Too often, well-meaning sports enthusiasts will suffer from preventable injuries that can end up sidelining them from the activities they love. Play it safe with outdoor exercise tips from the experts at JAG-ONE Physical Therapy.

John Gallucci Jr., MS, ATC, PT, DPT and CEO of Woodbridge, N.J.-based JAG-ONE Physical Therapy, which has 49 locations throughout New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

JAG-ONE Physical Therapy offers tips to keep you in the game of life and free of injuries so that you can enjoy the sports you love this summer.

With summer upon us, millions of Americans are taking to the great outdoors to engage in the many fun sports that warm weather promotes. But too often, many of these well-meaning sports enthusiasts will suffer from preventable injuries that can end up sidelining them from the activities they love.

“Like most health care professionals, we advise people to ‘move it or lose it,’ as exercise lubricates the joints, keeps joints and muscles flexible, and is great for the heart, lungs, and other organs,” said John Gallucci Jr., MS, ATC, PT, DPT and CEO of Woodbridge, NJ-based JAG-ONE Physical Therapy. “Unfortunately, however, a lot of people try to do too much too quickly and end up with a range of injuries — from back pain to muscle soreness, hamstring strains, and more — that end up forcing them off the playing field.”

This is especially true of many Northeast dwellers, who notoriously do less activity over the cold winter months and then go ‘all out’ at the first sign of spring. “To have a great and active spring, summer and fall, you need to move in the winter, focusing in particular on fine-tuning the upper and lower extremities and working to improve core strength, which can prevent a lot of injuries in the warmer months,” Gallucci said.

While golf may appear to be a game of leisure, it’s actually a sport of biomechanics that requires the player to swing a club indoors during the colder months to properly warm up the body for the demands of the sport in the spring, noted John Galluci Jr., MS, ATC, PT, DPT and CEO of JAG-ONE Physical Therapy.

Following, Gallucci discusses a range of popular summer sports and some of the most common injuries he and his experienced team at JAG-ONE Physical Therapy treat, as well as some tips for preventing them:

• Running — Among other injuries, “a lot of runners experience plantar fasciitis from running on multiple surfaces and wearing shoes that offer poor support,” Gallucci said. “Runners need to make sure that their shoes can absorb the shock and that they’re properly stretching out their calves, Achilles tendons, and plantar fascii with a band or towel.” Gallucci said that runners can also incur soft tissue strains when they do too much too quickly. “We live in an often sedentary society today, but our bodies really need to be conditioned all year long to be able to handle the demands of the sports we want to engage in,” he said, noting that warm-weather runners should condition for running over time by first walking, then walking-jogging, running one mile, and ultimately running longer distances rather than immediately going all out.
• Biking — Tens of millions of Americans will experience the joys of biking this summer, “but if people don’t fit their bike appropriately, they can end up with low back tightness, patella tendonitis and hip pain,” Gallucci said. He encourages people to work with experts at their local bike shops, which do a great job of ensuring that riders are properly fitted to their bikes and that their hip angle won’t cause undue strain on their lower back. Should an injury occur, however, “physical therapy can definitely help,” Gallucci said.
• Golf — “As many golfers go from doing nothing all winter to hitting a ball 300 yards in the spring, they can end up straining their lower back, hamstrings or shoulders right out of the gate in March or April because they just weren’t ready,” Gallucci said. “While golf may appear to be a game of leisure, it’s actually a sport of biomechanics that requires the player to swing a club indoors during the colder months to properly warm up the body for the demands of the sport in the spring.” In treating golf-related injuries, he said, “we’ll follow the injury back to the affected soft tissue and provide the player with strengthening exercises to rehab the area and help prevent further injury.”
• Tennis — Gallucci reiterated that common injuries stem from players being unprepared for the demands of this high-impact activity.  “People will go out and hit 100 balls on the first day, which can lead to bicipital tendonitis, shoulder impingement or tennis elbow due to mismanagement of their grip,” he said, adding that “a good shoulder and core protocol beforehand can help prevent all of these injuries.” In the event of an injury, however, he advises players to treat it quickly to prevent it from getting worse.
• Soccer, Baseball and Other Team Sports — Gallucci and his team are no strangers to the injuries incurred by adults who participate in the many pickup and work-related soccer, baseball, and softball games that pop up in warm-weather months.  “We see a lot of soft-tissue injuries like hamstring and quadricep strains from these sports,” he said.  “Players need to properly warm up the body beforehand.”

To avoid injuries, properly warming up the body before participating in team sports such as baseball is advised.

Overall, “it’s about engaging in a little jog and some of the functional movements of the game you’ll be participating in to ready your muscles for that sport,” Gallucci said. “If you take the time to prepare the body for the specific activity and keep it moving to its best capacity all year long, you’ll be able to enjoy that sport this season rather than sitting in the physical therapist’s office treating an injury.”

For More Information

JAG-ONE Physical Therapy is a comprehensive physical and occupational therapy company with 49 locations throughout Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, Westchester, Manhattan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The company’s multispecialty staff has been serving the tri-state area for more than 20 years and has developed a unique, care-first model of rehabilitation delivering high quality clinical outcomes for its patients. For more information, visit www.jagonept.com and visit on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.