If you didn’t quite stick to your new years resolution and your weight has increased over the winter, it is time to do something about it. The right time to get fit and healthy isn’t next week or next month, it is NOW. We spend every hour of every day in our body; so why not feel good in it year round.

Many of us have tried and succeeded in getting in shape for summer in the past; before falling back to our old habits and repeating the cycle year after year. This article isn’t about trimming those extra kilos so that we look good on the beach this summer. It is about changing our daily habits, so that when bikini season does come around, it hasn’t snuck up on us; instead we have been ready for it all year.

Winter can be a time when we are spending large portions of our day indoors, and either consciously or unconsciously enjoying warm comfort food, often very high in energy. Because we are putting this extra fuel into our body yet staying inside and not burning it off, this fuel gets converted to extra padding around our stomach and hips. Remember, the aim is not to shed those extra pounds before Summer, just to have them return over the colder months. On the journey to achieving and maintaining your healthy lifestyle and body, often the first hurdle is the biggest. Starting.

Start slowly and ease your way into it. When starting or restarting a program you will pull up quite sore on the days following the first few sessions; don’t let this deter you, these aches will subside and the benefits will start to shine through.

It is important that your new program has a balance between the many forms of exercise.

Top 5 Things to Remember:

1. Your program should include:
   • Cardiorespiritory Training
   • Muscular strength, endurance and core stability work.
   • Flexibility Training
2. Try to get some form of exercise in for 30 minutes a day; most if not all days of the week. This can be in the form of walking or running, doing a resistance training program or exercise such as pilates or yoga.
3. If 30 minutes all at once seems to far away, recent research has shown that 3 x 10 minute or 2 x 15 minute sessions can be added together to achieve a similar result. You can start at this intensity and work towards and beyond a 30 minute session; remembering to stretch at the conclusion of each session.
4. Resistance training can be done with equipment such as free weights or using exercises that utilise your bodies own weight as resistance (if you are having trouble coming up with a safe resistance training program that is tailored to your needs, consult a health and fitness professional such as your exercise physiologist).
5. Remember when starting your program vary the exercises that you complete, and have fun with them. This will keep it interesting and improve the chances of adhering to your program in the long run.

Sticking to a simple program like this, as well as watching your diet will have you looking and feeling great this summer and many more to come.

Earlier this year I embarked on a goal to run the 2007 Gold Coast Marathon. ‘Why do you want to put yourself through that much pain?’ people would ask. My answer was simple; ’short term pain, long term gain.’

There were a few reasons why I wanted to run the marathon; curiosity, the enjoyment of running, improving fitness to name a few. However the main reason behind the goal was to experience a sense of achievement to the extent I had never experienced before. For me, this reason alone far outweighed the pain involved in achieving my goal, or at least I thought it would.

The journey started well but it wasn’t long before I encountered some road blocks. Time, sleep, work, nutrition, and injury were issues that presented challenges to my training. Each one took a little chunk out of my motivation as they appeared. I knew these issues would present at some stage but I underestimated the effect they would have. My goal was becoming a distant sight. At one stage my motivation and confidence got so low that I started to doubt myself. I had to do something.

It would have been easy for me to give up at that stage. After all, I did have plenty of excuses to fall back on. Instead I decided to give myself to the process for a few weeks. During this time I focused on the little things that were in my control and made sure I did them. I broke my goals down into smaller more manageable tasks. A run 4 times per week, eat 5 meals per day, get to bed at the same time every night were some of the goals that I set myself. I didn’t let myself get caught up in specifics and I didn’t let anything get in my way. I just did it. At the end of the week I noticed a significant shift in my thinking and motivation.

With each achievement of these smaller goals I could feel momentum gathering, and it felt good. I continued with the same method for the next few weeks. The momentum grew from week to week and I could feel my confidence and motivation growing with it. Before long I gained sight of my goal again, I felt in control once more. A few weeks later I crossed the finish line and experienced a sense of achievement like no other. My goal was complete.

No matter how big or small your goals are, you will always face challenges. Some you can prepare for whereas others can appear from nowhere, to sap your motivation and confidence. It is the way you respond to these challenges that will shape your experience and eventual outcome. Try being more mindful of the times when you are lacking motivation and focus on the small things to help pull you out of it. You’ll be amazed at how much your confidence can grow by taking small steps. If you can string enough small steps together, you too can run your marathon.

- by Alister Murray

Personal Training is not Exercise Science

What is the difference?

The difference is in the substance.

Personal Training courses are of varying standards. Some courses last for 18 months, are tafe run, and lecturers are exercise physiologists teaching a well-rounded approach to training. The lecturers touch on the components that make up safe and effective training and forewarn the soon to be personal trainers of their limitations. The entry standards are unfortunately low; the pass requirements are based on attendance.

Other courses are based over 9 weeks they are costly and teach a very basic training methodology to apply to the general population. The trainers are pumped out with the belief that they know what is required to achieve results with anyone and everyone and any other knowledge is surplus to requirements. Again the pass requirements are low but expensive.

So the result here can go one of two ways. One is the trainer gets out there into the wide world of exercise and picks up a few clients with general fitness needs and the relationship works well. The trainer is aware of limitations and happily refers clients on when they show signs of conditions beyond their scope of learning. The second is the trainer gets stuck into training a few clients, gleefully applying the newly learnt knowledge to all in range. Before long some serious difficulties occur, not initially but some time down the track due to the mismatch between what the trainer knows and what the client needs. The trainer becomes disheartened wondering why people aren’t moving forward as expected and why long-term injuries seem to be appearing.

Why is this?

Well its simple, training is a simple discipline. People however are complex. People have a plethora of needs when it comes to training. Rarely in my 10 years of training people have I found people that need ‘general training’ of any sort. Most people have risks, concerns, constraints, conditions or tough objectives. Unfortunately I don’t believe the training courses that personal trainers go through are adequate to deal with all of these issues. Maybe it’s 50:50. 50% of people, the ones in gyms etc don’t need specialist advice, they just need direction on how to get moving; great see a personal trainer. But the other 50 %, which I would say is a conservative estimate, needs more, and what’s more if they don’t receive the attention they require the results could be negative.

With the aging population and the baby boomer generation looking for ways to improve their health in a society that is not designed for health unlike the times they grew up in, this specialist advice is becoming more and more important. This specialist advice goes under the name of Exercise Science.

Exercise Science is an allied health discipline. It is a degree at most universities that consists of biomechanics, biochemistry, exercise physiology, human movements, behavioural analysis, exercise and nutrition, social and political implications of exercise to name a few. The degree programs usually cover 4 years and involve practical work in hospitals and clinics.

The application of this is seen in professional sports, elite performance and clinical settings for rehabilitation. Exercise Science and Exercise Physiologists are relatively new to the world, but the timing could not have been better. With the population suffering from the complications of inactivity, injury and illness Exercise Physiologists hold the in depth knowledge of the complexities of the human being to help overcome some if the most challenging of cases. Exercise Physiologists understand the health system and fit snugly in with physiotherapists, dieticians and psychologists assisting general practice and the population with exercise related health concerns.

So what’ the difference between Personal Training and Exercise Science? Well, its the substance.

More on what makes up Exercise Science to follow in the next Article.

Flexibility Training

Flexibility is one of the most important areas of fitness for injury prevention, yet for most people it is the area neglected most. Flexibility refers to the range of movement round a particular joint.

If a person is lacking in flexibility due to unnecessary tension the range of movement can be restricted which in turn would impair that persons function. Secondly as that persons moves they are will more then likely, feel tension and restriction around the joint as an uncomfortable sensation or pain. In many instances this situation is the beginning of a spiral which causes pain, more muscle tension, impaired movement, more pain, weakness and ultimately break down.

Tension is a caused by a number of factors which most people can relate to:

Stress will cause tension in a muscle, next time you are in a traffic jam or are late for an appointment just take a fleeting second to check in with what your body is doing. There is a high chance you will be clenching your teeth, hunching your shoulders and possibly even tightening your chest.

Weakness will cause tension, your body requires movement, you will need to move and carry things of various weights at various speeds each day, if you are weak in any one area, another area will need to compensate and carry more than its fair share of load, resulting in overloading and tension.

Repetitive movement will cause tension, if there are any movements in your daily routine that you perform over and over again the chances are, you have experienced muscle tension. By moving repetitively you are using the same muscles over and over again, this obviously is going to cause them to strengthen and tighten, if you do not balance this movement with a stretch plan.

Finally poor posture will predispose you to any of the above situations. Poor posture will result in overuse and miss positioning of certain muscles, causing tension. Poor posture will cause weakness in certain muscles resulting in compensation and eventually yes you guessed it, tension.

So taking musicians as an example the box can be ticked for each:

Stress can be high, the show must go on! Need anymore be said?

Certain muscles will be weak due to underuse, a musician is unlikely to use all muscles in a balance fashion, only certain muscles are required to perform most instruments, and often asymmetrically.

Repetitive movement, well not many activities are as repetitive in movement as playing an instrument.

Finally posture, lets take a violinist, sitting upright, legs off in one angle and together, upper body turned in other direction towards music and audience, arms up, instrument trapped between chin and shoulder. Ideal? Well no.

So what is the answer?

Flexibility training is the key. A specific stretching and massage plan that is designed to relive the build up of tension as a result of your lifestyle or musical instrument. Flexibility training involves regular morning and evening stretching plans, maybe even intermittently through the day depending on what your activity is.

The following is a list of tips when stretching

1. Do not bounce, move the muscle being stretched to a point where tension is felt and gently hold. You do not what your muscle reacting against you.
2. Hold for around 25 seconds. There is very little point in stretching a muscle for a nano second, it will not respond.
3. Do not stretch when cold, think of a rubber band, the warmer it is the more likely it is to stretch and actually expand.
4. Repeat your stretches at least 3 times over in any one day. You are trying to counterbalance your daily movements, you need to stretch plenty of times. In reality depending on what you are doing you may need to stretch a muscle up to five times per day
5. Relax into the stretch and breath. Holding your breath and feeling stressed causes tension!
6. Be careful to get the correct advice as to what muscle should be stretched and how to do it, stretching can be very complex and dangerous if done incorrectly. Your Exercise Physiologist should be able to help.
7. Enjoy! Stretching should feel relieving, de-stressing and pleasant. Enjoy your stretch routine as a way of maintaining your body, mind and everything you expect of it.

Q : What Next ?  A : Strength Training

Ok so now you are aware of your tension issues and you are working on your flexibility to help relieve tension and improve muscle balancing around your joints. Is this providing you with all the skills you need to remain relaxed and injury free? Well… no, but it is a great start!

Another important part of this whole topic is Strength Training and we don’t mean Arnie style. As mentioned in the previous article; one of the major underlying causes of tension issues around a joint is weakness of key stabilizing muscles. When stabilizing muscles get tired from continual activity or repetitious movement other muscles in the surrounding area are forced to pick up the slack. As these muscles become more and more active they further inhibit the stabilizing muscles which leads to more weakness (in the stabilizers) AND more tension (in the surrounding muscles). In this situation, combining strength and flexibility training would be useful for restoring balance to the injured joint.

Targeted and specific strength training can be used to help the weak stabilizing muscles become strong and supportive, as they are meant to be. Flexibility training helps to reduce the tension in the surrounding muscles, further restoring the balance between all the muscles around the joint. When both strength and Flexibility are combined as a treatment strategy they have a much greater effect of balancing a joint than when they are used on their own.

As exercise physiologists we are able to identify areas of weakness and tightness and develop appropriate exercise strategies to bring the balance back to your unstable joints. Furthermore, we can continue with more targeted and specific strengthening to help ensure that your body stays balanced and you can achieve optimal physical performance you need.

We hope you have enjoyed our article series on Exercise Rehabilitation and performance. We have enjoyed writing it for you. We will be developing a workshop for the members of the Queensland Orchestra that extends on the information presented in the articles, so stay tuned for more information on this. In the meantime, move well.

Exercise Science : A Typical Case Study

In this article we would like to give you a scenario that we see quite a lot at The Lab regarding exercise and weight loss. A client of the centre has been seeing us with the aim of losing weight and toning up. Upon the initial consultation and testing session it was clear that there were some other issues that had to be addressed aside from the weight loss and toning. Flexibility and core stability were areas that needed a lot of initial work to provide us with the stable platform to do more vigorous fat burning activities. The client made significant gains in flexibility and core stability and commented that a lot of daily and leisure activities were becoming easier to manage, however weight loss was not coming as quick as expected.

After a period of higher intensity training it was evident that there were other factors that needed consideration to help our client with their initial goals. Factors such as diet, rest, recovery and the big one, STRESS. This is an area that we are seeing more and more in today’s society and it can have a negative affect on our physical state and the ability to change. We are currently working at ways of getting the body into a more stress free state so that it will respond favorably to exercise and healthy eating.

Exercise Science is a course of study that looks into all the sub disciplines of exercise and how it affects human performance. These sub-disciplines include biomechanics, biochemistry, nutrition & exercise, motor control, exercise physiology, health promotion musculoskeletal rehabilitation. As Exercise Scientists we are able to draw on experience and all of these disciplines to help clients overcome the various barriers that may be preventing them from enjoying the full benefits from their efforts with exercise. This enables our clients to enjoy a heightened level of health and vitality, not just fitness.

Management of Non-specific (Chronic) Back Pain South East Alliance of
General Practice Newsletter 2006

When managing non-specific long term back pain, it can be difficult to decide what additional effective options to offer a patient. Often chronic back pain has its origins in weak spinal musculature, poor posture and incorrect use of muscles in day to day activities and often times is precipitated by a minor injury. If left unattended, these can frequently lead to muscle imbalances which cause pain and dysfunction.
An effective treatment option for these problems is functional exercise through a professionally guided exercise program. A functional exercise program draws on the
Specificity Principle of training. It is based around the day to day activities of the person, developing exercises specifically to support what the person does each day of their life.

While the overall focus is on education and developing body awareness, the core strategies of this type of program are to work on the flexibility of over-tight muscles, balance the strength of individual muscles and develop core stability.

Assessing and developing the flexibility of the muscles that are involved is the first aim of a functional exercise program, looking at how the tension in these muscles corresponds to the tension in other related muscles. Inadequate or inappropriate (out of proportion) strength in certain musculature is often an underlying cause of tension or of a flexibility issue in a muscle. Education, training and body awareness results in correct activation, timing and strength, balancing the muscle groups involved. As the patient develops and improves awareness and control, the correct movements are reinforced and strengthened through the training process.

An important component is the development of core stability, through strengthening of the Transversus Abdominis, Multifidus and Inner Obliques. These muscles provide vital support for the spine. They are underdeveloped in many people and often neglected in exercise programs.

Functional exercise intervention provided by an experienced Exercise Physiologist will improve core stability and muscle flexibility and strength. Whether the underlying cause of non-specific back pain is injury or degenerative or age related changes, any form of treatment will be of limited value without correcting existing underlying musculature problems.

Alex Cox Taylor,
Exercise Physiologist
and Judy Baker, Director,
Essents Whole Body Centre.