Move Because You Can

I had the opportunity to shadow a Physician Assistant in the ER of a hospital in Baltimore, MD today and the overwhelming thought I walked away with was - we all need to move healthfully while we can.

I know I take for granted that I have no body ailments that hinder me from moving about life freely, but I also find a great many excuses for not being active or "finding time" to work out. Now that I have seen an woman who had 3 strokes by the age of 38 (she weighs 278 and is 5'5")and a gentleman who had previously his neck fused so they could not find an vein to get a simple needle-stick which meant he had to have a central line put in - a far riskier procedure- just to obtain some simple blood samples...it made me want to run to all of my family members and tell them to stay active, stay healthy to help prevent what is eventually coming.

I just want to remind everyone that just because we feel good today, we need to move our bodies to take measures for tomorrow. We often do a good job investing things like money for our futures - with 401Ks, personal investments - but what we hold ourselves in (our skeleton, our muscles) what we'll physically use (our muscles, tendons, skin and bones)to enjoy those well-planned efforts of "saving" - we might as well spend it on the fun stuff rather than the doctors and medications to just keep us alive.   

Bicycle Repair Stand at Wholefoods

With bicycle season just around the corner, I can't help but start talking about bicycling as much as possible. I have a love of things related to bicycles, but I have a ways to go learning about maintaining my own bike. Not only is this repair stand and free pump outside of a Whole Foods a great idea, but the photographer's skills are an excellent way to capture the essence of it). I was just sent this link about it from a bicycling frined(the blog Prolly Is Not Probably) and I think its a great example of communities reaching out toward bicycle friendly towns. I heard Washington, DC is looking into how to make some of the city and their transportation more bike friendly - perhaps this type of convenience would be a great way to help out bicyclists in their city.

A favorite workout website: Body Rock

I've been telling everyone I know about the website where I have been going to do all of my workouts. Besides some cardio on my own, I have been mostly been using bodyrock.tv as my source for FAST and fun workouts. They aren't easy and sometimes you want to give up...but knowing that your workout will be done in 20 minutes is such great motivation! I've seen some changes in muscle definition and can do many more push-ups now. The workouts are free and there is a new one everyday. Variety, intense and short in duration - thats my type of workout.

Update: This website has gone through many changes since I first wrote this post. I still enjoy the workouts, but I have some additional thoughts. If using BodyRock as the sole source of strength training, there is potential for missing some of the smaller muscle groups that aren't worked in the BodyRock workouts, such as the rotator cuff. I didn't have a great way to do rows since I don't own the dip bars and the volume of pushups is high, so by not working my back enough I had small injuries from not having an equal number of push (chest) and pull (back) exercises. I supplement back exercises with machines at the gym now.