Substituting just one serving a day of water or unsweetened tea or coffee for one serving of a sugar-sweetened soft drink or dairy beverage can significantly reduce the incidence of Type 2 diabetes, a new study has found.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/easing-diabetes-risk-one-beverage-at-a-time/
Thursday, April 30, 2015
@MarilynKaminski
Why do we foam roll? http://t.co/v2Qn4mHejE http://t.co/MzgwV5gyyU
— Marilyn Kaminski (@MarilynKaminski) April 30, 2015
Doctors and Nurses, Not Learning Together
There are few group projects in medical school — which is strange when you consider that there are few solo practitioners in the real world.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/doctors-and-nurses-not-learning-together/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/doctors-and-nurses-not-learning-together/
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
New Shingles Vaccine May Offer Improved Protection
An investigational shingles vaccine may be more effective, particularly in older people.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/29/new-shingles-vaccine-may-offer-improved-protection/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/29/new-shingles-vaccine-may-offer-improved-protection/
Exploring Why Some People Get Fitter Than Others
A new study in rats adds to a growing body of data about how and why bodies respond so differently to exercise.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/29/why-some-people-get-fitter-than-others/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/29/why-some-people-get-fitter-than-others/
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Air Pollution Tied to Brain Aging
Air pollution is known to increase the risk for stroke and other cerebrovascular disorders. But now researchers have found it is also linked to premature aging of the brain.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/28/air-pollution-tied-to-brain-aging/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/28/air-pollution-tied-to-brain-aging/
Sportsmetrics April Course
On April 18-19, we certified 18 new instructors from across the country. Healthcare professionals traveled from as far as Ottawa to become experts in knee injury prevention training. We welcome our new certified sites and thank you for your dedication to the Sportsmetrics program!
Lindsay Aarseth, MS, ATC, NSCA-CPT: Black Hills Surgical Hospital, Rapid City, SD
Cole Abernathy, ATR: OSR Physical Therapy, Chanhassen, SD
Justin Bobby, DPT, CSCS: AspireFIT, Harrisburg, PA
Ryan Cummings: Cincinnati SportsMedicine PT Student
Jackie Esguerra: Mercy HealthPlex, Cincinnati, OH
Sarah Gerichs: Cincinnati SportsMedicine PT Student
Hannah Jones, ATC: Fremont Health, Fremont, OH
Samantha Jones, ATC: Wise Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine, Slippery Rock, PA
Ryan Koepp, DPT, ATR: OSR Physical Therapy, Eden Prairie, MN
Jessica Lawson, ATC: Memorial Orthopaedic Associates, Jasper, IN
Jenna Maag, DPT: Northwest Physical Therapy/FAST Ohio, Elida, OH
Amanda McKibben, ATC: Dayton Children’s Sports Medicine, Dayton, OH
Nicole Roether, ATC: Cincinnati SportsMedicine, Cincinnati, OH
Lauren Sabatini: Cincinnati SportsMedicine PT Student
Megan Saunders, ATC: Excel Sports Medicine, Springfield, OH
Allison Shoemaker, ATC: Excel Sports Medicine, Springfield, OH
Steven Shroyer, ATC: Genesis HealthCare System, Zanesville, OH
Jacob Stryker, MA, ATC: Avera St. Anthony’s Hospital, O’Neill, NE
Dana Thompson: Lantana, TX
The post Sportsmetrics April Course appeared first on Sportsmetrics.
from Sportsmetrics https://sportsmetrics.org/sportsmetrics-april-course/
Monday, April 27, 2015
Admitted to Your Bedroom: Some Hospitals Try Treating Patients at Home
Under pressure to reduce costs and improve quality, a handful of health care systems are hospitalizing patients in their homes.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/admitted-to-your-bedroom-some-hospitals-try-treating-patients-at-home/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/admitted-to-your-bedroom-some-hospitals-try-treating-patients-at-home/
The New Logic of Calorie-Counting: Take the Quiz
Can you determine which of these foods' reported calorie counts are off?
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/the-new-logic-of-calorie-counting-take-the-quiz/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/the-new-logic-of-calorie-counting-take-the-quiz/
On Food Labels, Calorie Miscounts
The most common method overstates the energy provided by proteins, nuts and high-fiber foods by as much as 25 percent, some experts say.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/on-food-labels-calorie-miscounts/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/on-food-labels-calorie-miscounts/
The Brain Tumor Is Benign, but Threats Remain
Even a nonmalignant brain tumor, which can grow as big as a tennis ball, can prove dangerous if it remains undetected.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/the-brain-tumor-is-benign-but-threats-remain/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/the-brain-tumor-is-benign-but-threats-remain/
High-Fructose Heart Risks
Only two weeks of modest consumption of high-fructose corn syrup causes cholesterol and triglycerides levels to rise, a study found.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/high-fructose-heart-risks/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/high-fructose-heart-risks/
For Teenagers, Potassium May Matter More Than Salt
Keep your teenager healthy by serving foods high in potassium and stop worrying so much about salt, a new study shows.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/for-teenagers-potassium-may-matter-more-than-salt/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/for-teenagers-potassium-may-matter-more-than-salt/
2014-2015 NBA MVP (Canadian)
A little over a week ago I posted some analysis of the three players currently in the running for MVP of the 2014-2015 NBA season – Curry, Westbrook, and Harden. This week, I wanted to look at the current crop of Canadian stars who are playing in the NBA.
There has been a lot of basketball talent coming out of Canada recently and the 2014 NBA draft was full of young stars, with Andrew Wiggins leading the pack as the number one overall pick (Choosen by the Cleveland Cavaliers who then sent him to Minnesota, in a trade that brought Kevin Love to Cleveland to play with Lebron James and Kyrie Irving). Additionally, some of my best friends happen to make up the sports medicine, sports science, and strength and conditioning staffs for the Canadian Men’s National Team leading up to the 2016 Olympics (so obviously I am cheering them on).
OH CANADA
Players Analysis
One of the biggest issues with the analysis is that several of the players don’t play very many minutes. That being said, I included them anyway.
Each player played in over 70 games and over 1000 minutes, with both Tristan Thompson and Andrew Wiggins making an appearance in all 82 games and playing over 2000 minutes (Wiggins played nearly 3000 minutes in his rookie year).
As you can see in the chart below, Wiggins had the highest average points points per game of the group – averaging around 17 points per game.
However, as discussed in the previous blog article, points aren’t everything. To be an MVP you need to help make others around you better. There are times where players score a lot of points but are actually problematic to their team and cause less winning opportunities. For example, a ball hog who takes a lot of shots, has a poor field goal percentage, and turns the ball over frequently because he is always trying to control the court rather than distributing the ball to his teammates. Allen Iverson was a good example of this, at times, and, if my memory serves, there were three seasons where he led the league in turnovers and despite scoring a lot of points he had a poor field goal percentage and scoring efficiency. In Berri and Schmidt’s research, Iverson actually cost his team wins because of his play, despite the fans enjoying the show – everybody likes to see a guy score lots of points!
Wins Produced
Speaking of Berri and Schmidt’s research, as we did in the previous blog article, we will turn our attention to the Wins Produced model, which allows us to understand the player’s contribution to his team winning games throughout the season. How many things does the player do well and how good is the player at minimizing things that cause the other team to score points?
Going back to Wiggins, while he scored more points than the other guys in the analysis – he had a lot more opportunities to score given the high amount of minutes he played – he only produced about 2 wins for his team (or 0.03 wins per 48min). One reason may be due to his high amount of turnovers.
Looking at Cory Joseph and Tristan Thompson, we see that both players helped contribute about 7 wins to their team. While Joseph’s first two NBA seasons were nothing to write home about, he has put together a great season on a stacked San Antonio Spurs team and might be a guy they look to in the future to run the point guard position as their team continues to age. Meanwhile, Tristan Thompson finished fifth in NBA 6th Man Voting and had a great season coming off the bench on a Cleveland CAVS team led by King James.
Kyle Olynyk pops out in the Wins Produced stat as actually being a bit detrimental to the Boston Celtics. Here is an example of a guy who played a lot of minutes, however, his production is actually less than what an average Center would be able to do given the same number of minutes he played (Olyny played about 100 more minutes than the average for Centers). Olynyk was good for 93 offensive rebounds and 211 defensive rebounds, while Centers, on average, this season pulled down 123 offensive rebounds and 264 defensive rebounds. Kyle did do better than the average in scoring, 656 points to the league average, for Centers, of 522 points. However, he did turn the ball over more than the average, 98 turnovers versus the league average of 74. When looking at all the factors that go into the model, Olynyk didn’t seem to be effective. During his rookie season, 2013-2014, one of the criticisms is that he is not a true center and lacks the ability to defend some of the best big men in the league.
Stauskas produced 0 wins for his team, the Sacramento Kings and Robert Sacre was actually more detrimental to the Los Angeles Lakers than Olynyk was to the Celtics!
Some Other Thoughts
Looking at the stats, it appears that it is a toss up between Joseph (who actually played really well despite playing about 800 minutes less than Thompson) and Thompson for the Canadian MVP. Both had great seasons and contributed a lot to their teams.
Wiggins had a good season as well and, as a rookie, has a lot of room for growth. Controlling the ball is going to be something he will have to work on in the offseason.
Olynyk just finished his second season on a young Celtics team. Perhaps playing Center isn’t his position but he may just need more time to grow into it. Despite having a negative wins produced stat for his team this year, he did start to show promise towards the latter half of the season.
One thing I think about, from a health stand point, is the number of minutes some of these young players are playing. With 3936 available minutes in an NBA season, not counting overtime games, Wiggins logged a massive amount of minutes. Keeping players healthy is the name of the game and managing their health by managing their minutes played (as well as how you help them recover off the court) is going to be critical for these rising stars.
from Optimum Sports Performance LLC http://optimumsportsperformance.com/blog/2014-2015-nba-mvp-canadian/
2014-2015 NBA MVP (Canadian)
A little over a week ago I posted some analysis of the three players currently in the running for MVP of the 2014-2015 NBA season – Curry, Westbrook, and Harden. This week, I wanted to look at the current crop of Canadian stars who are playing in the NBA.
There has been a lot of basketball talent coming out of Canada recently and the 2014 NBA draft was full of young stars, with Andrew Wiggins leading the pack as the number one overall pick (Choosen by the Cleveland Cavaliers who then sent him to Minnesota, in a trade that brought Kevin Love to Cleveland to play with Lebron James and Kyrie Irving). Additionally, some of my best friends happen to make up the sports medicine, sports science, and strength and conditioning staffs for the Canadian Men’s National Team leading up to the 2016 Olympics (so obviously I am cheering them on).
OH CANADA
Players Analysis
One of the biggest issues with the analysis is that several of the players don’t play very many minutes. That being said, I included them anyway.
Each player played in over 70 games and over 1000 minutes, with both Tristan Thompson and Andrew Wiggins making an appearance in all 82 games and playing over 2000 minutes (Wiggins played nearly 3000 minutes in his rookie year).
As you can see in the chart below, Wiggins had the highest average points points per game of the group – averaging around 17 points per game.
However, as discussed in the previous blog article, points aren’t everything. To be an MVP you need to help make others around you better. There are times where players score a lot of points but are actually problematic to their team and cause less winning opportunities. For example, a ball hog who takes a lot of shots, has a poor field goal percentage, and turns the ball over frequently because he is always trying to control the court rather than distributing the ball to his teammates. Allen Iverson was a good example of this, at times, and, if my memory serves, there were three seasons where he led the league in turnovers and despite scoring a lot of points he had a poor field goal percentage and scoring efficiency. In Berri and Schmidt’s research, Iverson actually cost his team wins because of his play, despite the fans enjoying the show – everybody likes to see a guy score lots of points!
Wins Produced
Speaking of Berri and Schmidt’s research, as we did in the previous blog article, we will turn our attention to the Wins Produced model, which allows us to understand the player’s contribution to his team winning games throughout the season. How many things does the player do well and how good is the player at minimizing things that cause the other team to score points?
Going back to Wiggins, while he scored more points than the other guys in the analysis – he had a lot more opportunities to score given the high amount of minutes he played – he only produced about 2 wins for his team (or 0.03 wins per 48min). One reason may be due to his high amount of turnovers.
Looking at Cory Joseph and Tristan Thompson, we see that both players helped contribute about 7 wins to their team. While Joseph’s first two NBA seasons were nothing to write home about, he has put together a great season on a stacked San Antonio Spurs team and might be a guy they look to in the future to run the point guard position as their team continues to age. Meanwhile, Tristan Thompson finished fifth in NBA 6th Man Voting and had a great season coming off the bench on a Cleveland CAVS team led by King James.
Kyle Olynyk pops out in the Wins Produced stat as actually being a bit detrimental to the Boston Celtics. Here is an example of a guy who played a lot of minutes, however, his production is actually less than what an average Center would be able to do given the same number of minutes he played (Olyny played about 100 more minutes than the average for Centers). Olynyk was good for 93 offensive rebounds and 211 defensive rebounds, while Centers, on average, this season pulled down 123 offensive rebounds and 264 defensive rebounds. Kyle did do better than the average in scoring, 656 points to the league average, for Centers, of 522 points. However, he did turn the ball over more than the average, 98 turnovers versus the league average of 74. When looking at all the factors that go into the model, Olynyk didn’t seem to be effective. During his rookie season, 2013-2014, one of the criticisms is that he is not a true center and lacks the ability to defend some of the best big men in the league.
Stauskas produced 0 wins for his team, the Sacramento Kings and Robert Sacre was actually more detrimental to the Los Angeles Lakers than Olynyk was to the Celtics!
Some Other Thoughts
Looking at the stats, it appears that it is a toss up between Joseph (who actually played really well despite playing about 800 minutes less than Thompson) and Thompson for the Canadian MVP. Both had great seasons and contributed a lot to their teams.
Wiggins had a good season as well and, as a rookie, has a lot of room for growth. Controlling the ball is going to be something he will have to work on in the offseason.
Olynyk just finished his second season on a young Celtics team. Perhaps playing Center isn’t his position but he may just need more time to grow into it. Despite having a negative wins produced stat for his team this year, he did start to show promise towards the latter half of the season.
One thing I think about, from a health stand point, is the number of minutes some of these young players are playing. With 3936 available minutes in an NBA season, not counting overtime games, Wiggins logged a massive amount of minutes. Keeping players healthy is the name of the game and managing their health by managing their minutes played (as well as how you help them recover off the court) is going to be critical for these rising stars.
from Optimum Sports Performance LLC http://optimumsportsperformance.com/blog/2014-2015-nba-mvp-canadian/
Keep Moving, Even if in New Ways, to Stay a Step Ahead of Arthritis
A key to fighting off debilitation is to find activities you can do when ones you have done become difficult or impossible. Weight loss helps, too.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/keep-moving-even-if-in-new-ways-to-stay-a-step-ahead-of-arthritis/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/keep-moving-even-if-in-new-ways-to-stay-a-step-ahead-of-arthritis/
Sunday, April 26, 2015
People May Call Me Crazy but…
These types of articles are scary. As a “fitness person” I’ve know for years that the business world has more interest in disease than in health. There is lots of money in sickness (junk food, drugs, surgery’s, tests etc.) and very little in health. Take a second and read this.
Seasoned Investigative Journalist Exposes Inside Strategies to Censor the News
from Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog http://strengthcoachblog.com/2015/04/26/people-may-call-me-crazy-but/
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Running Slowly Wrecked My Knees!
As I’m writing this in the air somewhere over the Irish Sea traveling back to London, more than 51,000 runners will be waking up in nervous anticipation today’s London marathon.
Whether it’s your first or fiftieth marathon, whether looking to compete at the sharp end of the race, or just to complete the 26.2 miles, the training is hopefully now in the bank. Today is all about executing the plan, well rehearsed in your head, for real this time.
What about those who, through injury don’t make the start line?
This year, as every year, many runners won’t even make it to the start line, having frustratingly broken-down with injury during training.
Marathon training is tough-going. That’s for sure. Depending on what research you choose to cite, per year the injury incidence rate in runners can be as high as 74%.
Running is attritional on the body at the best of times. Add to the equation the weekly long runs increasing in duration over the last few months, and the increased weekly volume that comes with a marathon training plan, not to mention speed work, hill sessions etc… and it’s easy imagine how training load quickly mounts up.
I’m not just talking about more serious runners increasing their weekly volume to 60-100 miles. What follows is if anything more pertinent to the runners increasing (for example) from a comfortable ~25 miles per week to 35-40 miles per week during their marathon training block.
Clearly, increased mileage and therefore training load takes it’s toll on the body and is a risk factor to sustaining overuse running injuries in general… But what about the type of miles you’re running?
Running Slowly is Hard!
The staple of any marathon training plan is the weekly long run, methodically increasing in distance over the duration of the plan, until your taper begins.
We’ve written before from a physiological point of view about getting the pace of the long run correct, something many people struggle with. Keeping this run comfortably aerobic helps build that endurance engine all marathon runners need.
All too often the message many runners need to hear is to slow down for these runs, to better develop their aerobic system. I’ve definitely been guilty of pacing my long runs too fast in the past. Turning an ‘easy 16 miles’ into a long tempo session it’s taken all week to recover from.
Fail!
The old coaching adage definitely applies: Make your easy sessions EASY and your hard sessions HARD!
Focusing on the ‘Easy’ part of this sentiment, it’s important for us to consider the biomechanical effects of running slowly rather than just the physiological.
Earlier this year Danish researchers Petersen et.al. published a study where they had compared cumulative loads at the knee joint during slow-speed running and faster running.
The authors concluded that:
Slow-speed running decreases knee joint loads per stride and increases the cumulative load at the knee joint for a given running distance compared to faster running. The primary reason for the increase in cumulative load at slower speeds is an increase in number of strides needed to cover the same distance.
Simply put, when running slowly although each individual step is less stressful on the knee than running faster, the total stress on the knee is more per mile at slow speeds. Mainly due to the increased number of strides taken to cover the distance at slower speeds.
Don’t confuse this with me talking about cadence here. I’m talking about steps per mile at different paces, rather than steps per minute!
When this paper arrived in my inbox, it stuck a chord with me both in terms of application for the athletes I work with, and also my own personal experience…
My Own Slow Running Frustration
I see myself as being fairly robust and injury resistant as a runner. Working with injured runners day-in-day-out makes me even more grateful for this!
The only time I’ve ever suffered with Patellofemoral Pain (Runner’s Knee) was after six weeks or so of taking a beginner’s running group out twice weekly. The relatively low volume of very slow running (I would have been better off walking) played havoc on my knees.
Anybody who has been in the position of running with friends much slower than themselves will appreciate the difficulty in maintaining good running form, at a pace slower than that which comes naturally.
This brings me to the main point(s) of the article:
Don’t get me wrong; whether you’re training for a marathon, half marathon, 10k, 5k race etc… you absolutely need to run the slower aerobic miles in training to ‘build the endurance engine’. That’s a given.
However it’s the execution of these aerobic miles that often seem to let people down and place undue stress on the body.
- I find that while many runners appreciate the need to slow down to get the aerobic benefit to their long slow runs, some slow down too much. I’d rather have an athlete running these miles in upper Zone 2 (using a heart rate monitor) than barely moving out of Zone 1. Pacing is a skill to master!
- As I’ve written about before, maintaining running form at slow paces is an important focus! Here’s a previous article with some pointers for this. In my experience, a significant number of the injured runners I meet during marathon training season demonstrate what I’d generally refer to as a ‘lazy gait’ pattern when they show me their long slow running pace during running analysis. Of course technically my term ‘lazy gait’ means nothing. Essentially what I’m referring to is a pattern where they’re so focused on remaining relaxed and plodding their way though the easy miles that posture and cadence (to name just a couple of elements) begin to suffer.
As a quantifiable variable, cadence is a great place to start. We know that from a knee loading point of view, increasing cadence at a given pace has a positive effect for many runners. Another way of looking at this is to work on maintaining cadence on a long run, rather than allowing the legs to slow as you tire.
Next time you’re on a long slow run count your strides for one minute towards the beginning of the run. The in the last third of the run, do the same again.
Is the figure the same, or has your cadence dropped? If so, you can work on gently making shorter-quicker strides for the same pace.
The overall message here is to make your long run slow… but not too slow! As you do so, maintain awareness of form, rather than falling into the ‘more relaxed is better’ trap.
Let me know how you get on
Image via Julian Mason
The post Running Slowly Wrecked My Knees! appeared first on Run Coaching, Ironman and Triathlon Specialists - Kinetic Revolution.
from Run Coaching, Ironman and Triathlon Specialists - Kinetic Revolution http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/KineticRev/~3/ByH3DYeawRM/
Friday, April 24, 2015
Endive, Served Hot
Endive is often served cold, but this week Martha Rose Shulman heats it up.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/endive-served-hot/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/endive-served-hot/
The Weekly Health Quiz: Runners, Rabies and Dampened Emotions
Test your knowledge of this week's health news.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/the-weekly-health-quiz-runners-rabies-and-dampened-emotions/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/the-weekly-health-quiz-runners-rabies-and-dampened-emotions/
Nice Breathing Article
Nice simple breathing article. ( I don’t think you need the Butyeko Method but the first part is great)
Breathing Techniques to Improve Your Workout
I’ve never been a cool down guy but the evidence is mounting. Mike Vaughn’s YOU OWE ME 20 BREATHES sounds better every day.
from Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog http://strengthcoachblog.com/2015/04/24/nice-breathing-article/
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Ask Well: Do Microwaves Degrade Food Nutrients?
Heating your food in a microwave can have varying effects on the nutritional content.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/ask-well-do-microwaves-degrade-food-nutrients/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/ask-well-do-microwaves-degrade-food-nutrients/
Thursday, April 23, 2015
F.D.A. Warns Supplement Makers of Stimulant Dangers
The Food and Drug Administration sent letters to the makers of eight dietary supplements on Thursday warning them that their products contain a synthetic, amphetaminelike stimulant that medical experts say is potentially dangerous.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/f-d-a-warns-supplement-makers-of-bmpea-stimulant-dangers/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/f-d-a-warns-supplement-makers-of-bmpea-stimulant-dangers/
Tanning Salons Play Down Hazards, Lawsuits Claim
New York’s attorney general filed lawsuits against two popular indoor tanning salon chains accusing them of playing down the hazards associated with indoor tanning and promoting the practice as healthful.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/tanning-salons-play-down-hazards-lawsuits-claim/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/tanning-salons-play-down-hazards-lawsuits-claim/
Sugar as a Stress Reliever
Sugar appears to reduce levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, a new study has found.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/sugar-as-a-stress-reliever/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/sugar-as-a-stress-reliever/
Inducing Labor at Full Term May Have Benefits
Inducing labor in normal full-term pregnancies has generally been frowned upon, but a new study suggests that induction causes no apparent harm, and may have advantages.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/inducing-labor-at-full-term-may-have-benefits/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/inducing-labor-at-full-term-may-have-benefits/
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
@MarilynKaminski
Best quote ever: "Strength isn’t built. It’s granted by your nervou http://t.co/MzgwV5gyyU
— Marilyn Kaminski (@MarilynKaminski) April 22, 2015
@MarilynKaminski
s system.” http://t.co/L5Z3pnNHbr http://t.co/MzgwV5gyyU
— Marilyn Kaminski (@MarilynKaminski) April 22, 2015
@MarilynKaminski
r-strength-to-the-next-level-with-ipsilateral-crawling http://t.co/MzgwV5gyyU
— Marilyn Kaminski (@MarilynKaminski) April 22, 2015
Parkour for Beginners
Learning parkour, an instructor says, is all about challenging yourself by continually finding creative ways to make things just a bit more difficult.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/22/parkour-for-beginners/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/22/parkour-for-beginners/
Stuff to Read
An attendee at the recent Perform Better 1 Day in Chicago asked for some reading recommendations so I thought I’d share them here.
The basic two for everyone in every field are:
How to Wins Friends and Influence People- Dale Carnagie
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People- Stephen Covey
then from there work you way through:
Good to Great- Collins
Made to Stick – Collins
Goals- Brian Tracey
Slight Edge- Jeff Olsen
Never Eat Alone- Keith Ferrazanni
Creating Magic- Lee Cockrell
Start With Why- Simon Sinek
Hows that for a start?
from Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog http://strengthcoachblog.com/2015/04/22/stuff-to-read/
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The World’s Fastest Recreational Runners
The world’s swiftest amateur marathoners do not share the same nationalities as the world’s elite racers.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/22/the-worlds-fastest-everyday-runners/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/22/the-worlds-fastest-everyday-runners/
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Giants Tim Lincecum Shuts Down Dodgers for First Win of Year
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS from NYT Sports http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/04/22/sports/baseball/ap-bbn-dodgers-giants.html
Networking
Lately, I’ve been pondering professional networks. With the advent of Facebook, Twitter and the like, I believe we actively manage our social networks better than our professional networks.
As a young physical therapist, I decided to move back to my hometown. I was very passionate about what I had to offer—both as a rehabilitation specialist and a strength and conditioning specialist. I wanted to be a community resource.
If you’d prefer to listen instead of read,
here’s an audio version of this article,
Episode 54 of Gray Cook Radio
I could have easily joined a network-marketing group that met every Thursday morning at a local restaurant. I could have taken that opportunity to encourage people to refer their clients and patients to me for either conditioning or rehabilitation. I just didn’t like the confines of those networks. The busiest people in my town didn’t have time on Thursday mornings to go to a network-marketing group—they were too busy servicing the needs of the people who were already coming to them.
That left me asking myself the uneasy questions: ‘who was actually at those meetings and did I want to be their equivalent for my profession?’
I decided on a different approach. My staff and I began covering local football games. In the rural area where we resided, we did not have certified athletic trainers on the sidelines. We had EMT’s and paramedics in the end zone to deal with the high-end trauma and transport, but we wanted to be there to manage the orthopedic and sports medicine issues. We wanted to keep the emergency response team ready for when they were truly needed.
We also tried to encourage our local sports coaches: “Don’t just call us in-season to deal with injuries. Let us interact with you pre-season to try to manage some of those. Let’s live the ‘ounce-of-prevention’ strategy and not just quote it.” We would speak to local runners’ groups or at tennis camps. We would accept any opportunity to be an educational resource.
We gave away a lot of time and service to try to distinguish ourselves as a professional group that could help the community.
We started talking to the podiatrists in town: “Can we help you manage your foot and ankle patients? We’ll look above the foot and ankle and deal with the issues that your specialty doesn’t have time to deal with. You’ve got plenty of patients with foot and ankle problems. What can we do to help?”
Here comes the important part. If you’ve only read that I was trying to educate the professionals in my community about how I could help them with their clients and patients, that’s not the whole story. From every person who I tried to be a referral for, I also asked for help.
I always sought out good nutritional counseling in my community. That may require two different people because the needs of a competitive body builder are different than those of someone with diabetes.
It is imperative that physical therapists know when to refer out to a surgeon. If we’ve mapped out some problems that obviously need a surgical consult, we need to act on that quickly—not after four weeks of rehabilitation doesn’t work. We should know the signs, symptoms and structural issues that probably need to be vetted by greater investigation through surgical consult or MRI.
I received cases from my professional network and I referred cases to my professional network. When I sent people, I didn’t just blindly refer them. I informed the provider, “This is what we’ve done and this is why I think you are the right person.”
There’s some vulnerability when we send a client or a patient to someone else. We have to know that there will be consistency in treatment and management. I think a lot of people are scared to make a referral—they’re scared that they will get blindsided.
Personal trainers have been scared to make a referral to me because they believe that they’ll lose the client or that I’ll tell the client not to train at all. That’s far from reality. These clients value fitness so much that they’re probably trying to cover a medical problem by staying fit. I wanted to help them with that problem, so we let the personal trainers and performance coaches in our community go through a movement screen and see the benefits. We let them attend the evaluations of the clients they referred to us.
We helped them deal with some of their physical issues and they in turn had a story that they could tell another client. “This is not just a mundane physical therapy referral. These guys know what they’re talking about. These guys know what they’re doing.”
For every person that you try to get to refer to you, also find a specialist or an expert to whom you can refer out. Got a cyclist? You should know somebody who can fit a bicycle. Like kettlebells, but you’re not certified? Find somebody who is. Think yoga is the right thing for this person as they become independent and free of low back pain? Find an instructor.
If you want to increase your professional network, by outsourcing problems so they can get managed by a specialist and by pulling stuff back in when it is your turn to be that specialist, it’s extremely important that you don’t just follow a recipe of network-marketing.
Know how to treat people when they come to you. Make their experience with you good and they will talk about it. When you’re not the expert, just make sure that the expert is in your contacts and you will still get the credit.
That’s right, when you make a referral, you share the credit of that good decision. Most of my professional network are people who I would trust with my family. Do I get a secondary gain for making that referral? In most cases, I don’t.
The ‘good’ people don’t need a kickback system. They’re busy enough. If many of your referrals are generated on the basis of a financial decision, you may want to reconsider how you work. It happens frequently in medicine—a referral is made and it’s somehow profitable or it locks somebody into the system. This is evident when medical professionals send friends and family to one place and everyone else to another.
Some of these same people are angered when you mention a second opinion of their assessment. I’m not scared, intimidated or insulted when somebody tells me, “Gray, I appreciate what you said. I’m going to get a second opinion.”
Here’s how I view that statement: either they’re getting ready to learn something or I’m getting ready to learn something. Learning is good. I missed something or I didn’t miss anything and they’re going to see that the integrity and authenticity of my examination was superior to the convenient diagnosis that someone else gave them.
If they go to someone else and they find something I missed, I don’t need to defend that miss. I need to own it and say, “I am so glad you got a second opinion because we haven’t been looking in that direction for your problem.”
That level of honesty makes you better. If we all managed our professional networks like people manage their social networks, we would all be so busy that we’d never have time for that Thursday morning network-marketing group.
“What’s Behind a Mobility Problem” is my new talk at MovementLectures.com. It’s a good look into how my mind and our systems think about the causes and remedies of mobility problems.
from Gray Cook, Physical Therapist, Lecturer, Author http://graycook.com/?p=2451
Monday, April 20, 2015
Tylenol May Blunt Emotions, and Not Just Pain
Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is a popular pain reliever, but it may also blunt emotions, both positive and negative, a new study shows.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/20/tylenol-may-blunt-emotions-and-not-just-pain/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/20/tylenol-may-blunt-emotions-and-not-just-pain/
Presentation Tips
Had one of my former interns write the other day asking for some presentation tips so I thought I’d share the here:
I think the big secrets aren’t secrets. You need to be funny, you need to be confident, you need to know your material. I think good video is also key. People get bored easily and love to see video illustrations. I know I always made notes about the best talks I saw. I wrote what I liked and didn’t like about speakers. I always remember loving video.
I also think that preparation is important. I hate when people can’t get their videos to work etc. I always use my own computer, arrive early and check that everything works and the videos run. As with everything lots of things can be helped by preparing.
Harvey Mckay in Swim With the Sharks said something to the effect of “their are thousands of ways to screw up and most could be avoided by more attention to detail”
Hope these help.
from Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog http://strengthcoachblog.com/2015/04/20/presentation-tips/
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Mystery and Danger of Type 1 Diabetes
Childhood stress may be a factor in a disease without a clear cause that hits adults too.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/20/mystery-and-danger-of-type-1-diabetes/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/20/mystery-and-danger-of-type-1-diabetes/
Friday, April 17, 2015
Vegetables and Cheese Meet Bread
Vegetables and cheese, hot or cold, always make a great sandwich combination.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/vegetables-and-cheese-meet-bread/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/vegetables-and-cheese-meet-bread/
The Weekly Health Quiz: Exercise, Women and the Love of Dogs
Test your knowledge of this week's health news.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/the-weekly-health-quiz-exercise-women-and-the-love-of-dogs/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/the-weekly-health-quiz-exercise-women-and-the-love-of-dogs/
2014-2015 NBA MVP Analysis
Currently, there is an intense debate over who is more deserving of the 2014-2015 NBA MVP. The three main front runners are Steph Curry (PG, Golden State Warriors), Russell Westbrook (PG, Oklahoma City Thunder), and James Harden (SG, Houston Rockets).
All three players had remarkable seasons and you could make a case for each one (despite Westbrook’s team not even making it to the post season).
All three players were leaders in Points scored in their respective positions:
- Steph Curry = 1900 points
- Russell Westbrook = 1886 points
- James Harden = 2217 points
While Harden scored more total points, he actually scored less than Westbrook per game (keep in mind that Westbrook also missed several games in the beginning of the season, due to injury). Both are in the running for the SCORING TITLE this season:
- Westbrook – 28.2 pts/g [95% CI: 25.8 , 30.6]
- Harden – 27.4 pts/g [95% CI: 25.2 , 29.5]
- Curry – 23.8 pts/g [95% CI: 22.0 , 25.5]
The difference between each player and the margin of error of their difference scores is as follows:
- Curry compared to Westbrook = Difference: 4.40 pts/g with a 2.99 Margin of Error
- Curry Compared to Harden = Difference: 3.62 pts/g with a 2.79 Margin of Error
- Harden Compared to Westbrook = Difference: 0.78 pts/g with a 3.22 Margin of Error
From this, it appears that, while Harden scored more total points, Westbrook appears to average more points per game than the other three. Of course we don’t know how we would have performed had he not missed games early in the season. Both Harden and Curry played in 80 games while Westbrook only played in 66. This, along with his team not making the playoffs, may end up hurting him in MVP Voting.
While there are some differences in production between the three players, all of them were incredible at putting up points. In relationship to the average player at their respective positions, Curry and Westbrook were both 3.2 standard deviations better than the average, while Harden was an astonishing 4 standard deviations better than the average shooting guard.
Points Aren’t Everything
While scoring a lot of points is important, it isn’t everything. A key aspect of a player, particularly an MVP, is whether or not he makes his teammates better. What is the value of the player to the team and how is he able to contribute to helping the team win?
One metric that is useful to help answer this question is Wins Produced, from David Berri and Martin Schmidt. The metric is designed to understand a player’s contribution to winning and it factors in not only the players stats for that season but also how an average player would have contributed given the same opportunities (minutes played), allowing us to understand how much more effective the player was then the average player that season.
To compare these players to the average for their position groups, I took every player in the league who played in more than 200 minutes during the season. The Wins Produced for Curry, Harden, and Westbrook are:
- Curry = 18.8 Wins Produced (0.344 Wins Per 48min)
- Harden = 16.9 Wins Produced (0.263 Wins Per 48min)
- Westbrook = 11.2 Wins Produced (0.237 Wins Per 48min)
The Wins Produced and Wins Per 48min for all three of these players is exceptional. When we compare the three, we see that Curry produced a bit more wins and wins per 48min than Westbrook and Harden. Note that Westbrook drops a little bit here which could, again, be reflective of the fact that he played 14 less games that the other two. Curry appears to make larger contributes to help his team win games.
Curry produced approximately 17 more wins than the average point guard. Westbrook produced 9 more wins than the average point guard and Harden was able to produce approximately 13 more wins than the average shooting guard.
Who Should Be Crowned MVP?
I don’t know that there is a simple answer here. All three of these guys played incredible this season. If I were casting a vote, my vote would go to Curry. While he scored about 300 total points less than Harden and he averaged slightly less than both Harden and Westbrook, he did have a slightly less variance from game-to-game points (although not significant). Additionally, because of his consistency and ability to help create more wins for his team per 48min, I believe he is deserving of the MVP. The MVP provides the most value to his team by helping them succeed.
from Optimum Sports Performance LLC http://optimumsportsperformance.com/blog/2014-2015-nba-mvp/
Ask Well: Do I Need an Annual Physical?
An annual physicals is routine for about 45 million Americans. Should it be?
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/ask-well-do-i-need-an-annual-physical/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/ask-well-do-i-need-an-annual-physical/
Thursday, April 16, 2015
The Look of Love Is in the Dog’s Eyes
Dogs who trained a long gaze on their owners had elevated levels of oxytocin, a hormone produced in the brain that is associated with nurturing and attachment, similar to the feel-good feedback that bolsters bonding between parent and child. After receiving those long gazes, the owners’ levels of oxytocin increased, too.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/the-look-of-love-is-in-the-dogs-eyes/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/the-look-of-love-is-in-the-dogs-eyes/
Living With Cancer: In and Out of the Closet
While coping with cancer, I often feel like an impersonator of my former self.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/living-with-cancer-in-and-out-of-the-closet/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/living-with-cancer-in-and-out-of-the-closet/
Divorce May Be Bad for the Heart, Especially for Women
Divorce was linked to a higher risk for heart attack, especially in women, even those who remarry.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/divorce-may-be-bad-for-the-heart-especially-for-women/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/divorce-may-be-bad-for-the-heart-especially-for-women/
A Swim Team for Teens With Autism
A new documentary called "Swim Team" chronicles the Jersey Hammerheads, a swim team for children with autism.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/a-swim-team-for-teens-with-autism/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/a-swim-team-for-teens-with-autism/
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Treating Sleep Apnea May Ward Off Memory Decline
Breathing problems during sleep may be linked to early mental decline and Alzheimer’s disease, a new study suggests. But using a CPAP machine can significantly delay the onset of cognitive problems.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/treating-sleep-apnea-may-ward-off-memory-problems/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/treating-sleep-apnea-may-ward-off-memory-problems/
Stacking a Team?
Parents always fall into this trap. I love the U14 dads who are trying to stack a team to win the U14 Nationals. Guess what, that may be the wrong approach if your goal is for your child to advance to the highest level.
Jamie Rice, Head Coach at Babson College had a great point
“If they’re competitive, they’ve probably had adversity. That resilience, that elasticity is really important. That gets back to growth. We want kids who are winners not because they played for quote-unquote winning teams. They’re winners because they’ve pushed themselves, they’ve challenged themselves and they’ve overcome something. They’ve lost and then they’ve won.”
Being on the team that never loses is bad for kids. Losing is good. It builds character. It creates resilience. It creates drive. I have never sought out strong teams for my kids. What I do want is for them to play in competitive games. In truth, I could care less who wins or loses as long as the game is well played.
Thoughts?
from Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog http://strengthcoachblog.com/2015/04/15/stacking-a-team/
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The Right Dose of Exercise for a Longer Life
Two new studies suggest that the ideal dose of exercise for a long life is a bit more than many of us currently believe we should get, but less than many of us might expect.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/the-right-dose-of-exercise-for-a-longer-life/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/the-right-dose-of-exercise-for-a-longer-life/
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Why We Don’t Squat?
I’ve unfortunately become famous ( or infamous) on the internet for my views on lower body training. A friend asked me if I could briefly explain my thoughts so I wrote this up. The question of why we don’t squat has both simple and complex answers. The simple reason is that we found the back squat and front squat to be the primary causes of back pain in our athletic population. At any point, in any season, approximately 20% of our athletes would be dealing some kind of back pain that was either caused by squatting or exacerbated by squatting.
The problem was finding an alternative that would allow similar loads. The answer came in three steps.
Step one was actually a picture of one of Joe DeFrancos athletes doing really heavy rear foot elevated split squats ( I think it was with 120 lb dumbbells). That picture opened up my mind to the idea that we could use really heavy loads in unilateral exercises . My first thought was “wow, that would be 480 for reps with two legs”. As a result, I reevaluated and added heavy rear foot elevated split squats to our programs.
Step two was an article by sprint coach Barry Ross. In the article Ross talked about how deadlifts required the use of more muscle mass than squats and were in truth a better total body exercise. As I sat and pondered, I had to agree. Grip work and back work were certainly a feature of the deadlift absent from the squat? I disliked deadlifts because my memories of the deadlift were the ugly ones I did in 1980’s powerlifting meets. Again as a result we added Trap Bar Deadlifts to our program.
The last step was beginning to look into the concept of bilateral deficit. The bilateral deficit research ( actually not new) supported what we saw. What we saw in the split squat was that our athletes were using proportionally heavier loads than they had used in the squat. In fact after one year we saw that our athletes split squat and front squat were equal.
As we progressed in our always experimental programming we saw the change that we desired. We had more healthy athletes. As I have always said, healthy athletes are goal 1, better athletes come second. What we found is that deadlifting gave us a bilateral, more hip dominant choice that seemed to decrease back pain while rear foot elevated split squats actually gave us both higher loads and unilateral, sport specific loads.The only thing wrong was that we were rejecting the sacred cow of squatting.
My thoughts have always been controversial but, always rooted in what was best for the athlete. Unfortunately the detractors ( haters is the popular term now) don’t want to think. They simply want to do what they have always done.
This brings me to one of my favorite quotes from Lee Cockrell in his book Creating Magic:
“What if the way we had always done it was wrong?”
Food for thought and fodder for debate.
PS- We have added front squats back with our young athletes to teach the clean catch and we do some goblet squats with beginners but, you won’t see any athletes with big loads on their shoulders in our facilities unless they are required to do that for a college test.
from Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog http://strengthcoachblog.com/2015/04/14/why-we-dont-squat/
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Monday, April 13, 2015
Christopher McDougall Wants You to Go Outside
In "Natural Born Heroes," author Christopher McDougall offers another epic tale that he hopes will encourage people to get out of the gym and start running, jumping, throwing and climbing outdoors.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/christopher-mcdougall-wants-you-to-go-outside/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/christopher-mcdougall-wants-you-to-go-outside/
Board Certification and Fees Anger Doctors
Thousands are raising their voices against expensive and time-consuming maintenance of certification tests that they argue do nothing to improve care.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/13/board-certification-and-fees-anger-doctors/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/13/board-certification-and-fees-anger-doctors/
Quantifying Tests, Instead of Good Care
Just as standardized tests are driving education, medical tests are dominating decisions on how best to care for patients.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/13/quantifying-tests-instead-of-good-care/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/13/quantifying-tests-instead-of-good-care/
Young Women’s Hearts at Risk
They represent “the leading edge of a brewing storm” of rising cardiovascular risk factors with potentially fatal consequences.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/13/young-womens-hearts-at-risk/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/13/young-womens-hearts-at-risk/
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Exercise Reduces Cancer Risk!
Here’s another really good reason to exercise as is there weren’t enough. No wonder our adult programs are exploding?
Exercise and Important Component of Cancer Treatment and Dementia Prevention
from Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog http://strengthcoachblog.com/2015/04/11/exercise-reduces-cancer-risk/
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Friday, April 10, 2015
The Weekly Health Quiz: Struck by Lightning, a Baseball Pioneer and Belly Dancer’s Disease
Test your knowledge of this week's health news.
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/10/the-weekly-health-quiz-struck-by-lightning-a-baseball-pioneer-and-belly-dancers-disease/
from Well http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/10/the-weekly-health-quiz-struck-by-lightning-a-baseball-pioneer-and-belly-dancers-disease/
Not Scared of GMO’s? Watch This
Interesting video from the Organic Consumers Assoc.
from Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog http://strengthcoachblog.com/2015/04/10/not-scared-of-gmos-watch-this/
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