This is part of an e-mail that showed up in my inbox this morning from the Ucf Rec and Wellness Center.
This past year I have seen our Fitness program grow by leaps and bounds. From new initiatives such as the "Ask Me" campaign and Easy sheets, to adding new equipment like the TRX bands and Ab Solos, to starting new programs such as Biggest Loser and the Half Marathon Training Course, all the way to offering new GE class formats like Breakdancing. We are on top of industry trends and are definitely ahead of the times.
I thought about replying with a giant
WTF
But then I realized that would be a wasted effort. The person sending this e-mail not only runs the gym, but also teaches an entire 3 credit full class on aerobics. That's the equivalent of any hundreds of classes at UCF such as college algerbra, biology, chemistry, world history, theatre...
The thought that an entirely false movement is the academic equivalent of those types of classes makes me want to vomit all over my laptop.
I mean, THIS, is ahead of the times?
Are you f%^&ing kidding me? The only industry trends our gym is on top of are the gimmicky crap trends of giant rubber bands and ab balls.
Moving on, I want to touch on mainstream rehabilitation practices- speaking primarily from first hand experience and unconventional works I've read on the subject.
The idea to blog about this came to me yesterday when an old friend showed up to jump rope class -actually the girl from this video. She had hurt her foot a few months ago and hence I haven't seen her in a long while.
I never did find out what was wrong with her foot though, so while I was waiting with her before class I decided to ask. Apparently some of the connective tissue underneath her foot had torn from runinnng "too much" -which is running at all for the purpose of exercise IMO. She ran in heavily padded shoes like everyone else of course.
Her doctor-with good intentions-ordered her not to run, and not to walk barefoot when possible-from my understanding.
Well knowing her, she wanted to run anyways. She tried in her old shoes and she couldn't do it, her feet hurt incredibly bad according to her.
So remembering how I ran forefoot/barefoot, she opted to as well. Surprise, no pain whatsoever. Now, I want to state again that I think running is an incredibly poor form of exercise-especially when you do it long distance and steady state-but it's interesting to note that she had NO pain when she ran barefoot and USED the very connective tissues that left her in pain only weeks before.
She told her doctor this, and again, he strongly cautioned not to run/walk barefoot.
....
In high school football I had a similar situation, that turned out differently. I dislocated my kneecap a full 4 times-and a 5th that wasn't as severe. Each time my knee would take months to heal-weeks to even regain a full range of motion.
And each time the doctor would put my leg in an immobilizing brace. The result? My left quadriceps would severely atrophy each time. Literally it would seem to turn to jelly when the knee swelled and then when the swelling went down it seemingly dissolved. Not even kidding, my right quad was a full half inch to an inch bigger for the majority of my high school football career.
Of course "rehab" had little effect on it-when it easily should have caused my quads to grow if performed properly.
Truth be told, I'm no doctor, but its no secret that a lack of use will cause anything to shrink and disapate-especially muscle. And when your muscle needs work the most, the last thing you want to do is completely prevent it from moving, lock it up, and watch it shrink.
Muscle is the most protective tissue in your body, build and maintain it at all times and it will support you in return.
-Dream
