Avoiding sports injuries

Weekend warriors wage endurance battles with their aging bodies

Adults who spend their leisure time working out at the gym, playing on soccer leagues and hitting the tennis courts a couple times a week are finding that they’re waging an ongoing battle with their aging bodies.

Doctors even have a name for them.

“The people we frequently treat are what we call ‘weekend warriors,’” said Dr. Samuel I. Brown, an orthopedic surgeon who practices with Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center Inc. “The biggest challenge we face is that these athletes are interested in playing the sport on the weekend, but they are not interested in conditioning for it.”

“You shouldn’t take up a sport to get in shape, you should get in shape to take up a sport,” echoed Dr. Glenn Nichols, a Chesapeake Regional Medical Center orthopedic surgeon.

Baby boomers are perhaps the worst offenders. The first generation to embrace fitness and exercise as keys to maintaining active lifestyles, baby boomers now in their 50s and 60s are facing an array of such “boomeritis” ailments as tendonitis, arthritis, dislocations and fractures.

And they’re not a generation content to settle for the status quo. They want fixes and they’re turning to orthopedic medicine to find them.

In fact, according to a recent report published by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Journal, sports injuries are now second only to the common cold as a reason Americans go to the doctor.

Medicine has kept up with the demand by pioneering increasingly more minimally invasive techniques.

“In the past ACL surgery might have taken a two or three day hospital stay. Now it is a minimally invasive arthroscopic outpatient surgery,” said Nichols. “We are moving toward less invasive surgeries and better rehabilitation for sports injuries.”

New knee replacement structures, anchors for rotator cuff surgeries and cartilage regeneration procedures are also offering sports enthusiasts advanced orthopedic procedures.

To avoid even those surgeries, the Chesapeake Regional Medical Center Health orthopedic surgeons offer advice to those who can’t live without their daily dose of running, skipping and jumping. When it hurts, stop.

Treat with rest, ice, compression and elevation to reduce pain and swelling and promote healing.  If the injury causes continuous pain, swelling or numbness or you feel unstable when adding weight to it, it is time to visit a physician.

Once back in shape, however, don’t return to the field, court or gym without some expert advice on preventing the next injury.

“If you don’t know how to condition for your particular sport, trainers are available at almost every gym,” noted Nichols. “Getting trainers who are near your age means that they can easily understand the challenges of your particular age group.”

For more information on sports injuries or to find a physician who practices sports medicine click here.