Alzheimer’s and Exercise: What Do We Know, and What Can We Do?
Author’s note: This blog post is based in large part upon “Alzheimer’s Disease and Physical Activity” published in ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal and authored by Barbara Bushman, ACSM, ACSM-CEP, ACSM-EP, ACSM-CPT, and Madison Pullen, ACSM-EP — a more in-depth piece for readers interested in the nexus of Alzheimer’s and exercise. Alzheimer’s disease is “an irreversible, progressive […]
Play(grounds) for All: Inclusive Playgrounds and the Fitness Professional
For children, playgrounds offer numerous physical, social and cognitive benefits, including the development of motor skills, social skills, creativity and independence. These structures, defined as a designated play area that contains traditional play equipment linked together by paths, provide rich contexts for children to explore their social and physical environments. As a result, playgrounds offer […]
Recognizing Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Athletes
On June 2, Jonathan Drezner, M.D., director of the University of Washington’s Center for Sports Cardiology, delivered the 2023 John R. Sutton Clinical Lecture at ACSM’s annual meeting covering sudden cardiac arrest in athletes. Learn how to recognize and respond to these not uncommon events by viewing the video from Dr. Drezner’s lecture below and […]
Universal Response to the Collapsed Athlete | Sudden Cardiac Arrest
Every facility, organization and medical professional needs to have an emergency action plan to treat sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). This protocol for the universal response to the collapsed athlete is explained by Jonathan Drezner, M.D.
Caffeine May Increase the Health Benefits of Exercise; Latte da!
Exercise is good for you. There are many ways by which exercise favorably modifies health. One way is through a chemical known as interleukin-6, usually abbreviated as IL-6. During and following exercise, skeletal muscles release IL-6 into the blood. It is then transported throughout the body where it can have positive effects. For example, the […]
ACSM Announces 2022 Paper of the Year Selections
(Indianapolis, IN) The American College of Sports Medicine® (ACSM) announced the 2022 Paper of the Year for each of ACSM’s five highly acclaimed journals — the college’s sixth and newest journal, Exercise, Sport, and Movement had not yet been established — during a symposium at the 2023 ACSM annual meeting held May 30 – June […]
First, You: Strategies for Self-Care in Health Care
“Painful feelings are, by their very nature, temporary. They will weaken over time as long as we don’t prolong or amplify them through resistance or avoidance. The only way to eventually free ourselves from debilitating pain, therefore, is to be with it as it is. The only way out is through.” ― Kristin Neff, Self-Compassion: The […]
Stepping up Your Fitness Career: From Frontline to Management
When enthusiastic fitness professionals get certified as either a personal trainer, group exercise instructor and/or exercise physiologist, they are usually eager to get started helping others with their health and fitness goals. While many fitness professionals knew they wanted to be in this field from high school or college, others decided to change career paths […]
We All Need a Good PAL on Most Days
Higher levels of physical activity are unquestionably important for maintaining good physical and cognitive health. Surprisingly, however, we know relatively little about the amount of energy United States (U.S.) adults expend in physically active behaviors each day. One way to estimate the amount of energy expended in physical activity is to calculate one’s physical activity […]
Major Milestone Achieved for Exercise Professionals, Health Care
Health Level Seven International (HL7), a global network of health care databases, has formally approved a Physical Activity Implementation Guide adding physical activity as a vital sign and enabling referrals between exercise professionals and health care professionals. This is a major milestone on the road to establishing exercise professionals as a critical part of the […]