A 4-Week Guide to a Safe and Healthy Return to Adult Rec-Sports
It was March 10th, 2020, just days before the world came to a screeching halt. Bob was on his daily commute to NYC, laptop bag in one hand, and gym bag in the other. Bob knew that after his 3:00 meeting he had to high tail it out of the office to catch the 4:15 train back to NJ, this would give him just enough time to get his workout in at the gym, run home grab a quick bite to eat before meeting with his adult league baseball team at the batting cages to work on some swing work for the upcoming season, but more importantly some healthy social time with the boys.
This active, yet slightly hectic lifestyle was all that Bob knew. He worked hard during the week and proudly embraced the title of “Weekend Warrior” on his downtime. Bob enjoyed staying active by competing with his friends and proving to himself that he’s “still got it”.
Like most of us, Bob thought that quarantine would possibly sideline him for a few weeks, maybe a month; he never thought it would shut him down for 1/4th of the calendar year. Four months later, Bob spends most of his mornings hunched over his laptop at his kitchen table, if he’s lucky he’ll get a nice jog in around the neighborhood during the afternoon and finish the day by binge-watching the latest Netflix series at night. A far cry from the active lifestyle that Bob was used to living.
Bob who was used to feeling healthy and limber every day, was now feeling stiff and lazy. He knew that jumping right back onto the practice field after months of inactivity could lead to disaster! He wasn’t wrong, this common mistake often leads to soft-tissue injuries such as tendonitis, muscle strains, or worst of all sprains or tears of the ligaments.
When Bob started hearing whispers from health officials that a return to organized sports was just a few weeks away, he knew he had to do something about it so he scheduled an appointment with a Sports Chiropractor in town.
Be Like Bob!
Here at Suess Family Chiropractic, we preach the importance of being proactive when it comes to your health, whether you are a weekend warrior or a professional athlete. We commended Bob for presenting for care prior to getting hurt. We explained to him how much easier it was to prevent an injury from happening than to treat an injury after it has happened.
After our consultation and health history, we ran Bob through a comprehensive biomechanical evaluation to determine his risk of injury. We tell our weekend warriors the same thing that we tell our professional athletes, that it is better to be proactive than reactive when it comes to treating injuries.
The evaluation consisted of the following:
Range of motion of the spine, shoulder, & hips
Orthopedic exams of the same areas to rule out underlying injuries
A full-spine Chiropractic exam to determine which areas of the spine aren’t moving properly and required Chiropractic treatment
After performing the exam on Bob, we determined the following:
Spasm and trigger points throughout the musculature of the base of the neck and low back, likely from changes in Bob’s workstation ergonomics.
Mild rotation in Bob’s sacrum and lower lumbar segments (L5/S1).
No pain in hip or shoulder ranges of motion, but a mild decrease in hip flexion.
Orthopedic tests of the shoulder suggested the presence of bicipital tendonitis.
All orthopedic tests of the spine and hips were considered “negative” which means that Bob did not currently have any active injuries in these areas.
After evaluating Bob we discussed his outlook for this upcoming season. Bob was itching for any sense of normalcy, and he was very much looking forward to getting out on the field with his friends who he hasn’t seen in months. He was very concerned that if he was to injure himself while playing this season, he’d be stuck back to a social life that is dependent on the internet.
Bob was very knowledgeable when it came to his body, and he had exercise routines in place that would normally help him get ready for the upcoming season. But with gyms and health centers not open yet, Bob was beginning to feel a bit lost and concerned.
We assured Bob that if he followed both our at-home and in-office treatment recommendations, his risk of injury would decrease significantly. We recommended that Bob present for weekly office visits where the goal was to assess and correct any underlying fixations in his biomechanics that may have arisen from the drastic change in his work station ergonomics. His weekly visits would consist of spinal adjustments for his spine, myofascial work, electric stim/ultrasound therapy on his shoulder to assist with the biceps tendonitis, and corrective exercises to help restore proper range of motion to the hips. We recommended that Bob take our online workstation ergonomic assessment to assess and correct his new at-home workstation, and provided him with the following reading material: How to Sit Better: 3 Easy Steps.
Finally, we presented Bob with the following at-home …
Four Week Plan to Return to Weekend Warrior Glory for him to complete as homecare.
Week 1: Hydrate
Our bodies are comprised of nearly 60% of water, and it’s no coincidence that most of the major joints in our body are what are called synovial joints, aka fluid-filled joints. When we don’t supply our body with an adequate amount of water, our body may have to make an important decision to begin to pull water from these joint capsules.
Here are three tips we use to help you stay hydrated:
Take your body weight, divide that in half, and turn that number into ounces. That is a simple estimate of how many ounces of water you should be drinking in a day.
Listen to your body. We have an internal monitor that will let us know when we are thirsty. If you feel thirsty drink water. If you are feeling satisfied do not force unnecessary fluids.
Monitor the color of your urine. We do not need it to be water clear but we also do not want it to be as dark as a cup of coffee. Check out the picture below and use it as a guide.
Week 2: Start Moving!
Newton’s first law of physics states that “An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force”, and a 3-month quarantine was a considerable amount of “outside force” that nobody saw coming.
A study published in the Journal of American College of Cardiology demonstrates that running five minutes a day increases health and lifespan almost as much as running 150 minutes a week. As Bob’s rec leagues start to return in the coming weeks, he must be putting in a little time to lubricate his joints and tendons again. Bob will risk major injury if he does not exercise prior to his first game back.
Newton’s first law of physics can also work against us, stating “An object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted on by an outside force”. I’m sure the idea of going for a 5-minute jog each day seems just as daunting as climbing Mt. Everest. But just remember, we have the laws of physics on your side, once you get the ball rolling you’ll start to build momentum without even trying.
Week 3: Regain Flexibility
Increased couch time, poor home-office ergonimics, and decreased activity will only have a negative effect on Bob’s already poor flexibility. Stretching can be a controversial topic, but a good rule of thumb is to have dynamic (movement) based stretching as a warm-up and static (stationary) stretching as a cool down.
Here is an example of a dynamic warm-up routine that we may suggest to Bob:
Week 4: Recover & Maintain
Now that he is finally back on the field, we want Bob to treat himself as a professional athlete when he gets home from his game. One of the most common questions that we get from our patients when it comes to home care is when to use heat, versus when to use ice. Most people attack this therapeutic decision as a matter of preference, and that could be one of the most detrimental mistakes to the rehabilitative process.
Just as it is with any other means of treatment, heat, and ice both have treatment guidelines that should be followed. We took a deep dive into these guidelines in one of our previous Blog posts The Great Debate: Heat vs. Ice, we recommended that Bob check out our blog article so that he has a thorough understanding of how to maximize the therapeutic effects of both heat and ice.
Watch this video to understand why you should get adjusted whether you’re in pain or not!
The last thing that we are going to recommend to Bob is that he presents for maintenance adjustments (aka wellness adjustments). Joints are designed to move, and when they stop doing what they are designed to do that’s when they can lead to injury. When you go from sitting in a cubicle 8 hours per day to extremely active in your downtime, as Bob does, it is only natural that you are going to develop areas of fixation in your biomechanics. So, we recommend to Bob that he present once every 3-4 weeks for a maintenance adjustment. As Bob learned on his first visit, it is better to be proactive than to be reactive!
Wrapping it Up
If you’re like Bob and you’re itching to make your post-quarantine come back or you are used to living a rather inactive lifestyle and are looking to add some exercise to your life by embracing the “weekend warrior lifestyle” while aiming to recapture your high school sports glory; you are asking for disaster if you plan on jumping right off of the couch and onto the field. We understand the fear of injury is a major hurdle to signing up for adult rec league sports, but if you do so responsibly and under the guidance of a professional you can significantly reduce your risk of injury.
Jesse J. Suess, DC CCSP®
Waldwick Family Chiropractic, LLC
22 Wyckoff Ave., Suite 1
Waldwick, NJ 07463
(201) 972-6121
drjesse@waldwickchiropractic.com
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