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Agility & Speed

Spine Specialist Team: Agility & speed are necessary for athletes and individuals who actively engage in physical activity and sports. These individuals often depend on these abilities to increase their overall performance. Quickly and gracefully, both mental and physical skills are often a key element towards overcoming challenges related to the individual’s specific sport. The key to improving agility is to minimize the loss of speed when redirecting the body’s center of gravity.

Rapid change drills that change direction forward, backward, vertically, and laterally will help improve individuals by training your body to make these changes more quickly. Dr. Alex Jimenez describes various stretches and exercises utilized to enhance agility and speed throughout his collection of articles, focusing largely on the benefits of fitness and occasional injuries or conditions resulting from overexertion.


5 Heart-Pumping Samba Dance Moves That Burn Fat

5 Heart-Pumping Samba Dance Moves That Burn Fat

Working out in the gym is great, but even the biggest treadmill loyalists can get bored on the moving belt. Our advice? Mix up your sweat sessions whenever you can. Introducing different types of movement into your fitness routine can actually help you get in shape faster because they challenge your muscles in new ways.

That�s why we love with this samba reggae dance workout. It�s a total change of pace from your standard barre class. And you don�t need to be a pro dancer to try the moves either.

Samba Workout

In the video, dance teacher Quenia�Ribeiro, of the�renowned dance school Ailey Extension demonstrates basic samba reggae moves that work up a solid sweat. Ready to get down and groove? Follow along for a heart-pumping, fat-blasting workout you�ll actually have fun doing.

RELATED: 12-Minute Dance Cardio Workout With Katie Austin�

  1. Samba reggae basic step: Standing with your feet slightly wider than hip-width, bounce from one foot to the other, moving your hips from side to side as you bounce.
  2. The snake: Adding on to the basic step, roll your upper body and arms in a snake-like movement to the right as you step to the right side. Clap as you return your torso to center, then repeat on the left.
  3. The shake: Standing with your feet slightly wider than hip-width, step your right leg out to the side as you sit into a squat and pop the hips forward and back. Continue to stay low as you repeat this movement on the other side, stepping out with the left leg. Stay loose in the hips as you alternate stepping out onto each leg.
  4. Cross-and-pull: From standing, step and cross the right leg over the left as you pull the right arm down in front of the body. Return to center and repeat on the left. Bounce from side to side as you alternate doing this cross-and-pull movement on the left and right.
  5. Window washers: Standing with your feet slightly wider than hip-width, shift your weight as you bounce your hips from one side to the other, holding your arms out to each side and moving them in quick circular movements, as if washing windows.

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Running Athletes Who Run More Miles Exert Less Energy

Running Athletes Who Run More Miles Exert Less Energy

The bodies of runners who put in a lot of mileage appear to be more efficient at running compared to those who run less, a new study finds. Jasper Verheul and colleagues at Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom compared two groups of runners. One group ran more than 27 miles a week, the other group ran fewer than nine miles a week.

Anatomy of Runners

The researchers examined the activity of muscle groups in the thigh and the motion of knee joints with a variety of tools as the participants ran at different speeds during the research study.

“Given the importance of the knee joint in running, it was hoped that by examining knee joint stiffness and muscle activation levels across a range of running speeds, the adaptations of neuromuscular factors due to running training could be closely explored for the first time,” the researchers wrote.

When their feet landed on the ground, the knees of the runners who put in the most miles had less muscle activity and more stiffness. The researchers also saw that the tendons in the high-mileage runners worked more efficiently at pushing the body forward.

“From this, we concluded that high-mileage training leads to changes in the muscles and tendons that likely reduce energy expenditure during running, and these adaptations are enhanced the faster you go,” the researchers said.

The study appeared in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

News stories are written and provided by HealthDay and do not reflect federal policy, the views of MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health, or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. blog picture of a green button with a phone receiver icon and 24h underneath

For more information, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .

Additional Topics: Chiropractic and Athletic Performance

The prevention of sports injuries through the practice of proper stretches and exercises is essential for athletes. When an injury caused by an accident does occur however, many athletes seek chiropractic care to help diagnose and treat any possible sport-related injuries and conditions. Chiropractic treatment focuses on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of injuries and conditions associated with the musculoskeletal and nervous system through the use of spinal adjustments and manual manipulations. Chiropractic is beneficial for many athletes’s performance.

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TRENDING TOPIC: EXTRA EXTRA: New PUSH 24/7�? Fitness Center

 

 

‘Heading’ Soccer Ball Not Smart for The Brain

‘Heading’ Soccer Ball Not Smart for The Brain

A common soccer move — bouncing the ball off of the head — may not be as harmless to the brain as has been thought, new research suggests.

A study of more than 200 adult amateur soccer players of both genders found that regularly “heading” the ball, as well as suffering accidental hits to the head, significantly boosted a player’s risk of concussion.”The prevailing wisdom is that routine heading in soccer is innocuous and we need only worry about players when they have unintentional head collisions,” study leader Dr. Michael Lipton, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, said in a college news release.”But our study suggests that you don’t need an overt collision to warrant this type of concern,” said Lipton. He is professor of radiology, psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Einstein.Another concussion expert who reviewed the findings agreed.Soccer Athletes at Risk

The study “seems to provide additional evidence that such practices within the game of soccer can put athletes at risk for traumatic brain injury,” said Dr. Jamie Ullman. She directs neurotrauma at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y.Much of the research into sports-related concussions has concentrated on high-impact sports, such as football or hockey. But head trauma experts have long known that other sports — including soccer and rugby — might carry risks, too.In prior studies, Lipton said his team found that “30 percent of soccer players who’d had more than 1,000 headings per year had a higher risk of microstructural changes in the brain’s white matter, typical of traumatic brain injury, and worse cognitive performance.”Exploring the issue further, the new study focused on online questionnaires answered by 222 adult amateur soccer club players in the New York City area, both male and female. All had played soccer at least six months during the prior year.Men averaged 44 headers in two weeks, the survey found, while women averaged 27. One or more accidental head impacts, such as a ball hitting the back of the head or a head colliding with another player’s knee, were reported by 43 percent of women and 37 percent of men.Players who regularly headed the ball were three times more likely to have concussion symptoms than those who didn’t head the ball often, Lipton’s team reported.Players who suffered accidental head impacts two or more times within a two-week span were six times more likely to have concussion symptoms than those without accidental head impacts, the findings showed.Of those who headed the ball or reported accidental head impacts, 20 percent had moderate to severe concussion symptoms, according to the report.Of the seven players with very severe symptoms, six had two or more unintentional head impacts over two weeks, four were among those who headed the ball the most, and three were in the group that headed the ball second-most.Lipton stressed that the findings cannot be generalized to child, teen or professional soccer players.Still, “our findings certainly indicate that heading is more than just a ‘sub-concussive’ impact, and that heading-related concussions are common,” Lipton said. “We need to give people who have these injuries proper care and make efforts to prevent multiple head impacts, which are particularly dangerous.”That means watching out for symptoms, he added.”Many players who head the ball frequently are experiencing classic concussion symptoms — such as headache, confusion and dizziness — during games and practice, even though they are not actually diagnosed with concussion,” Lipton explained.”Concussion sufferers should avoid additional collisions or head impacts during the following days or weeks, when their risk of incurring a second concussion is extremely high,” he said. “Because these injuries go unrecognized and unmanaged, there may be important clinical consequences for the short and long term.”Dr. Salman Azhar is a neurologist and director of stroke services at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. He said the new findings are in accordance with prior studies, and the odds for concussion appeared to rise along with the frequency of head impacts.”The chance of having moderate-to-severe symptoms increased when the unintentional heading went from just one per two-week period to two per two-week period,” Azhar noted.The study was initially published online Feb. 1 in the journal Neurology.

For more information, ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900

Presented By:
Dr. Alex Jimenez D.C.,C.C.S.T
Spinal Trauma Specialist

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