Patients with knee osteoarthritis often have weakness of their hip abductor muscles.  Knee osteoarthritis patients have also been shown to have altered biomechanics at the hip, leading to abnormal loading on the medial side of their knee joint.  This increase in loading is thought to result in an increased knee adductor moment during gait because of weak hip abductors.

Several studies have shown that TheraBand elastic resistance exercise can decrease pain and increase function in patients with knee osteoarthritis.

The home exercise program included side lying and standing hip abduction strengthening, progressing to elastic bands.  After 8 weeks, the osteoarthritis group significantly increased their hip abduction strength to reach the level equal to the non-arthritis group.  In addition, the patients significantly improved their functional performance and reduced their knee pain. Interestingly, however, while the patients improved their strength, pain and function, their knee adduction moment remained the same.  The authors concluded that hip strengthening exercises in patients with knee osteoarthritis can increase hip strength and function, but do not improve joint knee joint loading.

While the elastic-resisted exercises were performed in both weight-bearing and non-weight-bearing positions, it’s possible that different exercises may be necessary to improve the hip adductor moment.  Nonetheless, the results of this study agree with other studies showing that Thera-Band exercise bands can be used effectively to reduce pain and increase strength and function in knee osteoarthritis patients.

Be sure and discuss your spinal and non-spinal conditions, as many of the exercises we can prescribe are able to help a wide variety of problems, especially associated with the inevitability of joint degeneration. 

REFERENCE: Sled EA, Khoja L, Deluzio KJ, Olney SJ, Culham EG. Effect of a home program of hip abductor exercises on knee joint loading, strength, function, and pain in people with knee osteoarthritis: a clinical trial. Phys Ther. 2010 Jun;90(6):895-904. Epub 2010 Apr 8.

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Spine MRIs Often Show Harmless 'Defects' 

After treatment, many people have visible evidence of a herniated disc without any symptoms.

Even though expensive MRIs produce very detailed images for assessing back pain, they may not be very good at evaluating results after treatment, research suggests.

Many physicians order an MRI before and after treatment of patients with lumbar-disk herniation and persistent sciatica. But some experts say spine imaging is overused and not necessarily accurate in certain cases.

This new study used MRI scans from a study initially designed to compare surgery to conservative care for sciatica, which is pain or weakness that radiates from the back down the leg. The researchers compared a person's first MRI to their follow-up MRI taken a year later. They couldn't tell from the follow-up MRIs who had good results and who didn't.

MRI accuracy is much less than expected in patients who had sciatica before or who have had persistent complaints for more than one year," said the study's lead researcher. The decision to have a second surgery shouldn't be based on MRI findings alone.

Even if it appears from a follow-up MRI that surgery is necessary, people should be advised that their continued pain may be caused by inflammation rather than nerve compression, and in that case, it's unlikely that surgery would relieve their symptoms.  

Sciatica is a common problem, affecting as many as 40 percent of adults at some time in their lives. Sciatica is commonly caused by a herniated disc in the back as it presses down on the sciatic nerve, according to background information in the study. These discs are located between each of the vertebra, or bones, in the spine.

For most people, sciatica is a short-lived problem. Within eight weeks, most people no longer have sciatic pain, according to the study. For some people, however, sciatic pain can be long-lasting. When sciatic pain doesn't go away, doctors often recommend imaging tests, such as MRIs, to rule out serious causes of the pain, such as a tumor or other disease process.  The problem is that many people have herniated discs, often without any symptoms. Previous research has found that between 20 percent and 76 percent of people who don't have symptoms will show signs of disk herniation on an MRI, the study found. 

Another issue is cost. MRIs can run from hundreds to thousands of dollars per scan, depending on where the test is conducted and whether the patient's insurance covers the expense.

The current study included nearly 300 people randomly assigned to receive either surgery or conservative care for their sciatic pain, all of whom had signs of disc herniation on their initial MRI.  A follow-up MRI was done one year later, and the two MRIs were compared with patient results. Follow-up MRIs showed that 35 percent of those with a favorable result still had disc herniation compared to 33 percent of those with an unfavorable result.

Now that it has been proven that these recurrent or persistent sciatica and low-back complaints are less likely to be one-on-one related to MRI findings, doctors must be more careful in conclusions and recommendations for repeat surgery.  Seeing a problem on an MRI doesn't necessarily confirm that that's where the pain is coming from  There is a significant percentage of patients with disc herniation who don't have symptoms.

You can't treat the MRI. You have to treat the patient. 

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• Walking can lower risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes as much as running.

• The more people walked or ran each week, the more their health benefits increased.

Walking briskly can lower your risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes as much as running can, according to surprising findings reported in the American Heart Association journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.

Researchers analyzed 33,060 runners in the National Runners’ Health Study and 15,045 walkers in the National Walkers’ Health Study. They found that the same energy used for moderate intensity walking and vigorous intensity running resulted in similar reductions in risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and possibly coronary heart disease over the study’s six years.

“Walking and running provide an ideal test of the health benefits of moderate-intensity walking and vigorous-intensity running because they involve the same muscle groups and the same activities performed at different intensities,” said Paul T. Williams, Ph.D., the study’s principal author and staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Life Science Division in Berkeley, Calif.

 “The more the runners ran and the walkers walked, the better off they were in health benefits. If the amount of energy expended was the same between the two groups, then the health benefits were comparable,” Williams said.

Comparing energy expenditure to self-reported, physician-diagnosed incident hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes and coronary heart disease, researchers found:

• Running significantly reduced risk for first-time hypertension 4.2 percent and walking reduced risk 7.2 percent.

• Running reduced first-time high cholesterol 4.3 percent and walking 7 percent.

• Running reduced first-time diabetes 12.1 percent compared to 12.3 percent for walking.

• Running reduced coronary heart disease 4.5 percent compared to 9.3 percent for walking.

“Walking may be a more sustainable activity for some people when compared to running, however, those who choose running end up exercising twice as much as those that choose walking. This is probably because they can do twice as much in an hour,” Williams said.

Study participants were 18 to 80 years old, clustered in their 40s and 50s. Men represented 21 percent of the walkers and 51.4 percent of the runners.

“People are always looking for an excuse not to exercise, but now they have a straightforward choice to run or to walk and invest in their future health,” Williams said. 

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If physicians think their own fitness is important, chances are they'll advise exercise for their patients too, a new study finds.

The research found that physically fit doctors were more likely to push for physical activity in patients than inactive doctors.

Because people often take their doctor's advice seriously, "these findings suggest that improving health care providers' physical activity levels may be an easy way to help reduce physical inactivity among the general population," Isabel Garcia de Quevedo, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an American Heart Association news release.

The research team analyzed the findings of 28 previous studies on health care providers' physical activity and the exercise counseling they gave to patients. The review revealed that physically active health care providers were much more likely to advise their patients to get daily exercise. 

Some of the studies found that fit, active doctors were two to five times more likely than inactive doctors to recommend exercise to their patients. Other studies found that programs to improve doctors' physical activity levels improved the doctor's confidence and ability to provide exercise advice to patients.

The researchers also discovered that medical school students who took part in a program to improve their lifestyle habits were 56 percent more likely than other medical students to provide patients with regular physical activity counseling.

The American Heart Association and the CDC recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week.

SOURCE: American Heart Association, news release, March 22, 2013 

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An Ergonomic Chair?

What do you need to look for in Ergonomic Seating? In order to help make sure you choose a chair with all the necessary adjustments, we will break the chair down into its components.

Use a chair with casters and a 5-point base to ease movement and minimize possible tipping. Generally, nylon carpet casters are standard, but soft wheel casters are available for hard surfaces such as linoleum. Rubber locking casters are useful on stools to prevent tipping.

The seat pan is the component of the chair that supports the majority of the user’s weight. It is important to purchase a chair which uses dense, small-cell foam padding or spring coils to retain its support and cushioning (this usually involves purchasing a chair over $250.00). The front part of the seat should slope down slightly (waterfall design) and allow a fist size gap between the back of the knees and the front edge of the seat pan to reduce pressure at the back of the thighs. Tilt adjustments are preferred to allow a forward working posture to be attained or a reclined posture. A seat pan with a sliding mechanism is also a beneficial feature. This allows small and tall users to adjust the distance from the back rest.

Adequate lumbar support is the most crucial element of a backrest. The backrest should either be small enough to fit into the small of the back, clearing the pelvis and back of the rib cage, or curved to provide adequate support. Many chairs come with a built-in lumbar adjustment which can be adjusted by turning a knob on the side of the chair. Inadequate lumbar support places excess pressure on the spine. Remember, a lumbar support cushion properly placed behind the small of the back can help to accentuate lumbar support. The backrest should also have angle, in-out, and height adjustments to achieve proper spinal alignment. The angle adjustment allows the user to adjust the angle of the back rest relative to the seat pan, as apposed to the tilt mechanism, which moves the seat pan with the backrest. When you change the tilt, the angle between the seat pan and the backrest stays the same.

Adjustable height and width are absolutely necessary when purchasing a chair with armrests. The armrest should be made of a soft material and should be at least 2" wide to provide adequate surface area.

Almost all task chairs come with a hydraulic seat height adjustment. This is probably the single most import adjustment mechanism on a chair. It allows the user to adjust the chair so their feet can rest properly on the floor or footrest and the upper body is properly aligned with the computer monitor and input devices such as the keyboard and mouse.

The chair recline or tilt adjustment changes the angle of the entire seat relative to the floor. As with backrest angle adjustability, a reclined chair transfers some of the upper body weight to the backrest of the chair. It is also important that the user change body positioning throughout the day. 

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Fish oil fights skin cancer.

Skin cancer's scary and way too common, so we hope you're in the habit of slapping on sunscreen and you haven't hit a tanning bed since 1995. Those are by far the easiest and best ways to protect yourself against this deadly disease, but a new study has revealed another potential weapon: fish oil.  Yes, in addition to helping your heart, joints, tendons, muscles, nerves, and brain, fish oil will save your skin.

Ultraviolet rays suppress the immune system and hinder the body's ability to battle inflammation, infection, and diseases like skin cancer, which prompted a team of U.K. researchers to investigate whether omega-3-rich fish oil – a well-known anti-inflammatory – could help combat the damage. The researchers had seen this happen in mice, but the treatment hadn't yet been tested on humans. The researchers gave study participants either 5 grams of fish oil or a placebo every day for three months and then stuck them under a light machine that simulated scorching midday sun. Sure enough, using various modes to measure immune suppression, they found that fish oil cut the fake sun's impact by about half.

This is great news, especially since fish oil, along with other solid omega-3 sources such as flaxseed oil, wild-caught salmon, and trout, also protects your heart, brain, and more. Still, you don't want to swap the Coppertone for fish oil. Keep using sunscreen, wearing hats, and doing all the smart things to stay safe in the sun, and then load up on omega-3s for bonus protection. Call to find out the best kind to take if you don't have a good one.

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MYTH: Your routine isn’t working if you’re not losing weight.

Do yourself a favor and pay less attention to the scale. Exercise has a small impact on weight loss over the short term. While wanting to look good is a reasonable goal, exercise also provides numerous health benefits, including a lower risk of heart disease and stroke. If you want to shed pounds in addition to getting in shape, try cutting calories while you step up your workouts. 

MYTH: A pedometer is all you need to track your exercise.

Pedometers are an excellent way to monitor overall daily activity and help keep you motivated. But counting steps isn’t a reliable way to measure exercise intensity or quality. It’s better to use a heart-rate monitor to track intensity, and aim for a target heart rate for a set number of minutes rather than a certain number of steps.

MYTH: You don’t have to lift weights.

Actually, strength training is critical for older adults to help prevent age-related bone and muscle loss, both of which can lead to falls and other serious injuries. Strengthening your muscles also decreases your body-fat percentage and increases the rate at which your body burns calories, which can help with weight management. Women in particular shouldn’t worry that they’ll pack on too much muscle mass by lifting weights because they have relatively low levels of the male hormone testosterone, which affects muscle growth.

MYTH: As long as you get regular exercise, it’s fine to be a couch potato at other times.

Research has found that sitting for long periods actually causes a slight increase in the risk of several diseases, including heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and possibly cancer - even among people who meet recommended levels of daily exercise. Find ways to spend less time sitting. A useful goal is to replace six to seven hours a week of sitting time with something you do on your feet, whether it’s walking, playing a sport or just puttering around your home or office. And try to cut your evening screen time.

MYTH: You can lose fat from specific parts of your body.

There’s no such thing as “spot reduction.” The calories you expend during exercise help burn fat from your entire body, including whichever areas you’re targeting. What’s more, concentrating your exercise on a specific body part can actually limit the benefits of training, since other muscle groups might be neglected.

MYTH: You should stretch before a workout to avoid injuries.

Researchers have discovered that’s not the case. In terms of increasing flexibility, your muscles will benefit more from stretching when they’re warm, after your workout. Stretching cold muscles could actually injure them.

MYTH: It’s better to have a sports drink than plain water during exercise.

A sports drink is necessary only when you’ve lost a substantial amount of sodium and other electrolytes through sweating or if you need extra carbohydrates to burn for energy. Aim to drink 17 to 20 ounces of water during the two to three hours before a demanding workout and another seven to 10 ounces every 15 minutes while exercising. Continue to rehydrate with plain water afterward.

MYTH: Exercising before bedtime will help you sleep better.

Sleep experts don’t recommend working out close to bedtime, even up to three hours before, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Exercise has a stimulating effect and elevates body temperature, both of which can make it difficult to sleep. But the corresponding fall in temperature five to six hours after exercise actually makes it easier. So aim for a workout earlier in the day if you have trouble sleeping.

MYTH: Calorie counters on exercise machines are accurate.

Don’t count on it, especially if the machine doesn’t ask for your weight, height and sex. According to the American Council on Exercise, manufacturers use formulas to account for intensity and duration. If you want to make sure you’re using the most up-to-date formula, call the manufacturer to see if someone can walk you through an upgrade over the phone. Experts suggest trying to burn at least 1,000 calories a week through exercise, though less than that can still have benefits. Any exercise is better than none.  

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As we all sit down to start the New Year, let's Stand Up. Recent studies continue to show that more time sitting equates to a shorter, less healthy life.  A British Journal of Sports Medicine¹ study of almost 12,000 Australian adults looked at TV watching and general health, disease status, exercise regimens, smoking, diet and more.  They then used actuarial tables, adjusted for confounders like smoking, waist circumference, dietary quality, exercise habits and came to this conclusion: TV viewing time may be associated with a loss of life that is comparable to other major chronic disease risk factors such as physical inactivity and obesity.  (Even for people who exercise regularly!)

They found that every single hour of television watched after the age of 25 reduces the viewer’s life expectancy by 21.8 minutes. (vs smoking a cigarette, which reduces life expectancy by about 11 minutes, per the authors).

Another study² reviewed 18 studies involving 794,577 people, and found “the average adult spends 50 to 70 percent of their time sitting."  After examining time sitting with health, they found people who sat the most had a 112% increase in risk of diabetes; a 147%  increase in risk for CV disease; and a 49% greater risk of dying prematurely — even if they regularly exercised.

The reason, per senior author D. Dunstan- “The most striking feature of prolonged sitting is the absence of skeletal muscle contractions, particularly in the very large muscles of the lower limbs.”  Lack of muscle contraction means less glucose burned, resulting in surplus blood sugar which contributes to diabetes as well as other health risks. 

Their advice agrees with ours: Get up and keep exercising.

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It has been thought that the steroids might stay in the epidural space of the spine.  Safety questions about steroid injections also have been raised in recent months, as U.S. health officials investigate a deadly outbreak of fungal meningitis linked to steroid shots produced by a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy that has since shut down. More than 510 illnesses and 36 deaths connected to the shots have been reported so far, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Women in the new study did not receive steroid shots connected to the outbreak.)

To look at the bone-loss question, bone-density changes in 28 women who opted for steroid injections to treat their back pain. They compared the findings with medical records from a "control" group of women who were roughly the same age.  Over six months, women in the steroid group lost six times more bone mass in the hip than the comparison group did, according to research report in Spine jounal. 

Women with chronic back pain may get little exercise, which can accelerate the bone loss seen with aging. It's also not clear how "clinically significant" the bone loss is. That is, do steroid injections actually raise an older woman's risk of hip fracture?  Still, the research indicates doctors should be cautious about giving the injections to older women who are especially vulnerable to the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis -- including thin women who are white or Asian.

In general, steroid injections may be used when the back pain involves some sort of nerve-root irritation -- such as when a spinal disc is herniated and compressing a nerve.  But according to current research, they're not so useful for pain from spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal column that often is at the root of back pain in older people.

Further, larger studies are still needed to see how significant the bone loss seen in this study might be. Mandel suggested that if you are an older woman who is finding pain relief from steroid injections, it would be wise to talk to your doctor about ways to protect your bone mass -- such as taking calcium and vitamin D.  Other back-pain treatments have risks as well. For older adults, he noted, long-term use of NSAIDs may raise the risk of heart problems.  And the risks from surgery or narcotic painkillers are definitely greater than the risks from epidural steroids.

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Researchers investigated the effects of a multi-component and multi-modal exercise program in osteoporotic women. The 11-month exercise program included a well-rounded exercise program of strength, balance, flexibility, and aerobic activities. The first 3 months of exercise were performed 3 times per week on land, while the remaining 8 months combined land-based (twice a week) with aquatic exercise (once a week). Exercise sessions lasted 60 minutes and included exercises with dumbbells, Thera-Band® resistance bands, exercise balls, and steps. Each session included 20 to 25 minutes of warm-up, 30 minutes of training, and 5 to 10 minutes of cool-down. The exercise group also performed the exercises at home.

After the intervention, the exercise group significantly improved their femoral neck bone density score while the control group significantly decreased. Physical function also significantly increased in the exercise group, but decreased in the control group. Total bone mineral density, balance, and flexibility did not improve significantly in either group.

In conclusion a multi-component exercise program including Thera-Band resistance bands and aquatic exercise can improve function and bone health in post-menopausal women with osteoporosis.

REFERENCE: Tolomio S, Ermolao A, Lalli A, Zaccaria M. The effect of a multicomponent dual-modality exercise program targeting osteoporosis on bone health status and physical function capacity of postmenopausal women. J Women Aging. 2010 Oct;22(4):241-54. 

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Weekly yoga classes eased pain and improved functioning in some people with chronic lower back pain -- but the yoga sessions weren't any better than regular stretching classes, according to a new study.

Researchers found that participants in both types of classes had better functioning and fewer symptoms after three months than back patients who were only given a book with advice on preventing and managing pain.

"We've known for a while... that exercise is good for back pain," said Dr. Timothy Carey, from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who wrote a commentary published with the study.

Yoga, he told Reuters Health, "seems to be a perfectly good option for people with back pain, but it is not a preferred option." 

Three months after the 12 week programs, symptom improvements were similar in people who had done either stretching or yoga, and still better than in the third, non-exercise group.

And at both the end of class sessions and three months later, twice as many of the class participants reported cutting back on pain medications, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) -- about 40 percent versus 20 percent in the book group.

"Here is an option that is something worth trying," said Karen Sherman from the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle, who led the study.

With either stretching or yoga classes, she told Reuters Health, practice is a must for patients. "There is absolutely no treatment that works for everybody... (but) if they're willing to practice, they should go ahead and give it a try."

Carey said the findings suggest that the best type of exercise for people with back pain depends on their preferences and what's convenient.

"It's important that people do exercise they enjoy," he said -- that way, they're more likely to stick with it. And, "you don't need to drive 50 miles to the nearest yoga class if there's not one near you," Carey added. 

A picture is worth a thousand words, and that’s why nutritionists use symbols and shapes to answer the question, “What should I eat?” For nearly two decades, the U.S. government distilled its nutrition advice into pyramids. These efforts didn't accurately show people what makes up a healthy diet. Why? Their recommendations were based on out-of-date science and influenced by people with business interests in the messages the icons sent. This year, the U.S. government scrapped its MyPyramid icon in favor of the fruit-and-vegetable rich MyPlate—an improvement, yet one that still doesn't go far enough to show people how to make the healthiest choices.

There are better alternatives: the new Healthy Eating Plate and the Healthy Eating Pyramid, both built by faculty members in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, in conjunction with colleagues at Harvard Health Publications. The Healthy Eating Plate fixes the flaws in USDA's MyPlate, just as the Healthy Eating Pyramid rectifies the mistakes of the USDA's food pyramids. Both the Healthy Eating Plate and the Healthy Eating Pyramid are based on the latest science about how our food, drink, and activity choices affect our health—and are unaffected by businesses and organizations with a stake in their messages. 

When it’s time for dinner, most of us eat off of a plate. So think of the new Healthy Eating Plate as blueprint for a typical meal: Fill half your plate with produce—colorful vegetables, the more varied the better, and fruits. (Remember, potatoes and French fries don't count as vegetables!) Save a quarter of your plate for whole grains. A healthy source of protein, such as fish, poultry, beans, or nuts, can make up the rest. The glass bottle is a reminder to use healthy oils, like olive and canola, in cooking, on salad, and at the table. Complete your meal with a cup of water, or if you like, tea or coffee with little or no sugar (not the milk or other dairy products that the USDA’s MyPlate recommends; limit milk/dairy products to one to two servings per day). And that figure scampering across the bottom of the placemat? It’s your reminder that staying active is half of the secret to weight control. The other half is eating a healthy diet with modest portions that meet your calorie needs—so be sure you choose a plate that is not too large. .....

People lose muscle mass as they age but U.S. researchers say adults can fight the battle of strength and muscle loss that comes with aging.

Mark Peterson, a research fellow in the University of Michigan's Physical Activity and Exercise Intervention Research Laboratory, says adults age 50 and older who are sedentary can expect muscle loss of as much as 0.4 pounds a year.

"That only worsens as people age. But even earlier in adulthood -- the 30s, 40s and 50s -- you can begin to see declines if you do not engage in any strengthening activities," Peterson says in a statement. "No matter what age an individual is, they can experience significant strength improvement with progressive resistance exercise even into the eighth and ninth decades of life."

Progressive resistance training means the amount of weight used and the frequency and duration of training sessions are altered over time to accommodate an individual's progress, Peterson says.

The study, published in The American Journal of Medicine, finds after an average of 18-20 weeks of progressive resistance training, an adult can add 2.42 pounds of lean muscle and increase overall strength by 25 percent to 30 percent.

A good way for people to start on a resistance training program -- after getting permission from a doctor -- is to use body mass as a load for various exercises such as squats, standing up out of a chair, modified pushups and exercises such as Tai Chi, Pilates or Yoga.

Stay strong, stay flexible, stay healthy!!
 

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• ADA approved elevation tables
• Flexion-Distraction (Cox) lumbar decompression
• Chattanooga Triton DTS Spinal Decompression
• Chattanooga Cervical Spinal Decompression
• Interferential Electromuscular Therapy
• Russian Stimulation Electromuscular Therapy
• Active Release Technique
• Myofascial Release Therapy
• Non-osseous spinal mobilization/manipulation procedures
• Massage therapy performed under doctor's direction

We invite you to view our practice and visit the website AZChiro.net for more information.

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Arizona Chiropractic Orthopedics
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Muscular power and reaction time are also important components of function and injury prevention for older adults; specifically, reduced strength of ankle dorsiflexion is associated with an increased risk of falls (Skelton et al. 2002; Whipple et al. 1987). In addition, decreased reaction time is associated with increased falls and motor vehicle accidents in older adults. Power training, which is essentially strength training performed at higher velocities, is becoming increasingly popular for older adult exercise programs.  Many studies have shown that strength training exercises can increase strength and function in older adults, but few if any have examined effects of ankle power training on performance or injury prevention in older adults. In addition, few studies have directly compared elastic and isotonic resistance training programs.

Canadian researchers investigated the effects of power training with Thera-Band® exercise bands compared to machine-based resistance training for ankle dorsiflexor and plantarflexor muscles. They wanted to see if there was a difference in reaction time, movement speed, muscular strength and power after a 12 week training program. They randomly assigned 62 women over 70 years old with mobility limitations to a Thera-Band group, machine group, or control group that performed only upper body flexibility exercise. The machine group performed 8-10 repetitions of ankle dorsiflexion and plantarflexion against 80% of 1RM resistance level. The Thera-Band group performed 3 sets of 8 repetitions on dorsiflexion and plantarflexion as well. Both groups performed the concentric phase “as fast as possible” and the eccentric phase in a slow and controlled manner for 2 to 3 seconds. Both groups progressed the resistance after 2 to 3 weeks.

The women completing the power training program with Thera-Band resistance significantly improved their movement speed in a “braking task” similar to applying the brake in a car. This finding is important, according to the authors, because slower reaction and movement times are associated with increased risk of motor vehicle accident, as well as increased risk of falls and decreased functional performance. All groups (including the control group) significantly improved in strength and power.

The authors concluded, “Training with elastic bands represents a low-cost, practical form of exercise that would be considered an addition to programs designed to address mobility limitations in older adults.”  This study suggests that power training with Thera-Band elastic bands can help improve reaction time and movement speed in older adults, which may have important implications in reducing injury risk and improving functional performance.

REFERENCE: Webber SC, Porter MM. Effects of ankle power training on movement time in mobility-impaired older women. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2010 Jul;42(7):1233-40.

Stay strong, stay flexible, stay healthy!!