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Isolated Muscle Twitching

Q

"Hey Charles!

I know you are knowledgeable about sports injuries so I thought I should ask you. I have been getting these weird muscle twitches lately in my left arm, just below the elbow on the upper part of my arm. It is only in the left arm which is part of the reason why I think it must be a sports injury. They last for several seconds and you can visibly see the muscles spasm. It is rather weird. I haven't been exercising much lately because it is winter and I am not sure what I could have done to give myself a sports injury, assuming that is what it is.

They started yesterday and now it is happening even more today. It is getting worse and I am starting to freak out a bit. Any ideas?

- Rodney B."

A

Hey Rodney, long time no see.

Okay, well you are in luck. I don't think it is a sports injury. I think you are having isolated muscle spasms because you probably haven't been sleeping much lately (I am guessing because of New Years etc, it messes up the sleep patterns for many people). I get them sometimes too, always when I have had a lack of sleep. One time I got the spasms in my left eyelid and it was really annoying.

I have found that if I simply take extra time to sleep, maybe even have naps when possible, the spasms go away and everything rights itself.

According to my research they can also be caused by high stress (which effects sleep patterns). So that can also be a factor.

If they don't go away after lots of sleep, then you should definitely consult a doctor.

Sincerely,
Charles Moffat
CardioTrek.ca

Reply

"Oh damn. I think you are right. I have been staying up for the last two nights really late and playing Skyrim. Like staying up til 4 AM, that sort of thing. That game is really addictive. Okay, I just need to go to sleep sooner and stop playing Skyrim so late at night. It all makes sense now.

Thanks Charles! You're awesome!

- Rodney B."

Reply

Glad to hear my educated guess was accurate. I was wrong about the New Years Eve, but correct about the lack of sleep. Go sleep more!!!

 

Toronto's $88 million hockey / skating arena still not completed

Back in August 2010, Toronto decided to build an $88 million hockey and skating arena on Toronto's waterfront, near Commissioners St. and Don Roadway. At the time $34 million had already been earmarked for the project. The city was contemplating a bond (essentially a mortgage) to help pay for the rest of the arena plus additional funding from the Ontario government. I am not sure how they raised the rest of the money, but the 'finding the money part' was presumably done years ago.)

Artists Rendition, circa August 2010
An user surcharge was designed to help pay off the bond over a period of 30 years. The arena complex will include four NHL-size ice rinks stacked above each other, spectator seating, restaurants, meeting rooms, an indoor track for running. The indoor arena will be ideal for tournaments and allow Torontonians to hone their ice skating skills even in the off season. The facility will act as a regional sports complex.

The building is designed to be environmentally sustainable (which is important since its build near the waterfront and can't be leaking waste into the lake) and may include an Olympic-sized rink for speed skaters and figure skaters (which would be great for if Toronto ever gets another shot at hosting the Olympics).

There was also some concerns about migratory birds flying into the nearly-all-glass structure so there are also plans to make it more bird-friendly.

So yeah, this was all announced and planned for back in August 2010.

Only one problem. It still has not been built.

As of April 2015, the only thing completed is that land was set aside for the new building and proverbial plans were still being made. The latest estimate is that building won't be built until 2018 at the earliest.

Meanwhile Toronto Mayor John Tory has been threatening to shut down 35 skating rinks across Toronto.

 To which you might ask, how many skating rinks does Toronto currently have? 49.

So 49 - 35 would leave 14 left open.

And since this is Toronto, and politicians in Toronto are corrupt, the 14 that get left open would probably be in rich neighbourhoods. Rich neighbourhoods with outdoor rinks that have been sponsored by companies like Natrel.

Below is the Natrel Rink on Torontos Harbourfront, a wealthy neighbourhood with lots of condos. The Natrel Rink is boasted to be "The most scenic rink in the city", but it only continues to exist thanks to its corporate sponsor, Natrel, maker of milk and cheese products, based in Montreal, Quebec. And guaranteed when choosing which ice rink to sponsor, Natrel opted for the "pretty one in a rich neighbourhood".

The Natrel Rink at 235 Queens Quay West

So Mayor John Tory is shutting down ice rinks across Toronto, but somehow back in 2010 the city managed to cough up $88 million to build 4 new ice rinks down on Toronto's Waterfront - but that conveniently hasn't been built yet and seems to be caught in a time loop of "Oh, we're still making plans for it." Something is fishy down on the waterfront...

Heads up Toronto. We will be having another Mayoral Election in 2018. If you appreciate hockey or ice skating, please don't vote for the idiot currently in office. True, he may not be as bad as Rob Ford, the worst mayor in Toronto's history, but that bar is pretty low and that doesn't mean John Tory deserves re-election.

In other news, please go outside and appreciate the ice rinks that Toronto does have. While we still have them.

Annual Visitor Records for CardioTrek.ca

This post is really more notes for myself, with respect to past records of visitors to CardioTrek.ca. I use such records for determining how well my online marketing is working.

For anyone reading this boring list of numbers, check out the moving GIFs on the right side and the Weight Loss Tip way down at the bottom.

2011
December = 54

2012
January = 90
February = 569
March = 3,372
April =2,638
May = 2,381
June = 2,351
July = 3,041
August = 4,118
September = 4,820
October = 3,964
November = 4,132
December = 10,153
TOTAL = 41,627

2013
January = 25,516
February = 15,615
March = 19,642
April = 21,917
May = 24,207
June = 23,954
July = 26,801
August = 25,151
September = 29,275
October = 29,108
November = 25,851
December = 15,194
TOTAL = 282,231

Note - Monthly fluctuations in popularity seems to be mostly due to specific posts going briefly viral.

2014
January = 14,256
February = 18,697
March =  36,011
April = 59,355
May = 30,177
June = 25,450
July = 23,829
August = 29,977
September = 30,783
October = 40,325
November = 39,626
December = 37,466
TOTAL = 385,952

2015
January = 45,511
February = 51,836
March = 57,620
April = 75,106
May = 54,890
June = 59,108
July = 73,843
August = 64,775
September = 55,188
October = 53,289
November = 41,499
December = 46,186
TOTAL =  678,851

Note - Several posts went viral in 2015 in April and July. This resulted in higher than expected growth.

2016
January = 58,495
February = 47,396
March = 54,690
April = 55,943
May = 47,633
June = 39,139
July = 60,496
August = 38,431
September = 26,410
October = 24,704
November = 23,142
December = 48,355
TOTAL = 524,834

Notes - So while there was a blip in popularity in 2015, 2016 saw a continued upward curve in popularity. I expect 2017 to surpass 2015 in numbers.

I also predict that Cardio Trek will reach the 2,000,000 visitor mark sometime in late February or early March 2017. Total visitors for 2011 to 2016 is 1,913,549.

:)

Weight Loss Tip

If you are serious about losing weight, then keep records of everything: Your daily weight, your average monthly weight, how often you do cardio exercises, how often you do weight lifting exercises, weight fluctuations, when you get sick/better, major changes in your diet, how many calories you eat daily, how much water you are drinking and anything else you think is relevant. Do this and you will see the benefits of keeping track of calories in and calories out.

No Ice Skating this Winter, 2016-17

NOTE

I am not teaching ice skating during the Winter of 2016-2017. I am however teaching Winter Archery and Archery Biathlon to anyone interested in learning such things.

I will be using my extra time to focus on finishing writing my archery book.


12 Super Easy New Years Resolutions for your Health

Hey Toronto! Looking for 12 healthy New Years Resolutions which are actually easy to do that will be better for you over the long term? Here you go!

#1. Set yourself a goal of drinking 1 litre of water every day.

To accomplish this goal you will end up cutting back on sugary drinks, coffee, alcohol and other things you should probably not be drinking anyway. More water and less sugary drinks means you will be consuming less calories and lose weight over time from fat loss.

#2. Set a timer on your phone for times when you need to exercise.

Setting the timer is the easy part. Getting up and exercising every time the timer sounds is the tricky part. Try to schedule the timer to be a part of the day you set aside normally for relaxing, and then you won't have any excuses. So if you are watching TV when it goes off, use that time to watch TV and exercise simultaneously.

There are also a variety of free exercise apps you can choose from to provide you with some direction in what you are doing. When in doubt you could however just go for a walk (and take your camera or dog with you).

#3. Binge Watch TV while Exercising.

Okay so this is actually really fun. Pick a TV show that is 20 or 22 minutes long and then watch a whole bunch of episodes in one day. During the opening credits, end credits (or even commercial breaks) spend that time exercising. When the show resumes, relax and wait for the next credits to resume exercising.

So for example lets say you set yourself a goal of binge watching all 14 seasons of Dallas (the original series) and all 3 seasons of Dallas (the next generation), plus all the movies. (Personal Note - I actually did this years ago.) Then when the credits are rolling, you do exercises. My preference was weightlifting and jumping jacks, as those work well in the short time period, but you could also do yoga, squats and a variety of other exercises.

#4. Play Pokemon Go.

Remember those apps I mentioned above? Well Pokemon Go is basically one of those apps, but it is designed as a game for children. However just because it is for kids doesn't mean you cannot enjoy playing it anyway.

To play Pokemon Go all you need to do is walk. That is it. A whole lot of walking. And the way the game is designed you end up setting yourself goals like walking 2 km or 5 km or 10 km. Before you know it you are making a habit of walking 10 km or more per day. And walking is pretty easy, so you can't really complain about "Oh, this game is too hard. It is too much walking!" Nonsense. You walk as much as you feel motivated to walk, and the rewards in the game of catching Pokemon, visiting Pokestops, collecting medals, etc end up boosting your self esteem and you feel motivated to keep walking.

There are also other Augmented Reality (AR) games similar to Pokemon Go that also involve walking or even running.
  • Ingress - Walking around and looking for portals.
  • Life is Crime - Walk around and play in a virtual turf war.
  • Zombies, Run! - Run, don't walk because if you go too slow the zombies will get you.
  • Parallel Kingdom - Walk around and go on fantasy quests in this MMORPG.
  • The Walk - Walk until you beat the game (takes about 3 months of walking to beat it), while delivering virtual packages in quests with a storyline.
  • Zombies Everywhere - Instead of running away, you walk towards the zombies and shoot them virtually.
  • Geocaching - Walk around and look for Geocaches left by other people. Basically a treasure hunt.
  • Clandestine Anomaly - Walk around and defeat aliens who are invading the earth.
  • SpecTrek - Walk around and search for ghosts in this spectre hunting game.
Veggie Pita
#5. Eat More Vegetables.

This sounds like a fairly simple goal, but really you need to combine it with several things:
  • Knowing / learning how to cook or prepare vegetables.
  • Possibly taking a cooking class.
  • Remembering to buy vegetables more often at the grocery store.
However there is a very easy solution. Take the cooking class mentioned above. Or alternatively make a habit of watching cooking videos about veggies. The more you learn, the easier eating more vegetables suddenly becomes.

Thus what your New Years Resolution really should be is: Take a cooking class. Or watch more veggie cooking videos to learn simple recipes like how to make a veggie pita.

#6. Start Counting Calories.

This one is as easy as buying a notebook (or using scrap paper or a calorie counting app) to start counting how much you are consuming per day. The trick here is to start the process and then keep doing it for at least 20 days.

People who count calories during a diet are basically doubling their chances of succeeding at reaching their weight-loss goal.

Starting to do something is the first step at succeeding at something.

#7. Leave your Work AT Work. Stop bringing it home with you.

Bringing your work home with you all the time (and leaving your work phone on) only adds extra stress to your life. And stress is bad for your health, bad for your eating habits, bad for your sleep patterns, and it is largely unnecessary as work will always be there the next work day any way. So just leave it there and do it at work.

Otherwise you will just be working for free and not getting paid any extra. And ruining your health to try and get a promotion (which would only lead to more work and more stress) isn't really worth it either. You might desire that promotion, but you should be going after it at work - not while at home. At home you should be:
  • Spending time with friends and family.
  • Exercising.
  • Eating well.
  • Resting and sleeping.

#8. Take up a new Sport.

Getting involved in a new sport is relatively easy. Especially for those sports that don't require much in terms of equipment.

Maybe there is a sport you have always wanted to do (eg. archery) that you just haven't found time to do yet. Well now is your chance. Make that your New Years Resolution and go get involved in that sport (eg. if you are interest in archery, I recommend getting archery lessons).

And don't worry about your age/etc. It is never too late to learn a new sport.

#9. Look at what your friends are doing for exercise and then say to yourself "I want to do THAT!"

And then do it. Ask your friend for helping getting into that exercise activity (eg. yoga). Once you get the ball rolling, it will happen and it will be so easy having your friend to help you and guide your introduction to the new activity.

Anyone can do Yoga. It just takes patience.
#10. Look around your city for activities to do.

In the city of Toronto we have many pools, ice rinks, walking/hiking trails, cycling paths, basketball courts and many more things to choose from. Go for a walk in your neighbourhood and chances are likely there is something nearby you could get into that would make a good fun activity. Then make that your New Years Resolution, and do it. Sign up. Take part. Meet new people. Make friends. Keep doing it because you love it.

#11. Road Hockey.

This is an easy one for Canadians. Whether you practice alone with a tennis ball and hockey stick, or whether you make friends and meet other people who are also into road hockey, this is something worth doing.

And it isn't just for winter. You can literally play Road Hockey any time of the year. Nobody is stopping you from playing in the summer - possibly barefoot on the beach, or while on rollerblades. Just play.

Beach Hockey - A truly Canadian sport.
#12. Don't take life too seriously.

Back to the stress issue, remember you can always fix a mistake tomorrow. Making this your New Years Resolution means less stress for you. Life live, have fun, don't always fix your mistakes right away, learn to relax.

Looking for something harder to do for your New Years Resolutions? See my posts from previous years by clicking 12 New Years Resolutions.
Looking to sign up for archery lessons, boxing lessons, swimming lessons, ice skating lessons or personal training sessions? Start by emailing cardiotrek@gmail.com and lets talk fitness!

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