Alternative Ways to Get Your Excercise

working-out-nightmareSo we have been receiving a lot of questions in regards to alternative types of exercise and I thought it would be a great idea to tackle that question.

When people think of “exercise” most people think of running on a treadmill, or using a stationary bike, or maybe going to the local gym and hopping on one of those random machines and working out random body parts. Lol.

Yes, those are forms of exercise, but they are BORING. You wonder why so many people quit the gym after just a few trips.

I personally do not have a gym membership and never will have one. You might wonder how I’m in such good shape though. Well like most Americans I hate the “gym scene” and refuse to go. I much rather be getting my exercise playing a few hours of basketball, hiking outside, playing racquetball (my favorite), or even out fishing! And yes, fishing and hunting is exercise. You might disagree with me if you have never done one of the two.

The great thing about Alaska is it offers ample opportunities to explore the outdoors, find places to fish, or fields to hunt local game.

According the great internet, the average person burns 340 calories per hour while fishing in a stream or from get-outside-and-exercisethe shore. If you fish for 3-4 hours, well you can do the math! You are not only having a blast but you’re getting your work out in as well!

Hunting big game like elk or deer can also burn about 300 calories per hour, while fishing from a boat still burns about 150 calories per hour.

All in all, you need to try alternative sources of exercise and expand your boundaries as a human being. Get out there, get dirty, and have fun.

If you’ve decided to take me up on my advice and need someone to take you fishing, use our local friend, Jason Lesmeister. He is arguably one of the best Cooper Landing Fishing Guides if not the best. His company, Jason’s Guide Service will take you all over the Kenai River and catch rainbow trout and salmon all day. If you’re not keen to being on the water, he can still direct you to great shore fishing.

Moral of the story (it’s actually a post. lol), is to get outdoors every once in a while. Even when the winter hits here in Alaska there are opportunities to get outside. Ice fishing, bobsledding, hiking, ice skating, or mushing. Just go do it!

How Yoga Can Be Good For Your Health

Yoga is becoming more popular with each passing year. Many people have decided to make yoga a yogapart of their everyday life.

Why is yoga so popular? For one, it has a number of health benefits. Many people feel much better after they start practicing yoga and focus on their biomechanics.

Below, you’ll find a few of the many ways yoga can benefit your health.

1. It Can Improve Posture

Do you have a hard time standing up straight? If so, you should definitely try yoga. Many doctors have said that it is one of the best ways to improve your posture.

Poor posture can definitely have a negative impact on your health. Start taking up yoga so that you can get better posture right away. Before long, you’ll be standing tall without even thinking about it.

2. It Can Relieve Chronic Pain

Do you struggle with aching muscles or chronic back pain? If so, you probably don’t want to take any kind of pain killer on a daily basis. Instead, you’ll want to look for things that can provide you with some sort of long-term relief.back pain

Experts have found that yoga can be very helpful to people who are struggling with chronic pain. It can help to relax the muscles and improve circulation. After a few yoga sessions, your pain may not be nearly as severe as it was in the past. Give it a try and see if it can help you.

3. It Can Help You Lose Weight

Have you been trying to slim down? Are you having a hard time sticking to a diet or heading to the gym?

Yoga can be an excellent way to give your body the workout that it needs. Even though yoga is very relaxing, it can really help you to burn some calories. In addition, it can boost your metabolism so that it’s easier for you to burn the calories that you do take in.

You should see your waistline start to shrink after just a few weeks of yoga. In time, you should become even slimmer.


4. It Can Fight Off Stress and Anxiety

Stress can have a real impact on your health. People who are frazzled have a higher chance of developing heart disease or other serious health conditions.

If you’re feeling stressed all the time, and don’t know how to manage those feelings, you should start up yoga. You’ll feel more relaxed as soon as you set up your yoga mat.

Yoga isn’t just exercise; it is also a form of meditation. It encourages people to focus on deep breathing and purge negative thoughts from their mind. You will notice a change in your mood the moment you step out of the yoga studio. If you’re wanting to know how to get rid of shy bladder then here’s your solution. Do Yoga! (just ask one of the guy’s here in the office)

As you can see, taking up yoga can be extremely beneficial to your health. If you’re struggling with pain, stress, or some other kind of health issue, you should definitely give yoga a try. It can make a big difference in your life.

Health Benefits of Massage – Go Local

Massage is a term used to describe the manipulation of the soft tissues of the body by means of manual therapy. This form of therapy has been in existence since long before today’s human beings could rightly be called human beings and has since been developed into a highly effective form of alleviating many of the maladies that affect us as modern humans in a high tech world.

Touching and being touched is a huge part of being alive. Consider how an injured cat will nurse an injured limb by rubbing and licking at them. This is similar to the way an athlete will rub at a strained and painful muscle, mothers naturally caress their babies to calm and soothe them if they are sick and upset and a good buddy will instinctively touch their pal on the shoulder to express reassurance.

Studies have proved regular healthy human contact is essential for life and mental sanity. If removed from this nourishment many conditions of the health and psyche can develop in the natural human. For instance, mothers who hold their babies often will experience the effects of postpartum depression far less severely.

The Magic of Massage

The gentle soothing manipulations of soft body tissues can have very extensive effects throughout the body. A skilled masseur can apply different techniques and therapies to revitalize muscles of the surface of the system or even deeper tissues by stroking, pressing and kneading at the soft tissue.

Therapeutic Benefits

Besides being an important source of human nourishment, massage can proffer many other therapeutic benefits to counterbalance the strains, sprains and demands of our modern lives. Regular massage helps your performance and your general disposition improve greatly.

Following are some important benefits of regular massage therapy.

-Improved circulation by inducing the flow of blood throughout the body , meaning more oxygen to the brain, limbs and vital organs.

-Enhanced immunity by increasing the cytotoxic levels of the body, meaning better defense against disease and infection.

-Reduced blood pressure through improved circulation, for a better cardiovascular health and more.

-Alleviate painful tight muscles by loosening tight “muscle-knots” range of motion is significantly increased, for those confined to sit at a desk for hours on end developing pain in the lumbar and neck or any other part of the body.

-Improves mental function and alertness with more oxygen to the brain, for those about to take a major exam or about to be interviewed for an important position.

We highly recommend finding a local massage therapist near you and visiting them at least once a month. The health benefits will be clearly evident after 2 or 3 visits. You can find good massage therapists with the national chains like, Massage Luxe, but the real gold is when you can find a local massage therapist and build a relationship with them. Our local massage therapist of choice, located in Anchorage, AK, is Healing Therapeutics – Health and Wellness Clinic. They have been serving the Anchorage, AK area for many years now, improving people’s lives along the way. The staff here at BioMech World has been seeing, Mark Stewart at Healing Therapeutics monthly for years now and we can say first hand he takes a lot into consideration and offers quite a bit more than just a “massage”.

Bottom line is, find a local massage therapist and start your new life today!

Exercise Can Positively Effect All Parts Of Your Body

Exercise and biomechanics always go hand in hand. They can be highly beneficial and there are many reasons for you to get up off the couch or chair and get moving. Something as simple as walking can do more for your long-term health than medication and doctors combined. Exercise can help prevent the onset of many life-threatening conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, varicose veins, and even cancer. Not only will you start to look better when you exercise, you will begin to feel better as well.

Here’s a tip from a popular movie. LOL. In all seriousness though, it’s true.

When you exercise, one of the key benefits is that it helps to normalize the insulin, glucose, and leptin levels in your body. This is what helps protect your body from chronic disease. It also helps to improve your mood and improve your sleep.

Most people will start to exercise because they want to lose a few pounds. This is achievable, and exercising 3 to 4 times a week consistently can help you to achieve the weight loss you desire. There are many more benefits for your body however, then just weight loss alone.

Exercise can help with the prevention of osteoporosis. We all know that a healthy intake of calcium can help build strong bones. However, when you exercise you can be placing as much as 5 to 6 times more body weight on your bones and joints. As adults, our bone mass begins to slowly decline as we age. By using weight-bearing exercises such as walking, weightlifting, or running you can help maintain a healthy bone mass.

When you exercise, your lungs call for more oxygen to your body. Your breathing rate increases and the muscles surrounding your lungs move faster. By pushing your oxygen use to higher capacities your whole body becomes fitter.

Of course, one of the organs that benefits the most is your heart. With physical activity your heart rate will increase and supply more oxygenated blood to your muscles allowing them to work efficiently. When your heart works more efficiently you decrease your blood pressure and increase your body’s overall ability to use oxygen. This in turn helps to be a great preventative of stroke and heart disease.

Not many talk about the benefits of exercise for your brain. With the increase of blood flow when you are physically active your brain functions better. After a workout you should feel more alert and focused. If done on a regular schedule, it will actually help to promote new brain cell growth. This also helps to improve your mood and can be very effective in preventing depression.

For older adults exercise is a great way to help manage arthritis. A regular routine can help build muscle strength and improve one’s ability to perform daily tasks while creating a sense of well-being. It can help to improve the joint function and joint structure in the body.

Sufficient exercise is even more important in higher altitudes and colder climates for a number of reasons. Vascularity and blood flow can decrease in these areas leading to vascular problems like spider veins, varicose veins, and deep vein thrombosis (DVT). One of our journalists, Tomas Cano, lives in Anchorage, AK and knows a little too much about this topic. He suffers with these vascular problems quite often but has found healing and treatment at the Alaska Center for Venous and Lymphatic Medicine (AKCVLM). Dr. Armen Roupenian and his staff are able to treat all types of vascular problems including DVT, spider and varicose veins, leg edema, and other vein problems.

All in all, exercise is a great way to positively effect all aspects of your health and body. To truly optimize your health you want to implement a well rounded fitness program that includes a large variety of different exercises to continually challenge your body. Choose a level that works for you, and never give up because the strength and health benefits are well worth it.

Biomechanics of Bodybuilding

A lot of people just “lift weights” or go “workout”, but without understanding the biomechanics of how the human body functions it can be difficult to pack on muscle the right way.

For instance, I came across some helpful videos on Youtube this morning that really sum it up a lot easier than I can do by just writing about it. Take a few minutes and watch these helpful videos. And like always, please leave us some feed back if possible.

The Importance of Biomechanics in Everyday Life

It’s not uncommon to think about robots and computers when you hear the term ‘biomechanics’. However, gait_3this is a word that describes a whole area of science – biomechanics studies the structure and the function of all the biological systems that surround us – the living organism like the cells, the animals, the plants, the organs of the body, the animals and the humans.

It is a very important part of the life, and even if you don’t see it happening, you can see its results. The biomechanics has helped many people, in more ways than you can imagine. It is more than a science, but it’s a goal that was set by different people in different Skeltonareas to help discover new improvements for our lives or to develop new possibilities to help others.

It Helps You Drive Safer

You have certainly seen on TV what happens when a car accident takes place – people are injured or even die due to the accident. Sometimes, some of those people who were involved in a car accident are left with a permanent disability that prevents them from living normally.

The Auto Safety is just a part of applied biomechanics that studies what happens in an accident. This area of study tries to help discover new ways to offer protection for the passengers of a car in case of a crash. This is very important, as there are many areas to be covered in the automobile safety research.

It Helps the Soldiers and the Military

Lindsay-Davidson-Podiatry-Biomechanics-There are many military vehicles that are not yet entirely safe for the soldiers and the drivers that use them. The military area of the biomechanics refers to being able to help soldiers survive and offer performance in the vehicles that they use. This is extremely needed because those vehicles have a tremendous weight and in case of an impact, the people using them can still suffer accidents even with the required armor and helmet. Another area that is being covered is for the Navy, studying multiple possibilities to prevent spinal injuries for the pilots of the airplanes who have aircraft seat ejections.

It Helps Sportsmen

body-in-motion

This is a wide area and it benefits people from all over the world. This studies what happens when a certain part of the body is injured as a result of practicing a sport. Doctors and specialists need to be able to understand what happens when, for example, someone sprains the ankle or the ligaments from a knee are injured. This area covers everything, from toes, ankles, knee and torso, head and neck.

3D Human Motion

This is another area that is studied by biomechanics. With its help, specialists can study the human musculoskeletal system and how it moves. There are used Picture-3-299x300different markers attached to someone’s body and its movements are captured so that specialists can analyze it. The trajectories of those markers are very important, as it allows scientists to study the responses of the muscles to external forces that are applied to them or to different perturbations.

Dental Implants

You wouldn’t be able to have dental implants without the help of biomechanics. This is a smaller, but also important area. With the help of this science, now we have available different kinds of implants and everyone can benefit from this. The reason behind this is very simple – the lack of teeth can lead to a vitruviantrasparetnkind of disability, and the biomechanics is the one science that helps people fight it and live a normal life.

Implants and Prostheses

Orthopedic implants are commonly used to restore the mobility of the legs for those people who suffer from a partial disability. Biomechanics has a certain area, called biotribology, which studies the function and the performance of the biomaterials that are used for orthopedic implants. Apart from this, it also helps develop different types of prostheses used for improving locomotion.

The Pie Of Riding – Rider Biomechanics



This video explains the difference between the typical learning model and the Ride With Your Mind learning model using the Pie of Riding analogy. This is the rider biomechanics model.

Join the RWYM Membership site at http://www.riderbiomechanics.co.uk

Biomechanics of the Lumbar Spine: Lumbar Capsule and Supraspinous



Model of lumbar flexion and extension range. L5 and L4 including lumbar capsule and supraspinous ligament. Total range is 14 degrees of motion. The displayed ligaments have to lengthen 60%. This range must be assessed, and if restricted, adhesion diagnosis must be ruled in or out. Treatment with Instrument Adhesion Release and Manual Adhesion Release is necessary. If you like there check out Integrativediagnosis.com for more. Thanks

ISB 2015 – Hip biomechanics – Georg Bergmann and John Jeffers



As part of the series “The Keynotes of ISB 2015”, the first keynote of the conference focused on Hip Biomechanics and was presented by Prof. Georg Bergmann and Dr. John Jeffers.

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Danielle Saenz | Let’s talk biomechanics | Samsung Paralympic Blogger | PyeongChang 2018



Dr. Danielle Saenz gives a brief overview of the biomechanics of Paralympic alpine skiing.

About Danielle Saenz (USA, Samsung Paralympic Reporter):
Dr. Danielle Saenz is a physician in training in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation. She attended medical school in Washington state and she is completing her residency training in Chicago, IL. She has a passion for adaptive sports, which she has seen greatly improve the lives of her patients with spinal cord injuries and amputations. When Danielle is not at work in the hospital or working on her video projects, she can be found hiking or paddle boarding with her black Labrador retriever named Hero.

About the Samsung Paralympic Bloggers:
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is partnering with its Worldwide Paralympic Partner Samsung to provide 25 bloggers the chance to record exclusive behind-the-scenes video blogs during the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games. A total of 19 Paralympians, three team officials and three super-fans from Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Spain, South Korea and USA will take part.

Biomechanics and Proper Material Handling Techniques



Proper biomechanics and safe lifting techniques are essential to reducing accidents and injuries. Nearly 25% of people age 18-44 have reported back pain in the last 3 months. Applying the guidance in this video to your daily activities can reduce the likelihood of injuries, on and off the job.

Jules Mitchell on biomechanics, yoga, and human variability



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Today I’m chatting with biomechanist, yoga teacher, and researcher Jules Mitchell. We discuss the basics of biomechanics, proprioception, how the yoga conversation is changing, and some exciting research in movement science.