Tebow's fighting pose

Watching the third quarter of the UF game against the University of Kentucky sent thousands of Gators fans in Gainesville into a fit of panic at the end of September.

Heisman-hopeful Tim Tebow was injured when his head hit offensive lineman Marcus Gilbert’s knee. Usually unfazed by collisions and tackles, the senior quarterback didn’t get up from the startling hit.

And fans watching the game on T.V., who are familiar with what physicians call the “fencing response,” or the “pugilistic pose,” probably knew why the collegiate wonder boy was taken off the field surrounded by a team of athletic trainers.

As UK professor Dr. Jonathan Lifshitz’s research shows, 60 percent of athletes who suffered blows to the head in sports like football and boxing that resulted in concussions exhibited the characteristic response:

Falling to the ground with both arms raised and bent 90 degrees at the elbow.

And while not all athletes who get concussions demonstrate this response, the fencing position is a sure indicator to parents and coaches that an athlete should be checked out by a physician who can perform a head CT or an MRI of the head.

Here are some other emergency signs that a concussion may have occurred, from the health guide at www.howstuffworks.com.

("Concussion Image." 16 May 2007. HowStuffWorks.com. 26 October 2009.)

• Persistent unconsciousness (coma)
• Altered level of consciousness (drowsy, hard to arouse, or similar changes)
• Persistent confusion
• Convulsions
• Repeated vomiting
• Unequal pupils
• Unusual eye movements
• Muscle weakness on one or both sides
• Walking problems

Most athletes can expect a full recovery from a concussion, but lasting health effects can occur, including prolonged dizziness, irritability and headaches. Also, intracerebral hermorrhaging -- bleeding in the brain, a complication from a concussion – may cause permanent brain damage.

I was shocked when the medical team responsible for deciding whether or not Tebow would be healthy enough to play in the next week’s big game gave the UF coaching staff the go-ahead to put him in against LSU.

Most children and young adults who have suffered a concussion should not play sports for at least three weeks after their injury, according to the concussion article.

I am sure he received the best care possible; I just hope the decision to allow him to play will not result in future complications for the quarterback.

Scheduling workouts

College students and professionals with full-time jobs have to schedule their workouts around class, meetings and work.

Add in sleeping, eating, showering and transportation, and 24 hours seems like half the amount of time you need in a day to get everything done.

It may be tempting to cut workouts in an effort to to keep yourself from going crazy or becoming sleep deprived. But in my experience, everything else becomes a little bit harder, and more stressful, when I don't work out.

As a full-time student, staff writer for the local newspaper, intern for a lifestyle magazine and varsity rower, I schedule every minute of my day to get the most out of each activity.

Outside Magazine features the nation's fittest real athletes in a special edition every year. These people achieve incredible athletic success while maintaining 9-to-5 jobs, taking care of a family and volunteering.

David Goggins, an ultramarathoner and Navy SEAL, was featured in the magazine's 2009 list of the fittest real athletes.

Goggins wakes up at 3 a.m. every morning, works out until 8 a.m., goes to work until 6 p.m. when he rides his bike home. This grueling training schedule has prepared him for a 135-mile ultramarathon in Death Valley. Next, he plans to compete in a 3,000-mile bike race over 12 days across the U.S.

Listen to Goggins talk about his training in a video interview here in Outside Magazine.

Training as an elite athlete without the time, money or staff of a professional takes discipline and dedication. While I don't keep as hectic a schedule as Goggins, I commit myself to exercising six days a week.

Fitting this in around schoolwork, class, interviews and writing stories is a daily challenge. But one I know will make me a better athlete and a more organized and effective student and employee.

And if Goggins can train for ultra-events while working as a Navy SEAL, I should surely be able to get in a couple hours of cardio and some weight training.

Go here to learn more about Outside's fittest real athletes, or to nominate someone you know.

Functional Training for Rowing

Since Matt Herring spoke to my Health and Fitness writing class about functional training, I've been trying to think of a way to apply the concept to crew.

Rowing, unlike basketball, requires the body to move in a single plane of motion. The stroke, made up of four parts -- the catch, the drive, the finish and the recovery -- is performed most effectively when the legs exert horizontal force and the body and arms follow.

Any movement in the boat that is not horizontal disrupts the rhythm and checks the boat against the water, impeding forward progress.

Herring's system of functional training (GTEC: Groove, Tweak, Enhance, Challenge) hinges on developing a move in multiple planes of motion, adding external resistance and combining it with other functional exercises.

How can this progression be applied to crew, a horizontal sport comprised of repeating the same motion over and over again for the duration of a race?

Working out at the gym today on the cable machine, I got some inspiration.

Rowing requires incredible core strength. Every stroke requires the upper body be supported by tight abdominal muscles. And at the finish, when the legs are extended and the oar is pulled into the body, the upper body and lower body must make an obtuse angle without letting the lower back collapse.

The functional move I thought would be most beneficial for rowers is the basic crunch. That's the groove. Work on developing abdominal strength until crunching becomes too easy.

To tweak the crunch for rowing, move to the cable machine. Grab the cable above your head with both hands, then bend at the hips and bring your hands to either side of your legs. Since I row starboard, I would move my hands from right to left, since I twist to my left in the boat.

To enhance, up the resistance on the cable.

And to challenge, combine the crunch with a squat jump. Crunch, release to vertical, let go of the cable, squat down and explode with the thighs. Grab the cable and repeat. This combination mimics the rowing stroke almost exactly, except the motion is vertical instead of horizontal.

Can you think of any other functional exercises for rowing?

Survival with a Smile

3:45 a.m. Friday: I left Gainesville with 10 other UF students to travel 11 hours in a van to the North Carolina-Tennessee border.

We planned to hike a southern section of the Appalachian Trail over three days. We'd camp Friday and Saturday night under the stars, eat meals on the trail and see some of the most beautiful scenic views in the South.

The mountain tops in that area are called "balds." As hikers emerge from a dense forest of oaks and evergreens, the trees give way to grassy peaks and unobstructed views.

But as we made our way farther from civilization and into the woods, we began to realize this trip wouldn't be one we'd remember for its beauty.

I've never gone on so much as a day hike. But ever-the-adventurer, I pounced on the opportunity to go backpacking for the weekend.

On Friday night, the temperature plummeted from mild in the mid-70s to cold, windy and raining in the 40s. The trail, covered in yellow and orange maple leaves, became a treacherous mud slide.

And the balds, more than 7,000 feet above sea level, left us exposed to the harshest hiking conditions of the season.

The grassy peaks, usually home to giant African cattle and goats, transformed into what looked like an arctic tundra. We hiked in a cloud -- mist like smoke curled around the mountain tops. The only thing visible beyond the trail was the orange or blue of the hiker's pack in front of us.

Five miles into our hike on Saturday (less than half the distance we eventually traveled), we were soaked, freezing and miserable.

With two peaks left to climb, I wanted to cry. We were hours away from anything warm or dry, at risk of getting pneumonia and hiking on a rocky, muddy trail where falls and ankle sprains were the only ways to make any progress.

Because the whipping wind and pelting rain left little room for discussion with my fellow hikers, I had a lot of time that day, 11 miles to be exact, to stew in the less-than-desirable situation.

Only three thoughts circulated in my mind.

The first, the chorus of Christina Aguilera's "Stronger." Embarrassing, yes. Motivational, yes. Annoying after the fourth hour, also yes.

Second, a chorus of negative thoughts, including: How the hell did I get myself in this situation? Will I die out here without ever seeing my family again? What are my options if I break my let or get hypothermia?

And finally, around the ninth straight mile we hiked with no food or significant water breaks, I had a mental breakthrough.

"Rowing, like success, is a journey, not a destination. I tell my oarsmen to have fun, learn and, most of all, grow as individuals. The wins and losses will take care of themselves."

My coach told us this the day before I left on the hike. It comes from a speech from Rick Clother, a coach for the U.S. national team.

When I embarked on my first hiking trip, I didn't think it would help my rowing career. But by repeating the mantra of character building during the most physically and mentally grueling workout of my life, I came out of it positive and with renewed dedication to my sport.

Today, we did our weekly test pieces on the ergs (rowing machines). Usually during these three 10-minute pieces, I pray for the end. I do my best to make it through, and nothing more.

But today, I put myself on top of Big Hump in the Appalachian Mountains, doubling over from the force of the wind and frozen from the rain.

If I could get through that, I could surely succeed in the shelter of a boathouse on a warm Florida evening.

I got personal bests on all three pieces. I can only attribute this to the change in my mentality caused by the battle I fought within myself to complete the 14-mile hike.

The Not-so-secret Secrets to the success of Gator basketball

Matt Herring doesn't like when his players move dirty.

"Guys just don't move smooth when we start out with them. It's my job to clean that up," said Herring, the strength and conditioning coordinator for the UF Men's Basketball team.

Herring spoke to my Health and Fitness class on Sept. 17 about the philosophy behind techniques he uses in the gym to improve game on the court.

And although he doesn't like referring to his exercise plan as functional training ("That's a buzz word I hate," he said within the first five minutes of his talk), that's precisely what it is.

Inspired by physical therapist Gary Gray's principles of applied functional science, Herring and his staff used four truths of function to develop moves that, when mastered, should directly influence success in movement on the basketball court.

1. Basketball is played in an upright position
2. The body works in all three planes of motion at all times (sagittal, frontal and transverse)
3. Humans are gravity-driven
4. Muscles don't have brains -- we have to train the way we want our muscles to engage
   

That's something bicep curls just can't accomplish.

With limited practice time during the season (the NCAA mandates training no more than 20 hours a week), Herring utilizes exercises that are functionally dense.

He developed six basketball-specific moves, like short shuffles, bounding and vertical jumps, to address the skills basketball players need to maximize their effectiveness during a game.

As players begin to master the moves, he uses a progression sequence called GTEC -- Groove, Tweak, Enhance, Challenge -- to complicate them, which keeps athletes guessing and forces them to continue to develop.

Grooving the move addresses mobility issues, which could include a tight hip flexor that prevents a player from performing a lunge.

To tweak a move, Herring adjusts it to involve multiple planes of motion. To tweak a lunge, turn your foot inward but continue with the same motion.

Enhancing the move involves adding external resistance, such as wearing a weighted vest while lunging.

The final step in the progression, challenge, means combining two or more moves. These combination exercises, a shuffle to a run, for example, simulate movements players make dozens of times during a game.

Come back for a post about functional exercises for rowing. In the meantime, what sport do you play? What are some functional moves you can groove, tweak, enhance and challenge to clean up your performance?

Could you have skin cancer?

My skin sidelined me this summer.

Two months into Florida Crew's off-season training plan, a trip to the dermatologist pulled me out of the gym and off of the water.

After six years of checkups and more than 20 suspicious moles removed and sent to the lab only to come back negative for skin cancer, my luck ran out.

“Do you have a few minutes to chat?” asked the nurse over the phone.

She told me three of the four spots I had removed at my checkup two weeks earlier were precancerous. Each would need to be surgically removed.

The American Cancer Society identifies two main types of skin cancer: keratinocyte cancers (basal and squamous cell skin cancers) and melanomas. I was diagnosed with dysplastic nevi, a third classification of irregular moles that can turn into melanoma.

When I began seeing a dermatologist in high school, before I ever thought about gynecologists and while I still visited my pediatrician for sports physicals and yearly checkups, I thought the precaution was silly, an unnecessary infringement on my invaluable teenage time.

“You look like you spend a fair amount of time in the sun, huh?” asked my new doctor, a fair-skinned woman with blonde hair and blue eyes just like me, someone who I never imagined I’d eventually be seeing four times a year.

With a glance at my freckled skin, a sign of sun damage I came to love about myself, Dr. Hughes told me she wanted to do a full-body exam.

These exams continued every year, then every six months, then every three once I was classified as a "high risk" patient by my doctor.

In July, Dr. Hughes removed all three precancerous moles. She made four-inch long incisions deep into my epidermis, the outer layer of skin. I had two rows of stitches on each area -- two were located on my right thigh and one was on my upper back.

Each was a little smaller than a pencil eraser and light brown. None looked any different than my other moles. And if I hadn't been receiving regular screenings, each could have developed into melanoma, the most common type of cancer in the U.S.

The surgeries, while minor, kept me out of the gym for a month, and left me with large scars that will take years to disappear.

According to my dermatologist, athletes in Florida are particularly susceptible to skin cancer at a young age. While most people don't begin to see a dermatologist for skin cancer screenings until well into adulthood, she said men and women who spent a majority of their childhood in the sun playing sports should go once a year beginning in high school.

I started the fall rowing season out of shape and with injuries that limited my participation at practice. But the more precautions I take now against skin cancer -- a rapidly spreading, aggressive, incurable and painful disease -- the less likely my life will be cut short.

Even if you don't fall into a high risk group for skin cancer (fair skin, blue eyes), it only takes two to three bad childhood sunburns to greatly increase your chance of developing the disease. Here's a YouTube video from Howcast that explains how to check yourself for skin cancer.

If you find a suspicious mole (one that is asymmetrical, has irregular borders, has inconsistent coloring or is abnormally large), make an appointment to see a dermatologist just in case.

Visit the American Academy of Dermatology's Web site to search for a doctor near you.

The Nature of Good Eating

Wisdom and practice tells us we can be fixed.

As mostly unhealthy, sometimes ungrateful, always good-intentioned humans, we can be fixed.

But what if our past lifestyle choices render a new commitment to health futile? What if after ten years, 30 years, half a century of smoking, drinking and eating fast food, something inside us makes change impossible, our bad habits irreversible.

These questions swam in the back of my mind as I sipped a sugar-laden energy drink while researching my latest health trends story about nutrition genomics, or "nutrigenomics."

A somewhat controversial, emerging field, nutrigenomics explains variables of well being, including risk of chronic diseases and cancer, within the context of a person's genetic make up.

For example, nutrigenomics studies have indicated that, purely due to the combination of genes that comprise an individual's unique chain of DNA, dietary chemicals can act on the human genome.

What scientists previously thought was unalterable, the expression of genes may in fact change over a person's lifetime as his or her dietary choices begin to take a toll on nature.

Laura Acosta, a registered dietician in Gainesville who offers her clients a cheek swab test that is sent to a lab for DNA analysis, said nutrigenomics can help dieticians tailor meal plans to specific individuals. She said this advancement represents a shift from general meal planning based on the ballpark guidelines of the food pyramid.

Also, beyond personalizing medicine and health, future research in nutrigenomics has the potential to help prevent chronic diseases as well as address global malnutrition by analyzing the way diets interact with the gene pools of malnourished populations, according to the UC Davis nutrigenomics studies Web site.