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Welcome to the July edition of the Life Active Newsletter!
 
 And here we are in the beginning of winter. Apologies for the
lateness of the news but moving premises did unfortunately get in
the way this month! 
July is not only the perfect time to stay indoors and try some
revitalising mixed berry mulled wine (alcohol optional), or fly off
to warmer climes, but the best time to focus on your own
superhealth goals. 

So what is superhealth?

I define it as existing at the peak of your own experience, far
beyond simply being "not sick".
It's that sense of physical (and subsequent mental/emotional)
wellbeing that you get when you know you can do pretty much
anything you could want to achieve physically. When the feeling of
energy and strength just lets you feel nearly invincible. It's a
nice feeling and we generally do get glimpses of it - often when
things "align" with your mental state, like walking through a
peaceful forest or completing a race or physical challenge
successfully.

I believe that that can, with our current knowledge, become much
more the norm in our experience. With more facilities for activity,
science behind nutrition and exercise, and far more available
Rest&Relax time, superhealth is within all our grasps!

I'll be covering over future newsletters one particular model I
developed over a few years to guide the quest towards maintaining
fantastic physical wellbeing. It's nothing extraordinary, there's
no magic to it - just a little work each day towards feeling great
for decades, using only what we have available to us as
individuals. 
I call it the SHARPEN model, and it stands for 
Sleep - Hygiene - Awareness - Rest&Relaxation - Posture - Exercise
- Nutrition

Now it's pretty much that simple, though I have got a set of
assessments and guides for each :)

This issue though - some advice about keeping up your immune
system, and reassessing the bench press.

Andrew


Winter immunity
As the chills arrive this July, it's important to keep your immune
system in tip top shape, not only to keep yourself in 100%
condition for work and training, but more importantly so that you
don't miss a beat of potential fun in life!

Your immunity is modulated by a number of bodily "defense"
mechanisms, ranging from secretory oozes, proteins that swim
throughout your blood stream, to whole cell armies that co-ordinate
anti-invader warfare like a surgical strike. 

It's also a system that is very delicately effected by other
hormones in your system, notably the ones that control stress
(including that kind of "environmental" stress caused by too little
sleep and bad diet). Ever notice how you always seem to get sick
when you can least afford to? At the completion of a big project,
or at the beginning of a holiday or weekend. It's your body dealing
with the after-effects of you overtaxing your system to achieve
something, whilst leaving your health behind.

Thankfully there are a number of things that you can do to beat the
lurgy this winter and keep your immune system in as great a shape
as you!

1. Get plenty of rest

This is obvious, and a regular feature of my "tips" lists! Let's
remember that I don't mean just sleep here. Unless you're taking
some time regularly to just have fun - whether it's reading,
writing, painting, socialising, or playing video games - you're
draining your life battery. Fun is really a recharge mechanism.
Laughing is a physical action that has a major effect on all those
stress hormones, in addition to being a reflection of a happier
inner state. Whack on a fave dvd when you're feeling low or
sluggish and wait for the feelgood to arrive!

2. Moderate exercise

Yup you guessed it - exercise is great for just about everything!
Regular, moderate exercise (both cardio and strength work) is
proven to boost your immunity in the long run. How it does it is
not quite certain, but there's definitely a benefit to the
increased blood flow which can stimulate movement of those immune
blood proteins and cells.

When you are sick however, moderate exercise can take a break - see
rule 1 above. Only then though! Cold and wet outside is not an
excuse to not keep moving!

3. Supplements and nutrition

There are a few natural food "medicines" that can help your immune
system.

* Yoghurt or probiotic supplements - these help improve levels of
good digestive bacteria, in turn having a beneficial effect on
disease resistance, digestion and weight control.

* Mushrooms - these have their own 'magic' in terms of boosting
your immunity. Shiitake and reishii are naturopathic remedies to
aid an ailing immune system, available in either the whole or
supplement form.

* Zinc and vitamin C - two supplements that can help boost your
immune system. Either taken in tab/capsule form, or from natural
sources like citrus fruits and berries (Vit C) or red meat /
shellfish (zinc)



Benching the bench press

 The bench press is one of the best mass-building exercises for
your chest, hands-down. Nothing beats the amount of weight you can
heft with both arms simultaneously pushing on a bar, which in turn
leads to the biggest gains.

It's not however the most spectacular exercise for shoulder health,
especially when done incorrectly, too frequently over too long a
time, or with poor strength balance around the shoulder joint.

* Every year it's suggested to take at least 6-12 weeks off the
bench press, if you've been doing it for more than a year already,
to let the soft tissues fully recover.

* Shoulder blade position 

(I hear clients groaning from here)  plays a big role in how
healthy this exercise is for your shoulders. 
In early phases it's best to train yourself to keep your shoulder
blades at least partially retracted (ie squeezed together behind
your back) whilst benching, to lengthen out tight chest muscles and
teach the movement. 
Once this is learned, it is far more beneficial to allow more
complete movement of the shoulder/shoulder blade/arm complex when
lifting. The bones and muscles around the shoulder were designed to
allow co-ordination in both pulling and pushing actions, and
long-term scapula retraction will end up leading to increased
chance of injury.
Cables, incline presses, push-ups and single hand dumbbells all
allow this co-ordination and should replace bench pressing at least
one week out of 6.
* The muscles that move the clavicle/scapula/humerus (the three
bones that articulate to form the "shoulder") should be kept in
relative strength balance. Charles Poliquin, a famous strength
coach, developed a picture of the ideal strength ratios around the
shoulder joint. For example, if you can bench press 100kg, you
should be able to do 8 behind-the-neck shoulder presses with about
67kg, or single-arm shoulder press with 29kg each hand, for about 8
reps.
Being out of balance around the shoulder joint is again more likely
to lead to damage, pain or injury.