When you’re feeling thirsty, which beverage do you typically go for in the kitchen? Juice, soda, a sports drink? Hopefully you decide to grab some water every now and then. It’s well known that water is the healthiest option for beverages, but most people still choose to go for the sugary drinks or higher calorie drinks because of the flavor. There are so many benefits of drinking water, but I will break them down to only five main benefits. Drinking the appropriate amount of water for your body helps with maintaining the proper balance of body fluids, maintaining efficient blood flow, maintaining normal bowel function, protecting our joints, and improving kidney function.
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Reading and understanding the nutrition labels of food is key to understanding the food you are eating! Trying to decipher the numbers on the nutrition label can be challenging here is where we recommend starting! Here is our ATP cheat sheet for understanding nutrition labels.
Start with the Serving Size
Cheat words and their meanings to look for on the labels!
Have you ever heard somebody talking about range of motion? Maybe you have, but what exactly is it? Range of motion (ROM) is the full movement potential of a joint, usually its range of flexion and extension. It is measured in degree of a circle and can be classified as active, passive, or a combination of both. To measure an individuals’ ROM, there are several devices that can be used. A Goniometer and an Inclinometer have a stationary arm, a protractor, fulcrum, and a movement arm to help measure the angle from the axis of the joint. For ROM in other parts of the body, it can be appropriate to use a tape measure. ![]() If not kept, your ROM could potentially become limited which can cause problems down the road. Limited range of motion occurs when a joint has a decrease in its ability to move. This may happen due to a problem within the joint, swelling of the tissue surrounding the joint, stiffness of the muscles, or pain. To keep your ROM, it is important to perform range of motion exercises to improve/maintain the movements of your joints. The motion of moving your joints is determined by the shape of bone surfaces within the joint, the joint capsule, ligaments, tendons, and muscles that are acting on the joint. The 3 types of ROM exercises include: Passive Active Active assistive What is passive ROM? Passive range of motion is the movement that is applied to a joint by another individual or a passive motion machine. When this range of motion is used, the joint of the individual completing the exercise is relaxed while another force moves the body part through the range. Ex: Lying hamstring stretch with help of another individual What is active ROM? Active range of motion is when the movement of a joint is applied by the individual who is performing the exercise themselves. There is no outside force here to help. Ex: Head tilts, forward and backward while sitting in chair What about active assisted ROM? This occurs when a joint gets only some help or assistance from an outside force. This ROM can result from the majority of motion that is applied by another individual or by the person who is exercising. Ex: Shoulder internal rotation with towel References: Range of Motion. Physiopedia. https://www.physio-pedia.com/Range_of_Motion. Accessed March 8, 2021. Most Americans can identify the benefits of being physically active but a far fewer people can identify the negative risks associated with being sedentary. These are extremely important, but as most of us have been cooped up in the house over the past year, we have been more sedentary than ever. Being sedentary is defined as lying or sitting and completing very minimal strenuous physical activity, in which heart rate is close to true resting measures, and the individual is relaxing their muscles. Sedentary behaviors include the typical behaviors individuals think about when being sedentary such as watching television, reading, or using a computer. Individuals often forget to include other sedentary behaviors such as their occupation if they do a lot of sitting, their commute to work, and even going out to dinner and sitting for a couple hours. As you add all of this total time up throughout the day, the average adult spends more time being sedentary then they will self report.
According to the World Health Organization, 65-75% of adults over the age of 55 do not complete an appropriate amount of physical activity throughout the day. To go along with this scary stat, over 60% of children and adolescents live a sedentary life. The number of adolescents and children being sedentary has risen in the previous 20 years and is projected to continue to increase over the next few decades. One is considered to live a “sedentary life” if they are not completing low to moderate physical activity for over 2 hours per day during their average day. This time can be added up throughout the day and the physical activity can be by design or achieved through activities of daily living. Being sedentary is associated with a vast number of health conditions, especially if an individual already has an existing health condition. To start, Coronary Artery Disease, Congestive Heart Disease, and certain types of cancers are primary health conditions that have been directly related to living a sedentary lifestyle. To go along with this, if an individual already has a health condition that limits their functional abilities, living a sedentary lifestyle have a much greater risk of developing diabetes, becoming oibese, and having some vascular concerns. As levels of physical activity increases, the risk of developing one of these primary or associated health conditions decreases, especially when paired with proper nutrition. Unfortunately, Americans are now more sedentary than ever before. As the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our world, it has also been attributed to decreasing physical activity levels, resulting in even heightened sedentary behaviors. Recent research has stated that level of exercise has decreased but only slightly since the start of the pandemic. Unfortunately, the number of individuals living a sedentary lifestyle has increased by what some researchers believe to be an additional 10% to the already high numbers of 65%75%. These stats are extremely eye opening, especially with how many individuals were sedentary before the pandemic. Trekking Poles |
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