Why Summer Warm-up’s Are Critical

Authored by Dr. Eric Martin, Orthopedic Surgeon of Garnet Health Doctors

Even with the best of healthy intentions, people are really good at getting themselves into trouble while being active as the warm weather returns. The seasonal injuries that orthopedists often see this time of year are related to people jumping back into last year’s activities, rather than easing back into them. It’s fairly common to see a lack of limbering up and plain old overexertion team up to take people down, and that goes for competitive athletes to weekend warriors and everyone in between.

“Start-up Injuries”

Most prevalent, however, are what I call the start-up injuries. These can affect any part of the body depending on the activity, and can result from lack of attention to warm-ups. It is very important to stretch and allow your body – your engine – to warm up before any strenuous activity. Just like your car engine in the winter, it runs a little clunky if you don’t let it warm up. When you let it warm up, it runs smoothly. You want to do the same thing with your body, especially if it’s more like an old car engine than a newer model!

As we age, our bodies begin to change right out from underneath us. Our ligaments, our tendons, our muscles – they all change in composition as time goes by. Those changes – from:

• Muscle density
• The suppleness of our tendons
• The strength of our joints, and so on.

– affect how we are able to exercise and how our bodies respond to activities that stress our systems.

As for aging athletes, I’m one of them. In our twenties, we could pretty much dive headlong into any kind of activity at full speed, going from zero to a hundred in no time flat. But, if we aim to stay competitive as we age, it’s very important to have that warm-up period, so we don’t suffer those weekend warrior types of injuries.

If you are interested in a consultation with Dr. Martin, please call our office at 845-333-7575 to make an appointment.

Eric L. Martin, M.D.

Dr. Martin is Board-certified in orthopedics by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgeons and is affiliated with Garnet Health Doctors. Dr. Martin earned his medical degree from New York University, completed both his general surgery internship and his residency at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stonybrook in addition to his reconstructive joint surgery fellowship from Rush University/St. Luke’s Medical Center & Central DuPage Hospital in Chicago, Ill.

To make an appointment with Dr. Martin, please call 845-333-7575

Learn more

All content presented are provided for informational and educational purposes only, and are not intended to approximate or replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.  Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.  Never disregard or delay seeking professional medical advice because of something you have read within the website content.  If you think you may have a medical emergency, call 911 immediately.