Sports « Weekly Gravy

About a fifth of the time, a teenage driver is looking at their smartphone rather than the road or their rearview, a new study says. Teen drivers spend an average 21% of each trip looking at their phone, according to results published today in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention. Worse, these weren’t quick glances — nearly 27% of the time the drivers focused on their phone for two seconds or longer, a duration that dramatically increases the risk of a crash, researchers said. Teen drivers most commonly check out their phone for entertainment (65%) or texting (40%), with 30% using the phone’s GPS to help them navigate roads, results showed. “Distracted driving is a serious public health threat and particularly concerning among young drivers,” lead researcher Rebecca Robbins, an assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said in a news release. “Driving distracted doesn’t just put the driver at risk of injury or death, it puts everyone else on the road in danger of an accident,” Robbins added. Across the U.S., 35 states have banned all types of phone use for young drivers, researchers said in background notes. But a previous national study found that nearly 92% of teens still regularly engage in texting, talking or dialing in tunes on their smartphone while behind the wheel, researchers said. For the new… read on > read on >

If you’re looking to boost your running performance, try this simple tip: Keep your eyes on the finish line. New research shows that narrowing your focus while running — especially as you get closer to the end — can help you run faster and push harder. The study, which examined nearly 1,600 runners, found that this “attentional narrowing” serves as a powerful mental strategy. “The findings offer a low-cost and simple way to improve running performance — merely by adjusting how we direct our attention,” study author Shana Cole, associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University-New Brunswick in New Jersey, said. The research, published June 25 in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, looked at six studies. These included surveys of elite and casual runners, as well as experiments in which runners were asked to focus either narrowly or broadly during their runs. Runners who narrowed their attention — meaning they looked straight ahead rather than observing their surroundings — tended to run faster and showed signs of greater physical effort. “Looking at one spot ahead of you — rather than around you — can help you keep going,” lead author Emily Balcetis, an associate professor of psychology at New York University, said in a news release. In the experiments, some runners were asked to focus narrowly throughout their run, while others were told… read on > read on >

Fitness trackers aren’t accurately assessing the physical activity of people with obesity, a new study argues. Differences in walking gait, speed, energy burn and other factors mean that folks with excess weight aren’t getting an accurate read from their devices, researchers wrote in the journal Scientific Reports. “People with obesity could gain major health insights from activity trackers, but most current devices miss the mark,” senior researcher Nabil Alshurafa, an associate professor of behavioral medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said in a news release. Alshurafa’s team has developed a new algorithm that enables smartwatches to more accurately monitor the calories burned by people with obesity, researchers said. Lab tests show that the new algorithm achieves over 95% accuracy in real-world situations, the study says. “Without a validated algorithm for wrist devices, we’re still in the dark about exactly how much activity and energy people with obesity really get each day — slowing our ability to tailor interventions and improve health outcomes,” Alshurafa said. Alshurafa said he was motivated to create the algorithm after going to an exercise class with his mother-in-law, who has obesity. “She worked harder than anyone else, yet when we glanced at the leaderboard, her numbers barely registered,” Alshurafa said. “That moment hit me: fitness shouldn’t feel like a trap for the people who need it most.”… read on > read on >

Heading the ball can be a dramatic, game-changing play during a soccer match. Unfortunately, soccer players pay a price every time they make this move, a new study argues. Bouncing a soccer ball off your head disrupts a person’s brain even if it doesn’t result in a concussion, researchers reported June 18 in Sports Medicine-Open. MRI scans of soccer players reveal that heading subtly alters chemistry and nerve function in the brain, and causes slightly elevated levels of proteins that have been associated with brain injury, researchers found. “These findings suggest that even routine, symptom-free heading can produce subtle changes in the brain,” senior investigator Danielle McCartney, a postdoctoral research associate with the University of Sydney’s Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics, said in a news release. “The next step is to understand whether these changes accumulate over time, and what that might mean for player health in the long run,” McCartney continued. “In the meantime, we’re adding to calls for soccer players to exercise caution and perhaps consider whether extensive heading is necessary, particularly in training.” For the new study, researchers asked 15 male soccer players to head a ball 20 times in 20 minutes. The balls were launched at a constant speed from a machine, and each player also spent a second round kicking the ball to provide a means of comparison. MRI scans… read on > read on >

Spending time outside walking, hiking or running is a great way to stay healthy during the summer. But before you jump into a new routine, health experts say it’s important to take steps to stay safe and avoid injury. They recommend getting at least 150 minutes of moderate activity each week, such as brisk walking, to stay in shape. Outdoor exercise comes with fresh air and great views — but it can also come with some added risks, warned Dr. Travis Miller, a sports medicine doctor at Penn State Health Orthopedics in Berks County, Pa. He shared his top safety tips: 1. Start slow and steady. If you haven’t worked out much during winter or spring, take it easy. “As people are excited to work on their fitness goals, sometimes they decide they’re going to exercise for an hour a day starting Monday, but by Wednesday or Thursday they’re so sore they can’t move,” Miller said. Start with a 15-minute walk daily, then increase that by 10% every week to build endurance slowly. 2. Stretch your feet and ankles. One of the most common injuries Miller sees involves overused tendons in the feet, ankles and heels. Try this simple stretch: Sit with legs straight and loop a towel or shirt around your toes and hold both ends. Push your toes forward to stretch your feet,… read on > read on >