Whether it’s hot spinning in Los Angeles, scorching boot camps in NYC, or heated boxing classes, roasted versions of top workouts are everywhere. In fact, the owners of Sweat Shoppe indoor-cycling studio in LA phased out regular classes because of the demand for hot.

Olivia Lambert was hooked after her first hot ride. “I sweat so much, it’s like I’d been cleansed,” says the 25-year-old account

That’s a common belief, but it’s not scientific. Your kidneys and liver — not your sweat glands — are what filter toxins from the body.”The point of sweating is to cool you down,” says Dee Anna Glaser, M.D.,who has studied excessive sweating. In fact, she warns,”if you don’t drink enough water to compensate, you put stress on your liver and kidneys and they can’t do their jobs.”

Nor does a hot workout torch more calories. “Intensity is the best indicator of calorie burn — not sweat or heart rate — and most people lessen intensity when exercising in heat,” says Douglas Casa, Ph.D., director of athletic training at the University of Connecticut. Even if you could match intensities, you’d burn at most 10 percent more calories.

What adding heat can do is pump up performance. Cyclists did better in both cool and warm environments after training in hot temps for just 10 days, a study in the Journal of Applied Physiologyreveals. “When you get hot, blood vessels in your skin dilate to stimulate sweat,” says study author Santiago Lorenzo,Ph.D. “Once you’re acclimated, you sweat more and sooner. Your skin needs less blood to cool you off and more can be sent to muscles and organs.” This increased blood flow keeps muscles flexible, boosts endurance, and makes exercising in cooler temperatures feel like a cinch. Lambert says doing hot spinning a few days a week helped her cut 25 minutes off her marathon time. “Everything else felt easier,” she says.

Hot fitness can also be pretty damn motivating. It can take a while to see exercise results, so small visual cues that prove you’re making a difference are helpful. “The emotional component of finishing a workout drenched is incredibly rewarding,” says Lorenzo.

Bottom line: If hot fitness seems like torture, there’s no health reason to do it. If you love sweating buckets or are in training, go for it.

Source: Cosmopolitan

Thinking about hot July afternoons may seem worlds away when much of the United States is blanketed by snow and freezing temperatures.

For youth football organizations, though, the offseason is when idea becomes action and plans for the fall take shape.

USA Football’s National Practice Guidelines for Youth Tackle Football offer youth leagues a clear, medically endorsed process to implement a preseason heat acclimatization program. The guidelines were designed with input from USA Football’s Medical Advisory Committee and Football Advisory Committeeand are endorsed by the American College of Sports Medicine, the National Athletic Trainers’ Association and the American Medical Society of Sports Medicine. They provide youth football organizations with recommendations to establish consistent methods designed to limit the chance for injury during structured practice sessions.

“Heat-related deaths are 100-percent preventable,” said Dr. Douglas Casa of the Korey Stringer Institute and a member of the USA Football Medical Advisory Committee. “And it is the simplest things that make it safer for players in the heat. All it takes is some planning.”

• No two-a-days. At no time throughout the preseason or regular season should teams practice more than once per day. Teams should be allowed to practice a maximum of four times per week during the preseason.
• First two practices. During practice days 1 and 2 of the heat-acclimatization period, no more than 90 minutes of practice are allowed, a helmet should be the only protective equipment permitted and no form of player-to-player contact should occur.
• Next two practices. During practice days 3 and 4, two hours of total practice time is allowed per session. Only helmets and shoulder pads should be worn, and no full-contact drills should be allowed. USA Football defines full-contact as drills being run at “Thud” and “Live” tempo.  Coaches are encouraged to limit player-to-player contact up to “Control” using USA Football’s Levels of Contact.
• Practices 5 and 6. On practice days 5 and 6, two hours of practice time is allowed, both of which would occur no earlier than the second week of a youth organization’s preseason schedule. Teams have the option to wear full pads, and full-contact drills can begin.
• Adjust to weather. On days when environmental conditions – heat indexor wet bulb globe temperature – are extreme, modifications should be made to the work-to-rest ratio to allow for cool-down periods and rehydration or rescheduled to cooler parts of the day, i.e., before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m.

Another important reason to promote acclimatization is because children can begin preparing for heat throughout the early summer months before football practices begin. Through emails, newsletters and communication from coaches, leagues can prompt parents to let their children play outside in order to acclimate to the stress from heat that they may encounter during practices.

“There is no question that you can get a good jump on heat training in June and July to make the transition to August practices easier,” Casa said. “This way you can slowly increase the intensity and activity outside and be used to the environment by the time practices come around.”

 

Source: USA Football

On January 30, 2015, David Csillan, Head Athletic Trainer with Ewing High School and Tammy Osterhout, Assistant Athletic Trainer with Rancocas Valley High School were taking in their respective team’s game at the Jeff Coney Classic Tournament. David decided to travel to the game that night, which is not something he ordinarily does. Tammy was working the game as the host site Athletic Trainer. Following the game, Ewing High School Athletic Director Bud Kowal ran into the Blue Devils’ locker room. He told Csillan that he was needed in the stands.

Upon arrival, Mr. Csillan found an elderly gentleman lying on his back and lodged between the bleachers. Those spectators who were around the man informed David that the spectator had suffered a seizure. David instructed Mr. Kowal to inform Ms. Osterhout of the situation has he performed his initial evaluation. Mr. Csillan noticed that the individual was breathing and moving his head a small amount. As Ms. Osterhout made her way to the location of the incident, Mr. Csillan supported the victims head. Ms. Osterhout arrived within seconds of being summoned and the two Athletic Trainers determined that the victim needed to be moved from his location in the bleachers to the court. With assistance from those around them, the victim was picked up and brought down to the court.

Once on the court, another assessment was performed and it was discovered that the victim no longer had a pulse. Ms. Osterhout retrieved the Automated External Defibrillator (AED) while Mr. Csillan provided rescue breaths through a bag valve mask (BVM) and another spectator, who happened to be an EMT, performed compressions. As Ms. Osterhout returned with the AED, applied the pads and delivered a shock the victim vomited and Mr. Csillan was able to suction the victim’s mouth to clear the airway. CPR was continued until the EMTs and Paramedics arrived and began an IV.

For the next 25 minutes the two Athletic Trainers, EMTs, and Paramedics all worked seamlessly to provide exceptional care. After 5 shocks from the AED and cycles of CPR, the victim was escorted by ambulance to a nearby hospital. Electrical activity was detected in the victim’s heart by the time he reached the emergency room. He was placed on life support and a surgery was performed. We are happy to report that the individual is doing well and currently on the road to recovery.

Athletic Trainers prove time and time again to be not only a valuable, but a necessary part of any athletic event. They are trained to save lives, whether they are on or off the playing surface. This is just another example of the work Athletic Trainers are capable of doing. For more information on Athletic Training in New Jersey please visit http://www.atsnj.org or for our national website please visit http://www.nata.org.

Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/02/prweb12548775.htm