How I Organize My Clients and My Documents

In this post I want to show you how I organize my clients and my documents. Here are samples of my documents, which include my professional profile, my training schedule, legend and goals, my training philosophy, my affirmation and my healthy food schedule.

Here in my professional profile I show who I am (education, and my philosophy)

Now you will look at my training schedule, which helps me to track my progress.



Here you will find my legend and goals

Of course i will share with you my Training Philosophy and my Affirmations





MY AFFIRMATION

-          I am an efficient, energetic, healthy fit woman who can handle anything that arises today.

-          I can easily see myself at my healthy weight and I work daily to achieve this goal.

-          I weight exactly what I want to weight, because everyday my relationship with food becomes healthier.





At the end of this post I want to thank our teacher Mr. Roburt Tranter for all the help and support he gave us to create our wedsites and be organized.

IN PROGRESS CLIENT-TRAINER RELATIONSHIP

Through our Personal Fitness Consultant program I am experiencing our 2nd 3 month client-trainer relationship. Here is the proces: I train someone from my class for 3 months and they train me for 3 months.

We prepare each others Par-Q (Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire), health history and short/ long terms goals. Utilizing this information we make up different training programs that will lead us to the results (short/long term goals), like weight loss, muscle mass and extra strength.

My client wanted to lose body fat (decrease waist measurement to 23inches) and increase free fat mass. She used to be an athlete (gymnast), so for the first 4 weeks I delivered different kinds of workout programmes I enjoyed her personality, then we started serious training.

Diet is a bit of an issue due to the fact she is single, working mom and also attending school. So, needless to say she can't always look after herself the way she wants because of her love for her kids and always wanting to provide the best for them.
I want to show videos for some of her workouts, I am very proud of her and are grateful to work with her because she is special in all aspects. At the end of 3 months you will know why feel this way.

Here I am representing my classmate who also is my client.

Here I am showing how my client is performing Ball Knee Crunch

Yoga Intemediate Exercises.

Today I want to share some Yoga Intermediate exercises that you can perform at your home. Which will help you to manage your everyday stress and make you relax. Hope you enjoy it, it will only take 15 to 20 second of  your time.

Mountain Pose
Technique: Stand up straight with your legs together or hip wide apart. Straigten your shoulders. Extend your spine, the entire body up (by lifting your head up). Realize your balance point, when your body is steady, and relax maintaining your stability.

Revolved Side Angle Pose with Rotation To Left Leg
Technique : Put your feet at the length of your leg. Stretch arms to your sides. Rotate your left foot 90 degrees and your right foot about 15 degrees to the left. Rotate your pelvis and torso as much to the left as you can. Bend your left knee trying to reach 90 degrees. Keep your right leg straight and firm with the heel on the floor. Rotate your torso more to the left and try to move your right shoulder behind your left knee and put your right hand on the floor behind your left foot. Raise your left arm. try to look up at your hand.

Revolved Side Angle Pose with Rotation To Right Leg
Technique : Put your feet at the length of your leg. Stretch arms to your sides. Rotate your right foot 90 degrees and your left foot about 15 degrees to the right. Rotate your pelvis and torso as much to the left as you can. Bend your right knee trying to reach 90 degrees. Keep your left leg straight and firm with the heel on the floor. Rotate your torso more to the right and try to move your left shoulder behind your right knee and put your left hand on the floor behind your right foot. Raise your right arm. try to look up at your hand.

Wide-Legged Forward Bend
Technique:  Stand up straight. Put your feet wide apart, at the length of your leg. Press your palms against your back and bend forward arching a little. Put your palms on the floor and arch. try to tighten the back of your legs. Extend your pelvic bones up. Look straight.

You can do it as circuate, rep. 3 times.

To Whom It May Concern

Today I want to share my learning experience. I am kind of student who can't learn only by reading the book. I need to hear my teacher voice and see his expression (I'll explain more).

I am student in Medix School, under PTS (Personal Training Specialist) program, my teacher is Mr. Roburt Tranter. He is teacher who has his own style of learning, first he wants us to have fun learning because everything you are having fun will stick in your memory, second he always try to tell us interesting knowledge that is related to the lesson, third he always make sure we got the lesson, either by showing video or by doing acts of his own.

That is why I never love to miss his class so that not a bit f knowledge be missed.

Be Successful by Learning from Others best

After 6 months school and training and months to come till graduation, each day we are experiencing new stuff. But the best part is to learn without surrounding ourselves with egos.

Today I want to share my new learning experience by learning from my classmate best.

Our teacher gave us "Exercise Demo checklist" homework to do with partners. So my partner and I took a spot and started our "Exercise Demo Checklist" one of the points was to provide "Imagery Cues". To be honest I am more realistic and I don't feel good in imagining thing but I tried my best, as for my partner really impressed me how she made me imagine the work out to be done and not only made it smooth but i felt I had fun, which is the most important thing we have to do with our client so that they don't get bored.

I know I made you anxious what she said. The exercise she chose was Bicep Curl (the muscle on your front arm).

How to perform: you have to flex your arm, by raising your forearm to your arm. 

The "Imagery Cues" that she gave me was: " Imagine you are holding your lovely daughter and bringing her up and giving her sweet kiss and putting her back on the floor".

Isn 't the most sweet thing ever to be said and believe me every repetition I was performing I was imagining what she asked me to image and felt happiness deep inside me.  Thank you my friend and my classmate for teaching me new style of describing exercises.  When we become humble and open for new things to learn, for sure we will be very SUCCESSFUL!!

How Fitness Help to Cop our Grief and Lost

When grieving, you may feel as if you are helpless. But you can take charge of your

health and participate in regular exercise, which may help you cope during the grieving process.

Remember that grief is a normal emotion, and you will heal over time.

Grief causes tremendous stress on the body. Unresolved grief can trigger depression, anxiety, substance abuse and health problems, according to HelpGuide.org. Grief may weaken your immune system and cause you to feel fatigued often. Taking care of yourself while grieving becomes especially important.

Exercise helps take your mind off your concerns. Physical activity releases endorphins, natural chemicals in your body that can help enhance your mood, decrease stress hormones and improve sleeping patterns. Aim for 30 minutes or more of exercise a day, for three to five days a week. Try to get enough sleep and eat properly as well.

Walking is one of the easiest, most convenient ways to incorporate physical activity into your daily routine. Walk outside and observe nature. Walk in the sunlight to stimulate the production of Vitamin D and increase serotonin levels in the brain. Ask a friend to join you, because you will benefit from social support at this time. Stretch before and after walking to prevent muscle cramps. Even short walks can help you feel better.

Practice deep breathing. Imagine yourself breathing in love, and breathing out sorrow. Focus on your abdomen, noticing it rise and fall. Allow yourself to experience emotion and soften your belly, rather than tensing it. Attempts to numb pain can cause tension in your body. Practice this exercise for 15 minutes a day if you can.

Performing any activity that gets your heart pumping can help improve your mental health. Like traditional physical activity then try running, jogging, swimming or cycling.

Next time I will write more about holistic living ways to cop our grief and lost…..

IN THE MEMORY OF ARINE TCHERCHIAN

J.T. Challenging and Motivating Story

J.T is 38 years old male, married, have 3 hyperactive kids and attending school. So you can imagine how stressful is his life. But with all his hectic life he was very committed client and willing to do any routine.

Because he wanted to increase his cardio, loose body fat and increase muscle strength and endurance, each time I gave him different routine (Monday work on upper body muscles, Wednesday work on lower body muscles and Friday work whole body muscles mostly Plyometric which helps preventing injuries).

When we started our training his weight was 183lb and his BMI 29, now after three month training he weights 173.4lb and his BMI is 27.2, which makes me say proudly “ I am very proud of you my client because together we reached to one of your goals and that is to lose 10lb in 3 month”

As for body measurement one of most important body part that we all have to be careful is our waist measurement which can lead us to lots of diseases . My client waist measurement at the beginning was 38 inc, now his waist is 36.8.

With weights exercises he made double progress, example: bicep pull down he use to do 40lb now he can do 80lb. Bird dog exercise he used to hold for 60sec now he can hold for 180sec. This can make me check on the second and third goal to be flexible and balanced. All this encourage him to keep consistent.

In this journey we both learned from each other. J.T. used to be closed not showing or talking about his feelings but now I feel he is so comfortable and I enjoy that. As for me I learned from my client as much as possible not to be over reacting and try to take it easy.

Thank you my dear client, I really enjoyed every single moment with you as your trainer and now I can say: WE DID IT!!

Resistance Training can help smokers kick the habit

Today proudly I can say researches one more time proved that exercise (Resistance Training) is so benefitial for us not only to lose weight, stress, diffrent kind of disease but also good news it helps smokers to kick their smoking habit.
I found this article from ScienceDaily and I want to share it with you as it is:
"
Although exercise has been shown to reduce many of the negative experiences that accompany quitting, such as cigarette cravings, withdrawal symptoms and weight gain, the majority of these studies have focused only on women and only on aerobic exercise. The Miriam study, published online by the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, is the first to examine resistance training as an aid for smoking cessation.
According to the findings, male and female smokers who completed a 12-week resistance training regimen as part of a standard smoking cessation treatment program were twice as likely to successfully quit compared to those who did not regularly lift weights.
"Cigarette smoking kills more than a thousand Americans every day, and while the large majority of smokers want to quit, less than five percent are able to do it without help," said lead author Joseph Ciccolo, Ph.D., an exercise psychologist, researcher and physiologist with The Miriam Hospital's Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine. "We need any new tools that can help smokers successfully quit and it appears resistance training could potentially be an effective strategy."
In their pilot study, Ciccolo and colleagues enrolled 25 male and female smokers between the ages of 18 and 65 who reported smoking at least five cigarettes a day for the past year or more. All participants received a 15-20 minute smoking cessation counseling session as well as an 8-week supply of the nicotine patch before being randomized into two groups.
The resistance training group engaged in two, 60-minute training sessions per week for 12 weeks. The full-body routine involved 10 exercises, with researchers gradually increasing weight and intensity every three weeks. Participants in the control group watched a brief health and wellness video twice a week.
At the end of the 12 weeks, 16 percent of smokers in the resistance training group had not only quit smoking, but they also decreased their body weight and body fat. In comparison, 8 percent of individuals in the control group had quit smoking, yet they increased their body weight and fat.
And the effects appear to be long-lasting: three months after the study was completed, 15 percent of those in the resistance training group had successfully maintained their quit attempt compared to 8 percent of the control group.
Although Ciccolo says the study's results are "promising," he cautions that further research is needed before resistance training can be used as a clinical treatment for smoking cessation.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 46 million American adults were current smokers in 2009 -- or about one out of five people. Smoking costs the United States approximately $193 billion each year in health care expenditures and lost productivity.
The study was funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute. Co-authors included Shira I. Dunsinger, Ph.D. and Ernestine G. Jennings, Ph.D. of The Miriam Hospital's Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine; David M. Williams, Ph.D. of Brown University; John B. Bartholomew, Ph.D. of the University of Texas at Austin; Michael H. Ussher, Ph.D., of St. George University of London; William J. Kraemer, Ph.D. of the University of Connecticut; and Bess H. Marcus, Ph.D., of the University of California at San Diego"

Mental Training

In order for athletes to get the most out of their performance, it is critical for them to understand the value of developing a strong mental game to complement their physical abilities.Sport psychology professionals need to educate the sports community on the value of mental training by highlighting the mental factors to its limit and to enhance athletic performance.
But this does not apply to athletes only, it applies to all of us to know the value of mental training by understanding our limitations and enhancing our performances to reach our goals.
OUR MIND HAS BEEN MADE UP NOT BY THE TRUTH, BUT THROUGH OUR PERCEPTIONS AND THE WAY WE’VE TALKED TO OURSELVES.
Today article will include some mental training specific words like:
1.- Scotoma
2.- Efficacy
3.- Potential
4.- Conditioning
What is Scotoma and how we can use Scotoma to our benefit:
Scotoma means blind spot, it is a good thing if we are reading or concentrating on certain thing , because we block out the crowd. But also is bad if it is used as inability to understand or perceive certain matters. Like when we have a certain problem and we are looking at it from certain view and not letting ourselves the chance to look at it in every aspects, here your Scotoma not letting you look out of the box.
Definition of Efficacy:
Efficacy means our appraisal of our ability to cause what we want.
But the problem with that is it’s our present belief inside us. That anxiety or tension inside us causes us to back up our dream to what we presently think we are good at. THAT’S WRONG that is why I will be more than happy to have discussion column and all your comments and ideas will be discussed.
Potential is our capability of being or becoming but not yet in existence, latent. To inforce the potential we need inner strength to make it happen.
Conditioning in our life happens due to our past information and what we stored in our subconscious what we call it believes. A predisposition to a mode of behavior given the appropriate stimulus.
Why I am talking about this four words, because this four words are the beginning of knowing ourselves and willing to change so that we can reach our goals, I worded it in a very simple language but now I will talk more professionally.
The reason we can look right at something and not see it is because of the way we have been conditioned. Our past conditioning influences what we allow our senses to receive or interpret. Here Scotoma need to be recognized and know that “ the answer is always there” we have to change our Efficacy, learn to grow bigger than what was bigger than us. This is the right way to think and this way we raise our Potential level because WE NEED TO BE POSITIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE ALL THE TIME.
This will lead us next week to a new article and exciting subjects……

Potato chips, french fries and the scale going up

It was and still our biggest weakness of our emotional history and sweetest smelling and tasting memory. I found this latest research which I would highly recommend you to read it because it inlight us how to be careful not to lead our kids into weight gain over the years. I will put the article as it is:

"Eating more potato chips and French fries is likely to lead to a bigger weight gain over the years than the weight change associated with eating more of other foods, new research indicates.

The study, from the New England Journal of Medicine, stands out because it quantifies how much weight a person is likely to gain or lose over four years based on one additional daily serving of a range of specific foods. Eating more potatoes correlated with a gain of 1.28 pounds, with French fries in particular associated with a 3.35-pound gain.

There isn't much comprehensive research into specific diet and lifestyle factors behind the creeping weight gain—about a pound a year—the average adult experiences.

The authors say their study points to a different kind of dietary advice for avoiding extra pounds associated with aging. "This suggests that the path to eating fewer calories is not simply to count calories, but to focus on consuming a more healthy diet in general," the study's lead author, Dariush Mozaffarian, associate professor in the department of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, said in an email.

The Harvard researchers looked at three separate long-term studies covering 120,877 women and men who weren't obese and who were healthy when the studies began. (They were mostly white, educated and in the U.S.) Scientists analyzed periodic lifestyle and diet questionnaires the participants filled out over the years and identified items associated with weight gain or loss.

This type of study can't definitively say that certain foods cause weight changes. But it found one additional daily serving of potato chips was associated with a 1.69-pound gain; sugary drinks, processed meat and red meat were associated with about a one-pound gain. Eating more fruits and vegetables, nuts, whole grains and yogurt correlated with slight weight loss over four years. Big jumps in physical activity were associated with smaller weight gains, and increased TV-viewing with bigger gains.

Marion Nestle, New York University professor of nutrition and public health, expressed surprise that potato products were linked with more weight gain than desserts like cake, cookies and doughnuts, which contribute the most calories to the American diet, other research shows. She says she suspects people who eat potato chips and fries also tend to eat too much in general, making these foods markers for a diet leading to weight gain.

In a statement, the American Beverage Association said that the industry is committed to anti-obesity efforts, noting several other foods were associated with bigger weight gains than sugar-sweetened drinks. The National Potato Council was unavailable for comment. A Frito-Lay spokesman had no comment.

—Shalini Ramachandran contributed to this article.

One additional daily serving of potato chips was associated with a 1.69-pound gain.

Grape Seed May Ward Off Alzheimer's

I found out this artical and I am quoting as it is:
Grape seed contains natural antioxidants called polyphenols that may help ward off Alzheimer's Disease, according to researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City who write about their findings in a paper about to be published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

Previous studies have suggested that the small soluble clusters of A-beta protein, called "oligomers", found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's, are what poison brain cells and cause the memory loss associated with the disease. They also have the same effect in mice bred to develop Alzheimer's.

Previous research has also shown that grape seed polyphenolic extract (GSPE) stops A-beta oligomers being formed in "test tubes", and it also reduces cognitive impairment and the characteristic brain degeneration seen in mice bred to develop Alzheimer's Disease.

For this study, Dr Giulio Maria Pasinetti, The Saunder Family Professor in Neurology, and Professor of Psychiatry and Geriatrics and Adult Development at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and colleagues, teamed up with researchers from the University of Minnesota, led by Dr Karen Hsiao Ashe.

For five months, theyy gave GSPE to transgenic mice bred to develop Alzheimer's Disease. After this time, they found the mice's brains had significantly reduced levels of A-beta*56, a specific form of A-beta oligomer previously implicated in the promotion of Alzheimer's disease memory loss. But levels of other A-beta compounds remained unchanged.

Thus they concluded that GSPE was a safe, low-cost intervention that can selectively lower levels of memory-impairing A-beta oligomer in live subjects, and "strongly suggest that GSPE should be further tested as a potential prevention and/or therapy for AD [Alzheimer's Disease]".

Pasinetti told the press that:

"Since naturally occurring polyphenols are also generally commercially available as nutritional supplements and have negligible adverse events even after prolonged periods of treatment, this new finding holds significant promise as a preventive method or treatment, and is being tested in translational studies in Alzheimer's disease patients."

Red wine also contains a lot of grape-derived polyphenols.

However, Pasinetti and colleagues emphasized that before we can use these polyphenols, we first have to identify a biomarker of disease that would identify who might be at high risk for developing Alzheimer's.

"It will be critical to identify subjects who are at high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, so that we can initiate treatments very early and possibly even in asymptomatic patients," explained Pasinetti.

But he also said patients who are already in the first stages of the disease may also benefit from early intervention with such a treatment.

Funds from the National Institutes of Health helped pay for the study and Pasinetti is a named inventor of a pending patent application related to the study of Alzheimer's disease, and would benefit from a share of the proceeds should a license be granted.

"Grape Seed Polyphenolic Extract Specifically Decreases A[beta]*56 in the Brains of Tg2576 Mice."Peng Liu, Lisa J. Kemper, Jun Wang, Kathleen R. Zahs, Karen H. Ashe, Giulio M. Pasinetti
JAD 2011, Volume 26, Number 4, IN PRESS

Bigger Bites Means Eating Less, So Go For A Bigger Fork

Ok for a long period of time we are used to hear that to eat less and have good figure you have to eat with small fork so that it limits your appetite. It seems recent researches are showing that it was wrong myth. So it is nice to always update ourselves to keep up our high expectations of ourselves. Enjoy the article.
The larger your fork and the bigger your bite when you eat, the less you will probably end up eating when you are in a restaurant, say researchers from the University of Utah in the Journal of Consumer Research. They used two sizes of forks in a popular Italian restaurant to measure how much people ate, and found that the participants who used the larger forks ate less than those with smaller ones.

Authors Arul Mishra, Himanshu Mishra, and Tamara M. Masters wrote:

"In this research we examined the influence of small versus large bite-sizes on overall quantity of food consumed."
They then set out to determine why their findings went against other studies that had focused on portion sizes.
The researchers wrote:"We observe that diners visit the restaurant with a well-defined goal of satiating their hunger and because of this well-defined goal they are willing to invest effort and resources to satiate their hunger goal."
A diner is able to satisfy his/her hunger by selecting, consuming and paying for their food. All these steps require an investment of effort on their part.
Arul Mishra said:
"The fork size provided the diners with a means to observe their goal progress. The physiological feedback of feeling full or the satiation signal comes with a time lag. In its absence diners focus on the visual cue of whether they are making any dent on the food on their plate to assess goal progress."
In order to test this supposition, they altered the quantities of food. They found that when presented with a plate loaded with food, those with large forks ate considerably less than those with small ones.
However, the amount of food consumed was not influenced by fork size when they were given small servings.
When they tried this out with volunteers in a laboratory, their results were the opposite - those with small forks ate less than the ones with the larger forks. The researchers think this is because the people in the lab did not have the same hunger satiating goals as the individuals in the restaurant.
We need to have a better understanding of hunger cues if we want to avoid overeating, they added.
They wrote"People do not have clear internal cues about the appropriate quantity to consume. They allow external cues, such as fork size, to determine the amount they should consume."

The Connection between Thoughts and the Body

The human mind is powerful and has the ability to impact bodily processes. Individuals who experience persistent depression, stress, worry and sadness often suffer from a weakened immune system and a wide range of health problems, including heart disease and high blood pressure. Thoughts are powerful. They affect your heart rate. When you are embarrassed or scared, for example, your face might turn red, your heart might beat faster and your body temperature might increase. These are all indications that your mind and body are interconnected.

Conversely, positive thoughts can create healing effects in your body. A daily practice of meditation, for example, has been known to reduce stress and increase the body's relaxation and general sense of well being. Meditation lowers the heart rate. It also reduces cortisol levels, which are stress hormones that can harm your body. Meditation has also been known to reduce blood pressure and improve breathing patterns.

Using the Power of Thought to Increase Health

One of the simplest ways to use the power of thought to impact your physical health is to become aware of your thoughts. Meditation as a regimented daily practice is a useful approach. Choose a time of day when your surroundings are quiet and free of distractions. Devoting just 10 minutes a day to this practice can make a difference. Sit quietly and focus on your breath. Breathe normally and relax your body as much as possible. When thoughts enter your mind, simply notice them and let them pass. The goal is to clear your mind and access a sense of stillness and presence.

As you go about your day, pay attention to your thoughts. When you experience stress or frustration, ask yourself what thoughts you are having. For example, if your child is taking too long to get ready in the morning, causing you frustration, stop and examine your thoughts. It may be that you are worried you will be late for work and your boss will be upset with you. Try to replace the thought with something more positive. Think about all of the quality work that you have done in the past for the company and how being a few minutes late might not make a difference in the bigger picture.

Positive Thoughts and Your Workout

Positive thoughts are energizing. When you develop the habit of thinking good thoughts, you will often find yourself empowered to do more with your day. This extends to your workout regimen. People who are depressed have a difficult time sticking to a regular exercise routine. When you consciously control your thoughts, replacing negative mental commentary with positive thoughts, you might find that you have extra energy to work out every day.

CARDIOVASCULAR EXERCISES

Cardiovascularexercise decrease your risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and other life-threatening disease.

This type of exercise is called "aerobic" which means with oxygen. Involves steady, continuous motion of the large muscles which places a large and continuous energy demand on the heart, Should be intensive enough to raise and sustain your heartbeat to a target heart range of (60 - 80%) for at least 20-30min. minimum 3 times a week.
Check with health care professional if you are.
- Smoker
- Suffer from a chronic medical condition
- Have a personal or family history of heart disease.

The Benefit of Cardiovascular Exercises
It can burn a lot of calories
One of the benefits of cardiovascular exercise is that it is a good way to burn calories. Still, to lose weight with cardiovascular exercise - you need to do it for longer periods of time and more frequently to lose weight. It is best to try and both decrease your caloric intake and start a cardiovascular exercise program at the same time.
Can raise you metabolic rateSome studies have shown that with regular cardiovascular exercise your resting metabolic level will increase. This is one way in which it can help you to lose weight.
Decreases Risk of cardiovascular diseaseSome research suggests that even just walking 20 minutes, three times a week and can lower your risk of heart diseases

Types of Cardiovascular Exercise
There many types of cardiovascular exercise. Cardiovascular exercise is something that involves using the larger muscles like your legs. So as you can imagine there are many different way to do this. They can be divided up into a number of different categories. Indoors and outdoors exercise and with or without special exercise equipment.
Outside Cardiovascular Exercise
This includes running, walking, jogging, bicycling, jump-roping, swimming and some types of skiing
Indoor Cardiovascular Exercise The indoor types of cardiovascular exercise include using treadmills, stationary bicycles, stairclimbers, rowing machines, elliptical trainers and ladder climbers.

You may have noticed from the list above that for the most part the types of cardiovascular exercises you can do outside tend to be the ones that do not need any kind of special equipment. That is true for the most part. However, even when running or walking you should make sure that you wear the right kind of shoes - or you may injure your feet. Also, when bicyling you should wear a helmet. And of course, you need a jump rope to be able to go jump-roping!

For the most part though the indoor equipment is kind of expensive stuff. You may want to try some yard sales to see if you can find some of that equipment cheaper there first.

But, overall there are still many different types of cardiovascular exercise. What is best for one person may not be for another, depending upon your needs.

SHIN SPLITS

What are shin splints?
The term shin splints is a name often given to any pain at the front of the lower leg. However, true shin splints symptoms occur at the front inside of the shin bone and can arise from a number of causes.
- Pain over the inside lower half of the shin.
- Pain at the start of exercise which often eases as the session continues
- Pain often returns after activity and may be at its worse the next morning.
- Sometimes some swelling.
- Lumps and bumps may be felt when feeling the inside of the shin bone.
- Pain when the toes or foot are bent downwards.
- A redness over the inside of the shin (not always present).

Causes

Shin splints can be caused by a number of factors which are mainly:

          Overpronation of the feet           Oversupination of the feet

Inadequate footwear
Increasing training too quickly
Running on hard surfaces
Decreased flexibility at the ankle joint

Shin Splints Treatment

Treatment for shin splints is as simple as reducing pain and inflammation, identifying training and biomechanical problems which may have helped cause the injury initially, restoring muscles to their original condition and gradually returning to training.

What can the athlete do about shin splints?

Rest to allow the injury to heal.
Apply
Stretch the muscles of the lower leg. In particular the tibialis posterior which is associated with shin splints.
Wear
Maintain fitness with other non weight bearing exercises such as swimming, cycling or running in water.
Apply heat and use a heat retainer or shin and calf support after the initial acute stage and particularly before training. This can provide support and compression to the lower leg helping to reduce the strain on the muscles. It will also retain the natural heat which causes blood vessels to dilate and increases the flow of blood to the tissues to aid healing.ice or cold therapy in the early stages, particularly when it is very painful. Cold therapy reduces pain and inflammation. shock absorbing insoles in shoes. This helps reduce the shock on the lower leg. Prevention of shin splints
Increase training gradually.
Do not run too often on hard surfaces. You can do more training if you run off-road.
Avoid running a lot on your toes. Not easy if you are a sprinter but varying the training surface can help. Ensure you have the correct footwear and that it is not too old. A pair of running shoes will have lost most of their cushioning after 400 miles. If you run few miles but your shoes are over 6 months old then they still may need replacing.
Check you do not over pronate. See a podiatrist or Sports injury therapist / Physiotherapist that can assess this.
Continue to stretch properly - especially the muscles at the back of the lower leg.
Get a regular sports massage. This will help keep the muscles of the lower leg supple and in good condition.
Apply ice to the shin after training. This may help keep inflammation down before it gets bad.
Wear a shock absorbing insole. Strengthening the muscles of the lower leg can begin after the initial painful, inflamed phase has passed. Strengthening should be a gradual process and exercises should always be pain free.
Toe raises are a good starting point when looking to strengthen the shin muscles. Start with only a few repetitions and gradually increase the numbers.- The patient should be sat with both feet flat on the floor.
- Keeping the heel on the ground, the patient should lift the rest of the foot up as high as possible.
- Hold for a couple of seconds before slowly returning the foot back to the floor
- Repeat 10-20 times and increase to performing 2-3 sets.
To strengthen all of the lower leg muscles, perform calf raises. These can initially be performed both legs together before being progressed to single leg only.
Calf raise

- Stand with the feet should width apart and knees straight. Make sure you have something to hold on to.
- Lift the heels off the floor as high as possible and slowly return to the floor.Progress on to one foot only
- This can be progressed even further by standing on a step with the heel off the back and lower the heel down past the level of the step.
Walking the length of a room either on the toes or on the heels will help to strengthen the calf and shin muscles respectively. Make sure you do this slowly and under complete control.
Resisted dorsiflexion Dorsiflexion is the ankle movement where the toes are pointed towards the ceiling. To progress in strengthening the shin muscles resistance should be used in the form of either pressure from a partner, or even easier, a resistance band.
The patient should be sat on the floor with both legs straight.
Loop the middle of the band around the upper foot (just below the toes), pass both ends of the band behind the other foot and up the outside of the other leg and hold the ends there.
Push down on the band with the other foot to make it taught.
Move against the resistance of the band to point the toes towards the ceiling. Return to the starting position under complete control. Walking the length of a room either on the toes or on the heels will help to strengthen the calf and shin muscles respectively. Make sure you do this slowly and under complete control.Gastrocnemius and Soleus) are tight.

The muscles at the front of the shin (especially Tibialis Anterior) also require stretching. Heel walking / Toe walkingResisted dorsiflexion

- The patient should be sat on the floor with both legs straight.
- Loop the middle of the band around the upper foot (just below the toes), pass both ends of the band behind the other foot and up the outside of the other leg and hold the ends there.
- Push down on the band with the other foot to make it taught.
- Move against the resistance of the band to point the toes towards the ceiling. Return to the starting position under complete control. Stretching
In most cases of shin splints, the calf muscles (Gastrocnemius stretches)

The Gastronemius muscle is the largest and most superficial of the calf muscles. It crosses the knee joint to attach to the Femur (thigh bone) and so to stretch the Gastrocnemius muscle, the knee must be straight. There are various ways of stretching this muscle, here are the two most common:

- The patient stands facing a wall with a wide stance and the leg to be stretched behind.

- They keep the heel down and the knee straight as they lean forwards, using the wall for balance and something to push against.
- A gentle stretch should be felt in the back of the lower leg. Hold this position for 30 seconds and repeat 3 times.
- The patient stands on a step making sure there is something to hold on to (a wall or banister etc).
- The toes should be positioned on the step, with the heel over the egde.
- The heel is slowly lowered, keeping the knee straight, until a stretch can be felt (image 2). Hold the position for 30 seconds and repeat 3 times.
This stretch can be performed both feet together to start with but is more effective performed one leg at a time.

Soleus stretch
The soleus muscle is located underneath the larger Gastrocnemius and it doesn't cross the knee joint. Therefore to stretch this muscle the knee must be bent to relax the overlying Gastrocnemius. - The patient should stand facing a wall with the foot of the calf to be stretched at the back.
- The knee of the back leg should be bent towards the wall, keeping the heel on the floor.
- A stretch should be felt in the lower part of the back of the calf. hold this position for 30 seconds and repeat 3 times.Seated shin stretch
Stretching the muscles on the front of the lower leg can be difficult to achieve. The following are the two easiest ways of doing so.

- Kneel down and sit on your heels.
- Gently push down on the heels to stretch the front of the leg.
- Hold the stretch for 30 seconds and repeat 3 times.
- This stretch can be increased by stretching one leg at a time and gently pulling the knee up

Standing shin stretch
- Hold this position for 30 seconds and repeat 3 times.

- Stand with your toes of one foot on the floor on the outside of your other foot.
- Bend the weight bearing leg to push your other ankle towards the ground.

- Dorsiflexion is the ankle movement where the toes are pointed towards the ceiling.

To progress in strengthening the shin muscles resistance should be used in the form of either pressure from a partner, or even easier, a resistance band. Toe raises are a good starting point when looking to strengthen the shin muscles. Start with only a few repetitions and gradually increase the numbers.

Rest to allow the injury to heal. Apply
Stretch the muscles of the lower leg. In particular the tibialis posterior which is associated with shin splints.
Wear Maintain fitness with other non weight bearing exercises such as swimming, cycling or running in water.
Apply heat and use a heat retainer or shin and calf support after the initial acute stage and particularly before training. This can provide support and compression to the lower leg helping to reduce the strain on the muscles. It will also retain the natural heat which causes blood vessels to dilate and increases the flow of blood to the tissues to aid healing.

StrengtheningToe raises  The most common cause is Symptoms of shin splints: