National Education Month
April is National Education Month! Reflecting on my own educational journey, I am often surprised that I have always been a student. Further, how important I feel education is in the field of Exercise Science and Personal Training.
The advances in science this decade have been unprecedented. In the field of Exercise Science, the discovery of the FTO gene has changed the way we view obesity; biomarkers of cancer can be controlled by exercise, in fact new evidence suggests that most disease can be prevented or controlled through exercise. Evidence in a recent article, The Effect of Different Volumes of Acute Resistance Exercise on Elderly Individuals with Treated Hypertension (JSC) suggests that high volume resistance training can promote a reduction in systolic blood pressure in elderly individuals with treated hypertension. When I learned about resistance training and hypertension in college, the opposite was thought to be true.
The Cybex Arc Trainer a relatively new piece of cardiovascular equipment, was studied in the article, a comparison of physiologic and physical discomfort responses between exercise modalities (JSC). Turner et al from UNC Charlotte compared the treadmill, elliptical cross-trainer and the arc trainer and found that VO2 values are similar on both the arc and the treadmill but not on the elliptical. Moreover there were greater perceptions of discomfort with the elliptical compared with ARC at similar exercise intensities, suggesting individuals with, or at risk for, lower-extremity joint pathology may benefit from exercise using the arc trainer. Again, when I was in school, the arc trainer did not exist – who knew?
So how can we function effectively in a science centered practice without furthering our knowledge base? The truth is - we cannot. Exercise Science and Personal Training is a new field that is constantly evolving .Like our close relative, Physical Therapy (officially in existence in the US since 1914 when Reed College started the first academic program but not a licensed profession until the late 70’s, and as late as the 80’s in some states), the field of Exercise Science has started as an unlicensed, unregulated field. Unlike Physical Therapy however, Personal training continues to be unregulated and unlicensed in this country. Because of this, personal trainers and educators of personal trainers have a professional responsibility to consistently ensure the information they have is the most up to date and relevant to their practice.
Please check out these websites to get more information on staying relevant:
Become a member of the ACSM and NSCA and receive their journals monthly.
~ Angela Corcoran, MS, RCEP, CSCS (PhD in progress!)
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