Tag Archives: Exercise

October 09 – Issue 7

Once again, welcome to the latest edition of my newsletter. The British summer once again has failed to deliver consistent weather but we all come to expect that now. I hope that it didn’t ruin your summer. With the children back at school and settled in the roads will be busy again, though the house may be a bit tidier now there is no-one left there to mess it up! Soon there will be the next big event, yes, you are right, Christmas!!!!! By the time the next newsletter is sent it will have come and gone! So if you would like to treat a friend or relative to a massage you can get gift vouchers from myself to the value of £5, £10 or £20. If interested, get in touch through my contact details. Don’t forget that introducing a new person to the business will entitle you to 10% discount on your next visit!

Persistent Lower Back Pain?

What do you do if you have an annoying pain in your back that you don’t know what it is and how it came around? First of all you need to try and recall any impact you may have had or if you did something out of the ordinary which made the back work more then usual, then find a therapist and tell them about it to find out how to fix it. The incident could be a very old problem that didn’t get the right rehabilitation when it happened so it repaired in a less then optimal way. A therapist will attempt to find out if there is a structural problem or if the problem is a muscular problem. There are many muscles in the back and the lower back has a major part to play in keeping the trunk upright and keeping good posture. Once a decision has been made on the problem, targets for the individual are to be made. Initial targets are to reduce pain in a safe and cost effective way so the individual can still carry out everyday tasks and improve their psychological feelings about the problem¹. Rehabilitation programs for the individual should include 3 things:- Suitable exercises, manual therapy and advice and education to the injured individual.

 Exercises 

Exercises should be pain free and that may mean non-weight bearing, so water exercises. This allows the heart to have a good work out and doesn’t put as much impact on the lower back as we previously mentioned that the lower back work very hard to maintain posture and stability in the trunk. There should also be a variety of strengthening exercises for the back muscles and core muscles.

Manual Therapy

Manual therapy should be used alongside  the other intervention of exercise. Manuaal therapy will reduce pain in the individual as it relaxes the muscles and improves the functionality of those muscles as well, reducing stress when they are made to work.

Advice to client

This is also an essential part of the rehabilitation process as an individual who is recovering from injury will need to know what to do when they leave the therapy session. Exercises and stretches to perform between meeting are essential and performing these will allow the recovery to continue without the therapist as well. On the opposite end, there must be guidance on how much to do because exercising too much may cause the problem to worsen instead of improve.

How fit am I and how can I find out???

The definition of fitness is difficult to pinpoint, as people have different views on what fitness is and how fit you should be. The American College of Sports Medicine define fitness as the ability to perform your everyday activities with the absence of illness and injury². So for most people finding out how fit they are actually means, “How long can I keep going before I have to stop?” This is called aerobic capacity or understood in easier terms, how long will my heart go before it wont let me exercise any more! There are a number of ways to find this out and they are through special tests which can differ in duration, intensity and objective. The most common is the multi-stage fitness test or bleep test which is used at all levels of ability at all ages to assess how much a person can run. The test is simple to set up and you follow timings of a beep on a pre-recorded test, which get harder to complete the further you run. You run between 2 markers set up 20 meters apart and must reach the opposite marker before the beep sounds. You can buy the tests online or ask if a local gym has one you can use to perform the test. If this is not possible and you would like some sort of indication of your aerobic levels, feel free to get in touch and I will try and advise on a suitable test you can perform. From this test athletes performing at higher levels within their sport may decide to undertake more specific tests, such as the wicket sprint test for cricket³ or the sit and reach test for hamstring flexibility in gymnastics.                 

              Other tests used are:-

  • Yo-yo intermittent test
  • 12 minute Cooper test
  • Birtell 40 meter shuttle test
  • Balke treadmill test
  • Bruce protocol test
  • Harvard step test
  • Astrand-Rhyming Cycle ergometer test

 If you would like to know further information on how to perform any of the above or any other you may have come across, please feel free to ask.

Quick Facts!!!

“A hiccup is a result of an involuntary contraction of the diaphragm which causes air to rush to the lungs and vocal cords to snap shut.³”

“There are 639 muscles in the human body, yet it was only in the 18th century that they got their modern day names.³”

“The muscular system is made up of around 6 trillion muscle fibres, thinner then a human hair, but  able to support 1000 times its own weight! ³”

References

1. Jackson, A., Pysiotherapy Guidelines for Managing Persistent Low Back Pain: Exercise and Manual Therapy, SportEx Medicine, Issue 34 (October 2007), pp. 16-19.

2. ACSM, www.acsm.org

3. Woolmer, S., The Modern Approach, SportEx Dynamics, Issue 16 (April 2008), pp. 19-21.

July 08 – Issue 2

 Welcome again to my newsletter updating the public on the latest news within the industry. The current issue will have a special concentration on pre-season training as many athletes from various sporting backgrounds will be starting pre-season very soon, if not already.  Also new in the current edition are small facts you may be interested in. If you would like to know something that hasn’t been included in this the current edition, send me an email with the topic and I will try and include it in the October issue.

Chocolate Helps Blood Pressure!!!

It’s true, recent findings by a group of scientists found that eating 100 grams of dark chocolate a day for an 15 day period significantly reduced blood pressure¹. It is believed that flavanols in cocoa are responsible for the drop in blood pressure found in the group tested. The test was a great success for all chocolate lovers, though further testing is needed to identify if there are the same benefits in milk chocolate and white chocolate. Larger, more diverse studies are also needed to further show the benefits that chocolate, and in particular, cocoa flavanols in the chocolate have. 

Periodisation, What is it?

Sports seasons can be split into different sections, each with its own specific objective. This usually consists of 3 phases; pre-season, competitive and off-season.             Many believe the pre-season phase to be the most important as it is preparing the athlete, or group of athletes for the main competitive phase. A bad pre-season can often lead to a bad start to a season. Pre-season follows a general principle called the S.A.I.D. principle, meaning Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. It is intended to prepare the bodies aerobic and anaerobic systems for the competitive season that follows. The athletes peak performance is not generally reached in this phase as competitive match play is always more demanding, but preparing the body as close to the intended intensity is of great advantage to the athletes. A good pre-season programme will be specific to the individuals in the sport and should be followed by a well constructed training programme in the competitive phase to maintain higher levels of performance².

Sporting Key Points For Pre-Season

  • Pre – Season should follow a good off – season programme that maintains suitable aerobic capacity.
  • Different sports require different types of training and within sports, different positions differ on demands as well.
  • Different body types recover at different rates. Have suitable recovery times between training sessions.
  • Don’t overwork individuals, injuries will occur. Injury prevention is key.
  • Use some fitness tests to compare base and progressing fitness levels. Make sure they are sport specific.
  • Be as close to competitive fitness before the competitive season begins.²

Can Massage Help?

Pre-season puts a huge demand on the body, as it follows the off-season phase and thus meaning a period of reduced intensity. The increase in intensity causes stresses on the body in which they have not adapted to. Sports massage can assist in minimising the risk of injury as micro-traumas occur within the muscles when exercising. Regular sessions of massage between training sessions can decrease recovery time and reduce the onset of muscle soreness. This allows the athlete to perform at a higher level when required to. The regularity of a massage depends on the level, intensity and quantity of training that the individual is performing. For example, elite athletes may have a sports massage every day, whereas a person who participates in exercise to keep healthy may wish to have a massage every 2 to 3 weeks².

SportExercise Decreases Risks of Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a syndrome of chronic fatigue and diffuse muscle pain and sleep problems. It has been suggested by Mannerkorpi and Henriksson that aerobic exercises performed at a low and moderate intensity, such as swimming, walking or cycling, could improve the symptoms and distress levels in individuals with fibromyalgia. This means that 30 minutes of regular activity, maybe 4 or 5 times a week, could not only reduce the risk of fibromyalgia, but also reduce the risk of the onset of cardiac problems in later life³.

Can Soap Cause Allergies?

Atopic Dermatitis, more commonly known as eczema, has risen in recent years. A suggestion for this may be the increase in use of strong soaps and exfoliants. The UCL Institute of Child Health recently published an article advising people that strong soaps and exfoliants used over-excessively strip the skins epidermis (outer layer), resulting in an allergic response. Professor Callard of the institute quoted “from a clinical viewpoint, it is important to stress that over-zealous washing, using harsh detergents and/or abrasive skincare products that can damage the skin, are likely to be at fault.” 

Quick Facts!!!

“Adults lose 2 to 3 litres of water a day at rest, via sweat, breathing and waste products.”

“During exercise you should drink 150 to 300 ml of water every 20 minutes.”

“Men need 11 to 13 cups of water a day to replace fluid loss whereas women need 8 to 9 cups a day.”

Some of you may know, I have recently been training to take part in a marathon challenge held at and around Colworth Park in Sharnbrook. The challenge involved completing 3 separate races over 3 days, totalling 26.2 miles in total. I completed the challenge in 3 hours and 41 minutes, running through fields, tracks and even behind Santa Pod race track! I decided to raise money for Keechs Cottage Childrens Hospice as well and have managed to raise over £300. If you wish to donate you may still do so at www.justgiving.com/carminecientanni

References

1. Grassi, D., Necozione, S., Lippi, C., et al, Cocoa reduces blood pressure and insulin resistance and improves endothelium-dependant vasodilation in hypertensives, Hypertension, 2005, Vol. 46; pp. 398-405.

2. SportEx Dynamics, April 2008, Issue 16; pp. 6-21.

3. Mannerkorpi K. and Henriksson, C., Non-pharmacological treatment of chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain, Best Practice and Research: Clinical Rheumatology, June 2007, Vol. 21 (No. 3); pp. 513-534.

4. UCL Institute of Child Health (www.ich.ucl.ac.uk)