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5 Benefits of Training for Dynamic Balance

When we hear the word balance, we usually think of standing still on one leg or trying not to fall when walking on a slippery surface. While standing on one leg can certainly help improve static balance, maintaining control of a moving center of mass over a changing base of support is probably more relevant to many of life’s activities. This type of training is known as dynamic balance, and can help enhance skills that are relevant to a number of sports and activities of daily living. Dynamic balance training is also an effective way to help you achieve your fitness goals. 

Optimal balance is achieved when multiple sensory systems provide information about the body’s position as it moves over the ground. The eyes (visual), inner ear (vestibular) and skin (kinesthetic) contain numerous sensory receptors that provide important feedback to the central nervous system (CNS) about which muscles to activate and when. Maintaining static balance as the body remains in one position is relatively easy because you can concentrate on which muscles to contract to remain stable. However, many activities of daily living happen quickly, which means you have to rely on conscious thought to control which muscles to activate. 

Here are five reasons why it’s important to train dynamic balance and how adding it to your exercise program can produce results.

  • Training for dynamic balance could help you improve your running technique. The gait cycle, whether walking or running, requires the body to maintain control of its center of gravity as it changes position over a constantly moving base of support. During the gait cycle your body must maintain control of your center of gravity—usually found near the belly button—as you transition from one leg to the other. As your right foot hits the ground, the left leg prepares to swing forward; at the same time your left arm is swinging forward while your right arm is moving backward. The motion created by the swinging of the arms and legs results in a counter rotation between the upper back and pelvis to generate the momentum to move the body in a forward direction.
  • Dynamic balance training is an effective way to strengthen and tone the obliques and the muscles of the hips, thighs, glutes and low back. These muscles connect your hips to your pelvis and your pelvis to your spine. Increasing the strength of the core muscles can help improve your balance and coordination, while also improving your appearance.
  • Having good dynamic balance can help improve your coordination and ability to react to sudden changes of direction, both of which can help reduce the risk of an accidental fall. Controlling dynamic balance should be a reflexive response that happens automatically. If you feel that you don’t have good balance, it is extremely important that you do the work necessary to improve it.
  • Dynamic balance exercises can easily be added to the warm-up phase of a workout to prepare for lower-body strength training, a long run, an obstacle-course race, or for recreational sports such as tennis, basketball or soccer.
  • Dynamic balance exercises can be used as low-intensity recovery exercises between sets of high-intensity interval training or as a low-intensity bodyweight workout to help promote recovery the day after a challenging training session. These exercises can also be used on those days when you can’t make it to the gym, but still want to do something active. 

Adding balance exercises to your workouts can help improve your overall energy expenditure and enhance your ability to perform your favorite activities. Here are six dynamic balance exercises to help you improve coordination and strengthen your muscles. Try adding this program as a warm-up at least two times per week for four weeks and you will be surprised at the difference you will feel and see.

Via: www.acefitness.org

Benefits of a Dynamic Warm-up for Running

Given its simplicity and accessibility, running is an extremely popular method of exercise—all you need are a pair of running shoes, some appropriate clothing, a route to follow or access to a treadmill and you can start exercising. Want to maintain a healthy bodyweight? Running can do that. Want to improve your health or reduce stress? Running can do that. Want to test your fitness level or need some additional motivation to exercise? Register for a running race or event  and you’re set.

Of course, while running is easy, accessible and beneficial, you have to know how to do it properly so you can enjoy it for years. One of the ways you can help prepare your body to perform its best once you start running is to first perform a dynamic warm-up, which offers the following six benefits:

  • For many runners, a warm-up may consist of only a few stretches or some slow jogging before starting to move at a steady running pace. While this is better than nothing, it does not adequately prepare muscles for the forces experienced during a run. If you run regularly or are returning to running after taking some time off, avoid the risk of an injury and make your workouts as effective as possible with a dynamic warm-up.
  • Cold temperatures require a car’s engine to idle for a few minutes to allow it to warm up before driving. Warming up a car is a fitting analogy for the benefits of a dynamic warm-up; allowing a car’s engine to run for a few minutes ensures that oil is circulated through the engine to lubricate the pistons responsible for generating the power that makes the car go. Muscle, fascia and elastic connective tissues are more elastic at higher temperatures, which allows easier, unrestricted motion of the joints used in exercise. Taking the time to perform a complete dynamic warm-up, starting with slow movements before progressing to rapid, explosive exercises, allows blood to circulate to the working muscles. This also activates the central nervous system (CNS) so it functions more efficiently to control the muscles involved in running.
  • There are two general types of muscle fibers in your body: slow twitch and fast twitch. Slow-twitch fibers use oxygen to metabolize free fatty acids into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the chemical used for energy, via a process called lipolysis. Slow-twitch fibers are mostly involved with endurance activities such as running for distance. Conversely, fast-twitch fibers use carbohydrates (called glycogen once it is stored in muscle cells), either with or without oxygen, to produce ATP. Because they can generate more force than slow-twitch fibers, fast-twitch fibers are used when muscles need to produce greater amounts of force. Glycolysis, which is the process of metabolizing glycogen to ATP, takes less time than fatty acid oxidation; for this reason, it is the primary source of energy when running at a moderate-to-fast pace. The different movements of a dynamic warm-up helps facilitate glycolysis so that you can produce energy efficiently for your run.
  • Several hormones, including cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine (commonly called adrenaline because they are produced in the adrenal glands), are used to help metabolize fats and carbohydrates to ATP. The gradually increasing intensity of a dynamic warm-up allows the adrenal complex to produce these hormones so that you have the energy to fuel your run.
  • Reciprocal inhibition refers to the physiological action that occurs when the shortening or contracting of one muscle sends a signal to the muscle on the other side of a joint to lengthen. The controlled contractions of a dynamic warm-up apply reciprocal inhibition to allow muscles to lengthen and joints to lubricate to properly prepare for activity. In addition, joint capsules and ligament endings contain numerous sensory receptors that measure and identify pressure, movement and the rate of movement of their respective joints. Slow, controlled movements through a complete range of motion allows the nervous system to learn how to regulate the degrees of freedom, or amount of movement, allowed in each individual joint.
  • A byproduct of glycolysis is carbon dioxide, which causes your rate of breathing to increase because the lungs are trying to expire carbon dioxide while drawing in more oxygen to use for energy production. In addition, glycogen stored in muscle cells attaches to water. As glycogen is metabolized to ATP, it releases that water in the cells. Low-intensity body-weight exercises use free fatty acids for fuel; as the exercises of a dynamic warm-up become more intense, the working muscles gradually start using glycolysis to produce ATP. This causes your breathing to speed up and sweat to start appearing, which is a signal that your muscles are ready to go, the warm-up is over and it’s time to start running!

Whether you’re a longtime runner looking for a more effective way to train or you’re a beginning runner, the following dynamic warm-up will help make sure that every step you take counts. Note: These exercises are also very effective for an active recovery workout the day after a really hard training session, when your muscles are still sore and you want to move but you don’t want to overwork your body. In addition, they can also be used for a stand-alone mobility workout on those days when you might be dragging a little bit and want to work out but don’t want to push yourself too hard.

Via: www.acefitness.org

7 Benefits of HIIT for a Busy Schedule

To achieve substantial health benefits and to produce the results you want, exercise must be done frequently, with enough intensity, and for an appropriate length of time. For long-term results, however, you need to find a form of exercise that you enjoy and that will actually fit into your schedule. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) has become increasingly popular over the past decade or so because the workouts don’t require a lot of time and are extremely effective.

If you’re not yet convinced that you can fit regular exercise into your already overcrowded schedule, here are seven reasons HIIT workouts may be the answer you’ve been looking for:

  • The human body expends about 5 calories of energy to consume 1 liter of oxygen. When an activity uses multiple muscle groups at a high level of intensity, more oxygen is needed, and more calories are burned. HIIT workouts that involve both the upper and lower body can be particularly effective for those who want to lose or maintain weight.
  • HIIT primarily uses the anaerobic energy pathways, which run out of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the chemical muscle cells use for energy, rather quickly. So, not only do you use energy during the work interval, but during the recovery interval, muscle cells continue to produce and replace ATP for the next high intensity bout. Whether you are exercising your hardest or taking a few moments to catch your breath during an active recovery interval, your muscles are always working during a HIIT workout.
  • With HIIT, you will not only burn calories during the workout, but will continue to burn calories after the workout is over, making it an extremely effective use of your time. Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) is the term that describes how your metabolism continues to consume oxygen (and burn calories) for hours after a HIIT workout. Once you are finished with your workout, your muscles will continue to use oxygen, along with fat, to replace the ATP and repair the tissues damaged during the exercise.
  • When performed at the highest intensity possible, HIIT can support muscle growth with short workouts. HIIT produces a significant amount of metabolic byproducts, including inorganic phosphates, hydrogen ions and lactic acid, all of which help promote the increase of hormones such as insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) or growth hormone (GH) used to repair muscle proteins. This could, in turn, result in an increase in muscle size or definition without having to spend hours lifting weights.
  • A short HIIT workout not only makes it possible to burn calories and build muscles, but it could also have important benefits for your brain and cognitive performance. When compared to moderate-intensity, steady-state exercise, HIIT may be more effective at producing brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which are proteins that support the growth of new cells and blood vessels, respectively, in the brain.
  • Many health clubs, exercise studios and online fitness formats apply the science of HIIT to their group workout programs to create instructor-led formats that deliver an effective workout in 30 minutes or less. Logging on to an online HIIT workout or taking a HIIT class at your favorite fitness facility allows you to achieve these benefits with the guidance of a qualified instructor.
  • When it comes to HIIT, intensity is more important than time; performing a workout at the highest intensity possible allows you to get results in a relatively short amount of time. From start to finish, including both the warm-up and cool-down, most HIIT workouts can be done in less than 30 minutes, making them the go-to solution for when your schedule is out of your control.

While it’s always nice to have a long, stress-reducing workout session, there will be days when time really is a factor. For this reason, it’s nice to know that time-efficient workouts really do work and produce results.

Via: www.acefitness.org


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