15 July 2010 II

Knee: I had my final doctor’s appointment today. I was able to hear was was actually done:
1. My knee cap was shaved
2. Damaged parts of my outside front and inside bad meniscus was cut away (no sewing)
3. Damaged parts of the cartilage on my lower thigh bone (articular cartilage) were cut away.

Now I meet with the PT tomorrow to be educated on the exercises I am supposed to be doing.

Swimming: he doesn’t want me in the water until August 9 (to keep the wounds from being infected). Oh well; that should give my shoulder a nice long time to heal up, if I am smart about it.

So, I hope to start the stationary bike this weekend, leg weights (as the PT allows) and light upper body weights and yoga classes when I can knee down without pain.

Physical Fitness It turns out that when it comes to heart disease, it isn’t just working out that matters. It is reducing the amount of “still time”; you really need to move around and “do” stuff:

Recently, however, scientists from the University of South Carolina and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., parsed the full data. In a study published in May in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, they reported that, to no one’s surprise, the men who sat the most had the greatest risk of heart problems. Men who spent more than 23 hours a week watching TV and sitting in their cars (as passengers or as drivers) had a 64 percent greater chance of dying from heart disease than those who sat for 11 hours a week or less. What was unexpected was that many of the men who sat long hours and developed heart problems also exercised. Quite a few of them said they did so regularly and led active lifestyles. The men worked out, then sat in cars and in front of televisions for hours, and their risk of heart disease soared, despite the exercise. Their workouts did not counteract the ill effects of sitting.

Most of us have heard that sitting is unhealthy. But many of us also have discounted the warnings, since we spend our lunch hours conscientiously visiting the gym. We consider ourselves sufficiently active. But then we drive back to the office, settle at our desks and sit for the rest of the day. We are, in a phrase adopted by physiologists, ‘‘active couch potatoes.’’

The amount of time that most Americans spend being inactive has risen steadily in recent decades. A 2009 editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine reported that, on average, adults spend more than nine hours a day in oxymoronic ‘‘sedentary activities.’’ For studies like these, scientists categorize activities by the number of METs they demand. A MET, or metabolic equivalent of task, is a measure of energy, with one MET being the amount of energy you burn lying down for one minute. Sedentary behaviors demand one to one and a half METs, or very little exertion.

Personally, I stand when I teach, take stairs, take quick walks, pace, etc. Sitting still really irritates me.

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