April 2023 Walk – and Run – Smarter, Not Harder for Knee Health Several years ago, research started demonstrating that gait changes might reduce knee loads, especially for runners. Some of this was prompted by studies on barefoot or minimalist-shoe running. We’ve discussed these issues here, here, here, and here. Those studies demonstrated that kneeRead More
Real News
REAL News – March 2023
March 2023 Get a Grip on Better MENTAL Health In January, REAL News reported on a study in MSSE (Nov. 2022) that demonstrated substantial correlations between handgrip strength (HGS) and overall health and function in older adults. Now, a December 2022 article in the British Journal of Psychiatry adds to the value of HGS forRead More
REAL News – February 2023
February 2023 Don’t Sit While Reading This! The science of sedentariness marches on. For the past 20 years, it’s become more evident that sitting, except on an exercise machine, is dangerous to your heart and health. In light of this information, a broader health concern is how physical activity (PA) impacts the older population. TheRead More
REAL News – January 2023
January 2023 How to Get a Grip on Better Health For decades, handgrip strength (HGS), measured on a dynamometer, not a handshake, has been used as a proxy for overall strength. It is considered a “strong predictor of general health status, overall morbidities, all-cause mortality, and exceptional[longevity.]” Since we lose muscle mass and strength asRead More
REAL News – December 2022
December 2022 Knee OA Does NOT Excuse You From Squats & Lunges For those who suffer with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee(s), the often painful and sometimes threatening idea of a squat or lunge might stand in the way of both therapy and fitness training. We have covered this topic with respect to causes, effects,Read More
REAL News – November 2022
November 2022 What Causes Muscle Cramps in Marathoners? The runner’s bane is muscle cramps, those painful, activity-stopping pains in side of the ribcage that come from nowhere. Even 70 years after the jogging craze hit, we’re still not sure why these happen. Years ago, one study tested the idea that it was fluid in theRead More
REAL News – October 2022
October 2022 Why Do Females Incur More ACL Injuries – Act 31 For over 30 years, it’s been frustratingly known in the sports orthopedic community that female athletes have a greater risk of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears of the knee. Early thoughts were that there were skeletal structural differences in males’ and females’ knees;Read More
REAL News – September 2022
September 2022 Strength Training: To Failure or Not to Failure? A group of Brazilian researchers aimed to answer one of the burning questions in exercise science: for older adults using low-load resistance training (LLRT), do you have to achieve muscle failure or can you stop before failure? Muscle failure is potentially painful and even injuriousRead More
REAL News – August 2022
August 2022 Single-Leg Squat: A Tried & True Exercise for Life It’s rare that we promote any one exercise for any and all people, but some things just make sense. Other than sitting or standing still, invariably we live on one leg at a time. Therefore it makes sense to perform some lower body exercisesRead More
REAL News – July 2022
July 2022 How much do YOU know about Nutrition and Health? The following questions were asked of physicians in the January 2022 edition of Medscape, an online reference for healthcare providers. See how much YOU know: 1. Which most accurately expresses the results of a study on the risk for stroke and dementia in peopleRead More