....since I made my last post. I'm so bad at this! I guess this is why I don't normally keep one, I don't write in it often enough for people to keep up and/or even care haha.
So I just emailed my Strength Coach for my "Expert Interview" for this class. I'm interested in reading what he has to say about it. I feel like the strength coaches here don't rely very heavily on technology. I haven't seen much other than laptops, a body comp. caliper and a scale. So, if there's more to it than that, I'm interested in knowing what it might be.
The coolest thing I've seen when it comes to technology in this field is "Hydrostatic Weighing". It's the most accurate way of measuring how much body fat a person has. I was chosen to do it in my Exercise Physiology class and thought it was pretty sweet. First, you get measured and weighed to see how much total mass you have compared to your height (160lbs. on a 5'4" girl such as myself is much different on a 5'10" girl). Second, you breathe into this tube that's hooked up to a computer. It measures and calibrates how much you can breathe in and how much air you can expel. They do this so it knows how much air you still have in your lungs once you've breathed all that you can out. This needs to be as accurate as possible, so you have to get down to the nitty-gritty- every bit counts.
Once that's done, it's time to move to the pool; and I've got to say it was pretty intimidating to see. This is the best way I can explain it-- you know how the fruit and vegetable scales at the grocery store are set up? The little platform hangs down and pulls to move the needle? Okay, well it was pretty much a human-size version of that. --I'm instructed to sit on the seat, hold on to the sides, and curl my legs underneath. Once I'm ready to go, I have to make my body as compact as possible and blow all the air out. So, basically I go underwater for a few seconds, with no air. It's pretty intimidating to say the least. I did this 3 times, after each trial, the weight was taken and recorded. The idea behind hydrostatic weighing is that muscle weighs more than fat- muscle sinks, fat floats- so however much weight sinks according to the scale, is my muscle weight; everything else is fat.
It's really cool to me how this is done. Every other way of taking a body composition is based on the results from this hydrostatic test; it's the mother of all of it and currently the most accurate way to measure a person's body comp.
So yeah, that's my little tid-bit for the night. Guess I'll be writing again tomorrow since I have 2 more to go to keep up!
Keep on trucckkkiiiinnnnnn'
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