The Ballwin Parks and Recreation department is dedicated to promoting healthy lifestyles. The facilities, alone, are excellent outlets for physical activity. The Pointe at Ballwin Commons, North Pointe Aquatic Center, Ballwin Golf Club, and featured parks all give the community ways to stay active. But did you know about some of the following programs?

Pointe personal trainer, Lucy Hey, is the guest author for this month’s installment. The following summarizes Metabolic Effects of Resistance Training (Zachary Mang, MS, Amber Logan, Fabiano T. Amorim, PhD, Len Kravitz, PhD), an article from the May 2019 ACE Fitness Journal.

Tracy and her husband, Kevin, moved to the St. Louis area in 1996. They have a passion for music and met 10 years earlier while playing in a jazz band. As a professional musician, Tracy played woodwind and percussion with traveling musicals and now continues to play and repair instruments through her business, The Baroque Instrument Shop. Shortly after their move, Tracy began to feel the affects of what was eventually diagnosed as neuropathy. This diagnosis and the leg pain and instability that comes with it caused Tracy to become inactive. This was a major change as she not only was active, but was a competitive swimmer reaching peak success as an alternate for the 1984 Olympic swim team.

“Stand up straight” and “don’t slouch in your chair” are a couple of phrases you may have heard in your youth. At the time, of course, you hadn’t a second thought about how you stood or sat. As time goes on these everyday activities, if done incorrectly, can result in back or neck pain.

Susannah and her family moved to Ballwin about seven years ago from Chicago to be closer to family. Her family joined The Pointe within the first year after the move and have been members ever since.

Charlie is a member through the SilverSneakers program for which The Pointe is a provider. He has been a regular patron for several years and usually is in six times per week. He gives credit to his late wife, Judy, for encouraging him to join and stay active.

Exercise has many documented benefits to general health and well-being. One of these benefits is better sleep. The cumulative effect is that better sleep, of course, helps us feel better and be more productive during the day. Even though the idea of physical activity for better sleep is simple, there are some individual experiments that can be done to make exercise more effective for improving sleep.

As generations go by and athletics for adolescents being as competitive and intense as ever, it’s important to re-visit potential results of pushing our kids too much.  Self-driven youth (as well as those driven by coaches, parents, etc.) feel pressure to succeed.  For some adolescents this can lead to unhealthy decisions and overtraining.  For females there are common results from these unhealthy training practices.  The term “Female Athlete Triad” was coined and defined in 1993 to describe the three commonalities.

Tom and his wife, Deborah, moved to Ballwin in 1997.  As soon as they discovered The Pointe they joined and have been members ever since. Tom notes that The Pointe has everything they need and for the fees is a great value.  Since moving they have gone from a couple membership to a family with their 17 year old son, Jack.

You may be thinking “Are you kidding me?” With all of the health problems that come with being overweight, why should we discuss how to gain weight? Athletes young and old prompt this discussion. Whether gaining weight to become more successful at a sport or simply for personal vanity, being bigger, faster, and stronger is a concern for some.

The American Institute for Preventative Medicine has declared February as National Wise Health Consumer Month. This broad declaration can cover anything from taking the proper medication for certain ailments to finding the proper running shoe to fit your natural stride.

Another year has gone by and it’s time to turn the pessimism into optimism and the disappointment into opportunity. Of course, the subject is starting a new fitness program.