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....

Dynamic vs Static Stretching: The stretching debate continues

Back in December I made a post covering a research on static stretching that can be found here. It may seem from this article that static stretching is the only way to go, especially when wanting to increase performance and flexibility.  I even had a follow up post on 30 secs holds being ideal here with a research article backing it up.  After talking one of my colleagues with whom I play basketball with is I might be giving the idea that static stretching is good all the time.  In 9/10 times it is.  There is one big exception and it is a very important one at that.


Static stretches should not be performed right before strength/conditioning or sports activities. Why?  3 reasons. They actually have been found to reduce performance or as the article below states there was no significant difference  in no warm up and static warm up in most of the performance tests.  It also is commonly accepted that stretching right before an event can elongate a muscle and put it at higher risk for injury.  Lastly those who understand muscles and mechanisms of muscle strain like physical therapists will simply shake their heads at you in disgust and you don't want that, right?

So that sounds like you shouldn't do anything to before these activities.  Well, that's not true either.  Dynamic stretching was reported to have significant increases in all the performance tests used in this study.    So what is the big take home message here?  Perform dynamic stretches before the activity and get into a regular static stretch routine weekly(just not right before you are going to do strenuous activities).  If you need some ideas on Dynamic stretching, the article link below has a few in their protocol on Table 1 with descriptions on how to perform them.  Other dynamic exercise ideas.



Article link below
DYNAMIC VS. STATIC-STRETCHING WARM UP: THE EFFECT ON POWER AND AGILITY PERFORMANCE

Cool prosthetic arms!!!!

     I love when science is able to bring back functionality to those who no longer have it.  Researchers from John Hopkins have found a way to embed receptors into muscles like the Pectoralis major to allow for control of a "new" limb.  This one is especially cool because it has 5 finger articulations.  Now if they could just get the motions to be more fluid...

A mile a day can keep dementia away.

I have always heard that exercise could and should reduce the risk of aging neurological diseases.  Most of these claims were based off of research studies. Which is fine unfortunately most of them were short term studies.  The researchers would only take measurements after a few months of time and see that things like blood flow to the brain had increased.  They would then logically step in and suggest that increased blood flow will slow the natural deterioration of the brain.  These claims are good they lack long term brain health benefits.  In this study they had a group of 299 older adults male and female record how much they walked per week.  Those who averaged 72 blocks or roughly 7 miles per week were able to maintain a higher amount of gray matter over the course of nine years.  There is the difference. Patients had a follow up after 9 years. No that is what I call a good long term study on brain function and health.  The other cool thing that the researchers did was they actually took measurements by conducting brain scans on patients before and after thus helping to give concrete facts over just what the patient "feels".

http://www.neurology.org/content/early/2010/10/13/WNL.0b013e3181f88359.abstract?maxtoshow=&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&author1=erickson&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT%2520dy

Reminder: What not to do at the gym

New Year's Resolution: Diet vs Exercise

According to the research review on exercise and diet contained below diet or exercise alone are not very effective weight-loss plans.  Diets including high fiber and lower carbs and fat were effective at reducing fat content in the body.  However they were not effective at making a person more lean (increasing fat free mass).  Increases in exercise level surprising did not show as favorable results as I would have thought.  One reason that was brought up was that people tend to eat more when they increase their activity thus nullifying the exercises effects on lean mass and body weight.   Exercise and diet together showed the most favorable results toward body composition changes.  The verdict is still out on what kind of diets work best referring to a "synergistic" effect that they have  However the article alludes to the fact that calorie control with some added protein should be further explored.  Bottom line if you have a goal this new year about exercise it would be a good idea to take a look at your diet as well or vice versa.

http://www.edf.ufpr.br/mestrado/Referencias2006/AFS%20Stiegler%202006.pdf

Intensity! What?

I realized in my last post there could be some concern on what is high intensity and moderate intensity.  The answer is a percentage of VO2 max.  Seeing as most people can't calculate that on a regular basis.  I like this quick and dirty way of determining exercise intensity on http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=20971.

Level of Intensity RPE Physical Cues Light Easy Does not induce sweating unless it's a hot, humid day. There is no noticeable change in breathing patterns. Moderate Somewhat hard Will break a sweat after performing the activity for about 10 minutes. Breathing becomes deeper and more frequent. You can carry on a conversation but not sing. High Hard Will break a sweat after 3-5 minutes. Breathing is deep and rapid. You can only talk in short phrases.

No brainer on Cardiovascular exercise

The harder you work out the more benefits you will have on your Cardiovascular fitness.  As well as the more frequently you work out and the harder you work out  I realize this is verges on common sense.  That being said I found this research article posted by the American Society of Clinical Nutrition had some interesting findings to how hard you work out or what is called in the research "intensity" and benefits for cardiovascular fitness. The article can be accessed at http://www.ajcn.org/content/75/5/818.full. Their specific findings for their study found only a significant  increase in cardiovascular fitness in the high intensity group. Granted this was a study for obese 13 - 16 year old children and could be argued against its applicability to adults.  Also they did mention that both moderate and high intensity exercise did show improved body composition.  So in short moderate and high intensity exercise is good for general health.  However, if you want to make the "the old ticker" healthier you should push yourself a little harder.


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