Water safety; don't rip through the rip current

Photo: Li Yang/Unsplash

---

by Matt Sheehan
OSF Healthcare

PEORIA - “You’re never going to be stronger than the ocean.”

A wave of caution from Jon Gehlbach, MD, the medical director of the Pediatric Critical Care Unit at OSF HealthCare Children’s Hospital of Illinois.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports around 30,000 swimmers have to be saved from rip currents by lifeguards each year, while about 100 people drown after encountering them.

What is a rip current?

Rip currents are powerful, narrow channels of fast-moving water. Many summer vacationers travel to the East, West and Gulf Coasts in the summer, where rip currents are prevalent. But some may not know that rip currents are also known to occur on the shores of the Great Lakes. Rip currents are when the waves hit the beach in a certain way, creating a current that flows away from the beach, according to NOAA.

Dr. Gehlbach says whatever you do, don’t try to swim against the rip current.

“Familiarize yourself with where the rip currents are. They’re usually well-marked (with signs on the beach),” Dr. Gehlbach says. “You don’t have to worry about currents or underwater debris in pools, but in oceans, most drownings are related to rip currents. It’s an invisible current pulling people away from the shore. The urge is to swim against it, but if you find yourself in that situation, try to swim parallel to the shore and get out of that rip current as safely as you can.”

“Break the grip of the rip”

“Wave, yell, swim parallel” is another slogan NOAA has. Make sure to continue to breathe, keep your head above water and don’t spend your energy fighting against the current. While rip currents typically flow at one to two feet per second, they can reach up to eight feet per second, or five miles per hour.

While waves or storms can change the shape of the ocean bottom, NOAA reports rip currents are actually the strongest at low tide.

Maybe the beach isn’t your thing, but the lake is. Similar messaging applies. Dr. Gehlbach says there are many unknown factors in natural bodies of water like lakes and rivers that make them more dangerous.

“They tend to be darker, so it’s harder to see what’s going on below the surface. They could have hidden obstacles,” Dr. Gehlbach says. “Currents play a factor as well. Kids might be great swimmers in the pool, but currents make it a lot more challenging to swim safely.”

Rip currents aren’t the same as undertow

Rip currents are much more dangerous, NOAA says. They flow on the surface of water, are usually very strong and can go far out from the shore. Undertow happens when water sinks downhill into the sea after a wave carried it uphill, which is mostly the case at beaches with steep inclines.

When in doubt, don’t go out!

NOAA has the following tips to remain safe on your beach vacations this summer.

• Swim with a buddy
• Swim near a lifeguard
• Learn how to spot a rip current
• Be prepared

Keep an eye on the local National Weather Service (NWS) Surf Zone Forecasts and Rip Current Statements online and on social media. This can give you a good gauge of what the water’s like before heading to the beach.

Swimsuit color safety

While some parents spend more time than others picking out their kids’ swim outfits, Dr. Gehlbach says the color of their swimsuit could be extremely important in dangerous situations.

“With those blue hues or lighter colors, you might be able to see them well on the surface of the water, but they don’t contrast well with the color of the water, especially pool water, once they go below the surface. Look for things that are brightly colored. Your pinks, reds, oranges, and even black can contrast well against the water,” Dr. Gehlbach says.

Viewpoint |Heart rate zones aren’t a perfect measure of exercise intensity

Runners make their way along the 2023 Illinois Marathon course through Urbana. Jogging and running are rudimentary forms of exercise important in maintaining excellent heart and cardiovascular health. The human body is remarkable in its abilty to adapt quickly to moderate- and high-intensity exercise.

Photo: Sentinel/Clark Brooks

---

by Jason Sawyer, Bryant University

---

---

Aerobic exercise like jogging, biking, swimming or hiking is a fundamental way to maintain cardiovascular and overall health. The intensity of aerobic exercise is important to determine how much time you should spend training in order to reap its benefits.

As an exercise science researcher, I support the American College of Sports Medicine’s recommendation of a minimum of 150 minutes per week of moderate aerobic exercise, or 75 minutes per week of high-intensity exercise. But what does exercise intensity mean?

There is a linear relationship between heart rate and exercise intensity, meaning as the exercise intensity increases, so does heart rate. Heart rate zone training, which uses heart rate as a measure of exercise intensity, has increased in popularity in recent years, partially due to the ubiquity of wearable heart rate technology.

The way exercise intensity is usually described is problematic because one person’s “vigorous” may be another’s “moderate.” Heart rate zone training tries to provide an objective measure of intensity by breaking it down into various zones. But heart rate can also be influenced by temperature, medications and stress levels, which may affect readings during exercise.

Heart rate and exercise intensity

The gold standard for determining aerobic exercise intensity is to measure the amount of oxygen consumed and carbon dioxide exhaled. However, this method is cumbersome because it requires people to wear a breathing mask to capture respiratory gases.

An easier way is to predict the person’s maximum heart rate. This can be done with an equation that subtracts the person’s age from 220. Although there is controversy surrounding the best way to calculate maximum heart rate, researchers suggest this method is still valid.

---

What happens when you reach your maximum heart rate?

---

The American College of Sports Medicine outlines five heart rate zones based on a person’s predicted heart rate maximum. Zone 1, or very light intensity, equals less than 57% of maximum heart rate; zone 2, or light intensity, is 57% to 63%; zone 3, or moderate intensity, is 64% to 76%; zone 4, or vigorous intensity, is 77% to 95%; and zone 5, or near-maximal intensity, is 96% to 100%.

However, other organizations have their own measures of exercise intensity, with varying ranges and descriptions. For example, Orange Theory describes their zone 2 training as 61% to 70% of maximum heart rate. Complicating matters even further, companies that produce heart rate monitors also have higher thresholds for each zone. For example, Polar’s zone 2 is up to 70% of maximum heart rate, while the American College of Sports Medicine recommends a zone 2 of up to 63%.

Adapting heart rate zones

Zone training is based on the idea that how the body responds to exercise is at least in part determined by exercise intensity. These adaptations include increased oxygen consumption, important cellular adaptations and improved exercise performance.

Zone 2 has received a lot of attention from the fitness community because of its possible benefits. Performance coaches describe zone 2 as “light cardio,” where the intensity is low and the body relies mainly on fat to meet energy demands. Fats provide more energy compared to carbohydrates, but deliver it to cells more slowly.

Because fat is more abundant than carbohydrates in the body, the body responds to the cellular stress that exercise causes in muscle cells by increasing the number of mitochondria, or the energy-producing component of cells. By increasing the number of mitochondria, the body may become better at burning fat.

While you don't have to be a competitive level cyclist, even at a low level of 30-60 minutes along with a healthy protein-rich diet has been proven to lower many health risks and help in the weight-loss process.

Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

---

On the other end of the spectrum of exercise intensity is high-intensity interval training, or HIIT. These workouts involve exercising at a high intensity for short durations, like an all-out sprint or cycle for 30 seconds to a minute, followed by a period of low intensity activity. This is repeated six to 10 times.

During this sort of high-intensity activity, the body primarily uses carbohydrates as a fuel source. During high-intensity exercise, the body preferentially uses carbohydrates because the energy demand is high and carbohydrates provide energy twice as fast as fats.

Some people who turn to exercise to lose fat may eschew high-intensity training for zone 2, as it’s considered the “the fat burning zone.” This may be a misnomer.

Researchers have found that high-intensity interval training produces a similar increase in markers for mitochondria production when compared to longer, moderate aerobic training. Studies have also shown that high-intensity exercisers build muscle and improve insulin resistance and cardiovascular health similar to moderate-intensity exercisers, and they made these gains faster. The main trade-off was discomfort during bouts of high-intensity exercise.

Moderate- or high-intensity exercise?

With varying guidelines around heart rate zones and conflicting evidence on the potential benefits of training in each zone, exercisers may be left wondering what to do.

In order to yield the health benefits of exercise, the most important variable to consider is adhering to an exercise routine, regardless of intensity. Because the body adapts in similar ways to moderate- and high-intensity exercise, people can choose which intensity they like best or dislike the least.

Swimming is a good activity to maintain heart and cardiovascular health.

Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

---

Notice that the American College of Sports Medicine’s recommendation for exercise falls under moderate intensity. This is equivalent to zone 3, or 64% to 76% of maximum heart rate, a range you can only meet in the upper levels of most zone 2 workouts. If you’re not seeing desired results with your zone 2 workouts, try increasing your intensity to reach the moderate level.

A commonly reported reason for not exercising is a lack of time. For people short on time, high-intensity training is a good alternative to steady-state cardiovascular exercise. For people who find exercising at such a high intensity uncomfortable, they can get the same benefit by doing moderate-intensity exercise for a longer period.

---

About the author:
Jason Sawyer is an Associate Professor of Exercise and Movement Science at Bryant University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

---

Lifeguard shortage affecting summer pool staffing

---

When local officials make decisions about where to close pools or cut back hours, they do so knowing that swimming has a fraught history of racial inequities.

---

by Michelle Andrews
Kaiser Health News

KHN - Two summers ago, a teenager who had jumped off the diving board started struggling in the deep end, her arms flailing. It took only a few seconds for lifeguard Makenna John to notice the girl’s distress. She grabbed her rescue tube, jumped in, and helped the girl to safety.

This summer is Makenna’s third lifeguarding at the public pool in Roxana, Illinois, a village in the St. Louis area. Although dramatic rescues are relatively rare, she estimates that up to a quarter of the roughly 50 people she keeps a watchful eye on during a shift can’t swim. Then there are the daredevils and children whose parents think they’re better swimmers than they are.

---

Photo: Sergio Souza/Pexels

---

“It’s stressful because you’re responsible for ensuring the safety of all the people at the pool,” said Makenna, 17.

Lifeguarding may look like a cushy job. What’s not to like about lounging in a chair by the pool all day? But the job carries a load of responsibility.

Drowning is the No. 1 cause of death for children ages 1 to 4, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of those deaths occur in swimming pools. For kids 5-14, drowning is the second-most common type of unintentional injury death, behind motor vehicle deaths.

As schools let out and warm summer days draw people to pools and beaches around the country, many cities and towns are scrambling to hire enough lifeguards to safely oversee swimmers. If they can’t meet their targets, they may cut back pool hours or opt not to open some pools at all. While a shuttered pool on a hot summer day is a letdown for many residents, it can be a particularly big blow for low-income families who don’t have a lot of affordable summer fun options.

Up to 90% of Des Moines kids qualify for free or reduced-cost lunch, said Ben Page, director of Des Moines Parks and Recreation in Iowa. “People can’t afford to go to the movies for air conditioning,” he said.

When local officials make decisions about where to close pools or cut back hours, they do so knowing that swimming has a fraught history of racial inequities.

Racial disparities play a significant role in drowning deaths. Overall, the drowning death rate for Black people in the U.S. is 1.5 times that of white people. The difference is starkest for swimming pool deaths, in which Black children ages 10 to 14 drown at a rate 7.6 times that of their white peers, according to the CDC.

Research conducted in 2017 by the USA Swimming Foundation found that two-thirds of Black children have minimal swimming ability or can’t swim at all. Forty-five percent of Hispanic children are nonswimmers, as are 40% of white kids. (Hispanic people can be of any race or combination of races.) The same study found that 79% of kids in families with incomes less than $50,000 are unable to swim.

When Cullen Jones, the first Black American to hold a world record in swimming, was 5, he nearly drowned at a water park near his home in Irvington, New Jersey. At the time, he didn’t know how to swim, and lifeguards saved his life.

“Most people expect that if you have a near drowning, you were doing something you weren’t supposed to be doing, you were horseplaying or someone pushed you,” said Cullen, a four-time Olympic medalist.

Now 39, Jones travels the country as an ambassador for the USA Swimming Foundation, talking to kids about the importance of learning to swim.

It’s not hard to see the thread connecting lack of swimming ability and higher drowning rates among Blacks with the expansion of swimming pools in the United States. As cities embarked on a municipal pool building boom in the 1920s and ’30s, Black Americans were generally excluded from them, either explicitly because they were white-only pools, or by threats and violence, according to an exhibit at Philadelphia’s Fairmount Water Works titled “Pool: A Social History of Segregation.”

When desegregation was mandated after World War II, many towns closed or relocated their pools to secluded white neighborhoods rather than allow Black people to use them.

Funds also weren’t provided to support pools in majority-Black communities, said Kevin Dawson, an associate professor of history at the University of California-Merced, who has written on the topic. “They might not fill them all the time or not have lifeguards, so people couldn’t use them.”

As cities and towns today make decisions about which pools to open, many are doing so with a clear intention that they be accessible to poor or minority kids as well as those in less diverse or wealthier neighborhoods.

In Baltimore, where the public pools are free to all, city officials carefully selected which 12 of its 23 pools would open this year.

“We picked our pools so that it will be equitable and there would be locations on bus lines so that everyone will have access,” said Nikki Cobbs, chief of aquatics at the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks.

Recreational experts who’ve canvassed jurisdictions say they expect fewer closed pools this year than last.

“Things are a little bit better than they were,” said Kevin Roth, vice president for research, evaluation, and technology at the National Recreation and Park Association, an advocacy organization for people working in the parks and recreation field. “The open times may still be compressed, but there were communities that didn’t open half their pools last year, and we’re not hearing that this year.”

Still, lifeguard staffing shortages continue to put pressure on pool availability. In recent years, it’s become increasingly hard to fill seasonal lifeguard positions with teenagers, the backbone of the workforce.

That’s largely because employment patterns have changed.

Until 2000, about half of teenagers worked at least part of the summer, on average, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. But by 2010, in the aftermath of the Great Recession, the employment rate for teens had dropped to about 30%. Many local parks and recreation staffers are well aware of this new reality.

“The opportunities for young people have increased, and many travel and do internships; they do sports and camp. We’re competing with a lot of things,” said April Chappell, aquatics director for the Cincinnati Recreation Commission.

“There’s been a bit of a cultural shift,” Roth said.

The tight labor market has also given teens better-paying employment options — such as fast-food, retail, or office jobs — that don’t require them to carve out time to get certified in swimming, CPR, and rescue operations by the Red Cross or another group.

Many cities and towns are now taking steps to compete, including boosting lifeguards’ hourly rates, promising bonuses, and offering to pay for lifeguard certification classes. Some are reaching out to retirees and nontraditional workers to fill their ranks.

Des Moines has hired 151 lifeguards to date, far more than the 125 minimum needed to staff its five pools, said Ian Knutsen, who supervises the city’s aquatics program.

Before recruitment got underway, they surveyed former lifeguards about what would make them want to sign up for a stint this year.

“Money was the biggest deciding factor,” Page said.

Des Moines lifeguards start at $15 an hour, compared with $13 last year. That makes the city jobs competitive with other local employers. Lifeguards get an additional $5 per hour for working on holidays. Those who stay through July can get a $200 bonus, which grows by $25 each year they come back, capping at $300.

Cincinnati raised lifeguard wages to $16 an hour, from $11.53 last year, and offered $500 bonuses to returning lifeguards. Despite that, lifeguard shortages persist and mean the city may be able to open only 13 of its 23 pools, said Chappell.

Kids often want to lifeguard at their neighborhood pool, Chappell said. But in some neighborhoods, there may not be enough kids who are swimmers to fill the spots. The city has programs to help increase those numbers.

Last winter, Cincinnati funded a lifeguard academy for people 14-24. The program pays for swimming lessons if they need them and pays for their lifeguard training, as well. About 150 applied, and over 60 became lifeguards, Chappell said.

It’s not only the number of lifeguards that determines pool availability. In Phoenix, lifeguard recruitment has been going great, said Adam Waltz, a spokesperson for the city’s parks and recreation division. Still, the city plans to open only 18 of its 29 pools for the summer, with some on staggered schedules. The sticking point: pool managers.

“In order to open 29 pools, you need to have 29 pool managers, and we couldn’t get that this year,” he said. “We can’t have a first-summer lifeguard calling the shots during a water emergency.”

---

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

Crystal Lake pool to open for summer fun in May, indoor aquatic center will close temporarily

URBANA -- The Urbana Park District will open the Crystal Lake Park Family Aquatic Center starting Memorial Day, May 30. The outdoor swimming pool and the aquatic park will be open through Labor Day in September.

Meanwhile, the Urbana Indoor Aquatic Center will be closed from May 27 through September 5. Operating one swim facility during the summer put less strain on the district's resources and staffing needs.

The outdoor schedule will operate as follows:

Monday – Friday
6 AM – 8 AM Lap Swim/Water Aerobics
8 AM – 11 AM Programming (Nadiators, Swim Lessons, Aerobics, etc.)
11 AM – 12 PM Lap Swim/Water Aerobics
12PM – 12:30 PM Member Early Entry
12:30PM – 7 PM Open Swim

Saturday
9 AM – 11 AM Programming (Nadiators, Swim Lessons, etc.)
11 AM – 7 PM Open Swim

Sunday
11 AM – 7 PM Open Swim

"Urbana School District owns UIAC and the Urbana Park District operates it. It takes a great deal of support from both entities to make sure it is operating efficiently, safely, and fiscally responsible," said Leslie Radice, Aquatic Manager.

For people who have already paid for indoor pool memberships or have a credit balance, memberships can be transferred to the outdoor pool at 1401 N. Broadway. Members also can suspend their membership until the indoor pool opens again or receive a refund for the unused balance of the membership.

Radice recommends calling the park district office at (217) 367-1544 to discuss or adjust memberships.