Archive for sports injuries
Santa Barbara Chiropractor: Keep Your Young Athlete Safe With These Sports Tips
Posted by: | CommentsIf you’re a young athlete in junior high or high school, or if you’re the parent of one, Thomas Solecki, DC, DACBSP, a sports medicine expert and chiropractic physician, has some tips on how to get the most out of youth fitness and sports activities that will not only maximize the health benefits of youth exercise, but will help to avoid injuries as well. Dr. Solecki is a faculty clinician at National University of health Sciences’ Whole Health Center, is certified in exercise rehabilitation and exercise performance enhancement, and also serves as a chiropractic physician for athletic teams at DePaul and Northwestern universities. So, when Dr. Solecki offers advice, as your Santa Barbara Chiropractor, I say “listen up!”
Sports Safety Tips:
- Warm up with light activity, then progress to moderate activity at least 5-10 minutes before exercising or participating in sports. You should feel “hot” and have a little sweat going if you are properly warmed up.
- Cool down and stretch after every workout. Never just walk away from a sport or activity. Hold each stretch for 30 seconds to one minute without bouncing.
- For safe training, never increase your exercise intensity or the amount of weight lifted by a factor of more than 10 percent every two weeks.
- Train specifically for your sport. Each activity uses different muscles and patterns in the body; make sure your body is trained for your sport
- Use heart-rate guidelines in training for endurance sports. Certain formulas can be used to help calculate safe heart rates for training children, teens, and adults. These ranges can be used to train specifically for longer endurance, short bursts of heavy exercise, etc. Talk to a fitness professional to help you find these ranges.
- Give your body a break. Always take one to two days off per week to let your muscles heal and your body repair.
- Cross-train with different activities. This allows your body to repair and helps you gain strength and endurance at the same time. Your body adapts to an exercise program every four to six weeks. Change exercises or types of workouts every four to six to help improve your performance and also to avoid overuse injuries.”
- Don’t use thirst as a guide to drinking. By the time you are thirsty, you are already more than 3 percent dehydrated. Guidelines:
- Drink at least 64 ounces (eight 8 oz. glasses) of water per day
- Drink two to three cups of fluids up to two hours before exercise
- During intense and prolonged exercise sessions, or when exercising in an environment that is hot and/or humid, drink 8-10 ounces of fluid every 20 minutes.
- After exercise, drink enough fluids to quench your thirst plus extra. (A good guideline for hydration is urine. Urine should be clear, if it is dark colored you have dehydrated and need to drink more.
Dr. Solecki advocates using what he calls a “periodization schedule of training” for serious and competitive high school athletes who focus year-round on their fitness and sports training. What does this mean? According to Dr. Solecki, it means that your training should be very different in your off-season versus pre-season. In other words, give yourself periods of time with more strenuous exercise and periods with lighter/recovery types of exercise.
Dr. Solecki also wants you to be aware that if you change workout types or start a new sport, some muscle soreness is normal and even good. The soreness from lactic acid build-up is an indication that you are building stronger muscles. But, not all pain is “gain.” He suggests that if you find yourself much more sore on day two than you were on day one, or if you’re only getting sore on days two or three, this is an indication that you are pushing too hard and need to back off.
And, finally, Dr. Solecki advises that children age 12 and under should avoid using weights or heavy lifting because the growth plates at the end of children’s bones may be damaged by lifting weights too early, which will affect later growth and development. The alternative? Dr. Solecki recommends that younger athletes stick with exercises using only body their own body weight until their growth plates have closed.
Source: National University of Health Sciences, www.nuhs.edu
1809 Cliff Dr. Santa Barbara, CA, 93109 USA
mesachiropractor@gmail.com • 805-963-2069
Chiropractic Santa Barbara Advises: If You'd Like to Avoid Golf Injuries, Get Ready!
Posted by: | CommentsChiropractic Santa Barbara treats hundreds of individuals, adults and children alike, who have sustained sports injuries. With any kind of sport, injuries are commonplace. You can often avoid getting injured in a particular sport by discovering what injury is likely to occur, and then do as much as you can to avoid it. The Truth is, however, that sports injuries can’t always be avoided. Consequently, it’s important to be in good physical shape to make injury less probable, or less traumatic. Prior to starting a sport, such as golf, the most valuable thing you can do is to be sure that you have an appropriate fitness level. By cultivating a healthy lifestyle, making sure your joints are mobile and your muscles are limber, warming and stretching your body before activity, using proper form and good postures while actively playing, and giving yourself an appropriate amount of cool down and relaxation time, you will probably keep your body safe from injury.
Golf injuries don’t just happen to amateurs. It has been conjectured that almost a third of pro golfers playing concurrently are playing with injuries. Fortunately, general good health and fitness can reduce the number of injuries that you may experience and may actually preclude them completely.
Good body strength in the muscle regions most used when golfing is very important. However, before you try to build muscle strength, it’s important to make certain your spine is aligned and has good mobility. A successful golf swing is contingent upon your spine’s facility to adequately move in a rotational fashion. Back injuries are the most common sort of injuries sustained by golfers. Your chiropractor will insure that your spine is in healthy alignment and that there is efficient movement of the vertebrae. Chiropractic treatment can make a big difference in helping you to avoid back injury.
Once you’re “straightened” it’s time to strengthen. Being prepared for your golf game is paramount to a safe, injury-free day on the green. Golf stretching and flexibility practices will warm up your muscles and make straining them less likely. Full body range of motion (ROM) exercises will increase flexibility, fairly speedily, in all regions of the body. Furthermore, elastic band conditioning offers targeted golf range of motion improvements and can build needed power in the shoulders, hips and deep muscles of the core. Sports professionals, like your chiropractor, are adding elastic band training to their golf conditioning programs because the bands provide dynamic resistance that regular weight lifting does not supply.
Along with back injuries, a large number of golfers have painful “Golfer’s Elbow.” There is a minor difference between golfer’s elbow and tennis elbow though they are almost the same. Whereas the outside of the upper arm is affected in tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow impinges the inner arm. Golfer’s elbow, like tennis elbow, can be the consequence of a single intense action, such as (in golf) striking the mat at the driving range or hitting a hard fairway surface. Repetitive stress from smaller shocks, however, is generally the reason. Moreover, it can come upon those who all of a sudden begin to play too much golf. As a case in point, if those that generally play golf once or twice a month decide to play in a tournament, they are likely at risk for contracting the injury.
Golf makes exclusive requests of our body. The game is usually longer than most other sports and that can cause fatigue. Unhealthy posture and lack of coordination are normally the signs of a fatigued body. This combination can cause an assortment of injuries. In addition, because of the continuous swinging of the golf clubs, the shoulder muscles are subject to injury. Just as it is crucial for you to stretch and warm up before you start your golf game, be sure to rest your body suitable between games.
An unexpected injury occasionally associated with golf is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. But, because it a condition that comes about due to repetitive stress, many games of golf played over several months continuously may cause this injury. carpal tunnel Syndrome can be a severe injury producing disability and occasionally needing surgery. However, if a health professional, such as your chiropractor, discovers it at an early stage, chiropractic management and, frequently, the use of a brace will alleviate the problem.
Injuries are assumed to be unavoidable part of life for most golfers. But, a healthy, mobile spine, good preparation, proper exercise and muscle conditioning, attaining and maintaining a an appropriate fitness level, and sensible rest and recuperation after your game is over, can help to make injuries a good deal less a part of your golfing experience.
