Sports check-up: How to monitor your health, if you like to train
Text: Evgenia Skvortsova
Going to the gym is important not to overdo it. Physical activity brings pleasure and makes us healthier., but not everyone, even a completely healthy body, is able to tolerate a particular load. To determine which types of activity are useful and safe, a sports check-up is carried out, or a screening - this is what replaces the usual examination with a doctor at a fitness club.
We talked about screening with experts: Olga Malinovskaya, doctor of clinical laboratory diagnostics, medical director of the KDL laboratory network, and Anton Feoktistov, co-founder of the personal training studio PRO TRENER and a physical culture and sports specialist with a coaching experience of more than nineteen years.
What is sports screening?
Sports Checkup is a comprehensive survey that includes several tests. Its task is to track the body's response to different levels of stress; This will allow you to choose a suitable intensity of training and quickly achieve your goal - to gain muscle mass, reduce the percentage of fat, increase endurance and so on. Unlike the standard medical examination, which is recommended to take place before the start of classes, sports screening is much wider - this is a whole set of laboratory, instrumental and hardware studies.
In the process of examination, the doctor not only determines the general condition and speed of recovery after the load, but can also reveal hidden diseases that are not yet manifested. As a result, you get a medical opinion, fully adapted to the training plan - with permissible loads, limitations and contraindications, if any, as well as a description of the body's abilities that you may not have noticed before. Sports screening is of two types: basic and advanced.
The doctor not only determines the general condition and speed of recovery after the load, but can also reveal hidden diseases.
According to Olga Malinovskaya, basic screening is recommended for those who begin to train for the first time or after a long break in order to avoid possible problems with a sharp change in the level of activity. During the examination, the laboratory evaluates more than ten blood test parameters, including carbohydrate and lipid metabolism indicators, data affecting endurance - hemoglobin level, red blood cell and reticulocyte count, and immune system and thyroid parameters. After careful analysis, a conclusion is issued with detailed comments, and in case of any violations, you can promptly consult a doctor and solve the problem.
If you make a sports check-up in a private clinic, you will have to donate blood for general clinical, biochemical and hormonal analyzes, as well as urine - to detect or eliminate kidney disease, bladder infections and water balance disorders. The basic examination may also include ECG, ultrasound of the abdominal cavity and kidneys, impedancemetry - a method by which the percentage of body fat, muscles and fluids in the body is calculated, a Doppler of the neck and veins of the legs, densitometry (determination of bone density); It is better to specify the exact list of analyzes and studies in the selected clinic.
Is it possible to go even more thorough examination?
In addition to basic sports screening, there is a test for overtraining, which is carried out separately or is included in the advanced checkup. Such a test may be useful if you have been training for a long time, but do not notice the result, or feel unwell during classes, easily irritated, sleep badly. Typically, professional athletes encounter overtraining, but it can also occur in amateurs, for example, with increased training when the body is not ready for them. Frequent colds, malfunctions of the cardiovascular system (for example, rapid pulse with low loads), a sharp decrease in weight - a signal that it is time to take a time out. What will laboratory analysis show? High levels of cortisol (stress hormone), a decrease in testosterone up to 40% of the norm and sometimes (with a strong depletion of the body) low levels of protein in the blood.
Advanced sports checkout is a good option for those who are going to run a marathon, jump with a parachute or go diving. If you have been training for a long time and regularly, have a predisposition to cardiovascular diseases, or have decided to seriously go in for sports after 25-30 years, it is also useful to go for an extended examination. In addition to the tests included in the basic screening, the advanced checkup is supplemented with a complex ECG, daily blood pressure monitoring, spirometry to assess lung function, ultrasound of the knee joints and computer pulse oximetry to check the quality of sleep and how quickly your blood is saturated with oxygen at different loads. Anton Feoktistov says that the more a person moves and trains, the more often he should check his condition. "I advise you to make a sports check-up at least once a year, but if you are preparing for serious competitions or decide to go to a sports camp, try to be examined every three months or even more often."
What does this give in terms of sports?
Coach Anton Feoktistov explains that it is much easier to create a personalized training program if you rely on accurate medical data and real physical abilities and abilities of a person. If you comply with such a program, then there is every chance to quickly achieve your fitness goal, whether it is general muscle tone, weight loss, or good time at a marathon distance. In addition, it happens that after participating in some competitions a person begins to prepare for the next, feeling a surge of strength. At the same time, a sports checkout shows that the body is not ready for new heavy loads - it takes about three weeks of recovery (rest and light training). It happens and vice versa - a person falls into a psychological stupor and does not believe in his strength. Here, too, the results of the check-up are often rescued: you can visually make sure that your body has the necessary strength and capabilities to be used.
The joint work of the doctor and the trainer allows you to properly build and control the training process. This is confirmed by the fact that sports screening programs have already been successfully used in sports clubs, studios (PRO TRENER, BIOSPHERE) and medical institutions (Fifth Element, Kivach Clinic) in Moscow and St. Petersburg. At the same time, the more detailed the survey, the higher its cost - from 855 rubles for a laboratory test to 78,375 rubles for the most complete set of analyzes and research.
Is it possible to determine a predisposition to sports?
As Olga Malinovskaya notes, the predisposition to one or another physical load is genetically determined, but here it is more correct to speak not about specific sports, but about such indicators as speed, strength, endurance, propensity to injury and the ability to recover. And if the speed depends on the presence of certain genes, then endurance is well trained. And of course, moral and volitional qualities are very important in professional sports, but they have not yet been studied from a genetic point of view. It turns out that the formation of an athlete depends not only on physical indicators and "successful" genetics, but also on external factors, education perseverance and dedication.
There is a lot of scientific work on the study of the inclination to sports. Since the beginning of the century, scientists have identified about two hundred genetic parameters, which in theory may be responsible for sporting achievements. The genetic profiles of professional athletes were mainly analyzed, therefore the conclusion that can be obtained from the results of genetic sports screening will be based on comparing the profile of a specific person (not necessarily an athlete) with the profile of a professional in a particular sport.
The formation of an athlete depends not only on "successful" genetics, but also on external factors, education perseverance and dedication
At the same time, the answers to many questions have not yet been found, and not all variants of the genes are necessarily associated with one or another inclinations of the organism. For example, in 2016, a large-scale study on the search for a genetic profile of endurance among athletes was published compared to ordinary people from different ethnic groups. In this study, not a single combination of genes responsible for cardiovascular and respiratory functions and accurately indicating the cause of high athletic performance was found. It is believed that there are two successful variants of genes for sprinters: ACTN3 R577X and ACE I / D. They are associated with so-called fast (white) muscle fibers and affect the record speed. However, not every successful athlete of speed sports is the carrier of only these mutations.
Probably, in the coming years, scientific forecasts will become more accurate; In any case, you do not need to rely on the results of the genetic checkup to unequivocally answer the question of what kind of sport your child should do. It would be more correct to find out personal preferences, choose a competent coach who will adjust the training plan taking into account the medical data and abilities of the child, and make sure that the classes are regular.
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