is a quite large textbook that goes over everything a CPT should know and everything I will need to know for the exam (all in all, quite a lot of information), but I am super excited to get started and began reading it today. I wanted to share a little bit that I learned in the first chapter.
This first section is about the history of personal training, starting in the 1950s with the men's fitness centers, which were called 'gyms'. Women's centers were brought about in the 1960s and were referred to as 'figure salons'. The men's centers concentrated on body and muscle building, while the women's concentrated on figure and weight loss (in many people's minds, this is not too much different than how we stereotypically portray genders at the gym). Similar to today's advertised workout tools, there were many different machines and accessories that people would use in order to help attain the desired results. For women, there were two machines that were mentioned in my studying. The first being the rolling machine which was supposed to roll away the fat, and the second was a jiggle machine, which was supposed to jiggle away the fat especially from the thighs.
I looked for a video of either of these two machines but there weren't really many that showed what I had wanted so here's an old exercise video from that time. This was the original television fitness show called The Jack LaLanne Show. Enjoy!

Knee-Up Challenge Finish

So I missed my deadline for the knee-up challenge, but I will have you know that I got quite close! I can now do 15 knee-ups before having to drop down. So I didn't quite make my challenge :( But now I also know to do a slightly easier challenge :P At least  for now. I also finally got my boot off!! This means I am back to bike riding and most workouts, minus running. I should be able to start my running again by the end of July, which is super exciting!! :D