Laird Harrison

Tag: sports injuries

  • Play Sports With Arthritis

    Play Sports With Arthritis

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    LairdH
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    “You still play soccer?” a yoga teacher asked me about four years ago. That word “still” has stuck with me ever since. Didn’t I look like someone who should be playing soccer? I was about 49 then, and yes, I’d gotten hurt a few times on the pitch. But the latest study on sports and…

  • I Weigh Myself Too Much

    I Weigh Myself Too Much

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    By Laird Harrison I weigh myself too much. The scale sits there in the bathroom, and I stand on it when I get up in the morning. After I work out. Before going to bed. Just because I noticed it when I was passing by. I know this constant monitoring does me no good. Bathroom…

  • Sports Compression Garments May Help Recovery

    Sports Compression Garments May Help Recovery

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    LairdH
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    Sports compression garments are popping up everywhere. You may have seen them at the gym or running trail: those sleeves, shorts and socks made of stretchy fabric, sometimes in bright primary colors. And you may have wondered if they’re just the latest in stylish sports wear or whether they actually serve some purpose. Sports medicine…

  • Pitching Drills that Reduce Injury (Part II)

    Pitching Drills that Reduce Injury (Part II)

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    LairdH
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    Lots of pitching drills can make the thrower faster and more accurate. Now researchers  have shown that the right sort of exercises can also reduce arm injuries. For years, official baseball authorities have had one piece of advice for people concerned about injuring their arms through pitching: Don’t pitch so much.

  • English Rugby Tightens Concussion Rules

    English Rugby Tightens Concussion Rules

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    LairdH
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    Professional English rugby players will get concussion tests on the sidelines if they show signs of a head injury, under a new policy Premiership Rugby reports. A joint venture between Premiership Rugby, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the Rugby Players Association (RPA) has produced a new set of processes designed to optimise the treatment…

  • How to Avoid Arm Injuries in Baseball and Other Throwing Sports (Part I)

    How to Avoid Arm Injuries in Baseball and Other Throwing Sports (Part I)

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    LairdH
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    It’s no news to anyone watching the Major League Baseball playoffs that pitchers’ arms tire out pretty fast. But just how much harm pitchers and other throwers may be doing to themselves is just now becoming clear. Not only does throwing too much damage muscles, ligaments and tendons, it can actually prevent a pitcher’s bones…

  • What Wearable Heart Rate Monitors Can Tell You (Part III)

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    LairdH
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    Bad news, folks. I have exceeded my maximum heart rate. Surprisingly, I am still able to write this newsletter, but how much longer I can continue, who can say? My wearable devices do not produce that reading. After last week’s adventures with RunKeeper, I thought I’d experiment with some other monitoring devices, hoping to gain…

  • How to Play Tennis Without Injury (We Think)

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    LairdH
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    So you want to play tennis and not get injured doing it. Sounds simple enough, but research shows that for every thousand hours of the sport, up to 3 injuries occur. You’ll get to a thousand hours in less than four years if you play a few sets each week. Researchers are beginning to figure…

  • How Tennis Players Get Hurt

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    LairdH
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    Heat. Fatigue. A strained thigh. Eugenie Bouchard had plenty of reasons to explain her defeat in the fourth-round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament yesterday. And anyone who plays tennis regularly can sympathize. Even though you don’t have the opportunity to crash into another player the way you do in a team sports, you can…

  • Scant Evidence that Stretching Prevents Injury

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    LairdH
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    Stretching prevents injury. That idea was drilled into my head at an early age, and I can’t quite get rid of it. Since I was a child, my P.E. teachers and coaches preached the virtue of stretching so consistently, that the pre-game stretch became almost like a religious ritual. So I was shocked to find out…