40 min
Human Performance: from the Sick, to the Healthy, to Elite Athletes. schamanMD
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- Medicine
Michael H Cox, PhD. reminisces about the early years of exercise physiology, a time when cardiac rehabilitation was not yet on the map! He met J. P. Schaman M.D. in the mid-70s while they both worked in the Human Performance Laboratory at the Toronto Rehabilitation Centre. Heart patients who had suffered recent heart attacks were investigated regarding risks and benefits of exercise. This led to staggering changes from the previously recognized medical treatment.
He then moved from the sick to the healthy. He headed the landmark Canada Life Study, where healthy life insurance company employees were presented with an exercise and lifestyle change program while being compared to a control group at another life insurance company. The results showed the benefit of exercise and lifestyle change in improved productivity and reduced absenteeism.
Starting with the sick and moving to the healthy, Dr. Cox then turned his attention to studying elite athletes. His performance testing, followed by athletic training, resulted in significant improvement in athletic performance. Elite swimmers and professional hockey players were shown to have improvement in performance, leading to a widespread adoption of these methods across the elite and professional athletic world.
Michael H Cox, PhD. reminisces about the early years of exercise physiology, a time when cardiac rehabilitation was not yet on the map! He met J. P. Schaman M.D. in the mid-70s while they both worked in the Human Performance Laboratory at the Toronto Rehabilitation Centre. Heart patients who had suffered recent heart attacks were investigated regarding risks and benefits of exercise. This led to staggering changes from the previously recognized medical treatment.
He then moved from the sick to the healthy. He headed the landmark Canada Life Study, where healthy life insurance company employees were presented with an exercise and lifestyle change program while being compared to a control group at another life insurance company. The results showed the benefit of exercise and lifestyle change in improved productivity and reduced absenteeism.
Starting with the sick and moving to the healthy, Dr. Cox then turned his attention to studying elite athletes. His performance testing, followed by athletic training, resulted in significant improvement in athletic performance. Elite swimmers and professional hockey players were shown to have improvement in performance, leading to a widespread adoption of these methods across the elite and professional athletic world.
40 min