That Kinesiology Guy

           Today is National Health and Fitness Day, as recognized by the Canadian Kinesiology alliance. It had me thinking, what does it mean to be healthy and fit? This is what I thought of in my professional opinion.

           Taking care of your health extends beyond lifting heavy weights to get big, being able to touch your toes bending down, or going out for a stroll every day. When I think of what being healthy means, I consider 6 dimensions that influence our wellness and where our homeostasis finds its balance. You will find that these dimensions do not exist in their own vacuum. One aspect of your life will influence another in varying degrees. What you may agree with me is that purposeful physical activity can offer direct benefits to each one of these dimensions.

           The first dimension is the name of the game, as far as my scope of practice is concerned, and what I can influence the most: Physical health. The ability for the anatomy and physiology of our whole body to function as it should. It is not enough to be merely absent of disease. We need to feel like we can move how we want our body to. Our body is not meant for sedentary pursuits; there are a number of deleterious effects that occur when we do not move around enough. We also have to ensure we’re taking in the proper nutrients through whole foods while also enjoying our snacks consciously. The average Canadian spends their last ten years unhealthy because we developed a disconnect on what we’re putting in our bodies, as well as neglecting exercise. If you don’t know what to look for, or how to get started, we are here to help you. Sometimes all that people need is reassurance that living a healthier lifestyle is within their powers. And it is never to late to start thinking about the habits we engage in. So, for better physical health, exercise in good amounts at the proper intensity, reduce or break-up the time spent sedentary, and be mindful of what you ingest in all its forms.

           The second dimension I would like to bring up is mental health. There is a lot at play when we are physically active. Brain-derived neurotrophic factors, endorphins, motor cortex plasticity. Something as simple as walking outside 30 minutes a day does wonders for your brain. Engaging in physical activity, especially sports, allow you to challenge your brain through developing strategies, patterns, and predicting the movement and behaviour of those around you. The brain weighs about 3 pounds, yet uses about 25% of your total energy during that day. Make sure that energy is put to good use. Have sound thoughts throughout the day. Reduce stress to avoid any excess or deficiency in key hormones and neurotransmitters. Abstain using anything that can result in chemical dependency. There are substances that might make you feel right at the moment while self-medicating. However, there are independent and dependent pathways that can wreck havoc on your brain. If you are unsure about your current mental state, seek a licensed Psychologist. It is a very important organ, so be kind to it.

           Closely related to mental health is our third dimension: Emotional health. There is a myriad of emotions out there. Some of these are tied to language or built-in from culture. For that reason, I will refer to our seven basic emotions: Happiness, sadness, contempt, surprise, anger, fear, and disgust. None of these emotions are good or bad in themselves. It is a matter of how we project them. Are we using them in our creative outlets for good? Are we expressing them to the wrong person? Do our emotions sway judgement before the slower-acting logical side of the thought process can sort information properly? Exercise can help regulate our emotions. Not to say you necessarily want to throw haymakers at a heavy bag because you’re raging. You may hurt yourself; trust me, I’ve done that. Use exercise to clear your mind, let your endorphins get you into a state of calm. Being physically active outdoors is a wonderful bonus. Being able to feel the Sun, rain, coolness of an Autumn breeze, whatever weather picks you up, taps into our wild side that is often too sheltered or blocked off from the outdoor environment. I find my mood does a 180 and lasts for hours after I get my sweat on, especially on a crisp Winter day.

           Social health is another important dimension in our health. As you may guess, this is a reflection on how we interact with others around us. During the lockdowns in the developed World, it is very hard to connect with our friends and family we rely on for support. While modern technology allow for several options to remain in contact with our loved ones, being removed from the real thing for big chunks of time feels weird. As a personal trainer, a professional who works closely with someone, we become very important in maintaining human contact. Especially for those where becoming physically active is something new, without a lot of immediate support around them. My approach is to be empathetic, always encouraging good efforts, and following up on what the past week was like. Make sure that the circle you maintain is the one that makes you feel like you can set the World on fire.

           Occupational health doesn’t necessarily mean your job is hazardous, or that you make it rain. The question to ask here is: does your job add fulfillment to your life? If you feel great about your role in society, that goes a long way with how positive you feel about your life. We see coworkers for more time than we might see our close family members. Kinda weird to think about it, but it’s true. If your job revolves around mostly sedentary activities, find ways to get out of your desk to stretch your legs and give your tiny eye muscles a break. First responder? Work out as a group in your station. Being able to move around a bit at your work, or finding those in your team with the same ideals of health, will help your work culture be less stressful and more fulfilling. Plus, the healthier you keep yourself by not burning out your body before retirement, will allow you to live out the rest of your life in the way that you see fit.

           The last, but not least, dimension I want to go over quickly is spiritual health. This is different than abiding to a form of mainstream religion or denouncing all mythology as an atheist. This is about finding a purpose in life, understanding what you can and cannot control, how you connect with the physical world, and bringing out the potential of actualization by recognizing your roles. It’s gratitude for good days, and strength for bad days. In my personal reflection, the strongest connection that you can ever have is within yourself. I like to think that exercise offers a spiritual piece in-itself. What I mean by this is that I always instruct my clients to make a mind-body connection. If someone is performing a deadlift and I want them to maintain neutral spine, I’ll get them to stand normally so they get a sense of good posture. I would ask them to hinge at the hips while maintaining that feeling of vertebral alignment and adding in core engagement. For the concentric phase, I would ask them to engage the glutes to maximize force output. This sense of kinesthetics is transferable to all aspects of life; it serves as a constant reminder to be conscious of the body in space. From there, you can become more aware of the natural World, becoming more appreciative and respectful of it.

           So much as for health on a physical, mental, emotional, societal, occupational, and spiritual dimension. Nothing occurring in its own vacuum, there is a lot of interplay here. Consider a dimension that you feel is not a strong point, and you might feel that as that improves, then all the other dimensions will follow suit in a way that is beneficial to you. Once these dimensions of health are well-adjusted, we can now become fit.

           There are times where Clients would like to go cycling with me as part of their cardio training. The benefits of riding with me is that they are riding with a companion, I can monitor their pace and how they’re reacting to it, and to try different variables rather than cruising along at a steady pace. There are certain safety measures that I have to make sure Clients follow. If there is an incident without due diligence, I may wind up in some legal trouble. Because of this, I have the right to refuse service due to unsafe conditions. The four items I ask of my Clients are 1) helmet use, 2) lights, 3) reflectors on their bike, and 4) adherence to the laws of the land.

           Helmets are a construction of compressible material, shielded with an outer layer of plastic. It sits on the head with padding and size adjustment for comfort. Chin straps are meant to keep the helmet snug in place on the head, with the straps adjusted to prevent indentation of the neck. It deflects tree branches and debris from our head, and in the case of a serious incident, absorbs impact so that you don’t suffer a skull fracture. They provide an extra layer of safety if, for example, they have a sun visor or an area to attach a light to. They can come in a vibrant colour so that you stand out from your surroundings better. Depending on how much you spend on a helmet, you can get one that is very lightweight, and with more efficient venting.

           Bicycle lights are very lightweight, drop resistant, weather resistant, and may include long-lasting rechargeable batteries. Often, these lights will come with a solid on and strobe function. Even in broad daylight, these lights help you stand out and be seen well in advance. At night, they certainly help you remain safe, and you can see what’s out in front of you. This is important if you’re going on a section of trail or road where there is no lighting. Pretty cheap, pretty user friendly. Just like the lights on an everyday car, never over-rated.

           Reflectors are pretty much taken for granted, though this is an important piece. When light is emitted towards the reflector, a set of small right-angle mirrors reflect the light back to the source. Even a little bit of light will cause reflectors to really stand out in pitch black conditions. They are commonly found on your rims, bike pedals, and front and back of the bike handlebars or frame. You may also get reflective clothing, helmets, seats and sidewalls for extra visibility (the last one makes your bike look sharp).

           In the context of Manitoba, cyclists have the same responsibilities as motorized vehicles. We need to obey traffic signs, use turning signals where appropriate, and if we are on a public road, stay within one metre of the curb or other obstacles. In return, larger vehicles must leave a one metre buffer from our handlebars and their side mirrors, or whichever part of the vehicle/cargo extends furthest away on the side. Otherwise, they should have the patience to yield to cyclist until it is safe to pass. There’s a good chance that you are riding for health or for commute, and not for a race. Be as predictable as possible, take up the space you need to be safe without unnecessarily impeding traffic, and don’t ride faster than what you can react to. Respect your safety as well as everyone else’s, and they will respect yours back. Otherwise, you may be hit in the pockets, or worse.

               In Canada, ParticipACTION advises that those aged 5 to 17 years old need 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous cardiovascular activity a day, every day. For anyone aged 18 and over, the goal is to get 150 minutes through the course of a week. It is also recommended that for all ages, at least one bout of cardio should be vigorous each week. When we mention moderate to vigorous activity, the general public may not know what the cut-offs might be. Fortunately, there are certain physiological cues we can use to make a judgement on how intense our cardio session is. One of them is our ability to perform vocalizations. The talk test is a self-administered test where the participant attempts to talk or sing during cardio training. I like it because clients learn the concept quickly, it costs nothing, and can be used to track progress at set power outputs. There is a lot of literature out there, spanning several populations and test scenarios. Many of the conclusions are in favour of the talk test.

           Vocalizations are pretty demanding on our breathing. We need appropriate airflow though our vocal folds. We disrupt our normal breathing pattern when we talk or sing. During the talk test, we are effectively disrupting our capacity to breath purposefully and rhythmically, at a time where our body is in need for larger quantities of oxygen. Depending on the degree of vocalization you are capable of, you can get a sense of how much you are pushing yourself, whether it be too light, too hard, or on target.

           In the context of cardiovascular training, moderate intensity is realized when the participant can speak their sentences relatively comfortably, but cannot sing or hold a tune effectively. Vigorous activity is realized when the participant starts to talk in half-sentences. You can also tell if someone is going too hard. If you can barely grunt, your body is overloaded with demand for oxygen. At this point, you might be redlining your intensity a little, and should ease off the intensity as necessary.

           Hear me out on this one. Yes, lifts that are not executed with decent form or technique puts those engaging in physical activity at risk of sustaining injury. Not to mention that if you are into cardiovascular training, steps should be taken to ensure that every minute you’re putting into it is beneficial. There is a lot of hyperbolic language out there where you see things like, your squat is all wrong, why your Pendlay rows suck, your HIIT is bad and you should feel bad. There are a couple problems with this, as well as the content that is normally found with this type of message. True, some people gravitate towards the trainer that acts like a boot camp sergeant, the kind where they will break your down and build you up to the individual you were truly destined to be. However, most clients merely look for a trainer that is competent and firm yet kind. And for those that seek our professional help, it would be wrong to demonize what they may have thought was proper for their ability or goals. We run the risk of looking like gateway jerks. It is especially bad when we don’t consider where the consumer is coming from.

           I do not intend for this to be an all-encompassing guide. Rather, treat this as a piece that will get you to start thinking about your own training safety and effectiveness. Here are six questions you may ask yourself today!

1.      What is my level of experience? Consider the novelty of the lift, or if you have been doing this for a longer period. Depending on past training history, you may have no prior knowledge, or a set pattern locked-in by entire months or years of programming. There is no judgement in each one having their own starting point. Do not be afraid to backpedal if you find yourself to be stagnant.

2.      Is the progression proper? Some people (me included!) jump right into the most technical exercises. We mistake the idea of doing intermediate or advanced prescriptions as being great in-itself because of the gains they have to offer. There are basic movement patterns that ought to be mastered, rather than always pushing for that PB or doing something too fast. We should also consider the intensity we prescribe ourselves with our cardiovascular pieces. Take for instance starting HIIT training early on. It is a powerful, wonderful form of training. However, the level of intensity may be overwhelming for some. Perhaps a better start would be for someone to get used to the body’s response from moderate to vigorous activity, or to build up a decent aerobic base first. Please, do not feel bad if you are unable to pull this off just yet. You can build up to HIIT training in no-time with proper instruction, which includes handling how your body reacts physiologically with such efforts.

3.      How is my mind-body awareness? As a trainer, I ask my clients to consider where their joint angles and body segment positions are at varying steps of the lift. This is kinesthesia. Someone who is not familiar with this sense may not grasp the feedback generated by their own body. Think of it like you were to smell coffee. If you didn’t know what coffee smelled like, you would not be able to identify it. The scent of coffee may be too faint for you to detect, unless you focus on your environment and home in on that particular stimuli. Back to where I was going. Imagine being able to tell if your knees are caving in towards your midline when executing a squat. You may need a mirror to watch yourself, or ask a trainer to tell you when this is happening. You may be given a training cue to push your knees out, feeling the effort originating in your glute medius, being sure to keep your knees in line with your foot. See? Your squat wasn’t all wrong. You just need a training cue, and the adjustment was all you!

4.      Am I targeting the proper muscles? For this example, let’s look at the lat pull-down machine. Different grip positions will target different upper arm muscles all together, and hand placement will determine our range of motion and degree of latissimus dorsi activation. Some people would want bigger arms, others want a solid V-taper. Consider the fact that one exercise with simple modifications will impact the work done by various muscle groups. If an exercise is meant to be single-jointed, such as a triceps pull-down, refrain from generating momentum from your shoulders. Be sure to work with proper intensity, not too light but not too heavy either.

5.      Is my training balanced? This is in context to doing exercises either unilaterally, or bilaterally (one side or both). Let’s say your barbell dips a little to the left during your overhand Pendlay row. This could be for a variety of reasons. However, a better approach to this would be to do overhand dumbbell Kroc rows. Focus on one arm at a time, get a sense where/when your less dominant side starts to fatigue, adjust for proper technique, and adjust the workload so that your right arm does not continually overpower your left arm. Nothing sucks here. It’s a matter of taking a step back, deconstructing the lift, noticing a weakness, applying corrective measures, and returning with the original program.

6.      How appropriate is my activity? Some occupations require more specific training parametres. Some medical conditions require a conservative approach when first becoming physically active. For someone working at a desk job, situated in a stance constantly leaned forward with both arms out in front of them, it wouldn’t make sense to do 3 different chest exercises and zero rear delt exercises. It would make better sense to, for example, to do rear delt flyes and finish off the training session with wall-assisted chest stretches. Strengthening a less-frequently used muscle, and lengthening another that is too often in play. Likewise, for someone with diabetes, it is okay to start cardiovascular training at a low intensity for a short duration of time. As much as we say to get your minutes in with at least one bout of vigorous activity per week, we must work with the client to ensure that they remain physiologically safe, and that would mean not causing a crash in blood glucose.

           I have been asked if I play sports quite often, whether it would be as an Undergrad, casually talking to gym members, among those that are close to me, and during consultations where I share information with prospective clients. For the short answer, which will greatly deter anyone from reading past this first paragraph: no, I don’t really play sports.

            For those who continue to read, congratulations! You get the long answer. 

            I suppose I’ll start with the early years and grade school. I was never involved with organized sports. No after-school martial arts, playing soccer under the banner of a community centre, playing youth leagues in football or hockey, nothing like that. Maybe my parents didn’t want to spearhead me into those demands, or maybe I didn’t simply ask to join an organization. I got my sporting fix in the schools I went to. I was surrounded by opportunities to compete in individual and team-based intramural sports. I would sign up as much as I could. From what I can briefly remember, I participated in cross-country running, Wednesday morning runs, hand ball, floor hockey, basketball, and the track and field events every Spring (more track than field). Sometimes I was great or my team would qualify for divisional meets. Other times, I was pretty awful or our team struggled to even be competitive. I must have adopted an intrinsic desire to play at an early age. Perhaps some physical literacy to boot. It also fed the competitive side in me, and hey, I’ll admit to some of the bragging rights that came with beating certain individuals. Things tapered off more towards High School, but my longer commute and additional freedoms  allowed me be active in running and cycling. At that time, I dabbled into resistance training with the equipment that my Dad owned.  

            I played beer league hockey for a few seasons in my early 20’s. I was pretty small, I lacked muscular power, and enough of my teammates were not generally supportive of fostering any growth in my potential. Despite my size, I took on a grinder role and used my endurance to chase puck dumps, keep my presence in front of the net (which led to plenty of slashes on my calves, but also a couple drawn penalties), and I wasn’t too shy with shot blocks. I would see my brothers and a couple other teammates get injured for all types of reasons, so I’m happy the injury bug never got me. A bad car crash in 2013 was the axe that would fall on my hockey career. I tend to avoid collision sports because I am weary where my head is with concussions. In fact, the only major injury I sustained during play was a compound fracture in my wrist when I was playing goalkeeper in soccer. Buddy scored on the rebound from that. I was out of exercise for a month, last month of Elementary. Drats. Also the concussion thing is holding me back from trying rugby. Double drats.

            There was a void in time where I competed in zero sports. I was getting my exercise at the gym or outside. I got back into competitive running during the 2016 racing year. At the time, I was spending lots of time in the gym, thinking about my routines in context with the breadth of information I was accumulating. I participated in 10K events, except for the one time I ran a 5K event. What more can I say that running 10K was the best fit for me? I didn’t feel compelled to run a half-marathon, and 5K felt too short. I placed and won quite a few races, with official times averaging around the 42 min mark. I would eventually take a job post-grad that restricted the races I could participate in, so my sporting history has been put on hiatus since 2019. I could run virtual races, but I would feel like I’m not really “racing” with anyone, there are no enthusiastic bystanders  cheering you on, and there’s no one to hang out with to share our race experience and hang out. Once the restrictions are lifted, I will participate in the first race I can. 

           I played two seasons in softball. I mostly played outfield, and I had a cheeky way of hitting the ball softly between the third baseman and pitcher so I could lead-off with a single. I think I hit maybe two doubles, one in each season logged. Using strengths: I still don’t have the best power output, but I got legs that can carry me for short sprints fast. Bonus points if the mosquitoes aren’t terrible!

           During the pandemic, I took up disc golf. I play it because it’s a way to meet up with a pocket of friends of mine. I never really adopted it as a sport. Maybe one year the crew will convince me to join an open tournament where I can compete in a low tier group. It’s a good way to spend time outside. And we’re not allowed to go to each other’s homes, so we’ll take any hangout we can get I suppose. My friend took a photo of me not too long ago. Makes me look like an absolute pro. What the photo doesn’t tell you is that I failed to birdie and I painfully missed some par attempts that game.

           Hello, how is it going everyone? I am That Kinesiology Guy, Darren Dujlovic, here today to introduce myself and give you some insight on what to expect with this endeavor of mine. So, if you’re ready, then let’s go!              In case you are wondering what Kinesiology is, the best definition I can give you is that Kinesiology is the scientific study of human movement, and how the body adapts to physical or sedentary activity. It is a relatively new field of science; the first dedicated faculty/department was formed in 1965 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. You can think of it as a blend of, among other disciplines, biology, physics and psychology. It spans several professions, such as athletic therapy, physiotherapy, and chiropractic care. I chose the profession of Personal Trainer, so I will focus on the scope of practice in that regard.

           A little bit about my professional background. I am an Affiliated Kinesiologist with the Canadian Kinesiology Alliance, and Registered Personal Trainer as per Manitoba Fitness Council standard. I am also a member of the Manitoba Kinesiology Association. I graduated with a degree in Exercise Science at the University of Winnipeg; in my 4th year of study, I earned the Undergrad of the Year award from the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology. I also worked in the Kinesiology and Applied Health Faculty as a Research Assistant. I enjoyed the time I would spend in the gym and exercising, and I wanted to know more about the effects of physical activity on the human body. I worked in the Trades for a couple years. I decided that human sciences would be more up my alley.

           In Manitoba, there has been two major lockdowns that affected gyms and fitness centres. The first one was from March 13 to June 1 of 2020, and the second one was from November 12 2020 to February 12 2021. These forced closures shut down facilities, hurt consumer confidence, and has taken away an environment where members become healthy. COVID-19 patients may have a deleterious health outcome. These outcomes include cerebrovascular disease, acute organ damage, permanent lung damage, and chronic fatigue. If a patient is obese, already has a chronic condition such as diabetes, or is in their senior years, these negative health outcomes often lead to death, let alone a higher frequency of poor prognosis.

           There is always inherit risk when engaging in purposeful physical activity, exercise, or sport. The benefits of being physically active far and wide outweigh any risk, which is why we encourage the general population to do so. Fitness centres and the like offer their members a wide range of equipment to use without worrying about maintenance, controlled environments, plenty of mirrors, and availability of professional advice. It fosters a sense of community in-itself; people exercise for all kinds of different reasons and everyone tends to be respectful of each other’s goals. Not to mention, those at risk from COVID-19 complications may benefit the greatest by being physically active. A stronger heart, increased blood vessel elasticity, healthier lungs, reduction in blood pressure leading to less stress on your kidneys, all of it.

           The closure of gyms has a wide-sweeping effect on society. Trainers and other employed staff face job insecurity. Business owners have hard lines financially that lead them to close shop permanently. Unfortunately, I was not able to get any hard numbers to back these up. If you look at your own community, you may have seen these types of closures, or have heard of trainers who lost their position and are looking for a way to make ends meet. Members deal with the psychological drawbacks of losing the health and fitness that they dedicate their time and invest their money in. Home workouts are definitely a viable option, there are lots of apps and generalized exercise prescriptions out there. But participants may loathe exercising alone, be limited by equipment availability, or foster a mindset that they aren’t able to get an effective workout. 

           Surveys time and time again find that most of everyone want to head back to get their membership. Before that happens, there are issues with consumer confidence that needs to be addressed. A negative feedback loop is developing from the forced or permanent closure of gyms, leading people to lose their faith in the viability of the industry. This won’t change until certain things happen, such as the Provincial Government not constantly hinting that the lockdown is always on the table. Another point that needs to be called out hard is the myth that training centres are petri dishes for the virus. The numbers indicate that fitness centres are rarely ever the case. There was a sensationalized case from the Province of Quebec, and there were two or three separate events in Winnipeg back last Autumn. Even with these national news stories and government postings, gyms are responsible for a fraction of a fraction of COVID-19 cases. Once again, data is hard to come by, and an internet engine search will lead you to news about events in other countries. EuropeActive have conducted their own study1, so I will cite them in this case. They worked out some numbers, that is, the number of visits to fitness centres in the Continent of Europe and positive cases linked to them. The ratio of visits to infections, rounded up, is A MILLION TO EIGHT. Fitness Centres are as clean as they ever were. Patrons are respectful. We are doing above and beyond what is asked of us, and the powers that be think we do not deserve our place in society. It’s not just here, it’s everywhere.

           All that I would like to have happen is no third shut-down of the fitness industry. It simply doesn’t make sense to do so. If you want a chance to ease the public health burden, let us do our job. There is work to be done out there, with no time to waste. Trying to demonize a profession whose only care is keeping their community healthy is as disingenuous as it is unfair.

           Thank you for reading this out. Any support goes a long way. Stay awesome, and I’ll see you around.