Monday, August 30, 2010
Long days
Sorry- I'll get back to posting soon. This should be my last 70hr week for a while. Lot's of interesting stuff going on, just too hectic to get the digital camera out and edit.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Lou Gehrig's disease or cumulative brain injury?
I had no idea Lou Gehrig was a running back at Columbia.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/sports/18gehrig.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/sports/18gehrig.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig
Monday, August 16, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
"Negatives"
This was a recent topic of discussion on the GAIN forum:
http://news.medinfo.ufl.edu/articles/top-stories/the-negator-muscle-building-science/
I'm not sure why this is rearing it's head again. The concept of eccentric resistance training was popular in the 80s. If I'm not mistaken, at the end of the decade there were even companies that were iimplementing it in isokinetic machines.
In my mind, strength training is more than just sarcomeres. There's a motor control element to it. On page 28 of Richard Magill's new edition of his "Motor learning and Control" book, he says, "..researchers interested.in understanding the action preparation process are able to to obtain more specific insights into what occurs as a person prepares to move. Most reseachers agree that the premotor time is a measure of of the receipt and transmission of information from the environment, through the nervous system, to the muscle itself. The time interval seems to be an indicator of perceptual and cognitive decision making activity in which the person engages while preparing an action."
The machine scenario seems not to be concerned with any of this, only overloading the eccentric phase of a specific unidirectional, uni plane movement.
Eccentric overload requires a good amount of isometric stabilization to handle the extra load. Let's take a squat. If we use a weight beyond our 3R maximum we need to lower the weight very slowly and use spotters for the concentric portion to avoid injury. However, in my scenario, we can use a weight well below our 3R max, but instead actually "pull" the weight down to increase the eccentric momentum; then abruptly stop it at the bottom and concentrically return it under our own power. The neural component of the squat can be ehanced even further with a command by the coach to abruptly freeze and hold any position for a given amount of time. It also creates a great anaerobic effect.
Comments?
http://news.medinfo.ufl.edu/articles/top-stories/the-negator-muscle-building-science/
I'm not sure why this is rearing it's head again. The concept of eccentric resistance training was popular in the 80s. If I'm not mistaken, at the end of the decade there were even companies that were iimplementing it in isokinetic machines.
In my mind, strength training is more than just sarcomeres. There's a motor control element to it. On page 28 of Richard Magill's new edition of his "Motor learning and Control" book, he says, "..researchers interested.in understanding the action preparation process are able to to obtain more specific insights into what occurs as a person prepares to move. Most reseachers agree that the premotor time is a measure of of the receipt and transmission of information from the environment, through the nervous system, to the muscle itself. The time interval seems to be an indicator of perceptual and cognitive decision making activity in which the person engages while preparing an action."
The machine scenario seems not to be concerned with any of this, only overloading the eccentric phase of a specific unidirectional, uni plane movement.
Eccentric overload requires a good amount of isometric stabilization to handle the extra load. Let's take a squat. If we use a weight beyond our 3R maximum we need to lower the weight very slowly and use spotters for the concentric portion to avoid injury. However, in my scenario, we can use a weight well below our 3R max, but instead actually "pull" the weight down to increase the eccentric momentum; then abruptly stop it at the bottom and concentrically return it under our own power. The neural component of the squat can be ehanced even further with a command by the coach to abruptly freeze and hold any position for a given amount of time. It also creates a great anaerobic effect.
Comments?
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Wait and see?
Sorry I haven't been posting. Pre season football is at critical mass. Enjoy this article brought to my attention by fellow GAINer Sal Marinello. It concerns delayed ACL reconstruction.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0907797
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0907797
Monday, August 9, 2010
Good Book
In my very limited spare time this August I'm reading the 9th edition of Dr. Richard Magill's, "Motor learning and Control- concepts and applications. I actually already own the original editon of the book, but Magill updates his reasearch every few years to stay up to date with current research. Remember function is not just biomechanical! This is the kind of stuff that seperates athletic training from the other healing arts. A thought in the back of my head- if movement is goal/task oriented...then does a one size fits all movement screen make sense?
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Soft Tissue Influences Structure
As I've posted before, the Italian Spine Institute (http://www.isico.it/ukcosa.htm) is doing some very cool work with scoliosis.
Here's some new research from Italy's neighbors the Swiss published in the August issue of the "Journal of Sport Rehabilitation"- Paraspinal Muscle Activity During Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Weight Training in Idiopathic Scoliosis. What was special about this study was the simplicity of the application of exercises. They chose 4 common weight room exercises: front press, lat pull-down, roman chair,and bent-over barbell row to influence the muscles on the concave sides of the curves. By altering the sequence of the exercises they successfully targeted the traditionally flaccid muscles on the concave sides of the S-curve in the T-spine and L-spine. The lesson to be learned here it's more than just the exercise itself. Simple variations like using different size dumbbells, changing your vector, the speed, the range etc. can all have a profound effect on your results. There is no one size fits all; the ATC needs to think on their feet.
Here's some new research from Italy's neighbors the Swiss published in the August issue of the "Journal of Sport Rehabilitation"- Paraspinal Muscle Activity During Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Weight Training in Idiopathic Scoliosis. What was special about this study was the simplicity of the application of exercises. They chose 4 common weight room exercises: front press, lat pull-down, roman chair,and bent-over barbell row to influence the muscles on the concave sides of the curves. By altering the sequence of the exercises they successfully targeted the traditionally flaccid muscles on the concave sides of the S-curve in the T-spine and L-spine. The lesson to be learned here it's more than just the exercise itself. Simple variations like using different size dumbbells, changing your vector, the speed, the range etc. can all have a profound effect on your results. There is no one size fits all; the ATC needs to think on their feet.
Monday, August 2, 2010
ATSNJ Concussion Summit
Kudos once again to Eric Nussbaum ATC for once again putting together a great seminar. These are notes from Dr. Rober Cantu's presentation, and the roundtable discussion which followed:
-VERY important the athlete is permitted appropriate time for healing to take place.
-There is no set number of concussions that is a disqualification for further participation in contact sports.
-2 man wedge tackling, blindside hits rule changes in American football are in order.
-No way to predict CTE in a live person; lawyers should not be driving decision making.
-Concussion accounts for 6-10% of all athletic injuries. The reported ones are just the tip of the iceberg. Subconcussive blows and their effect is an unknown factor.
-Loss of consciousness is not a good indicator of degree of brain injury.
-You don't need to grade a concussion to manage them efficiently.
-Time to recovery is a good indicator for risk in subsequent concussions.
-When a player shows any symptoms of concussion, they should discontinue participation at least for that day.
-The cornerstone of concussion management is physical and cognitive rest until symptoms resolve.
-Prolonged post concussion syndrome (1m+) is usually associated with playing with a pevious head injury prior to the concussion.
-Concussion Research- Journal of Neural Trauma: http://www.liebertonline.com/toc/neu/27/7
-Many concussions occur at lower force, 60G's and below. The new NFL helmet recommendations are suspect because they involved testing at higher G's. Head and spine biomechanist specialists were not used in the study.
-Since every concussion is different, is legislating concussion guidelines a good idea?
-VERY important the athlete is permitted appropriate time for healing to take place.
-There is no set number of concussions that is a disqualification for further participation in contact sports.
-2 man wedge tackling, blindside hits rule changes in American football are in order.
-No way to predict CTE in a live person; lawyers should not be driving decision making.
-Concussion accounts for 6-10% of all athletic injuries. The reported ones are just the tip of the iceberg. Subconcussive blows and their effect is an unknown factor.
-Loss of consciousness is not a good indicator of degree of brain injury.
-You don't need to grade a concussion to manage them efficiently.
-Time to recovery is a good indicator for risk in subsequent concussions.
-When a player shows any symptoms of concussion, they should discontinue participation at least for that day.
-The cornerstone of concussion management is physical and cognitive rest until symptoms resolve.
-Prolonged post concussion syndrome (1m+) is usually associated with playing with a pevious head injury prior to the concussion.
-Concussion Research- Journal of Neural Trauma: http://www.liebertonline.com/toc/neu/27/7
-Many concussions occur at lower force, 60G's and below. The new NFL helmet recommendations are suspect because they involved testing at higher G's. Head and spine biomechanist specialists were not used in the study.
-Since every concussion is different, is legislating concussion guidelines a good idea?
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