Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 For those that haven't heard much about it, Pilates is an exercise system originally created by Joseph Pilates that focuses on core strength while also emphasizing flexibility and strength through motion, stability, balance, and many other important aspects of strength training. The best thing about it: Pilates is something that anyone can do, irrespective of age, gender, or fitness level. Pilates movements range from extremely simple to surprisingly complex and difficult.
Paralleled with the rising popularity of Pilates is the increasing popularity of Pilates machines. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
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 Dancers rely on their excellent flexibility, but everyone can benefit from increased flexibility, as it can prevent injury. Try to incorporate about 10 to 15 minutes of gentle, nonbouncing stretching exercises into your workouts. This can be done before you set off on a walk or bike ride and also at the end of the session. If you are familiar with yoga or tai chi, both are excellent for increasing flexibility.
Cool down: Always be sure to cool down afterward; don't stop exercising abruptly without giving your body a chance to slow down. |
Andreas Moritz
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 Thick blood is a common denominator for most illnesses in the body, and you can recognize it by a lack of flexibility in certain parts of the body, along with other symptoms, including tiredness. If the spine and joints are permanently stiff and painful, this indicates that most of the internal organs are suffering from circulatory problems. Blood circulation greatly improves when gallstones cease to congest the liver. This leads to increased flexibility and mobility throughout the body. A good and regular exercise program helps to support and maintain this newly found flexibility. |
Paul D. Blanc, M.D.
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 Above all else, elasticity and flexibility seemed the most difficult properties to engineer in a polymer. In 1909, Leo Baekeland synthesized the first wholly "new" polymer, a material that came to be known as Bakelite. When first formulated, Bakelite can be formed into a hard shell-like material initially capable of conforming with great versatility to virtually any molded shape. It is there that the versatility stops. Its flexibility is temporary. Once Bakelite plastic has become set in a fixed form, it is what it is, which is certainly not elastic. |
Roberta Bivins
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 On the other hand, the multi-faceted complexity of the relationships between symptoms and correspondences preserved the diagnostic flexibility that was regarded as essential to dealing with the particular situation of individual patients. The combination of comprehensiveness, comprehensibility (these systems, after all, were not the exclusive property of medical communities, but embodied shared understandings of both macro- and microcosmic universe and its workings), and flexibility was a potent one. |
Jack Challem
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 This vitamin helps to maintain normal blood-vessel flexibility.
• Vitamin E, 400 IU of the natural "d-alpha" form. Vitamin E helps to maintain blood vessel flexibility, and a combination of vitamins E and C is particularly beneficial. Vitamin E also prevents the free-radical oxidation of LDL cholesterol, a very early step in the development of heart disease.
• Pycnogenol, 100 to 200 mg daily. This remarkable antioxidant can improve endothelial function, particularly when combined with L-arginine.
To reduce inflammation, take these supplements:
• Omega-3 fish oils, 1,000 to 3,000 mg daily. |
John J. Ratey, MD
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 Balance and flexibility. Focus on these abilities twice a week for thirty minutes or so. Yoga, Pilates, tai chi, martial arts, and dance all involve these skills, which are important to staying agile. Without balance and flexibility, your ability to stick with an aerobic and strength-training regimen will diminish. In lieu of an activity, you can do drills on an exercise ball, balance board, or Bosu, which is half a rubber ball that you stand on to challenge your core muscles. Remember Harold, the octogenarian skier? He trained on the Bosu for his most recent ski trip. |
Rick Levy and Lou Aronica
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 Perhaps you are enduring chemotherapy or have orthopedic, neurological, viral, or other conditions that create major mobility and flexibility issues. If this is you, you'll need to exercise much less rigorously and should consult with your healthcare provider before embarking on any regimen. If your doctor tells you it's OK, consider walking or light bicycling, mild forms of yoga, flexibility exercises, or therapeutic stretching, all of which can suffice for cathartic release in folks with limited mobility and/or excessive bodily pain. |
Michael T. Murray and Michael R. Lyon
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 For overall health and fitness, we recommend engaging in both, as well as performing regular stretching exercises to maintain flexibility. Yoga, tai chi, and stretching classes are fantastic ways to increase flexibility.
AEROBIC EXERCISE VERSUS STRENGTH TRAINING FOR WEIGHT LOSS Aerobic exercise generally þBurns more calories per hour than weight training. þBuilds little muscle. þHas minimal effects on metabolism in the hours after exercise. þHas greater effects on metabolism when workout is very hard. þCan be done every day. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
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| Your exercise program should target flexibility, circulation of blood and lymph fluid, and relaxation. You don't need to run marathons or lift weights to benefit from regular exercise. Exercises from the East, such as qigong and yoga, increase flexibility and also help relax an anxious mind.
Daily exercise should be augmented by various forms of bodywork, such as chiropractic, massage, acupressure, or other physical therapies that promote relaxation and improve the circulation of nerve impulses, blood, and lymphatic fluid. |
Andreas Moritz
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 According to the editors of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition (JACN), flavonoid-rich dark chocolate may improve artery flexibility while increasing an antioxidant that may help prevent blood clots. Whereas this is likely, and may be true, the problem with the study is that it didn't include a control (placebo) group. So there was no one to compare to. Besides, the common chocolate you buy in stores doesn't improve artery flexibility—it's the flavonoids in dark chocolate and raw cocoa beans that have this effect. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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 A short-term supplementation of Soy to young men and women demonstrated significant improvements in memory and mental flexibility in a randomized controlled trial. Student volunteers (15 men, 12 women) were randomized to either receive high-Soy (100 mg total isoflavones/day) or low-Soy diet (0.5 mg total isoflavones/day) for 10 weeks. Significant improvements in short term and long term memory as well as mental flexibility were noted in both men and women who were on the high-Soy diet (p<0.05). Females in the high-Soy diet also significantly improved in letter fluency and planning test. |
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
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 Fixing the Problem, Not the Symptom
Besides "fixing" the pain, chiropractors also focus on rehabilitative exercise, stabilization, and flexibility.
"Remember the subluxation happens in a complex system—there's a bone, a nerve, and a soft tissue component. So while the adjustment removes pressure on the nerve, we also have our patients do some specific movements in the form of stretching, flexibility, strengthening, and range-of-motion exercise to rehabilitate the soft tissue," Mannino says. |
Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
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 For extreme resilience in our bodies, we'd give up our bodies' extreme flexibility and our lifestyles (no more Twister for you).
When it comes to accidents and unforced errors, the big picture is this: It's all about leverage points—tipping life into your favor by doing the things that make your body better equipped to handle the unexpected things that will be hurled your way. And you can do things to tip those scales, as you'll see in Figure N.2. And, at some point, they will be hurled your way if they haven't already been. |
J. Douglas Bremner
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 In fact, olive oil has been shown in laboratory studies to improve endothelial function (translation: increases the flexibility of your coronary arteries, which can be beneficial for reducing your risk of heart attacks).
The recent Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study, mentioned on page 78, showed that a low-fat diet did not reduce heart disease.60 The problem with that study is that it lumped all fats together. We now know that some fats are better than others. For example, there are fats in foods like olive oil and fish that actually promote heart health. |
Dr Ron Roberts
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 Swimming's many arm movements promote upper chest development and flexibility, and therefore better breathing. The controlled breathing pattern is just what an asthmatic needs for unstressful respiratory exercise. Swimming is also environmentally suitable for someone with asthma as the air is taken in just above the water and so it is already warmed and humidified and unlikely to trigger an attack.
Further, while swimming the body weight is partially supported by the water. |
| The training done by a boxer, gymnast or ballet dancer develops these, as well as flexibility, strength and concentration.
Boxing may seem an odd choice of activity for an asthmatic. However, consider the boxer's loud expulsion of air when throwing a punch. This expulsion of air is made during an extreme effort, similar to that of a tennis player serving a ball (Monica Seles is a memorable example of this), or a footballer kicking the ball, an athlete leaving the blocks or a squash player making a shot. You will hear competitors in many sports make this often loud and obvious expulsion of air. |
| This is very relaxing and will improve the flexibility in your neck and shoulders and release any tension.
9 With hands on hips, rotate your body by turning from the hips. Bend forward towards the toes, turn your body to the right, flex backwards, then to the left and return to the starting position. Repeat 3-5 times, rotating left to right and right to left, breathing out long and slow and in short.
10 After performing the upright exercises, gradually move to the floor by bending your knees and crouching up and down a few times to flex your joints. |
Roberta Bivins
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| The adversarial approach also encouraged dogmatism among homeopathic 'purists', which in turn reduced the flexibility of modernizers to incorporate popular new techniques or respond to challenging new doctrines, like germ theory. If acupuncture was rendered amorphous in the absence of theory, homeopathy was rendered brittle by an overly rigid theoretical structure.
And that brings us again to the question of culture, and the cross-cultural specificity (or not) of medicine. |
Dr Ron Roberts
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| This is also a very good back exercise and, as your flexibility increases, you might like to progress to lifting your head from the floor and bringing it towards your knees.
Squats þ Kneel on all fours and, while breathing out, slowly squat back onto your heels, keeping hands on floor, arms stretched out and head bent. þ Return to starting position, breathing in. þ Repeat five times.
ENJOYING DIAPHRAGM CONTROL
When you gain confidence in the breathing techniques and the exercises above, have some fun and play diaphragm control games. |
Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
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| Oftentimes, people have the strength to get up after falling, but they don't have the flexibility to twist, turn, and wiggle their bodies when they're under chairs or behind toilets. Also, see our chi-gong workout in chapter 18 to prevent that hunched-over look you associate with assisted-living facilities. (Only one-third of people with back fractures know they have them; stretch and strengthen your muscles for this reason as well. |
| The cortical bone provides rigidity and structural integrity, while the spongy bone on the inside imparts flexibility and compressive strength to the skeleton—similar to the design of the Eiffel Tower. Bone material has both a collagen matrix and a calcium matrix, and bone is dynamic; it's able to remodel itself according to what you need, as in the case of fusing a bone back together after it's been fractured. Bone is so dynamic that you often can't even see in an X-ray where a bone was broken after it's healed. |
Roberta Bivins
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| The combination of comprehensiveness, comprehensibility (these systems, after all, were not the exclusive property of medical communities, but embodied shared understandings of both macro- and microcosmic universe and its workings), and flexibility was a potent one. |
Hyla Cass, M.D.
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 And, blocking only COX-2 affects the clotting of blood and flexibility of blood vessels in ways that bring about an increased risk of heart disease.
In a nutshell, we know now that the newer COX-2 inhibitors are all likely to increase cardiovascular risk. Since this discovery, many of the older NSAIDS have been implicated in raising heart disease risk as well. This means tough choices for people who need help with arthritis pain or other kinds of muscle or joint pain.
WHAT IS ARTHRITIS?
The word arthritis means "inflammation of the joints" and can include several types. |
Roberta Bivins
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| As these terms passed from Chinese to Japanese to Dutch to Latin, they lost the polysemic flexibility of their original language, and hardened into the increasingly rigid language of western medicine. The final translations were made even more brittle, as Ten Rhyne complained, by his interpreters' 'inexperience and hmited vocabulary in Dutch'. Thus, he was driven to 'omit much that was written in Chinese in the original documents'. |
Dr Ron Roberts
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| The exercises you do need not be strenuous, just simple and practical, but should involve movements of extension and flexibility.
Begin the exercises slowly, remembering to breathe out, using the Controlled Pattern Breathing we described in Chapter 6, during the maximum effort of the exercise. For example, when doing a push up, breathe out all the way through the push up. Rest—then breathe in short—and continue the exercise breathing out for 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10 seconds and breathing in for 2, depending on your ability and level of breath control. |
Jack Challem
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| Trans fats also reduce blood vessel tone and flexibility, which ends up stiffening blood vessels and reducing circulation. The same mechanism seems to interfere with how men gain erections, so trans fats are likely involved in causing erectile dysfunction.
A New Fat That's Worse Than Trans Fats
Just when we thought that trans fats were the most dangerous of all food additives, a new type of fat concoction started to gain momentum in restaurants and packaged foods in early 2007. |
Michael T. Murray and Michael R. Lyon
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| Yoga, tai chi, and stretching classes are fantastic ways to increase flexibility.
AEROBIC EXERCISE VERSUS STRENGTH TRAINING FOR WEIGHT LOSS Aerobic exercise generally þBurns more calories per hour than weight training. þBuilds little muscle. þHas minimal effects on metabolism in the hours after exercise. þHas greater effects on metabolism when workout is very hard. þCan be done every day. þNeeds to be done at least three times per week for sustained benefits.
Weight Training þRaises resting basal metabolic rate (BMR). þRaises the metabolism for several hours after the workout. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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| Significant improvements in short term and long term memory as well as mental flexibility were noted in both men and women who were on the high-Soy diet (p<0.05). Females in the high-Soy diet also significantly improved in letter fluency and planning test. Tests of attention and category generation task did not improve with Soy supplementation (File et al, 2001).
Tofu (a Soy-based product) was associated with reduced cognitive function and organic brain changes in a longitudinal study. |
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