Nutrition and Exercise 101
Exercise and healthy eating are symbiotic. Each one enhances the other. When I was fresh out of nutrition school, I believed that people involved 
in intense exercise knew how to eat well. Upon giving a presentation to a group of McGill triathletes, I found out how wrong this assumption was and still is. I came into the presentation prepared to give a lecture about nutrition, assuming everybody was well versed on the subject. I quickly realized my audience had no clue what I was talking about. I ditched the PowerPoint and gave them all a copy of Canada’s Food Guide and we started at ground zero.
Whether you are a seasoned athlete or a weekend warrior, proper nutrition is essential for performance. Let’s start with the basics. The main source of energy our bodies need to perform any task is sugar or glucose or carbohydrates. Without this important macronutrient, you will fall flat. It doesn’t matter if you are cardio enthusiast or a weight lifting fiend. Either way, your body needs carbohydrates for energy. The question is: which ones are good for you?
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Is Your Handbag Causing You All That Pain?
A new fashion trend is emerging, one that can cause more pain than you may realize – it’s those trendy, oversized bags (purses for women, and handbags for men) that wreak havoc on the human body.
There’s nothing wrong with being trendy. The trouble begins when you start loading up these bags with your laptop, wallet, shoes, cell phone, water bottle, magazine, make-up, and some work-related documents – and carrying all this everywhere.
Before you know it, there’s a nagging pain in the neck or shoulder that may even radiate down the arm. Carrying the extra weight may cause problems in two ways:
1. It pulls on a web of nerves that can cause aching or shooting pain from the neck down the arm.
2. Every time you sling your bag over your shoulder, the upper back muscles that stabilize the shoulder blade struggle to counterbalance that weight; eventually, they get overworked until a small movement like giving someone a hug or reaching for the phone causes sharp pain.
Carrying 10 extra pounds on one side of the body can cause the trunk to tilt sideways to compensate, causing more stress for your lower back. As the stiletto heel is to your foot, the designer handbag is to your upper back.
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How to Release a Frozen Shoulder
Frozen shoulder (also called adhesive capsulitis) is a common disorder that causes pain, stiffness and loss of normal range of motion in the shoulder. The resulting disability can be serious and the condition tends to get worse with time if it’s not treated. It affects mainly people ages 40 to 60—women more often than men.
We don’t fully understand the causes, but an inflammatory process is probably involved. Sometimes freezing occurs because the shoulder has been immobilized for a long time by injury, surgery or illness. In many cases, the cause is obscure. Fortunately, the shoulder can usually be unfrozen, though full recovery takes time—and lots of self-help.
The shoulder has a wider and more varied range of motion than any other part of the body. It pivots mainly on a ball-and-socket arrangement called the glenohumeral joint, which joins the top of the humerus (upper arm bone) to a scooped-out part of the scapula (shoulder blade) called the glenoid cavity.
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