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Pictured, “101 Sports Poems”

Poetry for baseball, football, volleyball, bicycling, bowling, and more!

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“the intent of this blog is to incrementally build a body of thought that works toward integrating various topics, yoga, fitness, and the arts – it’s a process…”

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the fitness bank – please deposit ten minutes of yoga –

a tidbit post, # 7

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Intro

my revision history for my blog shows i began an initial draft with an idea for this article back in late may – why so long to get written?

well 😉 i loved the idea, immediately, that 1 ten minute set of activity, could generate health benefits, and 3 or more, might mean fitness benefits

i say “activity” because afaa, in their text, “personal fitness training, theory and practice” has differentiated physical activity and exercise thus –

“The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) differentiates physical activity from exercise and defines physical activity as ‘bodily movement that is produced by the contraction of skeletal muscle and that substantially increases energy expenditure’”

while exercise itself is defined as

“Exercise is defined as “planned, structured, and repetitive bodily movement done to improve or maintain one or more components of physical fitness” (American College of Sports Medicine, 2006)”

activity is closer to being more active in daily living activities (adls) such as walking, gardening, washing a car, carrying groceries

which of course, pre-supposes the person has the stamina and strength for being able to do the things most of do each day, something not always taken into consideration for sedentary individuals, esp those that are either elderly, recovering from illness or injury, or both

but it still seemed too good to be true, just put in 10 minutes a day? for a minimum?

what’s the catch?

deborah dunham, in an excellent article over at blisstree, “it’s time to quit lowering the bar” also took exception, saying,

“Twenty one minutes a day of exercise is not a lot. In fact, I don’t think it’s nearly enough…

“I learned making exercise easier and less time-consuming won’t help people become more fit. It does the opposite….”

and she has some darn good points to back her up, including experience…

so what is the catch?

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The Catch

the “catch” is as with movement and exercise, further defining –

ten minutes for whom?

an article linked to by ms dunham above, “some exercise is better than none for lowering heart disease risk,” says,

“people who did less than the recommended 150 minutes per week also had lowered risk of heart disease compared with their sedentary counterparts”

and what these “people” did, as per the article, was exercise

so there is some expectation of an activity beyond that normally done

and that is regular, planned, and meant to improve “one or more components of physical fitness”  [1]

with yoga, an example might be the difference of when i do a ten minute set or more that includes forward bends, vs reaching down for something i drop during the day

or, the process of sitting down to watch dr oz with my wife, vs a set that includes chair pose, utkatasana

now using the remote for the tv, haven’t thought of pose for that yet, though some of the mudras might work 😉

sheila likes the book, “mudras, yoga in your hands”

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The Save (Benefit)

that still leaves room for the ubber-beginner or beginning recovering person, to do most any “activity,” or movement, and benefit

afaa, in the same fitness text noted above, recognizing such, adds,

“initial low-to-moderate levels of ‘activity’ may enhance adherence with sedentary individuals”

good news for anyone looking to start feeling better!

further good news, i believe, is over-exertion is not necessary to start being healthier

and yoga, as advertised, is generally not taught in a manner to demand or expect or teach a person to over-exert

part of the attraction of yoga, for me, is the opportunity to develop a more serene more peaceful more harmonious manner of getting and staying fit

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Substantiation

Google Search

further interesting leads indicating the value of at least ten minutes of exercise can be found via a google search of “benefit of 10 minutes of exercise”

entries from the search include links to the washingtonpost, usatoday, and webmd

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My Own Experience

one of my most convincing, to myself, unintended proofs i have available to myself from my own personal experience, is the fact that, since 2004 or so, after returning to fitness-effort via jazzercise in 2001 (via my wife sheila’s encouragement), i then proceeded to, almost daily, to this day, do one of denise austin’s ten minute dvd segments, her yoga stretch routine packed with poses and stretched with commonsense

i use the sequence to this day, at least several times a week

i didn’t know about ten minute theories then

but it sure has worked 😉

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Ten Minute Yoga Super Sets via Sadie Nardini

recently, gaiam featured an article by sadie nardini, packed with fitness info and photos, on the value of a ten minute super sets

though these suggested poses are a bit beyond what i normally do 😉 sadie’s suggestion of using a ten minute superset is a great idea

more info on supersets is here

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Ten Minutes – Circumstantial Evidence

seems there’s good reason circumstantial evidence is usually objected to on tv courtroom shows!

so this section should be taken with a dose of non-sodium doubt 😉

but does make for good food for thought!

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the number ten, as in the theme of today’s article, ten minutes, seems interwoven into our daily habits, our bodies, and history

with a hat-tip to sheila for some of the ideas 😉 here’s a smattering :

* ten toes and fingers

* ten minute notations on most clocks

* the saying “count to ten!”

* ten commandments

* field marker increments on a football field (ten yard line)

* top ten on david letterman

* countdown from ten for a launch from nasa

* if you’re a “ten” you’re at your best (ala bo derek)

* “just lose ten” from dr oz

* give me ten! – a per a push-up command

and from the world of dance and movement, eric franklin, in his book, “dynamic alignment through imagery” has this bit of research that’s interesting :

“an experiment at the university of california at irvine suggests that listening to 10 minutes of Mozart piano music improves intelligence for a short period thereafter….”

mozart i can kinda understand 😉 but again, why ten minutes?

well, i’m gonna count to ten then finish up my post today!

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Final Thought

Providing an Environment Where Wellness is a Choice

though i firmly believe that, ultimately, wellness is a choice –

i also believe that helping provide a psychological and physical environment, that allows and encourages a person to both, feel they can do ten minutes of exercise (without injury), and also feel it is worth the effort (has benefits), is a doable accepted proven idea –

for when we’re well, when we’re tired, when we hurt, even for when we thrive 😉

namaste – con dios – god be with you

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footnotes

[1]  a google search for the 9 components of fitness gave me many variations, of from 7 to 10 components, but not 9 😉

afaa, in their personal fitness training, theory and practice book, with excerpts featured on their online personal trainer prep course, lists 4 (some say five) health related components, then 5 they consider skill related components of physical fitness

the links in the paragraphs above take you to sites that discuss one of each of the type components

current theory and practice, seems to indicate that a ten minute session of activity, will benefit the health related components

the same current state of knowledge indicates that 3 or ten minutes sets, in any order or combination, in a single day, start to benefit fitness or skill related components

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