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FVO physicians inspire baby boomers to stay in the game by encouraging a regimen of baseball injury prevention techniques.

Baby boomers love baseball. The two go together like apple pie and ice cream. Unfortunately, baby boomers and knee replacement surgeries are also a common coupling. And, studies show, if the increasing demand for knee replacement surgery continues at its current rate, by 2016 a whopping seventy-two percent of requested knee replacements will not be performed. Injury prevention, therefore, is becoming as vital to boomers as their desire to stay fit.

For the past couple of decades, baby boomers have been taking full advantage of technological advances and surgical techniques to enable them to stay active well beyond the age at which their parents happily settled into the quiet times of their golden years.

According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, the boomers’ forty-five to sixty-four-year-old age group accounted for over forty percent of the more than 906,000 total knee or total hip replacement surgeries in 2009. Among the most successful procedures in medicine, it has been predicted that in the not too distant future physicians won’t be able to keep up with the increasing demand for total knee replacements surgery.

With an estimated American population of 72 to 79 million baby boomers – and so many intent on leading an active lifestyle well into their seventies and beyond – Fox Valley Orthopedic (FVO) recommends implementing a regimen of sports injury prevention as a way to ensure your body is able to perform at its optimum for as long as possible…and to avoid surgery.

“Baseball is one of the top three culprits for sports injuries in boomers,” says Dr. James Sostak, a former professional baseball player and sports medicine surgeon at FVO. “While it’s important for baby boomers to stay active and continue to participate in the sports they’ve always loved, a fifty-year-old body isn’t as invincible as a twenty-year-old body.”

Attention to safety and injury prevention can go a long way:

• Prepare to play with a pre-season physical exam in order to identify potential health problems such as allergies, asthma, heart, or orthopedic conditions.
• Avoid the “weekend warrior” syndrome by getting a minimum of thirty minutes of exercise each day.
• Increase exercise amounts gradually, by just a little each day.
• Balance exercise regimens by incorporating cardiovascular exercise, strength training, and flexibility.
• Warm up and stretch before every game with easy calisthenics, such as jumping jacks and/or a light running of the bases. Be sure to gently stretch your back, hamstrings, and shoulders.
• Wear properly fitting, position- and gender-specific equipment.
• Cool down after playing with gentle stretching to prepare your body for the game, and make recovery from exercise easier.
• Listen to your body, and modify your activity to accommodate your older body’s needs.

Tips to Get You Off & Running This Spring

Lindsay Zucco, a physical therapist with CoSport demonstrates an exercise for runners during one of Fox Valley Orthopedics Running Clinics

Many people run for the sheer joy of it. Running inspires a sense of freedom, but it does place an enormous demand on your entire body…especially your legs and feet. Balance in your whole body will help you win the race.

“Maintaining proper structural balance in your body is the key to making it to the starting line healthy and race ready,” says Lindsay Zucco, a physical therapist at FVO’s CoSport.

In order to avoid problems with misaligned joints or tendons and muscles that have become irritated, inflamed, weak, and/or tight, Zucco recommends a variety of strengthening and lengthening exercises designed to balance the entire body:

Shin splint prevention

• Gastroc and soleus stretch to lengthen
• Toe taps to strengthen

Low back pain prevention

• Half kneeling hip flexor stretch to lengthen
• Plank core work to strengthen

Knee pain prevention

• Quad stretch, ITB (iliotibial band) foam rolling, to lengthen
• Side steps with tubing to strengthen

Shoulder impingement prevention

• Corner stretch to lengthen
• Rowing to strengthen

Zucco’s article, Maintaining Structural Balance, was recently published in the national runner’s publication Tri Magazine. For a complete description of the balancing exercises above download the PDF document.

In addition to a solid regimen of balancing exercises, avoiding problems such as Achilles and ankle problems, bursitis, shin splints, tendonitis and others requires a little foot TLC. FVO recommends starting the running season off right by putting footwear at the top of your runner’s ‘to do’ list:

• Know your foot type. A flat-footed runner has different needs than someone with high arches. Some running stores offer tests to help determine foot type and, by extension, shoe type.
• Consider your foot type, injury history, and specific needs when choosing shoes. For example, motion control running shoes are for runners requiring a stable shoe, or for those who’re flat-footed. And trail running shoes – with their knobby soles – are helpful for those who run on difficult surfaces.
• Provide cushioning and stability to your foot by selecting shoes with sufficient shock absorption qualities and solid shoe construction.
• Buy footwear late in the day when your foot is at its largest.
• Give yourself some wiggle room…ensure there’s a half an inch or so between the end of your longest toe and the end of your shoe.
• Replace your shoes every year. Shoes lose a lot of their oomph after 4 or 5 hundred miles or so of running.
• Alternate shoes to prevent wear and decrease foot stress.
• And remember to deal with injuries quickly. Many people miss out on summer marathons because they let persistent injuries go on for far too long. Consult an orthopedic specialist if you’re in any pain.

If you’re a runner, and have questions or problems you’d like to discuss, call Lindsay Zucco at CoSport: (630) 584-1411.