Tuesday, December 31, 2013

It's Never Late To


...... start exercising that is.
Picture by Brian Dees from flickr.com
After my bike accident, I went to the pool 4-5 times a week for rehab rehab. There was this older gentlemen (I think he's at least 70) that I saw frequently. He would cycle to the pool and swim lots of laps. He looked really strong and I remember saying to myself that I would like to be strong and healthy like him when I get to his age.

Well I guess research is good at confirming what I believe this older gentleman is.

British researchers studied 3454 adults over 8 years who were healthy and disease free at the start of the study. Their average age at the start of the study was 63.7 years young.

The adults were considered healthy if they did not develop any major chronic diseases, depressive symptoms or any physical or cognitive impairment during the 8 years of the study.

19.3% (or almost a fifth) made it to the final follow-up healthy. Those who exercised moderately or vigorously at least once a week were on average 2.67 and 3,53 times more likely to experience healthy ageing compared t those who were inactive.

What's more amazing was that those who had only become physically active during the study had a higher likelihood of experiencing healthy ageing than those who did not.

The researchers concluded that significant health benefits were even seen among participants who became physically active relatively late in life.

Today's the last day of the year and tomorrow is a brand new year. It's a good time for you to start exercising regardless of whether you are young or old.

Reference

Hamer M, Laviole KL et al (2013). Taking Up Physical Activity In Later Life And Healthy Ageing: The English Longitudinal Study Of Ageing. BJSM. doi:10.1126/bjsports-2013-092993.


Saturday, December 28, 2013

Exercise Helps Short Term Overeating


Now who's been eating too much?
If you've been eating more than normal (like me) this Christmas and are have been piling on the pounds, here's motivation to keep your exercise going.

An recently published article in the Journal of Physiology found that regular exercise helps keep your blood sugar and fat cells in the healthy range even when you consume significantly more calories over several days.

The study looked at twenty-six men who over ate for a week. Some increased their calorie intake by 50% and did not exercise at all that week. The others in the study took in 75% more calories than usual but ran 45 minutes a day.

Both groups accumulated a large energy surplus during that week (from eating way too much). Even though both groups were considered to be "unhealthy" in their weight control in the short term, the runners handled the overeating much better than those who did not run (or exercise).

The runners had stable blood sugar levels and their fat cells showed less "undesirable" genetic changes. The inactive group had much worse blood sugar control and had alterations in several genes associated with nutritional balance, metabolism and insulin action.

The authors concluded that a daily bout of exercise during a period of overeating (very common during Christmas and the New Year) will prevent many of the negative changes from happening even though you are gaining weight. Well, if you have eaten too much and haven't exercised this past Christmas and have piled on the pounds, you can still remedy it by kick starting your exercise regime before the New Year holiday period.

Reference

Walhin JP, Richardson JD, Betts JA and Thompson D. (2013). Exercise Counteracts The Effects Of Short-term Overfeeding And Reduced Physical Activity Independent Of Energy Imbalance In Healthy Young Men. J of Physiology. 591: 6231-6243.


Who is not eating?
*Pictures by Aminah with her Canon Powershot

Sunday, December 22, 2013

PS And SS Lunch

Staff and their families from both clinics who were not travelling met together for lunch today at Marina Mandarin.

Thank you to all for coming and as for those who couldn't come, here's what you missed. Make sure you make it next time (Romaiza is asking that this be a monthly affair)....

Some of the staff who arrived early
Taha and Moo brought baby Naeem
Dean not the youngest any more
Wrong camera Tini and family ....
Best eater
Romaiza and her boys
Have a great Christmas and Happy New Year.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Rotate Your Running Shoes To Minimise Injury

Picture by Tomas Kalina from Flickr.com
I started running when I was twelve. I ran mostly cross country and track races (as there were definitely a lot less road races then compared to now). Since those early running days, I began rotating all my running shoes.

My mum would nag at me for having so many pairs of running shoes and wanted to throw away the older pairs. I would simply tell her I'd throw them out but secretly kept them in another place or brought them to school to keep in my locker.

After getting good enough results to be sponsored, my shoe rotating "habit" got worse I guess.

Back then, I simply felt that using different shoes each time I ran would stress different parts of my foot and legs and hopefully less chance of me getting injured.

Turns out I was right. A recently published study suggests that runners who rotate more than one pair of running shoes are significantly less likely to get injured compared to those who wear the same pair of shoes each time they ran.

The researchers studied 264 runners over 22 weeks. Information on training volume, injury rate, cross training, shoe usage and other variables were obtained. 116 runners in the study used a single pair of running shoes, with 91% of their running done in that same shoe. The other 148 runners used multiple pairs of running shoes. They had a main pair which they ran in (an average of 58% of their runs) while also using another 3.6 pairs (on average) for their other runs during the study period.

The researchers found that those who rotated their running shoes had 39% lower risk of getting injured during the study period compared to those who ran mainly in one pair of running shoes. The researchers suggested that different shoes distributed impact forces from running differently, lessening repetitive strain on the legs during running.

Depending on the shoe's midsole height and firmness, a person's stride length and ground reaction time also changes, affecting running gait although these factors (midsole densities, structure and geometry) need further research. Also in support of reducing injury due to varying loads, the researchers found that the runners who also cross trained had lower incidences of injury.

Well, all you shoe geeks can rejoice now that you have an excellent reason to convince your significant other, wife, husband or mum that you need another pair of running shoes.

Reference

Malisoux L, Ramesh J et al (2015). Can Parallel Use Of Different Running Shoes Decrease Running-related Injury Risk? Scand J Med Sci Sports. 25(1): 110-115. DOI: 1111/sms.12154.

*Picture by Ian Dennoir of shop window @ Carnaby Street Soho London from Flickr.com

I like!

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Kinesio Taping KT Level 1 on 111213

The year seems to have flown by, it's already eleven twelve thirteen and just enough time to fit in one final Kinesio Taping KT Level 1,2 course for 2013.

It's also the first time this course is held on a week day @Progress Healthcare. Previously it's always held over Saturday and Sunday.

Other than the local participants, we also have participants from Indonesia and Philippines who flew in for the course specially.

Here are some pictures from the course.

Guess who?
What's Bruno saying with his fingers?
Taping rhomboids
Reassessment after taping rhomboids

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Treat Your Chronic Neck Pain


Women keep saying that we men don't get it, well that's quite true in some cases. We've written before on why women get neck pain (take a look at the video too).

A sustained forward flexion (or poke chin) posture is associated with increased cervical (neck) compressive loading and creep response (or deformation) in the connective tissue.

Here's more evidence from Australian researchers that people with chronic neck pain demonstrated a reduced ability to keep an upright posture when distracted. This means you may start sitting in your office chair with a good posture but your posture deteriorates when you get distracted (e.g. when your boss calls you or when your workload piles up).

58 female subjects with greater than 3 months on chronic neck pain (and 10 control subjects with no pain) participated in the study. Changes in the participants' cervical and thoracic (neck and upper back) posture were measured every 2 minutes during a 10 minute computer task.They were then split in two different exercise groups.

One group received training of the cranio-cervical flexor muscles - picture below (CCF, for which renowned neck researcher Gwen Jull is known for) while the other group received endurance-strength training of the superficial cervical flexor muscles.
Longus Colli and longus Capitis (from Wikipedia)
The researchers showed that after an exercise program targeted at training the deep neck flexors (CCF), people with chronic neck pain demonstrated an improved ability to maintain a neutral neck posture with prolonged sitting.

So here's why you should come to either of our clinics if you have neck pain. Aized has trained under Gwen Jull and she can definitely help you with your neck pain.

Reference

Falla, D Jull G et al (2007). Effect Of Neck Exercise On Sitting Posture In Patients With Chronic Neck Pain. Physical Therapy 87(4) : pg 408-417.

* Thanks to Ming and Dew for helping me get the article.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Kids Who Are Fit Learn Better

Picture by linkway88 from flickr.com
Here's why, I posted it in our other blog, have a read right here.