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Dear Reader,
Strength training for health purposes provides the basis for a healthy life. It strengthens muscles and combats back pain, osteoporosis and metabolic disorders. It also increases our productivity. In short: Kieser Training works.
Our nation-wide study in Germany last year enabled us to scientifically confirm what we already knew from countless customer feedbacks. The results speak for themselves: at the end of the 6-month period, the level of pain experienced by participants had dropped by an average of 36%.
That was no surprise to us. Strength training allows you to tackle the origins of your problems and to make your body more resilient. These stronger muscles will be particularly effective in protecting sensitive areas, such as intervertebral discs and your spine as a whole.
We also welcomed the fact that 98 % of participants were satisfied with our training. This evidence should help establish strength training as an activity as common as brushing your teeth. Kieser Training may not be particularly fun, but it will make you happy!
Werner Kieser
Kieser Training works
Less pain, more strength, better productivity: Participants in the study “Kieser Training works” started out with differing goals. After six months, almost all of them said: Kieser Training works!
Study participant Hans-Ulrich Meißner going through his supplementary programme in Medical
Strengthening Therapy
Photo: © Kieser Training/Götz Schleser
Back in January 2009, Kieser Training set out to verify its effectiveness with a unique multi-centre study involving 531 volunteers in 119 facilities across the whole of Germany. It recruited the volunteers through advertisements throughout the country, expecting a couple of thousand applicants given the degree of confidential information that was required from them.
The response of 49,000 volunteers was far more than Kieser Training had bargained for, but was also a potent demonstration of how much trust the brand has, even among noncustomers, as a serious player in the health market. “This put Kieser Training in a unique position to conduct a highly valuable study into the workings of strength training by collecting enormous amounts of data across a whole country with its standardised procedures. If a university tried to emulate such a study, the cost would simply be prohibitive,” said Prof. Dr. Dietmar Schmidtbleicher of the Institute for Sports Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt, who was a member of the independent scientific panel that accompanied the study.
The 531 volunteers of all ages and backgrounds, some with serious musculoskeletal problems, others quite fit but not into strength training, set out to train twice a week for six months. They were regularly monitored on their progress, both objectively in terms of strength and mobility, and subjectively on how they felt they were benefiting from the regime. (please refer to page 3 for detailed results on pain reduction and go to www.kieser-training.com/quality/study for more detailed information on the study).
“To walk again without injections,” was what Hans-Ulrich Meissner wanted. After a prolapsed disc a couple of years earlier, the 65-yearold just could not get rid of the pain. Instead of spending time on his beloved golf course, he regularly went to his doctor for an injection into his lower back – but that usually only helped briefly.
“Not surprising, because 80% of all back pain originates in weak spinal muscles. Only the symptoms are usually treated, not the origins of the pain,” said Dr. Sven Goebel, Head of Research and Development at Kieser Training HQ in Zurich, Switzerland. “The best remedy is clearly targeted strengthening.”
With Medical Strengthening Therapy, Meissner improved the strength of his deep lumbar spine muscles by 55.4 per cent in the six months of the study he had volunteered for. “Since training with Kieser, I no longer need any injections. The persistent back pain has disappeared,” said the self-employed engineer. “I had already said farewell to my dream of ever playing golf again. But recently, I was able to play a round – with no problems at all.”
Strength training …
… increases vitality
A tricky question: Can you save time? Even the Michael Ende character “Momo” had to deal with this dilemma: The little girl in the novel fought bravely against the time-thieves who tricked people out of their time and so forced them into a vicious circle of ever shorter days – a feeling all too familiar to all of us! We feel that time is constantly running out, creating an energy void that robs us of our strength – a void that we then seek to fill by increasingly frenzied activity. As a result, time seems so valuable that we find it far too precious to spend on strength training. However, this is tackling the problem from the wrong end.
The investment in Kieser Training is definitely worthwhile: Not only does it strengthen our muscles but it also boosts our energy levels. More than 50% of those participating in our study “Kieser Training works” reported that training eliminated stress and 83 % found that the time doing strength training provided a welcome respite from the hectic pace of everyday life.
The result: Thanks to strength training we increase our output at work, play and in everyday life. This, combined with the fact that debilitating symptoms disappear and blood-sugar levels improve, means that we feel more energetic. We have more strength to carry less weight: this not only makes “jumping for joy” easier, but virtually doubles our vitality levels.
