Many of our patients prefer using an elliptical for the large portion of their workout. Ellipticals are an excellent way to get cardiovascular training without added pressure to the knees and feet. If you are new to the elliptical machine then you'll need to consider a few things; your form, your workout plan and variety of your workout.

FORM
Paying attention to your form while on the elliptical will allow you to get the most benefit out of your workout. Form is important to us as Chiropractors, because it allows your joints to move properly and muscle to be worked in the manner which they were intended. This will save you any extra visits into our office. Start by adjusting the elliptical machine to fit your body. Your feet should be in the center of the walking pad, and your body and torso should be upright, with good posture. Prevent imbalance by keeping your head straight and looking forward. If you want to focus on lower body workouts, put your hands by your sides as you walk and keep your speed slow so tha you can maintain the good posture. For upper body focus, allow your arms to pull the weight and support the stride. To increase resistance, lean back.

WORKOUT PLAN
Because the elliptical machine can encompass a total body workout, it is best to use it every other day. This will allow your muscles to rest and recover properly. If you are going to use it every day, alternate from upper to lower body or from resistance to endurance training. Consider incorporating an endurance or high cardio elliptical workout after performing resistance training to lose weight. By using the elliptical after resistance training, you will burn fat stores versus glycogen stores, which you will burn during lifting.

VARIETY
One of the best benefits of an elliptical machine is the versatility in workouts. Take full advantage by mixing up your elliptical session with resistance, focus and pace. For example, you can do an interval workout by changing the resistance dramatically every five minutes for 2 1/2 minutes. More resistance or incline can add pressure to the quadriceps, while higher speeds with little resistance can emphasize calf development. If you're watching television while on the elliptical, consider boosting your heart rate by going full speed during commercials. The programs on the display console are designed for fat burning, cross country, hill climbs, target training zone, etc. By using the programs, you’re letting the machine adjust the incline and the resistance at various intervals. This way, you can keep the cross training routines fresh and energizing so that your overall conditioning continues to improve.

OTHER TIPS
Use the Cross-Training Handlebars - If you are training on an elliptical machine equipped with movable handlebars, these are great for working the biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest and back. This is an effective toning, stretching and conditioning workout for the upper torso and is ideal for people who don’t like the idea of lifting weights.

Free Your Hands - You can also add variety to your elliptical training by dropping your hands to a comfortable position in front of your body and letting the movable bars swing freely. (They won’t hit you.) It is much more difficult to pedal on an elliptical machine without hanging on to anything and this work wonders for balance and coordination.

Always check with your healthcare professional before starting a new workout routine.

When Spring and Summer are around the corner, we get excited to get outside and run or take a long walk. Some of our favorite places to go are Wash Park, Boulder, and our neighborhood. Here are some tips from, The Runners Guide, for running in warmer weather.

Running in the heat can be just as challenging for some runners as running in cold weather. In fact some runners may find running in the heat to be significantly more challenging than running in the cold. This is because running in the heat can cause a number of different problems including overheating, dehydration, loss of salt and even sunburn. However, despite these potential problems, many runners often find themselves in a position where running in the heat is their only option. Most locations have at least some periods in which the weather will be warmer than ideal for running. Most runners do not want to curtail their running during these times so they simply make a few modifications to ensure they are safe in the warm weather. This article will provide some useful tips for runners who wish to run in warm weather.

Proper hydration before, during and after a run is critical in warm weather. Runners can lose a great deal of water through sweat in warm weather and failure to properly replace these fluid levels can lead to dehydration. Runners are advised to drink water or replacement drinks before their run and to also drink periodically throughout the run. There are a number of hydration packs available which make carrying your own water on runs quite easy and comfortable. Runners should plan on taking a few small sips of water or replacement drink every 15 minutes or so as opposed to waiting until they feel thirsty to take a drink. This is because once the runner begins to feel thirsty; they have already started to become dehydrated. After a run, the runner should weigh himself and drink 16 ounces of water or replacement drink for each pound he lost during the course of the run.

Runners are also advised to consider using sports replacement drinks instead of water when running in warm weather. This can help to prevent hyponetrimia which can develop when the runner drinks too much water and the blood becomes diluted. Runners lose a great deal of salt through sweat and not replacing this salt can be damaging to the runner. For example marathon runners who only drink water during the race put themselves at risk because they are not replacing the salt that the body needs. However, drinking sports replacement drinks which contain electrolytes can help the body to avoid becoming depleted of sodium.

Dressing comfortably is also important for runners who continue to run even when it is very warm out. The clothing worn by runners in warm conditions should be lightly colored and should be constructed of fabrics which are both lightweight and breathable. This will help to keep the runner cooler. Investing in clothing constructed of fabrics that wick moisture away from the skin can also help to keep the runner more comfortable in warm weather.

Exposure to the sun is also usually a concern when running in warm weather. Wearing a lightweight, breathable hat can help to keep the sun off the face without causing the running to overheat. Runners should also consider wearing sunscreen to protect the skin in warm weather. There are several brands of sunscreen available which are designed specifically for use by runners and other athletes. These sunscreens are less likely to drip into the eyes and cause stinging or burning than other types of sunscreen.

If you like using workout DVDs, then Fusion Fitness Dream Body Workout is a must have for your workout DVD collection. Fusion Fitness is located in Overland Park, KS, near where I grew up. Every time I’m back visiting, my sister-in-law, Dani makes me go with her, and although I dread every minute of waking up, getting dressed, and driving there, I love it! It’s a great workout for the entire body, mostly all the muscles you didn’t know you had. I recently turned my friend Amy onto going there and she’s addicted too. In fact she’s the one who bought me the DVD. The DVD is kind of pricey for a workout video at $29.99, but it’s worth every penny. The classes are $13 a piece, so use the DVD 3 times and it’s more than paid for itself.

The DVD itself is very easy to follow. I’m awful at aerobics, seriously awful, and I can follow this just fine. Darby Brender, the creator of Fusion Fitness, and instructor in the video gives a good description of the exercise while showing perfect form. Also after seeing her do the exercise a few times in the class setting, the DVD goes to a shot of just her doing it so you can see how the exercise is done without any distractions. They guarantee that their unique technique will give you a beautiful sexy sculpted body.  Darby says, “We have developed a system that will transform your body by elongating your muscles, decreasing body fat, improving cardiovascular endurance as well as increase flexibility.” I promise you will feel every minute of it during and after the workout!

We ran across this article from New York Times Health and thought it was really interesting. Let us know what you think.

Exercising for Two

Almost anyone who’s been pregnant remembers the profound link that can develop between a mother-to-be and her unborn child. You feel that life inside you, both physically independent and braided with your own.

Now, new research suggests that the bond may be stronger than had been suspected. When you exercise during pregnancy, your baby is not, as most of us would have thought, a passive, floating passenger (and ballast on the bladder). Instead, he or she may be actively joining in the workout, with the fetal cardiac system growing stronger and healthier as a result of the workouts.

This training response lingers apparently even after birth, the new science shows. Babies born to mothers who exercised while pregnant were found to have healthier hearts than other infants a full month after delivery.

For the study, which was presented on Sunday at the Experimental Biology 2011 meeting in Washington, researchers from the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences revisited a group of 61 healthy women, ages 20 to 35, who’d been part of a pilot study of exercise, pregnancy and fetal heart health. About half of the women had exercised regularly during their pregnancies, jogging, power-walking or otherwise working out at a moderate pace at least three times a week. Some also had lifted light weights or practiced yoga. But their primary activity had been aerobic. The other half of the mothers-to-be “were normally active but did not engage in formal exercise,” said Linda E. May, an exercise physiologist who led the study.

To gather the necessary data, Dr. May originally asked the women to report to a lab three times during the latter stages of their pregnancies — at weeks 28, 32 and 36 — for a noninvasive examination of their babies’ cardiac health.

What she hoped to discover was just how much a mother’s workout would affect her unborn child’s heart. Years ago, scientists showed that a fetus’s heart rate increases while its mother is exercising. But many early researchers had considered this response transient, lasting only while the mother worked out.

Dr. May, however, wondered whether an unborn child’s heart might be more permanently remodeled by a mother’s workouts. In most people, exercise leads over time to a slower heart rate and greater heart-rate variability, or beat-to-beat variations between heartbeats. Both measures are generally accepted as indicative of heart health. This is known as the exercise training response and is considered evidence that a person’s heart has grown stronger and more efficient.

Unborn children, as it turned out, did exhibit a training response, even though their mothers were seemingly doing all of the work. When Dr. May examined the fetal cardiac readings, in an earlier report published last year, she found that fetuses whose mothers had exercised showed lower heart rates and greater heart-rate variability than those whose mothers had not worked out.

For her most recent presentation, Dr. May asked the women to return to the lab again, this time a month after giving birth. The newborns, healthy and no doubt squalling, underwent another cardiac exam.

The previous results held, Dr. May reported at the Experimental Biology meeting. The babies born to exercising mothers continued to have lower heart rates and greater heart-rate variability four weeks after delivery than the babies born to the other women. The effect was especially robust in the children whose mothers had exercised the most, Dr. May said; they had the slowest heart rates and presumably the strongest hearts.

“It’s exciting research,” Dr. May said, though it is also preliminary and incomplete. Just how a pregnant woman’s jogging or power-walking remakes her unborn child’s heart remains unknown, she said. Mother and fetus have, after all, completely separate cardiac systems and blood circulations. But certain hormones released during exercise do cross the placenta, Dr. May said, and could be stimulating changes in the developing fetus’s heart.

Or perhaps there is something more ineffable at work. A 2009 German study reported that when mothers-to-be were prompted to breathe fast and hard, as they would during exercise, their unborn children’s hearts oscillated in response, synchronizing themselves, beat for beat, with their mothers’.

Hormones could be the cause, the researchers noted. But they preferred to imagine a kind of music of the blood. The gasping breaths drove up the mothers’ heartbeats, they wrote, until, inside the body, the sound grew loud, insistent, propulsive and irresistible. The fetuses’ hearts responded, the scientists hypothesized, settling into the same rhythm, with effects both physiological and poetic.

A “pregnant mother’s special awareness to the unborn child” may “be reflected by fetal-maternal interaction of cardiac activity,” the German researchers concluded. As a mother runs and remakes her heart, the child she carries does the same. Perhaps, the scientists suggested, both mother and child sense the process in the other as it occurs.

“The next step,” Dr. May said, is to retest the babies involved after more time has passed and see whether the cardiac effects continue into toddlerhood and beyond. But for now, she said, if you are pregnant and can bear the thought of jogging (or power-waddling, a more common, if less gainly, third-trimester workout) and have your doctor’s approval, then “it does seem likely that you will be giving your child a head start on heart health.”


By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS (NYTimes Health April 13, 2011)

This article peaked our interest yesterday. If you've ever found yourself looking into the refrigerator or pantry after you've already just eaten, then checkout these scenarios, and find out what your deal might be.

You Drink Too Much Soda
Sodas, iced teas, and other sweetened beverages are our biggest source of high-fructose corn syrup—accounting for about two-thirds of our annual intake. New research from the University of California at San Francisco indicates that fructose can trick our brains into craving more food, even when we’re full. It works by impeding the body’s ability to use leptin, the “satiation hormone” that tells us when we’ve had enough to eat.

Your Dinner Came Out of a Can
Many canned foods are high in the chemical bisphenol-A, or BPA, which the Food and Drug Administration recently stated was a chemical “of some concern.” Exposure to BPA can cause abnormal surges in leptin that, according to Harvard University researchers, leads to food cravings and obesity.

Your Breakfast Wasn't Big Enough
After following 6,764 healthy people for almost 4 years, researchers found that those who ate just 300 calories for breakfast gained almost twice as much weight as those who ate 500 calories or more for breakfast. The reason: Eating a big breakfast makes for smaller rises in blood sugar and insulin throughout the day, meaning fewer sudden food cravings.

You Skipped the Salad
Most Americans don’t eat enough leafy greens, which are rich in the essential B-vitamin folate and help protect against depression, fatigue, and weight gain. In one study, dieters with the highest levels of folate in their bodies lost 8.5 times as much weight as those with the lowest levels. Leafy greens are also high in vitamin K, another insulin-regulating nutrient that helps quash cravings. Best sources: Romaine lettuce, spinach, collard greens, radicchio.

You Don't Stop for Tea Time
According to a study in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, people who drank one cup of black tea after eating high-carb foods decreased their blood-sugar levels by 10 percent for 2 and a half hours after the meal, which means they stayed full longer and had fewer food cravings. Researchers credit the polyphenolic compounds in black tea for suppressing rebound hunger.

You're Not Staying Fluid
Dehydration often mimics the feeling of hunger. If you’ve just eaten and still feel hungry, drink a glass of water before eating more, and see if your desires don’t diminish.

You're Bored
Researchers at Flinders University in Australia found that visual distractions can help curb cravings. To test yourself, envision a huge, sizzling steak. If you’re truly hungry, the steak will seem appealing. But if that doesn’t seem tempting, chances are you’re in need of a distraction, not another meal.





Read more: http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/curb-hunger/you-re-bored.php#ixzz1JYDqk1jd

Studies indicate those who skip breakfast are up to 450% more likely to be overweight! It's better for your health (and your weight) to eat breakfast than to skip it. And it's definitely better to eat a healthy breakfast, high in fibers and nutrients, than one full of refined grains, sugar, salt, and/or saturated fat. To help you get there, here are some tips for making sure your breakfast is a well-balanced one, as well as some quick and healthy breakfast ideas and recipes.

• A Healthy Breakfast Has at Least 5 Grams of Protein

• A Healthy Breakfast Has at Least 5 Grams of Fiber

11 Balanced Breakfast Examples

• 1. A higher-fiber granola bar, a banana, and 8 ounces low-fat or skim milk. This breakfast will give you 365 calories, 67 grams carbohydrate, 12 grams fiber, 13.5 grams protein, 7.5 grams fat, 3.6 grams saturated fat, 15 mg cholesterol, and 235 mg sodium.

• 2. 1 small whole-wheat bagel, 1 ounce reduced-fat cheese or 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter/almond butter, plus 1 cup fresh fruit (like sliced strawberries). (384 calories, 65 grams carbohydrate, 12.3 grams fiber, 20 grams protein, 6 grams fat, 3 grams saturated fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 654 mg sodium.)

• 3. Omelet made with 1/2 cup egg substitute, 1/2 cup vegetables, and 1 ounce reduced-fat cheese, served on 100% whole-grain English muffin. (288 calories, 35 grams carbohydrate, 7 grams fiber, 28 grams protein, 6 grams fat, 2.5 grams saturated fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 724 mg sodium.)

• 4. Multigrain waffle topped with 1/2-cup fresh fruit and 1/4 cup plain yogurt with 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract and a pinch of ground cinnamon stirred in. (265 calories, 48 grams carbohydrate, 8 grams fiber, 11 grams protein, 5 grams fat, 1 gram saturated fat, 12 mg cholesterol, 386 mg sodium.)

• 5. Two slices French toast made with whole-grain bread and one egg (use a higher omega-3 type if possible) blended with 1/4 cup fat-free half-and-half or low-fat milk, 1/8 teaspoon vanilla, and a pinch of cinnamon. (278 calories, 42 grams carbohydrate, 5 grams fiber, 14 grams protein, 6.5 grams fat, 1.5 grams saturated fat, 215 mg cholesterol, 480 mg sodium.)

• 6. Breakfast burrito made with 1 whole-wheat tortilla (weighing about 50 grams), 1/2 cup egg substitute scrambled with 1/2 cup assorted cooked vegetables, and 1 ounce of reduced-fat cheese. (304 calories, 32 grams carbohydrate, 6 grams fiber, 25 grams protein, 7 grams fat, 2.5 grams saturated fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 669 mg sodium.)

• 7. Cooked oatmeal (1/2 cup "lower sugar" instant oatmeal cooked with 3/4 cup skim or low-fat milk), topped with 1/4 cup dried fruit or 1/2 cup fresh fruit and 1 tablespoon chopped nuts. (341 calories, 60 grams carbohydrate, 5 grams fiber, 13 grams protein, 7 grams fat, 0.5 grams saturated fat, 5 mg cholesterol, 365 mg sodium.)

• 8. Breakfast sandwich made with 1 whole-grain English muffin, 1 1/2-ounces light turkey breakfast sausage and 1 ounce reduced-fat cheese. (300 calories, 28 grams carbohydrate, 5 grams fiber, 21 grams protein, 12 grams fat, 4 grams saturated fat, 83 mg cholesterol, 690 mg sodium.)

• 9. Smoothie made with 6 ounces low-fat "lite" yogurt blended with 1 cup frozen fruit and 1/2 cup soy milk or low-fat milk. (230 calories, 42 grams carbohydrate, 6.5 grams fiber, 9 grams protein, 4 grams fat, 1 gram saturated fat, 5 mg cholesterol, 130 mg sodium.)

• 10. Yogurt breakfast parfait made with 6 ounces low fat "lite" yogurt, 1/2-cup fresh chopped fruit and 1/2-cup low-fat granola. (302 calories, 65 grams carbohydrate, 7 grams fiber, 10 grams protein, 4 grams fat, 2 grams saturated fat, 4 mg cholesterol, 170 mg sodium.)

• 11. Whole-grain cereal (1 cup) with 1/2-cup skim or low-fat milk and 1/2-cup fresh fruit (like blueberries). (276 calories, 62 grams carbohydrate, 10 grams fiber, 11 grams protein, 2 grams fat, 0.2 grams saturated fat, 3 mg cholesterol, 424 mg sodium.)

 By Elaine Magee, MPH, RD
WebMD Weight Loss Clinic - Expert Column

1. DAILY WALK
Walk daily. Research has shown that even five minutes of walking a day will boost metabolism, burn fat, and boost your mood. Walking will also get you outside, where you can enjoy nature and experience your neighborhood.

2. HYDRATE
Drink plenty of water. Your body is made of over 80% water. Water cleans your blood, floats your brain and burns fat! Drink plenty of fresh water every day.

5. BREATHE
Sounds easy, and it is! Conscious breathing centers your mind, develops focus, and calms the nervous system.

3. HOME EXERCISE
There are many inexpensive options for home exercise. Depending on your interests you can purchase inexpensive equipment for improving muscle strength, endurance, flexibility, aerobic capacity, fat burning, core training and the like.

4. EAT FRESH FOODS
Healthy eating is an important part of any fitness regime. You are what you eat; therefore you can only create the body you want when you fuel yourself with food that is good for you. Daily servings of vegetables, and food grown without pesticides are best.

6. FIND PASSION IN EACH DAY
Doing what you love keeps your mind fit and focused.

7. INNER FITNESS. MEDITATION
Meditation provides a calm center to work from. It can reduce health risks, and has been known to lower blood pressure and reduce inflammation in autoimmune disease. Meditation can heal your body, mind and soul.

8. SLEEP
Sleep is an often-overlooked component of a fitness regime. Many of us do not sleep well, or sleep enough. Sleep is when your body grows, your body heals, and your mind dreams, relaxes and organizes. Sleep is an important component of any fitness regime.

9. STEAM AND SWEAT AND SOAK
Hydrotherapy has been used by many cultures worldwide to purify and cleanse. Indulge in water therapy to cleanse and refresh body and soul.

10. SCHEDULE TIME FOR YOURSELF
It is all too easy to let the demands of others interfere with our best of plans. Pencil in your fitness time and keep those appointments as conscientiously as you do all your appointments. A few minutes of meditation, breathing or walking will restore your energy so you can better address the tasks at hand.

Parents will go a long way just to quiet a colicky baby. The quest often starts with a baby swing, progresses to 3 a.m. drives around the neighborhood and ends in a pediatrician's office, where parents get condolences and little else, making infantile colic as arduous for the parent as the child experiencing the condition. Characterized by a multitude of symptoms, the child suffering from infantile colic does not usually respond to simple comforting methods and exhibits periodic fussiness that can last over hours or days.

In many cases the infant appears to be in pain and will pull up his/her legs or cry when laid in certain positions, on the back or stomach. At times the child's abdomen will be hard and distended. Occasionally the passage of flatus will give relief, but these attacks can last for hours. To make matters more complicated, colic rarely responds to traditional health care; leaving many parents troubled, as an infant's episodes of crying and fussiness persist.

If you have a colicky baby, and other forms of treatment don't seem to be helping very much, you may want to investigate bringing your baby into our office. We have successfully treated colic, with obvious differences seen within the first few visits.

Why can we help?
As your child is being born, the neck and back vertebrae can go out of alignment, due to the stretching and compressing of the body as it emerges into the world. If your delivery included a prolonged pushing stage, forceps or vacuum extraction, or other form of assisted delivery, the chances of a misalignment are great.

If the misalignments, called vertebral subluxations, are big enough, the functioning of major systems in the body can be compromised. The digestive system can be affected and ineffective digestion of breastmilk and formula can cause major discomfort in your baby, leading to colic episodes.

Many parents are wary of taking their small, helpless babies to see a chiropractor. The main reason being the "Snap, Crackle and Pop" stereotype that chiropractic invokes. In actuality, the adjustments that a chiropractor will do on your baby are basic, and involve applying gentle pressure to areas on the neck, back, and pelvis. You may see your baby totally relax before your eyes as the misalignments are corrected. Chiropractic care can be very valuable in helping to calm the colic tendencies.

Please call today to speak with Dr. Rich or Dr. Haley about any questions you might have, and find out how we can bring the peace and quiet back to your home.

After the first few weeks of Holiday parties, with  many more to go, and making it to the gym only a few times, okay a couple time...once. We thought it might be fun to post this article we found on the internet. The Holidays are suppose to be fun! Enjoy them!

1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls.



2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. Like fine single-malt scotch, it's rare. In fact, it's even rarer than single-malt scotch. You can't find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an eggnog-alholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!



3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.



4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.



5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello?



6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.



7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.



8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or, if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?



9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards.



10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention.

Reread tips, then start over. But hurry: January is just around the corner.