Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/34916
4A Daily News – Monday, June 27, 2011 Vitality & health ST. LOUIS (MCT) — The women inside the Webster Groves, Mo., studio looked as though they were channeling Muhammad Ali, Mikhail Baryshnikov and any of a dozen Hollywood starlets who have long lean torsos (think Gwyneth Paltrow). They stood, feet apart, abdomens sucked in, punching the air with their right fists. Their left hands were raised to their left ear in a protective manner as instructor Kristin Dabney egged them on. "Cellphones, ladies. Keep your left hand up near your ear," she yelled over thumping music. "Punch punch punch punch." The air inside The Scoop — A Pilates Studio was taking a brutal beating. Piloxing is the latest group cardio exercise craze. It's an interdisciplinary program that combines the sculpting and flexibility of Pilates with the power, speed and agility of box- ing. It also adds a healthy dose of dance moves including hip-hop, salsa and especially ballet, requiring immense core strength, balance and coordination. In Pilates, all movement should begin in what practition- ers call the powerhouse — the hips, abs, lower and upper back, buttocks and inner thighs — and flow outward to the limbs. That explains why many of Piloxing's moves have controlled ballet-like movements that work the lower body. When Joseph Pilates created his fitness program in the early 20th century, he initially called it Contrology and his first students were dancers who helped build on his ideas. Coincidentally, or not, Piloxing was created by Viveca Jensen, a Swedish dancer and trainer to Hollywood celebri- ties, to "physically and mentally empower women through fitness." St. Louis Fitness Club on Hampton Avenue, Main Street Gym in St. Charles and the Jewish Community Center in Creve Coeur and Chesterfield also offer Piloxing classes. Dabney teaches Piloxing at Washington University's recreation center during the school year and says it's been wildly popular with students. "We've had to limit the number of people in the class," she said. "They're really interested in anything related to boxing." During the Piloxing class at Scoop, Dabney led the class through a routine that went from boxing and hip hop moves to squatting with the knees turned out into a modified plie, as in ballet. The participants raised their left legs repeatedly in a controlled manner, first out in front, then to the side and finally to the back, until lactic acid burned in their right thighs. Then they switched to the other side and did the same. Sometimes they ran in place with choppy, rapid-fire foot falls while punching so quickly that their hands were practi- cally a blur. Several women wore weighted gloves to help further tone the arms and maximize the cardiovascular effects. Dabney, 45, yelled and whooped throughout the class. MCT photo Kristin Dabney leads a piloxing class at a Pilates studio in St. Louis. "I've never taken Pilates, so I was going in blind," Nicole Dalton, 19, of St. Louis said afterward. "But I'll definitely be back. It was so much fun." Angel Deatherage, 19, of Oakville, Mo., has taken Pilates, but said she still had a difficult time in parts of the class. "I kept losing my balance and falling all over," she said. "You know, I could balance way better on my right side than my left," Dalton added. Boni Lang, 62, a Pilates instructor at Scoop, has taken three Piloxing classes and says it gets easier the more you do it. "But oh, my god, it's hard," she said "I found that when the (music) beat picked up it required a lot more coordina- tion." Practitioners of Pilates believe that precision is essential so you don't do the exercises improperly and lose all the vital benefits. If that's true, then you'd already have to have a strong core to reap all the possible benefits from a Piloxing class. Drug prescriptions confuse many users ST. LOUIS (MCT) — When pharmacies, doctors' offices and homes were destroyed by the tornado in Joplin, Mo., so were the medication records of many patients. Pharmacists who helped out report that many people could not recall the names of their prescription drugs or the dosages they were taking. "We talk to them about what they're on, they say 'I want that little red pill,' said Roger Prock, a pharmacist from Lee's Summit, Mo., who has been working at a Target pharmacy in Joplin once a week since the torna- do hit. Prock said he wasn't real- ly surprised by people's lack of drug knowledge, since "a number of people even in good times don't know what they're on." The advent of electronic medical records has helped with keeping track, but they're not always available. And it's not just tornadoes that can wipe out a person's drug records. People can be left without their prescrip- tions if their luggage is lost or they're in an accident, Prock said. "They should have a list of the drugs in their purse," he said. "Maybe more peo- ple will think about it and do it now." The Institute of Medicine estimates that 90 million Americans have trouble comprehending health infor- mation, including prescrip- tion drug labels and instruc- tions. That can cause serious problems: more than 700,000 emergency room trips each year are caused by prescription drug mix-ups. Confusion is understand- able when brand-name drugs for different condi- tions often have similar names — like Fosomax (osteoporosis) and Flomax (enlarged prostate), Avinza (pain) and Evista (osteo- porosis). Another common prob- lem, pharmacists say, is when doctors switch to a generic version of a pre- scription drug but the patient also keeps taking the brand- name drug, inadvertently giving themselves a double dose. Natural disasters might put a spotlight on this prob- lem, but they're not the cause, said Arthur Culbert, president of Health Literacy Missouri, a nonprofit based in St. Louis. The average American reads at about a seventh- grade level, while prescrip- tion drug information is written at an 11th or 12th grade level. "We in this country are given information around drug medication that we just simply don't understand," Culbert said. A campaign from Health Literacy Missouri starting this fall will help people organize and understand their medications. The group has designed a bag that people can put their drugs in and take to their doctor. The bag will include pictures and easy-to-under- stand language about how important it is to keep track of your prescriptions. Peo- ple can write down their drugs and dosages to keep in the bag. TEHAMA ESTATES PROVIDES: Active Senior Citizens A Retirement Community for the ◆ Independent Living ◆ Private Apartments ◆ Three Nutritious Meals Daily ◆ 24 Hour Secure Environment ◆ House Keeping Services ◆ Warm & Friendly Staff ◆ Recreational Programs ◆ Scheduled Transportation ◆ Private & Formal Dining Rooms EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY 750 David Avenue, Red Bluff • 527-9193 K W I K K U T S Family Hair Salon $200 REGULAR HAIRCUT off with coupon Not good with other offers 1064 South Main St., Red Bluff • 529-3540 Reg. $13.95 Expires 7/31/11 "Pilates movement fundamentals help you find your bal- ance and recruit your muscles more efficiently," said Dab- ney. "But there was one woman at the JCC who is a work- out fanatic, and she said every muscle in her body was sore the next day. You recruit a whole set of muscles you don't use in other workouts." She compares building muscles with Pilates and Piloxing to opening a Russian nesting doll from the inside out — you start by working the small internal muscles in the core which help with balance and move outward to larger muscle groups. "And as we age, that element of balance becomes more critical so it's pretty important for everybody," she said. The last 10 minutes or so of the class were devoted to ab work. The women pulled out mats and did various crunches and planks. Then they all stood up, reached for the sky with one arm before flinging it across their chest in a coy, come-hither pose, then punched the air while yelling: "Sleek, sexy, pow- erful." fitness Piloxing: 'Sleek, sexy, powerful!'