Full House Today (Again)

Full house ....waiting to start

I didn't expect the Flossing course to be full today as earlier in the week Jane told me that there were still vacancies and asked if I could share the brochure on our clinic's Facebook page.

But it was filled just like the course two weeks ago and we even had families and friends of course attendees dropping by.

Explaining how it works

Hey whose bones are these?

Time to demo

Amy, Jane and Danny from Sanctband were early as usual setting up the place while I was still seeing patients, a big thank you to them.

Next course will be on 14/5/16, please contact Sanctband Singapore to sign up.

Calm before the start

Your Running Style Definitely Changes When You're Tired

Picture by richseow from Flickr

"I'm a fore/ mid foot runner, I don't land on my heels etc". I often get responses like this from my patients who are runners when I ask them if they have changed their running style recently.

To which I will reply, "How about when you're tired?"

I remember when I was still racing triathlons the official race photographer will email pictures of the race and I'll be quite amazed by the transformation. Often the smooth stride at the start of the run is often reduced to a not so pretty shuffle near the end of the race - (exception is when I'm sprinting or trying to out sprint another competitor at the end).

Is that the same for you as well? Well, I looked through pictures of my school boy track races I used to run, my stride looked pretty good all the way, but that's for track races (which are much shorter) and many moons ago (I was much younger then).

Most research so far has focused on fresh (and not fatigued) runners usually on a treadmill. Not much use then when your running style tend to fall to pieces when you get tired.

Well, I'm not the only person wondering if you running stride changes when you're tired. A small group of 14 habitual forefoot runners who typically ran about 30 miles (48 km) a week were studied. They ran to exhaustion (average of 15 minutes) while researchers took detailed measurements of their stride at both the start and end of the run.

There were significant changes even after only 15 minutes. Eight out of the 14 runners studied were landing farther back toward their heels by the end of the run. The ankles and knees were more flexed during the gait cycle suggesting that this may give a little more shock absorption when the ankle and calf muscles get too tired to provide sufficient shock absorption.

This shows that our running stride gradually changes as we fatigue, regardless of whether you start off heel striking, mid foot or forefoot striking.

Hence the authors suggest this can be a problem running in minimalist/ barefoot inspired type running shoes as your muscles fatigue during a long race and your land on your heels without sufficient cushioning. I've previously written that will reduce overall impact forces

You can of course gradually increase your mileage in your minimalist/ barefoot inspired type running shoes to increase your strength and build up fatigue resistance as I've previously written that your own muscles and tendons and a good running technique will reduce overall impact forces.


Reference

Jewell C, Boyer KA and Hamil J (2016). Do Footfall Patterns In Forefoot Runners Change Over An Exhaustive Run? J Sports Sciences. 22: 1-7. DOI: 10.1080/02640414.2016.1156726.

The Flossing Technique At Sports Solutions

All ears

After seeing patients in the morning and the early afternoon, I had > 30 minutes to get ready to teach others how to use the Floss bands. Fortunately, Amy, Danny and Jane from Sanctband arrived very early to get ready. Chapeau to them.

After explaining how the bands work, it was time to floss.

Putting to practice what they learnt

We had 20 people who came today. The course is organized by Sanctband Singapore and held at Sports Solutions. The next course is in 2 weeks. Please contact Sanctband  if you're keen to attend.

Concentrating ....

A big thank you to Amy, Danny and Jane today.

Exercise Is Not The Path To Strong Bones

This recently published New York Times article  definitely caught my attention. The author writes that "exercise is not the path to strong bones." In fact the author says that "exercise has little or no effect on bone strength."

The author then proceeds to discuss studies that showed increased bone density in subjects as a response to jump and weight training. However she wrote that "those studies failed to find anything more than a minuscule exercise effect - on the order of 1 percent or less, which is too small to be clinically significant."

So of course I went to look at the article she mentioned and it turns out I had written about that published study last year.

I looked up the article again. Here are my thoughts.

Consider that we reach peak bone mass at the end of puberty after which the normal course of ageing involves a steady loss of bone that is almost impossible to stop or prevent. This makes the 1 percent pretty important in my opinion. If you consider a decade or a lifetime of 1 percent effect instead of a single year, now that would be truly significant.

Hence when we treat patients with osteoporosis or patients who are osteopenic, just maintaining or slowing the loss of their bone mass is considered successful. Especially when this translates to a lower fracture risk.

What I also got from another article is that our bones do not get strong only because of weight bearing exercise. Two other important factors are jarring impacts and resistance training. Both make a big difference to the hip and spine - specific areas where bone density is most vulnerable.

Well, if you're a runner you can rejoice then since runners get repeated jarring impacts with each step you run. Turns out the authors found that runners have similar bone density to strength trained subjects, Cyclists have lower bone density since they not have have jarring impacts and if they do not strength train.

So don't stop running, strength training or your weight bearing exercises.

References

Hinton PS, Nigh P et al (2015). Effectiveness Of Resistance Training Or Jumping-exercise To Increase Bone Mineral Density in Men With Low Bone Mass: A 12-month Randomized, Clinical Trial. Bone. 79: 203-212. DOI: 10.1016/j.bone.2015.06.008.

Rector RS, Rogers R, Reubel M, Widzer MO and Hinton PS (2009). Lean Body Mass And Weight-bearing ActivityIn The Prediction Of Bone Mineral Density In Physically active Men. J Strength Cond Res. 23(2): 427-435. DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e31819420e1.

Pepsi Light Dumbell?

Taken online with my Iphone 6 from AlmapBBDO

If you're thinking April Fool's you are absolutely correct.

The picture was circulated by an ad agency (AlmapBBDO) in Brazil. Turns out the bottle isn't real and there are no plans to create one according to a spokesperson from PepsiCo.

If PepsiCo eventually does manufacture the two litre dumbell lookalike bottle, it'll be a good advertisement for them but a nightmare for gym goers trying to lose weight. What I suggest is to fill the bottle with water or sand instead. Now that would be good for a workout.

Perhaps Gatorade (a brand owned by PepsiCo) would be more suitable to manufacture it.

Happy April Fool's Day.