Month: November 2017

Strength exercise – more evidence that it is worth doing

by

Strength Training

The reason for doing the recommended 2 strength based exercise sessions per week has been given another boost from a recently published study. Stamatakis et al analysed adults over 30 in the United Kingdom that were selected from a pool of 80,000 people completing an annual survey then further assessed via interview and questionnaires over a 9 year period.

Strength based exercise on its own has been shown to reduce diabetes risk and when combined with cardio exercise gave even greater benefits. This study looked at reductions in mortality that could be attributed to different types of exercise that is recommended by the world health organisation. Namely 150-300 minutes of cardiovascular exercise and 2 strength exercise sessions per week.

They found 36.2% of the sample group met only the aerobic exercise guidelines. 3.4% met only the strength exercise guidelines and 5.5% met both aerobic and strength exercises recommendations.

Participation in any form of strength exercise led to a 23% reduction in mortality from all causes and a 31% reduction in mortality from cancer. Combining the strength and aerobic exercise guidelines further reduced the rate of mortality than aerobic physical activity alone.
The definition of strength exercise included both gym and body weight exercises but they analysed whether one was better than the other. The study found bodyweight exercises gave the same benefit to gym-based activity. Previous studies have indicated that increasing muscle strength has been associated with reduced cancer mortality independent of aerobic fitness. Also higher muscle strength, as opposed to just participating in strength exercise led to reductions in mortality.

Meeting the strength exercise recommendations of twice per week was found to be as important as achieving the weekly aerobic exercise recommendations for health benefits and reducing the risk of mortality.

Summary:

  • Get into strength exercises even if it’s just body weight exercise
  • Make it challenging enough to increase your strength
  • If you are just starting out, don’t go too hard too fast or you may increase your risk of injury
  • If you are not sure what strength exercise program is suitable for you, let us know and we can help you get started on a program that is safe and effective to achieve your health goals

Stamatakis et al 2017, Does strength promoting exercise confer unique health benefits? A pooled analysis of eleven population cohorts with all-cause, cancer, and cardiovascular mortality endpoints. Am J of Epidemiology.

Lifting and stooping- the latest in lifting related research

by

lifting

Should we avoid stoop lifting? There has been plenty of lifting related research in the past but none of it is conclusive. We rely on expert opinion that says the squat lift is safer than stoop lifting but recent discussion amongst clinical experts and researchers surrounds other factors being more important than the classic type of described lift when it comes to avoiding injury. The original review of van Dieen at el in 1999 highlights the very little amount of good quality research existing in the area and recent research from Dreischarf et al 2016 has provided data that challenge existing beliefs on lifting.

A summary on our recent masterclass session on the topic of lifting and avoiding injury concluded the following 5 factors were valuable:

  1. Keeping the load close to the body reduces the forces on the lower back more when compared with the type of lift (stoop vs squat).
  2. Strength and conditioning to the chosen method of lifting is important. I.e. if you never stoop lift and then have to because of where the object is then you are more likely to have an injury than if you stoop lifted more often.
  3. The timing of the movement is important. This is a difficult concept to simplify but refers to when the knees and hips straighten during a lift and what the back is doing at the same time. A common observation in the clinic is that over-arching the back during a lift often leads to pain.
  4. Cumulative loading is important. If you sit and slouch through the pelvis for long periods then it will increase your risk when lifting but if you get up regularly and change posture from sitting to standing or walking then the effect of cumulative loading is reduced.
  5. Semi squat lifting places less stress on the knees than the full squat which is important if you have knee pathology. If the timing is correct and you are conditioned to lift this way it remains the optimal choice of lifting.

For those who are interested, the references referred to in this blog are:

Dreischarf et al, 2016. In vivo loads on a vertebral body replacement during different lifting techniques; Journal of Biomechanics. 49(2016):890-895

Van Dieen et al, 1999. Stoop or squat: a review of biomechanical studies on lifting technique; Clinical Biomechanics. 14(1999):685-696