Injury Prevention

How do athletes attain injuries?  Are their multiple classes of injuries?  How do you prepare yourself from getting an injury?  If you find yourself asking questions like this, then this article is for you.  This article is to provide an overview over injuries.    There are different ways of attaining injuries in any type of sport.  The first class of injuries is accidental injuries.  This type of injury cannot be preventative.  If the injury is going to happen then there is nothing stopping it. 

The other type of injury is called overtraining injuries.  This has two different classes of injuries though: Overload and Overuse injuries.  Overload is caused by too large of a load that is added in an instant.  For example, the lower back or the knee joint may be overloaded by a single forceful action.  Overuse is caused by multiple application of a given force to a weak area.  Overuse is where a single forceful action gradually develops into an injury over a prolonged period.  Both of these injuries are preventable. 

Components that are developed to help with the prevention of injuries are: strength, flexibility, mobility, agility, coordination, balance, proper warm-up, nutrition, and overall conditioning.  These are the same traits that an athlete must attain to become a great athlete.  These components will help decrease the chance of getting injured.  Injuries can occur at anytime and anywhere, so training is imperative in keeping athletes healthy and ready to play their sport.  What we like to do is protect certain joints for certain athletes.  When we have a pitcher who plays baseball, it is vital to do numerous shoulder exercises.  We call these exercises pre-habilitation.  Pre-habilitation means training to prevent injury.  These exercises are implemented to keep the athlete healthy.  These specific exercises for the pitcher are to protect the shoulder joint.  There is many exercises one can utilize to increase the health of a joint or area of the body.  This is a couple of exercises that I use with my athletes and others:

Hip Raises x 20

Single Leg Raises x 10 each

Top/Bottom Leg Lifts x 10 each

Hip Circles x 10

Fire Hydrants x 10

Birddogs x 10

Ironcross x 10

Scorpions x 10

Roll-up V sits x 10

Jumping Jacks x 20

Clap Jacks x 20

X-Jacks x 20

Mt. Climbers x 50

Groiners x 10 each

Froggers x 10

Single Leg Walking RDL’s 2 x 10 yards

Walking Pulling Knee’s to Chest 2 x 10 yards

And Many Others

Weight Gainer Protein Shake

16 oz of water

1 tablespoon of Natural Peanut Butter

1 teaspoon of Honey

1 ½ scoops of Whey Protein

4-5 pieces of Ice

You can add if you need more calories

·       3-4 pieces of Dark Chocolate Candy

·       ½ slice of Apple for texture

·       1 teaspoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil