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