Sports « Weekly Gravy

Fitness and calorie counting apps are meant to boost people’s spirits, helping them become healthier by tracking their progress. But many find them to be a complete downer and an utter detriment, a new study says. Some experience a sense of shame, disappointment, frustration and futility when using these apps, undermining their attempts to improve their health, researchers reported Oct. 22 in the British Journal of Health Psychology. “We found a lot of blame and shame, with people feeling they were not doing as well as they should be,” senior researcher Paulina Bondaronek, a senior research fellow at University College London, said in a news release. “These emotional effects may end up harming people’s motivation and their health.” For the study, researchers analyzed nearly 14,000 posts about five popular fitness apps on the social media site Twitter, prior to its rebranding as X. The apps were MyFitnessPal, Strava, WW, Workouts by Muscle Booster, Fitness Coach & Diet, and FitCoach. Most of the posts (nearly 8,500) related to MyFitnessPal, followed by Strava and WW (formerly Weight Watchers). Results showed that the apps often produced as much frustration as motivation. Users expressed: Shame at having to log “unhealthy” foods. Irritation at notifications to log calories or reduce sugar consumption. Disappointment at slow progress toward targets set by the apps. Skepticism at strict goals set by apps. Annoyance… read on > read on >

Stronger muscles might be able to ward off some of the organ damage associated with obesity. People with excess body fat who also had stronger handgrip strength were less likely to develop obesity-related heart, liver or kidney damage, researchers reported Oct. 15 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. They were also less likely to die early, researchers noted. “Our findings show that muscle strength is a powerful, early sign of who is most at risk of developing obesity-induced organ dysfunctions among people with excess body fat,” researcher Dr. Yun Shen said in a news release. He’s an assistant professor of chronic disease epidemiology at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. “Because grip strength is easy to measure and strength can be improved with weight training, this research points to a practical, low‑cost way to identify at‑risk individuals and to act early,” Shen said. For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 93,000 participants in the UK Biobank, a large-scale health research project in the United Kingdom. The team followed these people for an average of more than 13 years. They specifically focused on people with “preclinical obesity,” when body fat is higher than average but obesity has not caused organ-related health problems. Results showed that as handgrip strength increased among the participants, people gained significantly reduced risk of health… read on > read on >

“Fun-sized” bits of exercise sprinkled throughout the day might help boost the fitness of inactive folks, a new evidence review says. These exercise “snacks” — intentional short bursts of physical activity — significantly improved heart and lung fitness among adults, researchers reported Oct. 7 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. People also found it easy to pick up the habit of bite-sized workout breaks, results showed. “The time efficient nature of exercise snacks may help overcome common barriers to physical activity, such as perceived lack of time and low motivation,” wrote a team led by Hugo Olmedillas, an assistant professor of physical education and sport at the University of Oviedo in Spain. “Exercise snacks may enhance adherence to regular physical activity by providing short, flexible exercise bouts that are easier to integrate into daily routines,” the team concluded. About a third of adults and 4 in 5 teens fail to meet minimum recommended physical activity levels, researchers said in background notes. People are encouraged to get at least 300 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous exercise each week. Exercise snacks, like stair climbing or weightlifting, might help fill this gap by getting people off their feet for brief spells, researchers theorized. For their review, researchers pooled data from 11 clinical trials in Australia, Canada, China and the U.K., involving… read on > read on >

“Heading” the ball might affect amateur soccer players’ brain health, a new study says. Players who used their heads to pass or deflect a soccer ball were more likely to develop changes within the folds of their brains, researchers reported Sept. 17 in the journal Neurology. These folds are in the wrinkly outer area of the brain called the cerebral cortex. Athletes with more of these brain changes performed worse on cognitive tests, researchers said. “People who experienced more impacts from headers had more disruptions within a specific layer in the folds of the brain, and that these disruptions were also linked to poorer performance on thinking and memory tests,” senior researcher Dr. Michael Lipton, a professor of radiology with Columbia University said in a news release. The study adds more evidence to concerns over how sports-related head impacts and concussions affect players’ brain health, researchers said. For the study, researchers performed brain scans on 352 amateur soccer players in the greater New York City area, as well as 77 other athletes participating in non-collision sports. Amateur players in the study were 26 years old on average. The soccer players were divided into four groups based on how often they headed the ball during play. The highest group had an average of 3,152 headers per year, compared to 105 headers in the lowest group. Scans… read on > read on >

Having trouble with bladder control? There might be an app for that, researchers say. Female veterans suffering from urinary incontinence received effective relief using a smartphone app called MyHealtheBladder, researchers reported Sept. 16 in JAMA Network Open. The app delivered daily sessions over eight weeks, teaching the women about pelvic floor exercises, bladder control strategies, fluid management and self-monitoring, researchers said. Veterans also got effective help from a telehealth visit with trained urinary incontinence experts, researchers said. “Women veterans reported improved urinary incontinence symptoms with both remote delivery modalities, with earlier UI symptom improvement reported among women randomized to a mobile health app, compared with a video visit,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Alayne Markland, director of geriatric research and education with the Birmingham VA Health Care System in Alabama. It can be tough to teach women how to manage urinary incontinence, especially for those living in rural areas with less access to health care, researchers said. Telehealth provides one potential opportunity to get this info to women, and veterans are a prime group for such an approach, researchers said. “Telehealth care in the VA has grown from 300,000 veterans served in 2010 with recent expansion reaching 2.3 million veterans in 2022,” researchers wrote. “More than a third of all veterans have received some form of remote care. Women veterans are early adopters… read on > read on >

The collegiate sports season is upon us, and with it the inevitable bruises, sprains and strains that come from tough competition. Portable wireless ultrasound devices could be key to getting fast, reliable assessment of on-the-field sports injuries, researchers say. These wireless devices deliver results faster and at lower cost, while making it easier to examine an injury on the sidelines or in a dugout, researchers report in the Journal of Sports Rehabilitation. “This study helps lay the groundwork for using wireless ultrasound more widely in sports medicine,” lead researcher Jessica Tolzman, a doctoral student in kinesiology at Michigan State University, said in a news release. Ultrasound imaging is often used to assess muscle and tendon characteristics involved in sports injuries, researchers said in background notes. For example, the quadriceps are critical for knee stability. Using ultrasound to assess their size and quality tracks a player’s recovery from injury, researchers said. Standard ultrasounds use panoramic, real-time imaging to capture entire muscle groups, researchers said. This involves large and expensive machines typically found in hospitals or labs. By comparison, small wireless ultrasound devices are more affordable and easier to use, but also more limited. They can only capture a single image at a time. Researchers decided to see whether these single images produced by wireless ultrasound could nevertheless provide meaningful muscle measurements. “We wanted to see if… read on > read on >