Sports « Weekly Gravy

The rotator cuff refers to a group of four distinct muscles and tendons that connect to each shoulder and stabilize the humerus, the upper arm bone. These muscles are engaged when you move your shoulder, and work together to give you the needed range of motion to toss a ball or reach for an object on a high shelf. Baseball pitchers and other athletes aren’t the only people who experience rotator cuff injuries. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons estimates that nearly 2 million Americans see a doctor about a rotator cuff problem every year. Strengthening this group of muscles can help enhance the stability of this important joint and help you avoid injury. Alternating arm and leg lifts: Position yourself on all fours. Your arms are straight, with hands directly below your shoulders and your knees directly below your hips. Tighten your core muscles and simultaneously extend your left leg and your right arm straight out so that they’re both parallel to the floor. With control, lower them, and repeat 10 to 15 times. Then repeat the sequence with your right leg and left arm. Stability ball pushups: Take pushups to another level by doing them with your hands on a stability ball. From the same position on all fours, place your hands on the ball, shoulder width apart, with your upper arms pressed… read on >

(HealthDay News) — Stress is a normal physical and emotional reaction to changes in life. However, long-term stress can contribute to digestive issues, headaches, sleep disorders and other health problems. Relaxation techniques can help release tension and counteract stress, says the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). These techniques incorporate breathing and pleasing thoughts, to help calm both mind and body. The NCCIH recommends trying relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, guided imagery, progressive relaxation, meditation and yoga.

Swimming lessons can lower the risk of drowning, but black kids often miss out on learning this lifesaving skill, a leading pediatricians group says. “Everyone should have the opportunity to learn to swim,” said Dr. Kyle Yasuda, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). “This is an essential life skill for children, teens and adults. It’s an important part of the ‘layers of protection’ that families and communities can put in place to protect children and teens around water,” Yasuda said in an AAP news release. Not everyone has the same access to swimming lessons. Historically, black Americans have faced barriers to learning to swim, and black teen boys have the highest drowning risk of any age group, according to the academy. Rates of drowning among children aged 11 to 12 are 10 times higher for black kids than for whites, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to Dr. Nia Heard-Garris, “This is a problem we can solve.” She is chair of the AAP Section on Minority Health, Equity and Inclusion. “Some communities have created innovative solutions to provide free or low-cost swim lessons, and others have developed culturally sensitive lessons, and lessons for children with developmental disabilities or special health care needs. All children should have access to these potentially lifesaving skills,” Heard-Garris said. In 2017, nearly 1,000… read on >

Ultramarathons are grueling races that typically range anywhere from 30 to 100 miles, but new research suggests that even these distances don’t tax the heart unduly. “The good news is that while experienced runners pushed their heart limits during the ultramarathon, they did not show evidence of cardiac risk assessed through elevated biomarkers [such as cortisol levels],” said co-lead investigator Rodrigo Hohl. He’s a professor from the department of physiology at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora in Brazil. In the study, researchers conducted blood tests on 25 participants in a 24-hour ultramarathon before and after the event. Eleven of them were experienced ultramarathoners who’d trained a distance of more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) a week over five years, while 14 were first-time ultramarathoners who’d previously run at least one regular marathon. After the event, the experienced runners were more likely than the first-timers to have elevated levels of blood biomarkers that measure heart health, but those levels did not pose a risk of heart damage. The experienced runners did have higher levels of cortisol. The higher levels in the experienced runners reflected the greater load on the heart, according to the authors of the study published recently in the journal Heliyon. “Experienced runners performed with greater intensity and speed, which placed strains on their hearts. Novice runners ran with less intensity, which… read on >

Are you trapped in an exercise routine that’s good for your body, but isn’t motivating your spirit? It’s time to find your exercise style. One way is to make a list of the pros and cons of the exercise options that are most convenient for you and that you really like. For instance, exercise classes offer a lot of variety, but if the commute is too long or you’re uncomfortable in a group, the negatives could outweigh the positives, and you might be better suited to working out at home. On the other hand, if it takes a trainer to push you beyond your comfort zone and lots of equipment to motivate you to strength train, working out at a gym might be the right style for you. Here are some other helpful considerations. If you like to stick to a set schedule, you want a routine that works with your everyday life. That might be early morning fitness classes or a post-dinner workout in a home gym. If you’re highly motivated to reach fitness goals and maximize your workout time, consider the one-on-one advantages of working with a trainer who can personalize a fitness plan and adjust it as you reach new goals. If you like the social aspect of fitness, you might like to join a walking group or tennis club to combine… read on >

Losing weight is one thing, but keeping it off is another. Now, a new study suggests that exercising at the same time each day is key. The research, on 375 adults who maintained a weight loss of 30 or more pounds for at least a year, showed that consistent timing of exercise was linked with higher physical activity levels overall. The most common time to exercise? Early morning. “As long as you’re consistent, the time of day doesn’t seem to really matter. The best time to exercise is when you can exercise,” said study author Dale Bond. He’s a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University’s Alpert Medical School in Providence, R.I. “Our speculation … is that in order to maintain a large weight loss over a long period of time, behavioral consistence is key,” Bond added. “But in terms of higher physical activity levels, it might be that exercising at the same time each day fosters a habit. You don’t have to think about it — it’s like brushing your teeth. You just do it.” Nearly half of American adults surveyed between 2013 and 2016 said they’d tried to lose weight during the prior year, according to the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. But 2010 research indicated that only about one in six Americans who has ever been overweight or obese… read on >

Do you pump your arms while walking? Keeping your arms straight while walking is much more energy-efficient than walking with bent arms, but arm position doesn’t make much difference when running, a new, small study finds. The study included eight university students — ranging from casual runners to marathoners — who were filmed while they walked and ran with bent and straight arms while on a treadmill. “The hardest thing was running with straight arms,” and all of the participants found the movement strange, said Andrew Yegian, a graduate student at Harvard University. The participants repeated the running and walking tests again two weeks later, but this time breathed through a mask to measure their oxygen consumption. This enabled the researchers to calculate the participants’ energy consumption with their arms in different positions. The results were published online July 9 in the Journal of Experimental Biology. Holding the arms bent while walking increased energy consumption by 11%, proving that walking with straight arms is by far the most energy-efficient option, the study authors said. But there was little difference in energy consumption when having arms straight or bent while running. “We didn’t find any evidence that the energy cost was different between arm postures when running,” Yegian said in a journal news release. He said he had suspected that running with bent arms would be… read on >

High blood pressure is a serious risk factor for heart disease, stroke and other life-threatening medical conditions. While many people need medication and dietary changes to control their blood pressure, exercise is a key component of nearly every management plan. Scientists know that exercise causes the body to adapt in ways that lower blood pressure, but there’s no single formula guaranteed to work for everyone. However, there are general guidelines regarding four key aspects of exercise. Frequency: Aim to do aerobic exercise on a daily basis and strength training twice a week (on non-consecutive days to allow for muscle repair). Intensity: Aim for moderate intensity exercise to start. For aerobic workouts, that means reaching between 60% and 70% of your maximum target heart rate (or 220 minus your age). Evidence suggests that higher intensity exercise can result in greater reduction of high blood pressure, but at the moment the risks aren’t clear. Duration: Aim for at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity a day, increasing to 60 minutes if possible. If time or ability is a problem, work out in 10-minute segments that add up to your daily total. Strength training should target all major muscle groups using weight that enables you to complete two to three sets of 10 to 12 reps each. Type: Effective aerobic activities that are easy to start with are… read on >

Guarding against falls isn’t just for the elderly. The inner ear’s ability to maintain balance can begin to decline as early as age 40, according to a study in Frontiers of Neurology. So the time to improve your balance is now. Strong legs and flexible ankles help prevent falls and allow you to catch yourself if you do trip, so target these areas through exercise. Here are three moves to practice regularly. Ankle rotations: Sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor. Lift one leg out in front of you and use your big toe to make circles in the air. Move clockwise for 15 to 20 rotations and then counterclockwise for an equal amount. Repeat with the other foot. Single leg balancing: Stand straight, feet together, arms at your sides. Lift one foot a few inches off the floor, bending that knee slightly, and balance on the other leg. Hold for 30 seconds. Switch legs and repeat. Aim for twice on each side. Keeping stomach muscles contracted will help. The dancer’s pose: Better balance is one of yoga’s benefits, and this pose is particularly effective. Stand straight, feet together, arms at your sides. Raise your right arm out in front of you, thumb toward the ceiling. Lift your left leg behind you, bending at the knee. Reach back with your left… read on >

Stop agonizing over the decades you spent glued to the couch. New research shows that physically active middle-aged and older adults live longer — even if they were inactive when they were younger. And that’s even if they had previous serious health problems, according to the British study. “These results are encouraging, not least for middle-aged and older adults with existing cardiovascular disease and cancer, who can still gain substantial longevity benefits by becoming more active,” said Soren Brage, of the epidemiology unit at the University of Cambridge, and his colleagues. The study included nearly 14,600 men and women, ages 40-79, who were recruited between 1993 and 1997. They underwent four assessments up to 2004. Deaths were recorded up to 2016. During follow-up, there were more than 3,100 deaths among the participants, including about 1,000 each from heart disease and from cancer. The researchers controlled for risk factors such as diet, weight, medical history, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. They concluded that higher physical activity levels and increases in physical activity over time were associated with a lower risk of death. What counted as physical activity? The research noted activity at work, sports and recreational exercise. Among those who were inactive at the start of the study and gradually met minimum physical activity guidelines over five years, there was a 24% lower risk of death… read on >