Exercise Archives - Page 51 of 56 - Baudry Therapy Center

By Chaz Caiado, CPT

Crescent City Classic is April 23rd! We’re only 14 weeks away, so don’t waste anymore time and start training today.

Running is an easy, fun, and inexpensive way to keep your body healthy, young, and full of vigor. Whether you run to be fit, race, or to test your limits you’ve no doubt enjoyed the feeling of being able to push your body further or faster than you had previously. Unfortunately, many runners can be stubborn and use running as the sole means of being in shape. This often leads to overuse injuries and can ultimately sideline runners from doing what they love…running.

Strength, balance, and technique are key components of the ability to run injury free. Besides the prime movers, there are many muscles that provide the stability needed for running. Often runners lack this stability and incur completely avoidable injuries. This is why I strongly recommend cross training for all of my runners.

The good news is that proper fitness training for runners is not difficult or time consuming. In just one or two 45 minute sessions a week you can adequately get the all the strength and stability gains necessary to stay strong and keep your body balanced.

There are several things to look at when incorporating fitness training for running. You want to first identify the physical needs and purpose for training. You must identify where your strengths and weaknesses are. This is accomplished by finding a professional trained in human movement. Physical Therapists are very knowledgeable and perfectly suited for this task. Once you’ve identified the purpose of the training and identified your specific needs you can develop the appropriate program. Based on a individual findings, we typically recommend a combination of high intensity strength training for whole body strength and functional training to address the muscular imbalances, joint problems, and bio-mechanical issues that affect your running.

The benefits of cross training are all there. We’ve seen incredible changes in runners participating in our strength and fitness programs. They look better, feel better, and perform better. Challenge yourself and go beyond your usual routine to give yourself the best chance for success. Find out more about fitness training for running, it may just be the x-factor you need to get to the next level.

Exercise – A Vital Component to Healthy Living

By Rich Baudry, PT, DPT, OCS

The benefits of exercise are well documented and include favorable effects on body composition, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. At it’s core, exercise improves the quality of our movement and thus our function. But as there are many options when it comes to exercise, what’s really the best exercise for you? Well, by determining why you want to exercise you will discover how you should exercise. The movement qualities of coordination, endurance, strength, and power can all be improved with exercise.

Coordination refers to the ability to move body parts in an effective and efficient way. Coordination requires using the appropriate amount of muscle activity with the right speed and direction, at the right time. This requires the controlled firing of the appropriate muscles in a smoothly sequenced way. An ideal way to train for coordination is to use light resistance and perform many repetitions. In order to gain coordination for a particular task may take as many as 10,000 repetitions.

Endurance is the ability to perform an activity for an extended period of time and is specific to the function at hand. Endurance training typically includes lighter resistances for longer periods of time or repetitions. This type of training relies heavily on the cardiovascular system.

Strength is the amount of torque a muscle or group of muscles can generate. A certain amount of strength is required for any activity. Strength is generally gained by lifting at moderate to heavier weight. Strength gains are directly proportional to the resistances used. The lighter resistances produce modest strength gains, while higher resistances produce greater gains. Generally, when exercising for strength you should use a weight that you can lift for 8-15 repetitions.

Power is strength with speed. For pure strengthening you may use a weight that you can lift only 3-8 times.

The truth is that all of these qualities of movement are vital to healthy living; so, incorporating variety with your training is certainly important. To help you better target your workout, identify why you are working out. Your answer will help focus your program. The appropriate level of training depends on many factors. Things like your age, physical condition, previous injury, joint problems, arthritis, and/or the presence of other medical conditions affect your tolerance for training and must be taken into consideration when developing your exercise program.

Exercising is too important to your health to avoid. So for better success with exercising, put some extra thought into your exercise strategies. Start today. Any training is better then none at all, so get out there and do it!

For more information on how to train please contact our office or ask questions below.

Category: Exercise

Fitness Training for Runners

Exercise – A Vital Component to Healthy Living

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