Fitness Friday

Could Youth Football Be Putting Your Child At Risk For Health Issues Later In Life?

A recent study provides evidence that repeated hits to the head experienced in youth football may lead to detrimental health issues later in life.

The NFL has been under scrutiny over the past few years due to the discovery of a link between football players and CTE. Scrutiny of the league and their lack of action over the findings, and almost outright dismissal at times has only been made worse by a recent finding that out of 111 former NFL player brains, only one did not show signs of CTE. With these findings, many are able to draw the conclusion that football may not be good for the brain no matter what the age, but could football harm you more if you start earlier in life compared to later? Michael Alosoco, of Boston University's CTE Center, had the same question and looked at how the brain was affected in people who played football starting before the age of 12 and those who started playing after.

The study designed by Alasco asked 214 men (average age of 51 and 90% white) who had previously played high school, college, or pro football at every position except for quarterback, and didn't play any other organized sports. The researchers found that 55% of participants who played football before the age of 12 showed signs of behavioral problems, while just 43% of those who started after the age of 12 showed the same signs. Even more disturbing was the finding that 66% of those who played football before the age of 12 showed signs of depression, while only 44% of those who played after the age of 12 exhibited the same signs. While these findings of mental distress are alarming in both populations, the disparity between the group that played before the age of 12 and the group that started after the age of 12 is even more troubling. While this research provides evidence that younger children whose brains are still developing at an exponential pace are at an increased risk for CTW compared to those who start after the age of 12, more research on the subject is warranted.

Wellness Wednesday

Kicking Type-2 Diabetes Is As Easy As Losing Weight

A recent study conducted by Newcastle University has confirmed previous belief that a low-calorie diet can help get rid of Type-2 Diabetes.

There are currently 29.1 million people in the United States with the diagnosis of diabetes. With that number ever increasing, it is vital now more than ever to find a way to curb the increasing numbers to decrease the strain on our healthcare system. Professor Roy Taylor of Newcastle University in England has been studying diabetes for just under four decades, and his research has highlighted the following information about tye-2 diabetes:

• An excess intake of calories leads to a fat build up within the liver. This build-up of fat leads to an improper response to insulin and an uptick in glucose production.
• The excess in fat eventually leads to a build-up of fat in the pancreas, causing insulin-producing cells to fail. 
• This insulin-producing failure can be reversed by losing up to just one gram of fat in the pancreas, and the reversal of type-2 diabetes is reversible overall within 10 years of the onset of the condition. 

The professor's research confirms his Twin Cycle hypothesis, which states that the onset of diabetes is caused by a fat build-up in both the liver and pancreas. His study further showed that a vast reduction liver fat content resulted in the normalization of liver-insulin sensitivity within 7 days of the of the onset of a low-calorie diet that is adhered to. While this weight loss is vital in keeping type-2 diabetes at bay, continuing to keep the weight off is vital in maintaining not only a diabetes-free life but other health issues such as cardiovascular disease at bay as well.  

Are You Slowing Down Your Metabolism?

Your metabolism is a complex system and is affected by more things that just what you eat and how much you exercise. There are a number of things that could be playing a part in your metabolism that you may not even realize. 

• Inconsistent Meal Times
• When your meal times are inconsistent, you body gets into a mode where it does not know when the next meal is coming and goes into conservation mode. When this happens, food is put into storage instead of being used for fuel.
• Getting Too Little Sleep
• As with many other things, sleep affects your metabolism. When you do not get enough sleep, your hormones that control hunger get out of whack and increases your cravings for starchy, sugary and fatty foods. 
• Not Eating Enough
• Cutting too many calories can actually backfire when try to lose weight. If you drop your calories too low, your body gets put into starvation mode and slows down your metabolism and in turn, stores more fat. 
• Skipping Strength Training
• Simply put, the more active muscle tissue you have, the higher your metabolic rate will be. In order to achieve more active muscle tissue in your body, you  need to incorporate more strength training into your workout routine.
• Sitting Too Much
• Sitting for more than 20 minutes at a time puts your body in a relaxed, non-energy burning state. Working out for one hour a day does not constitute being able to sit for the remaining 23 hours. It has been shown that getting up and moving throughout the day helps spike your metabolism and keep your energy burning. 
• What you Drink
• Too little water or too much alcohol can affect your metabolism. all of your body's cellular functions rely on water, so be sure to drink enough water throughout the day. On the other hand, too much alcohol forces your liver to work harder on breaking down molecules and work less on burning fat. Not to mention, the calories in alcohol add up quickly and can cause weight gain. 
• Stress
• Stress is probably the number one factor affecting metabolism. It increases the production of cortisol, the hormone the increases appetite. In addition, stress slows digestion and affects our sleep, which in turn, affects metabolism as well.

Exercises for Runners to Prevent Knee Pain

Although running is great exercise and has many health benefits, it can also put a lot of strain on your knees. As reported by the British Journal of Sports Medicine, more than half of the injuries reported by runners are that of the knee; specifically, pain behind the knee cap. Many of these cases are often caused by tightness in the hamstrings, IT Band, quadriceps and hips. When one structure in your body is not functioning properly, it affects the surrounds structures. In this instance, poor flexibility in the lower extremity muscles has a detrimental effect on the knees. By performing the exercises below 2-3 times per week, you can help prevent or address pain that you are having in your knees.

• Fire Hydrant
• On all fours, lift your right knee directly to the side, keeping it flexed at 90 degrees. Bring it back to the original position, repeat 15 times and switch sides.
• Side Leg Lifts
• Lie on your right side with your legs straight and stacked on top of each other. You can rest your head on top of your right arm and put your left hand on your hip or on the ground to help balance your body. Lift the top leg straight up as far as is comfortable and lower back down. Repeat 10 times, and switch sides.
• Glute Bridges
• Lie on your back on the ground with your arms at your sides, knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Lift your backside off the ground until you form a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. Push your heels into the ground, and feel your glutes stabilizing your body. Hold for two seconds, lower your body back down and repeat 10 times.
• Clam Shells
• Lie on your right side with your knees bent on top of each other and your right arm under your head to support it. Keeping your feet together, open the clam shell by lifting your top knee up. While your hips will rotate during this exercise, your pelvis and core should remain stable. Close the clam shell, repeat 15 times and switch sides.
• Hip Abductions
• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart with a chair or sturdy post to the left of your body. Loop a resistance band around the chair or post and your right ankle. Keeping your leg straight, raise your right leg sideways as far as possible. Return to the original position, repeat 8–10 times and switch sides.
• Hip Flexor Stretch
• With your right knee on the ground, bring your left foot out in front of your body and bend that knee to a 90-degree angle. Slowly push your hips forward toward the left knee, feeling the stretch at the front of the hip. Hold for 20 seconds, switch legs and repeat 4 times on each side.
• Low Lunge
• Stand with your feet hip-width apart and step your left leg forward, bending at the knee and getting into low-lunge position. Your right leg should be extended straight behind your body. Lean down and put your fingertips on the ground on either side of your left foot. Hold for 10 seconds, return to the original position, repeat 2–3 times and switch sides.

Fitness Friday

Sitting Too Much Now Will Keep You In Your Seat Later

With computer time and binge watching TV shows at an all time high, being sedentary for too long is a legitimate health scare and problem. A recent study researched the long lasting effects that sedentary behavior has on older populations. 

Technology has been a blessing in so many ways, making much of our lives easier from being able to complete menial tasks at blazing speed, to being able to compute huge algorithms in a few seconds where it would've taken days to months before in the workplace. While it has made our lives much easier, it has made our lives possibly a little too easy while making our health a little worse-off. Our need to continue to sit at the computer for work and the lack of commercials in binge watching TV shows has led to an increase in sedentary lifestyles. Even light activities such as going to the store, or getting up to talk with co-workers have been replaced with online shopping and emailing. The researchers at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University have found looked into the relationship between the amount of sedentary time spent by a person and the likelihood that they would develop a walking disability later in life.

The researchers looked at two studies that encompassed people aged 50-71 years-old over a period of 8-10 years (mid-1990's to mid-2000's). The study asked how long people exercised and how long they were sedentary. The results found that people who were sedentary for five or more hours a day were at a 65% increased risk for developing a mobility disability at the end of the study, compared to those who were sedentary for 2 or fewer hours a day. With sedentary time most likely increasing since 2005 due to the mass increase in technology and subscriptions such as Netflix and Hulu that cut out commercials, getting up and exercising when possible is more important than ever.

Get Back on Track After Summer

Like most people, you summer probably included vacation, cookouts and other gathering where there was plenty of unhealthy food and drinks available and consumed. It is is to get off track during the summer time when there is so much going on and fun events that you are attending. However, fall is the perfect time to refocus on your health and get back on track with your diet and exercise. While it is unnecessary to do some sort of cleanse or restrictive diet, there are some simple things you can do to feel better and get back on track. 

• Cook your own meals
• Summer tends to include more going out to eat and eating at cookouts than the rest of the year. Once the fall season begins, focus more on making your own meals and limiting the meals you are eating out. 
• Eliminate refined, processed and packaged foods
• When you are constantly at cookouts or on vacation, the more you tend to eat desserts, chips, hot dogs, etc. So, now it is time to limit these sugary, processed foods and focus more on real, whole foods and increase you intake of fruits and vegetables. 
• Get Rid of Sugary Drinks
• Along with the not-so-good food options consumed during the summer, are the not-so-good drink options. When you go to cookouts and go on vacation you tend to drink more alcoholic beverages than normal, so now is the time to limit them to a normal level and only on occasion.
• Get Outside Instead of Watching TV
• This time of the year, the weather is cooling off, but it is not too cold yet. So enjoy these few nice months and get outdoors. Fall is the perfect time to go hiking, bike riding and running outdoors. 
• Make a Workout Schedule
• After skipping many workouts during the summer, now is the time to get back into a regular exercise routine. Try putting your workouts on your calendar, that way they are a part of your day and you are less likely to skip them.

Wellness Wednesday

Personalized Nutrition Has Gone to Poop

Researchers have discovered that the type of microflora found in our poop, assist in determining whether or not a new diet will help a person lose weight.

Perhaps the worst part of a diet isn't even sticking to it, but not getting the results we desire when we actually follow through with it. It doesn't seem fair that your friend, who barely stuck to the diet, lost a size or two while you're still stuck where you started. But what if it wasn't really you or your behavior that was responsible for the lack of weight loss, and it was actually an outsider who was determining whether or not your diets are a success? Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have found that the microflora in our gut may determine whether or not a diet is successful, and to test for that all they need is a stool sample. 

The new Nordic diet recommendations include a vast amount of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fiber, whereas the average Nordic diet is higher in some meats and other non-fiber foods. The study utilized 31 subjects who ate the new Nordic diet for 26 weeks and lost an average of 3.5kg, whereas the other group of 23 subjects lost an average of 1.7kg eating the average Nordic diet for the same amount of time. Stool samples were taken from the subjects after the trial and found that those with a high prevalence of Prevotella bacteria in comparison to those with a higher prevalence of Bacteroides bacteria lost an average of 3.5kg more on the new Nordic diet. Those with a lower proportion of Prevotellai did not lose any more significant weight. With these findings, the researchers hope to further experiment and explore the relationships between our microflora and the success fo specific diets. 

The Best Foods to Support Cognitive Function

Sometimes it is easy to forget many of the benefits that eating healthy foods  can give us. There is much more to nutrition than just eating to lose/maintain weight or support our exercise habits. One of the main things food can do for us is support our brains and cognitive function to help slow down or prevent neurological disorders like Dementia and Alzheimer's. The following foods provide the proper nutrients to support cognitive function.

• Fish
• The omega-3 fatty acids found in oily fish supports the prevention and protection against cognitive decline. Research has shown that eating just 1-2 meals per week that include oily fish is associated with less incidence of Dementia and Alzheimer's.
• Dark Leafy Vegetables
• In particular, Vitamin E and Vitamin B9 are found in foods such as spinach, kale, swiss chard, cabbage and broccoli. These vitamins have been found to support cognitive health and are better found in food versus supplementation. Try to include at least one serving of dark, leafy greens each day to get the most benefit from their nutrients. 
• Berries
• Specifically, blueberries and strawberries show the most benefit for cognitive health due to their component of flavonoids. Flavonoids are a diverse group of plant chemicals that are associated with a lower risk of Dementia. 
• Citrus Fruits
• Similar to berries, citrus fruits contain flavonoids known as hesperidin and narirutin that have shown results in boosted brain function.
• Dark Chocolate
• When it comes to dark chocolate having a benefit to brain health, make sure that it is at least 70% cacao, because the health benefits come from the cocoa flavonols.  Cocoa also contains small amounts of caffeine that have shown improvements in visual activity, working memory, attentiveness and response time. 
• Cruciferous Vegetables
• Foods such as brussel sprouts, broccoli and cabbage are all a part of this food group that contain sulforaphane that has shown to decrease inflammation in the brain that shows symptoms of depression. 
• Green Tea
• Similar to dark chocolate, the combination of green tea catechins, caffeine and the amino acid theanine, drinking this tea shows significant increase in calmness and relaxed attention. 
• Eggs
• Eggs provide the richest dietary source of choline, which is responsible for learning and memory. Higher dietary intake of choline is associated with better memory performance and reduced risk of neurodegenerative disease.

Intermittent Fasting

Have you ever heard of intermittent fasting (IF)? This is a type of eating style that became popular a few years ago and has stuck around in the health and fitness world. Intermittent fasting technically is an eating pattern that cycles between periods of fasting and eating. Different that most other diet or eating plans, IF doesn't focus much on what to eat as much as it focuses on when to eat. Most commonly, when following this eating pattern, each day consists of fasting for 16 hours, or fasting for 24 hours twice per week. 

Intermittent fasting has evolved into many different strategies and time frames, but always shifts between fasting and eating. During the fasting cycles, you eat little to nothing at all for a certain period of time. 

• The 16/8 Method
• This method involves skipping your breakfast and restricting your daily eating period to 8 hours per day, which leaves 16 hours of fasting. For example, if you follow this plan, you may only eat between 1:00 PM and 9:00 PM each day and fast all other hours. This method tends to be the most successful and popular due to its ability to be sustained. 
• Eat-Stop-Eat Method
• This method is simply fasting for an entire 24 hours, once or twice a week. 
• The 5:2 Diet
• On two, non-consecutive days of the week, only eat 500-600 calories the entire day. For the other 5 days of the week, eat normally. 

The most common reason people choose to adopt this style of eating is for weight loss. By eating fewer meals, typically that means your caloric intake will also decrease, which means you will lose weight almost immediately. However, in addition to weight loss, intermittent fasting can also help with insulin resistance, inflammation, heart health, cancer, brain health and anti-aging.

Fitness Friday

Dance Away the Brain Age

A new study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience open-access journal has found that dance improves memory retention and enhanced other anti-aging neurological effects more than endurance training does.

It has long been known that exercise in the older population can go a long way not just in regards to physical health, but mental health as well. Its beneficial effect on the hippocampus, a region that has direct control of learning, balance and memory retention, is essential when attempting to maintain an active and independent lifestyle. A recent study conducted and published in the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience journal studied the difference in the effects of endurance exercise on the hippocampus in an older population. Elderly volunteers with an average age of 68 years old were assigned to one of two groups over an 18-month time-span. The first group was assigned to dancing lessons, while the other group was assigned to endurance and flexibility training. 

When the groups were finished with their assigned programs at the end of the 18-month time-span, they found that both activities improved hippocampus productivity, however, only dancing produced a significant difference in behavior. The reason for this difference is most likely due to the various dance routines that the couples had to complete, whereas the endurance group only completed exercises on an elliptical or treadmill. This difference in routines for dancing most likely increase memory retention, balance, and recall, making the hippocampus work more than the endurance group. While more research is warranted to confirm the difference in this area, the data presented is very promising.

Reducing Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression

While we have all heard or read that exercise is great for our mental health and can help manage or prevent anxiety and depression, there are also certain guidelines to follow the will help improve your mental and emotional health through exercise. 

• Get Outside
• It only takes 5 minutes of outdoor activity to boost your mood and self-esteem. Exercising outdoors can also lower tension and anger as well as absorb vitamin-D, which is important and managing depressive symptoms. 
• Find a Community
• Exercising with friends or others with the same common goal as you helps you to feel supported and be around positivity, which helps with your mental health. 
• Do the Talk Test
• Despite what you hear, exercise does not have to be strenuous to benefit your mental health. Moderate-intensity activity is actually the most beneficial for mental health. So, when exercising, if you can talk in short sentences, but not sing a song, then you are probably working at the right intensity to best benefit your mind and emotions. 
• Create Functional Goals
• Try to create goals that will enhance your self-efficacy and your confidence i yourself and your exercise abilities. Rather than making goals to lose weight or body fat, focus more on things such as doing your first pull-up, or increasing the weight on your squat. 
• Avoid Situations That Leave you in a Negative Mood
• When it comes to the media, trainers and fitness professional boast about perfect bodies, perfect workouts and the perfect diets. However, this is not realistic and may cause you to think negatively about your own life. Choose to unfollow these types of sites and follow body-positive and health-minded sites and professionals instead. 
• Thank your Body
• At the end of the day, no matter where you are in your fitness journey, be grateful that your body has the ability to move and exercise the way you like. Don't put so much pressure on yourself if you didn't have the best workout or reach your goal as quickly as yo would've liked, just be thankful you are able to workout to begin with!

Wellness Wednesday

Could Women Be Genetically Predispositioned To Be Less Likely to Change Their Dietary Habits When Exercising Than Men?

According to a recent study conducted by the University of Missouri-Columbia, genetic predisposition may be behind a lack of change in poor dietary habits in women who exercise compared to men who exercise. 

       The obesity epidemic in America is continually worsening, with 90% of Americans admitting to not reaching the set recommended daily amount of time for exercise. However, for those who do exercise, they still may be having trouble losing weight. A new study conducted by the University of Missouri-Columbia has conducted an experiment using male and female rats delves into the reason behind why some people lose weight when exercising and others don't. The answer they found lies in changes in dietary habits that are accompanied by an increase in exercise. 

       The experiment was designed by splitting the male and female rats into two groups; one group that exercised and one group that did not. The rats were fed the same diet for a week and were then fed an option of three diets for the next four weeks: high fat, high sucrose, and high corn-starch diet. After four weeks with access to all three dietary plans, the researchers found that the sedentary male and female rats preferred the high-fat diet, the male rats who exercised ate half as much of the high-fat diet compared to their sedentary male counterparts and preferred much more of the other two options. The female rats who exercised, however, preferred the high-fat diet AND consumed more calories than their female sedentary counterparts. There is much more research warranted concerning the choice in a diet for women when exercising compared to men, however, this experiment noted that the female rats had a higher threshold for rewards, making running perhaps more satiating for males than females. This notion would put females at a higher risk for obesity due to an increased difficulty in changing dietary habits compared to males. 

Productive Rest Days

As we have talked about before, taking the proper amount of rest days and allowing your body to recover is a critical part of your exercise routine and reaching your fitness goals. However, spending your rest days wisely is also a good idea. Taking the time to rest, yet still move your body will help you recover while still keeping your muscles loose and flexible and working out any soreness that your previous workout days may have caused. Active rest days help to speed up the delivery of nutrients to your muscles that are being repaired by increased blood flow in the body. When choosing which activities to incorporate into an active rest day, be sure to choose something that will get your heart rate up, but will not drive you into total fatigue. 

• Low Impact
• This will include activities like walking, swimming, paddle boarding (if the weather allows), rowing, go for a long bike ride or even a light jog on the elliptical. 
• Activities that Boost Mental Health
• While all types of exercise will help your stress levels, there are certain forms of exercise that are better for calming your mind and are especially better for your mental health.
• Yoga, hiking, canoeing and dance are all different forms of movement and exercise that will help boost your mood and improve your mental health. 
• Self-myofascial release
• Also known as foam rolling, this is a great way to make use of a rest day and help recover your muscles faster and more efficiently. Self-myofascial release helps to relax your muscles, reduce soreness and improve tissue recovery, improve range of motion and decrease inflammation. 

Core Exercises to Prevent Injury

Having a strong core is one of the most important things we can focus on during our exercise routine and daily living activities. The core is the center of your body and supports all of your most important muscles in the body. Having a strong core helps with balance, everyday activities, injury prevention and so much more. While a variety of strength training and core exercises can help build a strong core, the American Council on Exercise recommends the 5 exercises below  for some of the most effective core strengthening exercises.

• Bicycle Crunch
• Lie flat on the floor with your lower back pressed to the ground. Put your hands beside your head.
  Touch your left elbow to your right knee, then your right elbow to your left knee. 
• Bring knees up to about 45-degree angle and slowly go through a bicycle pedal motion.
• Captain's Chair
• Stabilize your upper body by gripping the hand holds and lightly pressing your lower back against the back pad. 
• Slowly lift your knees in toward your chest. The motion should be controlled and deliberate as you bring the knees up and return them back to the starting position.
• Stability Ball Crunch
• Sit on the ball with your feet flat on the floor. Let the ball roll back slowly. Now lie back on the ball until your thighs and torso are parallel with the floor. Cross your arms over your chest and slightly tuck your chin in toward your chest.
  
  To challenge the obliques, make the exercise less stable by moving your feet closer together.
• Vertical Leg Crunch

• Lie flat on the floor with your lower back pressed to the ground. Put your hands behind your head for support. Extend your legs straight up in the air, crossed at the ankles with a slight bend in the knee. 

• Reverse Crunch
• Lie flat on the floor with your lower back pressed to the ground. Put your hands beside your head or extend them out flat to your sides.
• Crossing your feet at the ankles, lift your feet off the ground to the point where your knees create a 90-degree angle.
• Once in this position, press your lower back on the floor as you contract your abdominal muscles. Your hips will slightly rotate and your legs will reach toward the ceiling with each contraction. Exhale as you contract; inhale as you return to the starting position.
  
  

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Fitness Friday

Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Inhibit Muscle Growth

A study conducted by the Karolinska Institutet has found a link between long-term use of over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs and inhibited muscle growth.

Anti-inflammatory drugs have become a common occurrence in modern over-the-counter culture. This chronic availability has led to some overuse, due to many turning to drugs instead of exercise, stretching, physical therapy, or other treatment. This chronic use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) has led a research group at Karolinska Institutet to study the effects that the drugs have on muscle growth. The researchers put together a group of healthy males, ages 18-35, and randomly assigned them to two groups. The first group was given a relatively high dose of NSAID (1200mg ibuprofen) and the second group was given a relatively low dose (75mg acetylsalicylic acid) every day for eight weeks. Both groups also took part in supervised weight training focused on the quadriceps 2-3 times per week for eight weeks. 

After the eight weeks, the researchers measured variables that included muscle growth, muscle strength, and anti-inflammatory markers in the quadriceps through processes that included MR imaging. The study found that the muscle growth was twice as large in the group whose dose of NSAID was low compared to the group whose dose was high. This results of this study are important because many young athletes who weight train take NSAIDs to deal with pain while weight training. Armed with new knowledge of the long-term effects of NSAIDs on muscle growth, researchers recommend lowering doses of NSAIDs when trying the improve muscle growth in the gym.

Active Children Make Active Adults

While this may seem obvious, keeping your children physically active is crucial in setting them up for healthy and active futures. However, a lot of times, parents are not allowing their children to be physically active everyday. Not because they do not want to, but because they do not know how important it is, or do not know what things to do to keep their children active. In making your children more active, you are setting them up to be confident, strong, happy, good sleepers, better students and better able to get along with other children. 

Raising active children starts when they are babies, which will make it easier to maintain throughout their childhood and the rest of their lives. Start by engaging them in floor play and encouraging them to be active and move while they are still babies. When they get to be toddlers, try encouraging them to move and be active for about 3 hours per day. This should include things like running, jumping, climbing and dancing. Including physical activity in a toddler does not have to be organized activity, just playful movement throughout they day so that they are having fun, but moving at the same time. 

As your children hits school age and begins sitting more by being in the classroom, it is even more important to get them moving at home. However, physical activity at this age doesn't have to be a sport! Some children do not enjoy playing organized sports, and that is OK. You can do things as simple as a family walk around the neighborhood, going to the playground, playing ball with the dog or playing hide-and-seek at home. 

So, at the end of the day, the most important thing is that your children are being active, in whatever way they enjoy. That doesn't mean your child needs to be on every sports team there is, it just simply means they need to move more than the time they are spending on the computer or watching TV.

Wellness Wednesday

Check Out Our First Episode of Our Podcast PT Perspective!!!

Be sure to check out our monthly podcast where we cover a muscle and muscle group and related sports injuries to that specific area.

Our podcast has arrived! This month's podcast covers the lattisimus dorsi and how to avoid injuries to that specific muscle and muscle region through a series of strengthening and stretching exercises covered. We talk to Tim Russell PTA,CSCS about how the Mets baseball organization could possibly change their strength and conditioning protocol in order to avoid further lat injuries to their star pitching staff. We also delve into a case study with Chad Blomquist DPT that covers how lat injuries can even affect elite olympic sprinters, and how the lats are vital in long distance running as well. This 30 minute podcast covers just about everything you didn't know, and need to know, about the lats and how to avoid injuring them in sport-specific depth. Links for the podcast can be found here:

• iTunes
• Soundcloud
• GooglePlay

The video below is the supplement to our podcast and covers a quick, but in depth, overview of the lats including their function in the cardinal planes along with their anatomical positioning as well 

Healthy Living Tips From a Registered Dietitian

Hearing food and diet tips and tricks is often very difficult because you tend to hear so many different things. There is always new trends and diets out there that claim to be the next best thing. However, your diet does not need to be that difficult and it is not about following a specific diet plan in order to reach your health goals. Below are some helpful, simple tips about your diet from a registered dietitian who makes things easy to follow and doesn't try to preach about the newest trends in the health and wellness field, but preaches that eating for overall health should not be defined by rules and "good" and "bad" foods.

• Eat Based on your Hunger Cues
• Increase your awareness to when your body is truly hungry and listening to those hunger cues. Doing this will help prevent overeating, emotional eating and eating out of boredom. While increasing your awareness to your body and hunger cues, you may also start to notice how certain foods make you feel after you eat them. This will help to truly understand your body, and be in tune with how it feels and what makes it feel good and what makes it feel not so good. Eat slow, listen to your body when it is full and drink water with your meals. Incorporating all of these into your life will allow you to understand your body and feed it needs to be fed and not eat due to emotional reasons or boredom. 
• Eat Whole Foods for Optimum Nutrition
• Rather than wasting money on supplements, diet products and processed foods, buy real, whole foods as a way to create a lasting, healthy lifestyle. Avoid foods with ingredients you can't pronounce, stick to the outside of the grocery store (meats, produce and dairy) and replace sodas with seltzer water. If you stick to this, there is no reason to buy into a diet or need to buy a ton of supplements to be healthy. Simply eat whole, real, unprocessed foods, and the results will come. 
• Eat a Balanced Diet
• The best way to make sure you are doing this is to eat nutrient-dense foods that include all macronutrients (carbs, fat and protein), eat a colorful diet and avoid fat-free products (often include added sugar and other ingredients). Eating a balanced diet also includes enjoying your favorite treats! Just because you enjoy your favorite dessert or glass of wine every once in a while, doesn't mean you can't have a healthy diet and healthy life. 
• Be Smart When Dining Out 
• When dining out, restaurants often use the cheapest (and most unhealthy) ingredients to cook and prepare their foods. So, eating out should be saved fore special occasions and should not be an everyday occurrence. Additionally, be cautious of the foods you are ordering and be sure that they are not fried, creamy or battered, but instead, look for sauteed, broiled, baked or steamed.

Fitness Friday

The Science Behind Fitness Fashion

Researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology have further determined why some smart fitness devices fail on the open market and why others thrive.

In a market saturated with fitness devices, it's only natural that some devices fail while others are extremely successful. Devices such as the Fitbit and Apple Watch have done extremely well, while other fitness devices such as Under Armour's smart watch haven't done quite as well as their competitors. Because of the enormous cost that goes into making these devices, marketing teams spend a vast amount of time making sure that the device fits the popular aesthetic and technology trends of the release period. Researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology had the same questions as those marketing teams and tried to figure out what makes certain devices so appealing. The team studied what features and attributes of the Google Glasses and Sony Smartwatch were appealing to some and unappealing to others. 

The researchers used two groups (one made up of staff and the other made up of university students) and found what the different groups liked about the devices and what they didn't. Common attributes that both groups looked for in the devices were the device's look and feel, brand value, and common attribute values such as image and cost. The researchers ultimately concluded that fashion, privacy aesthetics, and look and feel need to be taken into consideration when designing and marketing the products. Understanding these factors in a targeted demographic will ultimately help spur a successful launch of a smart product.