April 25, 2010

Health and Fitness

Filed under: Leisure Centre — Tags: Dance Aerobic — richardkemp1980 @ 1:05 pm

The first thing that seems to disappear in the life of many new moms is “their fitness routine”. It is very easy to get caught up in the “mommy world” and put everyone else first but ourselves! For women who have toddlers and pre-school aged children at home, finding the time to work out can be quite the challenge. Not everyone has a nanny, a cousin or even a babysitter to watch the children while you get a quick workout in at the gym. However, do we really need to go to the gym all the time to get an effective workout? As a spokesperson for various fitness products , I knew all too well about the options for home workouts. However, as a former gym groupie it was very difficult for me to think about exercising at home. However, with two sets of pre-school aged twins at home, going to the gym was not an option. I was lucky to be able to brush my hair and throw a on a coat of lipgloss. Who was I kidding with my thoughts of going to the gym for an hour? What most of us don't realize is that working out at home can keep you in the loop of the fitness world!

The most rewarding element about home workouts is that you can exercise with your children. We should all be teaching our children about exercise as early as the toddler years. Believe it or not, you CAN workout with your children. You just need to be a little creative and get back to the basics.. My favorite workout with my four little ones involves creating your own obstacle course. All you need are fairy wings or superhero capes, a tambourine, hopscotch mats and hula hoops. Simple moves like skipping is great for the quads. Jumping in and out of the hula hoops tones the gluteal area or buttocks and incorporating a tambourine increases the overall aerobic intensity. Check out the video to see how you can workout with your children right in your own backyard. The best part about this workout is what your neighbors will be saying when they see you skipping around the yard in fairy wings. Stir things up in the neighborhood this Spring & give this workout a try

Public release date: 6-Apr-2010

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Contact: Peter Krustrup
pkrustrup@ifi.ku.dk
452-615-4341
University of Copenhagen

Scientists: Soccer improves health, fitness and social abilities

Led by Professors Peter Krustrup and Jens Bangsbo from the Department of Exercise and Sports Sciences, University of Copenhagen, the 3-year project covered several intervention studies involving both men, women and children, who were divided into soccer, running and control groups. The results from the studies are so remarkable that the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports are publishing a special edition issue entitled “Football for Health” containing 14 scientific articles from the soccer project on Tuesday 6 April 2010.

Soccer for Health

The researchers studied the physical effects of soccer training for untrained subjects aged 9 to 77 years. The conclusion was clear. Soccer provides broad-spectred health and fitness effects that are at least as pronounced as for running, and in some cases even better.

Study leader Peter Krustrup concludes “Soccer is a very popular team sport that contains positive motivational and social factors that may facilitate compliance and contribute to the maintenance of a physically active lifestyle. The studies presented have demonstrated that soccer training for two-three hours per week causes significant cardiovascular, metabolic and musculoskeletal adaptations, independent on gender, age or lack of experience with soccer”.

Professor Jens Bangsbo continues: “The effects can be maintained for a long period even with a reduced frequency of training to one to two times one hour a week. Recreational soccer, therefore, appears to be an effective type of training leading to performance improvements and significant beneficial effects to health, including a reduction in the risk of cardiovascular diseases, falls and fractures. In a number of aspects, soccer training appears to be superior to running training. Soccer training can also be used to treat hypertension and it was clearly superior to a standard treatment strategy of physician-guided traditional recommendations”.

The two researchers foresee a great perspective in using soccer as a health promoting activity: “The studies have convincingly shown that soccer training is effective to enhance fitness and the health profile for the general population. Future studies are needed to understand what is causing the beneficial effects of football, how well football can be used to improve heart health in early childhood and how other patient groups such as those with type II diabetes or cancer can benefit from playing soccer”.

Soccer creates we-stories and helps women stay active

One of the many aspects of the study was to examine the level of social capital for women gained from running and soccer. Even though both the soccer players and the runners trained in groups, there were significant differences in the way they interacted and what they considered the most important aspects of the sport they were engaging in. The runners were more focused on themselves as individuals, whereas the soccer players developed “we”-stories as they began to see themselves as a team.

From the beginning, most of the women, both soccer players and runners, thought running would be an easier form of exercise to stick to after the intervention programme was over. That turned out not to be the case:

“The most important finding was the difference in social interaction and creation of we-stories between the groups, which may impact the possibilities of long-term compliance. A year after the study, many of the soccer players continue to play soccer, some have even joined an organised soccer club. Not many from the running group have continued their training. This can very well be due to the fact that the runners focussed on their health and on getting in shape, whereas the soccer players were more committed to the activity itself, including the fun and not letting down team mates”, says Associate Professor Laila Ottesen.

Men worry less when playing soccer than when running.

Another study examined the exertion experienced during training for untrained adults and their experience of “worries” and “flow”. This study, based on 6 groups of untrained men and women, showed that all groups experienced an overall high level of flow during the intervention, which underlines that the participants felt motivated, happy and involved to the point where they forgot time and fatigue. There was no difference in the level of worry for the female soccer players and runners, but the running men seemed to worry quite a lot more than their soccer playing counterparts.

“The men that played soccer elicited lower levels of worry than during running, 2.8 vs 4.0 on a 0-6 scale, and although they are training at the same average heart rate they do not feel the exertion as strongly as during running” says Associate Professor Anne-Marie Elbe and adds: “Further research is needed to examine why men and women experience playing soccer differently but it could be that the men just have had more experience with football in earlier years than the women”.

Documentation for FIFA, Michelle Obama and others

F-MARC, the research unit of FIFA, is a central partner in the project and the research provides scientific documentation for initiatives such as FIFA's newly launched “The 11 for Health” campaign that uses soccer as an educational health tool for children in order to raise awareness and improve health in African and South American communities.

Also Michelle Obama's “Let's Move” project aiming at eliminating obesity in American children through diet and sports have recently promoted soccer as a favourable activity. The research results are also used in Europe, where the research group is directly involved in implementing the results through projects focusing on adults and children, such as “The Open Soccer Club project”, “The Soccer at Work project” and the “Intensity in Pupil School Sport project”.

Sports Confederations, Football Associations, Ministries of Culture and Health and researchers from Universities, Hospitals and Centres for Working Environment are cooperating about the implementation and scientific evaluation of those projects.

About the project:

The project has received funding from, among others, FIFA – Medical Assessment and Research Centre (F-MARC), The Danish Ministry of Culture's Sports Research Committee, United Federation of Danish Workers, TrygFonden, The Danish Football Association, Team Denmark and The Danish Sports Confederation.

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January 22, 2010

Leisure Centre

Filed under: Aerobic — Tags: Dance Aerobic — richardkemp1980 @ 7:09 am

I grew up in Chingford in the sixties and seventies. Although Chingford has for many years been part of the East London borough of Waltham Forest, it is in fact a leafy green suburb on the border of Epping Forest, Essex. It was once quite rural but started to become more urban during the Second World War, when inhabitants of the East End of London started moving there to avoid the bombings. In fact, one of my earliest memories is of going grocery shopping with my mother and bumping into previous neighbours from her own childhood in Hackney.

Just around the corner from our house was Pole Hill, an entry point to Epping Forest. My friends and I would often play hide and seek there, free from adult supervision. There was an obelisk landmark at the top of the hill which is still there, though it's often covered in graffiti nowadays. Cattle used to graze on the forest land nearby and I can recall sitting in our dining room and watching them munch their way through out front garden. Today, they wouldn't be able to squeeze between the tightly parked cars!

Some of my happiest childhood memories are of spending long, lazy afternoons at Larkswood open air swimming pool with my mum, younger brother and an assortment of friends. It's where I learnt to swim. Sadly, it closed many years ago and remained derelict for a while. It's now a leisure centre.

Chingford High Street (Station Road) was typical of many of that era, before giant supermarkets existed. There were family-run bakeries, butchers and green grocers, as well as a fishmonger. The shop I remember most vividly was a sweet shop called Hargreaves, run by two elderly sisters. Its shelves were crammed full of large jars of sweets which you could purchase by weight. Lemon sherbet lollies and gobstoppers were among my favourites. There was a newsagents called Brimbles, a haberdashery shop called Bassets, run by a lady named Winnie Basset, who seemed to stock anything and everything. There were also three small grocery stores, Chasneys, Stitchers and the Co-op (which is still there today).

At one end of Station Road is Chingford Green, which houses the library and St. Peter and St. Paul Parish Church. The BBC programme, Songs of Praise, was filmed there during my Brownie days, although the only thing I remember about it was the cameraman, who was positioned right in front of our Brownie pew. My friend and I took it in turns to pinch his bottom throughout the service. We thought it was a hoot, though we must only have been about seven or eight years old at the time!

I have visited Chingford often over the years as my parents still live in the house where I grew up. Thankfully, it has retained much of its character, although there have been inevitable changes. Some shops have been replaced by restaurants or bars and others have become supermarket chains but a few are still thriving after more than 50 years in business.

Having lived abroad and in other parts of London I recently moved back to Chingford. It still feels like home.

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January 3, 2010 |

Burj Dubai, the world's tallest building, seen at centre left, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2010. Burj Dubai is over 800 metres (2,625 ft) tall and has more than 160 stores, the most of any building in the world. Besides an observation deck on its 124th floor affording 360-degree views of the entire city, Burj Dubai is home to the world's first Armani Hotel, luxury offices and residences, and a variety of other sophisticated leisure and entertainment facilities. Burj Dubai will ultimately be the place of residence, work and leisure for a community of up to 12,000 people. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)