Get Fit in Bed: Tone Your Body & Calm Your Mind
from the Comfort of Your Bed
(New Harbinger Publications; August
2006) offers a proven-effective exercise program that draws
from yoga, Pilates, karate, and stretching. With regular practice,
you’ll see an improvement in muscle tone, flexibility,
strength—and even sleep quality. You’ll also enjoy
a greater sense of calm and well-being.
who else can benefit from an
exercise program that’s done in bed?
• People with mobility problems;
• Anyone with arthritis, fibromyalgia, or chronic fatigue;
• Those with limited flexibility and strength;
• Patients recovering from surgery;
a certain physical logic
“(Get Fit in Bed) introduces
a complete exercise system in which the flow of movements
has a certain physical logic. Earlier smaller movements build
tone, strength, and flexibility for later broader movements,”
say Tartell and Kavanau.
The exercises are divided into four parts: Exercises
on Your Back; Exercises on Your Right Side; Exercises on Your
Left Side, and Exercises on Your Stomach. Together, they provide
a whole body, low-impact workout that you can do in the morning,
evening, or even after waking up in the middle of the night.
The exercises are fully illustrated and easy to do.
“but I thought you weren’t
supposed to exercise before going to sleep...”
It’s a common belief that
exercise done shortly before bedtime deters sleep. Even coauthor
Genie Tartell thought so when she heard about the Get
Fit in Bed program.
“My initial response was to question the
concept of exercising in bed, especially before attempting
to sleep,” says Tartell. So she began an experiment.
She tried the exercises for fifteen days on her bed before
sleep, and was impressed by the results. “My back showed
no signs of strain and my sleep was greatly improved,”
she says. Then she looked into the research, and to her surprise
found evidence that exercising before bed may actually promote
rather than deter sleep.
How a karate class and a dust allergy inspired
a revolutionary new exercise program...
So, how did Genie Tartell, a nationally
known chiropractor and registered nurse, and Ted Kavanau,
a veteran newsman and one of the founders of CNN, come together
to write a book about exercising in bed? Well, it started
with an out-of-shape Kavanau faltering in a karate class and
having a dust allergy. He decided to begin an at-home exercise
regimen to enhance his class performance, but no matter how
many times he vacuumed his carpet he still found his dust
allergy aggravated when he got on the floor to exercise. Then
he had “what Zen masters might agree was a burst of
enlightenment.” The solution would be to exercise in
bed, he realized. The results exceeding anything Kavanau could
have imagined. He became stronger both mentally and physically,
and contrary to common belief, when he exercised at night
he enjoyed improved sleep quality. Also, “the exercises
created a good foundation for other athletic activity. For
example, I always found it effective to do the exercises in
bed on mornings before going to weekend karate sparring sessions.”
Eventually, Kavanau was awarded a black belt. Then he decided
he’d write a book to share the transformative experience
of exercising in bed. Fortunately, he had an acquaintance
that could provide the medical expertise to make the book
a sound resource. Enter Manhattan-based chiropractor Genie
Tartell.
Tartell was initially skeptical. After all, exercising
before bed is generally not considered conducive to good sleep.
So, she was surprised to find her sleep quality actually improved
after a trial run of the Get Fit in Bed program. The next
step was to see if the program would really enhance fitness.
She began sharing the exercises with her patients, some of
whom were recovering from injury, and was, again, impressed
by the results. “They reported increased range of motion
and diminished pain in the affected area, with an increased
rate of recovery,” she says. The next success came when
she introduced the exercises to patients with chronic skeletal
or medical problems and they too saw marked relief.
The results convinced the once-skeptical Tartell
to sign on to the project, and together she and Kavanau wrote
the ground-breaking Get Fit in Bed.
A fitness expert, Tartell also modeled for the photographs
that illustrate the exercises throughout the book and provides
a number of modifications for those with special conditions.
Photo
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TED KAVANAU: From
the founding of CNN to getting fit in bed
Coauthor Ted Kavanau was
one of the founders of CNN. He was also the first to offer
Katie Couric a seat in the host’s chair of a major show.
In Get Fit
in Bed he shares his inspiring story of the
tough times he encountered after hitting his professional
peak.
After retiring from CNN
Kavanau settled into a quiet life of financial ease and newfound
leisure.
It was short-lived though.
A financial crisis soon
caused him to drastically downsize his lifestyle. This included
trading in his spacious digs in a high-rise building for a
small garden apartment (“cynics might describe it as
a basement”).
Too out of shape to keep
up with a rigorous exercise program, Kavanau also started
exercising in bed (or more accurately, on his cot). The results
surprised him. He didn’t just regain a measure of strength
and flexibility, he actually achieved a level of fitness he’d
never before known.
In his sixties he entered
a karate tournament, and in 2005 at the age of seventy-two
he fought three rounds in the monthly White Collar Sparring
competition at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn. |
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