October 2010 news letter

September is over, 12 weeks to Christmas and trick and treat is is nearly on us all. Our Aussie friends have left for warmer climates, so to you guys looking forwards to seeing you when the weather gets warmer. Studio News at Gilmour Pipers John has been cycling well over the summer Christine and her Husband had a great biking holiday and did over a 1000 miles during the holiday Jan has stopped running and has taken to up biking as well. Just a quick note that biking out side burns up 5% more energy than in a gym. Which reminds my of Prof. Goldman cycling around Suffolk during his stays at Shrublands 40 miles a day. I am still swimming in the Deban sunday morning biking to work upto 20 miles a day also a run once a week. Amit Lahav has a new show The over Coat that about to open at the Wolsey from the 28th to 30th October it looks and sounds great. The Web site news A few clients have subscribed the web site for their youngster going to university David is doing well in France. Dance East have had a flying start to the new year after a few weeks off during the summer The Fashion show last night was a great success. Council offices Are doing very well Sandra has had trouble getting to classes due to getting the roads sprayed with orange paint your doing a great job; Rob played back up for his wife on a long distance bike ride across the country. Ipswich and Suffolk The classes are a lot of fun !! I think Robert could run a dinner for the Pilates group on their own, we could ask him to make a fish night that way Jackie could come along. Woodbridge School Has started on Friday afternoons and as per normal its a full group and I think I will have to keep my head on my shoulders and brain engaged, I have set a routine up for you all on the web site please use it Mr Thorley will be able to give you the pass word to get on to the site. Adam Came up with some information you might enjoy, I saw a programme on the television which asked what was better for your to help with mental powers , A bike ride , Sudouko or ballroom dancing it turned out that the bike was the best thing to do before an exam. Adam came up with the reason for this, the Brain takes 2% of the body mass but needs 20% of the oxygen we take in food for thought. This month we are going to look at Carpal Tunnel Syndrome [which I will refer to as CTS ] This is a condition which only affects the arm and hand and is characterised by pain, tingling, numbness and other symptoms which are caused by pressure on the median nerve at the wrist, where it passes through the tunnel formed by the carpels [ wrist bones ] and a broad ligament that lies just under the skin. The median nerve supplies sensation to the thumb, index and middle fingers , part of the ring finger as well as controlling muscles of the thumb. The little finger and part of the third finger are served by a nerve outside the tunnel and is that is why these fingers are unaffected by CTS. Apart from the tingling, pain and numbness other symptoms include shooting pain in the arm, weakness in the hand [ especially first thing in the morning ] an impairment in the ability to grasp and handle objects especially small ones and symptoms that worsen at night or can wake you. The cause of CTS can be varied but all resulting in inflammation and swelling of the joint linings, tendons and muscles. These include. Arthritis. A wrist injury. A job or hobby that involves firm pinching or grasping. Pregnancy. Diabetes. A medial nerve tumour. Thyroid disease. Symptoms tend to come and go to start with and only tend to seek medical attention when they become constant, with severe pain . Unfortunately if it is not caught early enough the thumb can suffer severe muscle wastage. CTS is diagnosed by analysing movements that provoke symptoms if there is nerve pressure within the carpal tunnel. There are 2 main tests, one is called Tinel’s sign which involves tapping the front of the wrist to see if it causes shooting pain into either hand or forearm. The other is called Phalen’s sign, the hand is bent backwards for 3 minutes as far as it will go and if patient gets shooting pains it is deemed a positive result. Early diagnosis and treatment will give a much better result of recovery and prevent permeant damage. Treatments include wearing a wrist splint at night to hold the wrist straight and reduce swelling. Aspirin and anti-inflammatory drugs or injections of cortiscosteroid may also be given to reduce swelling and relieve pressure on the medial nerve. If these measures are unsuccessful surgery may be necessary to prevent permanent damage. This is called carpal tunnel realise and is often carried out under local anaesthetic and requires the patient to limit movement for 6 weeks and wear a wrist support splint before exercises are used to restore finger and thumb motion to prevent stiffness. Results are usually good. To try and avoid CTS adjust daily movements that are repetitive and insure you avoid keeping wrist bent on an unnatural position, ie typing for long periods if you are unused to it . Take regular breaks and alternate tasks for example ironing can help strengthen the wrists due to weight of iron and the movement involved. The cost to subscribe to this site is £10 a month for individuals and groups is £40 , with 3 new routine available each month. To subscribe, please see the subscribe section at www.pilatesmann.com I have been ask if you can pay by cheque, yes send the cheque to me and make it payable to Michael Mann at 10 Fonnereau Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP1 3JP

May 2010 news letter

News from the Studio Last month was a great month, the weather was brilliant. I hope you all enjoyed it, I did. I have increased my bike rides to around 20 miles a day and we have been swimming in the Deben for most of the month. David and Sandra have had a great competition this month and are back on form taking a third position, Adam has been training very well in the pool and John Howard bike rides have been great, 38 miles last weekend.
Steve Britt has been walking the streets for the election to help Daniel Poulter I think Linda will need a big thank you at the end the election. Ben Gummer has been doing a great job, I have not seen or heard of any other candidates other than Terese Coffey in our area, but I did warn Mr Brown about ladies with handbags, he did not take any notice never mind it will all be over for us all very soon.

Fitness

Our overall fitness combines two related concepts:
General fitness--which is a state of health and wellbeing
Physical fitness --which is achieved and maintained through exercise

In the past , the word fitness was not used but people did different forms of movements to improve the bodies strength, flexibility, muscle endurance and general skill training. In many cases this was done as basic drills to help ensure that the skill level of the pupil improved before any other training or tasks were undertaken. This can be seen especially in disciplines such as sword fitting and marshal arts. In both these disciplines it is always important to look at controlling the body before it is placed under stress. This will help prevent injuries and also keep the pupil alive and well. Basic skills can be seen in the training of all sports and until they have been mastered it is difficult for the athlete to carry on to the next stage of his training.
During training athletes develop an aerobic capacity which gradually increases as their skill levels increase until they reach an ability to work at an anaerobic level , this means an increase in the bodies ability to work without oxygen,
Examples are:
400m sprint--in a sprint the athlete must be trained to work anaerobically
Marathon - in this case the athlete must be trained to work aerobically and their endurance must be built-up to a maximum.
Many fire fighters and police officers undergo regular Fitness testing to determine if they are capable of the physically demanding tasks required of the job.

In all sports we should return back to the basic and maintain our skill level the swimmer will go back to many of the skills such as kicking and breathing arms only, the dancer will return to the bar to perform any of the skills taught to them in their early years; And it is this section that Pilates returns the pupil to as a skill level that was first taught to ensure the pupils has the correct range muscle control and tone to perform any task under stress.

In each sport and in life we place the body under stress and it is our ability to deal with the stress that improves our fitness.

Many myths have arisen surrounding exercise, some of which have a basis in reality, and some which are completely false. Myths include:
Spot reduction is a myth that exercising and training a particular body part will preferentially shed the fat on that part. For example, doing sit-ups is not the best way to reduce subcutaneous abdominal obesity. One cannot reduce fat from one area of the body to the exclusion of others. Most of the energy derived from fat gets to the muscle through the bloodstream and reduces stored fat in the entire body, from the last place where fat was deposited. Sit-ups may improve the size and shape of abdominal muscles but will not specifically target belly fat for loss. Such exercise might help reduce overall body fat percentage and shrink the size of fat cells.

One misconception is that muscle tissue will turn into fat tissue once a person stops exercising. This is not literally true — fat tissue and muscle tissue are fundamentally different — but the common expression that "muscle will turn to fat" is truthful in the sense that catabolism of muscle fibres for energy can result in excess glucose being stored as fat.[38] Moreover, the composition of a body part can change toward less muscle and more fat, so that a cross-section of the upper-arm for example, will have a greater area corresponding to fat and a smaller area corresponding to muscle. This is not muscle "turning into fat" however — it is simply a combination of muscle atrophy and increased fat storage in different tissues of the same body part. The muscle is being replaced by fat. Another element of increased fatty deposits is that of diet, as most trainees will not significantly reduce their diet in order to compensate for the lack of exercise / activity.

March news letter

Studio news. David and Sandra are still coming out on top in competition. Penny Kay and Elizabeth Nicols are getting ready for a concert at Aldeburgh church on 13th March. Joe Freezer is getting ready for the County Championships next Saturday good luck Joe. All my skiers have returned all safe and sound I am pleased to say. I have been asked to run a First Aid Course for some clients if any one would like to join please call me. I hope to join the Suffolk sunrise 100 on the 09.05.10 great training day info on www.action.org.uk/suffolk for action Medical Reseach for children. I am sorry to say that I have had to put the prices up this year but I have been paying for car parking across the road for the last year. So I thought the following might be the best way of increasing prices. Which will start from the 1st April 2001 2 or more blocks of ten session paid together will remain @ £170 per ten sessions £175 for a single block 10 £18 per session Pain The Origin of the word comes from Middle English and was in use between 11th century and about 1470.( in the sense- suffering inflicted as punishment for an offence] ): from Old French peine and also from Latin poena ‘ penalty’ and later became ‘ pain ‘. Referred pain. Problems in the spinal joints can cause referred pain, due to the tiny nerves which emerge between the joints being interferd with. The actual interference may be very slight, this could be a change to the blood supply to the nerves may impair their function.This may be the result of a minor strain to one of the smaller ligaments that stabilize the vertebra; Or it may be a major impedance to the function of the nerves, caused by damage to the disk which might cause pressure against the nerves as they spread out from the spinal cord. When the nerves are interfered with, you will feel the effect throughout the pathway which would be under the normally influence of those nerves. The nerves from the lumber spine supply sensation and control muscles sending messages to your legs, so referred pain through lower back problems affects your legs. If the damage is on one side, you will feel the effects in one leg. If the problem is central, or wide spread, both legs will be effected.The effects can vary from numbness, tingling, or an awareness of strange feelings in the leg, to pain down the leg.The symptoms may vary from intermitted or constant. They may affect one part of your leg, for instance the back of the thigh from the base of the knee, or they may seem to be more widespread, down the whole leg into the foot. The pain may altered sensation depends on the exact level of the spine effected, as the nerves at each level have their own specific pathway. The amount of pain or alteration in sensation depends on the nature of the damage to the spinal joint, and the amount of the impingement or impairment over the nerves near the joint. You may feel referred pain in your legs without necessarily being aware of hurting the back. Usually this type of referred problem only effects the back of the legs , but it may travel down the whole of the leg. In your back, you may feel only slight stiffness, or even no symptomsat all. Often , however, you know that you have had a back strain, just before the time you start noticing your leg pain. Because the leg pain seems to be localized, you may assume that you have strained a muscle somehow; to complicate matters, the refered symptoms do sometimes coincide with a localized muscle strain in the painful region of the leg. The signs that you have a referred, rather than a localized, problem are , firstly, that your leg pain is intermittent, and seems to follow an arbitrary pattern, rather than relating to a specific movement; it often feels worst when you are sitting down, especially if you slouch in a chair; bending your head forward may bring on the pain; if you feel gently over the painful region of the leg, and then compare the sensation with the other leg, you may find that your painful leg is not as sensitive to touch as the other, and you will probably will not be able to find any localized tender spot over the area which you think is injured. Keep a record of symtoms, this will help those who threat you decide whether you have referred pain from the back problem, or localized pain muscle injury, or even a combination of both. Meanwhile, to help yourself you should not work out if the pain become worse according to your activities and be especially aware of the importance of the backs posture to avoid aggravating the pain. You should not try to do any sport which might place stresses on the back while you have referred pain to your legs. It is also wise to avoid full stretching movements in the back , unless you have been advised to do particular movement. When teaching an exercise to relieve pain I always start slowly with basic movements such as pelvic tilts, if pain occures during the exercise I stop the exercise immediatley. If I feel that the injury is compromised I will stop and start again later or work from a different area. I can not put right what is wrong, that is up to others, my job is to reteach that which has been misused and no more. I always pass something that is not functioning to some other party to help. I have written about the lower back and leg pain but the same go’s with any other section of the body. Reproduced by kind permission of Andrew Gilmour , Gilmour Piper Oesteopathic Practice Ipswich Springtime Activity --------------------------------------------------------------------------- As springtime approaches many of us launch headlong into more vigorous activity than we have been used to over the cold, dark, short winter days. And we can’t wait!!! Gardening, golf, decorating, spring-claening and other sporting activitiy commonly bring patients to the consulting room. The following tips may keep you out of our hands a little longer! * Make the transition to a more active style of life gradually. It is often sudden changes of activity that willl awaken dormant joint problems or strained mouscles which are unused to it. * Little and often is the message.Long periods of unaccustomed activity are sure to find you out. Try to plan the activities ahead so they are mixed and varied rather than heavy and prolonged. * Watch out for periods of time when the weather improves over several days at a time. Bright longer days, particularly when the clocks change , make us feel better and our enthusiasm gets us carried away. * If you are a gardener try and break the tasks up or have 2-3 different tasks running at the same time. * When you have been active don’t come in and slump into a soft chair.Poor sitting positure after periods of activity can lead you into trouble. *Try not to let your own time agenda dictate the activity. For example, if you have been in the office all week and only have 3 hours to do the garden on a Saturday, don’t rush into it all at once--try to vary the tasks. * If you suffer a sudden onset of spinal pain, ice packs can be useful to reduce inflammation.A cloth covering a pack, or bag of frozen peas , over the affected area for 15mins once an hour can help reduce the inflammation. If you have a favorurite non steroidal anti-inflammatory drug you can use , such as ibruprofen, then this can help. If you suffer any sort of gastric irritation or respiratory problem from it then you should stop. * If your activity has caused you pain then it is most helpful to alternate between short periods of ‘pottering about on your feet’ and short periods of rest probably lying down. Periods of sitting, once you have hurt your back, can make the situation worse. Finally, if you are unsure what to do with your problem, whether to leave it or seek help, you can always give use a ring. We are quite happy to give you advice over the phone and , if you are in need of an urgent appointment, then please make this clear when you speak to the Reception. Lets hope the spring sun shines and equipped with this information you will survive it well!!