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| health > diet & fitness > story page |         |
Chat transcript: New York Jets trainer on preventing sports injuries
November 3, 1999 Chat Moderator: Welcome, New York Jets head athletic trainer David Price to CNN Health chat. David Price: Glad to be here. I'm here to talk to all the weekend warriors--those people that work five days a week behind a desk and, in one big swoop, try to make up for the missed activity, and usually end up on the couch with a sports related injury. I'm here to offer tips on flexibility and injury prevention. I will tell you that if you want more in-depth treatment of injuries, you can log onto http://www.tinactin.com. That Web site will offer you sports related injury treatment and rehabilitation tips. Chat Moderator: What's the number one mistake weekend warriors make? David Price: Quite possibly the number one mistake is not properly warming up before your activities. It doesn't matter whether it’s softball or golf, you can't just go from your car to the sporting field. In other words, if you're playing softball and it's your turn to bat in the inning, don't sit on the bench waiting for your turn. Do some light jogging, get the blood to your muscles and apply a stretch to your hamstrings by bending at your waist and attempting to touch your toes. Question from StephanieCNN: What's the most common sports injury? David Price: Probably the most common injury is a muscle strain. A muscle strain is a partial tearing of the muscle from overuse. This could be a calf muscle, a hamstring muscle or the front muscle of your leg, called the quadriceps. These three are the most common strains. Most muscle strains require immediate stopping of your sporting event and practice of the R.I.C.E. protocol, which is Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation of the injured muscle. Question from angel: David, what is the best thing that a volleyball player can do for their ankles? David Price: Even if you have never had an injury in any sport, specifically volleyball, you should make sure you have proper footwear. If you're playing on grass or a hard surface, cross-training or three-quarter height shoes can prevent the rolling of the ankles and possible strains. It gets a little more complicated when playing on sand, because you are normally barefoot and the ankles are unprotected. If possible, taping your ankles can limit the level of injury to an ankle. But only proper flexibility and strengthening of the ankle joint can prevent the injury. Specifically, stretching your Achilles tendons by placing your one foot back further than the other and leaning your upper body against the wall. An easy way to strengthen your ankle is to perform resistive training with a towel, holding a towel at both ends with your foot in the middle. The towel should be placed around the upper portion of your toes on the sole of your foot. Then grasping the towel on both ends, you can apply pressure by pressing your feet down, like pressing on the gas pedal, and you provide resistance by how hard you pull towards you with the towel. Question from Shifty: I like to run without socks, especially during the summer. Are there any health risks involved? (I shower immediately after my workout.) David Price: Your biggest risks are possibly getting blisters from improper shoes, and possibly athletes foot because your shoes are only fresh the first time you take them out of the box. After this point, you risk catching a fungus between your toes which is commonly called athletes foot. Question from Mags: What's the most common football injury at the professional level? David Price: Again, it would probably be soft-tissue muscle strains which occur because of overuse and stress to the muscles of the body. On the sprained side of things, it definitely is the ankle. If specifics are what you want, probably the hamstring (the muscle behind your knee and upper thigh) is the most common specific muscle injury in all of athletics. Question from Tmoore: My 8-year-old son wants to play football, what's your opinion on letting him play, I'm afraid of injuries. David Price: Well, the most common reason for parents not allowing their children to participate is that the bones of the entire body have not finished growing, and their growth plates in the large bones of the body (arm, leg, and ankle) have not fully developed. This means a higher risk of injury at the growth plates in contact sports. Question from HELLO: OK, what kind of training would you recommend for a person who has never exercised before? David Price: First thing you must do is make sure you get checked out by your family physician to make sure that you have no conditions that would make an exercise program contraindicated, specifically, your heart. If cleared, I would begin with something low-impact where your feet do not touch the ground, i.e. stationary bike or step machine. These machines take the pressure off the ankle, knees and low back, but still train the muscles of the lower body and most importantly, you can still raise your heart rate high enough to gain beneficial aerobic training (training of the heart and lungs). Question from billy: I had neck fusion surgery back in July on c6/c7. Is it OK to continue weight training at this point? David Price: That specifically should be a question for your surgeon and physician. But once the healing process has occurred and you don't have any limitations in regards to movement of your arms, some kind of strength training is normally worked into your rehabilitation protocol. Again, this should come from your physician but with this severity of injury you normally must properly rehabilitate all the muscles of the upper body. Question from Mags: We hear on TV all the time that a professional athlete has a "groin pull," what exactly is that? David Price: The groin muscles are a group of several long muscles and tendons that originate in the pubis area in the lower stomach and attach to the inside where your knee bends. These injuries usually occur high in the upper third of the inside of your leg and usually result in a tearing (partially) of muscle and frequently take a long time to heal because any movement your lower body makes, the group adductor muscles usually are utilized so the muscles never get time to properly heal. The groin muscle is very important for lateral (moving side-to-side) movement and you'll commonly see those types of injuries in hockey and tennis players. Question from Shifty: Mr. Price: I am quite active but have developed a large, callus-like growth on my foot. Could this be a callus, corn or some sort of foot fungus? David Price: It all depends on the location. Quite commonly calluses form on the ball of your foot, your heel, and on the outside of your foot. A callus is an abundance of hardened skin that can safely be filed down with an over-the-counter product that is similar to sand paper. If you are unsure of what type of foot condition you have, always compare your left to right foot to see if you have similar conditions in both feet. Also, check your footwear because too tight shoes, or improperly fitted shoes can cause irritation to the feet. Question from Sixto: I am currently a student athletic trainer. My question is what qualities are needed to be an NFL trainer, and could you give me some advice on what I should concentrate on as I study and intern? David Price: To make it to this level you must, of course, be board certified by the NATA and normally complete graduate studies of two years. For your internships, every team in the NFL, including the NY Jets, have student summer interns that apply and work the four week camps in July. I myself started as a summer intern with the Philadelphia Eagles for two years. Those two summers I received no pay and gave up my summers at the Jersey shore, but when I look back at the sacrifice I made, that's the only reason I'm in the position I'm in now. Plus a little luck. What I'm trying to tell you is it is mostly dedication that will get you to this level. But be aware it also comes with some drawbacks. You have got to be prepared to work seven days a week for seven straight months, an average of 14-16 hours daily, and in the off-season, you're lucky if you get two or three weekends off a year. Question from Sixto: How can I find out about internships for an NFL team? David Price: You can call the NFL office in New York City, and they can give you the address for each team and trainer, and then you follow that up with a resume and of course a cover letter. Good luck. Question from Haley: Mr. Price, as of late we are seeing a lot of concussions to the head not only in football, but other contact sports. Why is this? And how can we prevent it? David Price: I don't think there are more concussions occurring. I just think there is more awareness now, and more attention and care is given to the athletes receiving these blows to the head. In the past (10 years ago) getting a 'ding' was common and there was no proper medical follow-up. Now, at our level, a player that suffers a concussion, no matter how mild, goes through a battery of tests and neuro-psych exams to measure his awareness and levels of concentration and thought. I will also say that most high school, college, and of course professional teams have athletic trainers present at events, which aides in recognition of these possibly serious conditions. Question from Kris: My knees often ache when skiing and hiking. They hurt more going down than climbing up. Is there anything I can do to prevent this? David Price: First of all, the condition you're talking about sounds like patella tendinitis--an irritation of the tendon just below the kneecap. As you move upstairs you work different muscles in your legs, which do not stress the patella tendon. When coming downhill the muscles of your quad (which is the front of your leg) are relaxed and the patella tendon which attaches to these muscles gets put on overload as you walk down the hill. A good tip would be to possibly go down the hill on an angle to your left to right (like a zigzag), or go down the hill laterally, meaning walking sideways down, leading with either your left or right foot (like a side-shuffle down the hill). Question from Shifty: What's your opinion on Astroturf? I know the Jets are thinking of changing the field to natural grass. Do you see more injuries on turf, i.e., turf toe? David Price: There will always be a huge discussion and debate on Astroturf and grass. As a trainer, I think we all prefer natural grass. But from an injury standpoint, believe it or not, just as many serious lower-leg injuries occur on grass as they do on turf. Specifically, turf-toe, an inflammation of your first joint at the base of your big toe gets inflamed from being bent repeatedly. Commonly, turf shoes are not as hard soled and thick so the foot and toes are able to bend more making the toe susceptible to this injury. On grass, the shoes have a thicker and more rigid sole and the toes are not put on the same amount of strain. Question from Kris: Is there any physical training that could relieve patella tendonitis? David Price: Absolutely. First of all, those muscles in the front of your leg, the quads, specifically the one on the lower inside just above your knee, need to be properly trained and strengthened. To do this, you can do straight leg raises and extension work with your legs on machinery. Also, something that's not commonly practiced is to focus on the flexibility of your hamstrings which are opposite the quads on the back of your legs. If your hamstrings are tight, your knee is never allowed to go into full extension when walking and this in turn puts more strain on the front of the patella tendon. An easy way of stretching your hamstrings is to keep your feet together, standing, bend at your waist, keeping your knees locked, try to touch the ground. Or reach some portion of your lower leg, and hold the stretch for 10 seconds and repeat 10 times. You should feel a burning and tightness in the back of your leg and knee, but it should not be painful. Also, measure your progression. If, at first, you can only go down to just below your knees, with a daily routine it shouldn't be long before you can get down to touching the floor. Question from Haley: Mr. Price my 6-year-old daughter "dislocated" her kneecap on a trampoline. When it happened you could feel air under the skin of her knee. How does the kneecap get dislocated? Where did the air come from? David Price: Well, the kneecap is a common injury in youths and women. It will normally dislocate laterally (which is to the outside of the leg), and the air that you feel or felt is the fluid that has now vacated where the knee-cap used to be. Also, these injuries normally have a large amount of swelling and crepitation. Question from Boo: Could you recommend a weight training book for beginners, for toning and losing weight? David Price: I cannot recommend one specific book. Weight training is very specific to age, sex and what sport or what your goals are. There are literally thousands of books in the library or on bookshelves. You should ask yourself your specific goals are for beginning weight training, and focus on those ideas and those types of books. Question from sether: Dave, what is the best way to avoid pain from shin splints? David Price: First thing is to check what surface you are running on. If possible, you should avoid hard concrete surfaces for running and run on grass or softer track surfaces. Next, you must look at what type of footwear you have. In other words, if you’re getting shin splints while playing basketball and you're wearing running shoes, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that your shin splints may be coming from improper footwear. Next, you have to make sure that you have proper flexibility in the ankle. Specifically your Achilles tendon, which is in the back of your leg. As explained previously, this can be stretched by standing about two feet away from a wall and leaning into it, facing it, and as your body leans toward the wall, keep your feet firmly on the ground. Question from Pace: Is there any relief for us arthritis sufferers when exercising? David Price: Again, proper warm-ups (are important). Just as you loosen muscles up with increasing blood flow, a proper warm-up can lubricate the joints, specifically the knee, in the same way. Also, strength training of your lower-body can help support those arthritic joints and stabilize them from the overuse of arthritis. So basically, what I'm saying is, if you are not on a strengthening program and/or flexibility program, your condition will probably continue. Give it a try. Chat Moderator: Thank you, David Price, for joining us today to discuss prevention of weekend warrior sports injuries. David Price: You're quite welcome. Chat Moderator: This concludes our Health chat with today’s guest David Price. Thanks for coming everyone! Great questions!
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