Division of Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.
BACKGROUND: whole body vibration (WBV) training appears to be an efficient alternative for conventional resistance training in older individuals. So far, no data exist about the vibratory effect on cardiorespiratory fitness. OBJECTIVES: this randomised controlled trial assessed the effects of 1-year WBV training on cardiorespiratory fitness and muscle strength in community-dwelling adults over the age of 60. METHODS: a total of 220 adults (mean age 67.1 years) were randomly assigned to a WBV group, fitness group or control group. The WBV group exercised on a vibration platform, and the fitness group performed cardiovascular, resistance, balance and stretching exercises. The control group did not participate in any training. Heart rate was measured during a single WBV session. Peak oxygen uptake (VO(2peak)) and time-to-peak exercise (TPE) were measured during progressive bicycle ergometry. Muscle strength was assessed by a dynamometer. RESULTS: heart rate increased significantly during WBV training. After 1 year, VO(2peak), TPE and muscle strength increased significantly in the WBV and fitness groups. Both training groups improved similarly in VO(2peak) and muscle strength. The fitness group improved significantly more in TPE than the WBV group. CONCLUSION: WBV training in community-dwelling elderly appears to be efficient to improve cardiorespiratory fitness and muscle strength.
PMID: 19439517 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Published by connie on March 2nd, 2010 in Uncategorized.
Department of Health and Exercise Science, University of Oklahoma, Norman, 73019, United States.
Age-related changes in body composition are well-documented with a decrease in lean body mass and a redistribution of body fat generally observed. Resistance training alone has been shown to have positive effects on body composition, however, these benefits may be enhanced by the addition of a vibration stimulus. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of 8 months of resistance training with and without whole-body vibration (WBV) on body composition in sedentary postmenopausal women. METHODS: Fifty-five women were assigned to resistance only (RG, n=22), vibration plus resistance (VR, n=21) or non-exercising control (CG, n=12) groups. Resistance training (3 sets 10 repetitions 80% strength) was performed using isotonic weight training equipment and whole-body vibration was done with the use of the power plate (Northbrooke, IL) vibration platform for three times per week for 8 months. Total and regional body composition was assessed from the total body DXA scans at baseline (pre) and after 8 months (post) of training. RESULTS: In the VR group, total % body fat decreased from pre- to post-time points (p<0.05), whereas, the CG group had a significant increase in total % body fat (p<0.05). Both training groups exhibited significant increases in bone free lean tissue mass for the total body, arm and trunk regions from pre to post (p<0.05). CG did not show any changes in lean tissue. CONCLUSION: In older women, resistance training alone and with whole-body vibration resulted in positive body composition changes by increasing lean tissue. However, only the combination of resistance training and whole-body vibration was effective for decreasing percent body fat.
PMID: 19386449 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Published by connie on February 25th, 2010 in Uncategorized.
Institut für Medizinische Physik, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. simon.von.stengel@imp.uni-erlangen.de
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Whole body vibration (WBV) training is a new approach which is currently discussed in the context of reducing the risk of osteoporotic fractures. The study was undertaken to determine the effect of one-year WBV exercise on bone mineral density (BMD) and the number of falls. METHODS: 151 postmenopausal women (68.5 +/- 3.1 years) were randomly assigned to three groups: (1) conventional (multifunctional) training (TG); (2) multifunctional training including WBV (VTG); (3) wellness-control group (CG). The training groups performed multifunctional training twice weekly (60 min; dancing aerobics, balance training, functional strength training). In the last 15 min of each session, leg strength exercises on vibration platforms were performed. The plates were switched on only in the VTG. The CG performed a low intensity gymnastic and relaxation programme (4 x 10 sessions of 60 min). BMD was measured at the hip and lumbar spine at baseline and after 12 months with the DXA method. Falls were recorded daily with the calendar method in a fall log. RESULTS: An increase in BMD at the lumbar spine was measured after one year in both training groups (VTG: + 1.17 +/- 2.4 % vs. TG: + 1.73 +/- 2.4 %). The difference between the TG and the CG was significant (p < .05). Regarding the hip region a loss was noted in the CG (- 0.9 +/- 2.5), whereas the BMD stayed stable in the training groups (TG: – 0.3 %; VTG: + 0.1 %). The fall rate was significantly lower in VTG compared to CG (0.43 falls/person/year (VTG) vs. 1.14 (CG). CONCLUSION: The multifunctional training resulted in a gain of BMD at the lumbar spine. Vibration training did not enhance the effect on bone but significantly reduced falls.
So this weekend, my parents brought me my own personal gym. The soloflex had stayed up in the second story of my parents hourse for years and they made the mistake of asking me if I could use it. Trying not to exert the overwhemling desperation flowing through my veins, I managed to hold off a few seconds before I responded with a definitive “yes.” So Friday, my parents and my sister came down to College Station to take away the old weight bench and drop off a pretty cool personal gym. Yeah, it’s not the most high-tech training system, but it works for a dude who doesn’t want to pay 30 dollars a month to go to a gym (that isn’t even open and HIS ideal hours) and whose schedule is so strange he doesn’t feel right about using free weights at night alone with a poppy shoulder.
I look at it as a new toy. I approached just like I woudl a video game. Without reading the instructions I decided to see if I could bench press the 50 pound straps on each side. I gradually lowered the weight until 10 pounds were on each side. At first, I felt like a complete whuss, but I did remember my father procide me with sage advice warning me to start with smaller weight. He confirmed it when I called him later by saying “It’s a little harder than you think.” It’s not like free wieghts, those bands can be pretty hard to move even if you are a stacked muscle-head. Maybe that’s why the maximum weight is only 50 pounds.
I had some time last night and before work and I’m pretty sure I’m sore because of my 30-45 minute work out. I still have the butterfly attachment hooked up and it tempts me everytime I walk by. In addition, I’m not sure where I’m going to stick my bike because the soloflex encompasses it’s old hangout. I enjoy the acquirement though. I can watch TV as I fidget with the settings and even run though several sets in a few minutes.
I just hope I dont start to resemble some sort of steroid-driven muscle-head, I’d hate for my super-wide shoulders to prevent me from passing through doors
Loss of Female Hormones Leads to Muscle Loss Tuesday, February 9, 2010 by Susan Lark Declines in muscle mass and physical strength are common effects of menopause. The drop in female hormones at menopause, particularly estrogen, doesn’t just increase body fat; it also diminishes the strength and size of muscles. This muscle loss boosts the risk for a separate set of conditions, including insulin resistance, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and traumatic injuries caused by loss of strength and athleticism. So, it’s incredibly important that menopausal women hold on to the muscle they have and, ideally, gain back the muscle they’ve already lost. To build muscle in your postmenopausal years, you must add weight training and/or resistance exercises to your natural weight loss plan and workout routine. But lifting weights is not your only option. Studies show that aquatic resistance training and using a whole-body vibration device are both excellent options. I wrote about these suggestions in great detail in the December 2009 issue of my newsletter, Women’s Wellness Today. For more information on this topic, you can subscribe and gain access to years of back issues, including this one.
Published by connie on February 15th, 2010 in Uncategorized.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Psychology A, 3rd Floor, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2580, USA.
Short durations of extremely small magnitude, high-frequency, mechanical stimuli can promote anabolic activity in the adult skeleton. Here, it is determined if such signals can influence trabecular and cortical formative and resorptive activity in the growing skeleton, if the newly formed bone is of high quality, and if the insertion of rest periods during the loading phase would enhance the efficacy of the mechanical regimen. Eight-week-old female BALB/cByJ mice were divided into four groups, baseline control (n = 8), age-matched control (n = 10), whole-body vibration (WBV) at 45 Hz (0.3 g) for 15 min day(-1) (n = 10), and WBV that were interrupted every second by 10 of rest (WBV-R, n = 10). In vivo strain gaging of two additional mice indicated that the mechanical signal induced strain oscillations of approximately 10 microstrain on the periosteal surface of the proximal tibia. After 3 weeks of WBV, applied for 15 min each day, osteoclastic activity in the trabecular metaphysis and epiphysis of the tibia was 33% and 31% lower (P <0.05) than in age-matched controls. Bone formation rates (BFR.BS(-1)) on the endocortical surface of the metaphysis were 30% greater (P <0.05) in WBV than in age-matched control mice but trabecular and middiaphyseal BFR were not significantly altered. The insertion of rest periods (WBV-R) failed to potentiate the cellular effects. Three weeks of either WBV or WBV-R did not negatively influence body mass, bone length, or chemical bone matrix properties of the tibia. These data indicate that in the growing skeleton, short daily periods of extremely small, high-frequency mechanical signals can inhibit trabecular bone resorption, site specifically attenuate the declining levels of bone formation, and maintain a high level of matrix quality. If WBV prove to be efficacious in the growing human skeleton, they may be able to provide the basis for a non-pharmacological and safe means to increase peak bone mass and, ultimately, reduce the incidence of osteoporosis or stress fractures later in life.
PMID: 16824816 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Published by connie on February 12th, 2010 in Uncategorized.
Exercising is one of the most important activities you can do for your health. However, just as your diet, variety is the key. It’s important to vary your exercise routine in order to get the absolute best results.
Your muscles simply get used to the same activity and they require a level of muscle confusion if they are to continue to improve and grow stronger.
I’ve been exercising for over 40 years, but for much of it I focused on running, or cardio exercise. While this is an important type, there are others that are equally if not more important, namely strength training, developing your core muscles, and interval training.
Last year, in fact, I hired a personal trainer twice a week and have been learning a large variety of exercises which provide total body fitness and do not involve running or, for that matter, the use of any significant equipment. Simply by changing up your routine often, you challenge your body in different ways, work different muscle groups and get the best overall conditioning effect.
I actually had my trainer use my digital camera to take short clips of me doing the exercises so I now have close to 150 video clips of different exercises that I can use to vary my regimen. I will typically do about 15 of them during a session.
Although I highly recommend finding a personal trainer to help you reach your fitness goals, if you cannot afford it or live in an area without access to one, you can still reap the benefits of exercise if you focus on varying your routine.
I am in the process of hiring a professional trainer to develop a section of the site where we can have these types of videos available for you.
Four Principles of Exercise
Your body is an efficient machine, and if you do the same type of exercise day after day, you’ll become quite good at it. However, when exercise becomes easy to complete, it’s a sign you need to work a little harder and give your body a new challenge.
So when you’re planning your exercise routine, make sure it incorporates the following types of exercise:
1. Aerobic: Jogging, using an elliptical machine, and walking fast are all examples of aerobic exercise. As you get your heart pumping, the amount of oxygen in your blood improves, and endorphins, which act as natural painkillers, increase. Meanwhile, aerobic exercise activates your immune system, helps your heart pump blood more efficiently, and increases your stamina over time.
2. Interval (Anaerobic) Training: Research is showing that the BEST way to condition your heart and burn fat is NOT to jog or walk steadily for an hour. Instead, it’s to alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle recovery periods. That is one of the primary reasons I am so fond of the exercises my personal trainer has been showing me.
Another major benefit of this approach is that it radically decreases the amount of time you spend exercising, while giving you even more benefits. For example, intermittent sprinting produces high levels of chemical compounds called catecholamines, which allow more fat to be burned from under your skin within the exercising muscles. The resulting increase in fat oxidation increases weight loss. So, short bursts of activity done at a very high intensity can help you reach your optimal weight and level of fitness, in a shorter amount of time.
3. Strength Training: Rounding out your exercise program with a 1-set strength training routine will ensure that you’re really optimizing the possible health benefits of a regular exercise program.
You need enough repetitions to exhaust your muscles. The weight should be heavy enough that this can be done in fewer than 12 repetitions, yet light enough to do a minimum of four repetitions. It is also important NOT to exercise the same muscle groups every day. They need at least two days of rest to recover, repair and rebuild.
4. Core Exercises: Your body has 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater balance and stability.
Exercise programs like pilates and yoga are great for strengthening your core muscles, as are specific exercises you can learn from a personal trainer.
You might be aware that I have recently become interested in Ayurvedic medicine, and yoga is an important element of that. In March I visited the Miraval Health Resort in Tucson and had a great introduction to yoga and am now committed to applying that as a regular discipline in my life and will start seeking yoga instruction very soon.
Focusing on your breath and mindfulness along with increasing your flexibility is an important element of total fitness.
For more information on how to use exercise as a drug, including proper intensity and duration, read through this comprehensive article Exercise to Improve Your Body and Brain.
Is Staying Motivated an Issue for You?
More than half of U.S. adults don’t get the recommended amount of exercise, and one out of four don’t exercise at all.
The most common reason why people say they don’t exercise?
A lack of time.
Unfortunately, not enough people are willing to arrange their schedules around exercise, and this is due to something much deeper than time management — it’s due to psychological resistance.
No matter what reason you have for not exercising – feeling it’s too hard, getting bored with your routine, not knowing where to start – you can help yourself get into a more positive frame of mind by giving the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) a try. It can help you remove the negative emotional blocks that are preventing you from successfully implementing your program.
Further, instead of focusing on the negatives, like the work and the time it takes to stay active, focus on how great you’ll feel once exercise becomes a regular part of your life.
In case you weren’t aware, exercise does far more than just assist in weight loss. I’m going to list some of the many, many things exercise can do for your mind and body.
Go ahead and print this list out, send it to your exercise buddy or take it with you to the gym. Then, whenever you’re thinking of quitting, take a look. These benefits are just too good to pass up.
The WSJ article touches on just a few of the amazing health benefits of exercise I’ve been talking and writing about for nearly three decades, including that exercise can:
Reduce your cancer risk
Slow the aging process in your body
Boost your immune system
How Exercise Helps You Fight Cancer
Cancer thrives on sugar.
Regular exercise reduces your insulin levels, which creates a low sugar environment that discourages the growth and spread of cancer cells. Controlling your insulin levels is one of the most powerful steps you can take to reduce your cancer risk.
Physically active adults experience about half the incidence of colon cancer as their sedentary counterparts. Exercise has a beneficial influence on insulin, prostaglandins and bile acids, all of which are thought to encourage the growth and spread of cancer cells in your colon. Exercise also improves bowel transit time, which means your body’s waste is spending less time in contact with the mucosal lining of your colon.
As the Wall Street Journal article points out, women who exercise regularly can reduce their breast cancer risk by 20 to 30 percent over their inactive counterparts. This is likely due to a lowering of estrogen levels.
The article cites a study in which women being treated for breast cancer were 50 percent less likely to die of the disease if they walked at an average pace for three to five hours a week.
Think about it. If just three to five hours of walking per week can so drastically improve your chances of surviving a hormone-responsive breast cancer tumor, imagine what a few more hours a week of exercise could do for you.
If you’re male, be aware that athletes have lower levels of circulating testosterone than non-athletes, and similar to the association between estrogen levels and breast cancer in women, testosterone is known to influence the development of prostate cancer in men.
Physical activity can reduce your risk.
A Cure for Aging?
Have you heard the news about telomeres?
Telomeres are strands of DNA at the ends of your chromosomes which protect them from damage. Gradual erosion of telomeres leads to aging on a cellular level –think of them as a kind of biological clock.
As telomeres shorten more, cell death occurs. These cell deaths are associated with serious disease and premature aging
There is no question that the leading edge of anti aging research is on how to prevent telomere shortening and actually develop therapies to lengthen telomeres. Many experts believe that lengthening telomeres could actually turn the biological clock backwards.
Since exercise has been associated with preventing telomere shortening, it is clearly a very powerful anti aging strategy.
Research indicates physically active people have significantly less erosion of telomeres than even healthy, non-smoking, but sedentary folks. Exercise activates the enzyme telomerase which stabilizes telomeres, producing an anti-aging effect at the cellular level.
Other equally important factors in slowing the aging process include:
A healthy diet based on your individual nutritional type
A method to address your emotional challenges and daily stressors
Exercise Boosts Your Immune System
Exercise improves the circulation of immune cells in your blood. The job of these cells is to neutralize pathogens throughout your body.
The better these cells circulate, the more efficient your immune system is at locating and defending against viruses and diseases trying to attack your body.
Your immune system is your first line of defense against everything from minor illnesses like a cold or the flu right up through devastating, life-threatening diseases like cancer. It’s not possible to be optimally healthy if your immune system is weak or compromised.
Prescribing Exercise
I wasn’t surprised to read in the WSJ article that only four out of 10 medical doctors ever mention the importance of exercise to their patients, despite its proven health benefits.
According to Dr. Robert Sallis, co-director of sports medicine at Fontana Medical Center in California:
“Exercise can be used like a vaccine to prevent disease and a medication to treat disease. If there were a drug with the same benefits as exercise, it would instantly be the standard of care.”
Typical of conventional medical thinking, somehow a vaccine or other drug with the same benefits as exercise would be preferable to exercise itself.
No, it would not.
But it’s at least encouraging to see recognition of this type for exercise as both prevention and cure.
If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter and my website, you know I’ve long touted the importance of viewing exercise as a drug.
Actually writing out a prescription for exercise is an excellent way to take a proactive approach to your health. A great tool for creating your own exercise prescription is my Daily Exercise Table.
The Time is Now
No matter your age, exercise can provide enormous benefits for your health.
If you happen to be over 40 it’s especially important to either start or step up your exercise program. This is the time of life when your physical strength, stamina, balance and flexibility start to decline.
I can’t stress enough the importance of using precision to develop your individual workout program. You need to make sure you’re getting enough exercise to achieve all the benefits, but not so much that you injure yourself, and you need variety to condition and build your entire body and prevent boredom.
Your program should include aerobic exercise, anaerobic (interval) training, weight strength training, and core exercises to build, strengthen and improve the flexibility of all the muscles of your body, like yoga, Pilates or active isolated stretching
If you’ve been sedentary for any length of time or you’re out of shape for some other reason, it is vitally important to get started with an exercise program – but start small. One of the main reasons people don’t stick with a workout program is because they go too hard, too fast and wind up with an injury, illness or simple exhaustion.
Write your own exercise prescription based on factors including:
Once you reach a normal weight, you can drop back to 45 minutes at least four times a week and still reap the incredible health benefits of regular exercise.
Published by connie on February 10th, 2010 in Information.
Our episode of Parks and Recreation aired last night on NBC! In case you missed it, you can watch it above. We’re psyched that we got to share our scene (around the 10:40 mark) with DJ Roomba.
Shriners Hospital for Children, Montreal, QC, Canada. frauch@shriners.mcgill.ca
Whole-body vibration training is a method for muscle strengthening that is increasingly used in a variety of clinical situations. Key descriptors of vibration devices include the frequency, the amplitude, and the direction of the vibration movement. In a typical vibration session, the user stands on the device in a static position or performs dynamic movements. Most authors hypothesize that vibrations stimulate muscle spindles and alpha-motoneurons, which initiate a muscle contraction. An immediate effect of a non-exhausting vibration session is an increase in muscle power. Most studies of the longer term use of vibration treatment in various disorders have pursued three therapeutic aims: increasing muscle strength, improving balance, and increasing bone mass. In a small pilot trial in children we noted improvements in standing function, lumbar spine bone mineral density, tibial bone mass, and calf muscle cross-sectional area.
PMID: 19740225 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Pub Med. Gov
U.S. National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health
Published by connie on February 2nd, 2010 in Uncategorized.
2009 Jul;38(4):448-54. Epub 2009 May 13.
Late for you, early for me
Low-level mechanical vibrations can influence bone resorption and bone formation in the growing skeleton.
Shriners Hospital for Children, Montreal, QC, Canada. frauch@shriners.mcgill.ca
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