Officials at Tufts University outside Boston are investigating an athletic team workout this month that resulted in nine players being hospitalized, some for about a week.

The incident has put a spotlight on a serious, somewhat rare and

potentially fatal muscle condition that can be brought on by over exertion.

Ali Roggen explains... The condition is Rabdomyolysis, more commonly known as rhabdo.

When muscles are overtaxed or damage, they actually start to disintegrate.

That releases toxic components of muscle fibers into the bloodstream and can cause kidney damage.

Dr. Mejotenaka is director of the women's sports medicine program at Mass General Brigham.

Dr. Sinaka, thank you so much for being here.

You treat many professional athletes. How common is this condition and who is most at risk?

Well, this condition is actually quite rare. So in sports medicine, we hope to not see this, but it absolutely is a reminder that this can

happen even in young healthy individuals.

And what are the signs if somebody is experiencing this?

Yeah, so the typical signs that we think about with Rabdo are having extreme fatigue,

having substantial muscle pain.

So pain out of proportion to what you would expect after a workout

and lastly having darkening of the urine so anyone who has any of these these three

findings after a strenuous workout should consider having medical evaluation.

Very strenuous workouts have become very popular in the United States.

Have there been, has there been an increase of Rhabdo cases as these types of activities have become more mainstream?

Yeah, you know we have seen these cases reported especially when they happen in large numbers as they have in this

case so when we see teams involved but you know we don't actually see the data when it comes to

individuals where this occurs but I think you're exactly right that with these

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