Performance in Extreme Environtments

Measuring Core Body Temperature

• Basic mercury thermometer
• Ear thermometer
• Rectal thermometer
• Esophageal thermometer
• Gastrointestinal radio pill

Hot Environment
37 degree Celsius (normal core temperature)

Heat related:

1. Dehydration
2. Heat exhaustion
3. Heat stroke

As we become more dehydrate less fluid will be absorb. Approximately 2% decrease in body fluid will result in decrease of performance. Sign of dehydration include headache, tiredness, dry skin, decrease urine production, nausea and dizziness.

Heat exhaustion is when the body temperature increase to about 37 - 40 degrees. At this stage a person can experience a decrease in coordination, minor mental dysfunction, rapid pulse and breathing.

For Heat stroke to occur the body core temperature must reach 40 degrees. At this point a person could experience confusion, seizures, balance problem and irrational behavior.

Cold Environment

Hypothermia is the major concern when training or being exposed to cold or prolonged period of time. Hypothermia can be expose to snow, cold weather, inadequate clothing. Training in cold environment cause the blood to shift away from the skin due to vasoconstriction -rise in blood pressure which increase in hearth workload. Heart rate also falls which reduce the amount of blood therefor oxygen being delivered to the working muscles.

Training in cold environment particular in cold water result in a fall of power output and decrease in muscle efficiency. An extended warm up is advise to minimise these effects or you could wear extra clothing.

Core Muscle

Functions

Strong core prevent injuries in sports and our daily routine like carrying or picking up an object. Strong core promote the body to work well in conjunction with the rest of the body. Injuries like back pain often result from weak core muscles, by strengthening the core muscle the spine will be stronger and more stable. The lower back muscles are often weak especially for those who are living a sedentary lifestyle. A strong core and core muscles able to reduce and prevent lower back pain.

Major Core Muscles

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The core muscles are actually composed of several major muscle groups including:

Transverse Abdominis (TVA)
The deepest of the abdominal muscles, this core muscle lies under the obliques (muscles of your waist). It acts like a weight belt, wrapping around your spine for protection and stability.

Multifidus Muscle

The Multifidus Muscle is a thin, yet stiff, core muscle deep in the spine. It stabilizes each joint, makes each vertebra work more effectively, and reduces the degeneration of the joint structures.

External Obliques

These core muscles are on the side and front of the abdomen, around your waist, and lays on top of the internal obliques.

Internal Obliques

These core muscles lie under the external obliques, running in the opposite direction.

Rectus Abdominis

The Rectus Abdominis is a long muscle that extends along the front of the abdomen. This is the 'six-pack' part that becomes visible with reduced body fat.

Erector Spinae

The erector spinae is a collection of three core muscles along your neck to your lower back.

Benefits of Good Core Strength

• Helps to prevent injuries
• improve bowel function
• Reduce lower back pain and injury
• Improves posture
• Improved physical strength
• Improved respiration and lung capacity
• Improved flexibility

How to ?

Several method that can be done to strengthen the core muscles. Core strengthening exercises are most effective when the torso works as a solid unit and both front and back muscles contract at the same time. There are many exercises that will strengthen the core. A large number of core strengthening exercises can be done at home with no equipment. In genral, you should aim to work on strengthening your core muscles three times per week for at least ten minutes per session if you want to notice a real difference. Focus on the quality of the core exercises rather than the quantity of repetition, and keep the speed slow and controlled. If you can do more than 25 reps of a core muscle exercise it's either too easy, your technique is not correct, or you are going too fast!

Exercise

Pilates exercises are well known to work the "core" or strengthen the abdominal muscles for a flatter stomach and a long, lean look.

The Swiss Ball or Resistaball as it has become known is also a great way to train the core. Studies have shown that just 2 days per week on the ball has been shown to improve balance in older adults.

Plank
V-Sit
Reverse Bridge
Hip-lift
superman

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Digestive System

Organs of the digestive system are specialized for the digestion and absorption of food. The primary function of the digestive system is to prepare food for cellular utilization. Food is broken down to be absorbed into intestinal wall and transported to the cells by the blood.

What is Gastrointestinal (GI) tract ?

The tube that extends from the mouth to the anus in which the movement of muscles and release of hormones and enzymes digest food.

GI Tract consist of :

Mouth

- Ingest food
- Grinds food and mixes it with saliva

Pharynx (part of the throat)
- Receives bolus (mass of food that has been chewed at the point of swallowing)
- continues swallowing of bolus to oesophagus

Oesophagus (passage between the throat)
- Transport bolus to stomach

Stomach
- Chums bolus with gastric juice
- initiate digestion of proteins
- sends digests food into duodenum (first section of the small intestine)

Small Intestine
- Receives chyme (partially digested food) from stomach
- Breakdown chyme
- Transport waste to large intestine

Large Intestine
- Receives undigested waste from small intestine
- absorbs water and electrolytes

Accessory organs of the GI tract

Liver
- Largest intestinal organ of the body approximately up to 3kg
- Produce bile to help breakdown of fats
- contains enzymes to breakdown many toxin or chemicals in food and drink

Gallbladder
- Stores bile made by liver
- bile is release when food containing fat enters the liver

Pancreas
- Produce hormones including insulin and glucagons
- juice containing enzymes
- further breakdown carbohydrates, protein and fat in the chyme

Absorption and Transport of Nutrients


Carbohydrates

• recommended approximately 60% of total calories come from carbohydrates
• digestible carbohydrates are broken down by enzymes in the saliva, pancreatic juice and lining of small intestine
  

Protein

• need to be digested before they can be used to build and repair body tissue
• starts in the stomach and is completed in the small intestine
• protein is broken down into amino acids
• absorbed from the small intestine into blood and carried to all parts of body

Fats

• rich source of energy
• first step is to dissolve into content of intestine
• bile acids produced by the liver assist in breakdown of large fat molecules in smaller which are fatty acids and cholesterol
  
• bile acids, fatty acids and cholesterol combine to move into the mucosa (moist tissue layer of the stomach) of large intestine
• the blood carries the remainders of the fat molecules for storage around the body

Vitamins

• absorbed from the small intestine
• classified by the fluid in which they can be dissolved
• water soluble - vitamins B & C
• fat soluble - vitamins A,D,E & K

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Chest

In my younger age I always want to have a bullet proof chest, a wide and thick pecs would describe it best. Many method I have learn and try but not all are correct or best suits my self/ many individual. Chest or Pectorals muscle divided into two area.

Anatomy

Pectoralis major - thick muscle situated at the front of chest of the body. It makes up the bulk of the chest muscles

Pectoralis minor - thin muscle situated at the upper part of the chest beneath the pectoralis major

Pec major  located on the front of the rib cage, its insertion/ attach to the humerus proximal and originate near the  shoulder joint (clavicle) and on the breastbone in the center of the chest (sternum). A fan like structure of the pecs allow the humerus to move in a variety of planes across the body.

Pec minor located underneath pec major attaching to corocoid process and originate on ribs 3 to 5.

Recommended exercise 

Dumbbell Incline/ bench press

Cable Cross Over

Pec deck  machine

Tips

•  Most athlete would agree that dumbbell is the best equipment to use for this exercise due to it gives a larges range of motion and better squeeze
• When performing cable cross over, avoid bend/ slanting to forward because we do not want to use the body weight to support the weight. Cheating with big weight = big muscle
• Try to get the most stretch at the bottom of every rep and always squeeze at the top of every reps

Back

It is one of the most complex muscle. Divided into several area and commonly know as upper and lower back.  

Anatomy

Trapezius - upper/ middle back
Latissimus dorsi - lats of wings of the back
Rhomboid - several muscles of the upper back that help move the shoulder blade

Rhomboid located in the upper back and connects the spine with the shoulder blade. The rhomboid muscle is named due to diamond-like shape. There are two types of rhomboid muscle, the rhomboid major and rhomboid minor which contract and relax to move the shoulder blades. Both of the rhomboid  muscle  sits beneath the trapezius muscle.
 
Trapezius muscle is a triangular muscle which extends from the neck to the mid back and across to cover the shoulder blades. The trapezius muscle can move the shoulder blade in a number of ways beyond the shrug and it is also involved in the rotation of the head and neck.

Teres major and minor. The teres major performs similar actions to the minor although it helps internal rotation and is only active when the shoulder blade is fixed. Teres major responsible for inward rotation and adduction. Whereby teres minor responsible for outward rotation.

Latissimus dorsi are the largest muscle on the back. It attached to the upper end of arm. It is responsible for a number of functions at the shoulder joint. The latissimus dorsi extends the shoulder or draws the arm down toward the body when it is raised to the front.

Recommended exercise

Deadlift
Rowing
Pull up

Tips

• Emphasize on vertical pulling movement like lat pull down or body weight pull up because this will concentrate highly towards the lats muscle.
• Horizontal pulling movement like sited row stimulate middle to upper back.
• To get better stretch on the traps, try shrugging behind the body instead of the side or front.
• Supinate the arm during lat pull down or high row will hit more on the teres muscle and lattisimus dorsi 

Triceps

Triceps is the main muscle located at the back/posterior compartment of the arm. The name 'Tri' is derived from the presence of three 'heads': long, medial and lateral. The tricep composes of 2/3 of your arm therefore it is a key muscle to concentrate on when building arm strength and size. Each muscle starts at a different point on the body, but all of the muscles attach to the same place on the elbow. It is responsible for elbow extension, that is extending your arm out from the elbow in any pressing or pushing movement. The long head is the only part that crosses over the shoulder joint, so the long head can actually assist at pulling the shoulder backwards (shoulder extension).

Anatomy

• Long head
• Lateral head
• Medial head

The Triceps Brachii also assists Latissimus Dorsi in extending the shoulder joint. It contracts strongly during the up phase of a push up, to straighten the arm. The long head starts on the infraglenoid tubercle of the shoulder blade which means that is crosses the shoulder joint.The lateral head starts on the posterior part of the arm. It is situated towards the top outside part of the arm. The medial head starts on the posterior part of the arm also but it is situated on the lower inside part of the humerus.

Recommended Exercise 

Obviously, any exercise that focuses on straightening the elbow will work all heads of this muscle and there are many good isolation exercises and compound exercises. Examples of isolation exercises are things like kick backs, push downs, or overhead extensions.
 

• Long head responsible for the arm looking bulging at the back of the arm, workout that puts the elbow away from the body will provide better stretch towards the long head such as dumbbell triceps overhead extension and french curl.
• Cable or isolation would be best to bring out the triceps striation

 

Biceps

There are 2 parts to this muscle, a long head and a short head. Each muscle starts at a different point on the shoulder blade, but both muscles attach to the same place on the forearm and elbow. Since both parts of the muscle attach to the same spot they both do the same motions.

The primary function of the bicep muscle is to flex the elbow, which moves the forearm towards the shoulder. The explains the standard bicep “curl”. The secondary function of the bicep is supination of the forearm, which means turning the hand from a palms-down position to a palms-up position. This is why a rotational type of curl is always good to add to your bicep training.

Anatomy 

Shoulder is a ball and socket joint made up of three bones:
upper arm bone (humerus)
shoulder blade (scapula)
collarbone (clavicle)
 

The head of upper arm bone fits into a rounded socket in shoulder blade. This socket is called the glenoid. A combination of muscles and tendons keeps the arm bone centered in shoulder socket. These tissues are called the rotator cuff. They cover the head of upper arm bone and attach it to shoulder blade. The upper end of the biceps muscle has two tendons that attach it to bones in the shoulder. The long head attaches to the top of the shoulder socket (glenoid). The short head attaches to a bump on the shoulder blade called the coracoid process. The biceps also connects with the fascia of the medial side of the forearm. Two additional muscles lie underneath the biceps brachii. These are the coracobrachialis muscle, which like the biceps attaches to the coracoid process of the scapula, and the brachialis muscle which connect to the medial bone of the forearm (ulna) and along the mid-body of the arm bone (humerus). 

Recommended Exercise 

Biceps curl
Preacher curl
Concentration curl

Tips

• Highly recommend to do most of the workout while sitting, this will prevent from using the body momentum during the training especially for barbell/ dumbbell curl.
• Supinate the forearm at the top to get more squeeze
• Always go all the way down to fully stretch the muscle especially during preacher curl.
• Neutral/ hammer position will hit more towards the brachialis muscle.
• To improve the peak of the muscle, it is best to use cable where it will always provide a constant tension during concentric and eccentric phase. 

Quadriceps

Quadruple stands for 4 and quadriceps has 4 different muscle. The quadriceps or "quads" is one of the largest muscles in the body.  Many of the best leg exercises focus on the quads.  The primary function of the quadriceps is leg extension.  Leg extension is the motion of extending your knee like kicking a ball. The quadriceps muscle group is made up of four muscles. The vastus intermedius is found on the front of the thigh, deep to the rectus femoris. The vastus medialis is found toward the inside of the leg, while the vastus lateralis is found toward the outside of the leg. The tendons of these four muscles merge together and attach onto the kneecap and surrounding ligaments.

Vastus intermedius (beneath rectus femoris)
Rectus femoris (peak of quad)
Vastus medialis (teardrop)
Vastus lateralis (sweep)

Recommended Exercise

Squat
Leg Extension
Leg press


Tips

• Keep feet close together during squatting and leg press will help to target more vastus lateralis area.
• Squatting, leg extension and leg press with a wide Stace and toe pointing outwards  will target more vastus medialis. 
• Highper leg extension will target more vastus intermedius & rectus femoris

Muscle

The action a muscle generates is determined by the origin and insertion locations. They are attached to the skeleton and move the body by contracting in response to signals from the central nervous system, contraction is achieved by the sliding of thin filaments. When skeletal muscle contract they either move parts of the body via their attachments to bones, or produce tension to oppose stretch or even to allow controlled lengthening.  During every motion every muscle has to perform different duties.  The most simple to understand is the agonist - antagonist relationship.
The agonist is the muscle which (shortens) performs the primary action and the antagonist is the muscle which (lengthens) opposes it.

There are approximately 639 skeletal muscles in the human body, here I will only name a few. Those are


Quadriceps
Hamstring
Glutes
Abdominal
Chest
Back
Biceps
Triceps