FitNews September 2008

Welcome to the September Issue of FitNews

With School holidays a fading memory, many parents can now breath a sigh of relief, safe in the knowledge that their offspring are in safe hands and off theirs. However, during the break, many families will have been inspired by the events in Beiijing to try a new sport or revive an old interest and having taken the plunge it would be shame not to continue, despite the prospect of Autumn and worsening weather – can it really get worse?

Judging by some of the articles below, the road to fitness lies in being realistic in your ambitions, don’t overdo it and formulate a plan and stick to it.

In FitNews this month…

• Product of the Month
• A Balanced Approach for the Elderly
• How long will it last?
• Schools told to cut down on competitive team sport
• Stores still promoting junk food despite warnings on obesity
• Planning to get fit
• Skipping to Success

Featured Product

Guiding Yoga’s Light

This comprehensive new publication is intended to aid instructors wishing to go beyond the anatomical aspects of yoga and teach their students some of deeper concepts of yogic philosophy and offer insight into the integration of yogic teachings into everyday life.

Guiding Yoga’s Light is made up of 74 easy-to-follow, succinct lesson plans offering instruction in hatha yoga, including asana, pranayama, the yamas and niyamas, the chakras, creating mindfulness and understanding emotions.

The text also includes three new, teacher-requested chapters on Salutations in Motion, Lessons of the Heart Centre, and Relaxation. For convenient reference, teachers and students can also refer to the vocabulary of Sanskrit pronunciations included in the glossary.

The text takes students and teachers on a journey through the various aspects of yoga to understand the foundations of hatha practice. Beginning with basics of breathing, Guiding Yoga’s Light progresses to the physical and spiritual philosophy of the asanas and salutations and ends with lessons to bring clarity, calmness and relaxation into daily life.

The author, Nancy Gerstein has been a student of yoga for almost 30 years and is a certified hatha yoga teacher with the Himalayan Institute of Yoga Philosophy and Science. Ms. Gerstein is also a reiki master practitioner and yoga therapist.

PRICE: £17.00 (22.95Euros)

Read more about the book…

A Balanced Approach for the Elderly

ABLE Bodies Balance Training offers an activity- based programme to improve balance and mobility for both fit and frail older adults. This practical instructor’s guide provides more than 130 balance and mobility exercises that consider flexibility, strength and cardiorespiratory endurance. The exercises enhance the ability of older adults to maintain balance in completing their everyday tasks, thereby fostering increased self-confidence, reducing the occurrence of falls and improving quality of life. The text is based on ABLE Bodies techniques, which were proven effective in a randomised, controlled study. Results showed that ABLE Bodies training significantly improved balance, mobility, activity levels, gait speed, flexibility and strength for participants 70 years of age and older, living in retirement and assisted living facilities. ABLE Bodies Balance Training uses current research and a component-based approach to balance training. Instructors are encouraged to use activities covering all five components of the programme: flexibility, posture and core stability, strength, cardiorespiratory endurance and balance and mobility. The exercises and activities are easily implemented with the use of existing facilities and inexpensive equipment. They also encourage fun and social interaction, helping instructors to create and maintain an energised and positive environment that improves communication, motivation, and overall progress. The programme may be used in group or individual settings and can be customised according to level of experience of the individual Instructor. As a bonus, access to a dedicated ABLE Bodies Balance Training web site is included with the book. It offers 15 downloadable activity handouts that instructors can print out and distribute to patients or clients for use at home. It also offers downloadable printouts of all the balance training activities in the book – over 130 conceptual ideas and activities for instructors to choose from, either for planning their own sessions or for aiding their delivery of the 16- week session plan. Instructors can access the supplemental materials at www.HumanKinetics.com/ABLEBodies BalanceTraining PRICE: £29.00 (39.15Euros) Read more about the book…

How long will it last?

Have you noticed how, since the Olympics, the parks, pools and gyms have been packed with people huffing and puffing their way through new fitness activities? Even ordinarily niche velodromes have become oversubscribed. There’s no doubt about it: team GB’s unsurpassed medal success has inspired many into action. However, while charging into a new sport with all guns blazing is to be applauded, 40% of novices fall off their fitness wagon within the first year of taking them up, according to a Fitness Industry Association report. Professor Greg Whyte, from the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University and author of Get Fit, Not Fat urges proceeding with caution. “People shouldn’t expect too much, too soon, or they lose motivation,” he says. “Bear in mind that the success of our Olympic athletes is the end product of years of sport-specific training. It takes time – not to mention hard work and commitment – to acquire new skills and undergo the necessary physiological adaptations required to perform at your peak. Be patient.’ But whether they have weight loss, a 10km race or a stage of the Tour de France in their sights, the golden rule for people taking up a new sport is to go easy. “The commonest reason I see for people failing to maintain an exercise regime is that it is too challenging for their existing level of fitness,” says Whyte. Overly demanding fitness programmes are likely to end in failure for two main reasons. Firstly, you’re unlikely to stick to such a gruelling schedule, and even if you do hang in there for a while, you won’t enjoy it much. Worse still, you risk overdoing it, getting injured and rendering yourself out of action. Regular and consistent training is important, but that doesn’t mean you need to be hitting the gym, track or pool seven days a week. “Only increase the intensity and amount of time you spend training gradually,” advises Whyte. “In my experience, this is far more successful than attempting to go from inactivity to athlete overnight.” Whyte should know. He coached actor David Walliams to swim the English Channel back in 2006. “He could just about manage a mile when I first started coaching him, but by making small but steady increases in his training, he was able to swim over 25 miles just 33 weeks later.” Heeding all this advice will hopefully enable people to stick with their programme, and avoid the sports injury clinic. But if they do face a setback, or don’t see results as quickly as they had hoped, they shouldn’t lose heart. The Beijing podiums would have seen far fewer British athletes if they had all thrown in the towel at the first sign of adversity Source: The Guardian Read the full article

Schools told to cut down on competitive team sport

Schools should cut down on competitive team sport amid fears it is putting children off PE, say researchers from Loughborough University. They said an over-emphasis on team sport meant many pupils were “not developing healthy exercise habits”. To the dismay of many traditionalists, the researchers said many pupils risked being turned off physical education altogether by the current emphasis on football, rugby, hockey and netball. The focus on fitness and team games in many secondary schools is doing “little or nothing” to help curb the UK’s record teenage obesity rates. Instead schools should give children more opportunity to take part in solo exercise, such as aerobics, pilates, skipping and cross-country running, they stated. The report came just days after Gordon Brown pledged a further push on competitive sport, saying the anti-competition, “medals for all culture” seen in previous years had backfired. In an attempt to build on the heroics of Britain’s Olympic gold medal-winning squad, he insisted schools had to “correct the tragic mistake of reducing the competitive element in school sports”. The Government is preparing to increase the amount of compulsory sport at school, with the current minimum of two hours’ PE a week due to become five hours by 2012, the year of the London Olympics. Since the early 90s, schools have been required to teach pupils about health-related exercise as well as other physical activities such as team games, gymnastics and dance. Figures show that football remains the most popular sport among pupils, played at 98 per cent of schools, followed by athletics at 92 per cent, cricket at 89 per cent, netball at 81 per cent and hockey and rugby at 77 per cent. But Laura Ward, from Loughborough University’s School of Sport and Exercise Science, said too many PE teachers – particularly men – were still emphasising the importance of competitive team sports at the expense of more individual activities. Source: The Daily Telegraph Read the full article

Stores still promoting junk food despite warnings on obesity

Supermarkets are undermining healthy eating by bombarding shoppers with cut-price offers for unhealthy food during the credit crunch, according to a report into the £90bn grocery market. The National Consumer Council found twice as many promotions for fatty and sugary foods as there were two years ago. Researchers checked stores operated by eight major grocers: Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, the Co- op, Somerfield, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose and found promotions for products high in sugar and fat outnumbered those for fresh produce by four to one. A total of 54 per cent of cut-price deals were for fatty and sugary foods, despite advice that these foods should make up 7 per cent of people’s diets – and despite promises by supermarkets that they would smarten up their act. The research for the Department of Health reported that despite a well-publicised campaign to tackle childhood obesity and produce a comprehensive picture of the problem, the results “may underestimate the true population prevalence of obesity and overweight at national, regional and local level”. Only 12 per cent of cut-price offers were for fruit and vegetables, when they should make up one-third of food consumed. Overall, there were 4,300 promotions, a rise of 17 per cent compared with the last NCC survey in 2006. “The volume of in-house promotions for fatty and sugary foods the supermarkets are all offering is staggering,” said Lucy Yates, the report’s author. “We expected to see evidence of big improvements since our last investigation, but we’ve been sadly disappointed. Despite their claims, the supermarkets all still have a long way to go to help customers choose and enjoy a healthier diet.” The British Retail Consortium, which represents the supermarkets, dismissed the report as “misleading” because the checks had been done in March, not July as in 2006. “Customers will have seen for themselves the current high-profile supermarket price war centred on fruit and vegetables,” he said. “Of course ‘treat’ foods are on offer at Easter. What matters is the balance of promotions across the year.” But in the report, Cut-price, what cost?, the NCC excluded all promotions for Easter eggs or Easter cakes to ensure Easter did not skew its figures. To check the overall health performance of supermarkets, it visited the eight chains in Sheffield, where they each have a store. Read the full article

Planning to get fit

A German study of 30 adult novice runners preparing for the Gutenberg marathon in Mainz looked at how they conducted their training and what results they achieved in the race. It compared intention and behaviour and found that those who set out a clear training schedule achieved better results. In the months building up to the event they completed a questionaire about their training and in particular three aspects of their motivation: Action Planning – forming “concrete plans” about implementing their programme. Coping Planning – dealing with setbacks such as injuries or bad weather Action Control – checking that the training schedule was being adhered to Runners who made a detailed plan regarding their physical exercise were the ones who increased their mileage most over the course of the year. Dr Urte Scholz, of the Department of Psychology, Social and Health Psychology at the University of Zurich, who led the study, said individuals who were less diligent in drawing up and implementing a training plan fared worse than their more organised rivals. “The more unstable individuals were in their intentions, action planning, and action control over the 11 months, the less increase they reported in running over this time span,” he said. “Individuals with stable intentions show a higher increase in running associated with a lower fluctuation in running behaviour as compared with individuals with unstable intentions.” British Journal of Social Psychology Start Planning Now Human Kinetics has an excellent publication on the preparation of training plans for marathon running. Marathon Training – Second Edition by Joe K. Henderson presents three separate 100-day training programs to maximize your efforts. Use as you would a personal coach in order to motivate, inform, and inspire you through 91 days of marathon training and 9 days of post-race recovery..” Find out more

Skipping to Success

The British Heart Foundation National Centre for Physical Activity and Health is seeking to recruit a bank of casual staff (based across the UK) to deliver practical skipping workshops to teachers and youth leaders in schools across the UK. The work is on a casual basis predominately from early afternoon to early evening, mainly during school term times. Ideally, candidates should have, or be working towards, a teaching qualification in Physical Education or Fitness. They will also posess a good understanding of physical activity recommendations and the targets in schools to fulfil these recommendations. Excellent communication and presentation skills are a must as is an ability to travel throughout the UK as required so a full UK driving licence required. Under 21’s are unable to use hire cars and must therefore have their own vehicle. Full training will be provided, but the ability to skip is essential. Those thinking of applying are advised this post may be physically demanding. Click for an application form and further information

Academic News September 2008

Dear Colleague,

Welcome to the September issue of Academic News.

We’re back from the BASES Annual Conference, re- energised and invigorated for the coming academic year. And what a successful conference it was! Held at Brunel University, with over 630 delegates attending, it was great to meet so many of you. John Dickinson met up with many of our authors, and we hope to launch lots of UK-authored projects in the next 6 months. Look out for new books from the great and the good in UK sport science – we’ll keep you posted within these pages.

In this issue we highlight the Ancillaries that are available with many of our major academic titles. These online additions extend the scope of these titles significantly help both educators and students alike gain the maximum benefit.
We also look at research that suggests exercise can offset some of the effects of smoking.
Good news for Universities with reports that income has risen by over 50% in the last six years, but not so good news for students though as they face a future saddled with debt.
The conference season is upon us and it’s not just for politicians as our ‘dates for your diary’ column shows.
And, as ever, we bring you the very latest information on the latest Human Kinetics titles.

Product of the month… Deviance and Social Control in Sport On-Line Ancillary Support Materials for Major Titles Puffing their way to glory Universities see income rise by over 50 per cent Debt-ridden health students consider quitting DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Academic News inspection copy requests

Product of the month…

People who choose a career in the recreation or leisure fields will spend a large amount of their time in groups. Group Dynamics in Recreation and Leisure: Creating Conscious Groups Through an Experiential Approach builds skills not only in working in group settings but also in creating and facilitating conscious groups. A conscious group is one that recognizes the personal growth of its members as being the main group objective. Most people in recreational activities and events are looking to meet people and take part in positive group interaction, providing recreation professionals with a perfect opportunity to develop successful conscious groups. Group Dynamics in Recreation and Leisure introduces group dynamics theory and current research as it applies to recreation and leisure settings. It presents the key concepts and terms, a brief history of the field and the various theories and models of group development. The text goes on to explain the concept of the conscious group, describes the nature and components of a conscious group and applies experiential learning theory to working with these groups. Group Dynamics in Recreation and Leisure also moves beyond the theory to show students that their understanding of group dynamics can be a meaningful and realistic tool. They’ll learn to apply the theory to the practical factors and issues involved in leading and working with conscious groups. They’ll explore group goal setting; clarification of objectives and expectations; processes for decision making and problem solving; positive communication; ethics, morals, and values; effective leadership of recreation groups; and the effects of conflict, power, gender, and environment on group functioning. Students will also find a thorough examination of common issues that arise when working with groups, including potential pitfalls and strategies for dealing with or avoiding those pitfalls. They’ll learn about the strengths, weaknesses, and myths of group interaction, including signs of “illness” within groups; working with alternative groups, such as cooperative living groups, as well as involuntary groups and unwilling participants; and capitalizing on diversity and difference. Because those in recreation professions so often work with large groups, crowd dynamics is also discussed. The authors describe how individual and small-group behaviour can affect larger groups and also look at mob behaviour and riots. Throughout the book, case studies, scenarios, and examples from leisure services, parks, tourism, and experiential education help students better understand and apply the information PRICE: £23.00 (31.00 Euros) Read more about the book!

Deviance and Social Control in Sport

The world of sport offers a deep and often overlooked, source for the study of deviance and its development and impact on society. Deviance and Social Control in Sport challenges preconceived understandings regarding the relationship of deviance and sport and offers a conceptual framework for future work in a variety of sociological subfields. Drawing on their cutting-edge research in criminology and deviance in the discipline of sociology co-authors Atkinson and Young provide a textured understanding of sport-related deviance through the application of various approaches to deviance in a sport context. Using extended case studies, the authors examine the subject of deviance through examples that are popular (fan violence, hockey enforcers, effect of the media), understudied (sport-related violence against animals, athletes as on-field victims of violence), or emerging (sport security, drugs and weight control, cybernetic athletes, extreme sports). This engaging presentation allows readers to fully understand the effects of sport deviance in society. By considering networks of social relationships and how they produce, define and police rule violation and rule violators, Deviance and Social Control in Sport offers a nuanced and integrated explanation of sport deviance that accounts for the behaviours and practices of both individuals and teams. This interdisciplinary text challenges readers to explore the dimensions and analytic merit of a full spectrum of crime and deviancy theories, thus stimulating a broader discussion of rule breaking in sport. Deviance and Social Control in Sport will act as a valuable reference for sport sociologists, sociologists and criminologists; a supplemental text for upper-level undergraduate or graduate courses relating to social deviance to sport. PRICE: £26.00 (35.00 Euros) Read more about the book

On-Line Ancillary Support Materials for Major Titles

Many of Human Kinetics’ major academic titles come with a range of ancillary online features designed specifically to help tutors and lecturers present the material in a more effective way and to allow students to assimilate the vast amount of information provided. Although the content will vary from book to book, it would typically include the types of items listed below. For Lecturers this material would normally include: An Instructor guide containing sample lecture outlines, key points, student assignments, sample exercises, and direct links to detailed sources on the Internet for every chapter in the text. A Test package usually featuring a bank of more than 1,500 questions, including true-or-false, fill-in-the- blank, essay and short answer and multiple-choice. With the free software provided, instructors can: Create print versions of their own tests by selecting from the question pool Create, store, and retrieve their own questions select their own test forms and save them for later editing or printing export the tests into a word-processing programme. A Presentation Package containing a comprehensive series of PowerPoint slides for each chapter of the book. Learning objective slides present the major topics covered in each chapter, text slides list key points and illustration while photo slides contain graphics found in the text. The presentation package has hundreds of slides that can either be used directly with PowerPoint to print transparencies and slides or to make copies for distribution to students. Instructors can easily add, modify, or rearrange the order of the slides. For Students An Online Student Study Guide with dynamic and interactive learning activities, all of which can be conducted externally. The site offers self- rating checklists that allow students to target concepts they need extra help with and unique “My Notes” study aids that are customisable and can be saved to a student’s computer. Activity feedback presents specific text page references to review for incorrect responses. Additional resources in the online study guide include glossary terms that are emphasized on their first appearance and include a pop-up definition, quizzes that test students’ knowledge of the material, and links to professional journals as well as organization and career information to extend students’ knowledge beyond the school environment. To give you some idea of these ancillary features and how you can use them to provide extra impact we have produced a PDF file composed of some of the materials available. View the presentation

Puffing their way to glory

A number of athletes have managed to combine sporting excellence with a cigarette habit. Is it possible that being super-fit lessens the risks of smoking? It is easy to view super-fit runners who spend hours each week pounding pavements as vice-free obsessives, but this is not always the case. A recent poll conducted by Runner’s World magazine in America revealed that 6% of the 2,500 runners who responded smoked regularly, 2% of them in secret so their jogging buddies would not find out. Even more surprising, perhaps, is that Bart Yasso, the magazine’s chief running officer, says the results were not entirely unexpected. Yasso, who quit years ago, says he knows plenty of athletic types who smoke. “They are very secretive,” he says. “I know they are not proud of it. These are people you would never have guessed were smokers.” And it’s not just runners. Other sports have more than their fair share of nicotine addicts. Certainly, for those who can’t give up, exercise offers some protective effects against the well-documented risks of cigarette smoking. In a 2006 study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, scientists from the universities of Minnesota and Pennsylvania showed that women who were current or former smokers and who also did high levels of physical activity were less likely to suffer from lung cancer than sedentary ex-smokers. “When you exercise, that improves your cardiovascular function and your HDL cholesterol and generally it’s just good for you,” says Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine in the cardiology department of the University of California, who has also been studying the links. “So if you smoke and exercise you are going to be better off than if you smoke and don’t exercise.” Source: The Guardian Read the full article

Universities see income rise by over 50 per cent

Universities have seen their overall income rise by more than 50 per cent in six years, according to new research. In 2006/07, half of the high education sector’s income came from teaching and research grants and tuition fees. The research from vice-chancellors’ group Universities UK found that the largest relative increase in income is from fees from international students. The report found that “during the last five years, fees from non-EU students have come to represent a bigger share of higher institutions’ income than the funding council’s research grants.” Professor Geoffrey Crosswick, who led the report group said: “This year’s report includes extensive financial analysis which is made available at an important period for higher education funding. “The analysis provides evidence of the increasingly diverse income portfolio that universities are developing as part of a wider strategy to reduce its dependence on public funding.” The report highlighted wide variations between the public research grants received by different universities. It noted that within the higher education sector “almost a half of institutions receive either no research grants or less than 2 per cent of the total institutional income. “A second group receive between 2 per cent and 14 per cent of its income from the funding council’s research grants, while a small group receive a greater proportion.” It noted that around 60 institutions receive 2 per cent or less, while less than 10 receive 20 per cent of their income from research grants. Read the full article

Debt-ridden health students consider quitting

Almost half of health students are considering quitting their studies because of thousands of pounds worth of debts, according to new research. Unison said a survey of 10,000 students across the UK showed most had average debts of almost £7,000, although one in four owed £10,000. Nursing diploma students starting in a new job owed an average of 40% of their salary in debts and would take seven years to pay it back if they settled at a rate of £100 a month, the report said. Source: The Independent Read the whole article

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

CRY International Conferences
The Cavendish Conference Centre, 22 Duchess Mews, London, W1G 9DT

10th October
“Sports Cardiology: From Theory to Practice”
The broad phenotype of conditions causing young sudden cardiac death (YSCD) in athletes will be reviewed, as well as the practical skills required (ECG, ECHO, MRI) for diagnosing inherited cardiac conditions. The different methods used to diagnose conditions and prevent YSCD in athletes will be evaluated as well as the pros and cons of cardiac screening in athletes. The final session will evaluate the methods used (from an international perspective) in assessing and managing difficult cases.

11th October
“Diagnosis & Management of Inherited Cardiovascular Disease” Review of the broad phenotype of conditions causing young sudden cardiac death (YSCD), as well as the methods used to diagnose these conditions. The role of Expert Cardiac Pathology (diagnostic/ management) after YSCD will be identified not only in determining an accurate cause of death but also focusing on the diagnosis and management of first degree relatives. The methods used in assessing and managing case studies will be evaluated with a specific focus on families after a YSCD.
For further information

BHNFC 8th Annual Conference ‘Opening Doors to an Active Life: how to engage inactive communities’ 19th November 2008, East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham

This conference aims to provide practical examples, solutions and guidance on how to engage older adults, socially deprived communities, girls and women, BME groups, people with disabilities and people with mental ill health in physical activity.

For further information

Division of Sport & Exercise Psychology Inaugural Conference
11th – 12th December, BPS, 30 Tabernacle Street, London

The Division’s inaugural conference is an exciting development and the programme will include workshops, poster sessions, symposia, oral communications and keynote lectures on sport and exercise related topics.

For further information

Academic News inspection copy requests

If you wish to arrange an appointment to discuss our latest texts and your course needs, or you would like to enquire about an inspection copy of any book featured in Academic News, please call Sian Partridge on 0113 255 5665 ext. 204 or e-mail sianp@hkeurope.com