Dr. Lofstrom finds that his serving as Vice President and Chief Operations Officer for a Tanzanian hospital construction project, fund-raising for such a venture, and over-seeing volunteer medical teams can be exhausting work. Add to that a couple of collapsed vertebrae stabilized with rods, pins and screws and one has the recipe for a throbbing headache and a heavy heart. A water exercise program helps him cope.

Each day Dr. Lofstrom faces the challenge of serving as the Medical Officer in charge of a twenty-two building complex for which he had the vision and designed each structure. He suffers from painful lower and upper back problems. His upper back is compromised with scoliosis bending like a “C”, and kyphosis, bending forwards from a neck injury suffered from a diving accident while still in college. Being able to exercise each day with the AquaJogger Traveler keeps Dr. Lofstrom in good cardiac health without stressing the injuries in his back and maintains good range of motion for his other joints. The aches and pains of his eighty-two-year-old body are alleviated by a daily dip in his make-shift pool.

His wife, Paula, (no age-telling data here!) who is administrative assistant and chief cook, is concerned with weight watching and energy sustainability. She does an aerobic workout daily and likewise maintains good muscle tone and range of motion. Both have found their sessions in the water a blessing.

Their active lives have always been focused on health. While attending a Missions Conference in Moline, Illinois in the early 1940s, Denny Lofstrom, M.D. decided, at age thirteen, to become a medical missionary. After receiving his degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School and a three-year stint in Family Practice in Pine River, MN., he headed to Tanzania, where he served as Doctor-in-Charge of Kiomboi Hospital for four years (1958-1962). He returned to the United States, took a residency in Pathology at the University of MN., and then subsequently opened his own pathology lab in Brainerd, MN. and labored there for ten years. Further medical positions included work in cardiopulmonary medicine with the V.A. system and Emergency Medicine.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Dr. Lofstrom and Paula, a Licensed Practical Nurse, made ten trips to Guatemala doing mission medicine with HELPS, International.

The dawn of the twenty-first century promised retirement, but another summons appeared on the horizon. In 2001 they got a call from Mary Ellen Kitundu asking them to go to Iambi Hospital in Tanzania to do a ten-week assessment. Denny and his wife fell in love — not with the glamour of Africa’s game parks and safaris — but with the warmth of the native people, who were fighting such odds of desperation. So many in need of so much! They wrote a Five Year Development Plan and were asked to implement and finance it.

The demands of such a chosen profession are extreme. Yet both Denny and Paula have found relief, renewal, and rejuvenation in the forgiving environment of water suspension, aided by an AquaJogger. Could the same activity help you?

For more information on their project, contact:
Paula Lofstrom, LPN
Administrative Coordinator
International Health Partners US & TZ
Nyakato, Tanzania
paula@ihptz.org
www.ihptz.org

I have been using the AquaJogger for over ten years. I started using an AquaJogger after having surgery because I had a case of severe tennis elbow. Then two years ago, I had knee surgery, I have been using AquaJogger every day and I love it, thanks to the AquaJogger I am back playing tennis. I am very grateful to have found something that is absolutely great. I have ever since been recommending it to everybody. Now I live in Muscat Oman and thanks to my recommendations other people are using it. I am very grateful to the AquaJogger people for having such a great product.

Sincerely Yours,
Mireya Ponce from Muscat Oman

From Oregon

John limped to the side of the pool where he put on his AquaJogger and slowly lowered himself slowly into the water. He commented that if it wasn’t for these water workouts, he didn’t know what he would do. A severe low back sprain, suffered in a fall while running a trail near Newberg, Oregon, had changed his life. Instead of being a relatively fit athlete in his late twenties, he found himself in constant pain which interfered with his ability to make a living and brought sleepless nights as well. Drugs and various medical treatments were not bringing relief and with financial resources running low, he found hope at the Chehalem Pool in Newberg.

At first, all he could do was take a few steps in the shallow end of the pool. After a couple of months, he progressed to running in deep water suspended by an AquaJogger buoyancy belt. John now spends up to an hour each day running back and forth in the deep end of the pool. The pain reportedly all but disappears during his work-outs and fatigue from the sessions helps him get some sleep. Progress is slow but steady and has given him hope. After all, he reported, “I actually was able to jog on land a few minutes the other day and I felt like a kid who had just gotten his driver’s license.”

Another tool in overcoming the malice of gravity is inversion therapy. It is synergistic with a water exercise program and adds its own benefits. The best one we have come across is one called The Back Revolution. They have a great story. Check it out.

By Antigone Cook

SPLASH! Ahhhh… Feeling less like a bulky washing machine and more like a gazelle the moment you enter the warm water.

Let’s face it, pregnancy can wear you out! The weight of your newly expanding belly pulls on your back muscles and the extra pounds make your feet ache. Even the thought of exercising makes you tired.

The good news is there are simple water exercises that can reap big rewards, both mentally and physically. Plus being in the water when you are pregnant just feels good!

Mentally: A water workout de-stresses you, encouraging moment-to-moment focus as you feel your arms and legs press through the liquid resistance. The water, especially if it’s warm, seems to have a soothing effect on your entire system. A big mental sigh, if you will!

Physically: Since water gives you up to 12 times the amount of resistance as land-based moves, you get more toning power for each movement. Specific benefits include:
Develop cardiovascular conditioning if you sustain the movements for 20-30 minutes (see the sample workout plan below)

• Improve your breathing technique, which you will use in labor
• Reduce ankle swelling
• Take the pressure off your bladder
• Reduce strain in your back muscles

The following is a great, quick workout that I found helpful during both my pregnancies. This routine can also be used for your “get back in shape after the baby” workout!

1. Find a pool where your feet don’t touch the bottom.
2. Strap the Aquajogger around your waistline (scoot the belt buckle below your belly button as your belly grows).
3. Rotate through the following moves 3-5 minutes at a time. Repeat at least 2 times through.

• Cross-Country Ski. In an upright position, keeping your arms and legs straight, pretend you are cross-country skiing. Keep your spine long and your bottom tucked slightly under. The faster you go, the more resistance you get.
• Jumping Jacks. Start in a big “T” position with your legs together and arms out. As the legs “jump” out, the arms press to your sides. You will know if you have the arm and leg rhythm incorrect because you will “bounce” up and down in the water. Ideally you should stay at shoulder level at all times.
• Jogging. This one gives you a great, natural-feeling workout. Just jog forward at a brisk pace, then, try jogging backwards. You can use your hands to help propel you.

This workout was my own personal bliss. It was a quiet yet productive time I would use to get my body and mind in shape for that most special athletic event – labor!

Good luck and enjoy!

Contributed by Antigone Cook of Life Integrated Fitness. She is a 25-year veteran instructor of water exercise, Pilates, and walking workouts. Antigone utilized water exercise in the pre and post natal programs of two pregnancies. Check out her website for guided Walking, Pilates and Healthy Back workouts you can do in your home or take with you while you travel. http://www.lifeintegratedfitness.com

Do you ever feel like your fitness goals are out of your reach? At AquaJogger®, we often hear inspiring stories from people who had once given up on their quest and then found hope in the forgiving environment of water.

Example: A women called our office to say that she finally was able to lose those extra pounds by combining deep water exercise with her diet. In her case, it was one hundred extra pounds!

A retired gentleman injured his back and was confined to bed where, due to his inactivity, he gained seventy pounds. His wife feared that his life was over until his physician recommended deep water exercises with an AquaJogger®. The wife phoned to report that her husband was now back on his feet, had lost the seventy pounds, and they had just returned from walking the Great Wall of China.

A runner contacted us to say that, after years of feeling beat up and sustaining injuries from over-training, she decided to substitute water running for some of the land sessions. She commented that running was fun again and that after years of being stuck at a plateau she had improved her personal record in the marathon by ten minutes. “I ran probably 50% less distance this time and improved that much. Sweet.”

Click here for a free download of the Water Running Handbook.

One unforgettable call came from a lady who claimed that an AquaJogger® had “saved her life”. She explained that she was a psychologist and was recently devastated by the news that her only daughter had been killed in an accident. The depression that followed included thoughts of suicide and she knew that it was critical that she find a way to combat the growing intensity of despair. By chance, she wandered by a pool where a deep water exercise session was going on and decided to join it. She recalled that from the moment she entered the water and was suspended by the AquaJogger®, she knew that this was the environment she needed to work though her pain. The feeling of weightlessness, the embrace of the water, and freedom from stress helped relieve the tensions of her mind and body and opened the path to her recovery.

Has AquaJogger® improved you life? Send us your story. It will give others hope.

Although water is the oldest rehabilitation modality, few understand the magnitude, variety, and rapidity of its healing effects. Yet much research over the centuries validates these effects, and recent research adds further understanding:The aquatic environment produces physiologic changes that help remove metabolic waste, improve cardiac function, lower blood pressure, and assist the body in tissue healing.

In regard to the circulatory system, Dr. Becker stated that: “Immediately after a person is immersed, water begins to exert pressure on the body…Central venous pressure rises with immersion to the chest and increases until the body is completely immersed… Cardiac volume increases by nearly one-third with immersion to the neck…Since the ultimate purpose of the heart is to pump blood, its measure of performance is the amount of blood pumped per unit of time.” This is called cardiac output and “submersion in water to the neck depth increases cardiac output, 32% at rest.” “Therefore the claim that water exercise is not aerobically efficient is faulty. In fact, it may be the ideal cardiovascular conditioning medium.”

“Like the circulatory system, the pulmonary system is profoundly affected by immersing the body to the thorax. Part of the effect is due to blood shifting into the chest cavity, and part is due to compression of the chest wall. The combined effect alters pulmonary function, increases the work of breathing, and changes respiratory dynamics. In fact, expiratory reserve volumes decrease by 75 percent at neck immersion, with vital capacity decreasing only slightly …The combined effects of these changes increase the total work of breathing by 60 percent. Thus for an athlete used to land-based exercise, water-based exercise is a significant workload challenge to the respiratory apparatus. If water training time is sufficient, this challenge can improve the respiratory system’s efficiency.”

“Water immersion positively affects the musculo-skeletal system as well, particularly with vasoconstriction. On land, for instance, sympathetic vasoconstriction tightens the resistance vessels of the skeletal muscle to resist blood pooling. But in water, immersion pressure removes the biologic need for vasoconstriction, thus increasing muscle blood flow. In fact, resting muscle blood flow increases by 225 percent during neck immersion”

“Aquatic immersion creates many effects upon renal blood flow and the renal regulatory systems. For instance, the flow of blood to the kidneys increases immediately upon immersion, which produces an increase in urine production, as well as sodium and potassium excretion. Sodium excretion also increases as a function of depth due to the shifting of circulating central blood volume.”

Immersion up to the neck during deep water running is often utilized for its conditioning effect.” Although some controversy exists about the optimal training program for athletes who need joint off-loading during a recovery period, it is known that aquatic exercise can indeed increase conditioning in that population. In fact, water running equals land running in its effect upon maintaining VO2 max. When training intensities and frequencies are matched.”

“Similarly, when aquatic exercise is compared with land-based equivalent exercise in its effect upon maximum gains in VO2 in unfit individuals, aquatic exercise achieves equivalent results.”

“Water-based exercise programs may be used to sustain or increase aerobic conditioning in athletes who need joint offloading… Studies, have shown excellent cross-over benefits.”

Through understanding the principles and benefits of aquatic physics, coaches, trainers, athletes and rehabilitation clinicians can design aquatic programs that complement and enhance land-based programs to provide increased levels of fitness and function.

Dr. Bruce E. Becker, MD. became Medical Director of St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute in May 1999. A graduate of Tulane University School of Medicine, Dr.Becker completed his residency training in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Washington. He was an associate professor at Wayne State University School of Medicine as well as Residency Program director for the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation there. He also served as vice president of Medical Affairs for the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, 1992-1998. Dr. Becker was in private practice with Rehabilitation Medicine Associates in Eugene, Oregon, where he founded the Oregon Rehabilitation Center, and served as its Medical Director for many years.

Most of us have read or heard about recent research that tells us to keep active both physically and mentally if we want to keep our brain healthy and reduce the onset of disease such as Alzheimer’s. Water exercise, and specifically buoyancy-assisted exercise, presents an ideal environment to gain these benefits.

Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System tested the effects of aerobic training in a clinical trial with Thirty-Three women and men diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, often a prelude to Alzheimer’s disease.

Twenty-three randomly selected volunteers, began an intense program of aerobic exercise, spending 45 to 60 minutes on a treadmill or stationary bike four days a week. The remaining 10, the study’s control group, spent the same amount of time performing non-aerobic stretching and balance exercises.

After six months, the aerobic exercisers showed significant gains in mental agility, while the non-aerobic group showed continuing decline in tests of thinking speed, fluency with words, and ability to multi-task.

Most anyone can gain the benefits of getting their heart rate up to aerobic and anaerobic levels with buoyancy-assisted exercise. Jogging and running without pounding or impact upon hips, knees and ankles to support the body opens the door and raises activity levels to where they do the most good.

Aerobic exercise probably protects the brain in several ways. It builds heart and artery resilience, which boosts blood flow to the brain. Exercise keeps energy metabolism stable, preventing and even reversing diabetes. Exercise also relieves stress, preventing damaging chain-reactions unleashed by the build-up of stress hormones. Being suspended in the water provides an ideal stress-free and relaxing environment to achieve aerobic exercise these benefits.

While it remains unknown whether fitness training can prevent Alzheimer’s, many scientists firmly believe it is more likely to help than existing pharmaceuticals or supplements, which have failed to show preventive effects in clinical trials.

Because lifestyle factors seem to lower the risk, some researchers suspect that physical fitness, overall health and mental stimulation provide a buffer, or reserve, that allows the brain to withstand more damage and still function normally.

Dr. Michael Mega, a neurologist and neuroscientist with the Providence Brain Institute in Portland, said the Seattle study fits with the emerging view that heart health and brain health go hand in hand.
Products that aid buoyancy-assisted exercise:

Buoyancy belts | Hand gear | Footgear | Sqoodles

This series on peak performance in sports and life will highlight ways you can utilize the water environment in bringing your best effort to the task at hand. Preparation begins long before the competition. If you want to arrive at your event with mind and body ready for optimal performance, you must take charge of the preparation process.

Dr. Scott Pengelly, PhD, a pioneer in sports psychology whose work dates back to the 1976 Olympics, has played a key role in athletes achieving success as well as failure. He advocates that you “know your body and listen to what it tells you”. Dr. Pengelly warns that a primary adversary will be what he refers to as “laws of human behavior”. 1) The Body always wins. 2) The Body never lies (although we suspect it does, especially when we don’t want to hear about it, and 3) an exception will be made in my case. (In fact, I am so confident this will happen, I have already made other plans). Do you see any of yourself in this observation?

Motivated athletes face the challenge of surviving their training schedule. Paying close attention to feedback from the body can signal an injury or system overload which will lead to overtraining and produce negative returns. Explore ways you can take the impact out of the training process by including a water running component into your training schedule. Tips on how to do this are available as a free downloadable PDF water running handbook. The DVD, Take It to the Water goes into even more detail on this process and provides information that can help you get the most out of your conditioning program and reduce injuries.

Unfortunately some of the most debilitating injuries, such as stress fractures and joint injuries, often don’t send out a very loud signal before they fail. Dr. Stan James, M.D., a world renowned specialist in sports related orthopedic surgery, recommends that you adjust your training schedule to take into consideration the fact that the skeletal system and its connectors are one of the slowest adjustments of the training process. Most athletes outrun the skeletal recovery rate and pay the price. “Training errors” keep surgeons, like Dr. James, in business. He recommends athletes “train smart” and consider “the least amount of training that maximizes conditioning results” as opposed

Jeff Galloway, an All-American collegiate athlete and a member of the 1972 US Olympic Team in the 10,000 meters, is still successfully competing as a masters runner 37 years later. His remarkably long career has included wins at distances ranging from the mile to the marathon. Philosophically, Jeff believes that we were all designed to run and walk, and he keeps finding ways to bring more people into the positive world of exercise. His innovative ideas have opened up the possibility of running to almost everyone.

Jeff has long been an advocate and a beneficiary of water running. Finding your ideal workload and combining the best of land and water running is a proven path to success. Learn more about how to integrate water running into your program with this free downloadable water running manual.

Jeff’s training schedules have inspired the second wave of runners and marathoners who follow the Galloway RUN-WALK-RUN™, low mileage, three-day a week programs resulting in an over 98% success rate.

Check out Jeff’s web site and sign up for his free newsletter. This teacher and road warrior has made it his quest to help others enjoy and excel in their running. Whatever your fitness level, you will find programs, books, and clinics to bring the success you seek.

Go for it. http://www.jeffgalloway.com/training/index.html