Women and Weight Training

Women and Weight Training

Physical exercise is any bodily movement that uses energy, and which improves and maintains health. Despite its persistent recommendation throughout the population, the percentage of women who exercise in the world is much lower compared to men. In Mexico around 48% of men do some physical activity while only 35% of women do.

Exercise is beneficial for everyone, it increases self-esteem, helps with stress, controls weight, and helps prevent chronic diseases. In the case of women there is also a greater mineralization of the bones, reducing the risk of osteoporosis; performing physical activity reduces the average risk of breast cancer by 25%, improves posture, and in pregnant women it helps prevent gestational diabetes.

The sports most performed by women are swimming, cycling, gymnastics, volleyball, and soccer. Compared to strength exercises, aerobic exercises are usually the most preferred and practiced in gym facilities. This is due to the myth that has been incorporated in into society about “muscle development” in women when weightlifting.

Strength training is necessary for toning muscles, reducing body fat, preventing injuries, osteoporosis, and for aesthetic results. It is important to mention that in the case of women, the hormonal difference compared to men prevents excessive muscle growth.

To obtain better results, it is essential to combine both aerobic and strength exercises, and not focus on one daily routine, since usually the same fear of masculinization prevents training from being suitable for the desired changes. For women, the optimal dose of physical activity varies from person to person. Mostly, it has been recommended to perform at least 150 minutes per week, with a minimum of two non-consecutive days per week of strengthening exercises. Remember that before starting any sport or physical activity it is essential to go to your sports medicine doctor for advice and a general check-up to prevent any injury or complication.

Sudden Death in Athletes

Sudden Death in Athletes

Sudden death occurs in an unexpected and unprecedented manner within the first hour from the onset of the first symptom. Athlete-related sudden death is considered when it happens during or after physical activity.

This phenomenon can occur to any athlete, mostly to men and apparently healthy young athletes. Which tends to be a devastating event for the sports community. Its frequency is low, reporting around one death per 200,000 inhabitants per year. However, it is a condition that is given a lot of emphasis and diffusion since it can prevented.

The causes of sudden death are diverse, including environmental factors (heat stroke), trauma (due to high-risk and contact sports), and chronic diseases, with cardiovascular diseases being the most prevalent.

It is important to know that there are normal physiological and morphological changes in the heart of high-performance athletes, this is called “athlete’s heart” and it is important to know these variations to differentiate normal from abnormal findings. Dichos cambios son: These changes are: symmetric thickening of the left ventricle, sinus bradycardia, prolongation of the p wave in the electrocardiogram, and no presence of atrial growth.

These changes must be distinguished from the most common cardiovascular causes of sudden death for a timely diagnosis, such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (main cause), ischemic heart disease, Marfan syndrome, and valvular diseases.

Even with a low rate of cases, sudden death is unfortunately unavoidable at the moment it occurs, but the frequency can be reduced through an appropriate approach. Its only treatment is prevention, which is why its diffusion and education to athletes, their teams and organizations is important.

The recommended measures are a medical check with a specialist in that area, which should include a complete physical examination, a clinical history with emphasis on family history, an electrocardiogram and a cardiological and sports stress test with ergospirometry to assess the heart function under physical stress.

Exercise and Mental Health

Exercise and Mental Health

Physical exercise refers to any series of movements performed by the muscles of our body that generate energy expenditure. The activities that can be performed are walking, dancing, running, or cycling; an specific sport isn’t necessary to be active.

There are multiple benefits of exercising. We must consider that a large portion of non-communicable diseases that affect us as a society are due to hypokinesia (low mobility). We have previously mentioned the importance of maintaining a daily physical routine to improve health, take care of body weight, increase muscle strength, and reduce the risk of chronic diseases and cancer. However, it has also been proven that one of the greatest benefits is its effect on mental health.

It can help reduce the symptoms of certain diseases such as anxiety and depression, as well as reducing stress, improving sleep, self-esteem and one’s mood.

The mechanisms involved are the activation of neurotransmitters during physical activity, such as serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins. Which are related to happiness, well-being, and sensation of pleasure. As well as the increase of the blood circulation in the brain after exercising and its influence on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the limbic system (which controls motivation and mood), and the amygdala.
Another explanation of the benefits is the feeling of self-efficacy that exercise emits in the person, the distraction and social interaction that comes from going out to perform a physical activity.

Aerobic exercises have been shown to have a greater impact on people suffering from depression, its benefits are evident and have been proven by studies. Doing 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity at least 5 times a week is enough to present changes in mood.

Exercise is the best antidepressant that exists and at the same time it is the one least used. Exercise should be prescribed as medicine, to do it correctly sport medicine doctors consider different factors depending on the needs of each patient:

  1. Type of exercise: Aerobic, anaerobic or mixed
  2. Duration per session: Minutes, miles or laps
  3. Number of sessions per day or per week.
  4. Intensity: Mild, moderate, or intense.

Example: Denisse does Karate training, which is a mixed sport with predominantly anaerobic activity, each session is 60 mins. and she goes to the dojo for 2 sessions per week where she practices with moderate intensity. But she complements her exercise by going for a continuous (aerobic) run for 30 minutes, 3 times a week at a moderate intensity.

The sum of these activities is known as volume and it will be important to calculate the weekly energy expenditure per exercise as well as the recovery and rest times in order to prevent injuries.

To find out more about how you practice your sport or how to improve your sports performance, visit your sports medicine doctor.

Physical exercise in the asthmatic patient

Physical exercise in the asthmatic patient

Asthma is a chronic disease of the respiratory system characterized by inflammation and reversible spasm of the bronchi.
According to the WHO, it is estimated that there are approximately 230 million patients with asthma around the world, being more frequent in children. In Mexico up to 12% of the population suffers from this disease.

The are several risk factors for developing asthma, among them are: family history, respiratory infections and frequent allergies during childhood, being born prematurely, smoking, living in highly industrialized areas, and obesity.

The most common triggers of an asthma attack are dust mites or molds, the presence of pets in the house such as dogs or cats, pollution, exercise, and cold weather.


The main mechanisms present in airflow limitation are due to a bronchial hyper-response to different stimuli of the triggering agents already mentioned, which activate an inflammatory chain, these mechanisms are the contraction of bronchial smooth muscle, thickening of the bronchial wall (due to edema) and hypersecretion of mucus in the bronchial lumen; This causes dyspnea (shortness of breath), chest tightness, cough, and wheezing.

Although exercise can cause an asthma attack, also called exercise-induced bronchoconstriction, it is not contraindicated to do some physical activity. Exercising improves tolerance of ventilatory demand and increases aerobic capacity. It improves physical condition and decreases crises caused by physical exertion, as well as helping with body weight and the immune system (which is important to avoid triggers).

It is important to mention that the treatment of each person is individual and personalized depending on the stage of the disease. Therefore, their established pharmacological treatment must be adequate to control symptoms that may occur during physical activity.

Aerobic exercises are mainly recommended and when choosing sports, it is best to choose one of short duration or intensity, such as yoga, gymnastics or swimming. Swimming is one of the most recommended sports since breathing the water’s vapor in the case of heated pools helps a lot to prevent exercise-induced asthma. Likewise, it is important to mention that the weather at the time of practice is important, dry environments are contraindicated.

Sports that involve greater effort such as long runs, soccer, etc. are not ruled out for the patient, however, before starting any activity, not only should you go to the specialist for a guided treatment, you should also go to the sports medicine doctor for an exercise plan adapted to your specific needs. Among the tests that can be carried out, in addition to a complete cardiopulmonary and metabolic evaluation, are a spirometry to measure pulmonary capacities and spasm tests where the stress situation that induces bronchial spasm is simulated and counteracted in the moment.

ERGO by Olympia sports integrative medicine.

Passionate about sports, committed to your health

Ozone therapy for the treatment of herniated discs and low back pain

Ozone therapy for the treatment of herniated discs and low back pain

Lumbago (low back pain) is one of the pain syndromes that most frequently affect the working population. Low back pain is a very common pathological entity throughout the world, and our environment is no exception, since in Mexico musculoskeletal conditions rank as the fourth cause of consultation at an institutional level, and within this category, low back pain occupies the first place.

The main risk factors for low back pain have been the following: history of low back pain, insufficient overall physical fitness, smoking, poor development of dorsal muscles, lifting heavy objects, spondyloarthrosis, spondylolisthesis, scoliosis, joint hyper-elasticity, abdominal muscle weakness, height and overweight.

90% of low back pain cases are attributed to mechanical alterations of the vertebral structures, most of which are nonspecific (mechanical or nonspecific low back pain).

Within the types of low back pain there are those that are caused by compression of the interverbal discs. The intervertebral discs are the discs that separate the vertebrae from the spinal column. Each forms a cartilaginous cushioning that allows slight movements of the vertebrae and acts as a ligament that holds them together.

Herniated Discs is the pathology in which the intervertebral discs move from their normal position, pressing the nerves that pass along the spinal cord, causing pain that is generally moderate to intense.

Ozone is a strong oxidizing agent, if injected into the paravertebral muscles, it stimulates the production of antioxidant enzymes, and neutralizes the toxic products released by the rupture of the nucleus pulposus that produce inflammation of the nerve.

During ozone discolysis, its injection into the intervertebral disc accelerates the degradation of polyglucosides in the degenerated nucleus pulposus, which leads to its reabsorption and dehydration, with the consequent reduction in the volume of the herniated material, which has been responsible for nerve compression.

The results are like those of surgery, good in 80% of patients, with the advantage that it is ambulatory, with local anesthesia and practically painless. This system can also be used in the treatment of Cervical Disc Herniation and has the advantage over Laser Discectomy that it can be used with excellent results on extruded discs in the spinal canal.

With the ozone therapy technique, satisfactory results have been achieved in 98% of the patients who have received this treatment.