Dealing with Injuries as you age - Coaches, Tennis Players, Athletes

I'm fairly well beaten up with many injuries though few are tennis related but instead I carried them onto the court. The tennis injuries were from overuse rather than traumatic ones such as falls, crashes, and other unplanned violence. If you are escorted into your 50s already having a laundry list of problems it just intensifies and at least you have the mindset to cope with it though I will say that arthritis is the most mentally taxing so far. Your best bet is to find ways to manage the pain as you go along. 

 As for recovery, I've found with experience that strength training is the best answer to all of these. If my legs were out of use I'd focus on upper body strength by doing pushups, pull-ups, and curls or weight training. I'm stronger now in that area than I have been in decades out of necessity as arthritis takes away leg strength and flexibility. 

Back injuries are debilitating and the only answer I've found is endless focus on core building. It's always about consistency in doing the needed work. As an athlete, you at least have that as a long developed skill set. Those that had fewer injuries of course are more mentally bothered by later debilitating problems. It's all about expectations. If you are just happy to be alive, breathing, and in not too much pain I'd say a little injury and recovery routine is just another speed bump.

Right amount of sleep good for heart health

 6-7 Hours

Surprise, Surprise.  Most of us know that too much or too little is bad for you in many ways.   One trick is to stop drinking coffee or tea in the evening to help you get better quality sleep.   

Arthritis

 Arthritis Myths  and facts

Health: Aspirin can fight Depression, CBD Snake Oil, Cannabis Mental Health Improvement Questioned, Protein, Foot Pain

Aspirin


CBD This generation's snake oil


Mental Health improvement from Cannabis - Studies show poor evidence


Narcissists Happier


What Protein Does for your Body - WebMD


Why your feet hurt - WebMD

Health: Massage Therapy Benefits

Massage Therapy

Health: Listening, Iron in Longevity, Gardening Tips for Health, Healthy Habits

Listening is a key

It does ring true that a breakdown in communications is often the causes of war, divorce, family strife, and a multitude of failures in life.


Longevity Seekers Chelate Iron


Gardening Tips for Better Health

All of these are true for gardening and all but one apply to time on the tennis court in my opinion.  Answer, have and garden and play tennis too.


Healthy Habits

Health: Vitamins - Are you taking too many?, Sunscreen Safety, Coffee and Tea Benefits, Heavy Exercise Risk, Unhappy People

Vitamins 

The most obvious thing you can agree with in this article is that growing your own food has many benefits that include higher levels of nutrition versus store bought food.  There is no doubt that some vitamins and minerals help.  I can give you a specific example.  A potassium deficiency has all kinds of negative effects on the body including one I experienced and that is muscle spasms.  A doctor prescribed potassium pills and it went away immediately after having been a multi year problem. Now, it's been a decade and since I make sure to continue taking either potassium supplements or eating foods that contain it I haven't had the spasm problem again.

That is just one example.  Consider the benefits of natural intake first over vitamin supplements but aging also brings on the need for targeted supplementation for those of us that might have deficiencies or health issues that can benefit from them.

Sunscreen Safety

Consider wearing long sleeved shirts even when playing tennis.  Modern fabrics allow it without overheating in the sun and give you a SPF 15-30 protection depending on the color and type of fabric.  Putting Zinc Oxide based cream on your nose and top of your hands will give you some very targeted protection as well.


Coffee and Tea

Here are more excuses to enjoy your tea and coffee.

Exercise Risk

10 Troubling Habits of Unhappy People

Tennis Diet: Low Carb Snacks, Bringing Wheat Back into Your Diet

Tennis players often think they have an unlimited allowance for carb intake since they spend so many hours burning calories.  All you ever hear is pasta, pasta, pasta.

Though this is a great way to intake lots of calories it isn't necessarily the best way to limit inflammation and manage your overall health.  A few weeks of forced rest due to injury and you'll see some love handles and the beginning of a stomach bulge where fat is stored.

Here is a short slideshow of how to control your calorie intake while still satisfying your needs for carbs, protein, and fat.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-low-carb-snacks?ecd=wnl_dia_012117&ctr=wnl-dia-012117_nsl-promo-v_1&mb=TmBTaYiWmCKEqZu9Db5wHihonS%2fH3cwygOZAA1me11s%3d


Bringing Wheat Back Into Your Diet
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/01/joseph-mercola/reboot-digestion/

Some people may have taken the step of not eating wheat due to worries about gluten and excess carbs that might also risk inflammation have taken a source of protein and carbohydrate out of their diets.  One thing you might do it follow some of the advice of people who know more about methods of eating wheat.  The article above is very detailed on the subject.  It seems that the less it is modified and refined and the closer it is to its original state the more likely you'll get the benefits of it.  Stay with organic and whole grain foods that include wheat and you'll experience some of the benefits of a natural diet that include good digestion, moderate sugar intake, high nutrients, and great fiber balance.  What's not to like.

Tennis Player Feet: Double Socks To Save Your Feet, Wide Platform Shoes for Stability, and Gel Cushion Inserts for Shock

I got in the habit many years ago of wearing two pairs of socks for the long days of teaching or for matches.  Hard courts are hard on the feet and and joints so any cushioning your can add to your feet will help you in the long run.

The first step is the right shoes.  Get a good platform and in particular a wide platform.  If you have wide feet then take a look at some shoes that fit the bill.



Next is the insert.  As good as shoes might be the addition of get insoles is another add on I've found very useful.  I buy a shoe size larger so I can add these along with my two pairs of socks.


gel inserts for shoes


Finally, here  at the socks.  I use a black interior sock that is low cut so it doesn't reduce circulation on my legs but still gives me the cushioning,

Heart Health and Anti-Inflammation: Nuts as a health supplement and food. Sunflower Seeds.

Go Nuts for Nuts by WebMD
I have made almost this whole assortment shown in this slide presentation part of my regular diet.  I didn't know that some of these nuts are good for inflammation reduction.  One that they left out was sunflower seeds.

I have added sunflower seeds to my daily diet because they taste so good and because they are really inexpensive.  You can find bags of seeds for less than half the price of most of the other nuts listed in the slide show.  As an additive for salads or just as a snack I find them very satisfying.  If you check on the link you'll see that the sunflower seed has many nutrients needed for health.

Bottom Line:  Add nuts to your diet for controlling inflammation and for health nutrition.

Anti Inflammation: Ginger for Tennis Players

Ginger
This is a good article about Ginger.  I can tell you my own experience with it.  It was by accident that I found the benefits of this great spice.  During the time I was a caregiver for my mom I always looked for treats that she would enjoy eating no matter how little of an appetite she had.  There were a few favorites that came along and one of them was ginger snaps, and in particular the ginger snaps I found at Trader Joe's.  Unfortunately, I learned to like them too and before long I watched my weight balloon up by simply eating more of these than was smart.  Here is the upside though.  First, I found that these snaps in particular gave me a stress reduction better than anything else I found.  When things became challenging I'd grab the ginger snaps tub and go sit down and share them with my mom.  She loved them and so did I and it is amazing how well this one little treat worked to help cut my stress during that very stressful time.  I'm not sure if it was the great taste or the ginger that caused this, or maybe just sitting down with my mom, but it was a great thing to look forward to.


Ginger for Tennis Players

Now for the tennis upside.  Tennis doesn't generally need stress reduction treats, though I can recommend taking along some snaps for some match energy or if things aren't going well.  The benefit I am talking about are inflammation reduction.  I can tell you that I noticed a major reduction in arthritic pain by adding Ginger to my diet.  The cookies just happened to be the way I did it initially because it was a pleasant snack.   I often had to climb four flights of stairs dozens of times a day in my mom's townhouse in Annapolis during that caregiver phase and it was tough on my already heavily overused knees and hips from decades of sports.  I noticed the difference when I stopped eating the ginger snaps.  I had gained so much weight from eating them all the time that I decided to go cold turkey and stop completely.  About that time my mom had given up eating anything but soft foods like rice pudding and Ensure drinks so it was an easier choice than it might have been had those tubs of snaps still been there to tempt me.  Again, it was the stress reduction and pure wonderful taste of these things kept me going at times.  Funny huh.

My Experience 

Well, once I stopped eating those snaps I began to notice my joints began to hurt more.  It had to be the ginger or now the lack of it since that was the only thing that changed in my diet.   Rather than go back to the tub of cookies I decided to find a supplement of some kind.  First I tried raw ginger which can also be found at Trader Joe's and most other grocery stores.  That required finding ways to add it to food and took time to cut it up etc.  Over time I found ginger supplements on Amazon in capsule form that contained ginger powder.  Sometimes I'll just take apart a gel cap and dump the ginger powder into a recipe or when cooking chicken or fish.  Also, you can find ginger in a spice bottle at your local grocery store.  Any way that you can find the bring it into your diet is a net positive toward joint pain and inflammation.  It is part of my regimen and if you are having arthritis pain and want to stay on the tennis court I found that it helps me.    I haven't heard of any serious side effects from taking in Ginger and for myself I have found none.  It is another tool in my battle against arthritis.