So what’s all the fuss about blood pressure and what do you want it to be?

Well normal blood pressure is less than 120/80. What do these numbers mean? The top number is your systolic blood pressure or the pressure exerted on your artery walls when the heart contracts. The bottom number is your diastolic blood pressure or the pressure exerted on your artery walls when the heart is in-between beats. Together these measurements make up the constant pressure on your arterial walls. Why is this important? Consistent high blood pressure can damage arteries and cause lesions to form. High pressure within the arteries can cause lesions or chunks of plaque to break off which can form clots and cause heart attacks and strokes. So now we know why it’s important to keep BP in the normal range. If your blood pressure is 120-139 over 80-89 on a consistent basis, you are considered pre-hypertensive. If your blood pressure is above 140 or 90 consistently you are considered hypertensive and should consult with your doctor about how to address this.

As a service to the Ithaca College community, the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences conducts frequent blood pressure screenings and we call it No Pressure Blood Pressure. Our students visit all work areas on campus and ask everyone they see if they would like to have their blood pressure checked. No pressure - you can say no if you’re not interested, but we recommend you take two minutes to check and see where you stand.

In our last screening we were able to reach 206 Ithaca College employees and we are pleased to announce that 75% of those screened have normal blood pressure readings. 22% have readings considered pre-hypertensive and only 3% were hypertensive.

The next No Pressure Blood Pressure screening will be held on Wednesday, October 28, 2009. See below to know when to expect students in your building.

 8:00-9:00: Center for Health Sciences, Smiddy Hall, Peggy Ryan Williams Center, Ceracche Center

 9:00-10:00: Physical Plant, General Services, Public Safety

 10:00-11:00: Hill Center, Gannett Center, Whalen Center

 11:00-noon: Dillingham Center, Friends Hall, Job Hall

 Noon-1:00: Campus Center, Hammond Health Center, Fitness Center

 1:00-2:00: Textor Hall, Muller Faculty Center, Bookstore, Williams Hall

 2:00-3:00: Center for Natural Sciences, Park Hall, Administrative Annex

 3:00-4:00: Towers, Terraces, Alumni Hall

No pressure!

Everyone would like to make their workouts more productive and efficient. Right? You may or may not have heard the term circuit training before, but it is the key to maximizing the time you have in the gym, especially if that time is limited. Lets start with a basic description of circuit training. The idea is to move from exercise to exercise with minimal rest in-between to keep your heart rate and metabolism elevated for the duration of the workout. This will maximize your caloric expenditure. Preferably the exerciser begins the next exercise immediately without any rest, but if you must rest, make it short and keep moving during that time by walking around. If you’re bold enough, pump your arms as well.

There are many ways that you can organize a circuit training workout. Circuit training is unique in that the exerciser is able to train muscular strength and cardiovascular endurance simultaneously. These workouts can include resistance exercises only, or a combination of cardiovascular and resistance exercises. It is important that exercises performed consecutively focus on different muscle groups as local fatigue will occur. For instance, when doing a bench press, the chest, shoulders and triceps are fatigued and thus this exercise should be followed by something like squats, which work the quads and glutes. This gives the muscles exercised in the previous exercise time to recover before moving on to other exercises that might utilize them. A circuit workout can be made up of a set number of predetermined exercises performed multiple times in order, or it can be more randomized by just doing a different exercise every time. Generally I think it is more effective and focused to have a set group of about four to six exercises, that are performed possibly three times each, in order.

Here’s a sample circuit workout (to be performed ONLY after a proper warm up):

Leg Press

Push-ups

Plank Hold

Pull-ups

Overhead Press

3 min run on treadmill

This circuit should be completed two to three times. The number of repetitions for each exercise may vary. Make sure that you are challenging yourself and pushing your limits, as that’s what matters most.

The benefits of circuit workouts are many, but mainly they save you time because you don’t waste any time resting and you’ll burn more calories when you keep your heart rate elevated throughout the entire workout.  The exercises are very efficient because you can strength train every major muscle group and still get a great cardiovascular training stimulus in one 30-45 minute workout. Plus it keeps your mind from wandering off since you’re moving quickly and the workout goes by much faster. Give it a try!

Live Well,

Marc

Don’t forget the beginning and end of your workout! I know many of you do it, because I see you do it. I see you rush into your workout with no warm up and race to the shower still panting with no cool down or stretching. You might think that if you only have 45 minutes to work out that you’re better off skipping the warm up and cool down to use every minute you can to burn calories. *Loud Buzzer Sound* Wrong! By skipping your warm up and cool down you are potentially hurting your workout performance and recovery. On top of that you are at a greater risk for injury if you have not warmed up properly and aren’t stretching regularly. We want your heart working hard when you’re in the Clinic, but we’d prefer it if your heart rate and blood pressure returned to normal levels before you hike back to the office, so cool down is important here too.

Now that I’ve disproved your logic for skipping warm up and cool down time, let’s talk about what you should be doing and why. When you come in for a workout your muscles are cold. Well not really, but they aren’t flushed with warm blood like they are during and after your workout. A full body warm up with some light stretching is the ideal way to start any workout whether it’s a run or a weight lifting session because it increases warm blood flow to all muscles in the body. This increase in blood flow decreases muscle stiffness, eases movement, and increases energy delivery to the tissues that are about to need a lot of it. You are much less likely to strain a muscle if it has been pre-warmed; it’s the “cold” tight muscles that get hurt most often and it’s usually within the first few minutes of exercise. Not only are you less likely to injure yourself if you’ve warmed up, you’ll feel better and perform better during your workout. A warmed muscle contracts easier, uses energy more abundantly, recovers more quickly and sustains intense, repetitive exercise more so than does a cold muscle. So warm them up before you jump into the workout!

OK so now you know you need to warm up, but why should you cool down and stretch down? Hopping right off the treadmill and hitting the showers after a hard run doesn’t allow for the large amount of blood in the leg muscles to disperse.  Lightheadedness and even loss of consciousness can occur due to this pooling of blood in the extremities. Just as it is important to spend a few minutes warming the muscles and bringing more blood to them, it is just as important to spend a few minutes cooling the muscles and allowing the extra blood to move back out. This helps remove metabolic waste products, such as lactic acid, from the muscle tissue. After cooling down, spend a few minutes to stretch muscles that are sore or tight. Stretching can be a very relaxing, stabilizing activity and is the perfect way to bring your body back to resting levels before you leave the gym. Stretching muscles facilitates the delivery of fresh blood and nutrients to the tissue and can help to reduce muscle stiffness, soreness and tension.

Even if you have to cut 10 minutes out of your workout to be able to warm up, cool down, and stretch, you need to make that change or add 10 minutes to your workout time to realize the full potential of your exercise efforts. Talk to your trainer about adding a full body warm up and cool down routine to your workouts!

Live Well,

Marc