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Yoga can be strategically used in concert with exercise physiology tenets to identify common postural issues that cause movement limitations for clients. Learn how taking a biomechanical approach to yoga offers an understanding of the interrelationships among joint structure, muscles and movement and how yoga postures can release tension, restore mobility, enhance stability and rebalance the body.
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As previously covered in this column, the Army is requiring a new, more rigorous fitness test, starting October 1, 2019. All soldiers will be required to pass the test to qualify for their military jobs, effective October 1, 2020.
To meet this challenge, the Army National Guard is looking for nearly 5,000 fitness instructors and buying approximately $40 million in workout equipment in the next 7 months.
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With the abundance of activity trackers on the market, deciding which product to choose can be overwhelming. New research suggests that the most important criterion may simply be how easy it is to access the data the device provides. Recent research conducted at the Atlantic Sports Health Research Department of Atlantic Health System in Morris?¡town, New Jersey, shows that people who wore a device and accessed data via an app were more active daily when compared with those who did not access the activity information.
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Lancaster Medical School in Lancaster, England, has been acknowledged throughout the United Kingdom and by the World Health Organization Europe for being the first medical school in the U.K. to integrate guidelines on how to prescribe physical activity. The initiative is referred to as the “Movement for Movement.”
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Do you want to be a wrestler or a dancer?
This question stands at the center of motivational interviewing (MI), which emerged more than three decades ago to assist people in making difficult changes like overcoming addiction. Health coaches can use MI to help people stop harmful behaviors and start helpful ones. Consider a likely scenario:
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A recent cross-cultural study shows that most adults do not accurately estimate their physical activity levels and that Americans tend toward extremes when assessing their behavior. Researchers from the U.S., the U.K. and Holland collaborated on the study to compare self-reported levels of activity by adults aged 18 through older adulthood against actual data harvested from activity trackers.
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dietary apps or food trackers to your clients?
Please share what apps you’re working with, whether you prefer one app or device to another, and any successes you’ve had with clients.
We want to hear from you! Email executive editor Joy Keller, [email protected]
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In October 2018, the U.S. Army began field testing a new gender- and age-neutral Army Combat Fitness Test that it plans to put into effect October 2020. The test consists of six trials:
Read MoreArterial stiffness, which increases with sedentary living, is associated with higher risk of heart disease. It’s well known that exercise can help, but how much—or how little—is enough?
“While near-daily, vigorous lifelong (>25 years) endurance exercise training prevents arterial stiffening with ageing, this rigorous routine of exercise training over a lifetime is impractical for most individuals,” noted the authors of a new study, which aimed to determine the least amount of exercise necessary to reduce arterial stiffness.
Want to outwalk the grim reaper? Pick up the pace, say researchers. A new study from the United Kingdom suggests that quicker walking may add years to your life.
The study’s primary aim was to examine the impact of walking pace and volume on all-cause mortality. To determine this, researchers looked at mortality records for 50,225 individuals from Scotland and England who had self-reported their walking data via interview.
When you offer training advice to clients, are you discussing the significance of sleep? If yes, are you using sleep trackers and monitoring results? Please describe how you are educating clients regarding the role of sleep in effective training and weight management and share any success stories you have had.
Share your responses with executive editor Joy Keller, [email protected]
Read MoreMany people fixate on the number of exercise calories they burn. New research, sponsored by Les Mills International, shows that even when two group fitness activities (indoor cycling and a resistance workout) were matched for duration and caloric expenditure, they did not have equivalent metabolic effects—which could influence long-term training results. Lead study author Nigel Harris, PhD, said, “The type of exercise used to burn those calories . . . impacts the long-term positive effects that exercise has on the body.”
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Tennis is one of the most popular sports in the world. In the U.S. alone, there are almost 18 million players, with another 14 million expressing interest (TIA 2018). Unfortunately, the dynamic, forceful twists and turns of the game pose ever-present injury risks to players (Roetert & Kovacs 2011).
If your fitness clientele includes people interested in playing this sport, you need to understand the causes of tennis-related injuries. This will help you develop strategies to improve movement function, reduce pain and keep clients on the court.
client: Kent Denver School Students | personal trainer: Laura Bordeaux, strength and conditioning coach, Kent Denver School location: Englewood, Colorado
A complete course load. Think of it as core curriculum—literally. The Kent Denver School, a college-preparatory institution outside of Denver, offers a comprehensive educational experience that emphasizes both academics and sports. That’s where Laura Bordeaux comes in.
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Getting up off the ground grows more difficult as we age. Muscles and bones weaken, coordination becomes less fluid, and simply doing chores around the house gets more challenging.
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Obesity is a growing global health risk for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and all-cause mortality. Indeed, central adiposity (visceral fat), the fat tissue around the major organs in the torso, generally elevates the risk of chronic diseases. Ample research shows that high-volume, moderate-intensity exercise is an effective way to reduce central obesity (Zhang et al. 2017). However, until recently, little has been known about the influence of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on weight and fat loss in young adults with obesity.
Read MoreA strong skeleton is just as important as a healthy heart.
Bones form the frame that keeps our bodies from collapsing and serve as a bank for minerals essential to multiple bodily functions. In fact, 99% of the body’s calcium is found in the bones and teeth (NIH n.d.). The skeleton anchors everything fitness professionals deal with every day: muscles, joints, tendons, the whole kinetic chain.
Thanks to a spike in pace-related research over the past decade, we now know that walking speed is a significant vital sign for older clients. Study findings have associated slow walking speed with a heightened risk of mortality in older adults, while brisk walking has been linked to better health (Franklin et al. 2015).
These are important insights because, until recently, researchers had no idea that walking speed was such a strong vital-sign predictor. Connections between walking speed and health improvements make a persuasive case for helping older clients pick up the pace.
Participating in a program of regular exercise is a good idea at any stage of life, but particularly as we get older. Exercising frequently and consistently has many documented benefits, including promoting good health, preventing disease, enhancing mental health and physical capacity, aiding recovery from injury and illness, minimizing the effects of aging, and improving one’s ability to handle the physical demands of life (Bird, Smith & James 1998).
Read MoreWe know that replacing sedentary behavior with physical activity yields numerous benefits. And while high-intensity models are touted as a way to fast-track success, a new study out of Sweden says it’s not necessary to go all-out in order to boost health.
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IDEA Fitness Journal
Current Issue:
December 2019
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