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Strength meter – the muscle tester

Small but effective – a good description for the brand new “machine” at Kieser Training! What’s special about our innovative strength meter is that it is designed not to strengthen muscles, but to measure their strength. The tests are carried out on normal training machines and consist of three exercises using different muscle groups. The methodology, including the analysis process, was specifically developed for Kieser Training customers by our Research Department.

Benefits: it provides detailed information specific to age and gender; it indicates actual strength levels in various parts of the body; identifies current deficits; and compares your strength with that of others. Instructors can use the results to plan more targeted training programmes and monitor training objectives. Regular tests are particularly useful for customers doing maintenance training at a reduced level. The tests ensure that customers are training at a sufficient level and are not at risk of losing strength gains already achieved. We recommend testing regularly every six months.

Expert’s Tip

Did you know that strength training is an important factor in recovery after injury? Even if you can only train one leg because the other is injured, you still activate the motor pathways in the other leg. As a result, the loss of strength on the injured side is less than it would otherwise have been.

As soon as you are able to put some weight on the injured side, start by training each leg separately. This allows you to control the training intensity and the range of movement. As soon as you are able to put full weight on the injured side, you can resume normal training.

In addition, the “super-slow” method can be useful during the rehabilitation process. With this method, the weight is reduced and the exercise is done at a very slow speed. This improves the quality of the exercise and reduces the strain on the joint. Similarly, customers often tolerate negative training surprisingly well after injury. In this case, you raise the weight with both legs, but lower it with only one.

Strength training after injury is not only useful medicine, but can be valuable before joint surgery. By training the surrounding muscles, you lay down the foundations for a rapid recovery.

In this connection, we recommend a supervised session or a medical evaluation at Kieser Training.

Latest research – Quality management for muscles

Say you want to hold a cup of tea, play a keyboard, complete a training programme or master a triathlon – all impossible without muscles. Every movement – whether one requiring precise coordination or maximum strength – depends upon the contraction of muscles. Most of the time, we hardly give it a thought, but each time we want to move, an impulse is sent from the brain via the nerve fibres to the “Quadriceps & Co”. They respond by contracting.

This all happens at lightning speed with messages from the brain to the muscles travelling at about 100 metres per second. On arrival, the electrical signals from the nerve fibres are transferred to the muscle cells. This happens at the neuromuscular junction – a minute cleft between the nerve and muscle cells. Here, the signals come into contact with hard-working messengers known as neurotransmitters whose job is to transport the message through the cleft. The acetylcholine neurotransmitter is released on the nerve side and docks with the acetylcholine receptor on the muscle side (on the muscle “antennae” so to speak). This process triggers the required contraction.

Without this mechanism, we would be completely immobile. For example, many arrow poisons inhibit these receptors and so cause complete paralysis because the acetylcholine is no longer able to dock. Similarly, disease can disturb this crucial transmission of messages through the body causing a loss of strength, coordination and performance. This is why scientists working on muscle dysfunction also focus on this minute cleft.

Researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Age Research in Jena and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have now shed some light on how this mechanism actually works. They have discovered that muscle cells have an ingenious quality assurance mechanism that is responsible for the structure of these essential acetylcholine receptors. An automatic process weeds out any defective receptors with the result that only working receptors are brought into use. A recently discovered protein called Rer1 is responsible for this protein sorting. Of particular interest is that, until now, it was assumed that this reduction in muscle mass and strength was solely the result of the ageing process. However, based on the latest research, it could also be that a lack of Rer1 in muscle cells is an important factor in the strength loss that occurs as we get older.

Tales from the Training Floor ... Duel at the chins bar

The best stories always come from real life – or from training. Life does not simply stop whilst the thousands of Kieser Training customers are exercising. Quite the opposite, life goes on around them. Tales from the Training floor is the name of our new series. As a starter, we have the story of an 84-year-old from Wiesbaden showing a 30-year-old a thing or two about how to do chins.

The Kieser Training facility in Wiesbaden affectionately regards Josefine Hardt as its mascot. Now 84 years of age, Josefine has been training in Wiesbaden for more than 10 years. She is regarded by instructors as a particularly hard-working and disciplined customer. No wonder: As a former primary school teacher who also taught sports, the diligent Kieser Training customer has strength training in her blood – and in her responsive muscles. The amazingly fit pensioner is always keen to add a few pounds to her training weight. “She often comes up to me or one of my colleagues during training to tell me about the new personal record she has just achieved,” reports manager Eugen Stendebach.

Recently, Josefine went another step further. She noticed a much younger customer exerting considerable effort on the chins machine. He lowered his body for 10 seconds, climbed back up the steps and lowered his body again – 10 seconds can feel like a damned long time. He was obviously suffering as he puffed and panted, sweated and gritted his teeth. After seven repetitions he gave up.

Sympathetically but also with a hint of mischief, Josefine breezed up to him and asked: “That exercise, it’s quite difficult, isn’t it?” The man – some 50 years younger than the sprightly lady – looked at her with a pained expression and groaned: “Extremely, and probably not one for you.” Josefine immediately countered: “Maybe, but I would still like to have a go.” Shaking his head, the answer came back without hesitation: “Better not – it’s definitely too strenuous for you!”

Another customer on an adjacent machine grinned broadly. He knew the sporty lady, her unbridled ambition and her preference for particularly strenuous exercises. Without more ado, Josefine climbed agilely onto the tower unit, gripped the handles correctly, pulled herself gallantly up and then in slow motion lowered herself comfortably over the 10-second period. And then, to cap it all, she did five more correct chins. “She is probably the only woman in our facility to do chins,” said Eugen Stendebach with a smile. “It’s something that few men can achieve – particularly not at that age.”

The same thought was probably running through the mind of Josephine’s “opponent”, the young man who was still exhausted having just used the machine. He stood there absolutely stunned and, with a look of amazement as he watched her masterly performance. It seemed that he no longer understood the world, quietly turned away and disappeared. And Josefine Hardt? She calmly completed her chins, but not without a grin on her face. After all, it is her favourite exercise!