Sports: How To Look After Yourself "In Season"

Being involved with sports brings a wealth of health to your life. Regular exercise increases our average lifespan, helps with mental health difficulties, and generally keeps our body well-oiled. There isn’t much regular exercise doesn’t have a positive effect on. From children to the elderly, we all can benefit from a daily dosage of activity. However, being involved in sports and exercise regimes does bring with it some risk, especially considering games like American Football, and Ice Hockey, which of course are considerably more perilous than going for jogs around the local park or lifting light weights at the gym.  Let’s take a look at how we can take a preventative step toward long-term damage in sports and other exercise regimes by taking some precautionary steps.

Stretching

From Grandpa-Joe to Hulk Hogan, everyone needs to stretch both before and after exercise. Stretching make our muscles suppler, increases heart-rate, and increases long-term flexibility. Most importantly, stretching reduces injuries such as ligament tears, muscle tears, and strains and sprains which can have a lasting effect on your body, and take months of rehab to fix. Stretching, therefore, is an important part of any exercise regime or sports. Make sure your warm-up is suitable for the sport you are doing, and don’t overdo the warm-up. There is nothing worse than tearing a hamstring during your hamstring stretch because you rushed into sprints.

Knowledge and Self Awareness

Some sports-enthusiast-readers will be uber-keen to improve fast. Whether that means getting stronger, faster, or fitter you should be aware of your current level of fitness and work to improve and excel and not jump the limit. Do not push your body beyond its current level of fitness as it is dangerous and unnecessary. Even if you feel that you are quickening the path to your goal by pushing yourself like this, you will harm yourself. Be aware of the level you should be training at and stick to it to avoid serious damage. It is also useful to understand and use the correct equipment.

It is important for runners to wear the right-soled shoes, and American Football Players to wear gum-guards. Increase your knowledge and understanding of exercise so you can reap the benefits and avoid the perils. A fantastic way of doing this is listening to your coach. They usually have a wealth of information stored to reduce risk when engaging in sports. They can also advise you on different aspects of maintaining your health, from the best ways to warm-up and cool-down to the correct diet. Bathe in their wisdom.

 

Eating Well.

Mount Sinai is a huge advocate for healthy diets. Eating well and drinking plenty of water can reduce the risk of damaging yourself in sports. A nutritious diet allows muscles to repair and regenerate after exercise reducing the risk of harming or overusing a muscle group which can lead to tier-3 tears, and months of rehab. Knowledge of your sport can help you ascertain what kind of diet you should be following.

These three top-tips are the most effective preventative steps you can take to seriously harming yourself whilst engaging in sports. Precautionary steps can save you time in the long run by reducing the risk of severe damage and rehab.

If you have suffered a sports-related injury, please contact us at Mount Sinai Department of Rehabilitative Medicine for a bespoke rehab plan. Contact our switchboard at: (212) 241-6321

How Can Traumatic Brain Injury Affect Your Life?

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), is the result of an external force, such as a knock to the skull that injures the brain. Brain injury could affect anyone, but people who are in the military, sportspeople, old and young, and people who suffer from strokes are most likely to experience problems. Brain injury has a range of life altering traumatisms from Dementia to Parkinson’s, to loss of memory and facial recognition. Damage will scale will the level of trauma suffered from a knock.

Brain damage (TBI) is a result to a blow to the head. A knock to the head makes the brain move inside and bruise against the skull causing damage to the brain. Depending on the severity of the knock, the patient will experience a range of symptoms as the brain is starved of oxygen for a period of time.

The people most susceptible to TBI are military personnel, high-impact sportspeople, old people who often fall, and 15-24-year-old males, due to the heightened chances of taking a damaging blow to the head. However, it is important to note that anyone could be a victim.

The most common causes of brain injury are car accidents, blows to the head, sports injuries, falls or accidents, and physical violence. As we can see, there is a correlation between the most common causes, and the most vulnerable. For example, studies indicate 15-24-year-old males are the most reckless drivers of all demographics; consequently, they have a higher chance of putting themselves in situations where they could get a brain injury.

Not all impacts are life altering. Light to medium knocks to the head cause confusion, lack of spatial awareness, and sometimes nausea. In both cases, patients usually make a good recovery. With more serious brain injury, people suffer life changing and debilitating problems. Depending on where the damage is localized, the patient will experience different symptoms.

But how can brain injuries affect your life? Brain damage symptoms scale with the severity of impact. More serious ramifications include relearning to walk, loss of personal memories and facial recognition – with patients forgetting who they are. Also, depending on where the damage is localized, patients could lose motor skills or in most severe cases not know how to speak. The more severe the impact, the more severe the consequences.

If you are suffering from any of the symptoms listed, please contact us as it is important you speak to your physician as soon as possible. Contact our switchboard on: (212) 241-6321