Hanyu diagnosed with urachal remnant problem; needs month treatment

creaturelover · Dec 31, 2014

Kalina said:
I suggest you do a research on body fat in male athletes of various sports. A quick Google search should be enough to tell you that some sports require their male athletes to have body fat as low as 5% if not lower. Athletes are not normal people.
Secondly, regarding the body fat amount in itself, there has been more than one report on the news and no one actually knows what is real or not. What we know is that Yuzuru said that after changing his diet for the better with the help of a nutritionist and doing more off-ice training, he was able to gain more muscle and actually lost weight. This coming after the 'from 3% to 4%' report, and before the 5% one.
And lastly, though not directly related, his weight info has not been updated in, what, four or five years? He'd been saying last year that he weighted normally 55-56kg, which is definitely more realistic. For a comparison, Javi weights 63kg (and he's still quite thin for his height, but he does have a larger body structure).

To add to this, there is still arguements how effective methods of measuring body fat are. We can estimate body fat percentage, but each methos makes certain assumptions or have certain drawbacks

karne · Dec 31, 2014

On the flip side, I had no idea about this sort of condition. Rather fascinating reading (though painful for Yuzuru I'm sure).

The things you learn from skating!

iluvtodd · Dec 31, 2014

Wishing Yuzuru a full recovery. I hope he takes the time to heal completely, and not be pressured by his federation (or himself) to get back on the ice until he is 100%.

Eclair · Dec 31, 2014

StitchMonkey said:
Maybe joints was wrong. . . mostly I was remember a teacher who was very thin naturally and had screws in he spine and was told if she gained weight she would have less pain. Are where your vertebrae connect considered joints? They are similar in that they are bone connections. At any rate fat has its purpose, the body needs it and sometimes we forget what it does for you. There is a balance between having the fat your body needs and having little enough to launch your body in the air like a rocket. I suspect many skaters while not trying to starve themselves are trying to maintain as little weight as possible while still being healthy, and I do think many are very conscientious about it. (I swear i have heard of eating problems leading to joint pain and issues but maybe im wrong, maybe it is for different reasons, but I honestly thought that was a common thing with low weight. Maybe is is just a messed up association in my head due so so many activities that are prone to both eating disorders and wearing out joints).

I don't know all the facts on his diet, diet restrictions, etc. But I do think he is the type that would want to at least pay attention to his food intake even if he had a caste iron stomach. The guy is clearly smart, he seems the type that would count calories (and hopefully more detailed that that alone) and pay attention to what he is eating in relation to his training. Yes I think he is the type who runs numbers in his head before having a slice of birthday cake for lack of a better way to put it. I hope he still has it, but I suspect he accounts for it in his training. I would guess he eats very differently during down time and high time training because well, I can't see how he should not!

If you take an athlete that normally has a good handle on how much to eat given a physical work out schedule and has a good feel for how much they need, and how much is too much, it could be hard to find that balance while trying to heal. If you normally account for all variable and plan accordingly, tossing on in can have a domino effect.

Add health/stomach issues on it, and my god what a headache. Please note I am not saying he should gain weight, or saying if he just eats more he will, or anything of the sort. I am saying he maybe someone who needs to really consider how many calories he should be burning via physical activity while hid body needs calories to heal properly. If he can't eat more, something else has to give.

It is possible he would be more comfortable with more weight. It is also possible he may not be able to do all of his jumps the same. Who knows what the line is and what would make him happiest and what is reasonable. Maybe he can't eat enough to train at anything even close to his level and weigh more. Then again if he cut down to only one quad, maybe that would allow his body to keep an extra pound or two on and maybe he would be happier that way. Who knows. Some would likely say a lower tech contact and less pain is worth it, others likely will say the pain is worth it for the success. At any rate I find the intersection to be interesting and relevant to the sport.

I assume the docter didn't want the already thin teacher to loose more weight, therefore advised eating more AND do back exercises to strenghten and build up back muscles. But it's the back excercises that helps against the pain, not more weight or body fat.

I absolutely agree with you that fat has it's purpuses (very important ones) and that skaters should be careful not to starve themselves into a dangerous body fat percentage or weight.

Anorexic do often have joint pain, but I believe that is mainly because 1. they often use laxatives, that strip the body off calcium - needed to repair and maintain joints, 2. don't have enough muscles to support the joints properly, 3. do not get properly nutritioned and lacking overall vitamins and minerals - needed to repair and maintain joints.
All these things don't apply with hanyu. His joint pain is probably inevitable because of the impact while landing his jumps over and over again.
Hanyu does seem like the calorie counting type though^^ but that alone is no reason to worry as long as his goal is to maintain fitness and not some wrong body-image perception. I believe, he's also the type that will eat, if it affects his fitness level, but that's only me speculating.
He is very thin, but I actually don't believe that his body fat percentage is 3-5%. Maybe they meant he lost 3 kg? Because as wiki said, unter 5% is life-threatening with means he would be lying in hospital getting fed and nobody would consider an operation. It's more probable that his body fat is around 6-12%.

apgold · Dec 31, 2014

Hopefully this surgery will help him feel better and get healthy. He needs the rest anyway, so I suppose he will have to spend the next six weeks recuperating. I wish him all the best and if he skips Worlds this year, that's fine. He already won the GPF and nationals, he's had a good season despite all of the challenges.

StitchMonkey · Dec 31, 2014

Eclair said:
I assume the docter didn't want the already thin teacher to loose more weight, therefore advised eating more AND do back exercises to strenghten and build up back muscles. But it's the back excercises that helps against the pain, not more weight or body fat.

Actually, they ended up taking the screws out (and she brought the screws in which is what lead the story). It sounds like they (the screws, or metal thingies if you prefer in case screw is not the technical term for this particular metal thingy) did what they needed to, and at that point were just causing pain (I think it was a curved spine type issue, in fact she commented on how odd it was feeling taller than her husband after one of her surgeries). So the options she was told were gain weight or take them out, she picked take them out. Weird situation, but it did give me a different perspective on weight and health issues. As we have both said fat has its place and sometimes people forget that and forget it can play weird rolls (no pun intended) in the body.

I frankly think most athletes of Hanyu's level are likely much more thoughtful about food than normals. And I suspect he also understands food and nutrition better than us normals. I never meant to imply he had an eating disorder, but more than if he wants to eat a slice of cake, he likely is going to be thinking of ways he can change other aspect of his diet around to fit it in. For instance rather than having chicken on a carb and fat loaded pasta dish, maybe have the cake and have the chicken over a bed of lettuces instead. I.e. recognize that the cake has fat and carbs but no protein, so alter a different meal accordingly. I don't think that is unhealthy, but I do think it is exhausting.

Frankly I think trying to apply normal body rules to athletes like this is a bad idea. They are clearly statistical outliers. You can't expect things to work the same, which is why it is so scary in some ways. We don't really know what Hanyu's "ideal" weight and fat ration are because we can't. I suspect many if not most serious and elite (not all serious athletes are elite, not all elite athletes are serious) level skaters likely are always surfing a balance between unhealthy and excess weight. They are likely always looking for the sweet spot. And they should be. But sometimes when you are doing that type of high wire act. . . a fall or error can be costly. Trying to balance healing with training is mind boggling to me and also rather fascinating. Which is partly why i brought it up, it is a complicated weird area of science that can't be ever fully understood because we are dealing with physical bodies that too unique to apply statistic to effectively. I just don't think there enough Hanyu type bodies at his level of fitness to form any type of statistical pool. In many ways his physical body is as much a work of art as his skating.

Skater Boy · Jan 5, 2015

Hanyu is a fighter; he will be back and on top as usual. He kind of has that Carolina Kostner factor sometimes you don't know how they do it, you might not even think they deserve it, but they get that medal - many thought he lost the Oly gold and World gold and he won both of them. Somehow he made the GP final despite injury and some questionable skates and he won the GP final too. Maybe he should buy a lottery ticket.

Interspectator · Jan 28, 2015

Good news on the Hanyu front for those of you who are interested but too scared to look in on the Fan thread;

Hanyu has been out of the hospital for a few weeks and is now back on the ice practicing jumps.
http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASH1V4S2RH1VUCLV00B.html
http://rico-256.tumblr.com/post/109426120343
Fingers crossed he doesn't over-do it and can be in top form for Worlds. :cheer:

cruzceleste · Jan 28, 2015

Newbiespectator said:
Good news on the Hanyu front for those of you who are interested but too scared to look in on the Fan thread;
Hanyu has been out of the hospital for a few weeks and is now back on the ice practicing jumps.
http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASH1V4S2RH1VUCLV00B.html
http://rico-256.tumblr.com/post/109426120343
Fingers crossed he doesn't over-do it and can be in top form for Worlds.

Best wishes for Yuzu

mnm464 · Jan 28, 2015

cruzceleste said:
Best wishes for Yuzu

Thank you for the update! Go Yuzu!

demarinis5 · Jan 28, 2015

Good news!!!

Maria Victoria · Jan 28, 2015

Newbiespectator said:
Good news on the Hanyu front for those of you who are interested but too scared to look in on the Fan thread;
Hanyu has been out of the hospital for a few weeks and is now back on the ice practicing jumps.
http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASH1V4S2RH1VUCLV00B.html
http://rico-256.tumblr.com/post/109426120343
Fingers crossed he doesn't over-do it and can be in top form for Worlds.

Thanks for sharing the good news.

Also had a look see at the fanfest thread where Yuzuru's health is a perennial topic. How we worry so! :drama:

CanadianSkaterGuy · Jan 28, 2015

Skater Boy said:
Hanyu is a fighter; he will be back and on top as usual. He kind of has that Carolina Kostner factor sometimes you don't know how they do it, you might not even think they deserve it, but they get that medal - many thought he lost the Oly gold and World gold and he won both of them. Somehow he made the GP final despite injury and some questionable skates and he won the GP final too. Maybe he should buy a lottery ticket.

He's extremely fortunate to have made the GPF, and was also lucky Chan bombed in Sochi, and that Machida was kinda jipped of the World title after two practically clean skates. That being said, he did land a quad and two axels in Sochi (and a perfect SP) and had a gutsy FS which was clean (even with iffy jumps) to narrowly beat out Machida, and goes for huge unmatched tech content, so he certainly does make his own luck. It's not quite the same as, say, Kostner winning her World title with a 5-triple FS with no lutz, and a pretty weak field (as deserved as that win was).

Interspectator · Jan 28, 2015

CanadianSkaterGuy said:
He's extremely fortunate to have made the GPF, and was also lucky Chan bombed in Sochi, and that Machida was kinda jipped of the World title after two practically clean skates. That being said, he did land a quad and two axels in Sochi (and a perfect SP) and had a gutsy FS which was clean (even with iffy jumps) to narrowly beat out Machida, and goes for huge unmatched tech content, so he certainly does make his own luck. It's not quite the same as, say, Kostner winning her World title with a 5-triple FS with no lutz, and a pretty weak field (as deserved as that win was).

The word 'Tenacious' comes to mind. He's VERY tenacious. Clings to the slightest of chances, holds on to the most impossible of jumps, keeps his eyes firmly fixed on what he wants and doesn't let set-backs keep him down for very long. -He's been lucky too.

Sandpiper · Jan 28, 2015

Newbiespectator said:
Good news on the Hanyu front for those of you who are interested but too scared to look in on the Fan thread;
Hanyu has been out of the hospital for a few weeks and is now back on the ice practicing jumps.
http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASH1V4S2RH1VUCLV00B.html
http://rico-256.tumblr.com/post/109426120343
Fingers crossed he doesn't over-do it and can be in top form for Worlds.

Thank you for letting us know. I can have difficulty finding information and keeping up with his Fan Fest, at the rate it grows.

Hopefully he'll be healthy and ready to have a showdown with Javi at Worlds.

alia jackson · Jan 29, 2015

I hope he eases in slowly back on ice and take it easy on the jumps....but as someone on facebook said "A triple axel just for warming up. Nothing serious. Then some quads." :rofl:

The force is strong in this one, if he can come back after the accident and wiped the competition at GPF, he can do it again. Fight Yuzuru!

karne · Jan 29, 2015

I do hope that he's not rushing himself back too soon. Better to stay off a couple of extra weeks than to come back too soon and reinjure himself.

He's not going to 4CCs, is he?

Meoima · Jan 29, 2015

karne said:
I do hope that he's not rushing himself back too soon. Better to stay off a couple of extra weeks than to come back too soon and reinjure himself.
He's not going to 4CCs, is he?

No he's not. And I agree with you, I'd rather watching him among the audience with Pooh bear on his hand than him being injured on the ice. :drama:

Hanyu diagnosed with urachal remnant problem; needs month treatment

creaturelover

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode

iluvtodd

Eclair

apgold

StitchMonkey

Skater Boy

Interspectator

cruzceleste

mnm464

demarinis5

Gold for the Winter Prince!

Maria Victoria

CanadianSkaterGuy

Interspectator

Sandpiper

alia jackson

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode

Meoima

Match Penalty

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