A small overview of The Laboratory for Wellness and Motor Behavior at Tarleton State University

I have been a Trainer/Grad. Assistance  in the Laboratory for wellness and Motor Behavior lab for two years now here at Tarleton State University. It’s a lab where we exercise stroke survivors, diabetics, hemiplegics, cerebral palsy, and people with multiple sclerosis. Majority of our patients run out of insurance to pay for Physical Therapy, so they come to use for free. Overtime with working these extraordinary people, I began to notice a trend. On their first workout session, they’ll be on at least 10 different medications, but a couple months later there dosage goes down; ultimately to the point of no use of that synthetic drug. Which raises the question, How can someone who is so dependent on pharmaceutical drugs, end up with no need for them after a training program? If this is true, let's increase the physical activity so we can see a decline in prescription drug.  

After physical therapy most patients never tend to work out after they leave rehab. They sit at home and never move, allowing their muscles to stiffen up.  How do we unstiffen our muscle? The answer is simple, stretch, exercise in all range of motion, repeat.  Most people know that stretching increases blood supply. Because stretching allows blood to flow through your body, the nutrients in the blood are being carried and spread out all throughout your body as well. An increased blood and nutrient supply also helps reduce soreness.(1)In regards to increase blood supply and nutrients, exercising has the same benefits.

In the lab we go beyond the three sets of ten that the physical therapist administers. For example, we will put a client on a flywheel powered cycle and as the patient pedals, the flywheel has momentum in the direction whether is forward or backwards. We can crank up the resist in which they pedal against.  For instance, the first workout session for a client they will pedal for five hundred revolutions. A revolution on our cycles is a complete trip for the pedal; you end where you started. A couple months later in their training program they are up to four thousand revolutions.  “Four thousand revolutions?!” you say. A lot blood is being pumped through the body.

This is just a minuscule of what we do here in the lab. At anytime, the Wellness lab can consist of massage therapy, corrective exercise training, physical therapy, speech therapy, nutrition, and even psychotherapy. As kinesiologists, our view is holistic , and make sure our clients are in balance to be functional fit.

References

1. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/phys/benefits
2. http://www.tarleton.edu/lwmb/exercise.html