Dr. Bookspan's Academy

Making Exercise Healthy Medicine
for People and Communities™

 

What We Do   |   What Is Real-Life Exercise   |   Physician Recommended   |    Welcome    |   Many Offerings   |    Who   |     Mascot   |    Awards    |   Be Involved

 

 

Our Mission

 

 

 
We Are An International Organization Providing:

  • Training and knowledge for people and communities to be healthy in body and actions.

  • Master Classes - Internationally attended evidence-based education. Fast-moving workshops, conferences, and ongoing classes. For the public, physicians, health professionals. Hands-on direct learning.

  • Certifications for physicians, allied health, physical therapists, trainers, instructors, and the public.

  • Recognition to those completing certification studies.

  • Networking and Referral to Academy directors, practitioners, and certified students.

  • Projects encouraging participation at many levels and locations for personal and world health.

  • Awards to thank, recognize, and support those using this work to help the world.

  • Groundbreaking Community Health Programs - click to see what our Academy Program Directors have accomplished.

  • Fellow advancement for physicians and researchers - FAFEM. Course requirements on the Class page.

  • The Department of Silly Syndromes - Laugh to better health awareness and self-protection about pseudo-medicine and dishonest claims.

  • We are non-sectarian and dedicated to peace and health of all.

  • We accept no advertising.

  • We don't sell your name or information to mailing lists or anyone. Selling people is part of what we work to change, see more on that in Resources, below.

  • Part of course tuitions go to medical research, charity, and elderly help.
 

 

What Is

OUR PRACTICE

of

Function in Exercise

Medicine?

 

  • Real life movement habits are retrained to stop sources of pain, and restore ability to do more.

  • Strengthening and stretching do not automatically change damaging movement habits, fix posture, or stop pain. Retraining daily life movement habits and biomechanics to be built-in health care is an exciting part of fitness and health.

  • We don't limit the person to limit the pain, or separate daily life habits from fitness. If you have to change clothes and stop your life to rehab injuries or get exercise, it's not fitness as a lifestyle. The same healthful movement is used for how you move at home, work, recreation - are you sitting in healthful position right now to read this?

  • We teach individuals and groups healthy biomechanics habits for daily life instead of injury-producing habits, good food instead of disease-causing food, healthier training for high level athletes and military, no cost preventive medicine, "green" fitness, and healthy mind set. Living a healthy life becomes more inexpensive, simple, self-empowering, "green," and fun.

NOTE:

Since forming the Academy, the word "functional" has been increasingly used by unaffiliated groups to sell products and programs, many contrary to the mission of this Academy. For example, supplements, and practices based on popular but unfounded claims.

 

 

 

Top Physicians Recommend Our Work

Ernest S. Campbell, M.D., FACS, Board-certified General Surgeon, Past Chairman Department of Surgery, Board of Directors Brookwood Medical Center Birmingham, Alabama, Fellow of the American College of Surgery.

 

Joseph Estwanik, M.D., FACSM, Past President Association of Ringside Physicians, Fellow American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Former Competitor in Olympic Style Weight Lifting.

 

 

 

 


A Welcome From
Mr. Jim Morris, Mr. America
Academy Practitioner

                 Mr. Jim Morris writes about his Academy Appointment


"Dr. Bookspan,

"I am so thrilled to be so honored.

"The Academy is the “missing voice” in the litany of exercise noise.

"The goal of improving daily life should be foremost in our priorities. Just as an athlete perfects a movement we should continually be looking to better those things we do constantly.

"As always you are at the forefront of thinking and implementing. Congratulations on the Academy and the best of luck with it. I am honored to be placed in so exalted a position and shall cherish it."

Jim

 
 

 

Stuff We Do-

Serious Stuff

and

Fun Stuff

 

    Classes - Workshops, Seminars, World Congresses, and opportunities to earn certification. Scholarships available for elderly, Native Americans, Indigenous people wanting to preserve their cultures in healthy ways, and children and youth at risk. How to apply for a certification class is covered on both the Student page and the Class page. Class schedules are updated on the CLASS page.

    Twitter - Quick notices of projects, classes, Fixes, your successes, more - Twitter.com/TheFitnessFixer.

    The Fitness Fixer™ - Fun, intelligent information to change the entire idea of exercising and health for the better - hundreds of topics, almost 800 free articles - The Fitness Fixer.

    Fix Pain Articles - Free, step-by-step summaries for fixing common injuries, and fixing the exercises and stretches that cause them. Click the clinical page.


    Success Stories - Step-by-step histories how patients fixed a variety of injuries, and restored happy, pain free lives using these methods - Patient Successes and Reader Hall Of Fame.


    Laugh to better health awareness about pseudo-medicine ("woo-woo"). Click The Department of Silly Syndromes.


    Healthy Math Program for fun, understandable, math skills to more easily spot biased "studies" and consumer advertising. See the Functional Fun Functions program on the next page.


    Programs for developmentally disabled adults and children to learn healthy movement for job skills, personal improvement and pain reduction, participation in athletic programs up to Special Olympics levels. See our programs of Developmentally Ability on the next page, Academy Page 2 of Honors and Programs.


    Bookspan Basics - Functional Training Drills for yourself, your individual patient and clients, and your groups. Put the fun in functional with quick group training drills. I am looking for a special person to implement these as Director of Youth Programs of the Academy. You will work with me, Dr. Bookspan, Headmaster, to set up healthy movement training programs for schools, eventually as a nation-wide program. See the Bookspan Basics.


    Function in Fitness - Fitness as a (Real) Lifestyle - An all-in-one page of short fun instructionals on how to change daily life movement to healthy pain free range. Health built-in to every day. See Fitness as a Lifestyle.


    F    lash Mob Healthy Alternatives. Use my work of healthy movement in my exciting program of #FlashFitness for healthy alternatives for your Flash Mobs. Prizes for healthy creativity. Contact through the Projects page.


    Freerunning (Parcour) (tm) with Dr. Bookspan - Running all over the city (with walking, jumping, and other variations) to prepared and spontaneous stations of picking up litter, helping in gardens, good deeds, etc.


    T    EFL with Dr. Bookspan - Learning languages in fun movement programs of brain and body. Healthy movement skills are used to teach and learn vocabulary, usage, direction, anatomy, comparatives, more, in a fun exercise class using music local to the speakers, and World pop. I started with English - Teaching English as a Fitness Language (tm), then added other languages for Teaching Everyone as a Fitness Language (tm). More on this is on the Academy Page 2 of Programs and Honors.


    Teaching Math As a Fitness Language. Healthy movement skills to teach abstract ideas of number, quantity, and space. Even the youngest children enjoy hopping jumping and "monstering" in different numbers, directions, operations, and fractions. Another part of my health-math initiative is giving people basic math skills to understand study results, poll scams, marketing claims, many others. More on this is on the Academy Page 2 of Programs and Honors.


    "    The Red Rock Society." Some Native American tribes long ago voted whether to go to war or not. The women, who stood to lose their men and resources, could cast a red stone against it. I propose we all stand up to be heard and cast our Red Rock. Contact me through the Projects page to help build this world Red Rock Society program for healthy peace.


    Stop Human Trafficking, a grave world health issue. Impossibly, slavery is more pervasive in this century than any previous. We are building Academy efforts against trafficking. Be in contact for adding your strength to rebuild and educate people and communities.


    Books - Fun, easy to read, immediately helpful, all techniques together in one source books.


    Non-profit Status for Academy programs, CME/CEUs, and professional liability insurance for certified members - In the works. To help, contact Dr. Bookspan


    Help locate or build the Academy Center - Beautiful place to come learn, fix pain, build a healthier Earth. To take part, contact Dr. Bookspan - details on the Projects page.


    T-shirts and Back Savers - Fun reminders for spine health - mugs showing neck health during neck extension (for example drinking), bags that teach healthy carrying, mouse pads reminding sitting posture. Portions of proceeds went to scholarships and charity. Uncommon Sense gifts have been discontinued, here were a few:

     

 

 

 

Who Is The Academy

First in Green Health,
Putting Lifestyle Back into Fitness

    Founding Director of the Academy is Jolie Bookspan, MEd, PhD, FAWM. Dr. Bookspan pioneered changing medicine to make it healthy, functional biomechanics and real life methods for rehabilitation instead of only exercises and restricting activities, and pioneered patient participation as integral to long-term medical success. Pioneered starting fitness programs on Cruise Ships against consensus at the time that no one would want to be active on vacation. Among the first to identify need for central database of surgical outcomes, and to campaign for it ever since. Dr. Bookspan has been awarded an International Humanitarian Award for this work.

     

    Our programs not only save the rainforests, we save you so much on unnecessary medicalization of injury, that you can give to the poor and still take a vacation to the rainforest. Program Directors are appointed by Dr. Bookspan - past directors included Stuart Wood, Peggy Santamaria, Paul Jenkins, Annie Fetter. See their inspired community health programs, and our student honor roll on the Academy Honors page.

     

    The Academy and all materials, articles, methods, logos, awards, classes, certifications, etc are the intellectual property of Dr. Bookspan. There are health care professionals and instructors who teach aspects of my work, however, there are no valid certificates with my name or the Academy name unless they come directly from me. See the Academy Students page.

     

 

 

 

Teaching Characters
and Mascot

Backman! (tm)
also known as Dr. Goodback (tm)




SPOT The Anomaly! (tm)

    Backman! (tm) is the comic figure teaching healthy movement in my (Dr. Bookspan's) books, articles, and teaching materials, and is mascot for the Academy. I first designed him, and had a professional artist draw him. When the artist left the project to pursue his career, I continued to develop and draw him. Backman! (tm) is trademarked and copyright by and to me.

     

    Academy Director of The Department of Silly Syndromes, Paul Jenkins, won the contest to name him. Also winner was reader JayaKrishnan who called him Dr. Goodback™. That remains his formal professional name. The rest of the time, thanks to Paul J, he is Backman!™

    Backman! appears in hundreds of illustrations in my books and materials - simple lines showing each key concept.

    Backman! works around the world in my projects of safer fitter accessible playgrounds, health gardens, water projects, elder care, self-sufficient no-cost community fitness and health, and many other Academy projects. Read more on the Projects page. He campaigns for medical accountability, against suffering and oppression, speaks several languages, and moonlights as a Superhero.

Contest Winner To Name the Backman Dog!

Previously, Dog was "behind the scenes" developing high level quantum work and making sure of accuracy in all projects and research - while playing chess. Dog will increasingly appear in articles with Backman! But what is his name? Readers sent in many entries in the Contest to guess his name. Runners Up were: Dr. Backbone, I.Q,. Maxwell Smart, Professor, Paws Two-Think, and Tangent.

Dog chose the winner - sent in by a fun reader who often sends helpful web page typo fixes and great ideas, and who requests to be known only as "Anonymous J"

Winning name is:
"Spot The Anomaly"

 

"Spot The Anomaly" is helping students during my classes assess gait, movement, and other body mechanics, so that they can "Spot The Anomaly."

See "Spot The Anomaly" with Backman! at work at the top of the Fitness Lifestyle page.



Awards
and Hall of Fame

 

Award design by
Alessandro Schiavone

 

    The Academy gave annual awards to thank, recognize, and support those who make the world healthier (The Academy Awards!).

    Get ideas on the Projects page and the Practitioners page. Send your inspirational stories.


    Award categories for physicians, individuals, health instructors, teachers, and others who lead by example. You can endow a memorial award.     e-Mail.

     

    Our Hall of Fame is now on the Patient Success page.

 

How To

Be

Involved

    Lead my simple re-training drills for your own groups. Bookspan Basics - group training drills are a set of quick fun skills to teach your schools, camps, teams, and others. Learn better, healthier movement skills for all you do.


    Are you my next Director of Youth Programs, Math For Fitness, Communications Liaison, or Director of Electronic Media Learning?  Youth Director initiates and oversees programs training lifelong health, starting with Bookspan Basics - group training drills, Fitness as a Lifestyle, and Emotional Fitness for schools, camps, leagues, and other healthy group structure, building a world-wide program. Math Director and contributors add short fun articles and programs so people have better understanding of the ways marketing twists truth with misleading numbers, and how to avoid that for healthier decisions.

     

    Click here to see what existing Directors have achieved and how to add your talents.


    Put MORE of your good ideas and talents into practice. I offer fun projects to make your health and the world better. Click Fun Projects.


    Classes. Bring healthful techniques back to your fitness, rehab, and medical centers, and also to orphanages, Indian Reservations, elder communities, impoverished communities, the World. Click Classes.


    Earn Membership. There are no membership dues, just membership "do's" - To be a member, you DO need to be good, and do good. Membership is by sweat-equity. Welcome. Your membership is good as long as you are. More on membership, and Membership Card down-loadable from this site, coming soon. WATCH THIS SPACE. Send your membership card ideas.


    S    end your success stories using our methods for a smart healthy happy life. See what others have written - on the Patient Stories page.

    Endow an enduring program, donate scholarships and materials, create good. Click the yellow donate button for PayPal or try PayPal.me/DrBookspan. Thank you!

 

 

George Nakhlé and model both demonstrate "the forward head" which is a common source of upper body pain. Take Dr. Bookspan's seminars to learn how to fix this unhealthy posture and keep pain from coming back.


Legal, Trademark, and copyright info