The Fever Lever Center

Impact of curb ramps on people with mobility impairments

Curb ramps are designed to provide access to people who use wheeled forms of mobility. Without curb ramps, people who use wheelchairs would not be able to independently access the sidewalk and street. However, not all wheelchairs perform the same on a curb ramp. Common types of wheeled mobility devices include manual and powered wheelchairs, as well as powered scooters. Each type of technology will benefit from different aspects of the curb ramp design. For example, most powered mobility devices are maneuverable in small spaces due to their short wheelbase. Scooters have a longer wheelbase but have manual steering, and most can perform a three-point turn in tight spaces. Manual wheelchairs can turn on their own wheelbase but are difficult to steer on a cross slope as they tend to turn downhill.

For many people with mobility impairments, curb ramps are not critical to access. In fact, in some situations curb ramps make it more difficult for some people with mobility impairments to navigate. Crutches and canes are sized to fit the individual user so that the energy required for ambulation is minimized on a hard, level surface. Use of these types of walking aids is more difficult on sloped surfaces such as curb ramps. Cane, walker, or crutch users must lower their body forward when going downhill. On uphill slopes, the cane or crutch must be lifted higher and placed on the surface. The user must have the strength to lift his or her body up over the supporting device. Widening the crosswalk to allow people to use either the curb or the curb ramp will enhance access for cane and crutch users who are not comfortable traveling on a sloped surface.

Nicole Thomas offers wheel chair tips and advice at:
http://www.wheelchairtips.com

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Copyright 2005 strength-training-woman.com

Softball is a popular sport these days. Corporations, adult
leagues and inner-city competitions are fueling the demand for
skilled and competitive players. While softball may be
experiencing a surge of interest, the basic techniques to
improve your game and gain a competitive edge have remained the
same.

Many do not realize that basic softball movements such as
batting and throwing are not a directly related to arm strength.
The movement begins in the legs. The power is then transferred
into the hips, the torso, the upper back, the chest, the
shoulders and then the arms.

A proper softball strength training routine will include an
exercise for each muscle group. During the off-season, athletes
will be able to strength train 2-3 times per week. Training
should be reduced to 1-2 times per week during the season. Each
exercise should be performed 8-12 times for 1-3 sets.

Quickness, speed, agility, balance, explosiveness, and power
will be enhanced as the strength training program progresses.
Below is a list of sample exercises for the commonly used
muscles in softball. There are many other exercises you could
perform, but this will provide a starting point.

Quadriceps- Squats, One-Legged Squats, Jump Squats

Hams & Glutes- Lunges, Explosive Lunges, Bridge on Ball

Hip Adductors/Abductors- Lying Side Leg Raises, Ball Squeeze

Obliques- Oblique Crunch on Ball

Rectus Abdominis- Ball Crunch, 180 Ball Crunch

Erector Spinae- Plank Pose

Deltoids- Shoulder Press, Military Press

Pectoralis Major- Chest Fly, Chest Press, Push ups

Latissimus Dorsi- Bent Over Row, Reverse Fly

Triceps- Overhead Extensions, Skull crushers

Biceps- Bicep Curl, Hammer Curl

A powerful softball strength training program will produce
powerful players. Use a full ROM (range of motion) for each
exercise. Generally free weights provide a better ROM than
machines, but use which ever feels best to you. The ultimate
goal is to create a solid program that will deliver a
well-rounded athlete.

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As you grow older, not only do you grow wiser but as a sign of
wisdom, you start losing your hair. Thin hair has been the
result of time. But other factors like heredity, modern hair
styling treatments like perming, bleaching, coloring etc. have
also led to thin hair. Bad diets and stress also have an adverse
effect on the thickness of hair.

The following tips give you some advice on how to control hair
thinning problems:

* Color your hair: When you color your hair, they appear thicker
since the process actually roughs up the hair. It is easier to
give the appearance of fullness since the hair strands slide one
another and lie flat against each other. Use lighter colors
since they hide the scalp very easily.

* Choose a curly look: When you curl your hair, they appear
fuller since the wavy look alters the surface of the hair.

* Blow-dry your hair: Blow drying the hair will make the hair
two to three times thicker without harming the scalp. It plumps
up the hair so that they look higher. But keep the dryer two to
three times away from the hair to avoid causing excessive
dryness. Also, use a conditioner after shampoo if you tend to
blow dry your hair regularly.

* Use protein shampoo daily: When you wash your hair daily, the
hair oils are removed, it gives the hair more body so that it
looks thicker than the normal. Using shampoos with hydrolyzed
animal proteins, also called thickeners, they give the hair more
diameter. They coat the hair so that each shaft appears two to
three times fuller than usual. Also, the hair appears fluffy and
hence, looks fuller.

* Try a kitchen conditioner: Mix a tablespoon of white vinegar
with a pint of water and massage onto the hair after shampooing.
Vinegar changes the chemical balance of the hair to acidic and
thus gives a full appearance to thinning hair.

* Use eggs: Crack an egg over the hair before shampooing.
Massage it for five minutes and then rinse out. It has the same
effect as protein shampoos as egg is an animal protein.

* Use minimal commercial conditioners: Usually, conditioners are
used to give the volume to the hair. But people use quantities
more than required and thus give the hair a limp look. Always
use a teaspoon of conditioner for every wash.

* Use mousse: before going out, always style your hair with
mousse to make the hair appear fuller. Since mousse contains
resins, they coat the hair and add diameter to it. It lifts the
hair off the scalp and gives it a fuller appearance.

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Is the world a complete blur for you without your glasses or
contact lenses? And when you do get your glasses on, do you
resent the lack of freedom in all your movements? Perhaps it’s
time you went in for corrective eye surgery.

Most corrective eye surgery is technically known as refractive
eye surgery, an elective procedure intended to correct common
eye disorders, or refractive errors, such as myopia
(near-sightedness), hyperopia (far-sightedness) and astigmatism
(distorted vision).

Where does laser eye surgery come in?

Laser refractive surgery is rapidly becoming the most
technologically advanced and popular method available today to
correct refractive errors, primarily because it provides
near-total precision and predictability. However, there are
still a relatively small number of ophthalmologists in the US
who are trained in laser refractive surgery and in the
calibration and operation of the laser.

The excimer laser, which is used in this type of surgery,
received FDA approval in 1995 for correcting mild to moderate
nearsightedness. At present, the excimer laser is approved for
use in procedures called photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and
laser in situ Keratomileusis (LASIK).

Photorefractive Keratectomy

Performed with local anesthetic eye drops, PRK is a refractive
surgery that reshapes the cornea by removing tiny amounts of
tissue from the outer surface with a computer-controlled
ultraviolet beam of light. The beam is so precise that it can
notch a strand of human hair without breaking it. The procedure
is the commonest form of laser eye surgery, takes only a few
minutes, and you can get back to normal life in a couple of days.

Is Laser Surgery for You?

Millions of patients have experienced total freedom from any
kind of eyewear after laser surgery, but there are cons too, as
with every surgical procedure. It is best to find out whether
you are eligible for laser eye surgery. Here’s a checklist so
you don’t end up with worse eyesight than you had before you
went in:

- People who are slow healers or have ongoing medical conditions
like glaucoma or diabetes are not good candidates for laser
surgery

- Those with uncontrolled vascular disease, autoimmune disease,
or people with certain eye diseases involving the cornea or
retina are also poor candidates, so make sure you have a long
chat with your doctor before you opt for surgery

- Pregnant women should avoid refractive surgery of any kind
because the refraction of the eye may change during pregnancy

Facts you should know

- You needn’t worry if your pain threshold is low, since there
is hardly any discomfort during surgery. Once the anesthetic
wears off, the degree of pain varies from individual to
individual, but any irritation is minor and usually vanishes
within hours

- Worried about when you can return to work? Usually in one to
three days post-surgery, but a better idea is to wait until you
feel up to it

- Convalescence is minimal, and usually you can be driven home
about 30 minutes after surgery. Typically, your eyesight
improves within 3 to 5 days

- According to numerous surveys in the U.S. and worldwide, the
effects of surgery appear permanent. As people age, however,
their vision deteriorates naturally, so re-treatment may be
necessary

- Laser surgery does not really restrict your activities, except
you should not rub your eyes after surgery. Other than that, you
can do whatever work you feel up to provided you follow doctor’s
orders

The risk factor

In one word, minimal, but there have been a handful of cases
where complications resulting from laser eye surgery have
resulted in corneal transplants. So here goes:

- There is about a 0.1 percent chance of the cornea becoming
infected after PRK, which usually means added discomfort and a
delay in healing, but no long-term effects within a period of
four years

- It is as yet not possible to definitely predict how your eye
will respond to laser surgery. As a result, you may still need
lenses after surgery for good vision. In some cases, a second
procedure can improve the initial result

- Some patients find that their best vision with corrective
lenses is worse than it was before the surgery. This is a result
of either irregular tissue removal or development of corneal haze

- However, corneal haze is part of the normal healing process
after PRK. In most cases, it has little or no effect on the
final vision. However, some cases of excessive haze interfere
with vision. As with under-correction, this can often be
corrected by additional laser treatment.

- In some patients the effect of surgery gradually fades over
several months. In such cases, a re-treatment is once again
usually sufficient

- Some patients experience the halo effect, an optical effect
noticed in dim light. As the pupil enlarges, a second faded
image is produced by the untreated peripheral cornea. This can
interfere with night driving. However, recorded cases are
extremely rare.

As of now, a number of other lasers for eye surgery are being
tested to determine their safety and efficacy. Such tests may
allow for clinical studies involving the excimer laser and the
correction of farsightedness, provided the FDA grants approval,
which is something a potential patient should always check.

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Weight lifting programs and bodybuilding are based around the
idea of progressive resistance or overload. The idea being that
in order to build muscle and increase your strength you must
constantly increase the stress on your muscles.

Then you must give your muscles adequate time to recover and
rebuild so that you can again increase the overload and continue
to build muscle.

The following weightlifting workout won’t do you a darn bit of
good if you don’t adhere to the overload principle of
progressive resistance.

Overload doesn’t necessarily have to mean an increase in your
training poundages. You can also do more reps on a set with the
same weight. Another way to bring about overload in these
weighlifting workouts is to decrease the amount of time you rest
between sets.

Doing more work in the same amount of time or doing the same
work in less time is a great way to overload your muscles
without increasing your workout poundages. This is the
cornerstone of Escalating Density Training by Charles Staley.

Clearly, to make great muscle building gains, you can’t get
complacent in your weight lifting workouts. You need to
constantly strive to do more. And, as stated above, this does
not mean working out more often or making your workouts longer.

You must make your workouts progressively harder and more
intense.

However, this type of weight training routine is very hard on
the recovery process so you must make sure you get enough rest
between workouts to allow the muscle building process to take
place.

Otherwise, you end up overtraining and instead of bigger
muscles, your muscles will get smaller and weaker.

When training this intensely, it’s very important to take time
off from your workouts. You should consider taking a week to ten
days off every four to eight weeks to keep your mind and body
fresh.

If you don’t recover from these weightlifting workouts you
overtrain. And if you overtrain, you don’t get stronger and your
muscles don’t get bigger.

The core of these power-mass workouts is the big compound weight
training exercises like the following:

Squat

Deadlift

Bench Press

Chin ups

Dumbbell Press or Upright Row

Shrugs

Following is a sample weighlifting workout for developing power
and building muscle.

Day 1

Chest, Triceps, Shoulders

Decline Bench Press 3 x 10, 8, 6

Decline Flyes 2 x 8 - 12

Incline Flyes 2 x 8 - 12

Dips 3 x 12, 10, 8

Tricep Pushdowns 2 x 8 - 12

Dumbbell Upright Rows 3 x 12, 10, 8

Incline Dumbbell Laterals 2 x 8 - 12

Day 2

Back, Biceps, Abs

Curl Grip Pulldowns 3 x 10, 8, 6

Machine or Dumbbell Pullovers 2 x 8 - 12

One Arm DUmbbell Rows 2 x 8 - 12

Incline Dumbbell Curls 1 x 8 - 12

Dumbbell Concentration Curls 1 x 8 - 12

Barbell Curls 1 x 8 - 12

Weighted Crunches 2 x 15 - 20

Reverse Crunches 2 x 15 - 20

Day 3

Legs

Squats 3 x 10, 8, 6

Leg Extensions 2 x 8 - 12

Stiff Legged Deadlifts 2 x 12 - 15

Leg Curls 2 x 8 - 12

Standing Calf Raises 2 x 12 - 15

Seated Calf Raises 2 x 12 - 15

This routine involves working each muscle group once per week.
The idea is to keep the overall training session short but
intense to avoid overtraining.

If you can recover from it, you may want to replace the Curl
Grip Pulldowns and the Pullovrs with 4 sets of deadlifts instead.

If you feel you recover sooner than that, you may want to change
up the split to something like the following:

You definitely don’t want deadlifts on the following split
because you would find yourself doing deadlifts and squats on
consecutive days.

Monday: Chest, Triceps, Shoulders

Tuesday: Legs

Wednesday: Back, Biceps, Abs

Thursday: Off

Friday: Chest, Triceps, Shoulders

Saturday: Off

Sunday: Off

Monday: Back, Biceps, Abs

Tuesday: Legs

Wednesday: Chest Triceps, Shoulders

Thursday: Off

Friday: Back, Biceps, Abs

Saturday: Off

Sunday: Off

Monday: Repeat at the top

If you haven’t been training, or haven’t been training very
intensely lately, you’ll want to start out by avoiding training
to failure for the first week or two. This will help you build
up some momentum, as well as avoiding extreme soreness that will
keep you out of the gym.

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