Sports « Weekly Gravy

Winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding are a great way to get kids active, but new research suggests extra safety measures may be in order for younger children. The study found that grade-schoolers had almost three times the odds of having a serious skull or facial fracture while skiing or snowboarding, compared to older children. Meanwhile, older children had more than twice the risk of younger kids of having an injury to their abdominal area. “Injury prevention efforts need to be different for age group. There should be more targeted prevention strategies,” said study author Dr. Robert McLoughlin, a general surgery resident at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. McLoughlin doesn’t think the findings mean that kids should forgo winter sports. “It’s great that in a digital age where obesity is rising that kids get out and play, but they need to do it in a way that’s safe,” he said. Skiing and snowboarding are considered high-risk sports, even with protective equipment, the researchers said. Experts estimate that in 2015 there were more than 13,000 injuries related to snowboarding or downhill skiing in kids under 15. About 5% of those injuries required hospital admission. McLoughlin and his team looked at data from a nationally representative study of kids’ inpatient hospital admissions between 2009 and 2012. They found 845 admissions related to… read on >

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting about 31 million Americans, and is the leading cause of disability among adults. Known as OA, it causes pain and other symptoms in joints, which can affect the ability to do everyday tasks. There’s no known cure, but there are treatments that can relieve pain and maintain joint function, according to a rheumatologist at Wake Forest Baptist Health in Winston-Salem, N.C. “Osteoarthritis is the thinning or wearing down of cartilage, which is the cushion between the separate bones in a joint,” Dr. Francis Luk said in a health system news release. “When your doctor says you have arthritis, most often they are referring to osteoarthritis.” The main risk factors are aging, obesity, prior injury, repetitive stress on a joint and genetics. OA can occur in any joint, but the most common are knees, hips and hands. “Symptoms vary from person to person but someone with osteoarthritis of the knee typically will have pain when they stand up from a seated position or when they’re walking, especially when going up and down stairs,” Luk said. “With osteoarthritis of the hands, people typically experience pain when they do things that involve gripping — washing dishes, holding a wrench, opening a jar, things like that,” he added. Treatments include over-the-counter drugs such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs,… read on >

The range of motion of the human thumb makes so many everyday hand movements possible. Whether you’re an athlete gripping sports equipment, a baker whisking egg whites or a do-it-yourselfer hammering a nail, you’d be at a total loss without your thumbs. Yet most people do little to protect these overlooked but essential digits. First, be aware of the common ways you can injure your thumbs. At the top of the list is overuse from texting and playing video games. Putting out your hand to cushion a fall is another cause. So is oxer-extending the thumbs when you’re playing tennis and when you’re skiing, typically when you fall if your hands get caught in your poles. To prevent problems, take steps to avoid overuse injuries and condition your thumbs just as you would any other body part. Give your thumbs a rest from texting by using your index fingers and/or the voice feature on your phone and other gadgets. Do daily stretches to improve range-of-motion and flexibility, like thumb extensions and flexions. With your palm up and fingers together, first extend your thumb out to the side to make a 90-degree angle with your hand, then cross your thumb over your open palm toward the base of your pinkie and hold for 10 seconds. Next, open and close your fingers in a fist. Finally do… read on >

If you’ve been told that your blood glucose is higher than normal and that you have prediabetes, your doctor is likely to first suggest lifestyle steps to stop it from progressing to diabetes. The steps that can have the most benefit are losing weight and improving your diet, which obviously go hand in hand. But studies also show that different types of exercise can play an important part in diabetes prevention as well, especially if you’re overweight. Research done at the University of Michigan and published in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that, for overweight people, regular aerobic activity could interrupt the changes in metabolism that set the stage for diabetes. As you’re mapping out a fitness strategy with your doctor, talk about how to incorporate both types of exercise into your life. National guidelines are to get 150 minutes per week of aerobic activity, which could be 30 minutes on each of five days or, for beginners, three chunks of 10 minutes each on five days. Strength training could be done on the two non-aerobic activity days as long as there is a rest period of at least 48 hours between sessions to give muscles time for recovery and growth. More information The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on prediabetes and how to prevent it from progressing.

Universal gym etiquette includes steps like turning off your cellphone whenever you’re working out, being courteous when using shared equipment in the weight room, taking thoughtful steps such as not wearing heavy perfume, and wiping off your sweat after working out on a machine. But there are also good rules to follow whenever you walk into an exercise class. Adhering to them can improve your performance as well as your standing at the health club and your all-important relationship with your fitness instructors. First, use the minutes when you’re getting dressed for class to focus mentally. Get psyched for a serious workout and remind yourself that fitness boosts your motivation and enthusiasm. Being on time benefits everyone. Lateness is more than distracting to your instructor and classmates. You miss out on the important warmup segment, warns the American Council on Exercise, and that puts you at greater risk for injury. If you’re late for a personal trainer session, it throws off the rest of your trainer’s schedule and means less time for you. On the other hand, don’t be shy about asking questions that will help you improve and possibly avoid an injury. Don’t grin and bear it if a move hurts or if you’re unsure of how to do it. If you can’t get the attention of the teacher during class, bring up your… read on >

Don’t shrug off working your delts, the muscles of your shoulders. Besides assisting with good posture, strong shoulders help you lift and carry items with ease, and create excellent upper body definition for men and women alike. Deltoid rows work not only your shoulders, but also your biceps, lats and the muscles of your middle back. Begin in a standing position, knees slightly bent, with a dumbbell in each hand. Lean slightly forward from the hips, with a straight back. The weights should be just in front of your knees, with arms hanging down to the floor. Exhale and draw the weights straight up to your chest. Your torso stays still as elbows bend out to the sides — shoulders and upper arms should be in alignment at the top of the movement. Think of touching your shoulder blades as you hold for a second, then inhale and slowly return to the start position. Now move to deltoid raises. Stand with feet shoulder width apart, a dumbbell in each hand at the front of the thighs. With control, exhale and raise the weights out in front of you to shoulder height, arms parallel to the floor. Inhale and lower the weights to the start position. Finish with lateral raises. Start by holding the weights at your sides and, on the exhale, lift them out to… read on >

A little bit of testosterone cream might help women run faster longer, a new study suggests. Some female athletes have naturally high testosterone levels that are similar to men, and there is controversy over whether it’s fair to allow them to compete against female athletes with normal testosterone levels. There’s a lack of clear evidence on how testosterone levels affect women’s athletic performance. To learn more, Swedish researchers gave 48 physically active, healthy women between the ages of 18 and 35 either 10 milligrams (mg) of testosterone cream or 10 mg of a placebo cream every day for 10 weeks. The researchers, led by Angelica Linden Hirschberg from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, assessed how testosterone levels affected aerobic performance by measuring how long the women could run on a treadmill before becoming exhausted. Average circulating levels of testosterone rose from 0.9 nanomoles/liter of blood (nmol/l) to 4.3 nmol/l among the women given the testosterone cream. There was no increase among the women who received the placebo. Compared to the women in the placebo group, running time to exhaustion increased by 21.2 seconds (8.5%) among the women in the testosterone cream group. The women in the testosterone cream group also had much larger gains in lean muscle mass than those in the placebo group. On average, testosterone levels among women who received the hormone cream… read on >

The most common misconception about weight training is that it adds bulky muscle mass, a fear of some women. While elite male lifters can — and want to — get very developed, for most people the result is simply well-toned muscles. Other benefits are increased mobility, more support for your joints and the ability to stay self-sufficient into your late years. As an added bonus, having more muscle can also help you with your weight goal. That’s because the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate and the more calories you burn. Add a calorie cut into the mix and you’ll lose weight. Muscle is denser than fat and it also takes up less room. That’s why you can look leaner yet actually weigh more than someone without muscle definition. To make the most of strength training, lift heavier weights than you think you’re able to. Yes, challenge yourself, staying within safe limits. You don’t want to try to lift a weight you can barely pick up off the weight rack, but most people underestimate the amount they can handle or fail to progress to heavier weights, according to the American Council on Exercise, and that limits the effectiveness of strength training. Keep in mind, too, that you don’t have to spend hours in the gym. All you need are 20 to 30… read on >

Chemotherapy can be hard on the heart, but an individualized exercise program may mitigate some of that damage, new research suggests. Heart problems are a common side effect in patients with cancer because cancer treatments can impair heart function and structure or accelerate development of heart disease, especially when patients have risk factors such as high blood pressure, according to the authors. They also noted that heart disease and cancer often share the same risk factors, and that cancer patients are often advised to have a healthy diet, quit smoking, control their weight, and exercise. The review paper, published online Oct. 6 in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, emphasizes the importance of each patient having an individual exercise plan that takes into account personal history, cancer treatment, response to exercise and personal preferences. The researchers advised that exercise should start as soon as possible after cancer diagnosis, even before starting treatment such as chemotherapy. “Cancer patients are often less active than adults without cancer,” said study author Dr. Flavio D’Ascenzi, a cardiologist from the University of Siena in Italy. “However, exercise is essential for patients diagnosed with cancer who are under treatment, irrespective of the type of treatment. “Endurance training is more effective for improving cardiovascular performance and reducing inflammation, but resistance training may be a better starting point for frail cancer patients,” he… read on >

If you are older and you have heart disease, you might think you should take it easy. But new research suggests the opposite is true. Exercise is especially beneficial for patients who have a physical impairment, the study authors found. “Aging is associated with several factors such as increased inflammation or oxidative stress that predispose people to cardiovascular diseases. As a result, elderly patients are usually less fit than their younger counterparts, and deconditioning is accelerated once cardiovascular disease is established,” said lead investigator Gaelle Deley. She is with Faculty of Sports Sciences at the University of Burgundy Franche-Comte in Dijon, France. For the study, the researchers analyzed the results of 733 patients who underwent 25 sessions of a cardiac rehabilitation program from January 2015 to September 2017. The group was divided into three subgroups by age: under 65, between 65 and 80, and 80 and older. “We found a few weeks of exercise training not only significantly improved exercise capacity but also decreased anxiety and depression. Patients with the greatest physical impairments at baseline benefited the most from exercise,” Deley said. The report was published Oct. 8 in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology. “Another interesting result was that patients younger than 65 who were very anxious before rehabilitation benefited the most from exercise training,” Deley said in a journal news release. “A similar result… read on >