The six-months physical training program consists of 1) a computer-assisted training and 2) a functional training with an arm support.
The six-months physical training consists of 1) a computer-assisted training and 2) a functional training of the non-dominant arm and hand (i.e. the hand one does not use for writing) with a mechanical or an electrical arm support (Dynamic Arm Support Top/Help, Focal, Tilburg, the Netherlands) (figure 6).
More than a century on, the railway stretching from Mombasa to Uganda still operates, though less as a functional train service than a curiosity to be enjoyed – or endured – by time-rich locals and tourists looking for faded colonial charm.
(Last November, the exercise council, which certifies personal trainers, began offering a specialization in functional training).
Interest in suspension straps is also high because a theory called functional training has been making slow but steady inroads in the fitness business.
The functional fitness zones also are a moneymaker for gyms, costing $5 to $6 a square foot, compared with some $50 a square foot when filled by machines, estimated Bruce Mack, the founder and chief executive of the Boston-based MBSC Thrive, who has built a business bringing functional training programs to hundreds of gyms nationwide.
The other study reported 7% of subjects cured and 47% cured/improved, using a more complex functional training protocol, although details were not reported [ 43].
Trish Talerico, 53, of Clark, N.J., a hospital administrator, began functional training at Chelsea Piers with the goal of strengthening her abdominal muscles for better back support.
13 22 25 Tai Chi was the exclusive exercise intervention in two of the studies 26 27; the rest of the interventions included a gait, balance, and functional training component.
Valvano [ 22] has recently described an intervention approach including functional training as well as prevention of secondary impairments by focusing on both activity goals and movement goals.
This is a first explorative study that will give an indication of the effect of functional training with arm support on the functional abilities of the upper extremity in boys with DMD.
