The Origins of Cybex Space is a fascinating article written by Carolyn de la Peña, and published by magazine extraordinaire Cabinet. Each publication of Cabinet collects art, articles and essay under loose themes. This particular issue (Issue 29, Spring 2008) was SLOTH. In the article, de la Pena delves into the beginnings of exercise equipment, in particular, Cybex machines. Enlightening and informative , it really gives pause to marvel at how awesome and bizarre humanity is. Seriously, where do we come up with this stuff? Truly, if we take a closer look close at the evolution of society, as de la Pena does – down to large metal and wood machines on which we built to exercise – the answers become surprisingly obvious.
Here are a few simple guidelines to maintaining a healthy weight. Body weight fluctuates depending on stress, life patterns, medications, illness, exercise routine, and other changes. It’s the ups and downs of being human. Following these general rules won’t turn you into Kate Moss, but you won’t be Fatty Arbuckle either. Remember, this blog is about balance. While it’s natural to get fits of “weight drama” given our society, try not to stress it too much. Life is too short! These are guidelines to help you discover your own unique plan.
Step 1. Cut down on sugars and chemicals you can’t pronounce. Especially refined sugars. This step also includes cutting out over-processed, ready-made foods and meals. If you can’t pronounce the ingredients, it’s usually a bad sign. These often contain high levels of refined sugars and other ingredients making them palatable, but not very satiating. Sorry, alcohol is a sugar too. Choose your sugars wisely, and keep them to a minimum.
Try not to eat these guys often.
Step 2. Add more fiber. Lots more fiber. Beans, seasonal veggies and fruits – the less cooked the better, whole grain breads and cereals, sweet potatoes, nuts, and seeds….foods that have some substance to them. Sprinkling ground flax seed in soups is an easy way to get more fiber. Fibrous foods keep your system healthy, your stomach full, and provides important nutrients. Fiber generally keeps things moving. Grab that apple a day.
Step 3. Eat leaner meats more frequently. Turkey, chicken, white fish, salmon, etc. Fattier meats are ok, in moderation. Use fattier meats in smaller quantities and to enhance the flavor of dishes, such as in a stir fry interspersed with lots of veggies and plated with brown rice.
4. Drink less calories. Plain, or sparkling water, hot tea, ice tea, coffee, etc. Stay away from drinking calories. They quickly stack up. Soft drinks are the biggest culprit. It’s also a good idea to avoid drinks that purport doing your body good, like fancy flavored waters. The best place to get nutrients is directly from the source, rather than infused into your beverage. Again, alcohol gets another nod. While one small glass of wine (3.5 fl oz) can have around 100 calories, 2 or 3 glasses several nights a week will add up quickly.
Step 5. Feel free to break the rules. This is the Mind Body Moderate, after all. If you find your healthy eating plan faltered after a day instead of the six months you initially envisioned, know that it’s ok. Rather than get discouraged, negotiate with yourself, regulating alcohol, sweets and heavier meals mainly to weekends or special occasions. Be adventurous and explore a few new foods you normally pass by. Everybody’s body is different and processes the world around them differently. Understand how your body works best. If it’s not your own recipe, it most likely won’t last. Make it your own!
Breaking the Rules with Steak Frites at home…yes, those are Mc Donald’s fries.
As you may have noticed, there are less postings these days. Seems we are being distracted by life, and calling it a hiatus, until summer.
Apart from a rigorous teaching schedule at the start of 2011, the Mind Body Moderate is making a rather extended move to Los Angeles.
While making peace with our own statement that change is something we can always rely on, this doesn’t mean it’s easy.
It would be nice have an ideal sense of place in the world, but for some of us, it remains aloof. Which is better? : To live in St.Louis – home of gooey butter cake and 2 for 1 slabs of pasta, but with fresh air and an overall easy pace for living? Or to be in Los Angeles – land of gyms and healthy fare, but mired in pollution and traffic?
The best guess is somewhere in the middle. And it’s a middle that’s personally parted. So watch out LA. We’ll see your healthy food and raise you some toasted (meaning deep fried) ravioli and that classic Midwestern kindness (masking deeper cynicism). Until then.
There are people who strictly deprive themselves of each and every eatable, drinkable and smokable which has in any way acquired a shady reputation. They pay this price for health. And health is all they get for it. How strange it is. It is like paying out your whole fortune for a cow that has gone dry.
– Mark Twain’s Autobiography
All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then Success is sure.
– Mark Twain, Notebook, 1887
I overthink most things. I brood; over plans, ideas and life in general. The dreamiest place i know is inside my head, and it can become so cluttered with thoughts I’m crippled by inaction. It’s kind of like living The Secret Life of Walter J. Mitty. Or, wait! Even better, like this line from the TS Eliot poem:
Do I dare disturb the Universe?/ In a minute there is time. /For revisions and decisions / which a minute will reverse.
Starting projects is not a problem, but completing them is, not because I don’t want to, but because my brain won’t let me. Yes, I’m placing the blame on my over-thinking brain.
How often do we wistfully say, “if only things were simpler.” My longing lately goes more like this, “If only I could be stupid”…by this I mean, less thinking, more action. It sounds wrong, but hear me out. As per usual, it’s all about a healthy balance.
There is a fine line between genius and stupidity; between the mad scientist and then just a really brilliant one. Getting ahead in life according to social mores and making gobs of money doesn’t necessarily make you a genius. Being scattered and unable to move forward in the ways that are deemed culturally correct doesn’t make you unintelligent. Defining what is dumb and smart, and how society accepts both has been contemplated time and again.
The first time I encountered this conceptual debate was in junior high while reading Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. The story goes: A lab janitor yearns to be smarter. He attains it through a radical scientific experiment. The smarter he becomes, the more he ostracizes everything he’s loved. Slowly, the experiment fails and he slips back into a state of mental slowness and his life is better for it…kind of…no. not really. It’s a sad story, expressing the highs are too high, the lows are too low, and best to stick with what you got.
Raphan interviews various people, like Oliver Sacks, and tells the stories of others, like Hellen Keller, who throughout history were once considered dumb, and later, professed to be the great geniuses of humanity.
Advertisers too are diving into the sociological game of what makes you genius. Is it stupidity? Maybe it’s your jeans. At least Diesel thinks so. Based on my earlier self-musings, I tend to agree with them…on stupidity, not jeans…just in a less flashy advertisement kind of way. Here is their latest ad campaign manifesto, “Be Stupid”.
We now know there are different types of intelligence. For several decades, Dr. Howard Gardner has researched how different brains have different, distinct “smarts”. Even intelligence is relative. I’d like to think we are all endowed in one category or another.
Whatever your intelligence/s might be, they are hard to tap into without a little focused action. It’s easy to read this, get inspired for 30 seconds and move on. It’s easy to live in our heads or on a screen, and as our senses become overwhelmed by the multi-media encompassing life, it becomes harder to “do”. So, I lift my coffee mug in a toast and a call to action: Here’s to a little more doing and a little less thinking in 2011. Here’s to balance. Here’s to embracing both the uniqueness of our genius and the wonder of our stupidity. Cheers.
You sit too much. You are supposed to get up regularly. You are supposed to move around. You’ve just stumbled upon your chance. It takes 5 minutes. Considering how much time gets sucked into computer zombieland, it’s a small amount to ask. Here we go…
#1. Knee lifts while sitting
Knee lifts and holds, while sitting up straight
Sit up as tall as you can, arms by your sides. Scoop the abdominals in towards the spine to help you gain supported lift. Lift the right knee, pushing the left foot firmly into the floor. Balance and hold 10 seconds and switch. Do 3 sets. Pay particular attention to your hips and pelvis. No shifting your weight from one hip to the other. Keep them evenly weighted. If the right knee is up make sure the right hip is firmly planted and vice versa. No slumping or rounding the back. Sit up tall! Trying this on a balance ball later gives you more feedback.
DON'T DO THIS! No slumping or rounding of the upper or lower back.
#2. Chair dips
Chair dips, option 1. Bend and straighten the arms, keeping shoulders broad and away from your ears. Draw belly into spine.
2 options: hands on your chair handles (easier) or hand on the seat (harder). 10 dips, bending the elbows as far as you can and then straighten the arms. Your body weight is supported by your legs and feet as you move. Keep the spine straight, belly scooped and neck stretching long. Most important, keep the shoulders down away from your ears. This provides more arm work and a chest stretch.
Chair dips, option 2. This one is more challenging. Squeeze legs together, belly in, and shoulders broad.
#3. Balance on one foot
Stand up. If you have heels on, slip them off. (What’s one minute? Your feet will thank you). Standing on one foot with abdominals scooped and posture lifted, hold for 30 seconds. Switch.
Balance on one foot while standing as tall as you can. Opposite knee is high off the ground. Try for 30 seconds to one minute.
#4. Knee bend/Arm swings
Bend the knees and swing the arms across the body, exhale.
Straighten back up, stretching the body back up towards the sky. Swing the arms out and up. Deep inhale.
This one is akin to Radio Taiso, the Japanese morning workout. It should be invigorating and full of movement. Separate the feet shoulder width apart. Bend the knees and swing the arms across the body. Straighten the legs, lifting up through the spine and swing the arms up and out to the sides in a big stretch. This exercises needs a swinging rhythm and momentum. Take deep breaths as you move. 10 times.
Sit back down. Gently touch fingertips to shoulders. Reach outward to opposite walls through your elbows. Draw large smooth circles in space with the elbows. Take Deep Breaths. Keep you head floating up towards the ceiling. Keep your head lifted and smile.
A clearer visual of elbow circles
That’s it! 5 minutes (maybe less). Now back to work. …Or, maybe it’s time for lunch.
Yup. It counts. And it’s much more fun than juggling your to do list. Contact juggling, in particular requires physical demand and overall muscle control. What is contact juggling you ask? Think David Bowie in the Labyrinth.
Or watch this guy.
Get some exercise. Have fun. And be the life of every party. It’s a triple win!
If you live in Saint Louis, contact juggler extrordinaire Peter Schroeder is offering an 8 week contact juggling workshop beginning in January on Saturdays from 12:00 – 1:30pm. Registration is required at Bumbershoot Aerial Arts.
(Psst. If you were looking for a unique holiday gift, this could be it!)
My brother Scott is inspiration for the notion: if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.
I had always been a “gifted” student, able to walk through classes and get A’s in my sleep, which later in life proved to be a challenge for my work ethic. My brother Scott was not particularly gifted in athletics or in education, but he worked hard and believed in himself. Eventually Scott made varsity basketball, received stellar grades, was senior class president and homecoming king. My other siblings and I joke Scott is the “Golden Child” who can do no wrong. In truth, Scott has always fought to accomplish his goals. There is no luck involved.
This past weekend he qualified for the Boston Marathon.
Motivation and determination are big factors in realizing your dreams. The funny thing is, we often assume if we don’t have it figured out in our 20 and 30s, it will never happen. There is nothing further from the truth. The biggest component of the population is aging, and living longer. Older adults, like Olga Kotelko, recently featured in the New York Times, have only taken up new ambitions and athletics in their retirement and are soaring to new heights.
We are all capable of much more than we might believe. Whether you are 20, 40, or 80, the choices are still your own, and with determination you, can do it!
I consider myself moderately attractive. Some parts are better than others. I’ve been known to get a compliment or two on my backside, in a lesser Kim Kardashian way, much to my dismay, because it is one of my least favorite attributes. I much prefer my eyebrows, which rarely get the credit they deserve.
The Womanly Ideal in 1910s according to Encyclopedia of Physical Culture
There is no perfect ideal that crosses all cultural boundaries and personal opinions, not even Angelina Jolie. In the African countryside of Mauritania, Jolie would be considered ugly. Large women are the ideal that the Mauritanian society finds appealing. Skinny is considered poor and weak. Young girls are often forced-fed to grow fat, mirroring Western culture’s less direct food deprivation through eating disorders and quick weight loss diets. Big or small, it’s all in the name of beauty.
Mauritania Woman
We are shaped, pun intended, not only by what we eat and do, but by our thoughts and actions. I’d bet you can think of at least one well-toned person who is unattractive based on their attitudes or deeds.
Comparing ourselves to the world around us can make us feel pretty low. I like to think we are works in progress, never quite finished, each with unique variations. Don’t be too hard on yourself. The scale and the mirror are shallow friends when it comes to support. In most cases, your body and mind themselves are your best friends. Who gets up with you every morning to start the day?
If you are about to undertake an ambitious health overhaul or wanting to improve yourself, keep in mind…it’s relative. Go slow. How you feel is most important. Sure, it’s a canned self-help answer, but it was canned well. If you feel good, keep going. If not, stop. Rethink the approach.
Celebrating the perfect, imperfect you is liberating, whatever your size, attributes, best and worst features. There’s no one else quite like you…that’s a pretty cool thought. Take care of what you have and stay moderately healthy.
Ending this post with the song of the same name. A little inspiration for your day from Nina Simone. Ms. Simone herself a strong woman, perfect in her imperfections.
Last week we delved into what it means to “scoop” the abdominals in Pilates. If you haven’t, I recommend starting with the previous post here.
Continuing the abdominal scoop adventure, today’s saga crosses paths with the #1 exercise culprit which, when done incorrectly, can lead to back pain and neck and shoulder tension…it’s the sit-up.
Don't do this
Try one, looking for these foreboding signs: Does your back tense? Do your legs pop up? Do your neck and shoulders round forward into your ears? Do you hold your breath? These are all signs your core is skipping out on the work. You may feel some ab muscles working, but, as mentioned in the last post, there are many muscles that make up the trunk.
Up. Up and away…
Try these deconstructed versions of sit ups for a few weeks. You may notice your core pulling in better, supporting your back and lengthening your posture. The key is to scoop the abs and stretch and breathe while moving. Phew, that’s a tall order! Small and slow movements win this race, no matter your athletic ability.
The chest curl
The Chest Curl
How high can you curl your chest up while keeping the low back and belly down?
Lie on the back. Stretch and curl your chest up off the floor, keeping the low back on the ground and the abs scooped in. Push the back of your thighs into the floor. Hold this lift for two breaths and then stretch back down. Do not let the belly push out. (If the belly pushes out, you’ve gone to far and chances are your legs have popped up a bit and the shoulders are tensing forward.)
Keep it small! Focus on stretching the back and neck muscles alone the spine. If your neck is tensing, support your head with your hands. Try 10 of these.
The modified roll down
The Modified Roll Down
Sit up as tall as possible, As though your spine is lifting up by a string from the top of the head. (This alone should be work). If your back is strong the legs are straight out in front and together. If your back is tight and you feel leg strain, bend your knees and squeeze them together. Holding a tennis ball or pillow between the knees helps.
More challenging Roll down
From this lift, begin rolling back by curling the tailbone towards the back of the knees. Roll back one bone at a time to stretch the spine. Only go back as far as you can keeping the feet firmly planted on the floor, the legs from moving, and the shoulders relaxed. Hold this position and take two breaths. Curl back up into the upright position. Again, it is important to keep belly scooped in towards the spine. If the belly is pushing out it is an indicator your spinal posture is crunched and not staying long and lifted. Try 10 of theses.
In either of the above moves, if you feel pain or pinching, STOP. It might be time for professional help.
Remember, the best way to get the most work from the trunk muscles is twofold: (1) simultaneously lengthen while in motion. (2) Coordinate your breath with any movement. The combination of stretch and strength with diaphram work produces a flowing, smooth, safer movement.
No Matter how smart and evolved as a society we think we are, we will always look back and recognize the mistakes of the past.
Media seems omnipresent, and advertising is lodged into every nook and cranny of the day, softly and incessantly suggesting how we might want to feel, act, and be. There are few moments in the day to stop and listen to our own thoughts. It’s easy to disconnect from our own inherent knowledge, which is lifetimes more intelligent than the advertising or media of the day.
Being election day, it seems an appropriate time to remind ourselves we each have a unique intellect, different from everyone else. Take time to be still. Turn off CNN. Step away from the computer. Take a walk through the autumn air and discover where your mind takes you. Go with your gut.
The Mind Body Moderate 
