Have fun getting fit, but be careful

By MARY SHEDDEN
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
Published: November 3, 2008

TAMPA - Jarrod Katter’s workdays are spent in front of a computer terminal. Come sunset, he’s ready to play.

Recreational soccer and ultimate Frisbee are his outlets. It doesn’t matter that these games have been responsible for a litany of injuries: sprained ankles, gashes over the eye, dislocated big toes. Katter keeps coming back.

“I love it,“ the 32-year-old says of the recreational team sports he has played for 14 years.

Katter is part of the nearly 31 percent of American adults who the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says regularly exercise in their leisure time. From flag football and friendly games of tennis to ballroom dancing and evening power walks, more Americans than ever are exercising for fun.

But as Katter knows, there’s a risk to these efforts to stay fit. People can get hurt, really hurt, if they’re not careful.

“Weekend warriors don’t have a lot of time. They just want to get out there and do,“ says George Canizares, an orthopedic surgeon with Bayfront Medical Center’s sports medicine program. He counts among his patients a slew of recreational athletes with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, pulled hamstring, bum hip or stress fracture.

In 2001, an estimated 4.3 million children and adults went to emergency rooms with recreation and sports-related injuries. Although more than half of the patients were children 14 and younger, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis found that recreational exercises such as aerobics and running were the leading injury-inducing activities for women. Recreation exercises were among the top four injuring activities for men. Basketball injuries ranked No. 1.

Some of these bruised and battered players could have prevented their injuries with an ounce of prevention in the form of a proper pre-activity warm-up. All it takes is a few minutes of jogging and stretching before hitting the field. “I can’t over-emphasize how much warming up prevents injury,“ Canizares says.

Chris Weihe, who plays soccer with Katter as part of a Tampa Bay Club Sport league at Shimberg Park, admits an aversion to stretching. But as a sports injury veteran, he knows he needs to warm up and wear an ankle brace and knee wrap to avoid serious pain.

“Athletes tend to push themselves,“ says Weihe, 31. “We play through the injuries.“

An explicit warm-up warning wasn’t offered earlier this month, when Health and Human Services announced new physical activity guidelines for Americans. It did suggest 2 1/2 hours of moderate aerobic physical activity a week and muscle-strengthening activities twice a week for adults.

The guidelines, however, do make a point of saying that individuals should gradually build up the time and intensity of whatever workout they do. That’s essential if couch potatoes, and anyone else who wants to exercise more, expect to improve, says Pete McCall, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise.

“If you’re not doing any kind of regular exercise, it’s like going right from 0 to 100 miles an hour. You wouldn’t do that to your car without checking it out first,“ he says.

Rob Morris is a lifelong soccer player who tore his ACL during a recreational game a few years ago. He knows that someone recovering from an injury needs to be just as careful as someone trying regular exercise for the first time.

“I listened to my doctors because I wanted to get back out there,“ says Morris, a network engineer and soccer field coordinator for Tampa Bay Club Sport.

The club hosts leagues across Hillsborough and Pinellas counties for sports ranging from beach volleyball to bowling. It attracts players between the ages of 18 and 60, though most are in their 20s and 30s. Many realize that regardless of their past athletic prowess, things are not the same now.

“The older you get, the more prone you are to injury,“ recreational soccer player and former college athlete Alexis Clarkson says. “A lot of us have played at a competitive level. It’s a big transition.“

For those who aren’t jocks, it’s not that hard to get active. McCall says it takes only four to six weeks of regular physical activity to get going. Yoga, tai chi, even a dance class are great ways to start slow. Canizares agrees.

“The key is to not go to extremes,“ he says. “Your body will tell you if you’re having some discomfort.“

Mary Shedden is a staff writer for The Tampa Tribune.

Make The Time To Play

Adults should aim to spend 2 1/2 hours a week in moderate aerobic activities, or vigorous activities for 75 minutes a week, says the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services new Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Whatever the activity, it should be done in periods of 10 minutes or more.

Moderate activities include: ballroom and line dancing; biking on ground with few hills; canoeing; sports where you throw and catch (baseball, softball, volleyball); doubles tennis; walking briskly; and water aerobics.

Vigorous activities include: aerobic dance; biking faster than 10 mph; fast dancing; jumping rope; martial arts such as karate; race walking, jogging or running; sports with a lot of running (basketball, hockey, soccer); swimming fast or laps.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at http://www.health.gov/paguidelines