The Human Body Exhibition highlights the essential components of the human anatomy. Nine galleries display carefully dissected and preserved partial- and full-body specimens. These amazing specimens provide insight into how the human body functions and how it is affected by lifestyle choices, such as smoking and overeating. Designed to educate, encourage and enlighten, the exhibition displays the physical damage caused by neglecting your body.

All of the exhibition’s specimens were donated in accordance with Chinese law to the Dalian Hoffen Bio-technique Laboratory, which conducts research into the innovative Plastination technique. The laboratory uses this technique to preserve and display the specimens.

Using treated and hardened liquid silicone rubber, specimens are preserved at the cellular level. The rubberised final result showcases the complexity of the body’s bones, muscle, nerves, blood vessels and organs. This is a slow and delicate process that requires great care and respect. It takes over a year to prepare the full-body specimens.

Back in 2009 when The Bodies Exhibition came to Dublin I paid a visit. You can read about my thoughts and experiences here – Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. The official website gives more information and an overview of the exhibition:

• An internationally acclaimed family experience.
• Multiple galleries take visitors through the essential components of human anatomy.
• Dynamic full body specimens demonstrate the systems that make the body function from the intricacy of the circulatory system to the astounding process of reproduction.
• Individual organ specimens allow visitors to delve deeper into the body’s structures that operate within those systems.
• Stunning photographs of the body, combined with informative videos, enhance the visitor experience.
• Levels of information throughout the Exhibition are thoughtfully geared to visitors of all ages and educational levels—from primary school to medical school.
• Medical docents answer questions as visitors explore the galleries and give guided tours to small groups.
• “Did you know” health tips and insights are provided throughout.
• Educational material for teachers and programs for student groups make the Exhibition an invaluable school outing.
• Artist events allow professional artists and aspiring art students the opportunity to sketch the specimens and expand their knowledge of anatomy.
• Lectures on health, medicine, and well-being are conducted for professionals and the lay public.
• An Exhibition catalogue enhances the visitor experience.

What’s on view?

INTRODUCTORY

An overview of the body and the fascinating journey ahead

SKELETAL/MUSCULAR

The body’s supporting skeletal framework and the muscles that work in tandem with it

RESPIRATORY

The system that brings air to every cell in the body and also facilitates speech

DIGESTIVE

The process that moves food through 10 meters of digestive tract, extracting the nutrients needed for survival

NERVOUS

The brain as the center of consciousness and the spinal cord that sends impulses to it at the speed of light

CIRCULATORY

A unique and awe-inspiring look at the heart and the 145,000 km of blood vessels that carry blood throughout the body

REPRODUCTIVE/URINARY

The system with two functions: elimination and reproduction

FETAL LIFE

Life in development on a most basic level

YOUR FUTURE

Take a more active role in your health and well-being

Showing at the Ambassador Theater on Dublin’s O’Connell Street, tickets cost  Adults €20 / Concessions €16 / Children €12 / Family €56. Tickets can be purchased on Ticketmaster. In my opinion, this is a must see exhibition, an absolute must. If you have the opportunity to visit, then don’t miss out.

Photo by Laura Hutton of Photocall Ireland

What is a Kettlebell?

A kettlebell is hand held cast iron weight which can be used to train the whole body. It resembles a cannonball with a handle attached. Kettlebells can vary in weight and they have been used for centuries in Russia and surrounding countries.

Why the Kettlebell?

Kettlebells are an extremely space-efficient tool for adding external resistance to your training regime at home, and can be used to dramatically expand your options for working out when you can’t make it to the gym.I work 5 days a week and coach 4 days a week (3 of those days after my regular 9 – 5) so for me, this is a really good option when I’m too tired to make it to the gym or don’t quite feel like a swim.

What are the benefits of the Kettlebell?

• Decreased body fat
• Core strengthener
• Increased muscle tone
• Increased mobility
• Quick results
• Fun
• Whole body functional training
• Increased cardio-respiratory fitness
• Increased body composition

Why Kettlebells and not dumbells and other weights?

The main difference between Kettlebells and free weights (barbells,dumbbells etc.) is that the weight in the Kettlebell is off-set from the centre. Kettlebells also have a center of mass extended beyond the hand and allow for swing movements and release moves with added safety and added grip, wrist, arm and core strengthening due to the shifting fill material. It recruits more stabilization muscle fibers and works your grip strength more because of this arrangement and with the bucket like handle, the range of exercises differ from exercises that you can do with a traditional dumbbell. Kettlebell movements mimic the way that our bodies should move with functional movement patterns. This type of training teaches our bodies correct movement skills and patterns.

What exercises can I do?

There are numerous types of exercises to do for different parts of your body. I especially love the Kettle Bell swing, Squats, Side Bends and Lunges. Have a look on YouTube to see the various exercises you can do.

Have you used Kettlebells? What are your opinions on them?

The Irish Sports Council (ISC) has launched an iPhone application to make it easier for Irish athletes to check as to whether or not their medications and substances are on the banned substance list.

The app is free and allows users to look up medication by name or to search by ailment type:

The app allows the user to look up their medication by name or to search by ailment type. Useful features include the ability to email a search result to any email address, to save the search in the app History, and to re-check medications in saved history against current database listings.

You can download the free app by visiting the iTunes store by clicking here. Read more about the app here.

. Safefood is warning that while 66% of people in Ireland are overweight , only 38% actually realise it. The group wants people to ‘stop the spread’ by measuring their waist size to become aware if they’re headded for dangerous territory.Their research shows that a waist size of greater than 32 inches for women and 37 inches for men could indicate that those are one of the people Safefood says are “in denial” about their weight.

The Safefood.eu website states that 2 out of 3 people in Ireland are overweight and so have launched the “Stop the Spread” campaign. SafeFood will make 250,000 tape measures free and easily available to the population through chemists and pharmacies over the coming months  with the hope that people will step up, find out their waist size, realise that they are overweight and do something to combat obesity.The campaign is comprised of television and radio advertising as well as a campaign ‘pledge’ website. Users can log onto the website, learn how to measure their waist correctly and take one of five campaign pledges if they are carrying excess weight, and share those pledges with friends and family through social media channels like Facebook.

Safefood is asking adults on the island of Ireland to find out what their waist size is. Having a waist size greater than 32 inches for a woman or 37 inches for a man is a clear indication that a person is carrying excess weight.

The “Stop the Spread” campaign is a two-year, all island initiative by safefood and comprises television and radio advertising as well as a campaign ‘pledge’. The campaign is also supported by pharmacies and chemists across the island of Ireland where consumers can pick up one of 250,000 free measuring tapes from next week.

The campaign also addresses what is called the “social contagion effect”, where the chances of being obese are much more likely in a social circle either within a family or a network of friends. The facts are laid out below:

• Only 38% of adults believe they are overweight
• 66% of the Irish
• 81% of men believe their waist size is within the “normal” range
• Normal waist range for woman is 32 inches
• Normal waist range for men is 37 inches
• Research has shown that a person’s chances of becoming obese increased by 57% if they had a friend who became obese. If one spouse is obese, the likelihood that the other spouse could be obese increases by 37%

A fantastic initiative in my opinion. It upsets me to see obese children, every child should take part in some element of sport to prevent obesity.It’s worrying that obesity is on the rise so rapidly.  It’s also sad to think that some people just aren’t as educated to understand obesity and the effects it can have on our bodies from diabetes to heart conditions to some cancers.I strongly believe that education about obesity is a must, to everyone.

Read more about the Stop the Spread campaign here and here.

If you’re interested, you can read more here on the FIG website.

Methylhexaneamine is also known as dimethylamylamine, dimethylpentylamine, DMAA, forthran, forthane, floradrene, geranamine and geranium oil. It has been increasingly found in nutritional supplements, typically those that are designed to increase energy or aid weight loss.

UK Anti-Doping Chief Executive, Andy Parkinson, said:

“The outcome of this case, and others from around the world, demonstrates how vigilant athletes must be when it comes to supplements. There is no guarantee that any supplement is free from a prohibited substance. Athletes are ultimately responsible for anything found in their system, no matter how it gets there.

“There are an increasing number of positive cases for methylhexaneamine for which athletes are facing a ban from sport. Whilst its downgrading in status in the 2011 Prohibited List is a welcome development, methylhexaneamine remains prohibited. Whether intentional or unintentional, its presence in the system can lead to an anti-doping rule violation and a ban from sport.”

Read more from UK Anti Doping

Like Shawn Johnson in the USA, Beth Tweddle has joined the campaign in the UK to highlight the benefits of drinking milk. It’s similar the campaign in the USA, celebs and idols lending a hand to promote something good.

“I am very passionate about sport and living a healthy lifestyle and want to encourage young people into physical activity. I think that this campaign will achieve exactly that.

“Milk has maybe been seen as a bit old fashioned by young people in the past but it’s a terrific drink for young people, particularly in sports.”

Read more: Milk.Co.Uk and Milk For All It’s Worth

Many thanks to Lucy from the Dairy Council, The Daily Mail had the name of the campaign incorrect and Beth will not be representing the Make Mine Milk Campaign

Yesterday, FIG made public the 2009 statistics concerning the fight against doping in gymnastics. There’s some really interesting numbers in the report, overall it’s shows that there were a low number of positive cases discovered.

In 2009:

• The Registered Testing Pool included 179 gymnasts from 36 of the FIG’s 127 affiliated federations.
• 243 urine samples were collected and tested, 114 of which were taken during the last trimester at the time of world championship events. Out of these 243, 183 were performed in competition.

FIG says that the results are encouraging:

A mere two cases came back positive out of 247 samples taken. The first was an out of competition test concerning Brazilian Daiana dos Santos, the second Alisa Usmanova (BLR) at the Acrobatic World Cup in Vila do Condo, Portugal. Furosemide was the offensive substance in both cases.

View the statistics for yourself here.

Fatigue in Football: Physiology in Performance

Top 10 World Cup Injuries – Hamstring Strain, Groin Strain, Metatarsal Fracture, Medial Collateral Ligament, Anterior Cruciate Ligament, Ankle Sprains, Meniscus Injury, Leg Fracture, Calf Injury, Achilles Tendon Rupture

Since posting this video back in May, its ranked up over 15 million views! Nike Write The Future

I’m also loving the Coca Cola “History of Celebration” ad.

They will begin their research which will span over 18 months, in partnership with British Gymnastics this summer. The Team will investigate how British elite gymnasts develop freedom of choice, self image and identity within the elite gymnastics environment they find themselves. The research project is a multi-disciplinary effort drawing from philosophical, psychiatric, and social-sciences research perspectives to understand the ethos of elite gymnastics. It’s the perfect time to do this research, given that gymnasts are currently training in the lead up to the London 2012 Olympics and the World Championships in Rotterdam.

Steve Green , the Technical Manager of British Gymnastics says:

We hope to learn from this piece of research to better refine our identification system and pathway of intervention to the benefit of not only gymnastics, but to share the model with other sports.

It’s excellent to read in the article the BG already have a a frame work in place for supporting gymnasts with eating disorders. It’s great that British Gymnastics are supporting this research and it’ll be interesting to see the project results.

Read the full article here.

In the last few months there’s been chitter chatter and comments on forums and blogs relating to gymnastics physique and look. One gymnast who has been commented on a lot, mainly in regards to her legs, is Shawn Johnson. This week KCCI reports on how Shawn Johnson has been helping to spread a positive message to girls about body image and self esteem. Read the report here and see a very short clip of Shawn speaking.

Well done Shawn, it’s great to see people using their fame for good reasons and issues like this.

Iowa Olympic star Shawn Johnson helped to spread a positive message about body image and self-esteem in Des Moines on Thursday.

The gold medal-winning gymnast said she pulled from her own experience as a not-so-cookie-cutter star to help central Iowa girls learn what’s really important.

“There’s a huge push in the world on an image, a stereotypical, beautiful model image, especially in gymnastics,” Johnson said. “I was a huge target for that.”

She said it wasn’t unusual to hear stories in her sport about cases of anorexia and bulimia. She said that her 4 foot 11 inch muscular build wasn’t popular with some on Dancing with the Stars, either. Johnson said she was frequently compared to Holly Madison.

“I don’t know if you girls know who that is, but she’s a model and she’s like tiny and tall! And they’re like, ‘You have to become her,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m 4 foot 11, that’s not possible,’” Johnson said.The girls who came to hear Johnson speak are involved in the Chrysalis Foundation’s activities. The group sponsors afterschool activities for girls all over central Iowa.Participants said they’ve already learned a lot about growing up, being a better person, learning to deal with bullies and how to be themselves.

Johnson said she hoped her words would solidify that message.

“Image isn’t everything,” she said. “It’s what comes from your heart and what you learn and what you say and how you act that means more than anything.”

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Beth Tweddle on becoming an MBE:

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Helsinki has been chosen as the venue for the 2015 World Gymnaestrada

Theresa Murphy in Ireland is looking for extra judges for the County Kerry Community Games Finals  on 23rd May. Judges will be paid for on the day. You can find contact information for Theresa here