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Older athletes and general advice

With advancing years come changes of patterns of flexibility and strength. Generally, muscle mass will decrease resulting in relative weakness and the soft tissues of the muscles, and tendons and joints will lose some of their elasticity resulting in relative stiffness.

Weakness and stiffness may give a higher risk of injury. However, you can easily help prevent stiffness and weakness with a simple, ongoing conditioning programme.

The older athlete must get into the habit of following flexibility and strength training programmes, which target the most important areas. These will vary between individuals and from sport to sport.

For most people the three key areas will be the back, the shoulders and the hips. Simple stretching exercises should ideally be practised for just a few minutes each day together with simple body weight-resisted strengthening exercises, like press-ups, step-ups on to a chair or step and toe raises.

General advice

Sticking to the following guidelines should help to keep you fit and healthy no matter what age you are.

Equipment
Faulty sports equipment like worn out running shoes can easily cause injury. Poorly fitted equipment (e.g. a gum shield) or equipment of the wrong size (e.g. a tennis racquet grip) can either be poor at preventing injuries or can actually be a cause. Using the wrong equipment can have similar consequences. For example a pair of squash shoes may be perfectly suited for squash but to use them for road running may cause problems because they don't have sufficient shock absorption.

Warm-ups

It makes sound medical sense to do warm-ups as a means of preventing injury because they increase the circulation and body temperature and are good at stretching the muscles, tendons and joints. Logically this should reduce the likelihood of injury because the muscles and tendons become more pliable as their temperature increases - they will work in a better, more coordinated fashion when 'warm' than when 'cold'.

Nevertheless, scientists dispute whether warm-ups reduce the risk of injury. We recommend that you continue to follow good warm-up procedures while the sports scientists and sports medicine experts argue over this issue. At the very least a well-executed warm-up will provide a great opportunity to prepare our attitude toward the sport.

Technique

Correct sporting technique is the most mechanically efficient means of performing a particular sports movement. Moving in a sports-efficient way means that the forces acting on the body are kept to a minimum - along with the risk of injury. A couple of examples should demonstrate this -


1. Think of the novice tennis player who doesn't move her feet when playing a backhand or forehand shot. Instead of aligning the body to play the shot and to use the body's momentum, the shot is generated mainly from the arm. Over time the joints, muscles and tendons of the upper limb will be exposed to excessive loads and the result could be an injury perhaps in the form of a painful bout of swollen tendon (tendonitis) at the elbow or shoulder.


2. Imagine the cricketer who bowls with a 'mixed' action. In this bowling technique, the bowler's shoulders are at an angle to the pelvis as the ball is delivered. It's so called because it's a 'mix' of the classic 'side on' and the 'front on' bowling techniques. The mixed technique places large rotational and extension forces on the lower spine and can result in a wide variety of back problems, including stress fractures of the spine.

So, it's important to get to grips with the technicalities of your sport - whatever your level. Coaching is not just for the 'serious' sports performer. It will help you get the most from your sport and help to keep you injury free.