One of the main reasons exercise is heavily pushed for athletes and for the weekend gym goer, is the injury prevention effect of training. On top of the physiological effects, the psychological effects and even the social component- injury prevention is generally mentioned. Van Beijsterveldt, et al; 2013 performed a literature review on this very(…)
Exercising under fatigue changes ones mechanics. Form gets sloppy. In the world of sport, performing under less than ideal conditions (and ever more so in the tactical world) is mandatory. You cannot ask for an extra few minutes to stretch, warm up, shift the angle of the sun or change the arena temperature. One of(…)
Faigenbaum and Myer, 2009 completed a literature review of youth involved in resistance training. As anyone in the field can observe, younger and younger children are weightlifting and more children are participating in sports. Resistance training should be used to prevent injury and enhance sport performance at that age- not the other way around. It(…)
Plyometrics, as we have discussed numerous times, are great for developing power and quickness. They are also serious work for joints and why most coaches recommend you have some serious weight training under your belt before you begin a serious plyomterics program. People have often hypothesized that one could develop similar levels of explosive force(…)
Cherif, et al 2012 completed a great study. They split the national handball team into two groups of 11. Each group completed conventional handball practice and weight training. The experimental group added interval sprints and plyometrics. The intervals used were the 10/20 protocol (the Tabata protocol discussed here) for 2 bouts of 8min with 10(…)
Park et al 2013 completed a review of 17 trials involving acupuncture and ankle sprains. Of those, only 3 met inclusion criteria. These studies used randomization and sham treatment. Acupuncture was added on to traditional physiotherapy and exercise rehabilitation. The 3 studies indicated that acupuncture relieved pain better than therapy alone (rr = 0.61) and(…)
Many people who participate in long distance running, cycling or swimming supplement with carbohydrate beverages. The idea is that over long-periods time, the glucose necessary for fatty acid mobilization becomes used up and the athlete ‘hits the wall’ or ‘bonks out’. With replenishment, they can continue properly mobilizing fatty acids to fuel the activity and(…)
We’ve discussed concussions on this site many times before (just put concussion in the search bar). The actual mechanism of concussion and how it adversely affects the brain is still relatively unknown. Marchi et al, 2013 tested the integrity of the blood brain barrier in American football players’ pre and post-game to determine what, if(…)