Athletes have been spotted sticking stems of grass in their hair during races lately, a tradition that has largely been linked to the use of black magic.
Some have translated that they are using black powers linked to the same to win races in which they are participating.
Apart from this, there are a number of other theories proposed in an attempt to explains this, all of which have no basis to qualify them as the ultimate truth.
However, a new revelation has been fronted by Mathew Kipchumba, a netizen who is now arguing that it has everything to do with health and good performance.
According to Kipchumba, it acts as a medicine while at the same time preventing stitches, a stitch being temporary but severe pain that appears on the side of the abdomen during such activities.
“The honest answer is that we anti-stitch,” Kipchumba is quoted by Game Yetu, a sports section of the Standard Newspaper.
In scientific terms, a stitch can be defined as exercise related transient abdominal pain, also known as exercised induced temporary abdominal pain of ETAP academically.
However, this one also goes down as another of the many unproved narratives seeking to explain the tradition whose origin is as well yet to be traced.
But in the real sense, according to medical findings, one of the easiest ways to avoid stitches is by simply ensuring that one is well hydrated, drinking lots of water 12 hours to the exercise.
The other is to avoid consuming large volumes of food two hours to the exercise.