Sports injuries series: Wrists and hands

Image source: WebMD.com 

For a lot of sports, the overall health of a person’s wrists and hands are important. With these body parts, athletes can grip, throw, and lift all kinds of objects. This is why more often than not an athlete’s performance takes a dive when he experiences a wrist or hand injury.


Here are a few wrist and hand injuries to look out for.

Tennis elbow: Tennis elbow occurs when a person overuses his arm. One feels discomfort and pain when the tendon outside the forearm starts to separate from the bone. This also happens to non-athletes who do strenuous activities in their daily lives.


Basketball finger: This injury is also known as a “jammed” finger. It happens when a ball is passed to the player at high speed, and it hits the finger head on, jamming it in. It can either cause a sprain or dislocation and can be very painful.


Tendonitis: Tendonitis is quite common, especially in athletes since they have a tendency to overuse their body parts during training and competition. Inflammation or irritation of a tendon can lead to discomfort.


Distal radius fracture: In layman’s terms, this is a broken wrist. The fracture that happens in the radius bone, which is a long forearm bone, occurs when one falls on their outstretched arm. The fracture happens on the wrist joint, near the thumb.


Gregory Volitich here. Learning about the latest and the most effective exercises and techniques that would help athletes become better in their sport is my passion. Read similar discussions by checking out this blog.

A few other activities to increase your stamina

Image source: chicagonow.com

Athletes take their endurance workouts seriously. Without endurance, players can only be valuable to a team for a very limited amount of time. However, the value of stamina goes beyond the realm of athletics. Today, people live quite hectic lives and stamina matters. Here are some exercises that everyone, not just athletes can get behind to boost their endurance.


Boxing and MMA

Boxing and MMA workouts don’t just burn tons of calories, it also gets the heart pumping and lungs going. The cardio side of boxing and MMA workouts are as intense as cardio routines get, and can leave one in a sweaty, puddle huffing and puffing, trying to catch their breath. A few weeks of this and you can see the difference in your everyday performance.

Image source: www.leisureopportunities.co.uk

Swimming

If you have access to a good-sized pool, swimming can be one of the best workouts you’ll ever engage in. It’s low-impact, which means your bones and joints won’t take a pummeling, and it’s one of the best full-body routines known to man. Swimming for 30 minutes three times a week is enough to boost your stamina after two weeks.


Biking

Another low-impact workout, biking can be both relaxing, and endurance-boosting. Talking to many of our friends who love to bike, they constantly mention the great outdoors and the fresh air as being motivation enough to take it on as a full-time hobby.


Hi there! My name is Gregory Volitich, and I’m a student at the University of Florida. I’m pursuing a degree in Applied Physiology and Kinesiology to become a trainer for high-level basketball and football athletes. Read more about sports science through the links on this Twitter page. 

The Life Of a High-Level Student-Athlete

In movies and TV shows, student-athletes are often portrayed as bullies who do what they want, when they want. They also seem to have an infinite amount of time to train, socialize, and study. In the real world, however, student-athletes lead lives that have very strict schedules.

Image source: pixabay.com

The incredibly structured environment in which a varsity athlete belongs to is a necessity to balance everything out and achieve everything they need to keep their hopes of making it to the big leagues alive. 

Student-athletes normally start the day training for one to two hours, before going to class, which lasts until somewhere in the middle of the afternoon. After class is over, they go back to train with the rest of the team and does so until early evening. They go home after that and studies, eat dinner, and get much-needed rest. 

Since player eligibility is highly dependent on grades, varsity athletes focus as much on their studies as they do their sport. During game season, they hardly have time for anything else, much less socializing. However, when they do get the chance to party, they make it count. 

Some college athletes even have more hectic schedules, training with and trying out for pro teams. High school athletes are the same, but they train with college teams. It’s this discipline they have with their time and themselves that leads them to their ultimate goal – becoming a pro athlete. 

Image source: pixabay.com

Hi there! My name is Gregory Volitich. I’m a student at the University of Florida and a future sports trainer. Learn more about sports science here.

Increasing a basketball player’s endurance: An overview

Depending on the league, a standard basketball game lasts from 40 to 48 minutes. The game is spread equally among four quarters with a few minutes’ rest between quarters, a 15-minute rest between halves, and a number of 30-second to one-minute rests during timeouts. Why is this information relevant? Because when played at a competitive level, basketball can be physically demanding. 

Image source: jwbasketball.com

While many basketball programs all over the country focus on developing basketball skills through scrimmages and increasing explosive leg power through plyometrics, some of the best programs employ actual conditioning coaches for players. 

Through conditioning training, the endurance of basketball players increase. This is very helpful not just in a game, but throughout a season, especially if a team has a grueling schedule ahead.

Conditioning exercises such as planting rice, long-distance running, and high-intensity interval training, or HIIT increase the capacity of the lungs and lower the overall blood pressure. The body uses up less oxygen and gets tired less quickly. If you notice most elite athletes in endurance sports have resting blood pressure so low that you’d swear they were anemic. But the case is their bodies have that much more room to perform at peak level. 

With a stronger endurance, players can make the most of their time to help the team win. And that, in the end, is the bottom line. 

Image source: ndinsider.com

Hello there! My name Gregory Volitich. I’m a student ay the University of Florida. I plan to become a sports trainer someday. For more sports science articles, check out this page.