Avoid Over Heating This Summer

We are in the midst of another beautiful long hot Perth summer and exercising in the heat can present a challenge in itself. As a fitness trainer the last thing I want to occur is for one of my clients to suffer from heat exhaustion.

Heat illness, which can present as either heat exhaustion or heat stroke can occur when a person exercises vigorously in hot conditions. It can also present with prolonged exposure to hot weather, even if the activity is being done at a low intensity. In cooler weather heat illness can still occur if the person is exercising at a high intensity.
Symptoms of heat illness include such things as feeling light headed, dizziness, nausea, loss of coordination, confusion, collapse, cessation of sweating or an obvious change to skin colour (usually pale).

Factors that can increase the risk of heat illness include ;
• Age – junior participants are at a higher risk
• Prior history of heat illness
• Intensity level of exercise
• Exercise environment
• Dehydration
• Prolonged exposure to hot conditions
• Existing or recent illness or medical conditions
• Exposure to radiant heat from surfaces such as black asphalt or concrete

So what can we do to minimise the risk of heat illness? Where possible schedule your exercise sessions in the early morning or evening to avoid the extreme temperatures during the middle of the day. If that’s not possible and the temperature is extreme consider cancelling your session or reducing the length and/or intensity of your session. Ensure adequate hydration prior to and during exercise and seek shade where possible. Participants should be encouraged to wear light, loose clothing, wear a hat and sunglasses and apply sunscreen before and during the session if required.

If despite all your best efforts, a participant still falls victim to heat illness the following steps will aid in recovery. Immediately lie the person down and loosen or remove any excess clothing. Attempt to reduce their body temperature by fanning or applying ice packs (in particular to the groin and armpit areas) and give them cool water to drink. If required seek medical assistance as soon as possible.

Consistently focusing on your lifestyle improving efforts will help keep you out of danger in the hot summer months. To check your lifestyle's health go here.

Do diet soft drinks make us fat?

No calories, no sugar but lots of bubbles and an amazing sweet taste – too good to be true? Maybe so……….Artificial sweeteners; aspartame, saccharin and sucralose are among some of the varieties that have been used for a number of years to make some of our favourite sweet foods including soft drink, desserts, jelly and yoghurt taste up to 200x sweeter than their sugar based alternative for 0 calories
Regularly I see people who drink numerous “diet” soft drinks each day – hence getting the sweet hit they are looking for without any negative health consequences. Often, these same people struggle with weight loss. You may be interested to know that one of the first changes I suggest they make to their diet in an attempt to get their weight under control once and for all is eliminate all artificially sweetened product. Why?

There is growing evidence to show that it is in fact possible to be “addicted” to sweet foods. Programming the brain to constantly look for exceptionally sweet food whether it is cake, lollies or diet soft drink appears to disrupt the body’s natural hunger and fullness signals for a number a reasons. Here are two major ones.

1. telling the body you are getting glucose(energy) but then telling it is not,
2. programming the brain to seek exceptionally sweet stimulus and finally exposing the body to intensely sweet flavour and taste sensations when we perhaps should not be receiving any stimulus at all, even though we think 0 calories is all that matters.

So, if you constantly consume diet soft drink – start to wean off and replace it with water, green tea or black tea.

Observe how much more in control of your food cravings you are, and the way you begin to feel hunger and fullness again – it may be the best thing you could ever do for your weight, your diet and your taste buds.

Is Shoulder Pain Limiting your Movement?

Painful shoulder conditions that limit movement are very common and are caused by problems with the shoulder joint and its surrounding structures. The shoulder is more prone to injuries due to its wide range of movement.

There are a number of main reasons for shoulder pain including rotator cuff injuries, arthritis, frozen shoulder and shoulder dislocations or instability. Let’s take a look at these 4 areas in a bit more detail.
Rotator Cuff injuries – the rotator cuff is a group of muscles and tendons that help to move the shoulder and hold the joint in place. Rotator cuff disorders result from inflammation or damage to the rotator cuff muscles or tendons. The inflammation can be caused by general wear and tear that occurs with age, activities that require constant or repetitive shoulder motion (especially above shoulder level), heavy lifting, trauma or poor posture. The pain associated with rotator cuff injuries is normally felt at the front or on the outside of the shoulder, particularly when you raise your arm or lift something above your head. You may also notice the pain more when you are lying in bed.

Frozen Shoulder – is characterised by progressive pain and stiffness in the shoulder. The pain is felt deep in the shoulder joint and may be more pronounced at night. The exact cause of this condition is not known however it normally occurs following a shoulder injury. It is thought that resting an injured or painful shoulder for too long can cause the shoulder muscles and connective tissues to stiffen up.

Arthritis – causes progressive joint pain, tenderness, swelling and stiffness. Both rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis can affect the shoulder joint.

Shoulder dislocations or instability – shoulder dislocation occurs when the ball shaped head of your upper arm bone (humerus) comes out of the shoulder socket. It may be caused by a fall, sporting injury or trauma and is an extremely painful condition. Following a dislocation the shoulder joint sometimes becomes unstable and susceptible to repeated dislocations. This condition is known as shoulder instability, and causes pain and unsteadiness when you raise your arm or move it away from your body.

As with any type of injury a correct diagnosis from your registered health professional is critical to limit the long term effects of a shoulder injury. Following correct diagnosis there are a number of possible outcomes including surgery, pain relievers, hot/cold treatments, steroid injections, rest, massage or appropriate exercise prescription.

Here at Lifestyle Improvers we have specific programs aimed to improve posture and can tailor programs to suit any injury rehabilitation requirements that our clients may require. We are more than happy to liaise with your registered health professional to help you achieve the desired outcome.