PFTL NEWS August 2020
PFTL UPDATE
Our studio has been open since June 8. Several clients have come back, and slowly others are returning as they feel comfortable with our environment and precautions. We will continue to require masks for all people entering the studio. We are limiting the number of people in the studio at any one time to 7. We will continue to take temperatures and ask in writing about current symptoms. Hand sanitizers, disposable gloves, alcohol wipes are scattered throughout the facility.
All trainers are wiping surfaces and equipment both before and after being touched. Professional disinfecting and cleaning is done twice per week. No equipment that cannot be wiped easily will be available for use.
We hope we will see more clients return, but we understand that it is a very personal decision and we respect whatever our clients decide.
SELF-COMPASSION (excerpted from Fitbit.com June 21, 2020)
During these challenging times, when emotions tend to run high and change from moment to moment, a little compassion can go a long way. Not only can this kind of kindness benefit your interactions with others, but it may also help you manage any distress you feel. Really.
A practice called self-compassion has been shown to help reduce anxiety and depression, boost optimism, and even benefit your health. Put simply, self-compassion is “treating yourself with the same compassion, kindness, care, and support you would show to someone you care about,” explains. Kristin Neff, PhD, associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.
| Positive Self Behavior | Negative Self Behavior |
| We can choose to offer kindness to ourselves. | We can choose to judge ourselves. |
| We can choose to remember that we are part of a common humanity, which means to remember that all people struggle and know what it is like to hurt. | We can choose to isolate and think that no one else could understand |
| We can choose to mindfully recognize our experiences and what we can learn from them. | We can choose to over-identify with those emotions and let them take over. |
When we feel anxious, our sympathetic nervous system kicks in, and as our body goes into fight-or-flight mode, our levels of cortisol and adrenaline increase. Self-compassion, on the other hand, tips the scales in favor of the parasympathetic nervous system and taps into our mammalian care system, Neff explains. This leads to an increase in oxytocin, a hormone that makes us feel safe, secure, and cared for. Self-compassion also decreases cortisol and increases heart rate variability. “This signals you are flexible and ready to respond” to any perceived threat, Neff explains.
Self-compassion may also help if you’ve been feeling down, as research shows it may help depressive symptoms and rumination. “Depression is linked to being self-critical,” Neff says. But the mindfulness aspect of self-compassion may help you “step outside” of yourself and gain a clearer perspective rather than getting lost in negative thinking, while the connection aspect can help you see you’re not the only one in your situation. Combine that with self-kindness, and you may be able to overcome that critical, repetitive judge in your head.
HOW MUCH EXERCISE DO YOU GET FROM PLAYING GOLF? (from Golf.com/fitness July 14, 2020)
Before we go any further, it’s worth clarifying that it’s impossible to calculate the exact number of calories you may burn doing any of these things. It depends on all sorts of things, including the actual elevation of the course itself. Take these as ball-park numbers, which is what they’re intended to be:
Walking while carrying – No surprises here. Walking while carrying your golf bag is the best form of exercise golf can offer. Walking 18 holes equals about four undulating miles, and doing that while swinging and carrying your bag probably pegs your total calories-burned number to around 1,400, according to an experiment conducted by the Director of the Center for Health and Sport Science and reported on by the New York Times, and sometimes up to 2,000.
Walking while pushing a cart – Interestingly, walking with a push cart, according to the same New York Times article, actually burns a similar amount of calories as carrying, albeit a fraction less.
Walking with caddie – The simple act of walking and swinging, while employing a caddie to carry your sticks, is still a great form of exercise. A short blurb on Harvard’s website pegs that calories-burned figure at between 800 and 900 calories, but that article isn’t an official study itself and only quickly references unnamed “studies,” so it’s unclear what the exact number is, and could be closer to 1200 calories.
Riding a cart – Of course, while lots of golf snobs insist on walking only, doing so obscures three important factors:
- First, carts are good for golf, as NPR reports here, because they create added revenue for courses themselves: They enable golf facilities “to get more people on the course and get them around the course faster,” Steve Mona, CEO of the World Golf Foundation.
- Second, carts allow the game to remain more inclusive to many elderly golfers who may enjoy golf but don’t possess the ability to walk 18 undulating holes.
- And last but not least, because you’re still walking to and from (often elevated) tee boxes, and swinging your clubs, you still burn lots of calories playing golf with a cart — anywhere from between 800 to 1,300, according to a WGF study.
It’s safe to say golf is a fantastic form of exercise, so whatever you choose, play lots of it!
THE SIX BEST DOCTORS IN THE WORLD – SUNLIGHT, REST, EXERCISE, DIET, SELF-CONFIDENCE, FRIENDS