by Aaron Bubbico, Len Kravitz, PhD
Muscle hypertrophy, or muscle cell enlargement, is a topic of great debate and interest in all fields of health, fitness and sports. How the body responds to muscular overload to elicit muscle growth is still under much scientific investigation.
by Ryan Halvorson
Do you have clients who experience neck and shoulder pain? Just 2 minutes of exercise per day can reduce that pain, say researchers from the National Research Center for the Working Environment in Copenhagen, Denmark. The findings were presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine and the 2nd World Congress on Exercise is Medicine®.newsletter_teaser: Do you have clients who experience neck and shoulder pain? Just 2 minutes of exercise per day can reduce that pain, say researchers from the National Research Center for the Working Environment in Copenhagen, Denmark. The findings were presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine and the 2nd World Congress on Exercise is Medicine®.
by Ryan Halvorson
Many people believe that musculoskeletal dysfunction is an inherited trait, and a recent research report on foot disorders seems to support that claim. The study, presented at the 2010 American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting, suggests that “bad feet” may be genetic. To reach this conclusion, the researchers analyzed information gathered from the Framingham Foot Study, which included 2,179 participants with common foot disorders. The mean age of subjects was 66.newsletter_teaser: Many people believe that musculoskeletal dysfunction is an inherited trait, and a recent research report on foot disorders seems to support that claim. The study, presented at the 2010 American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting, suggests that “bad feet” may be genetic.
by Ryan Halvorson
The body’s ability to sweat is a necessary physiological function that regulates body temperature. But a study published recently in Experimental Physiology (2010; 95 [10], 1026–32) found that while men tend to have a highly efficient sweat response, women do not. The researchers, from the Laboratory for Human Performance Research at Osaka International University in Japan, separated 37 people into four groups: trained females, untrained females, trained males and untrained males.
by Nora St. John
If one of your Pilates clients developed knee problems and her doctor said the client needed to strengthen the muscles around the knee, would you know what to do? What if a client were diagnosed with patellofemoral dysfunction or were recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament tear? How would you design a Pilates reformer program to help the client heal and return to full function? The reformer is a great, multipurpose tool for improving function, correcting alignment and muscular imbalances and helping the body recover from injury.
by Ryan Halvorson
A recent blog published in The New York Times (“Phys Ed: Are Bad Knees in Our Genes?” September 29, 2010) posited that genetics may play a role in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries. The blog cited a study from the British Journal of Sports Medicine (2010; 44 [12], 848–55) that revealed similar ACL injuries in fraternal twin girls. Their older sister, while not part of the study, had also suffered a catastrophic injury to her ACL.
The traditional approaches of stretching, immobilization braces, corticosteroid injections and surgical release are not working because they seek to address the symptoms instead of addressing the underlying root cause of the problem. Clients always seem to come to us with their aches and pains. Sometimes the area that hurts is not the area that causes the pain. As a trainer, I am not qualified to make a diagnosis, so I would tell my client to see a doctor for a diagnosis and then offer to show the client some stretches to alleviate the pain and reduce the symptoms.
I encourage my clients and running friends to try barefoot running whenever they can. They don’t have to be a “total convert” to gain some of the benefits. The strength that develops in the feet and lower legs, the lighter landing while running that reduces stress and the sheer fun of going without shoes is worth it.
by Ryan Halvorson
A common goal among male exercisers is to increase muscle mass and strength. For many men, achieving this goal can be a struggle. IDEA author Lance Breger, MS, head private trainer at MINT Fitness & Spa in Washington, DC, suggests some out-of-the-box techniques to help clients overcome strength and hypertrophy plateaus.
