Professor Sandra Hunter earned her PhD in exercise physiology at the University of Sydney, Australia. Sandra is currently Director of the Neuromuscular Physiology of Movement laboratory, and the Athletic and Human Performance Research Center at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
Sandra’s passion is to optimize physical performance in all people of all abilities and all ages. Her research aims to understand why and how people lose strength and power as they age, the differences between men and women, and to determine the best exercise strategies to optimize muscle strength, power and endurance.
The best time to move is when you are NOT feeling motivated! The dust has settled, and social distancing is the “new normal.” Therefore, if you are spending more time at home due to physical distancing and amended work routines, take this opportunity to introduce more movement in your life. If there has ever been an…
A call to action: be more physically active! During this time of stay-at-home orders and physical distancing related to COVID-19, it’s increasingly obvious that we need to plan, schedule and participate in more exercise activity than the 150 mins/week currently endorsed by international organizations. Specifically, the frequency, duration and distances related to walking activities and…
It’s time to hit the reset button. Confinement to our homes to slow the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) has placed considerable constraints on our lives and suppressed our activity levels. Prolonged periods of inactivity can have dramatic and detrimental effects on your health. Research shows that people who are inactive are at a 17-25%…
Not everyone enjoys running or cycling, but most of us can walk. The return on the investment of walking is a form of exercise can be profound in terms of physical and mental benefits. With much of the world practicing social distancing and working remotely and from our homes, walking can help clear your head to offset…
Have you ever wanted to build your endurance to run 5 km? Doing so requires training, motivation, determination and a plan to get there! This sort of goal can seem daunting. Yet, with a regular and methodical training plan like we outline here, this undertaking is achievable for almost everyone! Not only will you work towards satisfying the American Heart Association’s recommendation of fulfilling…
We need to get moving! Social, or physical distancing which is recommended to reduce the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19) has altered our daily work and recreation patterns, leading to a much more sedentary lifestyle for many of us! Presently, I am working remotely like many of you, which requires less walking, and my gym and swim classes are cancelled. The number of steps I take in a typical day have been reduced by one-half. We know that Exercise (even a single…
Keeping Active While Social Distancing | Challenge 1 In this time of social distancing and self-quarantining that helps slow the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19), how do we keep active and mentally healthy? This is especially challenging in many parts of the world as schools, workplaces, gyms, and fitness classes are closed. Exercise (even a single bout) can boost your…
One of the great benefits of regular exercise is the boost it provides to the immune system. Regular exercise protects against sickness for all people, but particularly in older aged people and those with chronic diseases (1). This is shown to be the case with large population studies for both communicable diseases, such as bacterial and viral infections,…
Being active is a very good indicator of overall health and wellness. It’s recommended that we exercise at a moderate intensity for 150 min a week at about 30 min for 5 days a week. The 30-minute bouts can be broken into smaller intervals of 10 minutes as well. But what if you haven’t got…
Short bursts of vigorous exercise from several seconds to minutes can be very beneficial to fitness and health. This latest ‘word on the street’ is supported by science-based studies over the last decade and is now incorporated into updated physical activity guidelines worldwide such as the 2018 US Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Short bursts…