FUELED BY FITNESS

Clifton Joseph Delights In Helping Others Become Fit And

Eustis resident Clifton Joseph does not stray from his exercise and nutrition regimen. He faithfully works out in a gym five days a week and typically limits his diet to fish, chicken, and rice. His buffed arms and six-pack abs are evidence of his commitment to health.

However, the 31-year-old former University of Florida football player is equally passionate about encouraging others to invest in their health. While a personal trainer at the Golden Triangle YMCA for several years, Clifton found a calling by helping clients lose weight and gain muscle tone. One of his clients, Mike Macey Butler, lost more than 300 pounds. He has also assisted people with physical disablilities such as blindness and muscular dystrophy.

“I love helping other people achieve health, and if I could do it for free I would,” says Clifton, a 2001 graduate of Eustis High School. “If I can help ignite a sense of determination and drive in people, then they can achieve any goal they set forth.”

Clifton will have an opportunity to do just that as he prepares to open his own gym, Next Level Fitness Healthy Living, in Mount Dora. In addition to weight and cardio equipment, the gym will feature classes in plyometrics (also known as jump training), hiphop dance, yoga, Pilates, boot camp, extreme boot camp, and kid’s boot camp.

“It will be a community gym for everyone in Lake |County,” he says. “My idea of a perfect gym is one that welds together an encouraging, supportive atmosphere with state-of-theart equipment.”

He plans to open the gym sometime before January 2014. In the meantime, he is working at GNC in Eustis, where he has learned a great deal about health products and supplements and how they work based on individual health needs. Clifton plans to sell the company’s supplements at his gym.

In his spare time, Clifton shatters the stereotype of muscle-bound males by focusing on art. He graduated from the Art Institute of Tampa in 2010 with a degree in media arts and animation. He is quite talented in ceramics, painting, sculpting, and drawing.

“I love doing comic strip art and making superheroes look cool or suave,” he says.

CLIFTON’S WORKOUT SCHEDULE

Monday and Wednesday: chest, triceps, and biceps

Tuesday and Thursday: legs, quadriceps, calves, back, and shoulder

Friday: Full body workout

FUN FACT: Clifton bench presses 460 pounds and squats 720 pounds beforeafter

At my first visit at Physicians Vein Care, I was both scared and nervous, but after talking to a very caring Dr. Burress and his down-to-earth professional staff I soon realized that all my concerns would be heard.

Care, I but aft Bur profess all my Afte becaus veins, all the move m comfor sta — LILL

WHAT CAUSES A HICKEY? — MEDICALLY SPEAKING, THAT IS

WRITER: FRED HILTON

BEFORE YOU PUCKER UP, FIND OUT WHAT TRULY CAUSES THIS INFAMOUS MARK OF LOVE.

“Hickey” is one of the greatest words in the English language. It’s hard to say or even think the word without giggling or smiling. The word is also a little contradictory. To a 15-year-old male, a hickey is a badge of honor. But to that same male at age 35, it’s a source of embarrassment.

A precise description of a hickey is found on what has to be the ultimate source for hickey information, WhatIsAHickey. com. (No, I am not making that up.) The site says the following: “A hickey, also sometimes called a love bite or kiss mark, is a bruise caused by biting, aggressive kissing or sucking of soft skin, usually around the neck or on the arm. They can be sexual or non-sexual in nature and are generally very popular in high school.”

Most of us have a vague notion that the red badge of honor (or shame) from hickeys has something to do with blood vessels that have burst. However, from a more scientific point of view, what exactly causes them?

First, let us start with a quick anatomy lesson, beginning with the skin. As every trivia player knows, the skin is the largest organ in the body. It has three levels: the epidermis, the dermis, and the subcutaneous. The epidermis itself has three layers and the top one is called the stratum corneum, or the horny level. (No, I am not making that up, either.) Hickeys aren’t formed there though; they are formed in the dermis when aggressive kissing breaks the blood vessels. TodayIFoundOut. com tells us, “When the small blood vessels in the dermis, known as capillaries, get broken, they begin to bleed into the small spaces below the epidermis called interstitial space. This bleeding forms a bruise in the shape of your companion’s mouth.”

A hickey will go away by itself in a week or two but WhatIsAHickey.com gives us nine ways to get rid of a hickey, ranging from heat to cold to medicine to the application of peppermint oil and toothpaste.

In rare circumstances, a hickey can be hazardous to your health. In 2010, a 44-year- old New Zealand woman was partially paralyzed temporarily by a small stroke caused when a hickey jarred a small blood clot loose in an artery.

A 35-year-old male with a hickey also faces a serious health hazard if the hickey-giver isn’t his wife or girlfriend.

FRED HILTON spent 36 years as the chief public relations officer/spokesman for James Madison University in Virginia and 10 years prior as a reporter and editor for The Roanoke Times in Roanoke, Virginia. He is now happily retired in The Villages with his interior designer wife, Leta, their Cadillac Escalade golf cart, and their dog, Paris. (Yes, that makes her Paris Hilton).