The Fit Nation

https://ift.tt/e2rIB5s http://www.Amazon.com/books From Rails to Trails: The Making of America’s Active Transportation Network by Peter Harris is the inspiring and fascinating story of how thousands of miles of America’s former railroads became rail-trail corridors, used for active transportation and recreation. The book details the history of the USA’s extensive rail network, which reached it’s peak mileage of just under 255,000 miles in 1916. The railroads were a mighty force in the industrial heyday of the US, but their dealings are not all remembered fondly. There was ample corruption involved in securing routes or getting incentives for the government, and many citizens had parts of their land grabbed for railroad easements. When the railroads had passed their prime and lines began to be abandoned, it seems like an obviously brilliant idea to get the government, whether federal or local, to turn these into linear parks. There were lots of expensive structures like tunnels an...

https://ift.tt/9D1xM8Q https://www.health.com/news/nordic-walking-heart-health-benefits In a recent” sweat science ” column, Alex Hutchinson summarized research on the effectiveness of using poles while walking, running, or hiking. It turns out they either have little benefit in saving energy or actually cause you to use more energy in many circumstances (that is bad for performance, but not necessarily if you are trying to get a better workout). But they show a noticeable benefit while going uphill, especially on steeper slopes: they reduce the amount of force on each footstrike, because some of the propulsion is coming from the poles. This will in turn save wear and tear on your legs. https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/trekking-pole-research-2023/ I use them mainly because they make me feel more secure on downhills. A slight slide with your foot on a gravel surface is less disconcerting when you have a pole planted. But they also can make walking more ...

https://ift.tt/RaQ3oEg http://www.Amazon.com/books This is the name of an interesting recent book by Gabrielle Lyon, MD. about the important links between eating and exercising for muscle health, and overall health. Regular resistance exercise is important to keep our muscles strong and healthy. But we also require enough dietary protein. I agree with the importance of both of these principles. Dr. Lyon’s prescription for protein is on the high side which may be controversial. I’ve talked about protein requirements here and agree that while Recommended Daily Allowances for protein my be adequate to prevent deficiency, they are likely too low to prevent muscle loss with aging (sarcopenia). Protein recommendations have been revised upwards to prevent sarcopenia in older adults as I discussed in that previous post, but even the increased recommendation is for about 0.5 grams of protein per pound of ideal body weight. Dr. Lyon’s recommends twice that, which is closer to the number c...

https://ift.tt/RyPFOmD My discharge instructions from Regional Medical Center after my bike crash the other day include prohibiting me to ride outside (or any other risky activity) for two weeks. This still allows me to walk outside, but for the first few days at least I’ve stuck to stationary cycling indoors for my legs and arm-cycling and strength training for the upper body. I will lose very little fitness doing this for two weeks because I am still doing high intensity exercise such as intervals as well as strength training. I think my legs will also like the break from all the higher-volume training I’ve been doing lately. Tomorrow is supposed to be an easy day so I think I’ll throw in a walk on the Minnie path and other nice scenery nearby. The “Minnie Path” which my wife and I named after a cat that used to come visit us when we’d go for walks here

https://ift.tt/iZPHMqO https://www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/news/mindfulness-practice-may-improve-childrens-mental-health-379813 A recent study highlighted in Neuroscience News showed mindfulness helps even young children with their mental health. Children who received instruction in mindfulness practice showed more emotional resilience, and fared better during the Covid19 crisis. However, it can be expensive for schools to implement this kind of training on a large scale. So a follow-up study looked at having children download and use an app for mindfulness on their phones, and also led to promising outcomes on measures of mental health. This made me look into the variety of free mindfulness apps available. I tried the one from the US veterans administration (it was called Mindfulness Coach from the US Dept. of Veterans Affairs, and I found it on the google play store). Mindfulness has been shown to be beneficial in people with PTSD so it is not surprising the Veteran...

https://ift.tt/LSMXjlV Tuesday my bike group was going for a ride East of Gilroy up in the hills. We would start at Mendoza ranch parking lot, so I carpooled up there with our ride leader, my friend Kris. Halloween display around the corner from Kris’s house We headed up to the start, and took off up Gilroy Hot Springs road, a beautiful mountain ride. Kris and Art at the turnaround on Gilroy Hot Springs Road On the way back, I started to turn onto Canada road off of Gilroy Hot Springs road. That’s the last thing I remember until waking up with someone asking me questions. Apparently I had slipped on some gravel at the junction and went down, hitting my head, and was out for 5 minutes. This was out front of the CalFire station, so my friends didn’t even have to call for help, the firefighters came running out. The CalFire paramedics verified I was coherent, got my wounds stabilized, then got me on the backboard and fitted with a cervical collar. They shifted me to the ambulance...

https://ift.tt/zMFIf0T My Friends Nancy and Joseph came down on Saturday to hike at this end of the County, so I took them up to the Mendoza ranch entrance of Harvey Bear County park. We had a nice hike circumnavigating Mummy Mountain, about 4 miles. Pretty View of Coyote lake from near the summit of Mummy Mountain On Sunday I went for a hard two and a half hour ride on my recumbent. The first hour and a half was a brisk tempo ride keeping my heart rate about 120. Then I did a bunch of intervals of various lengths, followed by a cooldown. I felt great at the end, although a little sore the next day. But an easier recovery ride on Monday made me feel a lot better. Pretty Early Morning sky on Monday. I was trying to capture the partial eclipse of the Sun, but it doesn’t show up because of the glare. Nice Rural view from the Coyote Creek Trail

https://ift.tt/IA26qHY https://www.vienna.at/tu-wien-team-ueberquert-atlantik-in-ruderboot-erste-ergebnisse-der-herz-ueberwachung/7054253 Clara Burns, a 26-year-old graduate student of Biomedical Engineering, crossed the Atlantic in a rowing boat in the spring as part of a team from TU Vienna. Support for the study was provided by Prof. Eugenijus Kaniusas, head of the Biomedical Sensing and Therapy research group at TU Vienna.Various health measures were recorded throughout the 42 day adventure including heart-rate variability and the details are reported here . The team members alternated 3 hours sleeping and 3 hours rowing. One interesting finding was that this schedule over time led to degraded sleep quality. Her body compensated by increasing activity of the parasympathetic nervous system to protect the heart. Also interesting were some tips learned for what might be done better in future ultra-endurance efforts like this: Instead of immediately starting the 3 hour on, 3 hour...

https://ift.tt/xVK2zvH I was riding in a semi-rural neighborhood a couple of miles from home when I ran into this amazing display in Rich Firato’s yard. It turns out it’s been there since 2000 but I never knew about it. Very appropriate for halloween. There are some neat pictures of the construction of this site if you to go https://www.morganscove.com/making-of-the-cove .

https://ift.tt/b6PKAWZ My friends Nancy and Joseph live in Los Altos and I went up there to hike with them. They live not far from a back entrance to the beautiful Rancho San Antonio Open Space preserve, so we walked over there which involves a steep climb up Mora road, rewarded with some nice panoramas at the top. Looking North over the peninsula. San Francisco is about 40 miles north, not a clear enough day to see it. We then hiked down into the preserve and past the buildings and critters at Deer Hollow Farm preserve, then walked back to their house, for a total outing of about two and a half hours and a little over 6 miles. It was nice for me to get back hiking which I haven’t done as much lately since I aggravated my SI joint last year. It held up just fine on this outing so I look forward to doing to more hikes in the future. I’d also like at least once a month to go further afield like this and see some of the other beautiful parks in this area.

https://ift.tt/Jf6eblB I’ve always been a big fan of stair climbing because it’s an activity of daily living that has a good level of intensity. Five flights? I have a two story house. That’s just going upstairs more than 5 times a day. Thanks, Tony: Walking more than five flights of stairs a day can cut risk of heart disease by 20% – Study

https://ift.tt/h3fD2US This is the title of an interesting and fun book by Richard Lang. http://www.Amazon.com/books Various meditation teachers describe our true self or true nature not as the incessantly chattering voice in our heads, but as the awareness that we notice is calmly looking on when our thoughts become quiet. I have been fortunate to experience this awareness spontaneously on a few occasions, especially when in beautiful natural settings. Lately, I can also get glimpses of it while meditating (either sitting or in motion). More than one author has described exercises that help us to get these glimpses, such as in the two books I described here . It can take discipline to practice meditation regularly. Glimpses like these can be motivating, by letting us know what it would be like if our everyday minds were quieter. Richard’s book is also full of this type of exercise, and I found some of them to be helpful and fun. Richard is a follower of the work of Douglas Hard...

https://ift.tt/LIQKHeE Yesterday I led another group ride, pinch-hitting for our usual leader who will be back next week. I did our group ride that rambles through San Martin then heads up the Coyote Creek Trail to Metcalf park, then goes to the Coyote Creek golf course for lunch. But I threw in a little dog-leg so the route took us past a small farm that has alpacas and llamas. Then we took a detour up over Malech road, which has a steep but not too long climb, leading to nice views before it drops back down to rejoin the trail. I took my non-electric upright because I wanted the challenge of keeping up with this group. It turned out only four of the faster members came for the ride, so it made for a brisk (but enjoyable) pace for me. This little guy ran excitedly to the fence making little noises. “Organic lawn mowers” at work. Two of the boys were head-butting, trying to establish alpha-goat-hood, I suspect, but I didn’t get my camera out fast enough to catch them The air...

https://ift.tt/lnRiuo6 This is the title of a book I enjoyed by Mia Syn, a registered dietician with an MS from Columbia University. http://www.Amazon.com/books I have to make full disclosure up front that I am not unbiased. My dentists for many years have been Dr. Regina Gray and Dr. Meng Syn. I like both of them very much, and Mia is their daughter. So I was predisposed to liking this book. And Mia did not disappoint. The book explains her nutrition philosophy as well as clearing up some confusions about nutrition and doing some myth-busting. I thought the nutrition discussion was spot-on. Mia believes whole food plant-based eating is the healthiest, but does not equate this with being a vegan. Small amounts of animal products can be in the diet and are not only healthy but can make it easier to get key ingredients that are challenging on a vegan diet. One way I look at it is that there are several “ blue zone ” populations around the world where the people are healthier and l...