Exercising in these extreme temperatures

The current heat wave isn't just affecting the crops and your lawn...It can also affect the health of athletes and those exercising in these extreme temperatures. But in today's Healthy Living, Dr. Glock from the Christian Hand Center explains that with a little preparation, as well as some after-care, you can make it a productive work-out.

Dr. Christopher Glock explains. “Well, today, you don't need me to tell you it is hot. Hot, hot, hot. And it's time for some of our athletes to going back to the practice fields and getting ready for football and fall sports. What's important here is how you treat your hydration. Everybody knows that you need to drink water while you are exercising. What people may not realize is how you treat your hydration before you exercise is equally important, if not more important. It's important to take good steps towards good hydration on days one and two prior to your athletic practice or your performance. When you see guys on the sidelines who have been playing hard all game and they cramp, that's a problem with their hydration today. And it's really not. Actually, it's a problem with their hydration two days ago. And what they weren't doing then to take care of themselves.

“Well, here at the Christian Hand Center, as you know, we treat all injuries in the upper extremity and sports injuries are very common for us to treat. What we find is, often times people do one thing well, but that they don't do a couple of things well and if they do all three they may make themselves better. Hydration, as we already talked about, is very important. But so is stretching. So is warming up and cooling down. And anticipating that what you're doing might make you sore. So if the muscle and tendon are stretching and recoiling and becoming inflamed you can imagine that if I've been having problems with my wrist it might be sore after this athletic performance. So if I anticipate that, plan for that by stretching both before and after, heating it up before I get going and icing it down when I get done and then taking an anti-inflammatory such as ibuprofen or naproxen sodium, you might find that your pain afterwards is better and more manageable.

“So if you think you have a problem in the upper extremity from a sports related injury or even any other injury, give us a call at the Christian Hand Center at 812-232-4036.”