Monthly Archives: April 2011

Arthritis Awareness Month May 2011: “Take Action!”

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Arthritis is the number one cause of disability in the US. Number one. It painfully effects the lives of 50 million adults and 300,000 children nationwide. If you know someone suffering with with arthritis, I hope you will share this post.

The Arthritis Foundation proclaims May National Arthritis Awareness Month and this year the theme is “Take Action!” The goal is to raise public awareness of underused self-management interventions that can improve arthritis symptoms. Top of the list- you guessed it-  physical activity.

According to Patience White, M.D., chief public health officer for the Arthritis Foundation, “Physical activity…is crucial to managing joint pain, improving mobility and reducing fatigue often associated with arthritis.”

The CDC says that “physical activity for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, reduces joint pain and stiffness in 4 to 6 weeks.” Also, physical activity has added benefit for “persons who are overweight or obese.”  They “can reduce symptoms and slow arthritis progression by losing weight.”

Strength training is an especially effective type of exercise for combating painful arthritis symptoms. Research by the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University showed that for older adults with osteoarthritis of the knee, strength training:

  • Decreased arthritis pain by 43%
  • Increased muscle strength
  • Improved physical function by 44%
  • Improved physical performance, quality of life and self-efficacy

Similar results have been seen in studies of rheumatoid arthritis sufferers.

Why does strength training work so well against arthritis? Think of your muscles as shock absorbers for your joints. The stronger they are, the better they will cushion and support. Also, building muscle tissue fibers up the body’s metabolism so it burns more calories- making it easier to drop any excess weight. Losing just 10 pounds removes 30 to 50 pounds of stress from your joints!

Sometimes, the first steps in starting a new strength training routine are the hardest, and that’s truer still if you battle joint pain every day. We want to help.

 

This year-long HealthTrack takes full advantage of Koko Smartraining technology. There is no guess work, just a customized, progressive strength training program designed to improve your physical function and reduce the painful symptoms of arthritis. The program is safe, effective and optimized, in real-time, based on your body.

Once you are armed with the confidence that every Arthritis HealthTrack workout is the best it can be for your body, every time, with no guesswork required by you, you’ll find that starting a new strength routine to battle your arthritis isn’t hard at all.

Fight on!

Michael Wood, CSCS
Chief Fitness Officer
Koko FitClub

 

Don’t Succumb to Fad Diets! – Koko FitClub Video Blog

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Exercise physiologist and Koko FitClub Chief Fitness Officer, Michael Wood, CSCS, shares why fad diets, no matter the hype, should be avoided in this latest Koko FitClub video blog post.

 

 

Choose Foods with Less Sugar & See Better Workout Results

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Koko Nutrition lableYou are consistently getting yourself to Koko and doing your Smartraining workouts 2 to 3 times a week, and that’s awesome.  But as you have heard me say many times during your Koko Cardio sessions: If your goal is to lose weight, exercise is only part of the equation. You must also control caloric intake. So, I strive to give you hype-less nutritional tips that, when combined with regular exercise at Koko FitClub, will help you control intake and have a tremendously positive effect on your health and fitness.

Today’s tip is about one of the most insidious sources of empty calories in our diets every day: sugar. Paying attention to food labels and monitoring your food choices to exclude those with excessive added sugar will make a big dent in your daily caloric intake resulting in your calorie burning efforts at Koko being even more effective.

My question to you: Do you have any idea how much sugar (simple carbohydrate) you’re taking in on a daily basis? Most people don’t. Your first assignment is to start reading food labels to get an idea of the sugar content in the foods you eat on a regular basis.

“If you are concerned about your intake of sugar, make sure that added sugars are not listed as one of the first few ingredients. Other names for added sugars include: corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, maltose, dextrose, sucrose, honey, and maple syrup.” (source: FDA website).


A healthy diet should have about 45-65% of its calories in the form of carbohydrates  (simple and complex sugars) with the remaining calories coming from fat and protein. Unless you are extremely active, your optimum carbohydrate intake should be toward the bottom edge of that range. This carbohydrate percentage is broken out further into simple vs complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrate intake, which is the category of sugar we are talking about today, should make up less than 25% of your overall caloric intake each day. More on simple and complex carbohydrate can be found here and here.

Read labels and you will be amazed at how much sugar is in products you think of as “healthy.” Start with your breakfast. You’ll quickly discover that with foods like cereal, juice and fruit flavored yogurt on the menu, it’s easy to reach your sugar limit for the day by breakfast. Remember sugar can “hide” under other names. Look for those words ending in “ose” as your eyes wander down the ingredient list.

One final thought. Every food choice counts. Start taking time to read food labels and simply choose foods with less added sugar. With very little effort you will lop some serious calories off the “intake” side of your equation. Combined with Koko, the result will be a fitter, trimmer you!

Michael Wood, CSCS
Chief Fitness Officer
Koko FitClub