Sports injuries  by Bonnie Sprinkle

Now that the fall sports season is in full swing we start hearing more about sports related injuries. Most people assume that this is just a natural part of sports, something that can’t be helped. But that may not be the case. As with the other components of preventative health care, these injuries could have been prevented in most if not all cases. That is the last thing that the athletes want to hear, it’s much easier to say an accident caused the injury than the fact that perhaps the body was not prepared for the level of physical activity it was participating in. Athletes are not always fit, many times setting themselves up for injury. Later in life unable to get over it or get into a appropriate fitness program that will benefit them and greatly improve their sport.

There are are so many different types of sports related injuries, that I’ve decided to focus only only one sport this week and at a later date discuss another. I’ve chosen running since so many people love running as a source of easily accessible and very affordable exercise. And don’t get me wrong here, any exercise is better than none. My goal is to make running a safer sport for those who enjoy it.

Almost all runners who come into my gym are having some type of knee problem and maybe lower back pain sometimes. They may be currently ignoring the discomfort or be retired from running. The reason for this is that running is harsh on the joints of the knee, hitting down time after time. To ease this stress the knee, quad, hamstring, calf and so on need to be strengthened. Stretching is a given and included in most current runners programs, so I’m not going to discuss that. So here comes weight training. Many runners don’t want to weight train their legs because they feel the running is more than enough exercise and that they will tire the legs too much and not be able to run as well. But in reality training the legs once a week with weights would greatly improve speed. Adding a little muscle size to the legs gives you more to push off with and a more powerful run, and therefore adding speed. Running as a sole source of leg exercise will actually deteriorate the leg muscle and the joints.

Some runners try to keep their weight down by eating light or maybe even skipping meals especially the high school athletes who are on the run all day and have little time for real food. Any sport requires frequent balanced meals (4 to 6 a day), following the USDA food guidelines, the pyramid. Working towards making the best food choices, real fresh foods, rather than canned or packaged. The added activity alone calls for more fuel (nutrition), if the fuel is not there the body will make and store fat as a reserve fuel. So a runner can be very thin and still have a high percentage of body fat, showing as wrinkled and aged look or on younger people as loose skin on the stomach and cellulite on the thighs. Combine that with a frail light body lacking proper nutrition and your headed for arthritis and osteoporosis.

There you have it. Become a healthy athlete, balance upper body workouts with lower body, combine stretching, cardio, weights and nutrition to become a true athlete.

Busting Diet Myths

Part 1: The Cabbage Soup Diet

by Bonnie Sprinkle

There are so many bad diets out there that on the surface seem to work and are so unhealthy that they actually hurt you rather than help. There seems to be nothing more powerful than word of mouth advertising and how much diet information is passed around from friend to friend, mother to daughter and so on.

The cabbage soup itself is not a bad thing and it could probably be made to be a tasty homemade soup. The bad thing about this diet is that it is too low in calorie intake and not a balanced diet. It greatly lacks complex carbohydrates the main fuel the body uses and is needed for bodyfat reduction and true weight loss. Also I believe that on this diet a heavy amount of fruit is consumed on some of the days and this puts sugar levels sky high and then lets them crash so it is extremely dangerous for diabetics or those prone in that direction. Another one is The Mayo Clinic Diet, it is not sanctioned by the Mayo Clinic in fact they warn against it. It was not created or designed by the Mayo Clinic. It was just named the "Mayo Clinic Diet" to sound good and attract followers. Fad diets have been around for years and keep cropping up, sometimes with new names.

A recent regional weight loss symposium sponsored by Adirondack Medical Center refuted the Weight Watchers Plan as not working and the Atkins Diet as being dangerous as well as not working. Guest speakers included syndicated columnist and author Jane Broody.

With most of the above diets you DO LOSE WEIGHT but at the same time increase bodyfat, deteriorate the bones and muscle and hurt your general well being. A diet that does not give enough nutritional calories of a balanced menu can leave you sluggish and depressed. Yes, you will lose weight but that weight loss is only temporary and is not a bodyfat reduction.

One of the problems with bodyfat reduction rather than weight loss is that we’ve been programmed to look for fast results. We want to lose 10 pounds in 10 days, or even 30 pounds in 30 days. And the truth is we can BUT it is not a bodyfat loss it is a muscle and bone density loss. After a few times of losing this weight say once or twice a year for a period of five, ten or even thirty years, what are the results? One is a more difficult time to lose the weight with each new diet. A more serious result is loss of bone density and muscle support and so in addition to osteoporosis and arthritis, there is also a lack of muscle support and therefore knee, shoulder and back injuries. These injuries could have been prevented with basic healthy eating practices.

The solution is to get on a good healthy enjoyable way of eating, don’t over eat some food groups and neglect others. Work on getting healthy on the inside first and the weight and body fat will come off and stay off. This is a long process and cannot be accomplished in a month. For the average person a one year plan is realistic and can lead to a lifetime of good health and quality life.