Football fever!... Continued

I've noted that the combination of (some) good weather and the World Cup have encouraged a bit more playing of football, just at a social level in a field with a few mates and a ball.

This is great! Health comes in three aspects: Social, Physical, and psychological, and by playing footie with your mates, you're improving at least two of them. 

I'd like to bring up the issue of Suncream, or sun lotion, or whatever name you would like to give it. Its a bit of a love it/hate it thing, a lot of people see it as a pointless precaution (like, for example, you tan easily and don't burn), while others see it as a necessity. When you're out playing sport with ya mates in the sun there is a tendancy for guys to either go skins v shirts, or just... take their shirts off. This is all well and good if you've got the abs to show for it, but thats a whole lot more body thats gonna be in the sun.

If you don't wear suncream and are out in the sun for over an hour, there is still a chance you won't burn (those of you with certain skin types). What people seem to forget is that just because you don't burn doesn't mean you aren't killing your skin. You've all heard of UV rays, but could you tell the difference between UVA and UVB? UVB is what most suncreams protect against, so when its factor 30, say, that means it gives you 30 times the UVB protection that your skin would naturally. But recent studies suggest that they only provide 10% of that protection in UVA, that means factor 30 is only factor 3... 3 times your naturals skin protection. Thats still useful, and better than no cream.

A point that often comes to me when I'm thinking of sticking a bit of cream on before going out in the sun is this: Our ancestors never wore sun cream, and they never seemed to have a problem of burning, but they spent a lot longer outside.My responce goes something like this:

• OzOnE! whether you believe in global warming or not, there is very little denial that our ozone layer is pretty buggered. that means more UV (both UVA and UVB) rays are comming through from the sun to our skin, that means you burn quicker.
• Sunbathing! They didn't do it! They had too much else to think about like eating, not getting eaten, eating, not gettin eaten, eating, not getting eaten... (you get the idea) to just lay about all day like nothing matters waiting for a beautiful tan to appear. 
• Their times of activity were different. They would know that the sun is most dangerous around midday, and so they would be out at dawn and dusk. On the weekends, people tend these days to sleep in until at the very least 10am, and by 6pm it will be a wee bit too chilly for being outside. 
• They were used to it! Spending every single day of your life outside gives you pretty tough skin.

Sorry, a random point I just wanted to say. Back on the note of football in terms of fitness, if you are following a cardio regime, don't feel football replaces it. It enhances it. This is one of the reasons to do cardio early in the morning, so if something sporty comes up in the afternoon your muscles are partially recovered enough to join in. Going on a run at 6am and playing football at 2pm for one day is NOT overtraining, don't let anyone tell you different. If you are doing it every day, it will super speed your fat loss but it is overtraining: Your muscles don't have time to recover.

If you're playing football make sure you're actually playing football, not sitting in the goal. Get some sweat runing down your face, you'll feel much better for it.

I know these posts have been a little random, but thats how I think it should be. Back to 'normal' soon. probably.