Tennis elbow or elbow tendinopathy affects many people who see a Personal Trainer Sydney CBD. Perhaps the most surprising this for most people who suffer from the condition is that they never actually played tennis.

So what is elbow tendinopathy? — Elbow tendinopathy is a condition that causes elbow pain and forearm weakness. Doctors use the term "elbow tendinopathy" when people have a problem with a tendon in the elbow. Tendons are strong bands of tissue that connect muscles to bones. Depending on which elbow tendon is injured, the condition is also known as "tennis elbow" or "golf elbow."
In most people with elbow tendinopathy, the tendons are not inflamed or swollen. If they do get inflamed or swollen, doctors call it "tendinitis."
Tendinitis usually starts suddenly. Tendinopathy usually happens over a longer period of time.
What causes elbow tendinopathy? — This condition can happen as people get older, especially if they do a lot of work or activity using their elbow and forearm. Tendinitis can happen when people get hurt or do the same movements over and over.
What are the symptoms of elbow tendinopathy? — The most common symptoms are:
●Elbow pain – The pain can start slowly or suddenly. It can spread to the upper arm or forearm.
●Weakness of the forearm muscles
●Swelling (if people have tendinitis)

Is there a test for elbow tendinopathy? — No. But your doctor or nurse should be able to tell if you have it by talking with you and doing an exam.

If you think you suffer from elbow tendinopathy and would like to get a treatment plan then get in touch with your local Personal Trainer Sydney CBD.

Approximately 1 in 6 Australians suffer from back pain every year. Thus, for a Personal Trainer Sydney CBD it is imperative to be able to take an accurate and detailed history of a patients back pain.

While it may not be possible to define a precise cause of low back symptoms for most patients, it is important to evaluate for evidence of specific etiologies of back pain. The history should include location, duration, and severity of the pain, details of any prior back pain, and how current symptoms compare with any previous back pain.

We should also ask about constitutional symptoms (eg, unintentional weight loss or night sweats), history of malignancy, precipitants or precipitating events, therapies attempted, neurologic symptoms (eg, weakness, falls or gait instability, numbness or other sensory changes, or bowel/bladder symptoms), stability or progression of symptoms, history of recent bacterial infections (particularly bacteremia), recent history or current use of injection drugs, history or current use of corticosteroid medications, and recent history of procedures in the back.
Patients should also be evaluated for social or psychologic distress that may be contributing. Potentially useful items are a history of failed previous treatments, substance abuse, and disability compensation. Screening for depression may be helpful. 


Though less common, features that may suggest underlying systemic disease include history of cancer, age >50 years, unexplained weight loss, duration of pain >1 month, night time pain, and unresponsiveness to previous therapies. Injection drug use, recent bacterial infection (particularly bacteremia), or fever increase the suspicion of spinal infection.

If you've got back pain, get in touch today!

There are a number of questions that are important for differentiating the underlying cause of knee pain and these should be considered by all Personal Trainer Sydney CBD. These questions are important for narrowing the differential diagnosis and should be asked of every adult patient presenting with knee pain:
●Did pain begin following an acute traumatic event? Pain immediately following an injury is concerning for possible structural damage to the knee. Delayed pain suggests tendon strains, cartilage contusions, or minor soft tissue tears. The closer the pain onset is to the specific event, the higher the likelihood of significant structural damage.

●Is the pain associated with activity (eg, new exercise regimen, change in previous training habits, day-to-day activity over the preceding few months)? Pain associated with activity should lead to further inquiry about training equipment (eg, shoes, braces), training volume (eg, training days per week, duration of training sessions), intensity, and any recent changes in such parameters. Information about specific activities that trigger pain can be helpful. As an example, anterior knee pain associated with sprinting or jumping is a classic part of the history of patellar tendinopathy.

●In which anatomic quadrant is the pain located (anterior, posterior, lateral, or medial), or is the pain diffuse or vague? Localizing knee pain to an anatomic quadrant or more specific location helps circumscribe the differential diagnosis. Pinpoint localization is generally possible following trauma to a specific ligament, tendon, or other palpable anatomic structure. Pain described as diffuse or vague may be secondary to injury of an intra-articular structure, a rheumatologic or infectious process, or from referred pain.

●Has the painful knee been swollen (ie, joint effusion) or erythematous? Rapid swelling after trauma occurs with bleeding into the knee joint and suggests a significant injury (eg, anterior cruciate ligament tear). Swelling or erythema occurring without trauma may indicate an infectious, rheumatologic, or crystal-induced condition and diagnostic arthrocentesis is often indicated.

●Are constitutional symptoms, such as fevers, chills, night sweats, fatigue, or rash, present? The presence of such symptoms and signs suggests a systemic illness and further investigation of infectious, autoimmune, or neoplastic causes is necessary.

●Is there a history of prior knee injury or surgery? A past history of knee injury is the most accurate predictive risk factor for future knee injury. The clinician should inquire about the type of injury, duration of disability, and the rehabilitation program. Often, a new knee injury is a complication of an old or concurrent injury. As an example, patellofemoral pain can develop in patients who alter their running gait due to discomfort from chronic Achilles tendinopathy. Likewise, prior surgical repairs can "wear out" or fail, leading to recurrence of the initial condition. All patients with prior injury or surgery experience some degree of deconditioning while injured and recovering. This deconditioning, combined with poor or incomplete rehabilitation, predisposes to new injuries.

●Are there symptoms affecting any other joints? Subjective symptoms and/or examination findings that reveal multiple affected joints raise suspicion for a systemic or rheumatologic process.

●Is there a history of systemic or rheumatologic disease? A known history of a systemic or rheumatologic disease can help to guide clinical inquiry, physical examination, and possible laboratory testing.

Consider these questions and discuss the answers with your Personal Trainer Sydney CBD who will be able to help develop a management plan for you.

Many personal training sydney CBD clients find it difficult to maintain weight loss with lifestyle modification alone. In these cases, adding a medication may prove to be effective. Historically, not too many pharmacotherapies have survived the ire of the therapeutic goods administration. In addition, previous treatments such as phentermine-fenfluramine, rimonabant and sibutramine were withdrawn due to safety issues, resulting in lingering safety concerns.

There are however, four new therapeutic options in the wings, three of which may be approved in Australia shortly and one — liraglutide 3.0 mg — was approved in December 2015. Liraglutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist that appears to act by increasing satiety and reducing food intake. Lorcaserin is a selective agonist of the serotonin2C receptor, which mediates anorecticactivity. The naltrexone/bupropion extended release (ER) combination utilises synergistic effects of the two component drugs, mediated via neurons in the hypothalamus, to reduce energy intake. Phentermine/topiramate ER combines the appetite suppressant phenterminewith topiramate, an anti-epileptic with appetite-suppressant effects. All can result in meaningful improvements in obesity-related diseases, including diabetes and cardiovascular disorders. 

The landscape of obesity treatment in Australia is changing rapidly. Whilst encouraging, it should be noted that all options have associated adverse side-effects so consult your medical doctor for more information.

Many Personal Trainers in Sydney have clients with type 2 diabetes - the global epidemic continues. The WHO predicts that diabetes will be the 7th leading cause of death in 2030. For prevention, body weight management and a healthy diet are recommended. Furthermore, at least 30 min of regular, moderate-intense physical activity five times a week is required. Unfortunately, these strategies suffer from low levels of compliance.

Low levels of exercise compliance is a common issue faced by Personal Trainers Sydney. There are myriads of intervention studies dealing with the best exercise type, frequency, intensity, and duration. The scientific discussion is still ongoing. Indeed, positive effects of regularly performed exercise on cardiorespiratory fitness and metabolic control are without dispute. Despite this knowledge, less than 40 % of European countries developed national recommendations for physical activity.

Most of the conducted studies into diabetes and exercise found improvements in metabolic and cardiorespiratory endpoints after training intervention, but highly variable inter-individual responses were observed. For example, glucose homeostasis, reflected by insulin sensitivity, acute insulin response, glucose effectiveness, and glucose disappearance index was shown to have a two-sided shape, ranging from high responders to non-responders, even adverse responders that show a deterioration of the respective endpoint. 

Non-response defined as no improvement regarding glucose homeostasis, leads to 7–63 % non-responders. Most of the conducted studies are performed without a control group. Thus, the opinion exists that exercise might cause adverse metabolic effects for some individuals. However, a study carried out with 87 participants including a control group, demonstrated clearly a decreased number of an adverse response (41 %) versus 76 % in control group; the adverse response was defined as increased fasting glucose, 2-h glucose, and triglycerides, as well as a decrease for HDL-cholesterol.

Notably, the failure to improve one metabolic factor is not necessarily reflected by a non-response in other variables, e.g., VO2max, and vice versa. Although there is a clear positive correlation of VO2max and insulin sensitivity in the general population and an increase in VO2max correlates with the improvement in glucose homeostasis, this is not true for each individual. Furthermore, despite a relevant exercise-related improvement of systolic blood pressure, body weight, VO2max, lipid profile, etc., one may not have a beneficial effect on glucose homeostasis; this adds even more complexity to this issue.

It is still under debate, exactly which training intervention is the best, but our best guess is a combination of low-amount/vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise and resistance training. Athletes have practised High-intensity interval training for some time, and it can be superior to moderate-intense, time-consuming continuous training in improving glucose homeostasis after just short training duration. 

In general, we should clearly encourage personal training clients to increase their physical activity. There are many aspects, e.g., socio-economic, quality of life, etc., beyond specific metabolic endpoints, which are worth being an active individual. Nevertheless, personalised adjustments of exercise recommendations are inevitable, different training strategies for individual subgroups may be necessary. 

Who is the non-responder? What are risk factors for non-response? How can we predict the non-response with easy-to-use parameters? Which of several training regimes could overcome non-response? Is interval training the new winner? Is there a correlation of several metabolic endpoints? To what extent? And valid for every individual? What are the underlying molecular pathomechanisms for non-response? Are we able to discriminate discrete pathomechanisms, and what is their impact on whole-body glucose homeostasis?

So many questions, so few answers. For now, just keep exercising.

Personal Trainers generally enjoy cardio exercise!

But did you know, cardio exercise doesn't just improve physical wellbeing; it also improves cognition and mental health?

The brain is continuously balancing two conflicting requirements: it must retain enough structural integrity to maintain proper neurotransmission, while remaining malleable enough to restructure itself and adapt to changing environmental demands. The interest in the underlying biology which underpins the link between cardio exercise and a better brain has increased significantly over the past decade, giving hope that prescriptive exercise programs for the treatment of 'brain disease' might not be far away. 

Regarding the brain structures most affected, it seems the hippocampus may hold the key. Research shows that the addition of cardio exercise to existing treatment approaches may promote hippocampal function and alleviate cognitive deficits. Cardio exercise also has a potent impact on stimulating neuroplasticity. These findings are important as cardio exercise has general benefits to one's physical health, low-risk profile and is relatively easy to implementation for patients. It may also have many other advantages to patient well-being, such as limiting the risk of adverse side effects of current therapies. 

Ask your personal trainer about cardio for your brain today...

As we transition out of the winter months toward to glory of spring, nature will once again serve as a backdrop to Personal training Sydney CBD. And it seems that there may be a renewed impetus for this location shift. A study published in 2010 showed that exercise performed outdoors improved mood and self esteem to a greater degree than those who experienced the same sessions indoors. Indeed, the effect was amplified if the outdoor location was within sight of water! 

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