Patricia
Patricia
Article Archive
Imagine standing in line with hundreds of fitness pros to pick up your registration at the IDEA® World Convention and the internet fizzles out. Or envision walking into a session room where all you see are BOSU® Balance Trainers for a class you thought was about myofascial release. This is the stuff of pure panic for unseasoned trade show operations people, but not for Matt. He takes these moments in stride, solves the problem quickly and moves on without drama.
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For the health- and fitness-minded, discipline and behavior change are key tenets of keeping ourselves on a strong physical track. Whether it’s literally scheduling our workout time, thoughtfully planning and preparing our meals, or tracking our daily activity, we are pretty consistent about making these things happen.
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The hypothalamus occupies little real estate in the brain, but it houses nuclei critical to many of the body’s regulatory functions. Situated just beneath the thalamus, it keeps the body in homeostasis by controlling the sleep-wake cycle, body temperature, hunger and thirst, sex drive, fluid balance, emotions, blood pressure, and heart rate (Johnson 2018).
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“Have a ball” with your class using this fun format, which incorporates exercise balls into cardiovascular and strength intervals. Each 8-minute round uses either a stability ball or a medicine ball, 4 minutes of high-intensity cardio training (combined), and about 4 minutes of strength-focused work (combined). For those who also enjoy a core challenge, this class delivers.
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Dancing is a great workout that delivers as many smiles as it does full-body benefits. To share those benefits with participants, however, you don’t need to teach a whole dance class. A dance-inspired warmup will help patrons prepare for specific movements while setting a perfect tone for class.
In general, a good warmup includes
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Telehealth is a huge win for nutrition experts and other wellness professionals. Embracing this ecosystem of wireless devices, digital platforms and mobile apps can give you a competitive edge with clients, who increasingly receive care via telehealth tools.
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Physiologists regularly extol the importance of carbohydrates as a vital fuel that drives exercise and sport performance. Before the Industrial Revolution, carbohydrates were the major source of nutrients and energy for people throughout the world. Carbohydrates that come primarily from plants in the form of vegetables, fruits and grains are a direct link to the earth’s food chain. However, evidence is mounting that carbs from added sugars in cookies and soft drinks present several health risks.
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Sarah Turkstra, MSc
Member Since 2017 • Guelph, Ontario
So many certifications! Trained in cycling to yoga (and a lot in between), Sarah Turkstra sees herself—not surprisingly—as a lifelong learner. But it’s how she’s used the lessons she’s learned that truly sets Sarah apart. “I struggled with an eating disorder from age 14 to 22, and weight lifting and exercise helped me overcome my fears around food and body image,” she says.
When you design training programs for clients, do you take exercise enjoyment into account? What strategies do you use to find out which types of physical activities clients enjoy doing most? Through experience, have you found ways that work better than others? Share your best practices and illustrative stories on how efforts to optimize client enjoyment of physical activity have produced better training results.
We want to hear from you!
Physical inactivity levels continue to rise in spite of widespread knowledge of the negative consequences. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers suggest the issue may not come from a lack of knowledge but from how exercise is programmed. Studies show that simply manipulating elements of the FITT principle (frequency, intensity, time and type of exercise) does not improve adherence to exercise.
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Public health may be compromised unless people shift their lifestyle choices from bad to better, according to new research. A recent study found that only 12% of American adults are “metabolically healthy,” and current trends raise a red flag on efforts to lower associated risks of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other complications.
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Next time you want to improve your ability to pay attention, you may want to observe your breathing. Findings from a study published in Psychophysiology (2018; doi:10.1111/psyp.13091) show that the locus coeruleus—the part of the brain that produces noradrenaline (also referred to as norepinephrine)—is directly affected by respiration. The study also shows that rates of inhalation and exhalation are related to attentional performance.
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Athletes who practiced jump training in water significantly improved jump height and peak power without increased injury risk, according to findings published in PLOS One (2018; 13 [12], e0208439). Researchers from the University of Technology Sydney compared athletes who performed jump training in water 1.2 meters (3 feet 11 inches) deep with athletes who followed their regular sports training—without added jump training—on land. Both groups trained three times a week for 8 weeks.
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It might be time to motivate your senior clients to do more cardio. Evidence suggests that aerobic exercise can improve language skills by positively affecting brain regions associated with language processing. A recent study found that fitness and language skills are related, with cardiovascular fitness levels in healthy older adults directly linked to the ability to retrieve words hovering on the “tip of the tongue.”
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Children worldwide, in both developed and developing nations, are not engaging in enough physical activity, according to research published in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health (2018; 15 [S251]). The report evaluated global trends using data from 49 countries across six continents. Nations with the most success in supporting active children are Slovenia, Japan and Denmark; the least successful nations are Ethiopia, Venezuela and China.
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A recent study shows that children are suited to endurance activities, not only because kids have fatigue-resistant muscles, but because they recover quickly from high-intensity exercise—even more quickly than trained adult endurance athletes. Researchers conducted the study to determine whether prepubescent children are metabolically comparable to well-trained adult endurance athletes, since it’s been established that children can complete repeated high-intensity exercise bouts more easily than untrained adults.
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New research reveals that many working Americans are conflicted about whether to spend time exercising or sleeping. University of Pennsylvania investigators analyzed data from 48,000 adults who participated in the American Time Use Survey between 2003 and 2016. The researchers found that for most individuals sleep duration decreased as exercise duration increased, which led to the conclusion that exercise and sleep compete with each other for time.
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