Mark's Blog

We have all seen the advertising buzz words and ploys for 8 week, 12 week, and 90 day programs. How many of those people featured in the ads aren’t fitness models? What percentage of people that do these programs reach the Adonis like body’s portrayed in the ads? What happens after the 8 weeks or 90 days when the program is over? Can you realistically keep eating the way the programs call for? How do you continue with your exercise program? What do you do next? ANSWERS WITHIN!

I’m going to share something with my readers that I really think, deep down, they already know…….There is NO quick fix for your health and fitness. There also is no quick fix for someone’s appearance, other than plastic surgery of course, and even that has no guarantee.

Your health, physical fitness, and quality of life are all intertwined together. Why would you want to take short cuts to goals that will most likely only end up being a short term success and not turn into a life long habit? Do not get caught up in hype! Hard work and conditioning your brain is the answer. Our brains have already been conditioned – conditioned by slick advertising and by society. Conditioned to look for the quick way out, the easy way to reach our goals, and more often than not, those avenues that appear to be quick and easy will not produce long lasting success.

So what do you do if you aren’t going to try some quick fix 8 week, 12 week or 90 program? Start using your head and cut out the fast food, eat out less often, start packing your lunch for work, don’t buy so many prepared foods, stop drinking soda, cook more for yourself, eat breakfast every day, cut down on the alcohol consumption, take the stairs, don’t look for the closest parking space, and exercise on a regular basis.

Your money will be better spent finding a local trainer to develop a personalized program for YOU. A trainer that you can check in with occasionally if you choose not to see him or her on a regular basis, a trainer that will have a new program waiting for you at the end of the program you are currently doing. But don’t solely rely on a trainer either – read and research fitness instead of watching hours of TV at night after work. If you don’t want to join a gym, get a group of friends and or co-workers together and form a team for local intramural sports. Walk your dog every day for at least an hour and a bonus is your dog will stay in shape too!

My main point with this whole article is that quick fixes aren’t long lasting, otherwise they wouldn’t be categorized as quick fixes. How many people would sign up for 50 year program? Well, that’s what we all need to do – the lifelong, evolving program to truly be successful and healthy.

Just an example of what you can find if you just look.
www.findsportsnow.com

http://eatthis.menshealth.com/home

“Fitness is the ability to be able to do what you love.”

Whether “what you love” is riding your motorcycle or looking for Sasquatch and everything in between,being physically fit makes those activities that much easier and more enjoyable. Fitness will also ensure that you can do all of those things you love no matter what your age may be.

“Stress kills.”

We’ve all heard it so many times that, anymore, we really don’t hear it. But I can help with that if you give me a minute. See, there’s not one, but two people inside of us (some folks, way more!).

One of the two is driven to run through our health budget like a teenager with Mom & Dad’s credit cards. The other lives only to pay off those cards: to remain solvent –and healthy.

These are the “Autonomic Twins.” The first is named the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS). The second is the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS).

Under SNS dominance, we are in what we experience as our “fight or flight” mode of being. It’s what empowers us to temporary superhuman strength and oblivion to pain.

In the extreme, this condition exists to ensure our survival …or die trying. But living in unabated sympathetic dominance -pretty much our way of life these days- leads to the compromise and demise of many vital organs: Think strokes, heart attacks, kidney failure, immune deficiency, etc. (three or four “et ceteras” would be unseemly, but not an overstatement).

This is why we hear that stress and its offspring, fear and anxiety, kill: They can and do. So, if whatever stresses us doesn’t kill us, our response to it can finish the job! But….

With our PNS running the show, legions of cells and an array of metabolic processes hop to the business of fixing all the damage, rebuilding & restoring us, and letting us feel things like safety and love. Can we control it? True believers rail on either side of the Autonomic Nervous System argument. But believe this: It’s like you’ve got two guard dogs inside – YOU decide which to unleash.

I see a hand in the back of the room…? Oh, yes: about pre-operative massage!

Consider how our “guard dogs” view an upcoming surgery: Strangers dressed against the mess in overalls, hats, masks, and gloves; menacing machines and lights, tubes and wires, needles and knives; and the first order of business is to paralyze us via a partial death!!!

This is not the time to tell your SNS “fight or flee” dog to heel. Too late. He’s already crashing about inside, already causing damage to tissues and organs and systems you‘re going to be counting on for recovery!

It IS the time to have your PNS cuddle-pup nuzzling your hip, calmly watching everything and faithfully reminding you with those big brown eyes that everything’s OK.

Here’s where, again, I come to the question of “Why Massage” (please see previous column for more).

A long, slow, soothing massage via trustworthy hands, atop a comfortable bed, swathed in warm linens, with soft lighting and music and the occasional reminder, “Let it go; Just breathe,” is the gold standard procedure for bringing body and mind into Parasympathetic Dominance.

We cannot serve two masters; we cannot walk both dogs.

Massage is an elegant and dependable trigger of the profound physiological and emotional relaxation response. And THIS is the way to enter the operative suite or clinic:

Relaxed,
Assured,
Ready to Heal.

Paul Royer RN LMT can be seen in Akron at 1101 W Portage Trail Ext (rear offices at Coach Campana’s) … and at Paul’s home office 10 minutes south of Montrose, just off S.R. 21 outside of Doylestown. He may be reached by:

Phone 330.608.0490

E-mail PaulRoyer1@mac.com

I normally like to keep my blog posts original, either my own content or from a contributor. However, this is information that is too good not to pass on.

You may have to cut and paste these links into your browser window.

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/your-fat-causing-cancer-pt-1

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/your-fat-causing-cancer-pt-2

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/your-fat-causing-cancer-pt-3

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/your-fat-causing-cancer-pt-4

Why Massage?

From the get-go I want anyone who’s come upon this site looking for an ally in physical enhancement, maintenance, or recovery to know: You can stop looking. Mark is simply the most thoughtful, practical, and effective trainer you will find.  (He asked me to delete this opening, but it’s information you should have).

Then too, before I get started with the answer to my title question, let me offer you a truth that simply cannot be overstated.

You know the PDR?  That 15 pounds of paper clad in blue (alternate years, red) hardboard? It’s there holding down your Doctor’s desk -“Physician’s Desk Reference,” after all. It contains advertising for the complete AMA-approved pharmacopoeia from which your physician may choose pills for whatever ails you.

Now that you know that, know this: The PDR contains nothing as safe, effective, and dependable as well-considered regimes of nutrition and physical activity.  Don’t throw it away, mind you, but don’t ever believe that it’s the first place to turn for -or holds the answer to- all your health issues!

There. Now that’s out of the way, I can talk about myself –sort of.

A Registered Nurse with 14 years in the hospital setting, I bring all that taught me to my current 15-year calling. Ever grateful for a degree in Psychology, it helps me and my patrons navigate more issues than you might first think.  A Reiki master, I am, again, grateful to have aboard many techniques and understandings of the ways of Spirit in its interplay with our physical experience.  Lastly, as a masseur with advanced training and licensure by our State Medical Board, I look forward to getting out of bed (most days) and coming to work for the thing it seems I was put her to do.

Two kinds of people come to my table: 1) Folks that need to … and 2) Folks that want to.

The first group comes because of a work injury, an auto accident, an old condition flare-up, an ache or pain their doc has offered a painkiller and/or muscle relaxer for (and, in their heart, they know there’s gotta be a better way), or even a bedroom injury (we call them “sports injuries”) … basically, some new or old physical insult that leaves them too aware that they are no longer 16 years old!

The second group arrives knowing from past experience that thoughtful and skillfully applied bodywork can yield the next best thing -a body and mind-set that feels easy and timeless.

The first group, usually after trying other modalities, finds that a decidedly low-tech person-to-person approach (with someone willing to hear and feel their problem, and using pretty much just hands and a collection of straight-forward techniques to facilitate the body’s healing potential) is, frankly, difficult for medical science to improve upon.

The second group comes through my door already feeling better (much because they’re regular patrons of body work) than the first group, but looking forward to the experience that is best likened to how better our computers “feel” after we’ve removed the mal-ware, updated the software, de-fragged, cleared operational errors, and re-booted the machine so all functions are released to function at design specifications.

Speaking in computer-ese, the hardware, we know as our body. The software (mostly working without our knowledge) is the programming held in our nervous system and brain.

The computer analogy of “re-booting” is MY favorite part of massage. And it’s why I do everything I can to get myself on the table weekly: Because everything -sleep, immunity, balance, ease of movement and freedom from aches & pains, sense of wellbeing, focus, state of mind, etc.- is heightened by it.

Regular massage? You’ll stay ahead of the slings and arrows of daily life … and reserve a seat above the rat race.

Occasional problem-oriented massage? A healthy choice.

That’s “Why massage?”

Paul Royer (RN LMT) can be seen in Akron at 1101 W Portage Trail Ext (offices in rear at M Campana Fitness) … and at Paul’s home office 10 minutes south of Montrose, just off S.R. 21 outside of Doylestown. He may be reached by:

Phone @   330.608.0490

E-mail @   PaulRoyer1@mac.com

You see advertisements all of the time for the newest diet fad. Everyone that you know, knows someone or have themselves done one of these diets and had success. Everyone always wants to know what “diet” they should do to lose weight.

First of all, pick something and stick to it. Do not combine advice from 3 different sources and piece together some random food plan. And sure,one of these fad diets may work in the short term but after you have lost your weight,then what? How do you maintain this current weight? What did you learn from this “diet”plan that you can do for the rest of your life? If I were a betting man id wager that these “diets” do nothing to prepare anyone for long term success. The majority of people always end up gaining the weight back.

First of all,if you could look the way you want to in a mirror and fit into the clothes you want to wear,then who cares what your weight is. Weight is not as important as your body composition. Body composition meaning the percentage of your body that is made up by fat. Second, eat right all of the time,not just when you decide you’re “too heavy.” I truly  believe that we all know the difference between a healthy and an unhealthy food choice.

So my bottom line with this short article is to use your head. Stop buying into all of these quick fixes. Make a conscious decision to simply pick healthier foods. We don’t need special books or diets to know how to eat healthy, just common sense and a little willpower.

Posted from my DROID.

How old you are chronologically isn’t as important as how old you are physiologically when it comes to fitness and overall health. I personally know people that are 60 years old that are in better physical condition than people half their age. How you take care of your body and what you put into it as fuel largely contributes to this point.

Putting it simply with terms we all know, “use it or lose it,” and “you are what you eat.”

For example, if you sit on your butt and eat junk food, chronologically you may only be 25, but physiologically you’re more like 50. This “person” is over fat, out of shape, has sore joints, stiff muscles and a heart that beats like crazy if you ask it to help you climb some stairs.

Now on the other side of our example, the person that “uses it,” and exercises regularly, and eats well, they can turn those numbers around and chronologically be 50, but physiologically be in their mid to late twenty’s.  They will have more energy, this person can climb stairs with ease and don’t have  aching bodies from doing nothing.

So what will YOU do tonight after sitting at a desk all day? Go home and sit on your couch while eating garbage food? Or will you get in some exercise and make some good choices on what you will eat for dinner? Make the right choices to feel young and full of energy!

Perfect examples of the chronological vs. the physiological  ages are shown below. These two individuals ages 34 (male) and 30 (female), are in better shape and have greater skill than their counterparts that are 10 and 15 years younger. Why? They eat well and exercise regularly! (Thanks for modeling Meaghan!)

Mark Campana had the honor to lead his Alma Mater”s football team onto the field this past weekend at  Kent State University”s Homecoming game.

Working out and motivating yourself can be hard at times. However training with a friend can be the motivation you both need. We always seem to work  harder when working out with a friend. We push each other to improve, motivate one another, hold each other accountable and keep one another on track. So if you find yourself slacking a bit with your fitness goals, call up a buddy and plan your workouts together!

At the end of a 4 mile hike in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and a 45 minute kettle bell workout in my living room, my American Bulldog Tammy and I are ready for a good meal and some relaxing.