gym term paper

Thomas Kim

Gym Term Paper

Overuse is one of the most common factors that cause a dramatic increase of injuries in the pediatric and adolescent athlete. As more children are becoming involved in organized and recreational athletics, the incidence of overuse injuries is increasing. Many children are participating in sports year-round and sometimes on multiple teams simultaneously. This overtraining can lead to burnout, which may have a detrimental effect on the child participating in sports as a lifelong healthy activity (pediatrics.org).

Many factors play a role in bringing about the phenomenon of overuse. One contributing factor to overuse is overtraining. Overtraining may be brought about by parental pressure to compete and succeed. Parents like to see their child compete and be competitive within the athletic environment. In order to meet these demands, parents place their children in multiple sports teams. This often gives the “child no room to breath,” and causes physical deprivation and begins the overuse process (sportsillustrated.com). Physical injuries are related to physical stress. Physical stress and psychosocial stress and recovery are important in relation to illness. Individual monitoring of stress and recovery can help many athletes from preventing injuries and illness. Another contributing factor to overuse is personal effort. If the individual taking part in the activity practices in excess and causes their own burnout, then they experiences symptoms such as “chronic muscle or joint pain, personality changes, elevated resting heart rate, decreased sport performance, fatigue, lack of enthusiasm about practice or competition, or difficulty completing ordinary activities” (aap.org).

Overuse can be prevented in many ways. As the old saying goes, “too much of a good thing can be harmful,” especially when it comes to children playing sports. As more children and adolescents participate in organized and recreational sports, pediatricians are seeing an increasing number of children and adolescents with overuse injuries caused by too much training and not enough rest. In the effort to combats these overuse injuries, physicians and pediatricians suggest that children and adolescents manage their time, and take “breaks” between their physical tasks. One study from the www.aap.org website showed that, young athletes limit training in one sport to no more than five days a week, with at least one day off from any organized physical activity. It also showed that in addition, athletes should take time off from one sport for two to three months each year. Taking a break from a sport allows injuries to heal and the opportunity to work on strength training and conditioning to reduce the risk of future injuries. It also helps kids take a psychological break, which is necessary to avoid burnout, or overtraining syndrome (aap.org). And lastly, in a final way to prevent overuse injuries, while still moderating the child or adolescents love for sports is to get them to try a new sport. A scientist from www.cleveland.com suggests kids play a variety of different sports, and to not play the sport all year. He says, “limiting the number of hours a week playing the sport, stretching and cross-training also will help avoid overuse injuries” (cleveland.com).

Overuse is a detrimental injury if not monitored frequently and careful. The effects of overuse can lead to a decline in the physical condition of an athlete, as well as decrease their skill level in the sport. But most importantly, overuse can turn off an athlete to the sport they may have loved, before they got the injury by training too hard, for too long. All training should be done with moderation, and proper rest should be taken. Studies, such as the one from www.aap.org, suggest certain times and hours in which an individual should rest while performing a physical activity. If these guidelines are followed and proper care is taken, there is no reason for child and adolescent athletes to suffer from overuse.

Works Cited

1. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/119/6/1242.full

2. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/more/04/06/youthsports.untilithurts/index.html

3. http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/june07injuries.htm

4. http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2010/07/to_avoid_overuse_injuries_youn.html