Tag: bone health

ACSM Certified Clinical Exercise Physiologist

 

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What is an ACSM CEP?

The ACSM Certified Clinical Exercise Physiologist (ACSM-CEP), formerly known as ACSM Registered Clinical Exercise Physiologist (ACSM-RCEP), is a health professional that has either a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in exercise science or a master’s degree in clinical exercise physiology.  In addition, they are required to complete hundreds of hours of hands-on clinical experience to receive the certification.

ACSM-CEPs® are qualified to work with those that have chronic diseases or conditions (but are not limited to working with this demographic). The most common chronic diseases in Florida include cancer (breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, prostate, and melanoma), cardiovascular disease (heart attack, heart failure, stroke, coronary heart disease), diabetes, and respiratory disease.

Why meet with an ACSM-CEP?

  1. Getting a baseline health measurement

ACSM-CEP’s are committed to improving the overall health and quality of life of patients by using a combination of fitness-related consulting, assessments and programmed training to guide the health of those with chronic health conditions in a clinical setting. If you’re interested in making a healthy and sustainable change to your life, they can help you reach your goals by building a customized plan based around you. The first step is understanding how your daily habits contributed to your current disease(s). Patients complete questionnaires or interviews that detail their health history. Then they undergo an assessment that acts as a baseline for the training programming.

   2) Building a personalized protocol

Based on what ACSM-CEP’s learn about their patient, they build a plan of attack for improving that person’s health. These goals do not have to be a specific number or target. Instead, they are often qualified by that person’s improved and sustained quality of life. ACSM-CEPs help to increase the likelihood of long-term physical, mental, and social aspects of a patient’s life through health and fitness education, lifestyle change, rehabilitation strategies, as well as preventative measures.

  3) Only the best

The ACSM Certified Clinical Exercise Physiologist® certification has very demanding standards in the health/fitness industry and characterizes the gold standard of the clinical exercise profession. At Infinity Sports Institute, we carefully vet our team members to provide you access healthcare professionals with one of the highest certifications. This way, all you have to do is focus on becoming better.

The Takeaway

You deserve the best! It’s not enough just to go to a gym and sweat. Work with a professional who can build you an exercise program based on where you are today and where you want to be.

ACSM-CEP’s work with a number of different populations but a majority of their time is spent in a clinical setting. If you have a chronic disease, they can help you fight the fight against chronic diseases and conditions with exercise and lifestyle behavior change strategies.

It may feel like just another workout, but ACSM-CEPS provide a unique skill in understanding the potential and limitations of those with chronic conditions. When dealing with populations coming from a clinical environment, ACSM-CEP’s become a valuable resource.

Are you ready?

Don’t postpone feeling better. Book your appointment with an ACSM-CEP at Infinity Sports Institute. Let’s get you on the road to better health today! Call (786) 591-7586 or email us at info@infinitysi.com.

 

The Truth Behind the Scale

What the Scale Can’t Tell Me

A lot of us have different goals in the gym, whether that be to gain more muscle mass, lose some body fat, or maybe a little bit of both. Often times we track our goals using a scale, but frequently checking the scale can be misleading. The scale tells you your total weight but not how your body is made up of muscle, fat, and bone. Muscle is the good weight that helps us move better, burn fat and is important to maintain in your body for optimal health. Fat is the weight that we know when excessive, is bad for our health and we all work hard to burn off.

Checking your body fat percentage is the best way to create a start and finish line when it comes to getting the best results with your body and health. The DEXA machine is the most accurate and convenient way to check it. It can pinpoint your body composition by using a low-level x-ray to see how much total body fat, lean muscle mass, and bone mass you have. Keeping track of exactly how your body is made up between muscle and fat is the ultimate measure of health.

There’s Fat on My Organs?

We can break up our fat into different types. Visceral is the most important type when it comes to your overall health. It’s the fat that hangs out around your internal organs. Visceral fat plays the biggest role in longevity and risk of chronic diseases like heart disease and type two diabetes. Your scale at home and even other alternatives to checking your body composition cannot tell you the amount of visceral fat you have. A person may be content with their weight but if there is lots of fat around the organs, that person is more likely to develop lousy chronic diseases including cancer. The DEXA has the ability to show us the mass, volume, and area of visceral fat we are carrying which will tell us if we have to start changing our eating habits for healthier body composition.

Healthy Bones

If you’re an athlete that plays a high-impact sport, bone health can play a role in your risk of injury and performance. Also, women passed the age of 30 are at a higher risk for developing bone diseases such as osteoporosis and osteopenia when not exercising under resistance or eating enough calcium within their diets. The scale can tell you how much you weigh, but it won’t tell you how much of that is bone. The DEXA has the capability to show us if you are at risk or not while other methods do not.

Where Can I Get a DEXA Body Composition Scan?

Infinity Sports Institute has the luxury of having one of the best DEXA machines on the market, the Hologic Horizon DXA system, available to the public.  The number one rule to winning a race is knowing where the start and the finish line is and getting a body scan can help motivate you through the finish line.

Schedule an appointment for your body scan so you can know exactly where you’re at and set the goal for where exactly you want to be.

Director of Human Performance, Andre McCormack