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.
