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Title | Know your body: Muscles, Bones & Co | Technology & Training | Strength for Life | ARCHIVE

C5 Rowing Torso

Muscular imbalance is a term that we use repeatedly – it sounds somewhat sinister: It simply means that some muscle teams are not working in harmony because the strength of the individual team members varies. A classic example of an imbalance is someone with drooping shoulders: the back muscles are too weak whereas the pectoral muscles are too strong and in most cases shortened. This imbalance is often caused by sitting for hours at an office desk. Result: the shoulders are pushed forward and the neck muscles tense up. However, we would not be Kieser Training if we did not secretly have a machine designed specifically for that purpose. The C5 strengthens both the shoulder muscles and the muscles the pull the shoulders towards the spine. To complement this, the best exercises are the D6 (arm cross) and G1 (neck and shoulder) with the emphasis on the extension phase; both help to restore a more upright posture. Some facilities have a new version of the C5 in which you do the exercise facing the machine and not as previously with your back to the machine. This makes it easier to control your range of movement. However, there’s nothing sinister in that either. Both versions improve muscle balance.

 

 

 

 

 

Expert’s Tip

The ski season will soon be here. After months of absence, we will subject our body to unaccustomed stresses as we take to the slopes. With downhill skiing, it’s the thighs that take most of the strain. Without targeted preparation, the result is soon muscle strain and seriously sore muscles. Start your preparations now. Do a training programme that focuses on the legs. Semi-negative training on the B1 machine (leg extension) acts like an “inoculation” against stiff muscles. Super-slow training on the B6 (leg press) builds up the strength needed for carving turns. Complete your programme by doing prone leg curls on the B5. It too can be done as a semi-negative exercise.

With semi-negative training, you lift the weight with both legs but lower it with just one. With the super-slow method, you deliberately lift the weight more slowly – 10 seconds instead of 4 seconds. In both cases, it’s important to reduce your normal training weight by about 20%. Best of all make an appointment with an instructor and learn more about these training options and our specific programme for skiers.

Latest research – Strength training is the best medicine

Osteoporosis is an insidious disease – bones first lose density and mass unnoticed and then fractures and deformities occur because the skeleton can no longer cope with the load. Loss of bone density is primarily a disease of old age. With increasing life expectancy, it is now affecting more and more people – both women and men (see: The Powerful Number, Page 1).

Those suffering from primary osteoporosis are mainly female between 50 and 70 and men older than 70 years of age. The reason for the age difference is that the gradual loss of the sex hormone oestrogen amongst women after the menopause disturbs the balance between the build-up and the break-down of bone tissue. Secondary osteoporosis is the less common form of the disease and in this case, bones lose density because of metabolic changes caused by other diseases or drugs.

The fact is that – in addition to hormonal changes and calcium and vitamin D deficiencies – bone metabolism is adversely affected by unhealthy lifestyles such as nicotine and alcohol consumption. A further – and very important – cause of osteoporosis is the absence of adequate loads on our muscles. The best prevention and also a treatment option for loss of bone density is, therefore, a healthy lifestyle, a balanced diet, sufficient exercise in the fresh air and strength training to build up the bones.

But how do bones grow? “Bones are not static but undergo constant transformation,” explains Dr. Alexander Pfeifer from the Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Bonn. They adapt to loads. Bones respond to loads by growing. If there is no load, they break down”. Recent research by scientists at the University of San Diego in the United State and the University of Bonn has improved our knowledge of the process. The results of this international study show that an external mechanical load – such as that applied during muscle training – is transferred by protein molecules to the interior of bone cells. The cell nuclei then ensure that more and better bone cells (osteocytes) are formed. Researchers can now look at whether medication might be able to influence this process but as yet, we have no drug that builds up bones. Until science has found the answer, the motto remains “strength training is the best pill!”

 

Tales from the training floor ... nothing is meaner than Kieser!

The best stories come from real life – or from training. Life does not simply grind to a halt when the thousands of Kieser Training customers are training. Quite the opposite, life goes on around them and so our series Tales from the Training floor”. In this edition Werner David, a customer from Munich describes his experience with Medical Strengthening Therapy.

The underlying concept is as unbelievable as it is audacious; with medical strengthening therapy, patients are supposed to make an active contribution to their recovery. Things would have come to a pretty poor state if every therapist were to adopt such an outrageous approach! After all, I’m paying, so kindly make me better! Instead of purring blissfully under the skilful hands of the masseur or dozing quietly in the warm security of the mud cocoon of a Fango treatment, I am supposed to toil like a galley slave? The explanation is amazing and difficult to accept. Medical Strengthening Therapy works. Curses! Am I in all seriousness supposed to take personal responsibility for my own body? Passive suffering is so stress free.

So off we go: A belt keeps me anchored to the seat. In addition, my thighs are fixed by a pad. My almost two-dimensional quadriceps (quadriceps femoris muscle) send a third text message to Amnesty International. My feet rest on a diagonal plate and the femur is pressed firmly into the hip socket. A pelvic roller pad prevents any evasive action. My back extensors are filled with a feeling of foreboding and so call for help from other muscles. “Hey chaps where are you? Gluteals and semi-membranous – get in touch!” However, the allies are all immobilised. They can’t come to my aid. For the first time in their life my lumbar extensor stand quite alone at the front. “twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four. Hold for two seconds. It would appear that Kieser facilities have a direct line to the intergalactic wormhole as they can change the space-time continuum. How otherwise could a miserly two seconds seem so unbearably long? I spend the next four seconds returning to the start position and then the whole horror starts all over again.

Slowly, panic spreads through the ranks of the lumbar extensors. At the end of my first therapy session, they spontaneously gather for a crisis meeting. A completely breathless multifidus muscle sums up their fears. “I don’t like to tempt Providence but what are going to do if this idiot goes “Kiesering” again? A paralysing silence sinks over the rows of muscles. “We serve notice,” bellows the chorus of small, bright red small intertransversarii muscles. Every muscle is in turmoil and arming itself against a renewed attack. This exceeds even their worst fears. Put simply, Kieser is dastardly. At each therapy session, muscles are subject to unrelenting pressure. This triggers an arms race that catapults the back muscles up to a strength far in excess of previous levels. Gradually, they are wrenched from their slumber and suddenly put in a top performance. Initially, the spine is completely speechless. The last time it had such a stable muscle corset was as a teenager – if at all. And the pain? It gradually realises that it is fighting a losing battle but launches a rearguard action, fighting every inch of the way. In the end, it simply gives up.. The muscles are amazed and sum up the situation – somewhat wistfully: nothing beats the meanness of Kieser!

Title | Know your body: Muscles, Bones & Co | Technology & Training | Strength for Life | ARCHIVE