The negative effects of aging on the musculoskeletal system are well known and include a loss of bone density, as well as, muscle strength and mass. These effects begin in your 30s, but the speed of this loss is largely dependent on your health and activity level. More active adults who participate in both weekly...
The average adult carves out a 30-60 minute block of time to exercise 2-3 times per week and tries to protect it against infringement from family, work, and life responsibilities. The health benefits of exercise, including strength training, are overwhelmingly in favor of the trained over the sedentary adult. Despite the benefits of exercise life...
Yogi Berra famously said, “when you come to a fork in the road, take it”. These forks come frequently in life and allow us to make decisions and take actions which have large impacts on our future relationships, employment opportunities, and our health. The decision to exercise in adults is an important one because of...
Sarcopenia is the age related loss of muscle mass found in all adults during the aging process. Specifically, the average male can expect to lose 8-10% of his muscle mass each decade after age 30. Thankfully both the amount and speed of this loss can be attenuated through strength training. Females and males participating in...
Exercise selection is one of the most important variables in a weekly strength training program. In general, individuals should look for multi joint (ex. lat pulldown) exercises instead of single joint exercises (barbell curl). At our Boulder Physical Therapy practice we recommend participants select one exercise from each of the following categories: vertical push, vertical...
Strength and muscle hypertrophy (growth) are two separate benefits of strength training. In some participants these occur together, but in other participants (age, sex, training status, nutrition) strength gains often occur without significant increases in muscle size. This is an important point for individuals who refrain from weight training due to fear of “bulking up”...
One of the reasons our species reached the top of the food chain involves our ability to thrive under a variety of environments and circumstances. Our ability to conserve energy and resources during times of scarcity has ensured our survival, but in times of abundance these physiological mechanisms likely hold us back from our fitness...
If you only had time for one strength training exercise it would be hard to beat the squat due to its’ high recruitment of lower quarter muscles including the legs and core. Numerous variations of the squat including sit to stand, goblet squat, front squat, back squat, split squat, and zercher squats exist allowing individuals...
Resistance training is an essential part of any weekly workout program, but can become neglected when other activities compete for our time. On these shortened training days we should aim to improve our efficiency in the gym by utilizing methods which reduce our workout time but maintain its’ effectiveness. Supersets, performance of a set of...
Flexibility remains one of the most commonly assessed and prescribed areas in health and fitness. A significant amount of time and resources continue to be dedicated to this mode of exercise often at the expense of more valuable areas including aerobic exercise and strength training. Although mobility focused Physical Therapy exercises have their place and...
