That's Fit

In my expert opinion, yes! Disney World is the healthiest place on earth. I just returned from a five-night, six-day vacation with my husband and two children and was blown away by the amount of physical activity both offered and required of ourselves in order to indulge in the full Disney experience.

We pushed our double-stroller miles through two theme parks, climbed thousands of stairs and jumped an equal amount of waves at two water-parks, danced our tushies off to live bands at various Disney resorts, and played game after game with our children as we giggled, oohed and ahhed at all the Disney magic. As a fitness trainer, one of my biggest obstacles is convincing my clients not to trash their fitness efforts when they head out on vacation. Disney offers the perfect opportunity to not only maintain one's fitness level, but improve it.

The physical adventures are endless, and Disney World has made a deliberate effort to increase the availability of legitimately nutritious, low fat, and lower sugar foods. Fruit stands have popped up all over the theme parks, and children's dining has switched from burgers and fries to grilled chicken with carrots and grapes offered as side dishes. Soda has been dumped for low fat milk! I can't get food that "clean" in my own neighborhood, unless I cook it myself! Of course, the old junkie favorites like popcorn, fries, and ice cream are still available, but if you do care about your health and want to maintain it on vacation ... Disney makes it easy.

Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answer. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose two per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Hi Fitz, I am a person with T-12 incomplete Paraplegia. I'm interested in learning about some decent ab workouts (including obliques) that I could do at the gym or at home. Just to provide you with a little more information, my T-12 vertebrae are connected by rods. I'd really appreciate some guidance. Thanks! Jon

A. Hello Jon, What a wonderful question! I really feel there's a gaping hole in the fitness industry which needs to address fitness training for people dealing with injuries and/or disabilities. You are the perfect example of that. A guy who's had a spinal injury, but still strives for better fitness beyond rehab facilities. I love it. I also love the spinal cord, and appreciate the sensitivity of it. Long ago, while I was earning my Master's Degree in Exercise and Sports Sciences at the University of Florida, I took a magnificent course on the spine from a brilliant woman, Dr. Christine Stopka, Professor of Adapted Physical Activity & Medical Terminology. She taught me to respect the spine first, and then went on from there. A major aspect of the course focused on educating her students about the things people with disabilities could do. She spent far more time on the could dos than the can't dos. That's one of the most important things I took away with me. I thought your question deserved the most expert advice, so I passed it on to her.

Here at That's Fit, we're forever grateful for the service, courage and sacrifice made by the heroic men and women who serve as military, law enforcement officers, and firefighters. We're so grateful, that we'd like to dedicate some features to both showing our heroes off, and learning a little bit in the process as well. If you serve your country courageously, are a veteran or know someone who does, please return this form completed to Fitz along with a photo and we'll share your story with the world.

Name: Erik J. Fritz

Age: 19

Occupation: Bulk Fuel Specialist at the Marine Corps and Navy Reserves Unit

If you're in the military...where are you? Green Bay, WI,

How often do you exercise? Almost every day

What type of exercise do you do? Running outside and on the treadmill, lifting weights, and a lot of push-ups.

What gets you to workout, even when you're feeling lazy? Knowing that I have to stay in good shape to pass my PT.

Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answer. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose two per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Hi Fitz, My question for you is: how can I lose weight when I'm no longer able to exercise due to a life time injury. I'm even stuck relying on the government for my income and food. Lisa

A. Hey Lisa. As if staying in shape isn't hard enough! Dealing with a disability truly makes weight management a challenge. It's not an impossible accomplishment though. It's just going to take a decent amount of education about nutrition for you, and an even greater amount of discipline.

Boys need gym class. But girls need it more, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

It's clear following a survey of 5,000 students ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade that girls who got 70 to 300 minutes of physical education per week scored higher on standardized tests. Funny because gym classes are being increasingly scaled back to make room for academics and testing when if the exercise was instead more frequent, girls would do even better. They'd concentrate better too. And participate more in class. Not so true for the boys, though.

The CDC study found no correlation between gym class and test scores for boys, maybe because they play more actively and physically during recess and outside school.

Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answer. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose two per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Hi Fitz, I'm 56, run three to four miles, five or so days a week. Lately, as I'm walking to cool down, the back part of my right knee tightens up and bending it becomes very painful as I do post-run stretching. No pain when running. Anyone familiar with this condition? Dave

A Hey Dave. I get soooo many questions about knees. In fact, I had knee surgery long ago, so some people think I'm some sort of knee expert. I'm not. In fact, I don't think anyone who isn't a physician or physical therapist and hasn't seen you in person should give you advice on your condition. Not helpful, right? Wrong.

On Monday, I graduated from my rehab stint. Physical therapy rehab, that is. There was no big ceremony or anything. Just me and my therapist reviewing my progress over the past five weeks. It was pretty enlightening, what we talked about, and I left the clinic feeling both successful and motivated.

When I first walked through my rehab clinic doors, I wasn't sure anything could be done to fix the tightness, the limited range of motion, the sometimes pain I felt in the area of my left arm. It had been three long years since I'd had surgery to remove a breast cancer tumor, after all, and almost that long since radiation zapped the whole cancerous area. Both are to blame for what I was experiencing and the way I considered it, if my problems weren't solved long ago, there was little that could be done now.

I was wrong.

My therapist took tons of measurements when we first started working together. I moved, bent, stretched, pushed, and pulled so she could record numbers of all sorts. Then we spent weeks on our tasks. She massaged and manipulated and broke down scar tissue, stiffness, knots. Armed with weekly exercises, I stretched and strengthened by body at home. Together, we achieved victory -- my improved numbers prove it. I'm responsible for 50 percent of the success, my therapist tells me. She takes credit for the other 50 percent.

Before I left my final appointment, my expert shared a few parting words. Here they are.

• My posture is better. She could tell the moment I walked in the door. Must be the exercise in standing tall she'd given me during one visit and my new awareness of the poor posture I'd been carrying with me all these years.

• I should be sleeping on my back, not on my side. Back sleepers enjoy better alignment and less rounding of the shoulders -- one of my posture problems. My assignment from this moment on is to sleep on my back with one relatively flat pillow under my head. I should make sure my pillow fills the gap between my neck and my bed. I should enjoy the benefits of this technique immensely, says my therapist.

• Keep at it, says this same gal who streamlined all my at-home exercises and told me precisely what I need to do to hang on to the results the two of us have achieved.

I turns out I'm perfect at something. I'm perfect at having poor posture. Not only do my shoulders round forward -- likely the result of typing on the computer all the time -- but my back sways pretty good, my stomach pushes out, and I look a few inches shorter than I really am. I'm a pro at this stuff and am making no great progress at actually standing up as erect as I can. Old habits die hard.

The physical therapist who is treating my radiation-damaged muscles is the one who noticed my tendencies and she keeps sending me home with tips and techniques for straightening up. I'm trying -- not as often as I should, I will admit -- and I hope one day to actually measure at the 5 foot, 7 inches I report as my height. All I need to do is practice this posture exercise, a new one she gave me today -- it involves a blue band thrown over a closed door and me pulling it towards my body with locked elbows and hands turned outward -- and everything else she's mentioned over the course of our last four sessions together.

One more therapy session remains. Then I'll be on my own, armed with the knowledge to become perfect at something new: Standing tall.

Ahhhh, spring has finally sprung. In my part of the world, that means 45 to 55 degree temps will be the norm for at least the next few weeks or two, steadily climbing into even higher digits thereafter. This makes an outdoor workout a much more viable option than it was this time last month. That's good news for your health; both in terms of your physical and mental wellness.

A University of Buffalo study revealed that men with the highest level of fitness are three times less likely to die of cancer than men who are inactive. Researchers posit that regular exercise has a disarming effect on free radicals, which can damage DNA and potentially cause cancer.

And ...

British researchers discovered that people who exercise outdoors reported an 82 percent reduction in their depression, whereas people who exercised indoors reported only a 45 percent reduction after their workouts.

The combined results of these studies (not to mention the voluminous amount of additional research that shows a definitive link between exercise and good physical and mental health), create a very clear road map to health and wellness. So, it's time to get outside and start following it!!

A while back, the physician that has been caring for my lower back injury suggested I go do Pilate's to help strengthen and stretch the muscles that are stuck in a chronic spasm. Now, I've been teaching fitness for 18 years and have been exposed to almost every type of training and equipment under the sun. I'm embedded in it. Strangely though, Pilate's and Yoga are things that have never interested me. I understand the benefit to doing those things, and have recommended them to others. I've just never wanted to pursue them myself. I'm a fighter; literally. If you don't believe me click here. I like to move fast, go hard, sweat, grunt, and pant like a lunatic. I like to GO, GO, GO! The one time I took yoga, I wanted to slit my wrists. The few times I used the Pilate's Reformer, I thought it was interesting....but not anything I'd want to pursue.

So last week I show up at the Gainesville Health and Fitness Center, and the advanced Pilate's mat class was just about to start. Feeling guilty for not following up on my doctor's advice from months ago, I half-heartedly asked the perky front desk chic if there was any room in the class. Yep. There was. And she handed me a little butterfly thing with a number on it to hold my place.

Nearly all public elementary schools schedule physical education for their students, says the newsletter sent home from school with my first-grader the other day. Yet only 17 to 22 percent -- depending on grade level -- provide physical education on a daily basis. That's how it works at my kid's school. Every Thursday, Joey reports for PE class. It lasts for 40 minutes, I think. Forty minutes for the whole week. He spends 29 hours per week at school.

This is interesting stuff, this lack of fitness in the course of an average day, because studies show that children whose exercise needs are met are more able to learn and achieve. Exercise can lead not only to healthy bodies but improved test scores -- especially in math -- and better attendance, and more positive attitudes about school in general.

Children who send less time focusing on other subjects in order to commit more to physical education pursuits actually do equally well or better in academic classes. So it wouldn't be so bad if Joey's school worked in some more exercise at the expense of classroom time. Will his school, which sent home this enlightening newsletter, make any changes? I'm not sure. But it sure would be nice.

FitSpirit explores the mind-body connection and the intangible benefits we gain from our efforts to stay physically fit.

If your mental health isn't in tip-top shape, chances are your physical health will eventually lag behind. Keeping your mind fit, then, is a sure way to keep on top of your physical self. Try these five ideas for getting a handle on your mental toughness.

• Take control of the stress in your life. It may boost your "good" cholesterol (HDL), say presenters at the annual American Psychological Association meeting.
  
  

• Determine whether or not your home is harboring dampness and mold. These conditions are linked to an increased risk of depression.
  
  

• Fix the little stressors in your life, like leaky faucets. According to Dr. Micheal Roizen, M.D., these minor annoyances can age us by about eight years.
  
  

• One in seven women suffers from depression before, during, and after pregnancy. Talk to your doctor if your baby blues last for two weeks or longer.
  
  

• Find healthy outlets for channelling your anger. Suppressing it could make you four times more likely to die prematurely.

Physical activity is good for all of us. It's especially important for those managing diabetes. Want to know why?

Exercise lowers blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and blood fat levels; steps up blood glucose control; improves muscle tone; increases energy level; and enhances sleep. Exercise also helps with weight management and can keep weight off once you've lost it.

These are just a few of the health benefits exercise offers those who populate the diabetic community -- and those who don't. Yep, physical activity is good for us all.

I happen to be concerned with both my fitness and my fat as I strive for optimal health. But one is more important than the other, it seems.

When determining who will live longer, cardiovascular fitness is a better indicator than body fat, researchers say. A study of people over 60 found that those who died during a 12-year period of time had lower fitness levels. For those with similar body fat, the subjects who had better cardio ratings were more likely to survive. Overall, death rates for those with tip-top fitness were less than half of the rates of the unfit.

If nothing else, this study makes clear that it may be possible to reduce all-cause death rates among older adults, including those who are obese, by promoting regular physical activity. It can be as simple as brisk walking for 30 minutes or more on most days of the week. Fat or no fat, exercise is key.

School cafeterias are getting healthier and healthier. They may not be perfect just yet, but progress is certainly apparent.

According to a blurb in the November 5, 2007 issue of TIME magazine, about 19 percent of schools noted in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report offered French fries in 2006, compared with 40 percent in 2000. Vegetable sales increased from 51 percent in 2000 to 71 percent in 2006. And junk food in vending machines was prohibited by four percent of school districts in 2000. In 2006, 30 percent nixed the junk.

Fitness pursuits are also on the rise. The percentage of districts requiring elementary schools to teach physical eduction increased from 83 percent in 2000 to 93 percent in 2006. And fewer schools are allowed to punish kids with push-ups, which associates exercise with pain. How about recess? There's improvement here too. In 2000, 46 percent of elementary schools required recess, compared with 57 percent in 2006. Sadly, though, the percentage offering intramural sports has not changed since 2000.

A lot has happened in six years. But is it enough?