The warm-up revamped

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mountain biking

The warm-up should be considered an integral component prior to a workout or competition.  The RAMP protocol provides a sound framework for ensuring the client or athlete is prepared for maximum performance via raising, activation and mobilization, and potentiation without any level of fatigue.  When planning the warm-up, the trainer or coach should select exercises to maximize its short-term effectiveness but also understand how to use the warm-up to aid in the long-term development of the athlete or client.

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Avoiding Plateaus – 4 Ways to Change Up Your Workouts

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Do you follow the same gym routine every week?  If so, you may very well be maintaining your current physical fitness, but most likely you will not be experiencing any positive gains. The body needs to experience new or additional training stress to force it to positively adapt. In fitness industry lingo, we refer to this as periodization or “the manipulation of training stress over a period to produce a…

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Sit all Day? Two Exercises to Help your Butt!

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As a personal trainer, I often see clients that are unable to maximally activate and engage their glute muscles (i.e. gluteus maximus, medius, and minimus).  The glute maximus’, due to its large size and position, allows humans to stand upright and maintain an erect posture.  Besides walking, it is involved in a number of sports, from running to weight-lifting and is used in numerous exercises, such as squats, kettlebell swings,…

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Fascia – the missing link to understand movement

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The recent discovery and greater understanding of the micro-structure and possible functions of the interstitium has been getting a lot of medical media buzz recently.  It has even been called a “new” organ, the largest one in the body, representing the connective tissue such as the fascia around and between muscles, and indeed, everywhere else.  For me, this represents a very practical missing link in my education which is now…

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Are you in a fitness slump? 4 things to help

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Many people who want to start getting more active feel overwhelmed by the idea because they do not feel they have enough time, do not know where to start, or have really high expectations for themselves. Unfortunately, this often results in their good intentions never materializing into any action or changed behaviour. I always encourage people to take it slow at first and to remember that something is better than…

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The Stability Ball Deadbug – one core exercise everyone should be doing!

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Stability Ball Deadbug Everyone, from the sedentary desk worker to the competitive athlete need core stability, whether for correct posture and general back health or to optimize athletic performance.  This exercise requires you to target the deep core musculature to maintain a neutral spine throughout the movement and builds core endurance – both integral to good posture throughout the day and generating power from the legs and arms in sport….

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Focused on function not pain

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By Gordon Grant and Alina Tousseeva, Medical labels are often misleading.  Lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow), carpel tunnel syndrome, patella-tracking syndrome, sacral iliac dysfunction – these specific conditions focus on the painful joint or muscle, and can miss the big picture…. and the solution! We often meet people with chronic injuries who come to our clinic and who have not been fully improving with exercises. They are frustrated, and are ready…

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Injury free – the secret of a Hiro

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Both athletes and inactive people alike, come to me with similar accumulated injuries of life: it is as if we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t! But for me, meeting Hiroshige Watanabe has changed the game. He really has influenced my perspective on pain, injury and rehabilitation, both as a therapist and a runner dealing with injuries myself. Before Hiro, as he is known by his…

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The Caveman Workout: Prowl like a Cheetah?

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The Acupuncture Turning Point collaborates with Nicole and Len, owners of Breathe Fitness, to help our clients be at their best. Go to the Breathe Fitness website to find out more… by Nicole Lark BHK, PTS, TSCC-3   In A.J. Jacobs third New York Times bestsellers novel “Drop Dead Healthy: One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection,” he dedicates more than a year of his life to become as healthy…

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Captive for 9 ½ Months

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The Acupuncture Turning Point collaborates with Nicole and Len, owners of Breathe Fitness, to help our clients be at their best. Go to the Breathe Fitness website to find out more… by Nicole Lark BHK, PTS, TSCC-3 Do I or don’t I want to have a child? It is a question I have asked myself many times — depending on the day it can be ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Being a…

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