Fitness for Kids - Part I

Children often have a natural tendency to play hard. In the ensuing series, we will explore ways and means to direct your child's energy into a lifelong love of physical activity.

Benefits of being active
When kids are active, their bodies can do the things they want and need them to do. Why? Because regular exercise provides these benefits:

• strong muscles and bones
• weight control
• better sleep
• more likely to be academically motivated, alert, and successful
• a better outlook on life
• decreased risk of developing type 2 diabetes...

Getting your children off the couch
For many children, going to the playground, biking or simply playing in the backyard has given way to watching television, playing video games and spending hours online. But it's never too late to get your kids off the couch. Use these simple tips to give your kids a lifelong appreciation for activities that strengthen their bodies.

Set a good example
Cannot over emphasize this enough: if you want active kids, be active yourself. Go for a brisk walk, ride your bike or spend some time playing a sport. Kids ages 6 to 17 years old need at least an hour a day of such moderate activities. Three or more days a week should be more vigorous activities such as those that include running or jumping rope.

Invite your friends and family to play a sport or to join you on a walk. Talk about physical activity as an opportunity to take care of your body, rather than a punishment or a chore. Praise, reward and encourage activity.

A parent's active lifestyle is a powerful stimulus for a child. You are a role model for your children; set a good example by making physical activity a priority in your life.

Limit screen time
A surefire way to increase your children's activity levels is to limit the number of hours they're allowed to watch television each day. You might limit screen time — including television, video games and computer time.

Motivating kids to be active
Anyone who's seen kids on a playground knows that most are naturally physically active and love to move around. But what might not be apparent is that climbing to the top of a slide or swinging from the monkey bars can help lead kids to a lifetime of being active.

As they get older, it can be a challenge for kids to get enough daily activity. Reasons include increasing demands of school, a feeling among some kids that they aren't good at sports, a lack of active role models, and busy working families.

And even if kids have the time and the desire to be active, parents may not feel comfortable letting them freely roam the neighborhood as kids once did. So their opportunities might be limited.

Despite these barriers, parents can instill a love of activity and help kids fit it into their everyday routines. Doing so can establish healthy patterns that will last into adulthood.

What motivates kids?
So there's a lot to gain from regular physical activity, but how do you encourage kids to do it? Some of the keys are:

• Giving kids plenty of opportunity to be active: Encourage playing with peers, make activity easy by providing equipment and taking them to playgrounds and other active spots.
• Don't impose, be good spectators: Allow the child to discover activities that's fun for them. If you don't, the child may be bored or frustrated.
• Keeping the focus on fun, not winning sports trophies: Kids are naturally competitive and like to win but they won't do something they don't enjoy.

When kids find an activity that's fun, they'll do it a lot, get better at it, feel accomplished, and want to do it even more.

Age-appropriate activities
The best way for kids to get physical activity is by incorporating physical activity into their daily routine. Toddlers to teens need at least 60 minutes on most (preferably all) days. This can include free play at home, active time at school, and participation in classes or organized sports.

Preschoolers: Preschoolers need play and exercise that helps them continue to develop important motor skills — kicking or throwing a ball, playing tag or follow the leader, hopping on one foot, riding a bike, freeze dancing, or running obstacle courses.

Although some sports may be open to kids as young as 4, organized and team sports are not recommended until they're a little older. Preschoolers can't understand complex rules and often lack the attention span, skills, and coordination needed to play sports. Instead of learning to play a sport, they should work on fundamental skills.

School-age: With school-age kids spending more time on sedentary pursuits like watching TV and playing computer games, the challenge for parents is to help them find physical activities they enjoy and feel successful doing. These can range from traditional sports like cricket, badminton, basketball, etc.. to biking, hiking, and other outdoor pursuits.

As kids learn basic skills and simple rules in the early school-age years, there might only be a few athletic standouts. As kids get older, differences in ability and personality become more apparent. Commitment and interest level often go along with ability, which is why it's important to find an activity that's right for your child. Schedules start getting busy during these years, but don't forget to set aside some time for free play.

Kids' fitness personalities
In addition to a child's age, it's important to consider his or her fitness personality. Personality traits, genetics, and athletic ability combine to influence kids' attitudes toward participation in sports and other physical activities, particularly as they get older.

Which of these three types best describes your child?

• The nonathlete: This child may lack athletic ability, interest in physical activity, or both.
• The casual athlete: This child is interested in being active but isn't a star player and is at risk of getting discouraged in a competitive athletic environment.
• The athlete: This child has athletic ability, is committed to a sport or activity, and likely to ramp up practice time and intensity of competition.

If you understand the concepts of temperament and fitness types, you'll be better able to help your kids find the right activities and get enough exercise — and find enjoyment in physical activity. Some kids want to pursue excellence in a sport, while others may be perfectly happy and fit as casual participants.

The athlete, for instance, will want to be on the basketball team, while the casual athlete may just enjoy shooting hoops in the playground. The nonathlete is likely to need a parent's help and encouragement to get and stay physically active. That's why it's important to encourage kids to remain active even through they aren't top performers.

Whatever their fitness personality, all kids can be physically fit. A parent's positive attitude will help a child who's reluctant to exercise.

Be active yourself and support your kids' interests. If you start this early enough, they'll come to regard activity as a normal — and fun — part of your family's everyday routine.

15 Kooky Inventions

Ever had a weird idea for a product? Check out what passes muster with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Cheese-Filter Cigarette

Patent 3,234,948

Millions of people across the world like to smoke. Many also enjoy cheese. Why not combine the two in a cigarette filter made of cheese? That way, you can relax and nibble at the same time--with no toxins left behind! So efficient was this ventricular assault that Stuart Stebbings of De Pere, Wis., patented the idea in 1964.

Middle East Conflict Board Game

Patent 5,108,112

Think Monopoly, except in place of Boardwalk and Indiana Avenue you have spots like "Oil Spill, Lose 1 Barrel" and "Peace Talks" and "Find Saddam, Win 3 Barrels." The game, created by Debra A. Gould of Palmer, Mass., in 1991 and patented in 1992, revolves around a not-so-imaginary war between Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. The object: Collect missiles and oil barrels. The winning player is the one with the most barrels when the game's last missile is fired. (No matter that real-life Saddam lost with no missiles and plenty of oil.)

Dust Cover for Dog

Patent 3,150,641

Don't want your dog getting all dusty? Neither did Seroun Kesh of Detroit in 1964. Actually, Kesh's main goals with this full-body suit for dogs were to protect house furniture and allow owners to insert a hair dryer into the suit's end to quick-dry their mutts after their baths. Not a PetSmart bestseller, to say the least.

Method of Concealing Partial Baldness

Patent 4,022,227

In short: a patent for a multi-directional comb-over, secured in 1975 by Frank Smith and Donald Smith. It reads: "A partially bald person without the financial means can not afford the luxury of such hair coverings. This person, therefore ... can attempt to use his own hair to cover the bald area, but generally most people do not have the ability to properly plan a hair style that will look good, and most attempts result in brushing the hair in one direction over the bald area." Only one question remains: How much money does Donald Trump owe these guys?

Grave Attachments (Periscope)

Patent 901,407

In 1908 inventor George Willems of Roanoke, Ill., had a swell idea: attaching periscopes to coffins so that, once buried, they could be peeked into to ensure that the entombed person was still dead. For whatever reason, this device hasn't caught on in the mortuary business. Must be hard to landscape all those scopes at the cemetery.

Apparatus for Facilitating the Birth of a Child by Centrifugal Force

Patent No. 3,216,423

With this ostensibly pain-easing contraption, one more fit for a NASA training center than a hospital, the laboring mother is strapped in and spun around at 82 revolutions per minute, fast enough to force the infant out of the birth canal and into the world. Not to worry: There's an internal governor that keeps the machine from going too fast and a cotton-backed net that's mounted below the woman to catch a flying newborn. Four decades later, hospitals still haven't signed on.

Combination Pillow and Crash Helmet

Patent No. 3,538,508

This really, really good pillow aims to help passengers survive a plane crash. The thing splits in half, so you can stuff your head into the middle and brace for impact, snug with the knowledge that you're protected. The pillow/helmet even has a drawstring at each end so the wearer can cinch it down tight over his or her noggin. When standard turbulence turns into a steep nosedive, get your fluffy crash helmet out and strap 'er down. You'll be fine.

Coffee Having a Nicotine Composition Dissolved Therein

Patent No. 6,749,882

Inventor Stephen Fortune brings together two of man's greatest vices, er, inventions ever. You know those chief executives who love to talk about going to bed at 2 a.m. and getting up at 4 a.m. so they can bench-press 300 pounds, run six miles and practice their backhand saber jabs--all before inking that next $100 million deal? The patent doesn't claim to render sleep irrelevant, but you might require way less of it after your patented morning brew. Slurp it, strap on your pillow crash helmet and prepare for launch.

Thong-Type Garment With Wire-frame Construction

Patent No. 6,738,988

Edward T. Ruiter's and Jacqueline Dugas-Ruiter's patented thong underwear keeps your thong where it belongs and nowhere else. Never mind the obvious threat that all that wire might pose.

User Operated Amusement Apparatus for Kicking the User's Buttocks

Patent No. 6,293,874

With this device, care of inventor Joe W. Armstrong, users crank a shaft via a two-handed lever, which in turn rotates a pinwheel affixed with four boots. The wheel spins behind the user, giving him a swift kick jab every quarter turn. Who doesn't want a sore behind to go along with his upper body workout?

Musical Instrument Adapted to Emit a Controlled Flame

Patent No. 4,247,283

For those looking to add a little flare to their trumpeting, simply outfit your instrument with cartridge of flammable gas connected to an ignition switch. So cool it's hot--not.

Fresh-Air Breathing Device and Method

Patent No. 4,320,756

Inventor William O. Holmes came up with the idea in the early 1980s after rash of fires in high-rise hotels. Holmes' tube-shaped device plunges into a toilet bowl, past the water trap and into the air on the other side, which blows in from the sewage stack pipe. The idea isn't utterly ridiculous, the gist being that trapped users can suck stinky but non-toxic air from the toilet until the fire fighters arrive. Just remember to take a break from pulling air through a toilet long enough to scream for help.

Pneumatic Shoe Lacing Apparatus

Patent No. 5,205,055

Remember those Nike shoes that Michael J. Fox sports in Back to the Future II--the ones that, with a touch of a button on the shoe tongue, tightened up to a perfect fit, no messy lace tying or hopelessly un-hip Velcro? Aaron D. Harrell figured he'd make those a reality, if a tortuously complicated one: These high-tops require a gas canister on the back of the shoe to power a pneumatic piston in the shoe's sole. The piston turns a crank on the side of the shoe that draws close the straps across the top--no laces needed. Great Scott, Marty, that's ridiculous!

Bird Trap and Cat Feeder

Patent No. 4,150,505

Leo O. Voelker apparently had a soft spot for lazy cats. His contraption, patented in 1979, catches birds, which fly into a little house with a false floor attached to a downspout, and dispenses them uninjured to a cage below, where famished felines move in for the kill. This guy would be a hit at an ornithologists' convention.

San Quentin State Prison On Yelp: 2 Stars, Horrible Food

Happens only in America !! California’s oldest prison, with the largest death row in the country, is being actively reviewed on Yelp. Maybe this shouldn’t be all that surprising since there is a museum that you can take a tour of (and they occasionally do private tours). But if you read over the reviews, a number of them are from people who have family inside or have been in themselves. Sure, they could be lying, but it’s still kind of humorous.

Here’s one reviewer — a supposed former short-term inmate — that gave it 2 stars:

"In 1989 when I was 17 I made the mistake of borrowing a strangers car without their permission & after many months of courtroom banter I was sentenced to the California Youth Authority.
The 4 days I spent here were miserable. We all arrive on the grey goose & are schackled and escorted to a main pen to be counted & dispersed.
This place is cold & damp and just like every prison movie -(the green mile) you have ever seen depiciting a shit hole prison.
Yeah they play baseball with local sF organizations and they have deathrow inmates but mostly its a minimum/medium security facility with a bunch of short timers.
It's kind of nostalgic because of its sorted history but...
This is not a place you wanna end up. Not all big bad & scary like the movies make it, but cold,damp and miserable with really shitty food.
AVOID AT ALL COST!"

http://www.yelp.com/biz/san-quentin-state-prison-san-quentin

Wonder what inmates might think and how many stars they would give to Arthur Road, Tihar...

Science Vindicates Afternoon Naps, Yet Again

We all know that sleeping is a good thing. It refreshes us. There have been lots of studies that an afternoon nap makes you more productive. The latest research finally gave me a sophisticated way to describe the afternoon powernap: “a biphasic sleep schedule”. Telling your boss that you are pursuing a biphasic sleep schedule to maximize afternoon productivity is sure to be met with a better response than just telling your boss that you’re taking a nap.

New research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that an hour's nap can dramatically boost and restore your brain power. Indeed, the findings suggest that a biphasic sleep schedule not only refreshes the mind, but can make you smarter.

Conversely, the more hours we spend awake, the more sluggish our minds become, according to the findings. The results support previous data from the same research team that pulling an all-nighter – a common practice at college during midterms and finals –- decreases the ability to cram in new facts by nearly 40 percent, due to a shutdown of brain regions during sleep deprivation.

"Sleep not only rights the wrong of prolonged wakefulness but, at a neurocognitive level, it moves you beyond where you were before you took a nap," said Matthew Walker, an assistant professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and the lead investigator of these studies.

In the recent UC Berkeley sleep study, 39 healthy young adults were divided into two groups – nap and no-nap. At noon, all the participants were subjected to a rigorous learning task intended to tax the hippocampus, a region of the brain that helps store fact-based memories. Both groups performed at comparable levels.

At 2 p.m., the nap group took a 90-minute siesta while the no-nap group stayed awake. Later that day, at 6 p.m., participants performed a new round of learning exercises. Those who remained awake throughout the day became worse at learning. In contrast, those who napped did markedly better and actually improved in their capacity to learn.

These findings reinforce the researchers' hypothesis that sleep is needed to clear the brain's short-term memory storage and make room for new information, said Walker, who is presenting his preliminary findings on Sunday, Feb. 21, at the annual meeting of the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Diego, Calif.

Since 2007, Walker and other sleep researchers have established that fact-based memories are temporarily stored in the hippocampus before being sent to the brain's prefrontal cortex, which may have more storage space.

"It's as though the e-mail inbox in your hippocampus is full and, until you sleep and clear out those fact e-mails, you're not going to receive any more mail. It's just going to bounce until you sleep and move it into another folder," Walker said.

In the latest study, Walker and his team have broken new ground in discovering that this memory- refreshing process occurs when nappers are engaged in a specific stage of sleep. Electroencephalogram tests, which measure electrical activity in the brain, indicated that this refreshing of memory capacity is related to Stage 2 non-REM sleep, which takes place between deep sleep (non-REM) and the dream state known as Rapid Eye Movement (REM). Previously, the purpose of this stage was unclear, but the new results offer evidence as to why humans spend at least half their sleeping hours in Stage 2, non-REM, Walker said.

"I can't imagine Mother Nature would have us spend 50 percent of the night going from one sleep stage to another for no reason," Walker said. "Sleep is sophisticated. It acts locally to give us what we need."

Walker and his team will go on to investigate whether the reduction of sleep experienced by people as they get older is related to the documented decrease in our ability to learn as we age. Finding that link may be helpful in understanding such neurodegenerative conditions as Alzheimer's disease, Walker said.

Now if you’ll excuse me, it's time for my biphasic sleep schedule …

Perfect Time Trial Means Building Entire Day Around One Hour

 (In view of the recent Mumbai cyclothon, I am posting this excerpt from Chris Carmichael, Lance Armstrong's coach for many years. It gives us critical insights into how top athletes prepare for maximizing performance.)

By CHRIS CARMICHAEL

Imagine building your entire day around one hour. One hour in which only a perfect performance will be considered successful.

The final test in Lance Armstrong's quest to win a seventh Tour de France comes in Saturday's Stage 20 individual time trial, and after 14 years as a professional cyclist, it comes down to one perfect hour.

An individual time trial can be the loneliest hour of a cyclist's life. While most cycling events involve a pack of riders, you're all by yourself during the individual time trial. There are no teammates to call on for help and no one to draft behind. There's a car following you, but the people in it can't give you food or water. It's just you against the clock, fastest man wins.

Lance Armstrong excels in this discipline. To be successful in what's referred to as ``the race of truth,'' you have to have the ability to produce a massive amount of power and hold that intensity for 60-80 minutes. To win Saturday, Lance will have to average about 30-31 mph for about 72-74 minutes. To put that in perspective, the average cyclist can sustain 30-31 mph for about three minutes.

In order to win an individual time trial in the Tour de France, Lance seeks perfection. It's not enough to be perfect on the bike; everything he does from the moment he wakes up has an impact on his performance.

The day starts at about 8:30 a.m. Riders don't need to wake up exceedingly early because the daily stages are scheduled so they finish around 5:00 p.m. The whole team eats breakfast together at about 9:00 a.m. The meal consists of whole grain cereals, dark breads, omelets, fruit, and often potatoes or rice. It is quite high in carbohydrates because the body depletes about 80 percent of its carbohydrate stores in the liver overnight. 

After breakfast, Lance and his teammates will go out on the road for a short spin. Lance will ride his time trial bike for about 25-30 miles to get comfortable on the bike and stretch his legs. He hasn't been on this very specific machine for more than two weeks, and it's good to get reacquainted with it in the morning before competing in the afternoon.

Once he gets back from his morning ride at about 10:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m., Lance will talk with the mechanics about the bike and possibly make some slight adjustments. He'll get a shower and probably a quick massage to keep his legs and back supple and loose, and then he'll relax until lunch.

Lance will eat his last substantial meal about two and a half hours before his start time. As the race leader, Lance will be the last rider to roll out of the start house, so his start time will be late, probably around 4:22 p.m. The meal will be mostly carbohydrates because that's the primary fuel he'll be using to power his high intensity effort. He'll eat a few cups of a light pasta dish; he won't want anything that will sit heavily in his stomach. He'll also eat some whole grain bread, fruit, and maybe some salad. 

There is a rule in cycling that the shorter an event, the longer the warmup. For long road stages, riders barely warm up at all. Lance warms up for about 50 minutes before long individual time trials, and he'll arrive at the race site about 90 minutes before his start time to get ready and start warming up.

While Lance changes clothes in the team bus, his time trial bike will be put on a stationary trainer outside. Some of his teammates will be there warming up for their own time trials, and the others will already be on the course. Lance's 50-minute warmup is not just a simple spin to loosen up. To win a time trial, you have to be ready to ride at maximum speed from the moment you leave the start house. You have to prepare your body, otherwise the shock of going from rest to maximum effort will significantly harm your performance.

Lance's warmup is designed to wake a sleeping giant. He has to gradually activate his aerobic engine, and then increase intensity to progressively activate the energy systems that power successively harder efforts. Lance goes hard in his warmup, and actually goes above the effort level he reaches during competition. He needs to kick-start the mechanisms that control the production of energy and metabolic byproducts when exercising at very high intensities.

About 10 minutes before his start time, Lance wraps up his warmup, eats a PowerGel and tucks another under the leg of his skinsuit. His bike is removed from the stationary trainer, checked over by the mechanic, and Lance heads for the start house.

Once Lance looks down the ramp to the road ahead, all of the hours since he woke up melt away. He sits still on his bike, both feet secured onto his pedals while someone holds him upright by the back of his seat. The starter finally begins the countdown. His fingers count down the final five seconds to Lance's start time, and then his hand flattens and extends out over the ramp. It's time to go.

For the next hour and change, Lance will ride as hard and fast as his body and physics will allow. Though he'll burn more than 1500 calories during the effort and sweat out about two liters of fluid, he'll only consume one 100-calorie PowerGel and one 500-millileter bottle of fluid. There's no time for more food and nowhere to carry more fluid.

Moreover, there's no room for error. There can be no stiff back from a poor night's sleep, nor an empty or upset stomach from a bad or incorrectly-scheduled meal, or mechanical problems with the bike or insufficient power from an inadequate warmup. Perfect rides come from perfect preparation, and there's no one who has mastered the art and science of preparation the way Lance Armstrong has.

Best Science Picture of 2009

"Save Our Earth, Let’s Go Green"

Fibers cradle a planet-like ball in an award-winning image meant to convey that Earth's future is in our collective hands.

Harvard University's Sung Hoon Kang submerged tiny plastic fibers—each only 1/500 as big as a human hair—in an evaporating liquid, where they spontaneously and cooperatively supported the small green ball.

"Using the image, I tried to describe cooperative efforts across the world to save our Earth by going green," Hoon said.

The shot was selected as best photograph in the 2009 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. The annual contest, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the journal Science, award outstanding artistic efforts to visualize complex scientific concepts.

New Clue Why Autistic People Don't Want Hugs

Why do people with fragile X syndrome, a genetic defect that is the best-known cause of autism and inherited mental retardation, recoil from hugs and physical touch -- even from their parents?

New research has found in fragile X syndrome there is delayed development of the sensory cortex, the part of the brain that responds to touch, according to a study from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. This delay may trigger a domino effect and cause further problems with the correct wiring of the brain. Understanding how and when the function of the brain is affected in fragile X offers a target for a therapy to fix the incorrect development.

"There is a 'critical period' during development, when the brain is very plastic and is changing rapidly," said Anis Contractor, assistant professor of physiology at Feinberg and the lead investigator of the study. "All the elements of this rapid development have to be coordinated so that the brain becomes wired correctly and therefore functions properly."

The study will be published in the Feb. 11 issue of the journal Neuron.

Working with a mouse model of fragile X, Contractor found the development of synapses, the sites where neurons communicate with each other, was delayed in the sensory cortex.

"The critical period may provide a window during which therapeutic intervention can correct synaptic development and reverse some of the symptoms of the disease," Contractor said.

People with this syndrome have debilitating sensory as well as cognitive problems. "They have tactile defensiveness," Contractor explained. "They don't look in people's eyes, they won't hug their parents, and they are hypersensitive to touch and sound. All of this causes anxiety for family and friends as well as for the fragile X patients themselves. Now we have the first understanding of what goes wrong in the brain."

The sensory overload in people with fragile X results in social withdrawal, hyperarousal and anxiety. It shows up in early infancy and progressively worsens throughout childhood.

Fragile X syndrome is caused by a gene mutation in the X chromosome that interferes in the production of a protein called fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP). That protein directs the formation of other proteins that build synapses in the brain. People with fragile X are missing FMRP. It's as if the foreman is missing on the brain's key construction site. Fragile X is so named because the X chromosome appears broken or kinked.

Boys are more severely affected by fragile X because they have only one X chromosome. Girls, who have two X chromosomes, are less affected by the defect.

Contractor and colleagues discovered the sensory cortex was late to mature by recording the electrical signals flowing through the animals' synapses. This provided a snapshot of when and how this part of the brain was developing. The ability of the brain to correctly process incoming information is based on the correct development of these synapses, he noted.

This is one of the first studies to show how synapses in this region are altered. "It starts to build a framework for how this part of the cortex actually develops," Contractor said. "Our next step is to work out what is going wrong. How does elimination of this gene FMR1 disrupt the normal developmental processes?"

The research was supported by the FRAXA Research Foundation and Autism Speaks.