When you go to the gym, do you wash your hands before and after using the equipment? Bring your own regularly cleaned mat for floor exercises? Shower with antibacterial soap and put on clean clothes immediately after your workout? Use only your own towels, razors, bar soap, water bottles?

If you answered “no” to any of the above, you could wind up with one of the many skin infections that can spread like wildfire in athletic settings. In June, the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, known as N.A.T.A., issued a position paper on the causes, prevention and treatment of skin diseases in athletes that could just as well apply to anyone who works out in a communal setting, be it a school, commercial gym or Y.

The authors pointed out that “skin infections in athletes are extremely common” and account for more than half the outbreaks of infectious diseases that occur among participants in competitive sports. And if you think skin problems are minor, consider what happened to Kyle Frey, a 21-year-old junior and competitive wrestler at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Mr. Frey noticed a pimple on his arm last winter but thought little of it. He competed in a match on a Saturday, but by the next morning the pimple had grown to the size of his biceps and had become very painful.

His athletic trainer sent him straight to the emergency room, where the lesion was lanced and cultured. Two days later, he learned he had MRSA, the potentially deadly staphylococcus infection that is resistant to most antibiotics.

Mr. Frey spent five days in the hospital, where the lesion was surgically cleaned and stitched and treated with antibiotics that cleared the infection. He said in an interview that he does not know how he acquired MRSA: “The wrestling mat might have been contaminated, or I wrestled with someone who had the infection.”

If it could happen to Mr. Frey, who said he has always been health-conscious in the gym and careful about not sharing his belongings, it could happen to you.

The Risks

Recreational athletes as well as participants in organized sports are prone to fungal, viral and bacterial skin infections. Sweat, abrasion and direct or indirect contact with the lesions and secretions of others combine to make every athlete’s skin vulnerable to a host of problems. While MRSA may be the most serious skin infection, athlete’s foot, jock itch, boils, impetigo, herpes simplex and ringworm, among others, are not exactly fun or attractive.

Athletes who are infected should be kept from competing in matches for a week or more until treatment renders them noninfectious. The authors of the trainers’ study warned against simply covering infections like herpes and active bacterial lesions in order to return to competition.

Likewise, people like you and me who work out at a facility or swim in a public pool should stay away until cleared by a doctor who is well versed in skin diseases.

Steven M. Zinder, a trainer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and chief author of the new paper, said in an interview that these recommendations are not esoteric.

“It’s what we all learned — or should have learned — in sixth-grade health class,” he said. “It’s all common sense. You need to keep yourself and your equipment clean. You never know who last used the equipment in a gym. It can be a great breeding ground for these bugs, some of which are pretty nasty.”

The report, published in the August issue of The Journal of Athletic Training, stated, “Athletes must shower after every practice and game with an antibacterial soap and water over the entire body.”

Dr. Zinder noted that after a workout, women tend not to shower at the facility, while men, who are more likely to shower, often fail to cleanse their entire bodies, including their feet. Well-equipped facilities should provide antibacterial liquid soap.

“You should be showering at the gym and putting on clean clothes that are kept separate from the dirty ones,” he said. In fact, he added, it’s best to have two bags, one only for clean clothes, and to wash the dirty-clothes bag now and then.

Assume Exposure

Jack Foley, athletic trainer and director of sports medicine at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., and co-author of the report, said athletes should always assume they are exposed to skin infections.

At any given time, he said in an interview, one person in three in the United States suffers from a skin disease that can be spread to others, even while in the incubation stage.

The report noted that there had been “an alarming increase in the prevalence of MRSA” in the noses of both healthy children and adults. Thus, sneezing into one’s hand or blowing one’s nose without washing with an antibacterial cleanser afterward may spread these dangerous bacteria to others.

While hand hygiene is most important over all , avoiding fungal infections requires a daily change of athletic socks and underwear; carefully drying the armpits and groin and between toes (perhaps blow-drying the feet on low heat); and using foot powder. Shower shoes can help prevent infection as long as they don’t keep you from soaping your feet.

A viral infection called molluscum contagiosum may not be on the popular tongue, but it is commonly seen in young children and , spread through skin-to-skin contact, is not uncommon among athletes, including swimmers, cross-country runners and wrestlers, the report stated.

Prevention of this highly contagious infection requires “meticulous hygiene” after contact with secretions from other athletes through benches, towels and mats.

If you plan to work out in a gym or use a locker room, Mr. Foley suggested that before choosing a facility, you quiz the management about the cleaning agents used (they should be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency) and daily cleaning schedule for all surfaces and equipment. If exercise mats are not cleaned between classes, he suggested bringing your own. Antibacterial wipes or spray bottles should be provided and used by everyone to clean equipment after a workout.

Source (article): NYTIMES

Source (pictures): TRAINING PEAKS, SCARFPHOTO, ABCNEWS

(WFN) Yes. OK, now that we’ve made our point you can read on. No matter how you cut it, there is just no substitute for exercise when it comes to losing weight. Diet is, of course, extremely important and there are other factors also weigh in. But for permanent weigh loss – pounds that you keep off – some sort of aerobic exercise is necessary.

America is weight conscious and millions are obsessed with losing unwanted pounds. Of course, everyone wants it to be easy. Well, it’s not; it means you have to do something. There is no secret to weight loss. If you want to lose pounds you must burn more calories than you consume. That means cut down on excessive calories and get some cardio! Too many people are sitting around hoping that the next miracle diet will be the answer. Once they are off the diet, the pounds go back on. Why? Because they haven’t learned to burn calories with a healthy cardio workout program.

Many experts feel that if you truly want to lose weight, you need to be doing a good 45 minute to 1 hour cardio workout 4 to 5 times per week. Less than that will help you to maintain your current weight, but won’t help you to shed those pounds. For example, if you plan to lose 1 pound a week, that’s a total of 3500 calories. Then you should burn at least 500 calories a day doing cardio exercise 5 days a week.

You must commit to some kind of rigorous workout schedule. It really doesn’t matter what kind of exercise you select – running, step aerobics, cycling or spinning, cardio machines at the gym – it only matters that you commit to 4 to 5 hours a week minimum and get you heart rate up into the ‘aerobic zone’ for at least 30 minutes. The benefits are tremendous. It’s great for your heart, to lower your cholesterol and blood pressure and will definitely reduce stress. And always move your entire body (arms, legs) when doing any cardio since the more movement means the more calories you will be burning! To determine what you heart rate level is you can use the Target Heart Rate calculator at ShapeFIT.com

Make your cardio workout a priority. Quit scheduling your workouts around everything else you have to do, and instead schedule everything else around your workout. Don’t let anything interfere. If you make it important in your daily routine, then you will find ways to work in everything else you need to do. If you can join a gym get there as often as you can. You will find that working out around like-minded people will help support your goals. And, when the workout is fun chances are you’ll be better able to stick with it. If you cannot get to a gym then there are several ways to get the direction you need at home. Many full cardio workout machines, like elliptical trainers and treadmills, are available at reasonable prices. There are many excellent cardio fitness videos on the market too. And, if you can afford a machine, don’t have a DVD player or live too far from a gym then you can always put on your sneakers, step out the door and go for a run.

Joel Shapiro of Sebastian, Florida did just that. “I was about 20 pounds overweight and it was really starting to bug me. I also had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. I had trouble motivating myself to drive to the gym and I wasn’t good at sticking to a diet. One day I was sitting on my couch watching TV and having some ice cream and I realized I was killing myself. I put on a pair of sneakers, went outside and ran down the block. I barely made it to the corner and back but I did it. It was a first step. I went out the next day and the next. Now I run about 2 miles almost every day and I have lost almost 15 pounds. My pressure is down and I feel great. I know I’m going to lose the next 5 pounds and I am going to keep running.”

Remember consistency is the key to losing weight. Sticking with a cardio workout program combined with healthy nutrition are essential. According to an article on ezinearticles.com, the best 30 minute aerobic exercise routines for fat burning are: Spinning (450 calories), swimming (380 calories), elliptical trainers (265 calories), kickboxing and step aerobics (345 calories) and racquetball (345 calories). The actual amount of calories burned varies by weight, age, and intensity.

Source (article): WORLDFITNESSNEWS

Source (picture): BLOGSPOT

Americans hit the gym in search of bigger arms, massive chests and smaller waists, but many don’t know that gyms are hotbeds for germs.

ABC News conducted a test to find out just how many germs people could encounter when working out.

Dr. Philip Tierno, a microbiologist, said that the large number of people, exposed skin, and sweat present at gyms could be perfect for spreading infections.

“You’re not using that one machine exclusively for yourself,” Tierno said. “You’re leaving that machine, and someone else follows you and your germs that you leave behind. Eighty percent of all infectious disease is transmitted by contact.”

Tierno said that if a sick person used a machine, the person who used it next and then touched their eyes or mouth could get sick.

ABC News staffers took swabs to almost every piece of gym equipment they used and brought the samples to Tierno’s lab at New York University Hospital.

Tierno found the germs staph aureus, klebsiella, enterobacter and E. coli, which can cause various ailments.

Risky Machines

Tierno said the highest risk areas at the gym were machines used by “multiple people in quick sequence, such as dumbbells, seats where people may bike, or where people may sit down to lift weights.”

For example, on a lateral pull-down machine, ABC News found bacillus, which comes from the soil.

It most likely came from someone’s shoes. On an exercise bike, ABC News found sarcinia, candida specie, staphylococcus epi and diptheroids.

The worst place of all was the shower floor.

“Unfortunately, germs do survive in the shower, on walls, and on the floor,” Tierno said. “I found it in hordes — unbelievable quantities. We use the word ‘innumerable.’ Innumerable.”

According to Tierno, E. coli and many of the other germs found by ABC News won’t necessarily make you sick.

“You wear your little slippers, and you’re OK,” Tierno said. “But just as easily as those nonpathogenic germs touch those surfaces, we can have more pathogenic forms touch them. That’s the point.”

Source (article): ABCNEWS

Source (picture): HEALTH-NEWS-BLOG

Heading to the gym to blow off some steam? Good idea, as long as you don’t take out your stress on everyone around you.

It’s likely that anyone who’s spent time at a health club has seen some bad behavior, including the equipment hogs, the slobs who leave cardio machines dripping with sweat and the muscle men who grunt loudly as they lift oh-so-heavy weights that they have no intention of putting away.

But these are just a few of the ways that exercisers can be rude and obnoxious at the gym, fitness instructors say. Sometimes, things get downright nasty.

“I had to break up a cat fight,” says Peggy Gregor, group exercise director at Healthtrax Fitness and Wellness in Bethel Park, Pa.

It happened after a woman new to an ongoing fitness class took the spot on the floor that another attendee regularly claimed. A verbal argument ensued and quickly turned physical.

A yoga instructor in New York says a participant in her class let loose on the whole group — after she took a call on her cell phone.

‘I can do whatever I want’
She “rummaged for a good two minutes in her bag in the middle of class for her techno-blaring phone, then screamed into her cell phone at her boyfriend not to call her during yoga class, while we were all staring at her from our down dogs,” says Sadie Nardini, owner of the new Fierce Club yoga studio in Manhattan. When she got off the phone, the woman snarkily shouted back to the astonished group, “Sorry, I had to tell him not to call me during class!”

Nardini says that when she took her aside after class to talk about the diva behavior, the woman was offended, saying, “Well, I paid for this class. I can do whatever I want.”

The stress of the times could be one factor fueling this type of bad behavior, says Nancy Lerner, a psychologist in northern New Jersey. “What underlies anger is anxiety and fear,” she says. “There are a lot of angry people out there. The gym is another place for them to be pushy.” While exercise can be a great stress-reliever and mood-booster, some people’s behavior might be worse if sports or other forms of physical activity bring out aggressive tendencies, she says.

Lerner herself is currently involved in a dispute with another woman at her co-op gym who refuses to turn down the volume on the TV. The woman blasts “Frasier” reruns — refusing to let go of the remote control — while Lerner is trying to read on the treadmill.

“I asked her to lower the sound and she told me that I would have to get some noise-canceling earphones,” says Lerner. “I plan to attend the next board meeting and strongly suggest closed captioning on the TVs when others are working out.”

While stress may underlie some bad gym behavior, it’s a poor excuse nonetheless, says Diane Gottsman, an etiquette expert and the owner of the Protocol School of Texas in San Antonio, which specializes in corporate etiquette training. “Just because you’re more stressed doesn’t give you a free pass to be rude. We’re all stressed.”

Oftentimes, the way people behave at the gym is similar to their behavior outside of the gym, says Gottsman. So the person who’s rude at the gym is likely to be one of the people cutting in line at the coffee shop or screaming at a kid’s soccer coach.

As Nardini, the yoga instructor, puts it, many of the rude participants she sees seem to lack an “etiquette gene.” Others just want to be noticed. “They want the audience,” she says. “They don’t want to be a participant. They want to be the star.”

One bad apple …
Overall, most gym-goers don’t bother other exercisers too much. But even one bad apple can ruin everyone else’s workouts, says Gregor. The trouble-makers are enough of a problem that she recently wrote an advice article for fitness instructors on how to deal with them.

In the article, titled “Pruning the Prima Donna Participant” and published in a trade magazine called the IDEA Fitness Journal, Gregor lists some of the more common diva types in group fitness classes. Among them: “Chatty Cathies,” those who show up late and make a grand — and disruptive — entrance; “spotters,” the ones who insist on having the same place in class each week (so they can look at themselves in the mirror); and “soloists,” those who choose to do their own routine rather than following the program (usually, Gregor says, because they want the attention).

Elsewhere in the gym, Gregor and other fitness professionals note, problems also can include hygiene-challenged people who skip deodorant or wear smelly workout clothes; those who douse themselves in perfume or cologne and strut around trying to make a love connection; and those who don’t just grunt when they lift weights but scream.

If they aren’t causing an all-out ruckus, all of these behaviors can be, at the very least, highly annoying.

Lethal hands, hazardous heels
Nicholus Odem, 43, of Chandler, Ariz., couldn’t believe what he saw another gym member do in the locker room. “He left a stall in the men’s room and headed straight for the gym without washing his hands,” says Odem, noting that this man also tends to wear the same old gym clothes day after day.

“He completed his full workout going from machine to machine,” says Odem. “Since then I have an industrial size bottle of hand sanitizer in my car … I bathe my hands in sanitizer after I leave the gym.” Jay Averill, 32, of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is still troubled by something he witnessed at his gym a couple years ago.

“The inappropriate behavior was actually a part of a workout routine of a middle-aged, skinny fellow who used to frequent the gym I go to,” says Averill. “His routine focused on pelvic thrusts. He would do them standing up, lying on his back, on his side, and yes … he’d lie on his stomach and do pelvic thrusts. He’d do them with weights, on benches and on the sit-up mats, all the while not even showing any sign that what he was doing may look a little odd. To top it all off, he would always wear tights.”

The man’s actions were so extreme that Averill just couldn’t focus on his workout. “It’s really hard to do the military press while a grown man is making love to a bench beside you, although I wouldn’t describe it as love so much,” he says. “It’s really hard not to look, and it’s even harder not to laugh out loud.”

Also in the absurd-and-annoying category, Nardini had one participant who came to yoga class in 8-inch stilettos, a skimpy leotard, fishnet stockings, legwarmers and a white fur coat. “She’d come in dressed like an exotic dancer, which I later found out she was.”

Nardini warned her against doing yoga in heels, but the woman insisted on it, saying it was practice for her work. “She poked so many holes in the mat that we had to charge her for it,” says Nardini. “It looked like Swiss cheese when she was done.”

Among other disruptions Nardini has seen in her class, there’s the man who would “breathe like Darth Vader” rather than practicing typical yoga breaths and another guy who plopped himself down in the middle of the room and did headstands and other moves of his own choosing, regardless of what she was teaching.

Dealing with divas, dolts
So how should you deal with these divas and dolts at the gym? If someone is hogging the triceps press, you could politely ask if you could take turns. Or if they’ve left huge weight plates on the leg machine, you could ask the person to please remove them.

But Gregor and other instructors generally recommend speaking to a gym employee about bigger complaints. Taking matters into your own hands can breed animosity among members, sometimes even causing brawls.

They say good fitness professionals stay on top of bad behavior and nip it in the bud when it starts. They talk to the offender, which usually goes a long way. In some cases, they may need to give warnings and even revoke memberships if the behavior doesn’t improve.

One instructor has some unconventional ways of reprimanding naughty exercisers. In what he’s dubbed “flipping the bird,” he throws a stuffed bird at offenders, a sign that they have to go to the corner and do the day’s punishment — such as 30 push-ups or 20 mountain climbers.

“When someone talks too much, slacks off, drops a weight or anything I or the group may deem undesirable, I flip them the bird,” says Bobby Kelly, owner of the Results Only gym in Phoenix.

“The person must immediately perform the bird punishment or I flip them the bird again,” he says. “It makes people laugh and it gets my point across.”

When members are particularly obnoxious, Kelly has another form of punishment: the undesirable T-shirt, which reads “I am the problem child.”

“If they’re really bugging me, they have to wear it for the rest of class,” he says.

Kelly insists it’s all in good humor and “there’s absolutely nothing mean-spirited about it.”

Sometimes he even pokes fun at himself, wearing a T-shirt that reads “EOA”

Source: MSNBC

The federal government released a new set of exercise guidelines a couple of weeks ago, and the basic recommendation was straightforward: Thirty minutes a day, five days a week, at a moderate effort, for basic health; double that and/or make it more intense for more significant health and fitness benefits.

But what if you’re over 65? Should you be doing the same things, or approach exercise a bit differently? What about kids — do their developing bodies need a different sort of workout? What if you’re pregnant? Or hobbled by arthritis? The new guidelines attempt to clarify a host of issues like these.

Exercise recommendations have been issued over the years by different federal agencies as well as by such organizations as the American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine. While the “2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans” from the Department of Health and Human Services are generally consistent with those recommendations, the attempt here was to provide the broadest possible review of the available science, and to create a document that would have the weight of federal policy.

According to William E. Kraus, a professor of medicine at Duke University’s medical school and a member of the advisory panel that assembled the guidelines, that policy dimension gives this document some extra significance: Its conclusions may figure into legislative and other debates about funding for school physical education programs, regulations for the operations of senior citizens programs and other public-policy questions.

“These guidelines provide muscle that was not available” in the discussion of where physical activity fits in an array of issues, Kraus said. “It becomes part of national policy. . . . By doing such a broad review of the science, we feel very confident that HHS is armed with the best data to come up with broad recommendations.”

It also takes a sometimes confusing subject and renders it in pretty simple terms.

The effect of a more intense workout, for example, was given a specific multiplier — namely, 2. So if you are willing to work out at a level where you are breathing so hard that conversation becomes difficult, you can cut the recommended times in half — to 15 minutes a day for general health, or 30 minutes a day for more substantial health and fitness improvements. (Don’t try to start out at this level, by the way; work up to it.)

The concept of “accumulation” was endorsed, at least as a way to get started. If you have been inactive or have trouble finding a free half-hour, you can still benefit from multiple10-minute chunks — a walk or calisthenics before work, a stroll at lunch and a final session at night, for example.

For the general adult population, there are more details and suggestions, and forms for tracking daily activity, at http://www.health.gov/PAguidelines/default.aspx.

The panel — helpfully, I think — also singled out specific populations for which exercise might seem less important or be more likely to go overlooked. The overriding point was that the general recommendation of five-day-a-week aerobic training and at least biweekly strength training holds for nearly everyone, including senior citizens, women through pregnancy and the postpartum period, and people with chronic problems such as osteoarthritis that might make them overly cautious.

But there are a few specific recommendations and caveats:

If people over 65 can’t meet the full recommendations, then even small efforts will, over time, improve strength, stamina and coordination. For those who have been inactive or feel at risk of falling, balance training three times a week is recommended, including exercises such as walking backward, heel-and-toe walking and disciplines like tai chi.

Pregnant women who have been exercising have no reason to stop, though those accustomed to particularly vigorous workouts may have to adjust intensity in consultation with their doctor. Those who have been inactive before becoming pregnant will benefit from moderate aerobic activity, with little or no risk. Some common-sense exceptions include potential-impact sports like horseback riding, skiing, soccer and basketball; also, after the first trimester pregnant women should avoid exercises that involve lying on the back.

People with disabilities from stroke, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy or other conditions “should engage in regular activity according to their abilities and should avoid inactivity.” Consult with a doctor or therapist about how to adapt exercises or activity to the particular condition.

For people with chronic illnesses — the report singles out osteoarthritis, Type 2 diabetes and cancer — regular physical activity can lessen the impact of the disease, improving longevity for some types of cancers, improving mobility and lessening pain for arthritis sufferers, and lowering the risk of heart and other problems associated with Type 2 diabetes.

Kids need to be moving at least an hour a day, in ways appropriate to their age. There needn’t be so much structure, but there does need to be variety, with activities that are aerobic, build muscle, and help develop balance and coordination. Twenty push-ups, in other words, may be less important than climbing a tree or wrestling a sibling; a jog around the neighborhood may be fine for the parents, but let the kids stick to hopscotch or soccer.

SOURCE: WASHINGTON POST