David Ferguson, Ph.D, RCEP   One of the best parts of my job is that every day is different. I recall one day in particular when I received a phone call from a woman interested in coming into the lab to have a fitness assessment done.   The interesting part was that she said she did not want to do a VO2­ max test (treadmill test to measure aerobic fitness). I found this very odd because the majority of the population does not know what a VO2max test is, let...

David Ferguson, Ph.D, RCEP   We have all heard the late night talk show hosts joke about an athlete’s inability to retire. In fact, there seems to be a consensus that once an athlete reaches a certain age, he should retire from the sport. One such example comes to mind; when I was sitting in an airport restaurant which had a football game on the television, the gentleman sitting next to me made the comment, “Brett Favre has been playing as long as I have been alive, he shou...

David Ferguson, Ph.D, RCEPIn the competitive sport world, athletes are required to train year-round in order to maintain a state of physical conditioning that will optimize performance during game day. With certain sports having longer seasons than others, this idea of year-round training can lead to the athlete becoming “overtrained”. Overtraining is described as a decrease in lean muscle mass, an increase in body fat, an increased state of fatigue, a decreased performance capa...