Dr. J's SOAP Notes: March 2013

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Weight Management Programs

What Defines an Effective Weight Management Program?

It is easy to get overwhelmed with the abundance of weight loss programs and supplements available today. For this reason, you may want to keep the following guidelines in mind as you search for a healthy weight loss program.

1) There is no magic pill for weight loss. Please beware, a commercial or advertisement promising weight loss with pills or supplements may only want your money.

2) A program needs to fit your body. Some programs may not be suited for your lifestyle or current fitness level, and may cause burnout or even injury.

3) Make sure your physician has approved your physical activity program. It is important for you to be well-informed and cleared medically before starting anything new.

4) Select a program that will provide you with the healthy lifestyle education that you can use for the rest of your life.

You can find out more information about Dr. Malea Jensen by going to and clicking the "Like" button on: www.facebook.com/CenterStagePhysique

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Stretching

I would guess there are a lot of you who do not stretch at all, or if you do, you stretch the muscle you’re going to work for 5 seconds at most. What you must realize is that stretching helps muscles recover, increases muscle elasticity and decreases the chance of injury.

Stretching is crucial for every sport or fitness activity, and too many people neglect this part of their workout. Stretching will not only increase your flexibility and minimize your chances of pulling or tearing muscles, but it will also improve your performance. A flexible muscle reacts and contracts faster, and with more force, than a non-flexible muscle. Flexibility also increases your agility and balance.

Stretching exercises should be performed after a short warm-up, between weightlifting sets, and/or during your cool-down. As an added benefit, stretching is an excellent relaxation technique. Use your stretching time to focus on your sport or workout, visualizing success. Make sure you leave plenty of time to stretch after your workout. Do a number of stretches for the body parts you just worked, and hold each stretch for about 20 to 30 seconds.

Do not neglect this important aspect of fitness. It may be the most crucial to your success!

Who is Dr. J

Background:

She is originally from Spencer, Iowa. Malea is a graduate of Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. She attended medical school at the University of Osteopathic Medicine in Des Moines, Iowa. She graduated from her Family Practice Residency program at Iowa Lutheran Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa in 1998.
In her spare time, Malea trains clients on physical activity and nutrition, spends time with friends and her wonderful father, and loves to watch football. What is better than bodybuilding? “Wolverine football on Saturday and Vikings football on Sunday!” Malea also loves basketball as March Madness rounds out a wonderful basketball season. As you may have guessed, Malea is very sports oriented, having been a four-sport athlete in high school, and a three-sport athlete in college.

Why I do what I do:

Jensen approaches her medical practice with the same determination as anything else she does. “The effort to understand how to promote more active lifestyles has been of great importance to the health of this nation. Schools, workplaces, and families need to weave physical activity into the fabric of their daily lives. The key to lifetime fitness is consistency!”

What I Do Away From Work

Dr. Malea Jensen is the total package. She’s exceptionally bright. She’s remarkably attractive. She’s a doctor. She’s a bodybuilder. “I have been competing in bodybuilding since 1996,” Jensen explains. “Bodybuilding was never a whim”, Jensen says. “I have always admired men and women with muscle. Initially, it was not my ambition to get up on stage and pose, but this has been a way to extend my competitiveness. It is an ambition of mine to keep fit and look lean, with muscular detail.”

She credits her father for pushing her to “give 100 percent,” whether it was school, work, or one of the many sports at which she excelled.

Mission Trips

Why does Dr. J go on mission trips? You are probably thinking I go so I can do medical work. It’s funny, our culture has formed us from our earliest days to see our significance in terms of WHAT we do. It is old school thinking that mission work is all about giving and doing for the poor. This is true to a certain degree. Missionaries, when asked if they were successful during their mission trip, often speak of their success by what they have done, whether spiritually or materially. But really our significance as people comes not from what we do, but from WHO we are. So, to answer why I go on mission trips...it is for nothing less than for the sake of conversion...my own conversion! This conversion has to do with a change in the way that I view my own life - what I do, what I have, who I count as friends, what questions I ask myself, what issues I pay attention to, who and what I give my allegiance to. In essence, I have to leave my world where I have control and go someplace I have never been...to a place where I am poor and powerless. It is hard to do this at “home.”
Any time you enter a third world country, you will see the poor, but more importantly, you enter into the world of a deprived people and share not only their pain and struggle, but also their hope! To see this is so amazing!