The benefits of exercise are hopefully very clear and widely accepted. Here are just some of the reasons to exercise. It is good for managing your weight, strengthening muscles and bones, improving heart health, reducing the risk of many diseases, improving quality of sleep, improving mood, and it gets you out of the house. Do you need any more reasons?

Some people have stopped or significantly reduced the amount of exercise they are doing. Some of the restrictions in place make it hard to exercise, with gyms closed, community sports cancelled and curfews in place. However, it is important that people continue to exercise. There are enough people with coronavirus-related health issues in the community, we don’t need to add the effects of lack of exercise. Also, if by chance you catch COVID-19, being fitter and healthier with help your immune system fight the virus.

So make sure you exercise, and wear a mask if you are asked to by the authorities, and are able to. In some places, it is recommended to wear a mask whenever you are outdoors. Some regulations state that you have to wear them while exercising, while others allow that exception. If you are not wearing a mask, at least practice good social distancing, this works too.

The potential problem of exercising with facemasks is that the face covering could decrease airflow, making it slightly harder to breathe and to get enough oxygen. Also, the mask could trap carbon dioxide and make you feel unwell.

However, a study by Shaw et al. 2020, is one of many which have found that wearing face masks has no effect on athletic performance. Any decrease in airflow and CO₂ trapping, while possibly making it uncomfortable, is not going to slow you down.

Individuals may differ in their response, and anyone with asthma or breathing issues should be careful. It is important to take it easy, particularly at first, and take breaks when you need to. Any exercise is better than none at all.

Just make sure you still exercise.

Some References

• Shaw K, Butcher S, Ko J, Zello GA, Chilibeck PD. Wearing of Cloth or Disposable Surgical Face Masks has no Effect on Vigorous Exercise Performance in Healthy Individuals. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(21):8110.
• Chandrasekaran B, Fernandes S. “Exercise with facemask; Are we handling a devil’s sword?” – A physiological hypothesis. Med Hypotheses. 2020;144:110002.

The book follows the development of the two main combatants, Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson, from when they started sprinting; building a deep rivalry between them that fascinated the athletics world, culminating in the infamous race referred to in the title. The author Richard Moore was able to interview Johnson who gave some interesting insights into that period, but unfortunately Lewis was not available.

In the concluding pages of this book, we are given details of each of the competitors in this infamous race. It may be no surprise that ultimately most of them were tainted by drugs at some point in their career, possibly this is the message the book is trying to make. This may be the story about Ben and Carl, but it also defines the period in athletics history where drug use was widespread, and the fledgling anti-doping program had only started the game of catch-up.

More Info

• The Dirtiest Race in History by Richard Moore.
• Inside Track: My Professional Life in Amateur Track and Field, by Carl Lewis and Jeffrey Marx.
• Speed Trap: The Inside Story of Ben Johnson and the Biggest Scandal in Olympic History, by Charlie Francis and Jeff Coplan.

Maybe it is because he is guilty and he realizes he is not able to defend himself against the evidence that has continued to mount. He is going to be known in the history books as a sports cheat. There is no doubt that he cheated death, winning the fight against cancer.

Hopefully, the great work he continues to do in fundraising for cancer research and awareness will not be overshadowed by his cheating on the road.

Some media have reported correctly that Pistorius is the first “double” amputee to compete at the Olympic Games. There has been other amputees missing portions of one leg who have competed at the Olympics, and some have even won gold medals. In 1904 American gymnast George Eyser won three gold medals for the vault, parallel bars and rope climbing. Eyser lost a leg when he was a kid in a train accident, and competed wearing a wooden leg. From 1928 to 1936, Hungarian Oliver Halassy won two golds and one silver in water polo. He achieved this despite missing his left leg that had been amputated below the knee following a childhood streetcar accident. Another amputee to compete at the Olympics is South African swimmer Natalie du Toit, who is missing her left leg. She came 16th in the open water 10km swim in 2008.

These are just some examples – there are many more disabled athletes who have participated at the Olympics, including other amputees, those that were blind, paraplegic or affected by polio. See more on Disabled Athletes at the Olympics, and also about the Paralympics.

This was highlighted recently when 27-year-old Welsh man Adam Rumming died while performing the bleep test as part of an army fitness test at the Sandhurst Academy where elite British Army officers are trained.

He is believed to have had an undiagnosed heart problem, which is often the case for sudden death during exercise in seemingly healthy young people.

If you are ever in charge of conducting fitness testing, particularly exhausting tests, you should exclude anyone with a fever or other risky medical condition, or even better get them to complete a PAR-Q (Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire).

I have always thought that when something is too good to be true, it often is. At the Olympic Games, there were two athletes that dominated the opposition and surprised many: Bolt and Phelps. Why have the questions not been asked?

As in many of these cases, time will tell, and then people may be saying ‘why did we not see it? It was right in front of my eyes”.

Related Pages: Doping in Sports, Michael Phelps Profile,

After he retired from cycling, Armstrong tried resurrecting his sporting career as a marathon runner. He completed a few races over the last few years, though not spectacularly.

He has now set his comeback on the bike for the Australian Tour Down Under early next year. At 36 years of age, can we expect him to perform as he has shown he can in the past? This is a time that can catch out an athlete, with the pressure to perform in an aging body, he may be drawn back to the world of drug taking to prime his body for the exertions of professional cycling.

Don’t slip up Lance, as all the accolades from your successful career can be permanently tainted from a positive doping test.

Related Pages: Tour de France, cycling, Lance Armstrong profile

In hardly a surprise for many people, USA Sprinter Marion Jones admitted yesterday that she was a drug cheat. She had taken the designer steroid THG, which was also known as “the clear” by the BALCO laboratory.

She had vehemently denied any wrongdoing for a long time, under mounting evidence. I don’t know how she had remained clear for so long. Even the head of Balco, Victor Conte, who has repeatedly and publicly accused Jones of using drugs, was her personal “nutritionist” at the Sydney Olympics.

Now and rightly so her reputation is in tatters, and she is apparently broke. She will lose many of her records and the medals she won at the Sydney Olympic Games. I have no sympathy for her. It makes me angry that I have to give these athletes the benefit of the doubt, when all the anecdotal evidence and rumours paint a dirty picture, but unfortunately, the drug tests have failed to find any evidence, and they deny all the allegations.

It makes me think of the saying that “When something is too good to be true, it probably is”. When I watched her sprint away from the rest of the field in the 2000 Sydney Olympics 100 metre sprint, my first thought was that in such a competitive event that someone cannot be that much better than the next best sprinter in the world. And now it is shown that no one was, naturally.

Even the second placegetter in that race has subsequently been done for drugs, and who knows which other athletes in that field also had artificial enhancement. As I have said before, it is hard to enjoy watching some sports when my first thought is always whether the winner had taken drugs to get there. This applies at the least to cycling, track and field, and weight-lifting.

Related Pages: Doping in Sports, Track & Field, Marion Jones profile, 2000 Olympic Games

There are a few areas in which some artificial enhancement could have an effect. Anabolic steroids can provide an advantage by increasing muscle strength. The stronger you are, the more acceleration you can generate in your swing and the further you can hit the ball. When you reach the putting green, another substance could be of assistance. Beta blockers can help the player relax or reduce tremors, and enable more control with your putting.

There has been talk of instigating drug testing for elite golfers. They should stop talking about it and do it now, as most major sports of the world already do. There does not need to be a major scandal for them to take action, which will only harm the sport. Putting a testing procedure in place will show the world that they are serious about the problem of drugs in sport, and show that all sports not immune to it.

Related Pages: golf, doping in sports, Tiger Woods profile

French newspaper L’Equipe has reported that he showed abnormally high readings for testosterone and luteinizing hormone in 2006, and international swimming body FINA has appealed for a fresh investigation into that test. This could be a big reality check for swimming fans who think that the sport is clean. Everyone is human, and even “squeaky clean” Ian Thorpe could possibly succumb to the pressures to perform. We are yet to hear all the details, but hopefully, such reports will keep both the drug testers and drug cheats on their toes and continue the cleaning up of drug use in sports.

Related Pages: Ian Thorpe, Swimming