Health Archives - Sportavida

Kinesio Tape: What Does the Science Say?

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Kinesio Tape: What Does the Science Say?

By Joclyn Villegas|2020-05-18T08:53:06-05:00May 18th, 2020|Athletic treatments, Fitness, Health, Injury|

Kinesio tape was invented by Dr. Kenso Kase. It is an elastic therapeutic tape commonly used for athletic injuries, orthopedic, neuromuscular, and medical conditions (9). Kinesio tape gained wide popularity after the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where athletes were seen wearing the tape during the games (12). The tape itself can stretch 120-140% of its original length (3) and contract back to its original size (7, 8). Kinesio tape is widely used in athletics as a tool to improve performance (9, 15). It has also been utilized to improve physical activity capacity in healthy adults (15). Research has suggested benefits of [...]

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Full-Time And Part-Time Dancers: How They are at Risk for Injury

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Full-Time And Part-Time Dancers: How They are at Risk for Injury

By Joclyn Villegas|2020-04-29T10:02:27-05:00April 29th, 2020|Dance, Fatigue, Health, Injury, Overuse|

Dancers have a very unique career, in that their body significantly directs their career path. Professional dancers place a significant amount of physical and mental stress on their body due to the demands of their career. With classes, rehearsal, performances, tours and competitions, it is no surprise there is a high prevalence of injury among the dance community (5, 20). In fact, the incorporation of strong artistic (5), aesthetic (4) and perfectionistic (13, 14) components contribute to a unique distribution and risk of injury in dancers (20). However, while risk assessment of full-time professional dancers has been well evaluated, part-time [...]

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Breathing Problems in Swimmers: The Effect of Training & Your Psyche

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Breathing Problems in Swimmers: The Effect of Training & Your Psyche

By Joclyn Villegas|2020-04-14T18:00:31-05:00April 14th, 2020|Fitness, Health, Lifestyle, Overuse, Swimming|

I hope this blog finds you well and healthy! Though COVID-19 continues to impact the world, it is encouraging to see society come together in order to overcome this trial as quickly as possible. With COVID-19 having a great impact on the lungs, people may be wondering about the health and vulnerability of their own lungs - especially athletes. Elite endurance athletes experience a high prevalence of exercise induced asthma (EIA) and bronchial hyper responsiveness (BHR) (7, 8, 10, 11, 15). Exercise induced asthma is caused by airflow obstruction or narrowing of the airway which can be caused by increased [...]

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Women Athletics: How Your Sport Affects Your Bone Health

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Women Athletics: How Your Sport Affects Your Bone Health

By Joclyn Villegas|2020-02-03T09:29:53-05:00February 3rd, 2020|Baseball, Basketball, Health, Sports, Swimming, Track, Volleyball|

Studies suggest women athletics influences change in bone and body composition (3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13). Furthermore, these changes may be sport-specific (2-5, 8, 10, 11, 13). Every sport has different approaches to training because each sport has different physical requirements and performance needs (2, 5, 8, 11, 13, 14). Significant differences have been found in total body bone mineral density (BMD) among sports (2). BMD has been associated with sport-specific mechanical loading, bone strain, total body mass and lean mass (1, 3-5, 10, 11, 14). Weight-bearing physical activities, such as sports, are noted to promote bone density (1-3, [...]

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Can exercise help women age gracefully?

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Can exercise help women age gracefully?

By Joclyn Villegas|2020-01-24T08:48:53-05:00January 24th, 2020|Fitness, Health, Lifestyle, Wellness|

To age gracefully, a desire many women have. But what exactly is aging? If we go to the science, one key process involved in aging is the shortening of telomeres (1). Telomeres function to protect the ends of our chromosomes. Data has suggested physically inactive people are at risk for accelerated shortening of telomere length (8). Similarly, information from pulse wave velocity (PWV) data suggest a relationship with aerobic activity and age-related health parameters, such as arterial stiffening (2). PWV is the rate at which pressure waves move through vessels. Arterial stiffening is the thickening (or stiffening) of the arterial [...]

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Ladies, is CrossFit too much on the body?

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Ladies, is CrossFit too much on the body?

By Joclyn Villegas|2020-01-30T14:51:27-05:00January 13th, 2020|Fitness, Health, Lifestyle, Wellness|

CrossFit has become increasingly popular, not only among men but women as well. CrossFit is a high-intensity workout program. In addition to improving body composition, it has been shown to improve cardiovascular function in adults (2). However, the effect CrossFit has on a woman’s pelvic floor is uncertain. Pelvic floor muscles help to control your bladder and bowel. Therefore, it is important to keep your pelvic muscles strong and exercise appropriately. High-intensity exercise, such as CrossFit, can increase your intraabdominal pressure. Intraabdominal pressure (IAP) is the pressure within the abdominal cavity. Experts suggest long-term, elevated IAP can predispose women to [...]

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Soft-tissue injections: yay or nay? Part 2

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Soft-tissue injections: yay or nay? Part 2

By Joclyn Villegas|2020-01-07T09:01:47-05:00January 7th, 2020|Athletic treatments, Baseball, Basketball, Football, Health, Sports|

Make you sure check out Part 1 of this series for background information! In the previous blog, we discussed costs and benefits of soft-tissue injections – specifically reviewing corticosteroid injections. Here we will discuss costs and benefits of 2 other soft-tissue injections: local anesthetic and Toradol. What are local anesthetics? To refresh, soft-tissue injections interfere with the normal healing process in order to get an athlete to return to play sooner. With local anesthetics, there is disruption to axonal nerve conduction (7, 24). What this does is it allows immediate pain relief for an athlete. There are a variety of [...]

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Sleep Deprivation: Will caffeine get you back on track?

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Sleep Deprivation: Will caffeine get you back on track?

By Joclyn Villegas|2019-12-13T14:48:08-05:00December 13th, 2019|Fatigue, Lifestyle, Sleep, Sports|

Sleep deprivation can be a great concern among athletes. With busy schedules and rigorous training, getting adequate sleep can be difficult. Sleep plays an important part in the recovery and performance of athletes (12). Therefore, it is vital athletes make time to rest. But when sleep is hard to come by many athletes choose to combat their weariness with caffeine. However, are you drinking enough caffeine? How tired are you? Let’s take a look at some of the science: A 2018 study (12), investigated the effect of sleep deprivation and use of caffeine on anaerobic capacity. Anaerobic exercise involves short [...]

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Grab and Go Energy: Is RedBull really the key?

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Grab and Go Energy: Is RedBull really the key?

By Joclyn Villegas|2019-12-12T12:03:38-05:00December 8th, 2019|Fatigue, Fitness, Health, Lifestyle, Sports, Wellness|

As an athlete, it is important to be focused and perform your best. Many athletes, as well as exercising individuals, have begun integrating a quick pick me up before their event to enhance performance. In fact, according to some research (3) sugar-free energy drinks have become staples to athletes and health buffs who are looking to get an extra boost to edge out their competition. But do these drinks really work? Can an energy drink really make a difference in performance or is it all in our heads? And more importantly, is it safe? Let’s take a quick look at [...]

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