Top Areas to Foam Roll for Gymnasts
Warm-up and recovery are important parts of a workout routine that often get overlooked. A dynamic warm-up prepares the body prior to exercise; conversely, recovery or cooling down after exercise can help manage soreness. Active recovery is a great option to help manage normal muscle soreness symptoms after high-intensity workouts. It is normal to have muscle soreness after high- intensity exercise; this can last for several hours up to several days. Active recovery may help reduce muscle soreness and fatigue.
How to Get the Most out of Your Workout
There are often multiple desires when it comes to exercising. We want to look better, get more toned, feel better physically or psychologically, or lose weight. It is possible to achieve many of these things simultaneously but having a goal and an exercise routine geared toward your wants and needs is the road map that can make you more successful. This blog will discuss strategies for goal setting and the SAID principle to help you choose activities to get the results you desire.
Common Spring Sports Overuse Injuries in High School Athletes
Contrary to what the snow on the ground has told you, spring sports are ramping up at the high school level across the states. And we all know what that means- beginning of season aches and pains. I’ll let you in on a little secret, we athletic trainers see a lot of the same injuries year after year at this time.
In the first few weeks of spring sports, there is a rise in visitors to the Athletic Training Room for overuse injuries. Let’s dig into some of the most common overuse injuries we see in spring and ways to prevent or manage them.
Importance of Off-Season Exercises: 3 Rest Based Exercises to Improve Weaknesses
I’d like you to take a minute and picture a car. Imagine driving that car for an entire year without stopping. It’s not possible, and even if it were, the car wouldn’t run as smooth as it would if you took the time to realign the tires or change the oil. If you drove this car all year without taking the time to focus on the smaller pieces that help the car run as efficiently as possible, then you’d run the car to the ground.
Team USA Olympians to Watch in Beijing Winter Olympics
It’s Olympics time again! Due to COVID, the Summer 2020 Olympics were postponed to 2021, and it is already time for the winter 2022 Olympic Games held in Beijing. Olympic athletes train year-round for their chance to compete on this world stage. Due to this intense training schedule, injuries do occur. Let’s look at some Team USA athletes to keep an eye on when you watch the winter games this year!
The Connection Between Fitness and Mental Health
Taking care of yourself and your mental health continues to be at the forefront of many of our priorities, especially with the increase in mental health symptoms noted since the start of the pandemic1. Exercise has been shown to reduce depressive symptoms and prevent symptoms from forming2. It also has a strong correlation to preventing cognitive decline3. Exercise can reduce inflammation through various mechanisms/pathways and positively affect mental health and well-being4, among many other positive benefits. Now more than ever, it is important to take care of your mental health and prioritize it. Our bodies are designed to move, and as shown previously, it has a direct correlation to mental well-being. A relatively “easy” way to do that is through exercise.
Active Recovery Tips for Gymnasts
Gymnasts participate in their sport all year round and multiple days per week. A gymnast performs multiple repetitions of skills and their routines on equipment such as uneven or high bar, beam, floor, vault, pommel horse, or rings within each training session. Due to the nature of their training schedule, gymnasts may not have time for full recovery between events or between training sessions. We know the benefits of rest days, but what about the benefits of active recovery? Active recovery can include recovery between events during one practice as well as recovery between practices.
The Pros and Cons of CrossFit Workouts
Continuing the series focused on fitness and different types of exercise, I want to take a popular workout method, Crossfit, and go through some of the potential pros and cons of the sport. I am a physical therapist and someone who loves training with a barbell, so anytime I can help someone get into that type of training, even if it’s not my preferred method, I am thrilled. I view fitness and training as all-inclusive, where everyone is welcome and can do what makes them happy.
