Classic Pilates Upper Back Strength & Flexibility Exercises

Keeping our spines perfectly balanced with Pilates strength and flexibility exercises will aid in preventing back pain, and make for better posture.

What It Is:

To create true functionality in our bodies we must have a balance of stability, strength, fluidity and flexibility. As we have seen in many of my previous posts, this concept of balancing the muscles and therefore the body is the core of the Pilates system.

In Pilates we do not group our exercises into categories, some for flexibility and some for strength. Instead, every exercise in Pilates is for both flexibility strength at the same time. There is efficiency in every move. We get the best bang for our buck.

Our Goal:

The upper back, just like any other part of our body, needs this balance. If our upper back is not functionally balanced, we will be brought to the extremes of either being hunched and rounded over or arched back so that our natural convex thoracic spine is distorted into a concave shape. We want to keep our spines in that perfect area right in the middle.

Here’s How:

Here are two Classical Pilates Mat Exercises to help you find that balance. If any of these cause discomfort or pain, go back to the previous articles on the upper back and keep practicing the pre-Pilates exercises in those entries.

Exercise – Swimming

• Lie on the stomach with the arms stretched out in front. Start with the arms shoulder distance apart.
• Stretch your legs behind you keeping them hip distance apart.
• Place a folded towel under the forehead for extra comfort.
• Inhale and lift the left arm and right leg up.
• Keep the right hand and left foot pressing into the floor.
• The crown of the head and sternum should also lift and shine forward as the arm and opposite leg lift.
• Exhale and release.
• Slowly switch sides.
• Repeat four to six times.

Advanced Modification

• For a more advanced version:
• Press the hands and feet into the floor and lift the eyes and sternum, as if you are raising your head above water.
• Inhale and lift the left arm and the right leg.
• Start to switch sides in a quicker repetition until you are paddling the arms and legs back and forth.
• At this quicker pace, the hands and feet stay off the floor as you paddle.
• Keep going and take a long exhale for five counts and a long inhale for five counts.
• Try to do four to six sets. (A set consists of a long inhale for five counts and a long exhale for five counts.)
• As you do this advanced modification, don’t let the head droop. Keep the crown of the head and the sternum shining straight
• ahead.
• Rest in Child’s Pose.

Exercise – Single Leg Kicks

• Lie on the stomach on a mat with the legs extended long behind you.
• Lift the upper body by propping the elbows right under the shoulders and pressing the forearms and fists (or palms) firmly
• into the floor.
• During the exercise, keep thinking of lifting the chest toward the ceiling as you press your pubic bone down into the mat.
• On a sniffing breath inhale, kick the left heel into the left buttock with a double beat.
• Keep the right leg long
• Don’t allow the head or shoulders to sink.
• Exhale and switch legs.
• Remember to stay lifted in the abdominals by imagining you have an ice cube under your belly button.
• Do six to eight sets and rest back into Child’s Pose.

Hot Tip:

During both of these extension exercises, keep looking for the “contrast in movement” to create more length in the body.

In Swimming:

• Reach the crown of the head away from the toes.
• Reach the fingers away from the opposite toe.
• Reach the ear away from the tip of the shoulder-blade.
• Reach the top of the hamstring away from the heel.
• Reach the fingertips away from the top of the shoulder.

As you perform the exercise, focus on a few of these in your problem areas (for instance- tight shoulders, tight upper back, tight from of the hip)to create more and more length where you need it most.

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Women Are More Masterful at Multitasking Than Men

Women remain more adept at multitasking than their male counterparts, however they experience more stress at levels that far exceed that of men.

Women remain more adept at multitasking than their male counterparts. From managing a range of household chores while helping their children with homework, to performing computer work while handling a phone call, women pump up the volume of productivity to keep up in their busy lives. The downside is that women experience more stress with their multitasking performance at levels that far exceed that of men who multitask.

A new study recently published in the American Sociological Review found that working moms spend 9 more hours multitasking weekly than do working dads. These women spend about 48.3 hours per week handling multiple tasks at once, while for men, the total hours spent getting various things done is just 38.9 hours.

In an interview, study co-author Barbara Schneider, a professor of sociology at Michigan State University, noted, “When you look at men and women in similar kinds of work situations they look very similar. But when they come home it is very clear that women are shouldering much more of the responsibilities of housework and childcare.”

Schneider and her colleague, Shira Offer, an assistant professor at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, analyzed data on 368 mothers and 241 fathers who took part in the 500 Family Study, which focused on how U.S. families balance work and family life.

The research is based on responses from dual-income families, considered by the researchers to represent the most time-pressured sector of the nation’s population. These couples generally possess college degrees, have professional occupations, report higher earnings, and work longer hours than middle-class families in other nationally representative samples.

The findings of the study revealed that for working mothers, 52.7 percent of multitasking performed involved housework, while for working fathers, only 42.2 percent was spend on household chores. In addition, the study showed that mothers spent 35.5 percent of time performing multiple tasks involving childcare, while for fathers the numbers came to 27.9 percent. Moreover, the study showed that various tasks performed by women at the same time while at home prove to be more labor intensive than those performed by men.

Schneider pointed out, “This suggests that working mothers are doing two activities at once more than two-fifths of the time they are awake, while working fathers are multitasking more than a third of their waking hours.” She went on to explain, “Fathers, by contrast, tend to engage in other types of activities when they multitask at home, such as talking to a third person or engaging in self-care. These are less burdensome experiences.”

When you consider the study results, it comes as no surprise that the findings also showed that multitasking is more stressful for women than for men. While men reported their multitasking performance as a positive experience, women tended to report negative emotions whether they performed such tasks at home or in public.

Schneider noted that in general, things have not “dramatically changed” in women’s roles at home and at work. She said, “I think there are still many issues, both in the workplace and certainly in the home, that suggest there are and continue to be gender inequalities.”

Schneider also pointed out that while the number of hours that men contribute to household labor has increased, when multitasking is taken into consideration, it becomes clear that women still shoulder more household responsibilities than men. She advises working mothers to ease up and try doing one task at a time, even though it may seem difficult. Accepting that everything you want done may not be accomplished in the time frame desired is half the battle.

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Diabetes Device Plan May Help Patients Faster

The FDA issued guidelines this week to medical device makers and researchers working to develop an artificial pancreas, a complex system of pumps and sensors that will automate the care and treatment of type 1 diabetes.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued guidelines on Thursday for the development of a new device to treat type 1 diabetes that will give manufacturers 'maximum flexibility' in getting it to U.S. patients.

The guidelines reflect months of behind-the-scenes negotiations with patient advocates, medical device makers and researchers working to develop an artificial pancreas -- a complex system of pumps and sensors aimed at automating the care and treatment of type 1 diabetes.

It is not yet clear if they will appease concerns that the FDA would set the bar too high, making regulations so cumbersome that it would delay access to the devices to diabetics in the United States.

"This guidance was developed in a way to account for innovation," Charles "Chip" Zimliki, who heads an FDA initiative to speed up availability of an artificial pancreas, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Zimliki said the new draft guidance gives researchers and medical device makers clear guidelines for approving clinical trials that can prove these devices are safe in real-world outpatient settings.

"I think we're doing a really good job at getting these clinical studies going and we're showing them a path that I think can get them to a safe and effective product in the U.S.," he said.

Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a statement the new guidance will "provide maximum flexibility to manufacturers seeking to bring this device to U.S. patients."

"We understand how this device could change the lives of millions of Americans with diabetes, and we want our safety and effectiveness review to give patients the confidence that the device works," Shuren said.

Zimliki says the guidelines take into account concerns raised over guidelines for a very early version of an artificial pancreas device, known as a low glucose suspend device.

Those devices involve a safety feature built into an insulin pump that shuts off the pump when a diabetic's blood sugar falls to dangerously low levels.

The new guidelines are focused on more complex artificial pancreas devices that would automate many of the tasks a diabetic must do to manage their disease.

These systems are made up of medical devices worn outside of the body to take over for insulin-making cells in the pancreas, which become destroyed in people with type 1 diabetes.

The systems combine two medical devices, an insulin pump and a continuous glucose monitor or CGM that receives information on glucose levels from a sensor placed under the patient's skin.

The pump and CGM work together, monitoring the body's glucose levels and automatically pumping appropriate doses of insulin as determined by a computer algorithm.

These systems are meant to manage dangerous spikes and valleys in blood sugar that occur as diabetics try to manage the disease by checking their blood sugar and injecting themselves with insulin.

The FDA guidance document recommends a three-phase clinical trial progression leading to outpatient clinical trials.

And it suggests ways researchers can use existing safety and effectiveness data for various components that make up the system, including data gathered from clinical studies conducted outside of the U.S.

When final, the guidance will help manufacturers and investigators assemble submissions for clinical trials as well as product approval submissions.

The devices are aimed at treating the 3 million Americans with type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the immune system destroys cells in the pancreas that make insulin.

Formerly called juvenile diabetes, type 1 diabetes is less common than type 2 diabetes, the form of the disease linked to obesity and lack of exercise that affects 26 million people in the United States.

People with type 1 diabetes currently must monitor their blood sugar and take insulin several times a day to regulate it and prevent diabetic complications, which include heart and kidney disease.

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Funding Crunch Puts Progress on AIDS at Risk

A severe funding crisis and a decline in international donor money to HIV/AIDS is dampening optimism about an eventual end to the pandemic.

(Reuters) - The international community has made extraordinary progress in the past decade in the fight against AIDS, but a funding crisis is putting those gains at risk, the United Nations health agencies said on Wednesday.

A World Health Organization-led report said the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS and now infects about 34 million people around the world has proven a "formidable challenge" for scientists and public health experts.

"But the tide is turning," it added. "The tools to achieve an AIDS-free generation are in our hands."

Yet a severe funding crisis at the world's largest backer of the fight against AIDS and a decline in international donor money to battle the disease is dampening optimism in the HIV/AIDS community about an eventual end to the pandemic.

Annual funding for HIV/AIDS programs fell to $15 billion in 2010 from $15.9 billion in 2009, well below the estimated $22-24 billion the U.N. agencies say is needed by 2015 to pay for a comprehensive, effective global response.

The public-private Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the world's largest financial backer of HIV treatment and prevention programs, said last week it was cancelling new grants for countries battling these diseases and would make no new funding available until 2014.

"Just as the world is making huge strides in the fight against HIV and AIDS, the goal of creating an AIDS-free generation, where no children are born with HIV, will not be possible unless the Global Fund is able to continue scaling up its work," said Patrick Watt, Save the Children's global campaign director.

In an interview with Reuters as the U.N agencies report was released, Gottfried Hirnschall, the WHO's director for HIV/AIDS, said progress in cutting the number of new HIV infections and dramatically increasing access to life-saving AIDS drugs made this a critical time in the battle.

Scientific studies in the past year have also shown that getting timely AIDS drug treatment to those with HIV can significantly cut the number of people who become newly infected with the virus.

"This is a really exciting year, because we're seeing downward trends in those areas where we want to see downward trends - in new infections and in mortality - and we're seeing upward trends where we'd like to see them, primarily in (treatment) coverage rates," Hirnschall said

Latest figures in Wednesday's report and from a UNAIDS global study last week show the number of new HIV infections fell to 2.7 million in 2010, down from 3.1 million in 2001, while the number of people getting life-saving AIDS drugs rose to 6.65 million in 2010 from just 400,000 in 2003.

Hirnschall said the data suggested the WHO's goal -- to have zero new infections, zero deaths and zero stigma associated with HIV -- "could in the not too distant future become a reality."

But the big risk lies in the funding, he said.

"We already have a $7 billion shortfall for this year and what's even more alarming is that we also had almost a billion dollars less this year than we did last."

With many large international donor countries struggling with recession and debt crises, public health experts said it was crucial for countries affected by HIV/AIDS to do all they can to fund their own programs and make resources go further.

Wednesday's report, released ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1 by the WHO, the United Nations AIDS program UNAIDS and the United Nations children's fund UNICEF, said treatment, prevention and outreach programs are becoming more efficient, with health clinics integrating services and local communities finding more effective ways to get medicines to HIV patients.

"2011 has been a game changing year. With new science, unprecedented political leadership and continued progress in the AIDS response, countries have a window of opportunity to seize this momentum," said Paul De Lay, deputy director of UNAIDS.

"However, gains made to date are being threatened by a decline in resources."

Hirnschall said donors should recognize that stepping up investment now will save lives, and more money in the long run.

"The risk is that we carry on as we are for the next 20 years and the whole epidemic will just linger on and on. Or we could load up front and make a big investment now, and then the numbers will really start to come down and it will pay off."

"The question is, is the world ready to do that?"

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Adding Fish to Your Diet May Ward Off Alzheimer’s

Eating at least one serving per week of baked or broiled fish could improve memory function, increase brain volume, and stave off Alzheimer’s.

Consuming baked or broiled fish at least once per week could help stave off Alzheimer’s disease, according to the findings of a new study recently presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.


Alzheimer's disease is a form of dementia that affects memory, thinking and behavior. Symptoms often develop slowly and become more severe over time, to the point of interfering with daily tasks. There is no known cure for Alzheimer’s. Sadly, the disease affects as many as 5.1 million Americans.


While previous research has suggested that including fish in one’s diet may have brain-boosting effects, the latest study from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center suggests that consuming non-fried fish can battle against the brain shrinkage and cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s.


In a statement regarding the results of the study, lead study author Dr. Cyrus Raji noted, “We found higher levels of working memory in people who ate baked or broiled fish on a weekly basis, even when accounting for other factors, such as education, age, gender and physical activity.”


The study by university researchers was the first to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to support its findings. To arrive at their conclusions, the researchers tracked 260 adults having normal cognitive function over a decade. Based on questionnaire data, 163 of the participants consumed fish on a weekly basis, with the majority eating fish one to four times per week.


The brain volume and memory function of each study participant was measured via MRI at both the start and end of the analysis. The findings revealed that those subjects who consumed more fish possessed better memory function and larger brain areas, including the posterior cingulated and the orbital frontal cortex, as well as the hippocampus, which is known to shrink in individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.


Raji stated that in those people with larger brain volume, “The risk for Alzheimer’s and mild cognitive impairment went down by fivefold within five years following the brain scans we conducted.” He said that he was “amazed" that the benefit was seen among people who ate fish as little as one to four times a week. “We're talking about just a half serving a day, and that would be a very small lifestyle change that can affect disease risk a long time down the line.”


The results provide further support for a study published in Archives of Neurology just last year, which found that consumption of a Mediterranean diet high in fish, fruits and veggies was associated with a 38 percent less likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease over the following four-year period.


Although the results of the study are promising, they do not definitively prove that eating fish will prevent Alzheimer’s. 


According to Zaven S. Khachaturian, president of the Campaign to Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease by 2020, the study results lend support to the idea that there is a “possible beneficial effect of a diet rich in fish ingredients.”


Because no health benefits were linked to consumption of fried fish, it appears that other lifestyle factors play a role in the protection against Alzheimer’s. Khachaturian pointed out that further research via large and properly controlled clinical trials will be necessary to determine if consuming fish provides protection against cognitive decline.


Experts speculate that omega 3 fatty acids found in fish oils may reduce inflammation of the brain and play a tole in brain development and nerve cell regeneration. Oily fish has the highest content of essential omega 3 fatty acids that can only be obtained through diet, as the body is unable to produce them.


The best method for lowering your chances of developing dementia is to eat a healthy diet rich in fish, fruit, and vegetables, in combination with getting regular exercise, and avoiding smoking.

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