Tuesday, May 28, 2013

welcome to ... cleavage?

we finally made it to canberra after a long train ride from sydney. once we left the train station our bus driver was kind enough to give us a "canberra 101" tour. apparently canberra has two different meanings behind its name. to most people, canberra stands for "meeting place". yet, for the locals who understand the language in which the name was derived from, canberra stands for the hills that the city lies within - which resembles a "cleavage".

in canberra, we are staying at the australian institute of sport. since it is fall here, the weather is just a tad bit chilly. we're all trying to bundle in the minimal long sleeves and sweat shirts that we brought along with us and turning our heaters on full blast as we wrap ourselves in our warm blankets. that's how cold it is here! but on a better note, canberra is a very nice little city.  it's definitely much quieter than sydney was. there really isn't much to do or see here besides the government buildings and a few malls/pubs, but that means that we are all getting the rest that is much needed after a busy and hectic week in sydney. we're also fed three square meals a day, but we must watch our figure for the weigh-in on saturday!

(the group outside the aquatic center)

today was our first full day in canberra and it was filled with lectures! (though i suppose on a study abroad trip, we should be learning something ...) our first lecture was given by alicia norris on "fueling your performance". she spoke on topics regarding how nutrition helps an athlete perform, how we fuel our body, types of fuels used for certain intensity and duration of exercises, nutritional requirements, energy balance, and hydration. only 2% of body fluid needs to be lost before performance will be affected, so remember to stay hydrated in the summer heat!

our second lecture was given by damian raper on "injury prevention". he spoke on topics regarding injury risk reduction, acute management of injuries, rehabilitation, injury surveillance, injury risk factors, and prevention strategies. one interesting thing that differs between the states and australia is concussion management. both countries seem to follow the zurich protocol for return to play (RTP), but in rugby union they have this thing called the "head bin". this is about a five minute period where a medic must figure out if an athlete actually has a concussion and if they can go back in or not. this is dangerous because symptoms can develop over a few hours and if a concussion is not resolved before RTP a life-threatening injury called second impact could occur.

our third lecture was given by nathan versey on "recovery". he spoke on topics regarding different ways to recover such as sleep, nutrition, periodization, warm down, stretching, massage, hydrotherapy, compression garments, and relaxation techniques. after the lecture we had a lab on hydrotherapy, specifically contrast. this is where you alternate being submerged between warm and cold water for a few minutes. we all tried to stay in the warm tub as long as possible because the cold tub was not pleasant to be in at all! you're supposed to always finish in the cold tub after a contrast treatment and an hour later i'm still trying to warm myself up!

being in canberra is definitely more catered to the athletic trainers, so thank you to all the sports management students for tagging along to the lectures too. (:

(the group warming up in the warm pool before jumping into the cold pool!)

 
anyway, i think i'm gonna go find myself a nice hot cup of tea to warm up to before dinner. there isn't good wifi here (or more so none at all), so don't be alarm if we aren't responding to emails/texts. we will when we get the chance again! everyone here says hi and we're missing everyone at home.

thuyvy <3

(that's me!)


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