Off the coast of Croatia exist two Islets name Pod Kopiste and Pod Mrcaru. In 1971 a group of researchers transported 5 pairs of Podarcic sicula lizards from Pod Kopiste to Pod Mrcaru where at the time, the species did not populate. Some 35 years later, a second group of researchers travelled to Pod Mrcaru to investigate what had transpired with the lizards over that relatively brief time. They found that the lizard species that had been transported there from Pod Kopiste were flourishing, however marked adaptations had occurred in the Pod Mrcaru lizards.
Their skulls had become longer, wider and taller and changes were also seen in their digestive system, to facilitate the digestion of the more vegetarian diet compared to their ancestors on Pod Kopiste who still subsided almost completely on a diet of insects. Remarkable, obvious divergence had occurred in only half a human lifetime (1).
We humans are also susceptible to adapting to our environment- perhaps not as obviously from generation to generation as those little Croatian lizards but if observed closely with a trained eye it is easy to observe an individual adapting to a change in environment.
Think about the environment that you exist in for the majority of your time:
Forget for one moment that you go walking for 45mins every morning and focus on what you do for the remaining 15.15hrs (assuming you sleep for 8 hours every night!). The majority of?working Australian adults?spend the vast majority of their waking life sitting in a chair. Sit and eat breakfast, hop in the car to drive to work, sit at a computer for 8+ hours with small breaks scattered around, hop back in the car and drive home, sit to eat dinner, then pull up a chair and watch TV or read until bed-time.
The adaptations to this lifestyle are plain to see:
Hips become tight around the front and the muscles deconditioned around the back; the rib-cage collapses forward into a slump and the head falls with it accordingly; fine spinal-stabilising muscles lie dormant and atrophy. This is the common Western Human.
My environment is vastly different to the typical: I also drive to work but once there I am on my feet for 8+ hours almost constantly in motion. I am bending, twisting, lifting, squatting, pushing and pulling all-day and as a consequence I am not susceptible to predictable postural consequences. Lucky me.
So what happens when someone from a sedentary environment is thrust into my world? Statistics show that injury is likely. Shockingly, 25-38% of individuals who commence training in a gym will develop an injury as a consequence within the first year of training (2,3). Damning stuff. Quite contrary to all the flashy, smiley marketing hyperbole so common in fitness industry advertising.
This needn?t be the case.
Some Fitness Professionals revel in the persona of Sadist, plunging their clients into a sink-or-swim battle?for survival from the get-go. Very few of us have the capacity to survive, yet alone thrive in that environment. Performing new movements contrary to your current daily activities is a challenge in itself. Doing those movement against resistance, at speed and under pressure from a trainer bleating in your ear only douse the fire with petrol.
Thankfully the Fitness Industry, led by accrediting body Fitness Australia is evolving, and partnerships are being fostered with ESSA (Exercise Physiologists) and the SMA (Sports Medicine Association) to help guide this progression.
In the future it will be easy for consumers to chose a Fitness facility that is of a high professional standard but in the meantime I recommend the following tips to audit Fitness Professionals when you enter this strange new gym environment:
- Is a standardised metabolic health screen conducted and the information you give (re risk factors) considered and spoken about?
- Is a thorough physical assessment completed prior to the commencement of a program? This could include a postural assessment, flexibility assessment, gait assessment, movement assessment (squat/single-legged squat, push-up), neuromuscular assessment (glute activation, core activation) to name a few.
- Is the information gathered from the above physical assessments used to guide your exercise programming?
- Does your program evolve in consideration of how you are evolving?
- Are you instructed on appropriate homework exercises and flexibility training to complement your gym sessions?
Fitness centres exist across Australia that if presented with the above questions, a series of firm NOs would be the answers given. If you invest your money there, set some aside for your Physiotherapy bills.
People seek out fitness centres because they want to improve one or many aspects of their health. Developing an injury is not a healthy pursuit. Understand and accept that if for whatever reason your life has become sedentary that you will need to be considerate of the adaptation process required when you start training. I hope the Professionals you find are as well.
1. Dawkins, R. 2009. The Greatest show on Earth. Transworld Publishers, London.
2. Hootman, JM, Macera, CA, Ainsworth, BE, Addy, CL, Martin, M & Blair, SN 2002, ?Epidemiology of musculoskeletal injuries among sedentary and physically active adults?, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 838-844.
3. Sedgwick, A, Smith, D & Davies, M 1988, ?Musculoskeletal status of men and women who entered a fitness programme?, The Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 148, no. 8, pp. 385, 388-391.
Source: http://informhealth.com/resolve-to-evolve/
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