New year ... time for a new body.

   That's right.  I am talking New Years resolutions.  Weightloss or getting into shape seems be on or near the top of everyone's list for changes into a New Year.  Achieving this change usually takes the form of diet or exercise.  If you think I am kidding take a trip to your on stop shop destination and I bet you find that treadmills(or other exercise equipment) are strategically placed near your favorite goodies or near the entrances instead of their normal hiding place in the back of the store near the toys and bikes.  Let me tell you they do their research on us.  I have already made some mention of  Exercise vs Dieting in an earlier post.  Not going to beat a dead horse.  Lets talk trendy diets.

 Atkins diet anyone?

   If anyone is planning on dieting they should check out this article posted in the Journal of American Medical association comparing popular diets.  It compared four popular diet programs : Atkins, Weightwatchers,  Zone,  and Ornish.  In a nutshell:  All were equally good at reducing Cardiac risk factors.  Now if pound loss is all you care about the diets after one year are:

1. Zone
2. Ornish
3. Weight Watchers
4. Atkins

Big thing on dieting pick a diet that you can stick with.  One take home message from this study is close to half of the subjects in each group did not stick with each respective diet for the full year reporting time. 

Second Chances at walking possible for Spinal Cord Injuries? Maybe

Research performed on rats in Switzerland used a combination of a robotic harness assist device seen in the picture below not unlike partial body weight support systems already used in many Physical Therapy rehabilitation clinics.  They combined this with a chemical cocktail that binds to neuro-receptors thus replacing the neurotransmitters that the healthy nervous system would release naturally.  That is just a taste of how it works, but really what is cool is the rats used in this experiment initiated stepping in the paralyzed legs. This is an awesome breakthrough as it could be super helpful for those who have lost the use of their legs.  How empowering this can be for patients and cool for those in rehab like Physical Therapists. Full article can be found here.

Dynamic Stretching Ideas

This is pretty good example of dynamic stretching of the legs.  I particularly like how he progresses his speed with each movement in the video.  Always remember the dynamic warm-up you choose to do before an activity should not induce fatigue.



More to come....