Is your body ready for summer? [Korea Times]

Original Article can be found at http://koreatimes.kr/www/news/culture/2014/07/319_160417.html

IS YOUR BODY READY FOR SUMMER?

The French word "vacance" is directly from the Latin root "vacatio," meaning "freedom." As the definition of the word explains, it is the only time of the year that everyone can get away from busy daily life and enjoy their freedom. In Korea, what most people do before summer is body shaping. The biggest problem with this condensed and intense workout is that it can hurt us. An increasing number of men are interested in making their bodies fit in time for the summer. Losing weight, building up muscles and body contouring are the main focuses, but the importance of keeping the inner-body healthy is often neglected. Severe weight loss and diets can ruin your joints. The most common way to lose weight is through a diet meal plan. It sounds fantastic to boost up the effectiveness of a workout by limiting the amount of calories we consume every day. However, having unconditional fasting or pino-therapy is quite risky for your joints. What we get most often from sudden change of diet is osteoporosis due to lack of calcium in bones. Our body tries to forcibly utilize the calcium stored in the bones when the calcium level in the body is extremely low. This leads to a decrease in bone-mineral density, and eventually our bones will become porous and fragile. Bone-mineral density, directly related to osteoporosis, reaches its peak during our 20s and 30s, and gradually decreases afterwards. That is to say, it is important to keep the bone-mineral density as high as possible while we are young to prevent osteoporosis in the first place. Especially for women, it is highly advised since the bone-mineral density level will drop sharply. Moreover, it is extremely difficult to restore bone-mineral density after loss. Therefore, it is important to avoid any unwanted bone-mineral density loss due to intense weight loss.It is recommended to eat healthy and do cardio exercises instead of fasting or pino-therapy for weight loss. In the case of men, it is advised to avoid excessive heavy lifting or workouts to build up muscles. Intensive workouts in a short period of time will harm your shoulders and knees. Running for too long or too fast on a treadmill will have constant impact on the knees, and this may cause injuries like anterior cruciate ligament rupture or a meniscus tear. What's more, it can develop into osteoarthritis. Besides, most of upper-body exercises have to do with the shoulders; in this case, the shoulder joint can be hurt due to either an unstable position or excessive strain during exercise. Most common lifting injuries are rotator cuff tears and torn labrums. When the shoulder is injured, there is pain in the shoulder and arms. In addition to pain in the injured area, mobility is also limited. In a mild case, physical therapy or medication will help, but surgical treatment is recommended for severe cases. Obesity is also not good for your joints. Healthy diet and regular exercise are always great, but be careful not to rush. Rushing into weight loss can harm your joints and ruin your physical fitness, especially in summer. Growing old and staying healthy is as important as looking gorgeous while young. To stay good and healthy as we get older, we should try to keep ourselves healthy in our 20s and 30s. Don't be fooled by young and beautiful celebrities on TV. I would hope all of us keep in mind staying healthy for old age should start now. The writer is the president of the Wellton Bone & Joint Hospital. Wellton Hospital is an Orthopedic Specialty Hospital located in Seoul, Korea.   Wellton Hospital focus on patient-centered care, and major interests are Hip&Knee Replacement and Arthroscopic procedures. Wellton Hospital has been ranked as National Top 3 hospitals for the most Total Hip Arthroplasty done in the year 2013.