Best Way To Use Your Imitation Kinesio Tapes

3 on my R knee

I've got 7 abrasions after falling on Tuesday, yes you read correctly, seven. 3 wounds on my right knee, 2 on my right foot, 1 on my left foot and a tiny one near my right elbow.

Lots of pain when I cleaned the abrasions first time, scrubbed them down and then put both Jelonet (a paraffin gauze dressing) and Melolin (a low adherent absorbent dressing) on the wounds to prevent the gauze from sticking to the wound -  more pain if the wound sticks to the gauze when you try to remove the dressings.

One of the wounds would not stop bleeding as I made my way to work at Physio Solutions (I see patients at PS on Tuesdays and Fridays) so I covered the dressings with Kinesio Tex Tapes. The bleeding leaked through the tapes still (that's how much it was bleeding).

Blood seeping thru the Kinesio tapes

Had to go for dinner after I came home from Physio Solutions so I took off the bloodied Kinesio Tex tapes and just wrapped underwrap over my dressings as I was in a hurry as I had to see a patient (who was gonna fly off later) at Sports Solutions. I realized my right knee felt a lot worse after I removed the Kinesio Tex tapes, especially after seeing the patient. My right shoulder also started hurting soon after my patient left.

Underwrap on my knee to hold the dressings 

After showering and doing the dressings again I put on some more Kinesio Tex Tapes on my knees, and my right shoulder as well (as it was now hurting a bit more). Again, both felt better with the Kinesio Tex Tapes.

Taped my R shoulder too

Not much pain when  got up the next day too. After a fall like that usually everything hurts the next day so I was pleasantly surprised.

I was now reluctant to take off the Kinesio Tex Tapes when I had to shower when  I had a brilliant idea. I should test the many rolls of imitation / copy cat Kinesio tapes I've been asked to try. I used some of the imitation/ copy cat Kinesio tapes which I put over the original Kinesio Tex Tapes.  They seem to keep the water off much better (so I needn't have to redress it).

The imitation Kinesio tapes kept everything dry

So falling wasn't great (because of my 7 abrasions). But in the process I learnt how to use Kinesio Tex Tapes on top of my dressings - who says you cannot use original Kinesio Tex Tapes on an open wound. And in the process found out that you can put your imitation/ copy cat Kinesio tapes to good use as well.

My knee actually feels really good now, a lot less swelling compared to 2 days ago. Hmmmm, think I can try running tomorrow? Perhaps cycling would be gentler on my knee......

Too Much Sitting Negates The Benefits Of Your Exercise

Picture by Carsten Knoch from Flickr

Since my earlier post on Runners Run A Lot, Also Sit A Lot, I've received quite a few questions on how much does sitting affect us. So here's a follow up post on that article.

Well, to answer your queries, according to research, each hour of sitting negates 8 % of your gain from an hour's worth of running. So if you ran an hour this morning and then sit for 10 hours after that during the day, you lose about 80% of the health benefit you gained from your morning run.

That's rather upsetting isn't it? I've never thought I had to subtract (any health benefit) from my exercise before. Fortunately for me, I don't sit much during the day when I'm treating my patients. I sit most when I'm reading doing research and writing articles for this blog.

Now for the not so good news. If you do an hour's worth of moderate intensity exercise (running is considered vigorous exercise), you lose about 16 % of your workout gains from each hour of sitting.

The above mentioned data were the same for both men and women.

Researchers obtained the results through analysis of objective fitness and exercise data obtained through the National Education and Nutrition Survey (NHANES). This is an annual survey conducted to assess the country's exercise and nutrition habits.

So for office workers and those who work from home and are mostly sitting, you should be walking up stairs rather than using the lifts, stand while talking on your phone, sitting on a gym ball, using a standing desk, walking out during your lunch and use a pedometer to log your dally step count.

As Little Eva (and later Kylie Minogue) sang, "So come on come on, do the loco-motion with me." 

Reference 

Kulinski JP, Khera A, Ayers CR et al (2014). Association Between Cardiorespiratory Fitness And Acclerometer-derived Physical Activity And Sedentary Time in General Population. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2014.04.019. 

Surely I can sit now after all that walking ....

Picture by Julio Velasco from Flickr.

Organic Food Has Higher Antioxidants

Picture by Basak Ekinci from Flickr

My wife is a firm believer in eating well. Even before my accident she's been buying organic food for the family. After my accident, eating organic in our household went up a few notches. I've been having green juices, organic cocoa and lots more. If you've been reading some of my older posts, you'd know I basically ate anything and everything, especially junk food and drinking lots of Coke too. I figured that since I exercise (and trained pretty hard before) I could eat anything I wanted.

Guess what, turns out my wife was right all along. According to a paper published in the British Journal of Nutrition (which reviewed 343 studies), you get 20-40 % more antioxidants if you switch from normal conventionally grown (read plenty of pesticides) to organic food. Antioxidants are thought to prevent or delay some types of cell damage and can therefore improve your health and slow the aging process.

Conventionally grown food were 3 to 4 times more likely to have pesticide residues and twice as likely to contain cadmium (a toxic heavy metal contaminant). This study differs differs from previous studies which concluded there were no significant differences in antioxidant content between conventional and organic produce.

This study's authors wrote that their finding is more reliable since more studies were analysed using more sophisticated means of analysis.

One suggested reason by the authors that organic food is higher in antioxidants is that plants produce chemicals that form antioxidants in response to environmental stress like pests, diseases and lack of soil nutrients. Since conventionally grown produce are mostly shielded from these stresses, conventionally grown produce do not produce antioxidants.

The second reason is that conventionally farming uses nitrogen with a much higher nitrogen content leading plants to produce fewer antioxidants.

Well, maybe it's time to look at what you eat.

Reference
Baranski M et al (2014). Higher Antioxidant And Lower Cadmium Concentrations And Lower Incidence Of Pesticide Residues In Organically Grown Crops: A Systematic Literature Review And Meta-Analyses. Brit J of Nutrition. FirstView Article pp 1-18. DOI: 10.1017/S000711454001366.

Some of the organic snacks my wife bought for my son

Oakley 30 Years Heritage Radarlock, Frogskins And Oakley Chainlink

What I got today

I received 3 pairs of Oakley sunglasses today. The 30 years Heritage Radarlock and Frogskins and the Oakley Chainlink. A big thank you to Joey.

My wife wrote a much better story behind the 30 Years Heritage Special Edition. 

Here'a a closer look at the Radarlock Path.

"30" etched on the lens

Many thanks to Joey from Oakley.

Runners Run A Lot, Also Sit A Lot

Potatoes picture from Flickr

You're very active. You may average between 30-40 miles (48-68 km) a week while training for your half or full marathon, running an average of an hour almost daily. You also sit a lot while not exercising or running, close to 8 hours hours or more a day at times. Does this sound like you? You may be what researchers term an "active couch potato."

A group of researchers studied runners (average age of the 218 runners was 35, slightly more than two-thirds were women) who competed in the Austin half and full marathon. These runners ran almost an hour a day (making them among America's most active adults). The runners sat a lot too, ranging from 8 to 11 hours daily.

While looking at the demographics of the runners, a large number of then tend to be professionals with office type desk bound jobs. Is that you?

There were big differences between workday and non workday activities for these runners. The runners slept seven hours a night in the work days and sat about 11.4 hours. While not working, they slept eight hours and sat about 8.5 hours.

There was no connection between training time and sitting time, meaning runners who ran more did not sit more or less than those who ran less. Their results suggest that the runners' sedentary behaviours did not displace their moderate to vigorous activities (running or other exercises). The two coexist at high levels in this study.

This study did not say that the runners' sitting time was unusually high or that it led to any health outcomes although other studies have shown that sitting time is an independent predictor for diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases and most other lifestyle diseases (Katzmaryzk et al 2009). In other words, excessive sitting may cancel out some of the benefits of your exercise.

These runners' are " simultaneously highly sedentary and highly active." The authors suggested that these runners' may be a good group for future studies. This may give us more information on how much we have to exercise to negate the harmful effects of sitting.

After spending all that time sitting, researching, reading and then typing this article, I'd better get up and stop sitting.

Reference

Whitefield G et al (2014). Sedentary And Active: Self-reported Sitting Time Among Marathon And Half-marathon Participants. J Phys Act Health. Jan 11(1): 165-172. doi: 10.1123/jpah.2011-0410.

While I was still actively training, once I came home after a hard swim, bike or run, I'll be sitting, eating or sleeping.....