Benefits of Cross-Training for Runners

Stretch At Your Desk

Human beings were not designed to sit in the same position for hours on end working at their computers. But Central Texas, with its heavy emphasis on the high tech, education and government, workplaces probably have more than their share of people who do just that. As a result, many of us look up after an absorbing, focused work session and find ourselves tense, stiff and in pain. In addition to using your computer to set up frequent reminders to get up and move around, Seton Family of Hospitals Senior Physical Therapist Gladys Nicholls, PT, has some stretching suggestions to make you feel better all through the day.

"Bodies are meant to move," comments Gladys. "Long, supple muscles allow the body to bend and turn in all directions around its central core and support joints in moving correctly. Regular workouts to strengthen muscles and blood-pumping, oxygen-using aerobic exercise both are necessary to achieve overall physical fitness, which you probably won’t get while sitting in your desk chair in front of the computer. But if you are like most people, you can relieve some of the pain, stiffness and tension associated with sedentary work with regular stretches. Stretching releases tense muscles, increases blood flow, increases flexibility and improves range of motion in our joints. It just gets your body working again."

While you are stretching, keep these tips in mind:

• Stretch slowly and carefully until you feel the extension and go no farther.
• Stretching should feel good and never be extended to the point of pain.
• Hold each stretch for 20 seconds before releasing.
• Breathe slowly and deeply, in and out. Don’t hold your breath.

Hands & Wrists

• Clench your hands into fists and flex wrists up and down, side to side.
• From clenched fists, spread and extend your fingers as far as you can, then flex up and down, side to side.
• Fold just extended fingers down at the joints into your palms, re-extend.

Neck & Shoulders

• Shrug your shoulders up to your ears and then down again, exaggerating the movement.
• Tuck your chin and slowly rotate your head from side-to-side (saying no).
• With chin still tucked, nod your head up-and-down (saying yes).
• Clasp hands behind your head and push elbows backward, feeling the stretch.

Back & Upper Body

• Place both hands on opposite shoulders and hug yourself. Release and do it again three times.
• Extend arms in front of you, clasp your hands, turn over and stretch outward.
• Clasp hands, turn over and extend above your head, if you can, then stretch.
• Clasp hands behind head, bend from side-to-side, stretching your upper body and waist.
• Twist your body to the right and look over your shoulder. Repeat on other side. Go only as far as is comfortable.
• Stand in a doorway with hands on frame at 90-degree angle. Step slowly into the door frame, feeling the stretch across your chest.

Legs & Feet

• Holding the seat of your chair, lift one leg and straighten it from the hip. Hold while you point and flex your foot. Repeat with other leg.
• Sit up straight and lift your heels off the ground and release. This is a good exercise to help prevent deep vein thrombosis if you are stuck in a narrow seat on an airplane.
• Stand up often. Walk around if you can.

"Skip lunch at your desk and at least go somewhere else. in the office Even sitting in a different chair will help relieve some of the tension and a brisk walk to wherever you decide to eat will make you feel even better," says Gladys. "Stretch whenever you are feeling tired or tense, or better yet, remind yourself to get up and move at least every two hours."

 

Insoles Reduce Impact for Runners

MADISON – For many, running isn’t merely a sport or hobby. For the avid, running is an intricate system of punishments and rewards. And the rewards – health, fitness and the physical and psychological satisfaction of pursuing a challenging goal – are made more difficult because of a common punishment – injury.

Stress fractures, shin splints, plantar fasciitis – runners go to great lengths to avoid these obstacles that prevent them from pounding out their weekly miles. They search for the right shoe, the right stride and the right training routine.

In a study recently published in the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association, two UW Health researchers examined an affordable and easy method that may reduce impact force injuries common to distance running.

Katy O’Leary, a physical therapist at the UW Health Rehabilitation and Athletic Performance Clinic who specializes in athletic injuries, joined Bryan Heiderscheit, PhD, an associate professor in the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and director of UW Health Sports Medicine’s Runners Clinic, to examine the beneficial aspects of shock-absorbing insoles placed in running shoes.

While the results of the study stop short of guaranteeing a reduction in injury for runners, O’Leary and Heiderscheit did find that insoles significantly reduce impact forces associated with running.

The Study

Podiatrychannel.com, a health information Web site maintained by board-certified podiatry physicians, lauds running as great exercise but cautions about the toll it takes on the body.

Jogging, the Web site states, "generates forces equivalent to at least three times the body’s weight (with each step). It is important to do everything possible to protect the feet, ankles, knees, hips and lower back vertebrae."

To find if cushioned insoles provide such protection, O’Leary and Heiderscheit recruited 16 recreational runners from the Madison area. All were between 20 and 36 years old and screened to eliminate anyone with a recent history of lower-extremity injury.

"They had to run an average of 20 miles per week and couldn’t have any neurological or musculoskeletal impairments that wouldn’t allow them to run comfortably," O’Leary says about the selection process.

The subjects were given identical shoes and asked to perform 10 15-meter trials during which they ran at their own pace across a force plate, which measures a runner’s ground reaction force (the force projected back up through the body while running). To ensure the runners used their normal stride, they were not told to hit the force plate with their right foot, the foot from which O’Leary and Heiderscheit derived the data.

Accelerometers were attached to the subjects’ ankles to measure the amount of tibial acceleration that occurred while they ran. O’Leary and Heiderscheit were also careful to monitor the consistency of the subjects’ knee angles when their feet hit the force plate, because widely varying angles could have skewed the results.

Five of the trials were conducted with only shoes. For the remaining five, subjects used insoles, manufactured by the Ohio-based company Sorbothane. O’Leary and Heiderscheit both stressed that Sorbothane was not involved in any phase of the study, other than the insole donation.

"They were blind to everything until we sent them the final results paper," Heiderscheit said.

The Results

"We found a couple of good things," O’Leary says. "When the runners had the insoles in, there was a significant reduction in the ground reaction force at the initial contact point."

On average, the ground reaction force was nearly 7 percent less with the insoles. It may seem like a paltry number, but remember that’s 7 percent less force per step.

"When you think of a 7 percent reduction for, say, a 10-mile run, that’s a lot," Heiderscheit says.

Tibial acceleration also decreased, by 15.8 percent. Both factors are considered potential culprits for impact force injuries.

Ramifications

O’Leary and Heiderscheit emphasize the study results do not definitively prove that cushioned insoles reduce running injuries. That’s a much larger task and would require a more elaborate setup.

"We couldn’t come out and say it’s going to reduce injuries but it certainly has the potential to," Heiderscheit says. "The piece we’re missing is following these people over time. We’d have to account for their training differences."

Still, both are encouraged sufficiently to broach the subject with their patients.

"In my practice I’m willing to say, ‘Try it out,’ " O’Leary says. "If it’s uncomfortable, you’re probably not going to run normally. But if you have a pair of insoles that you’re comfortable with and you feel good about it, there’s a chance it might help reduce your risk. It’s something I’m willing to put out there."
And Heiderscheit believes the benefit of insoles is more likely to be reaped by casual runners rather than hard-core trainers who have their sights set on future marathons or Ironman competitions.

"If you’re putting in 10 to 12 miles per week, your body’s adaptation to those types of impacts will be much slower and you won’t have the same level of tissue strength as somebody who’s putting in 50 miles per week," he says.

Plus, the insoles could save money, because they protect not only the runner from impact force but insulate shoes from trauma, as well. With insoles at about $15 to $20 per pair, they’re a relative bargain compared with shoes that often cost $100 or more.

"Shoes are expensive but insoles are cheap," Heiderscheit says. "They can get you maybe an extra 200 miles out of your shoe."

 

How to Get Your Kids to Exercise

By Amy Bertrand – St. Louis Post-Dispatch

If your child’s school isn’t out for the summer, it will be soon. Summer vacation used to mean late nights playing flashlight tag with your friends, riding bikes all over your neighborhood and catching balls with your buddies. Times have changed. Fear keeps kids close to home, and both the hot sun and lure of video games keep them inside.

That may mean safety, but it doesn’t mean health. "It’s so important to keep these kids active in the summer," says Gina Pona, a trainer and owner of Kid-Fit, a company that helps churches and schools set up fitness programs for kids. "Kids really have a tendency to become couch potatoes when school is out, but parents can’t let that happen."

Here’s a guide to keeping your kids healthy and active this summer.

Tip No. 1: Limit Screen Time

While TV, video games and computers do have their benefits, too much screen time is detrimental to your kids’ health.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that kids under age 2 have no screen time, and that kids older than 2 watch no more than one to two hours a day of quality programming.

"Especially with the computers and MySpace, it seems kids want to be inside more often," says Sherri Brown, fitness director of the Downtown-Marquette YMCA.

"What we’ve found is that most would choose something else if you offer them an alternative," says Paul Jenkins, a physical therapist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Tip No.2: Buy a Few Basics

You don’t have to outfit a whole home gym, but purchasing a few active toys for your kids will give them incentive to move. Pona recommends a few balls (a basketball, soccer ball, even a beach ball), a jump rope and, if you can afford it, a bike.

"These toys encourage a kid to play outside; you can’t play basketball inside," Pona says.

Tip No.3: Get Your Kids Outside

While indoor exercise is certainly possible, kids are much more likely to move in the great outdoors. To get the kids out of the house, you may have to help, even on weekdays when you get off work.

"Sometimes I stop at the park with my child," says Brown, mom to a 2-year-old. "It’s like the gym theory: You have to do it before you get home and don’t want to get back out."

Pona even suggests that parents use a timer or a stopwatch and treat playing outdoors as a reward. "You could say, `You took out the trash "" now you can play outside for 30 minutes.’ "

Tip No.4: Give Them Things to Do

The challenge for these kids, Jenkins says, is finding something that’s available to them. That’s why buying the items in Tip 2 was so important. But if you put a little thought into it, you can make fitness exciting for your kids. Brown suggests a scavenger hunt. "At each station, in addition to the next clue, have an exercise the children need to complete before continuing. It could be 25 jumping jacks, 10 push-ups, run one lap around the yard, jump rope for 30 seconds, hula hoop for one minute, frog hop to the next station "" the options are endless."

Tip No.5: Enroll Them in an Activity

Brown says the planned activity doesn’t have to be athletics-oriented. "Try dance, karate, swimming "" just get a set day and time you are going to do something that forces you to do that every week."

The YMCA offers everything from yoga to boot camp for kids, and you can find a variety of activities at community centers and community colleges.

Tip No.6: Try a Fitness Calendar

Sit with your child and find what activities he or she likes or wants to try, says Brown. Then pick two days each week of summer vacation to try that activity. For example, one week it could be 30 minutes of shooting hoops at the basketball courts on Tuesday and 30 minutes of hiking trails at Castlewood State Park on Thursday. "This could easily be a family event and modified for all ages," Brown says.

Tip No.7: Model Good Behavior

"The first thing we try to tell people is to lead by example," Jenkins says. "Kids want to follow their parents’ lead. So that’s an easy way to inspire them." You can go biking together as a family on the weekends, or go for a nature hike.