TL;DR ‘MORAL OF THE STORY’

Blogging high quality content in your area of expertise on a regular basis is a challenge that takes a lot of your time to meet, but boy, is it worth it!

Thus, ONE OF MY 2010 GOALS is to blog twice a week on Tuesday & Friday. Stay tuned for these posts. Thank you.

I awoke at 6:20am this morning to climb the Grouse Grind - Nature’s staircase. The 2.9km trail from the base to the top of Grouse Mountain consists of over 2,830 steps, which makes for one tough, sweaty hour of bounding around roots & rocks and staggering up steps to the glorious view at the top.

"The remainder of the trail is extremely steep & difficult"

The climb this morning seemed like a selfish act when my partner had to get up at the same time just to go to work, but I’ve dedicated 10 climbs between June 12 & Sept 15 to BC Children’s Hospital, Grind for Kids campaign, and your donations will make my act less selfish all the more

“In about the same degree as you are helpful, you will be happy.”

~Karl Reiland

The Grouse Grind also provided an apt physical metaphor for my life at this moment:  I’m one month away from completing a professional Masters of Human Kinetics (MHK) degree at the University of British Columbia and right now, finishing my final papers feels something like attacking this mountain; a epic climb that requires me to focus all my energy on putting one-foot-after-another, eyes to the ground with only a few quick glances at the sun-dappled ceiling – my mountain-topped glory.

I entered the MHK program last September to advance my fitness expertise to further my personal training business, Lightfooted. I’m exiting with much more than a few courses and good marks under my belt: I’ve took a career turn to dive into the realm of social media**, a home of my own overlooking Gastown, and great friends, inspiring colleagues & mentors to help guide my way.

And with these thoughts, I will return to the grindstone of tackling this very, last step of my academic mountain. See you at the top!

** For Dr. Rob VanWynsberghe‘s Sustainability and Citizen Transformation & the 2010 Olympic Games seminar class,  I studied how Vancouver citizens used Twitter to leverag the #vo2010 vibe as a tool for place promotion and regeneration of their city. This was the beginning of my fascination with social networking tools as a way to bring people/ideas/communities together.

Social media platforms promotes the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.

(Social Media. Wikipedia, The free encyclopaedia. November 12, 2009).

Even though the “prosumer“ concept has been around for 40 years (Toffler, 1970), my experiences as an active, involved content innovator as opposed to the traditional passive recipient of a product or service are new-found.  I first became aware that I was flexing these powerful muscles as I blog, leave comments, and tweet, after reading Grown Up Digital, written by someone who Al Gore has called, one of the world’s leading cyber gurus, own own Canadian, Don Tapscott. GUD is a relevant and inspiring ‘Field Guide’, of the Net Generation, outlining the survey findings of 11,000 NetGenners (11 – 30 years old), whereby connecting the dots and colouring in the big  picture as to how young people are using social media platforms to influence and shape their world.

To get a sense of the prosumer power, watch the YouTube clip of “In Conversation with Allan Gregg” (for those who want quick sound bites, watch 15:33 – 18:00). In a nutshell, Tapscott asserts, “if you understand the Net Generation, you will understand the future.”

Since this first read back in April, 2009, I have become increasingly aware of the innovative ways in which NetGenners contribute to the development, improvement and dissemination of products & services. For a very recent and radical example, pick up a copy of  Yes We Did: An inside look at how social media built the Obama Brand (Harfoush, 2009).

Even more rewarding, I am now cognizant of being both participant & recipient of new media techniques that amplify the ways in which we are able to use our voices to advocate change in institutional pedagogy, politics and practices.

What empowering realizations!

Imagine the electricity consumption at 24-hr fitness centres!

I now turn my prosumer-gaze on the fitness world – which is both my workplace and playground. While sport has the privileged reputation of being healthy and green, the fitness industry is a far cry from environmentally conscious. For lack of an academic urge at 2:00 am* this morning, I will cite the Biggest Loser reality television series recent  ”Green Week” workouts on unplugged fitness equipment to illuminate the copious electricity consumption of millions of treadmills across the world.

The buzz-word of today is eco-innovation and with that in mind, I encourage everyone to watch this green fitness centre concept video from Casey Shaaf of EcoDev Engineering, LLC, created for the 2009 Kettering Innovation Challenge and to appreciate the implications of this technology. Astoundingly simple, elegant and brilliant solution to recycling energy. Viewing it, I had to wonder, how is it that only 185* people have watched this video since September? Why am I the first to rate it?

I am hereby making it a personal goal to have this video reach 1,000 by the end of the year. 3 weeks left…

You in for the challenge?

* This blog post was originally published on Lighfooted.ca on November 27, 2009 at 2:00 am. Current YouTube count is 259.

While cruising the ‘net for information on the ‘criminalized’ athlete whose doping activity has either harmed or advanced their careers, I came across Canadian bobsleigh athlete tests positive for steroids (CBC, Feb, 2008). Although Bobsled pilot Serge Despres contests he never knowingly ingested any performance-enhancing drugs or banned substances, he  was banned from competing- or training for 20 months due to the consumption of a single contaminated supplement.

Unfortunately, this case is not an anomaly. In 2001, the IOC lab tested 634 supplements from around the world and found that some were incomplete or inaccurately labelled. For instance, more than 25 per cent of the supplements collected in The Netherlands yielded positive tests for banned substances undisclosed on the packaging. An yet, in light of these findings, Despres’ ban for an infinitely small positive – less than a single nanogram of steroids – was not revoked.

What can an athlete do to ensure that the supplements they require to support an intensely active, rigorous and demanding training program are contaminate-free?

Currently, a company called NSF International provides a Safe for Sport Certification analysis program, whereby manufacturers submit nutritional supplements to be tested up to 130 banned substances on the World Anti-Doping Association’s drug list before they are consumed by athletes.

NSF Certified for Sport Product list available here, and includes such Canadian-made products as:

• COLD-FX® Daily Defense
• Myoplex® Advanced Protein Ready to Drink (Vanilla)
• Activ-X Multivitamin for Active Men and Women by Platinum Naturals

Even though Despres’ 2010 Winter Olympic podium dreams have been publicly and humiliatingly crushed, he has used the situation to become part of the solution.  In April he helped launch the Clean Sport Initiative sponsored by Platinum Naturals, to campaign for increased knowledge and information on supplements approved by the NSF. Help support Despres’ cause and join the Facebook group: Clean Sport Initiative.

Relating the Innovation Management Process to Organizational Theory in Sport & Leisure via poor Ricky Berens‘ polyurethane swimsuit malfunction at the July 27, 2009 World Swimming Championship

Failure to manage the Innovation Process

(PC/The Hollywood Gossip )

I’m interested in following-up the incident with a few questions:

• How did the Italian design company, Jaked, handle the incident? That is, how are they monitoring the results of their innovation?
• How are they handling the Olympic ban of the super-slick swimsuits?
• What is their reaction to the allegations of providing an unfair advantage akin to ‘technological doping’?
• How are they communicating this reaction to their athletes and the public at large?

I’ll start my investigations here, at the Design News July 2009 article, “Ban on Polyurethane Swimsuits Makes No Sense” and report back.

I came across this quote while researching the effects of active video games and immediately leapt up from my desk in fear. It appeared in the NSCA’s Strength & Conditioning Journal entitled: Nothing Bad Can Happen Sitting in Front of the TV. Right? (1)

[R]ecent evidence (2) suggests that ‘‘sedentary time’’ may be an independent factor in predicting health outcomes. Active individuals (defined as those engaging in at least 2.5 hours of moderate to vigorous exercise a week), who spend long periods of time being sedentary, exhibit increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, a higher incidence of type 2 diabetes and obesity, and abnormal glucose tolerance when compared with individuals who do not exhibit less sedentary behavior.

Now that it’s common for me to sit for three-hour stretches at a time in my classes, and for these inactive stretches to continue well into the night as I work on assignments, it’s vital that I break up my school/study/relaxation time with moments of intense, active living. Off the top of my head, here are some strategies I can use to counteract the negative affects of ‘sedentary time’:

• Bike to/from school regularly and use between-class time to swim, run and workout at the gym
• Sit upright, engaging core muscles and practice dynamic sitting – that is, wiggle, shift, flex & relax muscles (quads, glutes – even toes!) while sitting
• Whenever you can, sit on a Swiss ball – great for posture and strengthening core
• Drink lots of water while sitting and refrain from grazing
• Take short, frequent breaks to get up and move – try my favourite ‘wake-me-up’ exercise: the Frog Squat

(1) Nothing Bad Can Happen Sitting in Front of the TV. Right? Strength & Conditioning Journal. 31(3):75-76, June 2009.

(2) Genevieve NH, Dunstan DW, Salmon J, Shaw JE, Zimmet PZ, and Owen N. Television time and continuous metabolic risk in physically active adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc 40: 639–645, 2008.

Instead of analysing its effectiveness as an exercise tool, I am more interesting to find out how it behaves as a motivational tool. To think – as of June 30, 2009, 21.82 million copies of Wii Fit have been sold worldwide^[1].

The big question on my mind is [how] has it impacted the fitness behaviour of these millions of people?

This overarching question leads to several sub-questions, each asking to be investigated.

Wii Fit - helping to achieve your Fitness Goals

• Does owning a Wii Fit exercise board enhance motivation and propensity to exercise daily?
• Which audience would most benefit from including Wii Fit into their exercise prescription plan?
• (How) does using Wii Fit increase an individual’s commitment to their fitness goals?

With these questions in mind, I started playing around with my Wii Fit board this evening, getting friends involved and generally enjoying the whole process. Here is the first, little glimpse into the fun that is Wii Fit.

Playing new generation active computer games uses significantly more energy than playing sedentary computer games but not as much energy as playing the sport itself. The energy used when playing active Wii Sports games was not of high enough intensity to contribute towards the recommended daily amount of exercise in children. Graves, L. et al. (2007)

I came across Lee Graves’ summary online in a Comparison of energy expenditure study and I had to stop and wonder: does Wii Fit provide any more exercise benefits than Wii Sport? Would there be any fitness gains to incorporating Wii Fit in an exercise program?

Since it’s world début in December, 2007, Wii Fit has become the third best selling video game in history¹. As a fitness consultant, I can see prescribing Wii Fit as an at-home component to an exercise plan if there are proven, viable benefits to using it.

Fortunately for me, I am in an environment that encourages examining these types of inquiries to the furthest extent possible. As part of my Masters of Human Kinetics degree at the University of British Columbia, I will probe into the physical fitness application of new generation computer games to determine to what extent – and to whom – I will prescribe Wii Fit sessions.

If you have any experience with the Wii Fit and would like to weigh-in with your opinions, I’d love to hear your anecdotal evidence. Please post below!