During the last year, many people switched their previous gym-based fitness to at-home fitness and what would also be called “old school” activities like outdoor running, walking, and cycling (and golf!).
There’s also been an interesting switch in the popularity of heavily padded or cushioned soles in running shoes. Relatively recently there was an emphasis on “minimalist” shoes which would supposedly promote a more natural running gait, but in the last year or so the pendulum has swung the other way. Heavily stacked and thickly cushioned running shoes are taking over.
You would think that the increased cushioning in the sole of these running shoes would lead to better shock absorption and reduced ground reaction force. But a few recent studies have actually found the opposite, that ground reaction forces are increased rather than decreased. What that means for a sore knee or hip remains to be seen, but the science is interesting.
On March 9, the CDC issued new guidelines for people fully vaccinated against COVID-19. “Fully vaccinated” is defined as people who have received and are at least two weeks out from both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Fully vaccinated people can now gather with each other indoors without masks or six-feet of physical distancing. They can visit unvaccinated people from a single household if everyone in that household is at low risk of developing a severe case of COVID-19.
And perhaps even better news, fully vaccinated people with no COVID symptoms no longer have to quarantine or be tested following an exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19.
Since early in the pandemic, COVID-19 has been associated with heart problems, including reduced ability to pump blood and abnormal heart rhythms. But it’s been an open question whether these problems are caused by the virus infecting the heart, or an inflammatory response to viral infection elsewhere in the body. Such details have implications for understanding how best to treat coronavirus infections that affect the heart.
In a recent scientific publication, a collaboration between medical and athletic training staffs from 6 major U.S. professional sports leagues showed that the rate of return to sports participation after COVID-19 infection is very high.
The rate of return to sports for collegiate and high school athletes is also believed to be high, with very low risk for heart damage. However, the issue has not been well studied in the younger age groups, and caution is still needed.
Paul George and Alex Smith are two famous American athletes who made it back to their professional sports after a serious tibia fracture. This week everyone interested in golf is asking the question: will Tiger play again?
There is much that we don’t know about Tiger’s injury, but there are some general conclusions we can make based on the published scientific literature.
The key with each of these athletes is that they have a type of injury called an “open” fracture, one in which the broken bone is exposed to the outside environment through an opening in the skin. The bone healing is critically important, of course, but for open fractures it’s the skin healing and possibility of infection that often determine the success of overall healing.
This week I’m going to venture off track from my usual posts and write briefly about the fact that lung cancer is increasingly being diagnosed in an unlikely group of people- those who have never smoked and have no obvious risk factors.
Smoking remains the single biggest risk for lung cancer, with about 88% of new lung cancer diagnoses each year conclusively linked to a person’s smoking history. There’s nothing good that will come to you from smoking. Still, that leaves 12% of these new cancer diagnoses in those who have never smoked.
Identifying very early screening tools for lung cancer is an emerging field. In the near future we will have “liquid biopsies”, meaning blood tests to pick up very early stages of various cancers. Until then, there’s much we still need to learn.
I’ve been concerned about underactivity amongst all age groups during Covid-19restrictions and have written about this. Today, let’s look at a related question: is there a best time of day to exercise?
The short answer is: whenever you can.
The more nuanced answer is: probably between 3pm and 6pm, if you’re an adult looking for fat loss and metabolic control.
I’ve written previously about inactivity and underuse in teenagers during Covid restrictions, and additional evidence is emerging that inactivity has increased amongst all age groups.
That’s not particularly surprising given the rise in virtual learning, work-from-home, and stay-at-home health mandates in some municipalities. But preliminary studies in adults shows the extent of the activity decline is worse than expected.
There’s now evidence across all age groups that people are becoming far less active, and with that inactivity comes a wide range of negative effects on health. Each of us needs to make efforts to get up and move to promote health during Covid restrictions. The good news: even tiny amounts of added movement can have positive effects on your health.
There’s been quite a bit of interest in cryotherapy (various forms of using cold temperatures for recovery and health benefits), and in today’s post I’ll briefly describe the types of cryotherapy available.
We’ll also touch on an interesting emerging concept: is applying ice immediately after an injury really the best thing to do for healing and recovery?
We’ve turned the clock forward to 2021 and there is hope that some time this year we’ll return to what we remember as “normal”. While I’m optimistic we’ll eventually achieve that, I also suspect that the process will take longer than many people think.
So we’re going to have to keep plowing ahead in spite of the restrictions in front of us. Many psychologists say that having a compelling personal reason for “why” you want to achieve something is a powerful motivator to stay on course toward your goal.
I’d like to finish 2020’s blog posts with a simple message: if the goal is to get back to “normal” keep that goal in sight and please stay with the safety precautions you’ve taken up to this point.
