Month: October 2016

New England ACSM Annual Meeting

By Rachel Katch, MS, ATC, Associate Director of Occupational and Military Safety

 

On October 13th & 14th, students and staff from the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Connecticut (UConn) attended the annual New England American College of Sports Medicine (NEACSM) conference in Providence, RI titled, “Advancing the Profession – One Step at a Time. Many members of KSI used this platform to present various topics of their interest. Yuri Hosokawa presented on LPS-induced TLR-4 activation during prolonged running and cycling events in hot and humid environments. Rachel Katch presented on the use of the heat stress score and how those can predict preparedness to run in an outdoor race. Gabe Giersch presented her master’s thesis from James Madison University which is titled, The Effect of the CYP1A2 -163 C>A Polymorphism on the Metabolism of Caffeine and Effect on Performance. Abigail Colburn presented her bachelor’s degree research about hydration knowledge and perception in DI NCAA male soccer athletes as well as the influence of water vessel on consumption and perception. Dr. Douglas Casa, Dr. Rebecca Stearns, and Dr. William Adams presented on policy change in sport, epidemiology of sudden death in sport, how policy changes can save lives and protect athletes, and how to initiate policy changes in secondary school athletics.

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At the NEACSM Expo, UConn’s Department of Kinesiology provided information regarding its new Exercise Prescription Online Graduate Certificate Program. This program is for individuals interested in transitioning into the field of Exercise Science, Sports Medicine, Kinesiology, Personal Training, Exercise Physiology, and Health and Fitness. Additionally, this program is targeted at individuals who are looking to enhance their current job credentials or earn degree advancement. This is a 9-credit, three course online graduate certificate that can help advance knowledge base in a very dynamic field, preparing individuals to take their career to the next level.

 

At the completion of this online certificate program, students will:

  • Learn about the nuances of administering exercise stress tests in healthy and unhealthy populations.
  • Become proficient in evaluating a person’s overall health prior to beginning of an exercise program and throughout program maintenance.
  • Understand how to incorporate aerobic, resistance, concurrent, neuromotor and flexibility exercise appropriately into exercise plans.
  • Learn about the underlying processes involved with chronic diseases or special health conditions.
  • Become adept at using the F.I.T.T. (Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type) principle of exercise prescription to prevent, treat, and manage these conditions.
  • Learn how to develop individualized exercise prescriptions to increase and promote physical activity, fitness, strength, endurance, and flexibility to optimize health and meet athletic performance goals.
  • Learn how to use behavioral strategies to increase adherence with exercise plans.
  • Become adept at recognizing common medication classes likely to be encountered by health/fitness professionals, and how they may influence the exercise responses.

 

The application deadline for the Spring 2017 semester is December 2nd, 2016. More information and applications can be found online at http://exerciseprescription.uconn.edu.

NFL AT Pilot Grant Program

By Yuri Hosokawa, MAT, ATC, Director of Communication, Director of Education

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Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut is proud to announce our role in the NFL Athletic Trainer Grant Pilot Program, which is open for applications from October 19, 2016 through December 16, 2016.

 

As part of the Play Smart. Play Safe. campaign the NFL pledged on September 14, 2016, the NFL is heading up a pilot grant program in four states – Arizona, Illinois, Oklahoma and Oregon.  Up to 150 public high schools across the four pilot states will be awarded a $35,000 grant over the course of a 3-year period to assist with securing athletic trainer (AT) services.

 

School administrators, or their designee, may apply if their school meets the following criteria:

  • A public high school with an interscholastic football program in Arizona, Illinois, Oklahoma or Oregon.
  • Minimal or no current athletic training program. Minimal is defined as care provided by an athletic trainer only for football games or competitions played at home.

 

As NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stated in his letter, “… we know that having an athletic trainer on the sidelines at a high school game can be pivotal for how health and safety issues are handled. But many of our nation’s schools lack the resources to pay for one. Accordingly, we plan to expand the size of our athletic trainer program, funding additional athletic trainers for high schools that need them. Our long-term goal is to raise awareness about the important role athletic trainers can play in high school athletics.”

 

KSI will lead the administration of the NFL Athletic Trainer Pilot Grant Program as well as conduct research on the program’s impact, specifically the impact of athletic trainers on student athlete health outcomes. We hope that by bringing our expertise to this program, we can assist not only the schools who may hire ATs for the first time in their school history, but also to serve as the support system for the ATs who are accepting jobs in these schools in order to develop successful and sustainable athletic training programs across the nation.

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To find out more about the pilot grant program, visit: www.athletictrainergrant.com.

#AT4ALL

Be Aware of Heat Stress

By Yuri Hosokawa, MAT, ATC, Director of Communication, Director of Education  

Here in New England, we are starting to see the hint of fall foliage. Fall sports are in the midst of competition and athletes are not afraid to show all the hard work they have put it in throughout the summer months. The weather has cooled down considerably around Storrs, CT during the course of the last few weeks. For example, the forecast for the next few days looks like this in our region.

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Source: weatherwunderground.com Forecast for Storrs, CT. Accessed 10/02/2016.

During pre-season football, we had several days where the ambient temperature was greater than 90-degrees Fahrenheit. I know, I can hear the mind of fellow ATs from the southern states, “we still have days exceeding 90-degrees Fahrenheit and it’s October!

tampa

Source: weatherwunderground.com Forecast for Tampa, FL. Accessed 10/02/2016.

In 2015, Dr. Andrew Grundstein, a professor from the University of Georgia, published a paper that captures this regional differences and proposed activity guideline that takes account of the local climate. In this model, Storrs, CT is classified in Category I, which has the lower threshold to begin activity modification & event cancellation. Tampa, FL is classified in Category III, whose activity guideline closely follow the one developed by the Georgia High School Association that developed the activity guideline based on the heat related injury epidemiology data collected in Georgia.

This regional variance is expected for obvious geographical differences. Therefore, it only makes sense to know and adjust the thermal strain by what’s expected in the region. In other words, what may not be considered a “cancellation level” in the southern states may still be oppressive enough to cancel activities in the northern states, and vice versa.      

Some of you may be wondering, “it is well past beyond pre-season practices and the likelihood of experiencing oppressive heat stress is minimal.” You may be right in that it is less likely. But suppose we experience one day with temperatures exceeding 80-degrees Fahrenheit and »60% humidity in Storrs, CT. This could potentially push the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) to rise over 82-degrees Fahrenheit, which warrants considerable activity modification (i.e., maximum practice time 2 hours with increased frequency of rest breaks) in Category I but not necessary in Category III.

(Note: WBGT values should not be used interchangeably with Heat Index or air temperature. View a video from here to learn how these measures are different.)

A well-known example of unexpected weather during the fall is the 2007 Chicago Marathon, where the race organizers made an executive decision to shut down the race after 3.5 hours due to inclement heat (ambient temperature at 88-degrees Fahrenheit).

The 2016 Chicago Marathon is scheduled in less than a week, and as of now, the weather will likely to be cooperating with the runners.

chicago

Source: weatherwunderground.com Forecast for Tampa, FL. Accessed 10/02/2016.

Now, imagine recording highs of 88-degrees Fahrenheit in Chicago, IL (more than 20-degrees higher than what is forecasted for this year’s race), which is a Category II in the 2015 paper. Although there is a limitation in estimating race day WBGT from just the air temperature, it is apparent that recording near 90-degrees Fahrenheit for air temperature, especially around this time of the year for Chicago, is beyond their regional norm. Needless to say, it would affect not only the local runners but other runners who are traveling from all over the world who did not expect the race day to be this oppressive.

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At the end of the day, environmental monitoring is only one of the many tools we have to ensure safety of athletes. Monitoring the wet bulb globe temperature by itself will not protect the athletes per se, but it will give you valuable information for making a better clinical judgment in deciding to modify activity. A great thing about weather conditions is that, at most times, the weather forecast will allow you to make appropriate actions and intervene proactively to remove potential hazards (i.e., moving the event time and/or date, modifying practice intensity and/or duration).

 

#KnowYourCondition