In February 1968, the Beatles travelled to Rishikesh, in northern India, to attend an advanced Transcendental Meditation (TM) training session at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Amid widespread media attention, their visit was one of the band's most productive periods. Their interest in the Maharishi changed Western attitudes about Indian spirituality and encouraged the study of Transcendental Meditation. They first met the Maharishi in London in August 1967 and then attended a seminar in Bangor, Wales. The Beatles had planned to attend the entire ten-day session, but their stay was cut short by the death of their manager, Brian Epstein. Wanting to learn more, they kept in contact with the Maharishi and made arrangements to spend time with him at his teaching centre located near Rishikesh, in "the Valley of the Saints" in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Along with their wives, girlfriends, assistants and numerous reporters, the Beatles arrived in India in February 1968, and joined the group of 60 people who were training to be TM teachers, including musicians Donovan, Mike Love of the Beach Boys, and flautist Paul Horn. While there, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison wrote many songs and Ringo Starr finished writing his first. Eighteen of those songs were recorded for The Beatles (the White Album), two songs appeared on the Abbey Road album, and others were used for various solo projects.

Starr and his wife left on 1 March, after a ten-day stay; the McCartneys left after one month due to other commitments; while John Lennon and George Harrison stayed about six weeks and left abruptly following financial disagreements and rumours of inappropriate behaviour by the Maharishi. Harrison later apologised for the way he and Lennon had treated the Maharishi and in 1992 gave a benefit concert for the Maharishi-associated Natural Law Party. In 2009, McCartney and Starr performed at a benefit concert for the David Lynch Foundation, which raises funds for the teaching of Transcendental Meditation to at-risk students.

In the mid-1960s, the Beatles became interested in Indian culture, after using drugs in an effort to expand their consciousness[4] and in 1966 Harrison visited India for six weeks and took sitar lessons from Ravi Shankar.Alexis "Magic Alex" Mardas, a friend of the Beatles and head of Apple Electronics, had heard a lecture by the Maharishi in Athens, Greece and Harrison's wife, Pattie Boyd, attended a lecture by the Maharishi in London and they encouraged the Beatles to hear the Maharishi speak.

At Boyd's suggestion, the Beatles attended the Maharishi's lecture at the London Hilton on Park Lane on 24 August 1967. The Maharishi had announced his intention to retire, so this was expected to be his last public lecture in the West. Some band members had seen him on a Granada TV program years earlier. The Beatles were given front row seats and were invited to meet the Maharishi in his hotel suite after the lecture. During the ninety-minute meeting, he invited them to be his guests at a training retreat in Wales.

Two days later, on 26 August, the Beatles travelled by train to the college campus in Bangor, Wales. It was perhaps the first time the band had travelled without their tour managers and they had not even thought to bring money. The station was mobbed because of a bank holiday and Cynthia Lennon, mistaken for a fan, was held back. She ran after the train but missed it and arrived later by car. The group, along with Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Cilla Black, Harrison's sister-in-law Jenny Boyd, and around 300 others, learned the basics of Transcendental Meditation,[18] and were given their mantras. The group "hesitated only slightly" when asked to donate the customary week's wages, a large sum for a Beatle, to learn.[20][21] While there, they announced at a press conference that they were giving up drugs (apparently referring to psychedelics, but not marijuana). This was a choice "in keeping with the Maharishi's teachings" but one made prior to meeting the Maharishi. The Maharishi did advise them privately to avoid involvement with the "Ban the Bomb" movement and to support the elected government of the day.[26] Their intention was to attend the entire ten-day seminar but their stay was cut short by the death of their manager, Epstein, in London on 27 August. The Maharishi consoled them by saying that Epstein's spirit was still with them and their good thoughts would help him "to have an easy passage" and journey to his "next evolution". According to McCartney, the Maharishi "was great to us when Brian died" and Cynthia Lennon wrote "it was as though, with Brian gone, the four needed someone new to give them direction and the Maharishi was in the right place at the right time."

Curious to learn more, the Beatles made plans to spend time at the "Maharishi's training center" in India in late October.[26] However, the trip was postponed due to commitments related to the Magical Mystery Tour film and the soundtrack album.[32] Harrison and Lennon appeared twice on David Frost's programme in autumn 1967 to talk about their involvement with TM when, according to Lennon's wife, John was "evangelical in his enthusiasm for Maharishi". Now publicised as "The Beatles' Guru", the Maharishi went on his eighth world tour, giving lectures in Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, Canada, and California.[34] At that time, Lennon said that, thanks to his meditation, "I'm a better person and I wasn't bad before."[35] When the Maharishi spoke to 3,600 people at Madison Square Garden in New York City, in January 1968, the Beatles sent a large flower arrangement to his suite at the Plaza Hotel.[36]

Harrison flew to Bombay in January 1968 to work on the Wonderwall Music soundtrack, expecting the rest of the group to follow shortly. When they were delayed he flew back to London, where the group spent a week in the studio. Before leaving for India, the band recorded the instrumental tracks for "Across the Universe", whose refrain, "Jai Guru Dev",[38] was a standard greeting within the Maharishi's Spiritual Regeneration Movement. Also in January, the Maharishi, Mia Farrow, Prudence Farrow and their brother, flew from the US to London and on to India.

Lennon, his wife Cynthia, the Harrisons and Jenny Boyd arrived in Delhi on 15 February, where they were met by Mal Evans, their advance man, who had arranged the 150-mile (240km), six-hour taxi drive to Rishikesh. McCartney, his girlfriend Jane Asher, Starr and his wife Maureen arrived four days later. The group arrived three weeks after the session, due to end 25 April, had already begun.[43] They were accompanied by a small retinue of reporters and photographers who were mostly kept out of the fenced and gated compound.[44][45] Entourage members Evans, Brown and Neil Aspinall were there for all or part of the time and Mardas arrived four weeks later.

As soon as Starr arrived in Delhi he asked Evans to take him to a doctor because of a reaction to an inoculation: "When we arrived at the local hospital, I tried to get immediate treatment for him [Starr], to be told curtly by the Indian doctor, 'He is not a special case and will have to wait his turn.' So off we go to pay a private doctor ten rupees for the privilege of hearing him say it will be all right".[47] Also there at the same time were Mia Farrow, her sister Prudence and brother John, Donovan, Gyp "Gypsy Dave" Mills, Mike Love, jazz flautist Paul Horn, journalist Lewis H. Lapham, film-maker Paul Saltzman, socialite Nancy Cooke de Herrera, actors Tom Simcox and Jerry Stovin,[51] and dozens of others, all Europeans or Americans.[43] Despite speculation, Shirley MacLaine did not attend[34] and Lennon, who had thought of bringing Yoko Ono, decided against it.

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People help themselves to food during an Indian lunch held at Lebanon Valley College's Miller Chapel. The college hosted Swami Pratyagboadhananda, a Hindu monk from an ashram in Saylorsburg. (Jeremy Long Lebanon Daily News)

ANNVILLE >> "The purpose of meditation is to have single-pointedness," explained Swami Pratyagbodhananda after a brief opening prayer to his instruction at Lebanon Valley College.

Swami Pratyagbodhananda was one of the four members of the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam to visit LVC Tuesday. The monk and teacher led a talk at 11 a.m. on the practice of meditation, put on in Miller Chapel by the college's Office of Spiritual Life.

The Arsha Vidya Gurukulam is a gurukulam, which is, in the Hindu tradition, a place where a student goes not only to study from but to live with the teacher, therefore immersing themselves in religious study and practice.

The ashram, located in Saylorsburg, was established in 1986 by Swami Dayananda Saraswati and is based on the traditional gurukulams of India. It provides a number of programs year-round, including classes in Sanskrit, meditation, yoga and religious texts, as well as retreats and children's programs.

Additionally, all programs and courses offered by the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam are free and open to the public, with lodging provided for a nominal fee.

Pratyagbodhananda continued his talk by explaining that to achieve single-pointedness, "one does meditation."

"There are three types of actions I can perform: physical action, oral action and mental action," said the teacher.

All three of these actions can be connected through prayer and meditative chant, Pratyagbodhananda explained.

The teacher then went on to discuss meditation and the challenges to meditation brought on by the naturally wandering mind.

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Swami offers discussion on meditation at Lebanon Valley College

Paul Rosario and Sperry Goode perform leg stretches. (David R. Jennings / Staff Photographer)

Inspired Athletic Movement, 5485 Conestoga Court, Suite 110B, Boulder, 720-675-8348, inspiredathleticmovement.com

Instructor: Christine Neff, of Coal Creek Canyon. Neff started teaching aerobics in 1986 and became a personal trainer in 1993. She is certified by the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Council on Exercise and the International Youth Conditioning Association.

What is the workout? Dash and Smash is a combination of high-intensity interval training (the "dash" part) and mobilizing techniques (the "smash").

For the intervals, we did five rounds of four different compound strength-training exercises (meaning the moves worked multiple muscles at the same time) with no rest time in between.

Then, we stretched muscles and joints, using balls, rubber bands ("superbands"), pads and other equipment, depending on what the participants needed to open up.

Neff began teaching Dash and Smash at Inspired Athletic Movement in August 2013, but she has been teaching variations of it since 2011.

What's different? The classes are small (my class had only three participants), so it's personalized for your specific needs and abilities. The workout itself aims to build strength in full ranges of motion and adding the mobilization into class enhances that.

The mobilization component was particularly unique and went far behind just stretching. Neff helped us make space in between our joints (imagine looping your arm in a thick rubber band and pulling away from it, to pull your shoulder bone away).

Techniques used include MobilityWod, Egoscue method and Neff's own methods.

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Boulder Workout: Dash and Smash

Want to learn more about exercise and depression? Many studies show that people who exercise regularly benefit with a positive boost in mood and lower rates of depression.

Improved self-esteem is a key psychological benefit of regular physical activity. When you exercise, your body releases chemicals called endorphins. These endorphins interact with the receptors in your brain that reduce your perception of pain.

Endorphins also trigger a positive feeling in the body, similar to that of morphine. For example, the feeling that follows a run or workout is often described as "euphoric." That feeling, known as a "runner's high," can be accompanied by a positive and energizing outlook on life.

Endorphins act as analgesics, which means they diminish the perception of pain. They also act as sedatives. They are manufactured in your brain, spinal cord, and many other parts of your body and are released in response to brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. The neuron receptors endorphins bind to are the same ones that bind some pain medicines. However, unlike with morphine, the activation of these receptors by the body's endorphins does not lead to addiction or dependence.

Regular exercise has been proven to:

Exercise also has these added health benefits:

Research has shown that exercise is an effective but often underused treatment for mild to moderate depression.

It appears that any form of exercise can help depression. Some examples of moderate exercise include:

Because strong social support is important for those with depression, joining a group exercise class may be beneficial. Or you can exercise with a close friend or your partner. In doing so, you will benefit from the physical activity and emotional comfort, knowing that others are supportive of you.

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Exercise and Depression: Endorphins, Reducing Stress, and More

Last updated: September 23, 2011 Edited by:

Follow our blog http://shoulderarthritis.blogspot.com/ On which we try to provide the best and most current information on shoulder arthritis. Contact If you have questions regarding the ream and run procedure, feel free to email Frederick A. Matsen III M.D. at matsen@uw.edu. If you have questions regarding hip and knee arthritis, feel free to email Seth S. Leopold M.D. at leopold@u.washington.edu.

Part of a treatment program

Bicycling can be great recreational exercise

Exercise is good for almost everyone!

For many years it was thought that people with arthritis should not exercise because it would damage their joints. Now doctors know that when the arthritis is under control, people with arthritis can improve their health and fitness through exercise without hurting their joints.

Exercising for fitness is as important for people with arthritis as for anyone else. It can give you more energy, help you sleep better, control your weight, make your heart stronger, make your bones and muscles stronger, decrease depression, decrease fatigue, improve your self-esteem and sense of well-being, and give you time to socialize with friends.

If you have arthritis, you have more reasons to exercise:

Along with medicines, rest and other parts of your treatment program, regular exercise can help keep your joints in working order so you can continue your daily activities. It may also help prevent further joint damage.

What happens without exercise?

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Exercise and Arthritis | UW Orthopaedics and Sports ...

For a broader coverage related to this topic, see Kinesiology.

Exercise physiology is the study of the acute responses and chronic adaptations to a wide range of physical exercise conditions. In addition, many exercise physiologists study the effect of exercise on pathology, and the mechanisms by which exercise can reduce or reverse disease progression. Accreditation programs exist with professional bodies in most developed countries, ensuring the quality and consistency of education. In Canada, one may obtain the professional certification title - Certified Exercise Physiologist for those working with clients (both clinical and non clinical) in the health and fitness industry.

An exercise physiologist's area of study may include but is not limited to biochemistry, bioenergetics, cardiopulmonary function, hematology, biomechanics, skeletal muscle physiology, neuroendocrine function, and central and peripheral nervous system function. Furthermore, exercise physiologists range from basic scientists, to clinical researchers, to clinicians, to sports trainers.

Humans have a high capacity to expend energy for many hours during sustained exertion. For example, one individual cycling at a speed of 26.4km/h (16.4mph) over 8,204km (5,098mi) during 50 consecutive days may expended a total of 1,145 MJ (273,850 kcal; 273,850 dieter calories) with an average power output of 182.5 W.[1]

Skeletal muscle burns 90mg (0.5 mmol) of glucose each minute during continuous activity (such as when repetitively extending the human knee),[2] generating 24 W of mechanical energy, and since muscle energy conversion is only 22-26% efficient,[3] 76 W of heat energy. Resting skeletal muscle has a basal metabolic rate (resting energy consumption) of 0.63 W/kg[4] making a 160 fold difference between the energy consumption of inactive and active muscles. For short duration muscular exertion, energy expenditure can be far greater: an adult human male when jumping up from a squat mechanically generates 314 W/kg, and such rapid movement can generate twice this in nonhuman animals such as bonobos,[5] and in some small lizards.[6]

This energy expenditure is very large compared to the resting metabolism basal metabolic rate of the adult human body. This varies somewhat with size, gender and age but is typically between 45 W and 85 W.[7][8] Total energy expenditure (TEE) due to muscular expended energy is much higher and depends upon the average level of physical work and exercise done during a day.[9] Thus exercise, particularly if sustained for very long periods, dominates the energy metabolism of the body.

Energy needed to perform short lasting, high intensity bursts of activity is derived from anaerobic metabolism within the cytosol of muscle cells, as opposed to aerobic respiration which utilizes oxygen, is sustainable, and occurs in the mitochondria. The quick energy sources consist of the phosphocreatine (PCr) system, fast glycolysis, and adenylate kinase. All of these systems re-synthesize adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is the universal energy source in all cells. The most rapid source, but the most readily depleted of the above sources is the PCr system which utilizes the enzyme creatine kinase. This enzyme catalyzes a reaction that combines phosphocreatine and adenosine diphosphate (ADP) into ATP and creatine. This resource is short lasting because oxygen is required for the resynthesis of phosphocreatine via mitochondrial creatine kinase. Therefore, under anaerobic conditions, this substrate is finite and only lasts between approximately 10 to 30 seconds of high intensity work. Fast glycolysis, however, can function for approximately 2 minutes prior to fatigue, and predominately uses intracellular glycogen as a substrate. Glycogen is broken down rapidly via glycogen phosphorylase into individual glucose units during intense exercise. Glucose is then oxidized to pyruvate and under anaerobic condition is reduced to lactic acid. This reaction oxidizes NADH to NAD, thereby releasing a hydrogen ion, promoting acidosis. For this reason, fast glycolysis can not be sustained for long periods of time. Lastly, adenylate kinase catalyzes a reaction by which 2 ADP are combined to form ATP and adenosine monophosphate (AMP). This reaction takes place during low energy situations such as extreme exercise or conditions of hypoxia, but is not a significant source of energy. The creation of AMP resulting from this reaction stimulates AMP-activated protein kinase (AMP kinase) which is the energy sensor of the cell. After sensing low energy conditions, AMP kinase stimulates various other intracellular enzymes geared towards increasing energy supply and decreasing all anabolic, or energy requiring, cell functions.[citation needed]

Plasma glucose is said to be maintained when there is an equal rate of glucose appearance (entry into the blood) and glucose disposal (removal from the blood). In the healthy individual, the rates of appearance and disposal are essentially equal during exercise of moderate intensity and duration; however, prolonged exercise or sufficiently intense exercise can result in an imbalance leaning towards a higher rate of disposal than appearance, at which point glucose levels fall producing the onset of fatigue. Rate of glucose appearance is dictated by the amount of glucose being absorbed at the gut as well as liver (hepatic) glucose output. Although glucose absorption from the gut is not typically a source of glucose appearance during exercise, the liver is capable of catabolizing stored glycogen (glycogenolysis) as well as synthesizing new glucose from specific reduced carbon molecules (glycerol, pyruvate, and lactate) in a process called gluconeogenesis. The ability of the liver to release glucose into the blood from glycogenolysis is unique, since skeletal muscle, the other major glycogen reservoir, is incapable of doing so. Unlike skeletal muscle, liver cells contain the enzyme glycogen phosphatase, which removes a phosphate group from glucose-6-P to release free glucose. In order for glucose to exit a cell membrane, the removal of this phosphate group is essential. Although gluconeogenesis is an important component of hepatic glucose output, it alone can not sustain exercise. For this reason, when glycogen stores are depleted during exercise, glucose levels fall and fatigue sets in. Glucose disposal, the other side of the equation, is controlled by uptake of glucose at the working skeletal muscles. During exercise, despite decreased insulin concentrations, muscle increases GLUT4 translocation of and glucose uptake. The mechanism for increased GLUT4 translocation is an area of ongoing research.

glucose control: As mentioned above, insulin secretion is reduced during exercise, and does not play a major role in maintaining normal blood glucose concentration during exercise, but its counter-regulatory hormones appear in increasing concentrations. Principle among these are glucagon, epinephrine, and growth hormone. All of these hormones stimulate liver (hepatic) glucose output, among other functions. For instance, both epinephrine and growth hormone also stimulate adipocyte lipase, which increases non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) release. By oxidizing fatty acids, this spares glucose utilization and helps to maintain blood sugar level during exercise.

Exercise for diabetes: Exercise is a particularly potent tool for glucose control in those who have diabetes mellitus. In a situation of elevated blood glucose (hyperglycemia), moderate exercise can induce greater glucose disposal than appearance, thereby decreasing total plasma glucose concentrations. As stated above, the mechanism for this glucose disposal is independent of insulin, which makes it particularly well-suited for people with diabetes. In addition, there appears to be an increase in sensitivity to insulin for approximately 1224 hours post-exercise. This is particularly useful for those who have type II diabetes and are producing sufficient insulin but demonstrate peripheral resistance to insulin signaling. However, during extreme hyperglycemic episodes, people with diabetes should avoid exercise due to potential complications associated with ketoacidosis. Exercise could exacerbate ketoacidosis by increasing ketone synthesis in response to increased circulating NEFA's.

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Exercise physiology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia