Which Calf Is Bigger?

Notice any difference in the picture above? If you look closely, you'll notice that the left calf is slightly bigger than the right. Upon palpation my patient's left calf does feel more "meaty" compared to his right.

This is surprising as my patient says that his right leg is his dominant leg. Usually the dominant leg is bigger and stronger than the non dominant leg.

Now, this patient, who is an ultra marathoner came in to see me yesterday after a 35 km training run in the morning. He said that his right calf muscle often cramps after about 35 km.

Even after an easy run, his right calf and hamstrings often feel more tired and fatigued compared to his left. He also felt that it required more effort to bend his left knee compared to his right.

My patient also does not have any numbness, pins and needles down his right leg or other neurological signs. After checking his back as well, I explained to my patient that the reason for his muscle cramping in his right calf muscle is simply due to muscular fatigue.

Since his left calf is bigger, it will also be stronger than his right calf. This means that after running a certain distance his right calf will work harder than the left calf and will fatigue faster too.

I explained that muscle cramping is not due to sodium (or salt) loss, dehydration, electrolyte or fluid loss. I've explained this in a bit more detail before in another post, have a read here please if you're keen.

We then discussed how he could do some isolated (right) leg training to make his right calf stronger to avoid cramping eventually.

Here in his case, size does matter.

Reference

Schwellnus MP, Nichol J, Laubscher T and Noakes T. (2004). Serum Electrolytes Concentrations And Hydration Status Are Not Associated With Exercise Associated Muscle Cramping (EAMC) In Distance Runners. BJSM. 38: 488-492. DOI: 10.1136/bjsm.2003.007021.

Last Floss Band Course ....

... for this year.

I was informed earlier by Jane today that this is the 6th Floss Band course I've done for the year. Wow, I haven't really been keeping count and didn't realise we've done so many thus far. This I must say though, the year has really flown by. It's 3 weeks to the end of the year!

Well, one thing remained constant. We had a full house again today. There were lots of physiotherapists (from SGH and Khoo Teck Puat Hospital) and many physiotherapy students too among those who signed up. I always enjoy having fellow physiotherapists around to share and bounce ideas.

Getting to know the participants

Asking Jensen to demo for a change

Bert having a go 

I'm the winner!

 Jacqui (Her Lift's gym) and her dislocated shoulder ....

Jane, Danny, Amy and Jerome came really early for lunch first and then got everything ready when I was still seeing patients. Really appreciate their help in setting up the place and also packing up when we were done. Please contact them at Sanctband Singapore for the next Floss Band course.

A big thank you to everyone who came too, hope everyone learnt something useful and can implement in your own area of work.

It was nice seeing Ang Hong again today too. She was my relief form teacher and taught me Biology when I was 15 years young when my form teacher went on medical leave for a few months. She was also one of the first few female triathletes I knew back then.

And yes, this is the last Floss Band course for this year, but there will be more next year. Stay tuned.

*Thanks to Jane Fong and Danny Ho for the pictures.

How Quickly Do You Lose Fitness When You Stop Training?

Picture of Singapore Stan Chart marathon by RunSociety from Flickr

Well, many of you've just done your last race of the season. Yes, after the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2016 this morning it's off season time at last.

Now it's time to take some much needed rest, both physically and mentally and not worry about training for a while.

The most common question and worst fear among my patients who run (or race triathlons) is how quickly do they go out of shape if they stop running (or training).

Ever wondered how long before detraining kicks in? Well, just as you don't become a fast runner overnight, you don't lose your fitness that quickly too. Nothing goes up in a straight line, there'll be some peaks and valleys. Likewise you don't lose your fitness overnight too.

Okay, first the good news. Research on detraining or how quickly you go out of shape shows that those who are less well-trained have less to lose. This make sense considering the elite athletes have further to fall.

Elite athletes can lose up to half of their aerobic fitness within the first 12-21 days of not training. They can then lose half of their remaining fitness in the next 12-21 days and so on. The bad news, those who've trained for a few months have a slower decline, but lost all fitness within 4 weeks.

Most studies suggest that an elite athlete's VO2 max levels drop 7 percent if they stop training for 12-21 days. They can lose another 9 percent from days 21-84.

One major reason for the quick fitness decline is the loss of blood volume. In the first 12-21 days that you stop training, you can lose up to 500 milliliters of blood. It's a simple supply and demand situation. When you stop training, you take away the demand.

The body loses the ability to bring oxygen to the muscles and you also have less fluid available for sweating (which cools the body).

The good news is with retraining, you can regain blood volume in a week although it takes a while for your red blood cells to grow again.

Other than blood volume, your mitochondria cell density, lactate threshold and your ability to oxidize fat stores all deteriorate.

Researchers have found it difficult however to measure time to regain your fitness. A common suggestion is that for every week lost, it takes two weeks to regain that previous level. The reason for this all those functional capabilities mentioned above.

When I was still racing, I used to take two weeks off at the end of the season. Yes, two weeks of no swimming, running, cycling and weight training. This allowed me to recuperate both physically, recharge mentally and also to spend time with my family, loved ones and friends. And when its time to train again, I'd be raring to go.

Do bear in mind that not all systems in your body detrain or retrain equally. Do consider your age. Runners in their 20's can resume training as though they never took time off. Older runners will take longer. 

Strength gains (from weight training) are not lost as quickly as aerobic (or cardiovascular fitness) and it usually takes 4 weeks before you start to lose peak muscle strength and maybe that will be another article later on.

So congrats and well done to those of you who ran this morning and make sure you take that well deserved time off.

References

Coyle EF, Hemmert MK et al (1986). Effects Of Detraining On Cardiovascular Responses To Exercise: Role Of Blood Volume. JAP. 60(1): 95-99.

Joyner MJ and Coyle EF (2008). Endurance Exercise Performances: The Physiology Of Champions. J Physiol. 586(1): 35-44. DOI: 10.1113/j.physiol.2007.143834.

Are There Any Benefits In Running With Zero Drop Shoes?

My wife's zero drop running shoes

Although you don't see it as much now, the minimalist type running shoes were the rage all few seasons ago. These minimalist type (and not the barefoot type) usually have a relatively low heel to toe drop. Meaning the height in the midsole and the outsole at the back of the shoe is almost level and/or no difference in height.

One proposed benefit of zero drop running shoes is that it may reduce injury. Shoes with a large drop encourage severe heel striking which can contribute to knee injuries. With zero drop shoes, it may also allow your feet to land as if you were not wearing shoes which helps to distribute impact forces.

Shoes with a high drop may also tilt you forward too much and contribute to alignment and compensatory discrepancies.

If you visit the running section of most running stores now, most midsoles of current running shoes are almost back to before when they were much thicker. But many manufacturers have retained the zero drop while offering plenty of cushioning like the Hokas and Altras.

A recent study however found that a shoe's heel to toe drop may not have have anything to do with running injuries.

The researchers studied 533 non elite runners wearing running shoes with 0, 6 or 10 millimetres (mm) drop for six months. The running shoes were 2l mm in the heel and forefoot, 21 mm in heel and 15 mm in forefoot and 24 mm in heel and 14 mm in forefoot respectively. The shoes were otherwise similar.

25 percent of the runners reported being injured during the six month study period. An injury was defined as leg or lower back pain that resulted from running and prevented planned running for at least one day.

The main finding of the study was that injury rates among the three groups were similar, regardless whether their shoes had a heel to toe drop of 0, 6 or 10 mm.

However, among the runners who ran more frequently, those in the 0 or 6 mm drop shoes had a higher injury rate than the frequent runners with a 10 mm drop.

The researchers suggested that that this may be due to the runners transitioning to fast from their regular running shoes to zero drop shoes leading to increased injury rates as 78 percent of the runners recruited in the study hadn't run in zero drop shoes before.

I remember when I was racing cross country races as a kid we used to train in heavier cushioning shoes and then switched to racing flats for the race. It was very common to have sore calves after the first few races of the season as I've not done enough running in the racing shoes (which had lower drop than the training shoes). Yes, racing flats back then were very similar to the zero drop shoes now.

It was more apparent (sore calves) switching to racing spikes for the track training and track meets when cross country season ended and I raced in track events.

As I always tell my patients, their running technique is much more important than their running shoes. Be sure to rotate your running shoes to minimise injuries too.

Reference

Malisoux L, Chambon N et al (2016). Influence Of The Heel-to-Toe Drop Of Standard Cushioned Running Shoes On Injury Risk In Leisure-time Runners. A Randomized Controlled Trial With 6-month Follow-up. AJSM. 44(11): 2933-2940. DOI: 10.1177/0363546516654690.

Now, this is what I'll call a racing flat

Patient With "Shoulder Tendinitis" Not Better After Medication

Can you guess what's wrong with my patient's shoulder?

Just by looking at the picture above, can you guess which shoulder was giving my patient problems? I also showed the picture to some of my staff and asked them "what can you see from this picture?"

Alright, for those who can't tell, here are some more clues. My patient came in with some neck pain and a very uncomfortable shoulder. He had seen his family doctor who told him he had tendinitis in his shoulder and gave him some NSAIDS (non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs).

However he did not get much better with the medication. He still had some neck discomfort and couldn't raise his arm above shoulder height. Lying on his affected side made his shoulder worse and he could only sleep supine.

At first I too thought the shoulder pain was referred from his neck. He mentioned that there was slight tingling sensation in his fingers occasionally too (which was why I thought the problem was coming from his neck). However I changed my mind after seeing he had trouble even lifting his arm sideways above shoulder height.

I told him that he probably had a tear in his L Supraspinatus muscle. If you look at the picture above carefully, you will see a hollowing above his left shoulder blade. There is also wasting in the muscle (or muscle atrophy) around the part where his neck on the left connects to his shoulder.

I was told later after an ultrasound scan that he had a full thickness tear in his left Supraspinatus muscle with retraction of the tendon! The doctor referred him for an MRI and said he may need surgery to repair the retracted tendon.

By the way, scientists have assessed biopsies from both people and animals with supposed tendinitis and found very few signs of inflammation in the tendons.

NSAIDs are commonly prescribed to reduce pain and inflammation of tendinitis. So if there is no inflammation, the medication is not going to help.

So the word tendinitis with the suffix "itis" means inflammation is misnamed since the condition has little or no inflammation. Researchers prefer the term "tendinopathy" meaning damaged or degenerating tendon.


Reference

Warden SJ (2009). Prophylactic Misuse And Recommended Use Of Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs By Athletes. BJSM. 43(8): 548-549. DOI: 10.1136/bjsm.2008.056697.

Physio And Sports Solutions Lunch 2016

Both our clinics came together to have lunch today at the Straits Kitchen restaurant in Hyatt hotel today.

This is our biggest turn out ever and a big thank you to all our staff and their familes/ loved ones who came. For those who were not feeling well or were travelling, well, here's what you missed.

Waiting for the start

We had quite a few tables

Guess who ate this for first round?

Guess who's the best eater?

Trying to fit everyone in the picture

Hands-free Mobile Phone Drivers Roughly The Same As Drunk Drivers

Posed picture of me using mobile phone while driving

I'm sure you've seen lots of drivers driving and using their phone at the same time. I saw three drivers using their phones while standing at the back door of our clinic this morning, According to Singapore Traffic Police figures, at least eight drivers were caught using their mobile devices behind the wheel last year. Hopefully, you're not one of them.

Here's an article I found by a group of researchers comparing the effects of a variety of mobile phone usage conditions to different levels of alcohol intoxication on driving performance and vigilance.

Each participant had to complete a simulated driving task on two days, separated by a week's break. Driving performance was assessed by variables including time spent speeding, braking reaction time, time driving in target speed range, lateral lane position and speed deviation etc

On the mobile phone day, the participants performed the simulated driving task under the following four conditions. No phone usage, a hands free conversation, a hands free but cognitively demanding conversation and texting.

On the alcohol day, the participants performed the simulated driving task at four different blood alcohol concentration levels (BAC), 0.00. 0.04, 0.07 and 0.1.

Here's what they found. Under BAC 0.7 and 0.1 alcohol conditions, the participants spent less time in the target speed range, more time speeding and took longer to brake than in the 0.00 condition.

While using their mobile phones, participants took longer to brake in the hands free conversation, cognitively demanding hands free conversation and while texting. They also spent less time in the target speed range and more time speeding in the cognitively demanding hands free conversation and while texting.

When comparing both conditions, the hands free conversation was comparable to the legally permissible BAC level (0.04). The cognitively demanding and texting conversations were similar to the BAC 0.07 to 0.1 results.

According to the conclusion by the authors, simple hands free conversations while driving may not represent a significant driving risk (comparable to legally permissible BAC levels). Cognitively demanding hands free conversation and especially texting while driving represent significant risks to driving i.e. similar to when they were drunk!

In Singapore, it is currently illegal for drivers to hold any type of mobile device while driving. As long as you're holding it while the vehicle is moving you can be charged. Previously, you could not call or text on a mobile phone.

However, it is not illegal to use a mobile device if it is mounted on a holder or a dashboard. Wearable technology such as Google Glass or the Apple watch is not mentioned though.

So be safe while you're out on the roads (especially if you're cycling).

Reference

Leung S, Croft RJ et al (2012). A Comparison Of The Effect Of Mobile Phone Use And Alcohol Consumption On Drving Simulation Performance. Traffic Inj Prev. 13(6): 566-574. DOI: 10.1080/15389588.2012.683118.

Riding with one finger and giving cyclists a bad name

*Picture by Comrade King from Flickr.