Second Hand Smoke

Smoking ban leads to major drop in heart attacks
By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer Mike Stobbe, Ap Medical Writer – Wed Dec 31, 6:06 pm ET
ATLANTA – A smoking ban in one Colorado city led to a dramatic drop in heart attack hospitalizations within three years, a sign of just how serious a health threat secondhand smoke is, government researchers said Wednesday. The study, the longest-running of its kind, showed the rate of hospitalized cases dropped 41 percent in the three years after the ban of workplace smoking in Pueblo, Colo., took effect. There was no such drop in two neighboring areas, and researchers believe it's a clear sign the ban was responsible.
The study suggests that secondhand smoke may be a terrible and under-recognized cause of heart attack deaths in this country, said one of its authors, Terry Pechacek of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At least eight earlier studies have linked smoking bans to decreased heart attacks, but none ran as long as three years. The new study looked at heart attack hospitalizations for three years following the July 1, 2003 enactment of Pueblo's ban, and found declines as great or greater than those in earlier research.
"This study is very dramatic," said Dr. Michael Thun, a researcher with the American Cancer Society.
"This is now the ninth study, so it is clear that smoke-free laws are one of the most effective and cost-effective to reduce heart attacks," said Thun, who was not involved in the CDC study released Thursday.
Smoking bans are designed not only to cut smoking rates but also to reduce secondhand tobacco smoke. It is a widely recognized cause of lung cancer, but its effect on heart disease can be more immediate. It not only damages the lining of blood vessels, but also increases the kind of blood clotting that leads to heart attacks. Reducing exposure to smoke can quickly cut the risk of clotting, some experts said.
"You remove the final one or two links in the chain" of events leading to a heart attack, Thun said.
Secondhand smoke causes an estimated 46,000 heart disease deaths and about 3,000 lung cancer deaths among nonsmokers each year, according to statistics cited by the CDC.

Read more on this article here.click

The Police and Bad Diets

Don't wait for your new year's resolution to start eating right. DO IT NOW!

• Lay off the fast food-eat before you leave for work. Pack your lunch with lean meats, natrual complex carbs and fruits like apples, oranges and bananas. Skip the mayo and cheese on your sandwich. Skip the chips and fries.


• Wake up and burn some calories. Hit your workout first thing in the morning. Once it is done you don't have to worry about running out of time later in the day. If you don't schedule a workout, it doesn't exist-you have to make time.


• Don't wait-start now. Don't start Monday or next week start now. Follow an eating schedule.

example

6:30am breakfast

9:30am morning snack

12:30pm lunch

3:30pm afternoon snack

6:30pm dinner

10, 15, 20 INCREASING REP SETS

A different twist in how to structure you sets, the "increasing rep" method can help you breach a door or a plateau in your training. Here is how it works:

First, pick a weight that you can only lift 10 times with good form.

Then, go down in weight so that you can complete 15 good reps.

Your third set should have a weight that you can lift with 20 reps.

If you are in good shape and need a few extra sets then do each step twice (2 sets at 10 reps, 2 sets at 15 reps, etc.), you may not be able to complete the second set in the the group, but that's ok.

You have to change things up to make true progress.......CHALLENGE YOURSELF!!!

Help your PFT Sit-ups and Pull-ups

Timed workouts can help increase your numbers on PFTs and are great for increasing strength.

Timed Workout (no rest, or resting in the ready postion only)
Repeat twice:- 1 minute of push-ups- 1 minute of sit-ups

Repeat three times:- 30 seconds of push-ups- 30 seconds of sit-ups,

Repeat four times:- 15 seconds of push-ups- 15 seconds of sit-up

Once this becomes easy, increase the times X2.

If you are lifting or exercising regularly you can just add a timed workout like this in your program twice a week and you will see a difference in your scores. If you are not working out regular and are just interested in improving your numbers in these two areas, doing something like this 3 times a week can make you improve and get you use to performing under the clock.

Pull-up advice

A lot of officers ask me about how to improve their score on pull-up pfts. Although I have touched on it here before here are some actual exercises that can help.

The common denominators between men and women who can do pull-ups are that they practice them regularly and have lower bodyfat percentages. The best way to train to increase the number of pull-ups you can do is to do pull-ups until you are exhausted, every other day. Being able to do pull-ups effectively helps with lifts, negotiating obstacles, body drags, crawling and more.

NEGATIVE PULL-UPS

Negatives are great if you can only do a few actual pull-ups then burning yourself out with negatives can help get you to the next step. A negative is assisting yourself to the "up" position and allowing your body to slowly lower to the "down" position. The idea is to lower your body as slowly as possible fighting against gravity for at least a 5-8 count.

LAT PULLS

The next best thing to a pull-up is the lat pull machine. The problem I see with people doing lat pulls, pulling a ton of weight, is they are almost always doing it wrong. It is important to retract your shoulder blades, sticking out your chest continuously throughout the movement. For other words, before making that first movement retract your shoulder blades together, which causes your chest to stick out, a natural curve to the lower back is fine. Keeping these muscles retracted throughout the whole movement is key. It may feel like you are not getting a "full range of motion" keeping the rhomboids and traps contracted, but you are increasing the work required from your upper back. Chances are you will not be able to do the same heavy weight and you should not be pulling from your hips or lower back. Never pull the bar behind your head.

DURING THE WEEK

To start pick 2 days a week to hit the pull-ups hard. Work with negatives and lat pulls 4-5 sets of each. Each set should be until exhaustion or close to it. Rest about 2 minutes between sets. Don't forget to work your biceps once a week (much smaller muscle group), another important component of pull-ups. Pull-ups are rough, make sure to get enough rest between workouts.

Salad is always a good choice, right?

Chili’s Caesar Salad w/ Grilled Chicken & Caesar Dressing

1,010 calories

76 g fat (13 g saturated)

1,910 mg sodium

The top three words you never want to see sharing a space with “salad” on a menu: tuna, taco, and yes, the mighty Caesar. Consider that tangle of romaine a hapless vehicle for the troubling trinity of croutons, parmesan cheese, and viscous Caesar dressing. Chili’s version is the worst; the elephantine portion yields a salad with more fat than a dozen Oreo Ice Cream Sandwiches from Breyers.

Quizno’s Chicken with Honey Mustard Flatbread Salad

1,110 calories

74 g fat (14.5 g saturated)

2030 mg sodium

Surprised to see a Quizno’s salad with nearly as many calories as five packages of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups? Don’t be. Half the salads on the menu top 1,000 calories, and 330 of those calories come from the flatbread alone.

A better choice:

McDonald’s Premium Asian Salad with Grilled Chicken

300 calories

10 g fat (1 g saturated)

890 mg sodium

make sure to get a fat free dressing

Denny’s Grilled Chicken Salad

290 calories

10 g fat (5 g saturated)

770 mg sodium

One of the only things Denny's has going for it.

Fitness is Survival

Will you be able to do what is needed and still survive the fight?

Fitness is important

Supersets for Push-ups and Sit-ups
Repeat this cycle of exercises non-stop 5-10 times:
- Regular pushups - 10

- Regular situps - 10

- Wide pushups - 10

- Reverse Crunches - 10

- Close or Tricep pushups - 10

- Double crunches - 10

If you do this five times, you will have done 150 pushups and abdominal exercises in less than 15 minutes! Now that's a good foundation-building workout. You'll reach failure no matter who you are, only if you continue this workout for 10-15 times.

Push yourself without a gym!

The Spartan Run

A popular workout with special forces and military units overseas, The Spartan Run, represents a challenge that can be a fun and competitive way to workout.

The original:

• Run one mile


• 100 push-up, 100 sit-ups in as few sets as possible


• run one mile


• 75 push-ups, 75 sit-ups in as few sets as possible


• run one mile


• 50 push-ups, 50 sit-ups in a few sets as possible

Completed for time (equals 3 mile run, 225 push-ups and sit-ups)

It can be modified in almost any way, here is one of mine:

• run 2 laps


• 75 push-ups, 75 sit-ups


• run 2 laps


• 50 push-ups, 50 sit-ups


• run 2 laps


• 50 squats with olympic bar, 50 deadlifts with olympic bar

Completed for time (equals 1.5 mile run, 120 push-ups and sit-ups, 50 squats and deadlifts)

Have fun and push yourself.