Night Pirates: tonight, you will be lead by Babushka.
GMC: You are forever on "the list." Tomorrow, you will be lead by the capable Glaze.
Warriors: Mater the Greater will be calling the shots tomorrow.
Survivors: Asspack is on point this Saturday.
All others who have tossed your hats in the ring also must assume leadership roles. You will function in support of this chosen leader, acting as their counsel and as the precious human resource which you are, to be used accordingly.
Instructors and Guides are to shadow the process, keeping safety in place and only engaging when absolutely necessary. Leaders: confide in the on-duty Instructors for curriculum, admin and logistics before crossing the "line of departure."
Your mission: To discipline, motivate, educate and exercise your unit to an optimal state-of-health.
How you accomplish this is entirely up to you...the curriculum is yours. You must honor every participant in your platoon...they have skills and strengths which you must employ appropriately to get the job done. All this is honored and considered in your devising your plan-of-attack.
Safety is paramount.
The session ends with YOU in school circle with the short stinkin hairs standing on end, speaking passionately about a mission accomplished, courtesy teamwork! The personification of a fireworks display that you are less content to watch, and more interested in acting out.
"It's just irresponsible on Harvard's part," says Gene Grabowski, senior vice president of Levick Strategic Communications, who was eating a bag of potato chips when reached at his office. "Whenever a study like this one comes out, it creates a real problem for an industry."
Harvard School of Public Health vs. Industry Lobbyist?
Irresponsible, Gene? Ever heard of the glycemic index? Potatoes are broken down into glucose, in many cases, faster than soft drinks. Potatoes aren't the devil...nothing wrong with some spuds every now and then, but make french fried potaters and other high glycemic-index foods the mainstay of your diet and...BAD THINGS:
Add the sun to the multitude of factors which can prevent our children from engaging in adequate physical activity. It's rays and accompanying heat are real obstacles that must be accounted for and worked around.
Plant some damned trees!
Erect some man-made shelter...perhaps of solar panels, which power fans that would cool the playground and provide light for physical activity in the evening, when temperatures are lower.
But by all means, we must increase exponentially the quality and quantity of physical activity in and out of the scholastic setting.
Last Saturday I took part in a CPR re-certification. As it was an absolutely beautiful day, I wasn't exactly looking forward to spending what would amount to four hours indoors, going over material that I already felt I had a good command of. However, I must say that it was time well devoted to sharpening up on the basic life-saving methods that will undoubtedly serve me well someday.
We gathered at a fellow Instructor's home, at 1pm. As I pulled into the driveway, I was greeted by a jovial middle-aged man with a smile and his hand stretching through the window of my jeep, prior to it even coming to a halt. It was Joe Cohen, I would soon learn, our CPR Instructor and extremely nice guy, who had also agreed to allot a portion of his weekend to teaching us this valuable skill. We gathered in a room in the house and passed around CPR manuals, while Joe set up his video, which would help guide the instruction. The host generously provided food and beverages.
I braced myself for a very long and boring curriculum, but I was soon to be reminded of the importance of refreshing one's skills in the basics and it was glaringly apparent that Joe genuine enjoyed, if not loved to teach CPR. Our class was heavy on practical application, the student:teacher ratio was extremely favorable and Joe took all questions with enthusiasm. There were five students attending this CPR course, but I don't know why there weren't fifty! During each section of the instruction, I found myself moving from adult to child CPR dummies, rehearsing the procedures on the different sizes...considering the anatomy and imagining a particular situation and how to ideally respond. With children in this world now, I was more motivated yet to know what the hell to do.
The importance of knowing how to respond and being that person to respond first, when others are either paralyzed with fear or apathy, is extremely important. Anyone who has ever witness someone choking can attest to how truly scary a situation that is. Once, when I was traveling in upstate NY, we stopped a some greasy spoon for a quick meal. A few tables over, there was a very large family (literally and figuratively) enjoying their lunch, when the amiable chatter gave way to silence. I looked over to see a teenager holding his neck and going through various stages of color change, obviously choking, while his family looked on, apparently unable to provide aid. After what seemed like perhaps 10 minutes, a young man from the kitchen strode out and beat us all to the punch; grabbed the boy from behind, delivered a few sharp thrusts and out came a french fry. Quite the hero, he absolutely saved a life that day.
We all have the potential to be the hero...to act, but there are books written on the sort of situation where scores of people stand on the scene, while someone teeters precariously on the boundary of life and death but NO ONE TAKES ACTION! After sitting for Saturday's CPR cert, it is crystal clear in my mind again that rehearsal of immediate actions; of the fundamentals, is paramount. I am no stranger to this notion, but still I forget. When I was in the USMC, we were constantly training on the basics: taking care of your person and your gear; employing your weapon system; operating in various terrain; what to do in the event of a near ambush? Far ambush? How to cross a danger area? Contact front, R/L. We would conduct rehearsals for every mission we would carry out, going through the sequence mentally, prior to embarking on the actual mission. For then, it was the real deal, and mistakes were unforgiving.
We should all therefore have a basic command of the life saving steps - RESTORE THE BREATHING, STOP THE BLEEDING, PROTECT THE WOUND, TREAT FOR SHOCK. We must all know how to act in the case of emergency, to prepare ourselves to be first responders. We should also seek out the best, most qualified and enthusastic teachers to educate us. I am confident that Joe Cohen was that person, last weekend. Thank you Joe and see you again soon, with a larger group.
To book Joe for a CPR/First Aid certification, contact me at drdrill0530@live.com.
The above link will take you to a study connected to the CDC's, Healthy People 2010, which is a public health effort released this past December. Included in the objectives of HP 2010, is an increase in physical activity for America's youth.
The following physical activity standards were established for high schoolers and the data was collected:
One hour of aerobic activity daily
Strength training three or more times weekly
The first two criteria, taken in combination
As you might guess, American student's test scores for physical activity were found to be on par with their performance in math and science - in fact they sucked even worse:
"The findings of this study indicate that approximately 1 in 10 U.S. high school students met the HP 2020 objective for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities (PA 3.3). Tragically, the number of 9-12 graders actually meeting these low standards for combined physical activity was in the teens: "Nationwide, 12.2% of high school students met the HP 2020 objective for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities." Furthermore, females, upperclassmen and obese students scored worse than the rest.
The following also turns Dr. Drill's stomach: "The HP 2020 target for PA 3.1 (aerobic capacity) was 20.2%." How ambitious of us to ask that 20% of America's future practice healthy habits.
While this study represents a mere snapshot of the tragedy that has become true American public health (not the effectiveness of our emergency-care system or life expectancy, but quality-of-life, the prevalence of people engaging in the active process of health), and the authors admit some limitations, it does give us an appreciation for the magnitude of the problem, as well as potential implications down the road. The scientific community has made no secret that for the first time ever, an American born today may not enjoy the same health as previous generations. One instigator of this harsh forecast is the prevalence of obesity:
"Over the next few decades, life expectancy for the average American could decline by as much as 5 years unless aggressive efforts are made to slow rising rates of obesity, according to a team of scientists supported in part by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The U.S. could be facing its first sustained drop in life expectancy in the modern era, the researchers say, but this decline is not inevitable if Americans — particularly younger ones — trim their waistlines or if other improvements outweigh the impact of obesity."
Health is wealth, my friends, and as the saying goes, "At least you've got your health." But the data suggest we don't even have that. We're so focused on the fiscal happenings of Wall Street, that indeed, Main Street is overlooked, not only in terms of dollars and cents, but regarding another currency, the value of which is altogether more precious.
The good news is that this problem, like most of the big problems of this world, has a very simple fix:
GET OFF YOUR FAT ASS AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!
With the weather being so stinking beautiful, get out and take a walk, ride a bike, hike, swim. Instead of being an armchair athlete, be a real athlete or at least try! There's nothing more sad really, than an overweight and unhealthy person, sporting your choice of professional sports jersey, eating junk while admiring finely tuned athletes take the field. That represents a sad irony and when it comes to such an adult taking his child to a sporting event, it's poor leadership...hipocrisy. You're either part of the solution or part of the problem.
Regarding the big decisions that government and industry might make to facilitate a public health change on the grand scale, Lord knows we all wish they would make the big plays. But if the news ticker is any indication of the capabilities of our nation politically, as the saying goes, "we might as well wish in one hand and shit in the other...see which one fills up first."
The road back to health doesn't begin at the White House, but in YOUR house. It's high time we Americans kicked off a grass roots effort to take the power back. Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.
Several years ago I was flipping around the channels, looking for some worthwhile television and I stumbled upon the timeless 90's comedy, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Now I know there are some of you, who are gonna say, "Oh, I hate Jim Carrey...he's so annoying!" And while I admit that I detest some of his attempts at more serious films, I have to say you're out of your mind if you can't appreciate his early work, from In living Color, on up through the Pet Detective flicks and Dumb and Dumber. When it comes to stupid humor and an actor really immersing himself into the comedic role, the man has few equals.
So I'm only a few minutes into the movie, when the above scene takes place, and I couldn't help but laugh out loud as if it were the very first time I viewed the film. Not only does Jim incorporate a spot-on parody of the freaky medium lady from Poltergeist, justifying copius laughter, but given the perspective through my work as 'Dr. Drill,' I very clearly saw potential for the phrase, "Exercise" the Demon in the capacity of a play-on-words - it's an appropriate pun, as I will explain.
For those with their heads in the sand, in the movie Poltergeist, the spiritual medium Tangina Barrons was brought in by parapsychologists to help get to the bottom of the frightful occurences in the Freeling house. She had an ability to communicate with the other side, and she would soon discover that there were spirits floating about the house, some of which were good and others bad. Her ultimate mission was to rid this family's house of ghosts, to "exorcise the demons." Well, it didn't look good for the Freelings for a while, as all ghostly hell breaks loose and their young daughter, Carol Anne, was sucked through the tv into another dimension. But after enduring a very tough time and with help from Tangina, the their "heyowse was cleeyah."
Let's face it, there are different types of demons, folks. Without dragging religion into this, if you are one who believes in all that is written about heaven and hell...or if you believe in paranormal activity...ghosts, spirits and apparitions - well, then you surely can conceptualize a certain type of 'demon.' This demon is scary no doubt, but for the purposes of this blog, I'm thinking of a more secular, generic variety.
We all "deal with our demons" from time to time. They range from bad habits to addictions to problems in the present and feelings of guilt for our past mistakes. The problem as I see it, is that regardless of the caliber of demon we're facing, the norm is for people to suppress the issue temporarily, which of course provides no long term fix. We screw ourselves in this way - the demons remain.
Fighting Back
I am happy to announce that I have discovered a solution to the above problem, which I term "Exercising" the Demon. It is what it is...the program which I lead is a regimen for physical and often mental betterment. It helps us solve our problems through the discipline of showing up early, working very hard in the dirt and functioning as part of a team. I can site example after example of individuals joining the Dr. Drill Instructor Program in efforts to lose a few pounds but finding that other benefits would prove to be more precious. In my time as Dr. Drill, I have seen the weak become strong, the meek become bold, the inconfident brimming with pride, the untrusting and skeptical become more open to the situations and people of this world.
Our discipline is rigorous physical training - PT, that is good for you and good for me, dammit! And with each four-count repetition, with each run to cadence and every stinking sound off, there is a corresponding affirmation - a cognition that exclaims, "I CAN, I WILL." Then you follow through. Consider the story, The Little Train That Could...the impact of a children's book, which merely asks us to believe in ourselves...to make that affirmation and follow through with action. All this is a very capable weapon to stash in our armamentariums, take all the trashy novels off the shelf and dust of the jacket of this priceless work of non-fiction.
Exercise: disciplined physical activity, preferably outdoors and never alone
The martial artist: victory attained with each punch, kick, block, throw or sweep. Bow to your sensei and your opponent as you step onto the mat
The boxer: the discipline of footwork, timing on the speed bag and jump rope, respect among opponents
Meditation: balance your body and mind, success with each repiratory cycle and click of the metronome
The reader: Knowledge is power, but practical application is where the rubber meets the road
Fellowship: Be dependable. Be good to your fellow human beings. Foster community...give to it and take from it, but never too much of either. Bad people = turds. Turds get flushed!
These are only a few examples of how we may purge ourselves of our demons but there are countless other ways to solve mental problems through physical means and vice versa. So if you find yourself in a rut, forever dealing with the same demons, to no avail, try exercising the demon. Learn to look your problems squarely in the eye, chew up those demons and take large demon dumps.
