A Quick Breakfast Boost – Vanilla Frosting!

Let’s face it, breakfast is a pretty tough meal to get in your three essential elements of good nutrition…protein, produce and water.

I love eggs and they are a fantastic source of protein, and omelets are pretty quick and easy to make, but even I like to change it up once in awhile.

Here’s a quick tip to up your protein that is fast as lighting and goes fantastic on top of a bowl of hot cereal.

“Vanilla Frosting”

Just mix 1/4 cup of plain yogurt with 1 scoop of vanilla UMP (Ultimate Muscle Protein – In Stock Now 🙂 – if you need to, add a little water until the mixture is a little thinner than cake frosting consistency.

Spoon it on top of your oatmeal in the morning – it adds great flavor and about 22 grams of lean protein to your breakfast!

Here’s a recipe from “Gourmet Nutrition” that uses “vanilla frosting” on top – it’s one of my favorites – enjoy!

Orangealicious Oatmeal
½ cup water
½ cup orange juice
½ cup oatmeal
½ orange, cut into small pieces
1 Tablespoon flaxseed
¼ cup plain yogurt
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (UMP is delicious)

In a small pot bring water and orange juice to a boil. Add the oats. Reduce heat to low, cook for 7 minutes until liquid is absorbed. Stir frequently. Remove from heat. Add oranges and flaxseed. Combine yogurt with protein powder, pour mixture over oatmeal and serve.

Dean

I Have A Beef With This Beef

So I was shopping the other day……

I often stop at The Healthy Buffalo to pick up venison and buffalo, but I thought I would check out what the local grocery store had for healthy meats. I found a great selection of wild caught seafood at Market Basket. It was there that I found a new label. I was perusing the meat isle trying to find if they had free range beef.

I found a fascinating label instead. It read “Only Vegetarian Fed”.

This label was on a package of beef, and the label proudly proclaimed the benefits of (and charging extra for) making sure this cow was only fed vegetables.

Is this some incredible new development? Are we heralding the dawn of better beef?

Not so much.

This product was what food companies used to (and some still do) call “corn fed beef”, which was supposed to be the best possible beef on the planet. Richly marbled, tender and flavorful.

Here’s the rub – cows don’t eat corn, or at least they weren’t designed to eat corn.

Cows are herbivores – grass eaters, and when you feed them corn, all sorts of nasty things happen. As in – corn makes cows sick.

And that is turning out to be a bit of a PR problem for beef growers, at least in some circles.

Documentaries such as “Food, Inc.”, and books such as Michael Pollans “In Defense of Food” have revealed the costs – to the environment, the farmer, and the consumer – of feeding cattle an unnatural diet.

As vegetarian diets grows in popularity (not with me, but with many), it is only logical that we start seeing labels such as “Only Vegetarian Fed” start popping up.

While it may seem like a small thing to some, there is a big difference between “Only Vegetarian Fed” and “Grass Fed” beef.

Vegetarian fed beef is not the same as grass fed. Corn and Soy are vegetarian feeds, and very common in most beef production. Most organic and natural beef are finished with grain, so it’s important not to confuse these two types with grass fed.

In fact for a product to say grass fed it has to meet specific criteria.

Grass fed beef definition (USDA): grass and/or forage shall be the feed source consumed for the lifetime of the ruminant animal, with the exception of milk consumed prior to weaning. The diet shall be derived solely from forage and animals cannot be fed grain or grain by-products and must have continuous access to pasture during the growing season.

So what’s the big whoop, why is grass fed a better beef?

• Less calories: A 6oz steak from a grass fed cow has almost 100 fewer calories than a 6oz steak from grain fed cattle.
• More healthy EFA’s: Science suggests that people with a diet that has an Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio of over 4:1 have more health problems. Grain fed beef can have ratios that exceed 20:1, while grass fed is around 3:1.
• More CLA: Conjugated Lineolic Acid is thought to be a potent cancer fighter.
• More Vitamins A & E: Up to 400% more then grain fed.

Pretty powerful reasons to get some grass fed in your diet.

Getting back to the labels, there were three I noticed that day.

• The regular label without any special considerations.
• A label that said no antibiotics or growth hormones – better than the first, but still corn and soy fed, and more expensive.
• Finally the most expensive label said no antibiotics, no growth hormones, and only vegetarian fed.

Here’s my ideal label (which doesn’t exist yet):

No antibiotics, no growth hormones, and grass fed

Maybe someday…

Is grass fed more expensive? No doubt about it, pound for pound off the shelf it is.

But don’t be “all or nothing”. Start by using grass fed for one meal a week, and build from there. Realistically most of us eat too much beef (and too many calories) anyway, so if the cost considerations cause us to cut back a little, that’s probably not a bad thing.

Here’s to reading (and understanding labels) and making better choices everyday!

Coach Nancy

Get Fit NH Bootcamp Testimonial: Helen Dutton

Helen has done an amazing job recovering from a torn ACL (non-bootcamp related, an extremely freak accident), and I appreciate her gracious testimonial. While injury prevention is of primary concern, we don’t live in a perfect world and things happen. It is amazing what can be achieved with perseverance and a plan – Great Work Helen!

Dean Carlson
Cr8 Health and Fitness
167 New Orchard Road
Epsom, NH 03234

September 21, 2010

Dear Dean:

Yahoo! I am, officially, no longer a patient of Concord Orthopaedics!

As you know, I tore my ACL in February. The initial recommendation was surgery, followed by a six-month rehabilitation period – not something I wanted in my life. Once the surgeon at Concord Orthopaedics saw me, though, he thought my existing strength, immediate physical therapy, and on-going strength training might be able to pull me through without surgery. An ACL cannot be repaired without surgery; the choice is to compensate, primarily through strong quadriceps and hamstrings. I was willing to give it a try.

Our boot camp workouts allowed me to cut the number of physical therapy appointments by 50% and more. My physical therapist was very impressed with your attentiveness, the precautions you made me take, and the workout modifications you created. On one occasion, she told me that she had “complete confidence” in your support of my rehabilitation.

Yesterday, I had my last appointment with the orthopedic surgeon. As he physically assessed my knee and asked me questions, he kept shaking his head as if to say “I can’t believe it.” He chuckled a couple of times, too, in obvious delight over what I had accomplished. Honestly, I wish you could have been there – you were a crucial part of that success.

Thanks to you and the boot camp regime, I am cleared for trying just about anything I want (okay, okay – within reason. Promise.). I am grateful for your careful attention to my injury rehab and will continue to recommend you to family, friends, and colleagues.

Best regards,

Helen Dutton

Cc: BNI Members and Guests and Get Fit NH Boot Camp Clients

But I Don’t Want To Look Like A Man!

Ladies, it’s time to get real!

Guys, you aren’t off the hook either, because most of this applies to you as well, so keep reading!

Here’s the bottom line: If you want to lose weight, gain definition and that lean, healthy look – you have to strength train.

Not with pansy pink dumbbells either. You have got to move some serious weight. And then you gotta move some more. Full range of motion, maximum effort repetitions need to be a part of your training program. Settling for 25 lbs when you can use 35 isn’t going to cut it. Grabbing the black band when you can push purple means you are just cutting yourself short.

Not so fast, you say. Won’t all that heavy weight lifting make me bulky?

Well the wise guy in me says “give it a try for a couple months, because getting bulky isn’t your problem”.

But seriously – why is hitting the weights hard so important?

Because resistance exercise, also known as strength training, is the only form of exercise scientifically proven to preserve muscle mass while on a calorie restricted diet, meaning one in which total calorie intake is low enough to elicit fat loss.

We have all heard of “yo-yo” dieting. You go on a “diet”, lose a bunch of weight, feel good about yourself, start to eat more “normally”, and gain at least all the weight back, usually even more.

Why does that happen?

Because the focus was on “losing weight”, not fat. As long as the scale went down, you were happy. What you probably didn’t realize is that along with bodyfat, you were also losing your metabolic engine – the lean tissue we call muscle.

And that’s bad.

One important note is that we also lose lean muscle as we age, on average about 5 lbs per decade between the ages of 25 and 65. Research shows people lose an average of 2-4% in their resting metabolic rate per decade in that same age range. That means if you needed 1500 calories per day at age 25 to maintain base level functioning, by the time you are 55 you would only need 1200. Even if you eat the same amount of calories over that time period, you are going to gain bodyfat. We hear it all the time. “It seemed like when I turned 40 I started packing on the pounds”. But it’s a “chicken or egg” question. Does our RMR go down just because we are getting older, or does it go down as we age because we are inactive and don’t do anything to preserve it? Research suggests the latter is correct.

But there is good news on both fronts – You can maintain lean muscle during “dieting” and the natural process of aging.

Strength training is the key!

There are some very revealing studies that compare the effects of diet, aerobics and weight training on weight loss and body composition.

The one I find most amazing is this one:

Subjects were put in two groups, both on an 800 calorie liquid diet. Note this was medically supervised study – don’t try this at home.

The first group did 4 hours of aerobics per week.

The second performed resistance training. 2-4 sets, 8-15 reps, 10 exercises, 3 times a week.

VO2 Max (the measure of aerobic output) increased equally in both groups.

The resistance training group lost significantly more fat and did not lose any lean body mass (muscle), even eating only 800 calories a day.

The resistance training group actually increased their metabolic rate, while the aerobic group decreased theirs.

Bryner RW, Ullrich IH, Sauers J, Donley D, Hornsby G, Kolar M, Yeater R. – Effects of resistance vs. aerobic training combined with an 800 calorie liquid diet on lean body mass and resting metabolic rate. J Am Coll Nutr. 1999 Apr;18(2):115-21

I find many things interesting about the study, but a couple really stick out:

1. This study shows that you don’t need to do steady state aerobics to increase aerobic capacity.
2. The study also revealed that as long as you strength train, you can keep your metabolic engine revved up, even on very low calories.

Here’s another interesting tidbit that I hope will put a final nail in the “you have to do tons of aerobics to lose weight” coffin. While this study was done using male subjects, there is no evidence that the same does not apply to females as well.

Subjects were broken into three groups: Diet Only, Diet Plus Aerobics, Diet Plus Aerobics Plus Resistance Training.

Diet only group lost 14.6 pounds of fat in 12 weeks

Diet plus aerobics group trained 3 times per week, starting at 30 minutes per day and progressing to 50 minutes per day over the 12 weeks). They lost a grand total of one more pound (15.6 lbs) than the Diet Only group!

The Resistance Training group lost 21.1 pounds of fat, which is 44% more than the diet only and 35% more than the diet and aerobics group.

Kramer, Volek et. al. – Influence of exercise training on physiological and performance changes with weight loss in men. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol 31, No. 9, pp.1320-1329, 1999.

Seriously, if I was only going to lose 1 more pound over 12 weeks, does it really make sense to focus on aerobics?

Didn’t think so!

Here is another very important point for the ladies.

It is hard work to gain lean muscle. You must continually challenge the body through progressive strength training. But that doesn’t mean you are going to wind up with arms like Arnold Schwarzenneger. In general women do not have the hormonal makeup to gain large amounts of muscle. That’s why you can see someone like Nancy use relatively heavy weights for her size, have a lean and sculpted look, and still be small. Female genetics allow her to be strong without excess bulk.

She is also a product of the way we train. While it is true that some female strength athletes have larger muscles than some find desirable, the way they train, low reps and low volume for example, are more likely to produce that result. Our training methods enable both men and women to build lean muscle – the guys will gain more size because of their hormonal profile, while the women will achieve the long, lean and toned look most are seeking to achieve because of theirs.

We train the way we do for a reason, because the science backs it up and the empirical evidence is walking around our gyms every day – it works!

Let’s sum it up:

• The optimal result of training for weight loss is to preserve (or gain – a subject for another time) lean muscle mass while losing bodyfat.
• The only proven way for this to happen while in a calorie deficit is to strength train.
• Progressive resistance and proper recovery is necessary for continued progress over time. You must continually challenge the muscles and then allow them to recuperate. Picking up 5 pound dumbbells month after month is not going to cut it!

So don’t be surprised or offended when your coach challenges you to increase your loading. We won’t ask you to do more than you are capable of, and we won’t ask you all the time. Loading is just one of the many training parameters that we can and manipulate in order to ensure progress, but it is an important one.

Ultimately you are in control of the progress you are making. Proper nutrition, hard work in the gym and optimal recovery = maximum results.

Now let’s get after it and Make It Happen!

What’s In A Name?

The Bible talk about a good name being more desirable than great riches – it is something to be treasured and preserved.

Our name, Get Fit NH Bootcamp is pretty plain Jane – I admit. Not very flashy, probably not going to win any “business name of the year” awards.

However you have to go a bit below the surface to understand it – it’s not quite as simple as it looks.

Here’s what each word in our name signifies:

Get: Achieve, Earn, Acquire as a result of Action or Effort. You want it? You have to work for it!

Fit: Fitness is many things to many different people.

Fit to do what?

For some people it is competing in triathlons, for others it is squatting 500 pounds, for others it is taking 3 flights of stairs without getting winded. You know what – that’s ok. Not everyone has to “fit” into a neat little box.

Fitness from a physical preparation standpoint can be defined in many different ways. In his book “Foundations of Physical Preparation” Ian King teaches the four dominant physical qualities: Flexibility, Strength, Speed and Endurance, each of which can be broken down in multiple ways. To those four qualities can be added additional skills, among them coordination, agility and balance.

An interesting thought is that “fitness” and “wellness” are not the same thing. You have probably heard stories of very “fit” people dropping dead of heart attacks while training. The ability to exhibit physical qualities and skills do not necessarily mean that wellness has been achieved. Measurements such as blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and bodyfat % will help us evaluate whether fitness and wellness are being achieved. Make no mistake, regular hard exercise is crucial to achieving both, but to that we must consider lifestyle and stress management, as well as our nutrition. It requires a holistic approach to achieve high levels of fitness.

Our programs are purposefully and carefully designed by us to give you what you need not only to achieve fitness, but wellness.

NH: Probably don’t need to say much here, because NH rocks! Seriously thought, while we have helped train numerous out of state clients, and serve as consultants to many fitness professionals in the U.S., our bootcamp programs are based and focus on residents of the Granite State.

Bootcamp: This part of our name might be the most confusing of all. What is “bootcamp” anyway? To be honest, I wish I could give you an across the board definition, but there really isn’t one. Some bootcamps really are “military” style classes, with barking instructors and your face in the dirt. Others are based on bodyweight and calisthenics, and get stale pretty quick. We have the privilege of meeting a couple times of year with other fitness pros from across the country that run very good programs, but make no mistake, all fitness bootcamps are not created equal. The vast majority I see have one goal – beat you into the ground until you beg for mercy – not conducive to long term fitness or wellness. While many programs are popping up that call themselves “bootcamp”, I urge caution when selecting a program.

So why  do we call ourselves a bootcamp, if there is so much difference? Well to be frank we were a bootcamp before bootcamps were cool. We had the great privilege of working with some great trainers down in Mass. who introduced us to their concept of bootcamp, and we have refined that initial concept to a program that as far as I know is unique in the industry.

From a physical preparation standpoint our injury prevention protocol and emphasis on flexibility and muscle tissue quality are the foundation of our program. If you are injured you can’t train effectively, simple as that. Each week in a training cycle (8-12 weeks) is carefully built on the one before it, coaching the skills required to safely and effectively train with continued progression. The ability of our coaches to adapt and progress or regress a skill based on ability and appropriateness is another hallmark of the program – group training is transformed into group personal training – a significant difference not to be overlooked.

As members of the Precision Nutrition Network and with Dean being the only trainer in NH to be a certified PN Coach, we also are able to offer unparalleled nutrition coaching to our members.

We are also privileged to have an amazing network of health care providers that help our members achieve total fitness and wellness.  Through our Strategic Health Partner Dr. Laura Jones, our members can get their bloodwork tested and evaluated. Dr. Jones is skilled the diagnosis and treatment of insulin resistance, thyroid and adrenal fatigue, and other metabolic disorders. Dr. Brett Coapland is an accomplished triathlete, and one of three practitioners licensed in NH for Active Release. Drs. Paul Malloy and Melissa Savicky have helped many of our members who came to us with health challenges get relief with their expert chiropractic care. Amy Troy and her staff at Chichester Massage have been instrumental in educating us to the many benefits of therapeutic massage. Having these professionals on the team is a valuable resource that we can collaborate with on behalf of our members.

My point is that you owe it to yourself to investigate any fitness program you are considering joining, and we certainly invite to look closely at ours. While we will freely admit we are not for everybody, we have helped hundreds of clients from 16 to 69 achieve levels of fitness they never dreamed possible. Odds are you can achieve those results with us too.

The Get Fit NH Bootcamp difference – It’s In Our Name!

Who Is On Your Team?

Enough is enough – You are ready to make a change!

You have finally decided that you are going to start eating healthier, exercising and lose that extra weight that’s been bugging you.

So you pick up the latest diet book  and slap down some hard earned cash on a gym membership. You even schedule your workouts on the calendar. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, after work.

You are ready to get after it!

That first Monday night at the gym feels great – you did it! All is going as planned.

Wednesday rolls around and you are pretty sore. You decide you need some extra rest – you’ll hit it again on Friday.

Friday is here, your clothes are packed and you are good to go. But at lunchtime your (insert here…boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, pet gerbil) calls you up and want to take you to dinner. He’s not quite sure about this new gym thing. I mean it’s taking time away from him and besides, he loves you just the way you are. Not to mention it has been a long week, and you are pretty tired from working. Dinner it is then!

Suddenly the plan isn’t so solid after all, is it?

What happened?

In short, you didn’t have one critical factor in place that social scientists have told us may be the most important factor in achieving your goals:

You didn’t have the optimal social support – you didn’t have a Team!

At Get Fit NH Bootcamp, we know how crucial it is to have the support you need to reach your goals.

It’s one of the many things that make us different from the many other options out there.

In fact, I can’t imagine a better place to train hard, laugh out loud, tell stories, and get a lot of work done.

Our members don’t come to a class perform their reps and go home.

The team works together.

At times, that means we partner up during training while other days we divide the class for some fun competition. Even when we work individually through the training for that day, shouts of encouragement can be heard from one side of the room to the other. Each person wants the other to succeed.

Friendships are developed with each other, camaraderie is forged through hard work. It’s the beauty of a group of people with a focused purpose – to get better.

Many people at Get Fit NH Bootcamp have similar struggles and desperately want to reach their goals. Research show that goals are reached far more often and quicker with accountability rather than trying to do it on your own. Each member of the team encourages each other to push themselves during training. Many times a round of high fives are given after training. We love this type of energy, but the team is more than just what we do in class. I have observed our clients giving hugs to each other.

Hugs. Can you believe it? (Stay away from Brian and Karl though – just sayin’)

Our members are there for each other when a rough day at work leaves them tired and worn out. When the kids are acting up day after day other moms will come by to share their stories. There are other types of hugs too. When a milestone is hit –  reaching their goal weight, being able to do a chin up and succeeding to eat well while on vacation.

We know that you aren’t always going to get the support you need, even from those closest to you. Sometimes they just don’t understand, and sometimes they are scared that you will leave them behind somehow.

Communicate with the people you love how important it is for you to follow through with your commitment to yourself, and ask them to support you.

Some will get it right away – others may take awhile.

Just Remember This:

The Get Fit NH Bootcamp team is all about accountability, encouragement, help, energy, and motivation.

Don’t just sit on the sidelines, come be part of the team.

Make It Happen!

Dean and Nancy

Winners Of Our “Cookbook With A Heart” Contest!

Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you to all who contributed to our upcoming “Get Fit NH Bootcamp” cookbook, which we are producing to help you eat lean and green, but also to help raise money for a special little boy with autism, Joshua Ohman.

Our contest to fill that cookbook up with some of your favorite healthy recipes was a smashing success, as we received dozens and dozens of great recipes.

As promised, we randomly chose three people from all the contributors, and here are your winners:

Judy Swain

Anne LaForce

Robin Weddleton

These ladies will get there choice of one Sweatshirt or T-Shirt from our crazy good looking apparel line! 🙂

But don’t be dismayed if you didn’t win, as our fall order for sweatshirts and fleeces will be making the rounds soon – get ’em while they are hot!

Congratulations and Thank-you Ladies!

Lunch Box Chicken Salad

Try this super easy and tasty recipe for in your lunch box or anytime!

½ cup plain yogurt
4 teaspoon Dijon style mustard
Dash of pepper
2 Tablespoons orange juice
1 cup cooked green beans
5 ounces chicken, turkey, ham, or even tuna
½ cup shredded carrots
2 Tablespoons sliced green onion

For dressing, mix yogurt, Dijon mustard, pepper, and the orange juice. Add green beans, carrots, green onions, and meat toss with dressing. Divide it in 2 containers. Chill overnight for best flavor.

Vary the veggies with whatever you have on hand. Peas, green and red peppers, broccoli, snap peas – The varieties are endless. Enjoy!

Good Foot Health Is No Small “Feet”

Each morning before I step onto the floor I make sure my feet are more awake than I am.  Getting my feet ready to support my body weight with a quick massage and stretch is just like doing the big arm stretch right after I get out of bed.  You know, feet work so hard and they really take a beating so I like to take the time to honor their work and let them know I’m grateful.

Did you know that your feet have 26 bones, 33 joints and over 100 tendons! And that’s without mentioning the ligaments and muscles in your feet.

So I think we should honor our feet!  (knees will have to wait for their time in a later blog). After all, remember Neil Armstrong’s quote as he “stepped” onto the moon. “That’s one small step for man and one giant leap for all mankind.”

First of all, lets see what your feet can tell you about your health.  If you have a pain in your foot your gait changes, and when your gait changes your entire body is affected which can create back pain, hip problems, sore leg muscles – even aching shoulders and neck.

Remember if you act like a heel to your foot it can come back and kick you in the butt. (I’m cracking myself up with all these puns)

So whenever you find yourself with a pain in the foot please pay attention, because it can be the beginning of a multitude of problems.

In fact, any sign of foot trouble may be the start of other problems.  For instance, chronic pain, calluses that go unchecked, very dry skin, swelling, redness or discoloration in the toe nails all are problems that need to be addressed.

Now, get this…the foot has over 250,000 sweat glands!  So, wash your feet!  Clean and dry between the toes; this will get rid of the moisture and bacteria that cause feet to stink and creates nasty skin problems. Don’t be average adult who doesn’t reach their feet with a washcloth or other abrasive material that can eliminate dry skin and fungus.

Most ingrown toenails are due to improper nail clipping.  Cut the nails straight across, no cute little angles on the sides that can cause the nail to grow improperly causing a painful toenail and a doctor’s appointment to correct it.

Feet change and spread over the years so it’s important that you measure. Most adults don’t bother with it. They assume that the size they got last time they bought shoes will do this time as well. Maybe another reason why so many people end up with sore feet.

Don’t keep your feet in old worn out shoes.  There should be a thumb size space between the end of the toe and the end of the shoe. Not having the correct shoe size can result in runner’s toe, calluses, ingrown nails, fungal nail infections, and hammertoe deformities. (I’m not saying who has toes that look like mushrooms)

Now you know Dean and I love our Vibram Five Fingers. Here is what Vibram says about their footwear.

“Wearing FiveFingers during strength and fitness conditioning can increase your comfort, balance, performance and overall sense of control. That’s because many of the poses and exercises you perform during strength and fitness training rely on flexible yet stable support from your feet and legs.” (the support is not coming from our shoes but from our own body)

Whether you chose traditional sneakers or back to barefoot basics we need to treat our feet like they are important.

So there you have it.  Take care of your feet and they will take care of your body and sole. ( I just had to get one more pun in)

Coach Nancy

Can You Touch A Coin?

Try this little experiment. Place a coin on the floor. Stand about 6 inches away from the coin. With your eyes open, attempt to touch the coin with your big toe (it doesn’t matter which foot). Now close your eyes and try it again.

If your ‘proprioception’ is in tune, then you should be able to touch the coin or at least get very close to it. However, if your proprioception is not functioning at a high level, then you will miss it by miles. The more times you repeat the same movement pattern the better it is ingrained on your nerve endings and you’ll soon find you can hit the coin each time even with your eyes closed.

So what is ‘proprioception’? Why is it important, and how do we train it?

Proprioception can be defined as “ an unconscious perception of movement and spatial orientation arising from stimuli within the body itself.”

Balance is not an example of proprioception. Balance control comes from the inner ear and not the body senses. However, the balance systems are intertwined heavily with the proprioceptive systems. If you’ve been at Get Fit NH Bootcamp for a while then you’ve played our warm up game “Get up and balance” This warm up is an example of how balance and proprioception are related.

Common examples from everyday life:

• Walking in a dark room in the middle of the night
• Catching a ball
• Eating whilst reading the paper

Where does proprioception come from?

Our muscles, ligaments and tendons are filled with nerve endings and receptors that allow us to perceive where our limbs are in space. These receptors send messages to our central nervous system (CNS) and the CNS in turn relays information to the brain. This information is compared to the information received from the eyes and ears, which in turn allows us to co-ordinate hand/foot-eye coordination as well as balance.

Why do people have poor proprioception?

The two  main groups that suffer from poor propioception are the injured/ill and the elderly. With any injury, the damage tissue alters the pain mechanisms that feed our brains. The messages tend to ‘fog’ up the nerve cells in the brain so that we don’t have such a defined sense of position anymore. Injuries to the knees or ankle tend to make us feel unstable. The elderly have ageing nerve endings and their nerves do not conduct information as effectively as younger people. They have more trouble with activities requiring body awareness and as a result often bump themselves easily and falls can result.

Can we improve our proprioception?

Absolutely! Proprioception can always be improved through training. The learning of any new skill involves training our proprioceptive sense and re-organizing the nervous system to suit the new activity. The nerve endings and sensory fibers in our muscles, ligaments and tendons become more effective at picking up changes in body position. In turn, the nerves become more efficient at transmitting the information to the brain, and the brain becomes better at responding to this information.

Practice, Practice, Practice is training our proprioception. Learning a new exercise and training our bodies to perform it will increase the use of that nervous system pathway. That is one reason it is so important to perform a movement pattern correctly from the start. We are training our muscles which are taking their cue from the nervous system. New movements will keep our brains working and increase our proprioception.

Proprioception is a fancy word but knowing we are keeping our body fit along with our brain is a great reason to practice this word literally over and over.

To your health,

Coach Nancy