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WITH
today’s focus on physical fitness, physical achievement
and physical everything, more and more people of all
ages are working out, taking up sports and testing the
limits of their bodies’ capability to cope with extreme
physical demands.
How
sweet it is to hear the gallery rooting for you—be it a
fan of one or a stadium of thousands marveling at your
agility, athleticism and power—no matter what your age!
***
Now,
more than ever, the age when people start taking up
sports or still aspire to achieve in it has considerably
widened. Kids are trained to be ace swimmers, golfers,
gymnasts, basketball or tennis players at an age when we
were still dawdling our cerelacs. And then too, more and
more seniors are getting serious in their recreational
sports and have begun to adopt an active, athletic
lifestyle.
Good?
Definitely. But all good? Not really. The current
obsession with sports and athletic prowess has indeed
opened up new limits to what humans can achieve in any
sport at any age. But let’s just say traditional
training has been left behind. There is very little
knowledge in advanced injury prevention, of true senior
functionality, or even of youth and gender physiology
that all affect performance and safety.
***
Consider. Baby Boomers who feel stronger and healthier
than they may actually be are engaging in competitive
sports like badminton that may pose physical risks they
may not even be aware of. Youth and teens who are
involved in sports are increasingly developing
noncontact injuries like sprains, bad knees, fractures.
“Traditional training lacks emphasis on the diagonal
plane, the ‘ACL-Killer,’” says Bong Basilio, Doctor of
Medicine for Medical Performance and Performance
Enhancement Specialist from the National Academy of
Sports Medicine, USA (NASM) and the Cooper Institute in
Dallas,
Texas.
“Most injuries occur from weakness in the diagonal plane
during deceleration or change of direction.”
“It also
commonly forgets training for explosive neuromuscular
events like running off-balanced, recovering from a trip
or slip. Nor does traditional training consider the
effects which occupations that require people to crouch
or constantly stand—like doctors who perform
surgery—have on your strength or posture. Even playing
on an uneven surface, or landing on an object or on the
foot of a fellow athlete can have serious consequences.
There are preventive techniques and preparations to have
your body protect itself against these,” Basilio said.
***
The term
he uses is “prehabilitation.” It is a scientific injury
prevention program that prepares and trains your body to
react to stress, trauma and in effect, “heal itself”
when injury occurs.
Late
this month, Basilio is set to open Institut Kinetica at
Tiendesitas in Pasig City—the first scientific
performance enhancement center powered by the NASM, the
Cooper Institute and the Apex Program. The Cooper
Institute was founded by Dr. Kenneth Cooper, who is
known as the “father of cardiovascular fitness” and its
prevailing principles. Apex is the world-renowned
Advanced Performance Enhancement body. And NASM
performance enhancement specialists are the only ones
accepted by the NBA’s athletic trainers’ association.
***
Is
Institut Kinetica another gym? No, says Basilio. Gyms
focus on isolated hypertrophy or muscle size which has
little use in sports performance, explosive power or
even daily functionality. Kinetica focuses on “total
body integration” with optimal neuromuscular
excitability to create explosive power, maximal balance
and postural strength.
It is
not a place to just “work out” or hang out, he
clarifies. It’s where you go if you’re an athlete who
seeks to stand out in your sport and achieve dramatic
performance and results. It’s also where seniors who
suffer from diabetes, hypertension, blood lipid
disorders and other senior complaints go to have safe
and medically supervised strength and conditioning
training. It’s for kids and teens who need sports
development and training, or who need Body Mass Index
modification, if they suffer from childhood obesity.
“It’s
for occupational conditioning—you know, for those who
need to develop postural strength and endurance because
they work for long periods of time sitting down,
standing or stooping, like surgeons, dentists, chefs,
architects, artists, entrepreneurs and executives. It’s
for national athletes, professional athletes and elite
athletes who seek to excel in their sport and “bring
home the medal”, guaranteed.”
***
Kinetica
emphasizes the prerequisite—underscore prerequisite—of
Deceleration Mechanics and Functional Strength in
training before any increase in power or speed to
provide the safest progression possible,” says Basilio.
“The program is a progression through several phases:
first, an Injury Prevention Program then the program to
increase power or speed.”
“The
completion of the program depends on the commitment of
the individual to the Injury-Preventive phase, because
being injury-free is much, much more important than
performing well. But the program is created to achieve
maximum gains in at least two sessions a week,” Basilio
says.
More
next week on the results to expect from the program, who
has benefited from it, and how you can avail yourself of
it. (You can sleep for now.) |
