Pain and the Sports Enthusiast—How to Get Back in the Game

Love the sport, but hate the pain? For pain and the sports enthusiast, you are not alone. According to the National Institute of Health, in a two year period adults age 25 and over sustained nearly 2.3 million sports and recreational injuries. Here are some ways you can get back in the game following a sports injury.Love the sport, but hate the pain?

For pain and the sports enthusiast, you are not alone. According to the National Institute of Health, in a two year period adults age 25 and over sustained nearly 2.3 million sports and recreational injuries – including 370,000 in recreational sports; 331,000 by exercising; 276,000 by playing basketball; 231,000 by bike riding and another 205,000 by playing baseball/softball. Add the sports of tennis, squash/handball, golf, gymnastics, boating, climbing/extreme sports, football, soccer, boxing, running, weight training, skiing, even polo, and you’ll understand the concern.

What are these injuries?

Knee injuries are by far the most common sports injury. Severe knee injuries can be to the meniscus cartilage that absorbs the shock between the thigh (femur) and lower leg bones (tibia and fibula) or to the cartilage that allows bones to smoothly glide. Injuries to the four ligaments that support the knee include the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), the medial collateral ligament (MCL), and the lateral collateral ligament (LCL).

Herniated discs cause pain, numbness, weakness or tingling in the low back (lumbar region), neck (cervical region), or mid spine (thoracic region). Pain is caused when the inner core of a disk bulges or ruptures and extrudes back into the spinal canal, putting pressure on the underlying nerve root.

Shin splints, often seen in runners, cause pain along the large bone in the front of the leg (tibia), and may radiate pain to either side of the leg and down to the foot and ankle.

Achilles Tendon Injuries are painful and debilitating tears or rupture of the tendon that connects the calf muscle to the back of the heel, and can be caused by a chronic weakening of the tendon (tendonitis).

Shoulder injuries include the rotator cuff, muscles that govern the rotation of the shoulder, commonly occurring in racket sports.

Elbow injuries, sometimes referred to as tennis or golf elbow, can be caused by hyperextension of a joint, entrapment of nerves, inflammation of a tendon, or ligament sprains.

While we commonly think of fractures as sudden damage, stress fractures are caused by continual stress over time, such as with repetitive impact sports such as running, jumping or gymnastics.

What are the symptoms of a sports injury?

Symptoms of a sports injury include tenderness and swelling, inability to move through a range of motion, pain or pain that amplifies with weight bearing, muscle spasms, loss of strength, tender or painful places or joints, instability or inability to move the joint with accompanying swelling, bruising or inflammation.

Here are some ways you can get back in the game following a sports injury.

Get a complete diagnosis. Undiagnosed ailments and untreated inflammation can lead to chronic pain.

Visit a pain specialist. Board Certified Pain Management Anesthesiologists diagnose the causes of pain and through specific injection procedures provide minimally invasive non-narcotic treatment.

Epiduroscopy is the insertion of a fiber optic filament through a needle connected to a television monitor to visualize the inside of the spinal canal, spinal cord and spinal nerves. This procedure provides accurate diagnosis, accomplishing precise injections, cutting of epidural adhesions and scar tissue and the removal of toxins liberated by injured discs.

Injured or painful facet joints can be injected with steroids and patients can be treated with Radiofrequency rhyzotomies. These Radiofrequency procedures numb the facet joints and eliminate the patient's pain for approximately one year.

Injured and herniated discs can be treated with an IDET (Intradiscal Electrothermal Treatment) procedure and a Percutaneous discectomy. A special wire electrode is inserted through a needle into a disc and directed to the affected area of the disc herniation. Once in place, the electrode is heated with Radiofrequency or designed to create an electromagnetic or plasma field. This causes cauterization and vaporization of the disc, proliferation and tightening of the protein matrix of the disc, shrinking of small herniations and disc denervation or numbing. The final effect of this process is the relief of pain and the creation of more support collagen within the disc.

Get back in the game following a sports injury. Board Certified Pain Management physicians diagnose the sources of pain and provide pain relief through minimally invasive techniques.

Want more information about pain management and what to expect in your first pain management visit? http://www.helpain.com

At Palm Beach Spine & Pain Institute, Board-Certified physicians are dedicated to stopping pain. They specialize in performing innovative, minimally invasive techniques and procedures that eliminate pain at its source. The goal is to allow patients to return to a normal activity level — minus the pain.

Palm Beach Spine & Pain Institute is located at 2290 10th Avenue North, Suite 600, Lake Worth, FL 33461, centrally located near Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Boca Raton and Ft. Lauderdale, FL Founders are Board Certified Specialists in Anesthesiology, Pain Medicine and Management, Lawrence Gorfine, M.D. and Douglas MacLear, D.O.

Leslie McKerns, McKerns Development writes for professionals, including about issues in the medical profession. http://www.freewebs.com/mckernsdevelopment/

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By Leslie McKerns

Incite Motivation and Watch Your Team Soar To New Heights

Tired of watching your team members start a training program, only to beg out after a few weeks? Find out how to get that special spark that gets your team fired up and race-ready for the long-haul.There she goes again. Your neighbor who sneezes out 10Ks in her sleep is training for her third marathon at 5am on a Sunday morning. What drives her? And why can't you get your team members to embrace fitness with the same tenacity and focus? Possibly, what motivates your marathon-mom-next-door is quite different from what motivates your team members. That is normal. The key to keeping your troop on track is in helping them discover what intrinsically motivates them, then leveraging that to your advantage, and theirs.

Intrinsic Motivation in a Nutshell

What is intrinsic motivation? Psychologically speaking, "motivation" is something that happens within a person, not something done to a person. It refers to the internal dynamics of behavior – not the external stimuli. As fitness professionals/instructors, we can arouse motivation, but we can’t motivate – only the individual can motivate from within.

Intrinsic Motivation = Success

I’ll use fictional member Sally to explain. Sally decided to join a training club to train for a half-marathon. She has very little experience with exercise and admits to being an inconsistent exerciser. When asked what motivates her, she responds, "My husband said my jeans looked two sizes too small." Ouch.

Sally is reacting from an external stimulus (her husband). Getting her to stick with the training program for 10 or 12 weeks is going to be challenging because she joined for reasons other than her own desire – a desire from within. As a result, her motivation will be difficult to sustain.

Imaginary member Tina, on the other hand, represents the reverse scenario. Tina was active before kids, but since having children she is less consistent and hopes joining a training team will get her back on track. When asked what motivated her to join, she says, "My father had a heart attack at age 45 and I’m afraid I will suffer the same fate unless I take action now." She also wants to set a healthy example for her two small children. She knows regular exercise is the answer.

A-ha! Tina has chosen to participate for intrinsic (internal) reasons. Tina has a significant advantage over Sally because her internal belief system supports her goals and actions, constantly reinforcing her reasons for exercising (long-term health, to be a role-model).

IM or EM: Three Steps to Finding Out

1. At the beginning of the season, ask your members to write all of their reasons for joining your team. Whether you choose to do this the old fashioned way with paper, or via email, the point is to get them thinking about why they want to exercise. Some common examples include: wanting to lose weight, improve long-term health, the need for a challenge, to look better, increased energy, and to gain confidence in one’s own abilities.

2. Next, ask them to write any negative feelings they associate with exercising (anxiety, fear, guilt, frustration).

3. Finally, help them make associations between their motivation, feelings, and subsequent behavior. For example, Sally’s motivation is her husband’s comment (external motivation); her feeling will likely be anxiety and/or frustration, possibly even anger; her subsequent behavior may be to quit. Use the steps outlined below to help her find an alternate form of motivation that will lead to lasting changes.

7 Tips for Igniting Intrinsic Motivation

1. Set meaningful goals in the present, personal-tense that are time-sensitive and realistic. Provide feedback during the course of the season and/or offer small rewards, such as certificates of achievement or trophies.

2. Stimulate cognitive curiosity by relaying the benefits of physical activity. Tell them what happens to their bodies when they are training and provide informative materials about the many benefits of exercise.

3. Make clear cause-and-effect relationships between what they are doing and what happens in real life. For example: within weeks of beginning and maintaining an exercise program, physiological changes begin to take place, such as a decrease in resting heart rate, improvement in delivery of nutrients to working muscles, and reduced feelings of anxiety and stress.

4. Enable members to believe that their work will lead to profound changes. Success stories and testimonials can be powerful motivators.

5. Make learning a game. Send members on a scavenger-hunt for information about a particular topic, such as cardiovascular endurance, basal metabolic rate, or glycogen depletion.

6.Teach them how to imagine success. Visualization is a powerful tool for those with low self-efficacy. Repeatedly imagining crossing the finish line will go a long way toward building confidence.

7. Start the season with a simple and safe field test, such as the Cooper 12-minute walk/run test, then retest at the end of the season. Comparing results to prior performances and/or showing them how they compare to other women in their age group can motivate members who have a competitive spirit.

As a coach and a leader, you have a tremendous opportunity to help your team members remove limitations, learn, and achieve their goals. Uncovering what drives them (or doesn’t) will go a long way toward helping them make a life-long habit of physical activity. By Diane Raymond