Help Your Young Baseball Player to Avoid Injury
Posted on 13. May, 2010 by Oxnard Chiropractor in chiropractic
Okay, as a chiropractor I continue to advise my patients, young and old alike, that routine exercise is a vital component to good health. And, since one in three children in the US is either overweight or obese, it’s apparent that getting enough exercise is becoming a national crisis. That said, exercise, especially when it involves sports activities, should be engaged in with the utmost caution. And, not just for the middle-aged “weekend warrior,” but for children as well. In fact, here’s a shocking statistic regarding kids and the “great American pastime”: According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, in 2008, nearly 200,000 children aged 14 and younger, were treated in hospitals, doctor’s offices and emergency rooms for baseball-related injuries.
- Always take time to warm up and stretch before and after play. Research studies have shown that cold muscles are more prone to injury, specifically:
- If a child is pitching, he should concentrate on stretching his arm, shoulder and back muscles.
- If a child is catching, the focus should be on the legs and back.
- Children should not be encouraged to play through pain. It is important that they take breaks.
- Limit the number of teams on which your child is playing in one season. Kids who play on more than one team are especially at risk for overuse injuries.
- Wear a batting helmet at the plate, in the “on deck” circle waiting for your turn at bat, and during base running.
- Coaches must teach and allow practice of proper sliding techniques before using a bag, including breakaway bases. Players younger than 10 should not be taught to slide.
Your Oxnard Chiropractor Knows That When It Comes to Five-Year-Olds, Banking Takes on a Whole New Meaning
Posted on 02. Aug, 2009 by admin in pediatric chiropractic
Your Oxnard Chiropractor, Dr. Donald Bolt, offers the following important pediatric chiropractic information: At times, it can feel draining attempting to keep up with a five-year-old. If you have an active child of this age, or if you’ve ever been around one for any length of time, you may have found yourself longing for the kid to just stop moving for a little while. But, new research is affirming the long-term health benefits of this whirlwind of activity. In fact, according to a new University of Iowa study, instead of making an effort to slow these little ones down, five-year-olds ought be aided in being as active as possible. Why? “Because it pays off as they grow older,” said Kathleen Janz, lead author of the study and professor of health and sport studies in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Even if kids don’t stay as active later in childhood, being active at age five helps them to avoid excess fat as they get older. “We call this effect ‘banking’ because the kids benefit later on, similar to having a savings account at a bank. The protective effect is independent of what happens in between,” Janz went on to say.
The UI team tested the body fat and activity level of 333 kids at ages five, eight and eleven using a special scanner that accurately measures bone, fat and muscle tissue, and an accelerometer that measures movement every minute. Rather than counting on kids or parents to track minutes of exercise, the kids wore accelerometers to record their activity level for up to five days.
The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, indicates that kids who are active at age five end up with less fat at age eight and eleven, even when controlling for their accumulated level of activity. The average five-year-old in the study got thirty minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per day. For every ten minutes on top of that, kids had one-third of a pound less fat tissue at ages eight and eleven.
Although further research is necessary to learn what happens to the active kids’ bodies that keeps them in better shape down the road, Janz said that it could be that the active 5-year-olds didn’t develop as many fat cells, improved their insulin response, or that something happened metabolically that offered some protection even as they became less active.
However, as exciting as this study is, weight moderation is not the only benefit of early exercise. As a chiropractor I have discovered in my own practice that active kids don’t have as many ordinary childhood health problems, like catching colds and the flu. Chiropractic care is, without a doubt, exceptionally beneficial in helping kids to stay healthier. But, in addition, the stimulation to the brain that happens during activities, especially those that necessitate “cross pattern” motor movements of the larger muscles, i.e., right hand/left leg and left hand/right leg, such as crawling, running, climbing, and skipping, also boosts the autoimmune system and keeps kids healthier.
Too many children these days are overweight and unhealthy. Though part of the problem is an inappropriate diet, lack of exercise is also a major contributing factor. If you have a five-year-old who chooses to watch television or play video games rather than to participate in more active play, help your child to get up and get moving into healthier activities. Moderate to vigorous activity will not only benefit your child now, but will help to build a healthier future. You can bank on it!
