Tennis Elbow

It’s easy to blow off initial soreness, but as pain gravitates to the outside middle of the playing arm, discomfort makes it nearly impossible to, say, grab a half gallon of milk out of the refrigerator. Tennis is basically out of the question, rendering a pastime to a past life.

The biggest bummer about tennis elbow is that you typically don’t think about it until after it strikes.

“Tennis elbow will find itself in the age group between 40 and 60,” says Sharon Skylor, a Corte Madera physical therapist who specializes in chronic pain relief. “People wait until they get it. They don’t think about it.”

Although there are a few preventive steps one can take to thwart tennis elbow, the nature of the injury is a result of repetition, which is tough to evade. Due to overuse, micro tears form on the tendon that attaches muscle to bone. Scar tissue builds up to repair the tiny tears, making muscles and tendons sensitive to pain in the form of tendinitis.

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Drink water to slake thirst, prevent dehydration and fuel the body. Drink more as you perspire. Seems simple enough.

But how much is enough? And enough for what?

The questions are complicated and critical for fitness buffs and endurance athletes (especially you older ones). How much you should drink depends on many factors, including your weight, body chemistry, condition, diet, the environment you live in and especially how active you are or plan to be.

Water constitutes about two-thirds of muscle tissue, 25 percent of fatty tissue and acts within each cell to transport nutrients and dispel waste. It regulates body temperature to allow heat to evaporate from the body in the form of sweat. In one hour of exercise, the body can lose more than a quart of water, depending on air temperature and the intensity of exercise.

Dehydration

Dehydration is serious and something to pay special attention to in summer’s heat. The body breaks down without adequate fluid. Yet, some endurance-event participants drink too much, overwhelming their kidneys and putting themselves at risk for exercise-induced hyponatremia, say experts studying water metabolism disorders. The condition, which is relatively rare, is caused by losing significant levels of sodium in a short period of time.

Generally, a healthy person needs to be dehydrated in the range of 4-6 percent loss of body water before there’s a significant health risk from dehydration.

“The public’s impression of the amount of water that is necessary to drink for good health is not based on real factual data,” says Dr. Joseph Verbalis of the Department of Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center. “Many in our society have promoted the idea that you need to continually drink a large amount of fluid, such as 8 ounces of water eight times a day. But most people don’t really need that much.”

The panel also suggests waiting for thirst to refuel, which is at odds with what many trainers and sports physiologists have advocated, who point out that the body’s ability to detect thirst seems to wane with age.

Still, the American College of Sports Medicine and USA Track & Field have come to agree that thirst is an appropriate guide. That means drink when you feel your body asks for it and stop when you feel sated.

Recommendations

Experts recommend:

• Three to six ounces of water for every 20 minutes of exercise is a good rule of thumb, but each person’s sweat rate is different. Slightly less is required for slower, smaller athletes in mild environmental conditions; more for competitive athletes at higher intensities in warmer environments.
• One approach is the “sweat test.” Weigh yourself on a digital scale, run on a treadmill for an hour, towel off and then weigh again. This will tell you about how much fluid you are losing from sweat – and about how much you will need to replenish during exercise. (A gallon of water weighs 8.3 pounds, so if you’re down a pound you’ve lost about a pint.)
• Measure fluid amounts. When you know how much you are actually drinking, you may be able to better assess if you are consuming the right amount.
• During long workouts, drink fluids containing sodium, which you lose through perspiration. Researchers have found that many sports drinks lack enough sodium to do much good, but some is better than none. Before a long workout, consider consuming extra sodium with meals and snacks.
• To reduce fatigue, drink sports drinks that contain carbohydrates. With prolonged exercise, muscle-glycogen stores (stored glucose that supplies energy) become depleted, and blood glucose becomes a primary fuel source. To maintain performance levels and prevent fatigue, consume drinks and snacks that provide about 30-60 grams of rapidly absorbed carbohydrate for every hour of training.

USA Track & Field recommends consuming 17 to 20 ounces of water or sports drinks two to three hours before exercise, and 10 to 12 ounces of water or sports drink within 10 minutes of beginning. Don’t forget to drink water afterward to restore hydration, and consume carbohydrates to replenish glycogen stores.

Experts urge exercisers to pay attention to the weather. The risk of heat stroke grows when it is hot and humid. Slower athletes engaging in long-distance events such as a marathon on a cool day are at greatest risk of hyponatremia and overhydration.

Product selection

With the flood of water products – and the torrent of advertising that accompanies them – you also might consider what kind of water or even brand you want or need. There is purified, fortified, enhanced, flavored waters and more. Some promise extra shots of sodium or vitamins or energy in your water. Bottled water has nudged past milk to become the second most-consumed commercial beverage in the country (behind soda) and is growing at about 9 percent a year.

All these versions of water have skeptics – and those include environmentalists who wonder about the need for more plastic bottles in the world. A number of experts urge people to save their money and stick to tap water whenever possible. A diet of fresh foods such as fruit also helps your hydration levels, they add.

But if you’re set on bottled water, read the label, as with any other nutritional product.

“If you’re talking about plain bottled water, no brand is better than another,” says Cedric Bryant, chief science officer for the American Council of Exercise. “Simply choose the type that tastes best to you. If you’re considering the various ‘fitness waters’ available, your drink should contain 50-150 mg of sodium, 10-100 mg of potassium and ideally less than 10 calories per 8 ounces. Select the flavor you find the tastiest.”

Yoga practionioners entering the plow pose

Just Starting
Last November, I signed up for the Intro Series at Shakti Vinyasa in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood…mainly because it was nearby. I thought I would try it and see how it goes. Before starting yoga I imagined a room full of people sitting for hours with their hands together going “Ooooooooommmmmmm” while listening to music featuring sitars. Thankfully this is not the case. Well, part of the case but my initial concerns proved wildly inaccurate.

Choosing Shakti
It turned out to be serendipitous that I selected Shakti Vinyasa as I didn’t know about the widely differing styles of yoga. Vinyasa, ashtanga, bikram, svaroopa, kripalu. Those words were all Sanskrit to me. At the first class I envisioned a lecture-like environment where we were instructed on the different poses. I guess I expected a how-to class. Instead, it’s a DO class. Shakti turned out to be EXACTLY what I wanted. Right away they have you going through the motions of the basic poses. I also quickly learned that this particular style, power vinyasa, means tying your motion to breathing. And there’s a LOT of motion. I’d call it an atheletic workout rather than a class. Because it totally kicked my asana. The poses were uncomfortable, it was painful, I sweat buckets, I was sore for days, I was HOOKED!

Next level
For the past 5 months I’ve been going once or twice a week. The Intro Series prepared me well for the next level, 1.5. I learned all the poses and got a good feel for what I’m capable of. The 1.5 series is a gret next step. It amps up the intensity appropriately. I’m still having problems with the crow pose and the wheel but there has been incremental progress (though I won’t be doing a headstand anytime soon). What’s really been great is feeling the improvement while still finding it challenging. There are so many variations that no matter what shape or level you are in there’s a workout to be had.

Criticisms
In an effort to be balanced, I will offer some criticisms. Occasionally they stuff a few too many people into the classes. I think they should limit the class to 7 students to a row. I’ve been there when it’s 8 and that’s a bit too tight. However, there’s something to be said for group energy. When everyone is going through what you’re going through it can keep you motivated. The instructors do a great job at this as well. I’ve had many: Lisa, Stephanie, Dora, Anna, Melissa. All are unique and all are excellent. (In fact, the instructors are probably why Shakti is so good and should have been mentioned earlier in the review.) The only other complaint I have is the class schedule. Specifically, it’d be great if it fit mine better. The 5:30 pm 1.5 class is tough for me to get to in time. But with the classes as popular as they are, I doubt my schedule makes a difference.

Overall
Regardless, it’s doing the trick. Overall, I feel much stronger, more flexible, and balanced. I hope to be able to go more frequently than just once a week. Who knows, maybe one of these days I’ll try a crow pose mid-point and win this time?

Yoga tips for first-timers:

- If you’re just starting, go ready to work out and feel a little bit silly.
- Don’t eat too soon before. You’re in all sorts of twists, angles, and elevations.
- Get a good mat.
- If you’re hands sweat (they will), get a yoga mat towel to go over the mat. I would slip all over the place without this.
- Wear something you’d be comfortable sweating (a lot!) in.
- Have fun!

About Shakti:

Shakti Vinyasa (shaktivinyasa.com)
Shakti West: 2238 NW Market St, Seattle, WA 98107
Shakti East: 10245 Main St. Main Place Bldg S 104, Bellevue, WA 98004

Named “Best Power Yoga Studio in Seattle” voted by Seattle Magazine, March 2009

SHAKTI is a Sanskrit word meaning the creative, transformational energy in all of us. SHAKTI Vinyasa Yoga studio was created to inspire students to discover this unique power within them. It is our mission to provide consistent, quality, and excellent yoga instruction so students are empowered to tap their full potential. We provide a safe structure and supportive learning environment where you challenge your physical limits, shift your mental perspective, and awaken your true spirit.

Eyeballs work best in their sockets

The folks at Boing Boing shared some medical advice originally posted on Slate.

Q: What should I do if my eyeball pops out of its socket?

A: Get it put back in, and soon. The longer you remain in this rare condition – ”known as “globe luxation” – the more strain you’ll put on the blood vessels and nerves that connect your eye to the rest of your head. Your luxated globes will also be susceptible to corneal abrasions or inflammation, and the feeling of your eyelids clamped down behind them won’t be pleasant.

You should be able to get your eye back in place without serious, long-term damage. (If the ocular muscles tear or if the optic nerve is severed, your outlook won’t be as clear.) The treatment for globe luxation is pretty simple: Doctors apply some topical painkillers, hold back your lashes, and poke your eyeball into its socket by pressing on the white part with gloved fingers. (In some cases, they’ll use a simple tool like a bent paperclip to shoehorn it back into place.) You might get antibiotics, lubricating drops, or steroids to follow up for a few days while your vision returns to normal. If your doctors can’t pop your eye back in – because you’ve got too much swelling in the socket, for example – they’ll give you an eye shield and consider a more invasive procedure.