Pulse Oximeter Use by Athletes During Exercise

Athletes are truly individuals that devote their life for the wellness of their bodies and their health. They strive ever so hard in order to reach new heights of physical wellness and stamina. However, one of the problems that arises is the fact that athletes do not stop to measure their vital signs during extreme or intense exercise. This is critically important as many injuries or even life threatening injuries occur to absolutely healthy adults in situations of intense exercise due to the fact that the athletes didn't take the time to measure their vital signs in order to determine whether they are at a stable and healthy level.

For example, the individual may be on the treadmill exercising and preparing for a local marathon. They may determine that today might be the day that they need to especially increase the intensity of the exercise in order to meet certain thresholds of health and fitness in order to get ready for the marathon. Unfortunately what the athlete doesn't realize that pushing one's body to such an extreme may have serious health side effects and complications if the body's response to such exercise is not monitored closely. One big issue is that the athlete is not in any way monitoring their vital signs such as pulse rate and oxygen level. Pulse rate is in essence one of the most basic yet important vital signs that needs to be monitored in individuals. The pulse rate truly gives health professionals an indication of a specific level of health of individuals. A great device to use in order to monitor yourself during intense exercise is the use of a pulse oximeter.

A pulse oximeter is a health device that is used to measure pulse rate as well as blood oxygen saturation (SpO2). The oximeter utilizes infrared light that passes through the person's skin and comes back with a measurement of the pulse rate. Due to the fact that the blood-flow comes in and out of the tissues at differing levels then oximeter uses the infrared light to measure such differences and in turn comes back with a number which designates the pulse rate. On the other hand, blood oxygen saturation or SpO2 is representative of the percentage of oxygen in the hemoglobin or blood in your blood. This is an extremely important vital sign to not only monitor but also take care that it doesn't fall below unhealthy levels. The pulse oximeter instantly measures the blood oxygen saturation and reports back a number which will allow you to gauge whether you are at healthy levels or not. What athletes can do is quite innovative not only in the field of sports but also technology. The new generation of pulse oximeters are very small and portable. They are smaller than the size of the smallest cell phone on the market today and as such can be taken by the athlete where they desire to go. The athlete simply takes out the oximeter during exercise and by inserting their finger inside the device they can noninvasively get their pulse rate as well as Sp02 levels.

Matching the Upright and Recumbent Exercise Bikes

Bicycling has forever been considered as a superior exercise form. It gives you a workout by your wants, and carries you where you wish: the wood trails, the community park, or just about the block. As such, you get to enjoy the new sight as you cycle by. But when you want exercise yet is not able to leave home for whatever grounds, there is always the stationary bike. The exercise bike would give you as effective a workout as a regular bike, and as for the novel views, there is always the teevee or DVD player. The question now is which is the best alternative: an erect or a lounging bike.

How they compare
Apart from having only one wheel, an upright stationary exercise bike is formed similar to a regular bike. The rider sits erect as on a regular bicycle saddle, holding onto the handlebar, leaning a little forward. In contrast, with a reclining bike, the rider sits on a more comfortable, bigger and normally bucket-shaped seat situated after the wheel, while sprawled back. Here the seating pose and level usually are modifiable to match the rider's bodily dimensions.

Concerning the effects
When driving in a regular bike and sitting on the saddle, the rider's pose is a spot bent as the handlebar is forward. Hence the vertebrae is curved while its position is unusual, and the torso's weight is set on the buttocks. Also, if he should arise to pedal better, the torso's weight gets placed on the knee joints, adding stress and at times, pain.

These atypical positions are not taken up in exercising on a recumbent exercise bike. In pedaling, the rider employs just the muscles of his legs to exercise on the bike, and the trunk is supported by the reclining backrest and wide seat. This posture is apt for people with back difficulties, knee injuries, and obese persons just initiating their exercise program.

Which muscles get strengthened
While the upright and recumbent biking systems burn off calories and develop muscles, they differ a little in both issues. In the standard and upright exercise bike, the rider builds up usually only the quadriceps or the muscles in front of the upper legs, and the calves, those back of the lower legs, that he typically utilize to work the pedals.

Meanwhile, riding the recumbent exercise bike develops the same muscles as those improved by the upright bike, but also the hamstrings (back of the thighs), the stomach muscles if the position is fine-tuned accordingly, and the muscles in the buttocks.

The two methods of fixed exercise bikes vary only in minute ways, but they vary. Thus if you are planning to acquire one you could discover it is difficult to form a conclusion. So it is wise and prudent to check each form in a gym ahead of buying either, only to know which is more apt. But do not be surprised if you find you like the recumbent bike better. As many others did.

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Diet, Exercise and Heavy Metal Exposure

We are taught that to stay healthy means to eat less and exercise more. Yet one of the leading advertisements for a specific health condition states "... when diet and exercise are not enough..."

There is some truth to eating less and exercising more. The marketplace is full of dieting programs, food providers and best selling books. Most have a great deal of success. But we are still faced with a population that is increasingly overweight.

How many friends and family do all of us know that struggle with their weight? Why does a specific program or diet regiment work for one person but not another?

The solution seems to have as many variables as there are people. And maybe that is part of the answer. We are all the same in some respects but really different in other ways.

There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat may be a factor to our poor health and consequent weight problems. Generally we think of these things as being healthful and good for us. Nothing can be further from the truth.

Have you ever wondered why so many people seem to be ill? Illness and chronic disease seem to come from "out of the blue" and affect almost everyone. Is it hereditary? Are some people just prone to get sick? Is it "bad luck"? And what about being over weight?

From medical and dental services to packaging and storage containers to a host of products and services, the modern world we live in may be contributing to our declining health. Heavy metals and toxins are "leeching" into our environment and silently killing us.

Some believe that in the smallest of quantities these substances may be deemed safe. Although a lifetime of exposure to them can have a debilitating effect on each of us.

From the air to the water to the food, we consume these contaminates that are dealt with differently in our bodies. Some is discarded as waste. Still some may be "transferred" to the body's molecular and cellular structure.

Still others are "sequestered". This is the principle what the body cannot waste or transfers it stores in the fatty portions of our bodies. The growing waste circumferences, excess buttock and thigh mass may not be solely from a lack of exercise. It may be from the increasing "body burden" to substances we can not see or taste.

The resulting symptoms, which themselves may vary from simple cold or flu symptoms, to more complicated and degenerating symptoms, may mask the underlying cause. Though medical science may see the effect as one thing, the actual cause may not be so easy to discover.

Instead of treating the cause we are looking at the effect. As a result the symptom may be lessened in some degree while the condition goes on unabated.

Consequentially we take a medication or embark on a treatment to address one symptom that causes another. In dealing with that symptom we take another medication that causes yet another. Eventually the condition we started to treat is masked by other conditions that are the results of the medication we were prescribed. And so it goes on, unchecked and unresolved.

Worse still is to believe that diet and exercise will reduce the weight and the symptoms. Once the condition is allowed to persist it will take a bit more that eating right and moving around more.

The real solution lies not in a series of medications, or diet and exercise alone but in supplements and super-foods that increase our immune system and gives our body back the ability to fight off illness and disease. Treating the symptoms and not the underlying and sometimes hidden causes does not promote good health.

How do we deal with the underlying cause? Is there some product available that will take care of all of this?

The answer is no. There is no magic pill. There is no single product that taken properly will relieve us of these symptoms.

The real answer lies in developing a diet and exercise program that fits into our lifestyle, as well as a detoxification program that deals with the heavy metals and toxins that are silently killing us. But that is not all. We must stimulate and regenerate the body's ability to stay healthy, especially as we age.

We all must look at the following:

1. Control our diet! Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. Limit the intake of products that contain a lot of refined sugars (snack bars, sodas, deserts). Do more to consume a well rounded meal that includes carbohydrates, protein, fat and fiber rather than a "fast" one.

2. Exercise. Even a four or five mile brisk walk, done regularly, can have a positive impact on your weight and level of energy. A gym membership is not required. A discipline that can be committed to is!

3. Detoxify your body. Diet alone will not reduce contaminates that may have taken years to collect in our body's. Use a specific, targeted product that collects the heavy metals and toxins, and discards them as waste.

4. Bolster your immune system. The immune system is the first defense in fighting illness and preventing disease. A product rich in beta glucan can have remarkable results.

5. Replenish the vitamins and minerals your system needs to stay healthy. The heavy metals and toxins we have been exposed to may have drained our bodies of the healthy things that promote good health. Products that are water soluble or in liquid form are best.

6. Take care of your skin. It is the largest, exposed system of your body. Don't use products that contain petroleum distillates. Don't over expose in the sun.

7. Get plenty of rest. Sleep sometimes is overlooked when considering our overall health. Though the amount of sleep will vary from person to person, getting the right amount is very important.

8. Finally, use common sense. Moderation is a key lifestyle choice that is wholly up to each of us. Too much of anything will, in time, make us sick and lead to poor health.

Nothing in the above suggest an "instant" fix. What took time to develop will take time to resolve. A good, solid discipline will have the intended results.

In summary, we have stated that the answers to good health do not rest in diet and exercise alone. To be healthy also means dealing with contaminates that are in the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. That some of the symptoms we experience may not be "bad luck" or even hereditary but come from the modern world we live in. The solution is to be proactive and take control of our own health by controlling the things we can.

Getting "older" does not mean living with failing health. Make good choices and the results will be living a healthier and happy life.

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