Scholars

I am cautiously optimistic that the current cultural and political awakening America is experiencing will lead to substantive change in regards to race relations. This hope is fuelled by the progress seen over past "Great Awakenings" such as the abolition of slavery, the civil rights movement, and the presidencies of Obama, Trump and Biden.
 
Transcript: "I do see progress each time that America faces reckoning with its sins of the past. And that's characterized by what scholars have referred to as a cultural, political awakening, where people, Americans, try to come to terms with what's wrong with the country. And when you ask about what-- when someone asks what's wrong, there's a natural-- in any subject, there's a natural-- a natural answer is to look at the past. History is a guide. History is a way-- the past is a way to help us explain the present and how to move forward in the future. And so these reckonings with the past are a way of trying to understand history. It's also why conservatives are trying to pass a ban-- trying to ban critical race theory, which essentially is a way of not allowing race to be discussed in schools because they don't want that reckoning. They're trying to resist that reckoning. We're in the midst of what I think is the fourth or fifth "Great Awakening." And these awakenings, they're moments in which there's been ultimately progress in race relations. The three areas that everyone has agreed on is the revolution that gave rise to the Declaration of Independence and the abolition of the Northern states, the Civil War, which then led to the legal abolition of slavery in America, and the Civil Rights, the modern civil rights movement. A few scholars have characterized other great awakenings. But it's that time of an awakening. So I'm cautiously optimistic that the moment we're in now is one that will lead to some sort of substantive change. And I think you see it in the presidencies actually of Obama, of Trump, and of Biden. Trump is a reaction against the awakening that was reflected by the first African-American president. And Biden, in terms of race relations, is even more progressive than Obama. Obama recognized how far he could go, and given the fact that he's the first African-American president. And one of the reasons that-- in fact, the main reason why Trump became president is because he was the head of the birther movement. He tried to argue that Obama was illegitimate because he was Black. He didn't say that, but that was the whole basis of the birther movement. So it's a great question. And I'm cautiously optimistic that the turmoil and the--"

Dynamic stretching is better suited for warm-ups because it increases blood flow, body temperature and prepares the body for more active activity. Static stretching can actually have a negative impact during a workout.
 
Transcript: "Dynamic stretching, as far as a warm-up goes, is just an actual movement of the body getting ready for physical activity. So it might be leg swings, arm swings, arm circles, walking lunges. Where static stretching, of course, is stretching a muscle, getting into a position where it's stretched, and you feel some slight discomfort, and then you hold that position for a minimum of 30 seconds. Dynamic stretching is most suited for warm-up because you actually are moving, you're contracting the muscles, you're increasing blood flow, actually getting a slight increase in your respiratory. So it's going to do a better job as to actually increasing your body temperature and getting your body ready for more active activity. Static stretching doesn't really do a whole lot to warm up your body, and it can actually inhibit the stretch reflex, which could have a negative impact during your actual workout."

Exercises that require more joints and larger muscles tend to require a longer dynamic warm-up.
 
Transcript: "Exercises that require more joints, larger muscles, would require a bit longer of a warm-up. There's a little bit more of the body that needs to be warmed up and prepared for more intense physical activity. So, for example, if an individual were doing squats on a particular day or if they were doing Olympic lifting on a particular day, that would require a little bit more of a warm-up versus if a person was coming in and they were doing presses or pull-ups or some less intense upper body exercises. So if it's lower body, larger muscle mass, or whole body type activities, then possibly a slightly longer dynamic warm-up would be recommended because you have a little bit more muscle to warm up as well."

Trigger points can develop from overuse of a muscle and can be related to shoulder pain, which is often caused by a muscle imbalance or rotator cuff issues.
 
Transcript: "Trigger points can develop from just really just overuse of a muscle, a muscle imbalance. So maybe a weaker muscle or a muscle that's trying to maintain a particular posture or position of a joint can continuously remain contracted and then in itself it will lead up to a knot or a trigger point. As far as individuals with shoulder pain, shoulder pain may or may not be related to a trigger point. I mean there's a lot of reasons for shoulder pain. In all likelihood of someone if you're experiencing shoulder pain you might have a muscle imbalance, something associated with overuse and issues with your rotator cuff."

Inhibiting the stretch reflex won't necessarily lead to injury, but it will reduce performance and could potentially make it harder for an individual to correct sudden imbalances that could lead to injury.
 
Transcript: "Inhibiting the stretch reflex in itself may not lead to injury, but it's likely to lead to a reduction of performance and could decrease an individual's reaction if they were to be in a situation and they need to correct a sudden imbalance, keep themselves from falling, then that in itself could potentially, that could have an injury issue. But inhibiting the stretch-shortening cycle in itself won't necessarily lead to injury, but it will lead to a drop in performance because there's going to be a reduction of force output with the muscle contraction."

Poor lifting technique can cause chronic pain and injury over time, as you are putting undue stress on your body.
 
Transcript: "I like to think of this as having a bad suspension on a sports car. You've got a lot of power, a lot of capacity to do the work, but if you have a poor suspension that power doesn't get to the road and something's gonna break. So you're going to be a problem. So individuals that have poor lifting technique, they're putting undue stress on the body, on the joints, on the muscle, on the connective tissue, and over time that's going to cause excessive wear and tear and eventually something's gonna give. There's gonna be a break. There's gonna be chronic injury just or chronic pain. There's gonna be something that's just gonna be a nagging problem. Whether that's a shoulder that's always giving you problems, maybe your lower back, maybe it's a knee that gives you continuous problems, but if you continuously load a faulty system something eventually will break. It may not be immediate. It'll take might take some time, but it will eventually happen."