In-Season Arm Care Programs: Keeping Your Upper Body Healthy All Season Long
Keeping your arms and shoulders strong and mobile are important in a successful season for any overhead athlete. Often, skipping out on warming up, cooling down, and stretching can cause preventable injuries. Athletes can excel throughout their season without worrying about injury with proper care and effort. The throwing or hitting motion of sports such as baseball, softball, tennis, water polo, swimming, and volleyball could result in injury due to the tremendous force athletes put through their shoulders. In women’s volleyball, the ball can be spiked up to speeds of 70mph, and in tennis, players can serve up to 128 MPH. With such high velocity and force behind hitting and throwing, athletes need to keep up with strength and mobility. Here are six exercises all overhead athletes can do for a healthy upper body.
Tips for Tackling Golfer’s Elbow
As a physical therapist, I see many athletes who experience a golfer’s elbow, medically referred to as medial epicondylitis. This condition is characterized by a burning ache along the inside edge of the elbow, which worsens with gripping or during certain wrist motions. While it is a fairly common issue among athletes and recreational sports enthusiasts, it’s most commonly experienced by golfers.
Foot Injuries in Rhythmic Gymnasts
Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform on a floor with an apparatus: either a hoop, ball, rope, ribbon, or club. The sport combines dance and gymnastics and requires strong, flexible, coordinated athletes. Due to the nature of the sport and the repetition during practice and performing, the most common area of injury for rhythmic gymnasts is the foot.
A Guide to a Bullet Proof Core for Overhead Athletes
While overhead sports rely heavily on our upper extremities (shoulders, elbows, and wrists), the core is often forgotten as a critical piece of the puzzle for success in sports with a high overhead demand. Many facets of the core contribute to overhead movements and strength. The core stabilizes the body from the legs up. Because the shoulder is a less stable joint by itself, maintaining a strong core is important for athletes such as pitchers and throwers.
Returning to Cheerleading After a Concussion
Cheerleading is a competitive, fun, and popular sport for many ages. Competitive cheerleading can start as young as five years old and continue through collegiate levels. Most school affiliated cheer teams begin in middle or high school. Cheerleaders are often divided into two main categories based on which skills they perform: flyers and bases. Flyers are the athletes who are lifted or tossed into the air or on the top of stunts. Bases are the athletes who perform the lifting or toss, and they catch the flyers. Both flyers and bases perform tumbling passes.
Benefits of an Arm Care Program for Overhead Athletes in the Off-Season
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. We’re hanging up our bats and gloves, coaches are making their rosters and checking them twice, and soon, our mounds and dugouts will be lightly covered in a fresh blanket of snow. ‘Tis the season – the off-season, that is.
While we’re filling our bellies with holiday cookies and taking that much-needed break from throwing, giving our arm the TLC it deserves after carrying us through the season is important. In fact, the best gift we could give our arm is a comprehensive arm care program.
Seven Health Benefits Of Taking Your Workouts To The Great Outdoors
Regular exercise is key to a long and healthy life. While there are countless exercise styles, methods, and equipment, the most important aspect is picking an exercise that we are most likely to stick with. Have you ever been curious to try exercising outside? When people run past you on the sidewalk, or complete a set of pull-ups while your children are on the playground, do you wish you could do the same thing? These outdoor exercisers may be on to something, and we could all benefit from more fresh air during our next workout.
How To Avoid Injury In Competitive Swimming
A common misconception about swimming is it is not considered an overhead athlete sport due to the total body nature and cardiovascular changes it can create in athletes. Yes, while swimming involves your total body, a large portion of the swimming force is derived from the shoulders and arm, all while under the water’s constant resistance. Something else to consider is the year-round nature of competitive swimming, as it can be performed outside during the summer and inside during the winter. If you are a competitive swimmer or aspire to be an elite swimmer, here are some things you can do to minimize risk of injury and improve your longevity in the sport of swimming.
