Stay Healthy

After the recent knee injuries sustained by Patriot's running back Steven Ridley (bye bye fantasy value) and Jerod Mayo, I felt like this would be a good topic.  Now in our own class we have had our own injuries, a Hip, and an ACL repair.  Some say that may be just bad luck or was very likely to happen because of the positions that we may have played, but something that non profession athletes, or just an avid gym goer can do to protect themselves from injuries such as these is constant stretching. Mixed in with a good workout, the stretching you do before and after directly effects how your body recovers and how it maintains your muscles, ligaments, and tendons.

After a hard workout your muscles have exhausted all their usable ATP and the lactic acid that was available for a workout.  Now after pushing your body this hard you develop small muscle tears, don't worry you will just a be a little sore that next day, because of this, it is important that we stretch out gingerly.  Stretching should always be a full body exercise, but you can focus on certain areas depending on your workout that day ie: focus on your legs for leg day, and your back and shoulders during an upper body day.  I hear from many people,  athletes and non athletes, that they are sore, tight and even not feeling well, and my response to them is "have you stretched today?" and  98% of the time they have not.  Stretching not only improves our physical self, but also our emotional well being.  If you have heard the phrase "Look good, Feel Good, Play good"  then it will be easy for you to understand.  "Look good" is not really relevant here, but "Feel good" is, and that is what the main focus is,  feeling good is half of our attitude, the other is our current mood.  I find that when I am loose and stretched out really well I am in a better mood.  So get up do a few toe touches, stretch those calves and quads, and do not forget to stay hydrated.

So it's been 30 hours since I was able to get off the crutches and I can honestly say I feel amazing.   Although I am very tight in my hip-flexors and other muscles key to walking, just the feeling of being independent has me at ease.    Now that these 14 weeks of crutching around are behind me I can look to the future.  After talking with my doctor yesterday, I was given the best news a hockey player returning from an injury can hear, the exact day were you are allowed to return to the ice

PT:

With my type of injury, and the surgeries I have received to correct my problems, most patients live out their lives in relative comfort.  I would be ecstatic about this looking forward into my life, but there is a catch,  these patients do not and could not continue pursuing their sports even a "beer league" level.  I told myself that would not be my fate. After incessantly begging my doctor to allow me to continue my physical therapy he gave me permission to return to working out.  Although I was physically comfortable, pain free and not sore, I was dying on the inside.  I went from 100 to 0 back in May.  After 19 years of doing a physical activity every season of the year, whether it was sailing, hockey, baseball or lacrosse, the majority of my 21st year in life will be on the sidelines unable to even run.  

I am 4 months out of my first surgery and a  month and a half out of my second. My goal is to be back on the ice mid-november.  Now to get there I need some help, thats where Olympic Physical Therapy out of Middletown comes in.  After working with them with my hip last year before I knew the real extent of the damage in there, they kept me going, and got me through the last half of the second semester. I really want to meet my goal of being able to play this year.  Although it may be just out of reach,  I have the support of my team and friends to get myself back into peak physical form by the end of the semester.  

After my first two Pt appointments you could say that I am taking it slow, but with good reason.  In order to come back as quickly and as healthy as possible I have to redevelop my range of motion.  With this surgery my hip flexors, my gluteus, and other connecting muscles have all contracted from the trauma of surgery, and I have lost all of my flexibility.  Developing my range of motion will allow me to become even stronger over time than I was before the surgery.   

So Heres to my last weekend on crutches, and remember to Ice after every workout.

So here is a Blog I will be consistently updating for my writing for my Mass Media Communication 111.  I will mainly be focusing on general topics that cover sports, sports injuries, as well as touching on some preventative exercises and advice to avoid injuries.  I will throw in an occasional political rant but again, the main focus will be sports and its effect on it's participants.