Our prior posts have documented some of the research supporting the use of caffeine in both strength training and endurance events. Caffeine has many effects including increased alertness and decreased perception of pain and fatigue. These effects on the central nervous system allow an athlete to train harder and longer at a given intensity when...
Nutritional supplements are widely advertised with amazing health claims but few have been able to show true effects beyond placebo or control groups. In regards to strength training, two have been studied scientifically to draw conclusions on their effectiveness. Creatine has been shown to improve strength gains and muscle growth among users who are concurrently...
The benefits of proper hydration for human performance and recovery has long been established. Replacing fluid loss from metabolism, evaporation, and sweating can have a dramatic impact on performance in both team and endurance sports. As our workouts progress in duration and intensity our requirements for nutrition beyond water alone increase. Unfortunately, trying to train...
In our previous posts we discussed how patients and athletes can utilize strength training to both improve strength as well as their flexibility. Recent research continues to show strength training a muscle through its’ full range of motion is more effective than static stretching for flexibility gains. This research has refuted a commonly held belief...
The benefits of strength or resistance training are numerous including increased quality of life, reduce injury risk, and increased performance. In previous blog posts we have discussed the cross over effect where working one side of the body creates improved flexibility, strength, or balance on both sides of the body. If we view our...
All of us will undergo a progressive loss of muscle mass as we age called sacropenia. The key modifying variable is how quickly an individual loses this muscle mass over time. Previous research on resistance training has shown a significant reduction in the rate of this loss over time among both experienced and novice weight...
One of the most common questions we receive from patients in our Boulder Physical Therapy practice is “what should I perform first, cardio or strength training, or should they be on separate days?” This is a great question because most endurance athletes are concurrently performing high volume endurance exercise along with strength training each week....
Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world due to its’ caffeine content. Moderate caffeine consumption is currently being studied due to its’ potential impact on cognition, the aging process, and some cancers. In our field of Physical Therapy, caffeine has long been known as a performance enhancer based on its’ ability...
It seems there is not much eccentric exercises cannot do between healing injured tissue, improving mobility and strength, and now possibly contributing to muscle size. We have long known muscles gain the majority of their strength after training because of the eccentric or lowering portion of any lift. Athletes who skip or speed through this...
Photo Credit: Rollrecovery.com The warm up is an essential element of any strength and endurance training session. Starting your workouts with a proper warm up prepares your body for the upcoming demands of exercise, improves performance, and reduces your risk of injury. In prior decades, warm ups consisted of brief aerobic activities followed by static...