Site: About Sports Medicine

Could You Pass the Army Fitness Tests?

After more than twenty years the Army has changed its fitness tests for recruits as well as the enlisted. The new Army fitness assessments do more than measure how many sit ups and push ups one can do, they actually help prepare a soldier for combat. The specific five exercises performed in the test provide a better measure of strength, endurance and mobility and include:

1. A 60-yard shuttle run
2. Standing long jump
3. One minute of 'rowers'
4. One minute of pushups
5. A 1.5-mile run

But the Army doesn't stop there. In addition to the new fitness test measures, there is a Combat Readiness test that includes a challenging obstacle course filled with drills, lifts and jumps that look a lot like a CrossFit WOD (workout of the day).

Every year, soldiers will have to complete the test that includes a 400 meter run carrying a rifle, moving through an obstacle course in full combat gear, and crawling and jumping over obstacles while aiming a weapon. Soldiers also will have to run a balance beam while carrying 30-pound ammo cans and then do an agility sprint around a course field of cones. If that's not enough, next they will drag weighted sleds to simulate carrying a "causality" from the field.

To learn if you have what it takes to complete these assessments, read all the details and set up your own training routine. Read More: Army Fitness and Combat Readiness Tests

Could You Pass the Army Fitness Tests? originally appeared on About.com Sports Medicine on Monday, May 14th, 2012 at 16:36:32.

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Push Up Variations

Need a little spice in your push up routine? Try adding a few variations to the standard push up.

If you can only do one exercise, and want to make it count, push ups will be on the top of the list. Great for upper body and core strength and endurance, adding a few modifications make it an effective total workout. Some of the most common ways to modify the push up include:

Alternating Medicine Ball Push Up
This variation adds core stability as well as a modified range of motion during the basic push up movement. Roll the medicine ball between each hand after a reps and add a new balance challenge.

Push Up Lat Row
Add a couple of dumbbells to the push up movement and you have nice push-pull upper body workout.  This modification increases the intensity of the exercise, activates the core stabilizers and engages the latissimus dorsi (back) muscles.

Stability Ball Push Ups
If you are ready to move beyond the basic push and add some core stability work try stability ball push ups. This variation of the push up increases the difficulty and effectiveness of the standard push up. Adding the balance requirement takes some practice an good core strength, so make sure you can do about 20 basic push ups before trying these.

Incline (Table Top) Push Ups
If you're not quite ready for basic push ups, start by doing push ups against a wall, a table or a sturdy chair. Stand several feet back  use the same push movement to lower yourself until the elbows are 90 degrees and then raise back up. Keep you core tight the whole time.

Push Up Variations originally appeared on About.com Sports Medicine on Wednesday, May 9th, 2012 at 06:38:37.

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The Easy Way to Determine Exercise Intensity

There are a variety of methods for determining exercise intensity levels. You can invest in a complicated heart rate monitor, religiously measure your morning resting heart rate, or track your training times and miles day by day. By for those not worried about winning by the slightest margin, you don't need anything more than listening to your own body.

One of the easiest ways to judge how hard you are exercise is to use a basic Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale. This is a simple scale that allows you to choose how hard you think you are exercising on a scale from no effort at all to maximal effort. You may think that because this scale is purely subjective, it can't be very accurate or reliable. On the contrary, research shows that a person's self-reported exertion ratings provide a fairly good estimate of the actual heart rate during physical activity.

Read more about the RPE scale and how you can use it during your workouts.

The Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale

6 No exertion at all
7 Extremely light
8
9 Very light - (easy walking slowly at a comfortable pace)
10
11 Light
12
13 Somewhat hard (It is quite an effort; you feel tired but can continue)
14
15 Hard (heavy)
16
17 Very hard (very strenuous, and you are very fatigued)
18
19 Extremely hard (You can not continue for long at this pace)
20 Maximal exertion

The Easy Way to Determine Exercise Intensity originally appeared on About.com Sports Medicine on Sunday, May 6th, 2012 at 09:13:17.

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Tips for Runners Age 40 and Up

You're never too old to start or continue running, but older athletes needs to understand how aging affects both physical capacities and susceptibility to injury. Running is a high-intensity activity, and runners typically reach their prime fitness in their 20s and 30s. After about age 40 even elite runners see a decline in performance.

Check out these training and injury prevention tips for runners 40 and older.

Running Injuries Are Common

Running is one of the most popular ways to stay fit. It is also one of the easiest ways to develop a sports injury. The impact and stress of running is sometimes hard on the muscles and joints and can lead to a variety of overuse injuries. Learn about the cause and treatment of the most common running injuries.

Also see:

• What You Need to Know Before You Run
• Are You Ready to Run a Marathon?
• 10 Ways You Know You're Burned Out on Exercise.

Tips for Runners Age 40 and Up originally appeared on About.com Sports Medicine on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 at 09:07:19.

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Mental Tips for Coping with Injuries

If you've been sidelined because of an injury you've probably felt everything from denial to anger and even depression.  And although your feelings are real, it's important to find positive strategies to cope with this setback.

Share your best  Tips for Dealing With a Sports Injury

Some of the proven ways to deal with injuries include getting support and staying positive. Athletes who accept an injury and seek ways to stay involved with their sport, their coaches and their teammates while recovering from an injury often become  more focused, flexible, and resilient athletes.  Here are a few additional suggestions for using sports psychology to cope with an injury.

What strategies have worked for you? Share a Tip

Mental Tips for Coping with Injuries originally appeared on About.com Sports Medicine on Friday, April 27th, 2012 at 20:02:31.

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Exercise Motivation - When Willpower Isn't Enough

How often do you wake up with the best of intentions for your evening workout, only to find that at the end of the day you just don't have it in you to get to the gym, take that 30 minute jog, or lift one more weight. It may not be your lack of motivation, it may be that you've just hit your quota of decision making for the day.

According to psychologists who study willpower  and mental discipline, decision fatigue is a real phenomenon that can easily, and subtly drain our energy and our willpower.

Decision fatigue slowly erodes the willpower and decision-making ability in the most dedicated among us. It can leave us unable to make one more decision and simply choose to not choose, or give in easily to temptations.

But the good news is that if you understand how you drain your willpower every day, you can take preventive measures to find and preserve motivation and resist temptation when willpower isn't enough.

Exercise Motivation - When Willpower Isn't Enough originally appeared on About.com Sports Medicine on Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 at 12:28:06.

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Act Fast for Blister Prevention

You are always better off preventing blisters than trying to treat them once they've started. But if you do feel the "hot spot" of a blister developing, stop and take care of it right away before it stops you. The easiest treatments include reducing friction, keeping your feet cool and dry, and using some basic blister treatment products.

Read more: Blister causes, prevention and treatment

Act Fast for Blister Prevention originally appeared on About.com Sports Medicine on Sunday, April 22nd, 2012 at 19:55:32.

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Dynamic Warm Up and Movement Prep

We all know that a good warm up can help you get prepared for a workout. Increasing your core temperature, warming up muscles and joints and mentally adjusting to exercise is always a good idea, but using some specific movement prep exercises can take your warm up to the next level.

Movement prep, according to the experts, is a series of innovative and dynamic movements that increase your core temperature, prepare your nervous system for physical activity and strengthen your body. For an athlete the goal of this targeted warm up is to literally 'wake up' muscles that are under-active, or inactive.

Most of us spend a lot of time sitting, which causes the glutes to lengthen and the hip flexors to become tight and inactive. The neuromuscular relationship between these (and all) opposing muscle groups is that when one muscle group contracts, the other relaxes (reciprocal inhibition). Movement prep does the same thing--it activates one group and quiets down another. For example, using a glute activation routine, gets the glutes firing after being dormant all day, so they can be ready to work when you start your workout. To learn more about the specific goals and benefits of movement prep, check out the suggested exercises at core performance.

Dynamic Warm Up and Movement Prep originally appeared on About.com Sports Medicine on Tuesday, April 17th, 2012 at 09:03:03.

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The Skinny on the Fat Burning Zone

The idea that if you want to burn more fat you need to exercise in the so-called "fat burning zone" is not a new concept. And although it's technically true that you do burn a higher percentage of "fat" calories while exercising at a lower intensity (about 60-70% of your maximum heart rate), it's not necessarily the best way to burn lots of calories. And it's not always to best way to exercise if your goal is decreasing your overall body fat.

The reason has to do with the word percentage. When we exercise, we don't use one energy system exclusively, we rely on a combination of stored energy to fuel our exercise. We use some carbohydrate, some fat, and even some protein. And the harder you exercise, the less you can rely on fat for fuel. But the key point is that the harder you exercise, the more overall calories you will burn.

Want to learn more? Do the math and see how fat burning really works: The Skinny On the "Fat Burning Zone"

The Skinny on the Fat Burning Zone originally appeared on About.com Sports Medicine on Thursday, April 12th, 2012 at 12:15:42.

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Top 5 Workout Blunders

Do you ever find yourself exercising on automatic pilot and ignoring the most basic guidelines for safe or effective workouts? If you do, you aren't alone. We all adopt some silly, ineffective and unnecessary exercise habits from time to time. But sometimes we do some truly dumb things, like exercising with pain. That is never a good idea and you just shouldn't do it.

Here are five of the most common mistakes I see in both elite and beginner athletes:

Top 5 Exercise Mistakes

• Ignoring Pain
• Ignoring a Medical Condition
• Dong the Same Workouts Over and Over
• Never Taking a Rest Day
• Using Poor Form

What  dumb things have you done in the name of fitness?

Add your "TOP FIVE" to the comments section.

Top 5 Workout Blunders originally appeared on About.com Sports Medicine on Saturday, April 7th, 2012 at 08:51:52.

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