Madrona Studio

01/24/2025

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Every day!

01/06/2025

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12/13/2024

12/11/2024

Love this image!

09/14/2024

109 years ago on 12 September 1915, Joesph Pilates arrived on the Isle of Man where he was taken, along with hundreds of other new arrivals, to the Knockaloe Internment Camp.

The scale model of the camp, pictured below, is part of the exhibition at the Centre for First World War Internment and gives an idea of the size of the camp and would be what Joseph would have seen the morning after his arrival.

This season the Centre for First World War Internment’s featured display focused on exercise, sport and recreation and of course Joseph Pilates was part of this featured display.

Visit knockaloe.im for more information on the history of the camp.

08/24/2024

I just read a very cool study that came out this month. Researchers took human volunteers and had them exercise one leg only—one leg exercised while the other remained sedentary. Then they measured mitophagy in each leg.

Now, mitophagy is a type of autophagy that’s specific to the mitochondria. It’s the process by which the body prunes damaged and malfunctioning mitochondria, leaving behind primarily high-quality mitochondria that work well and function optimally.

Turns out the exercised leg showed elevated markers of mitophagy, while the sedentary leg remained unchanged. This was after a single bout of exercise—just a few sets.

Now imagine a lifetime of this, of training in the gym, playing sports, running and jumping, climbing the stairs, and generally using your body. Then imagine a lifetime of the opposite: of sitting on the couch, watching TV, and slowly trudging to your car to drive to the mall or fast food restaurant. Imagine how each scenario would impact the quality and function of your mitochondria over the short term and the long term.

What you have to realize is that this is the greatest law of the universe: use it or lose it. Particularly in human biology, it is a constant battle to prove to your body that you are indeed using it. If you don’t do anything with it, your body deteriorates.

This battle is playing out on every level of existence. Anything you do is either eliminating harmful parts of your life or tolerating them, and every day we get a chance to make the right or wrong decisions.

Do you get up and move, lift, run, walk, climb, and fight against gravity and entropy? Or do you say “I’ll do it tomorrow” and take the day off?

Every day counts. Every day moves you closer to or farther from where you want to go.

Study here:

Aim The present study aimed to investigate the effects of a single bout of resistance exercise on mitophagy in human skeletal muscle (SkM). Methods Eight healthy men were recruited to complete an ...