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Home > Health and Fitness > Exercise > The Dark Side of Fitness
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The Dark Side of Fitness
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A recent article in the New York Times, "Doctors See a Big Rise in
Injuries As Young Athletes Train Nonstop" highlights a serious and
growing health concern for teenagers and their parents. Typical
injuries include stress fractures, cracked kneecaps and frayed heel
tendons and damage to the alignment of the spinal column brought on by
excessive flexing. As the article states, “...doctors in pediatric
sports medicine say it is as if they have happened upon a new childhood
disease, and the cause is the overaggressive culture of organized youth
sports.”
The consequences of this new “disease” can be very serious, often
requiring many months of expensive rehabilitation or even surgery. Some
young athletes are left facing a lifetime of pain and physical
restrictions.
The article emphasizes the role played by pressure from coaches and
parents and by a culture in many sports that places so much emphasis on
performance, and on winning, that players often ignore the pain signals
coming from their bodies.
I was struck by the parallels between this teenage phenomenon and the
wave of injuries reported during the early stages of the fitness boom
of the 1980s. At that time, there were a great many newspaper and
magazine reports of everything from severe shin splints caused by
prolonged running on concrete to serious back and neck pain due to
improper methods of weight lifting.
I can well remember the sudden influx of students during that period
who came for Alexander Technique lessons after giving up on demanding
exercise regimes because of pain or injury. They just wanted to learn
how they could get back to where they were before and sadly that was
not always possible. It seems that when a new fitness or sports trend
begins, there is a heavy price to be paid by some participants.
What strikes me about both the current spate of injuries and the one
that took place two decades ago is that in both cases, a huge emphasis
on QUANTITY of exercise almost completely obliterated any concern with
the QUALITY with which the exercise was performed. All too often
fitness programs tend to be about things like how many miles you run,
how many pitches you pitch, or how many hours you swim rather that how
well you’re using your body as you run, pitch or swim.
It’s a bit like driving a car as fast as you can, for a long distance, without bothering to learn how to drive it well!
I am convinced that the current over-emphasis on quantity is one of the
main reasons there are still so many sports and fitness related
injuries. Sometimes it comes from the athlete him or herself - perhaps
reflecting a common cultural idea that more is better. Sometimes it
comes from outside. That certainly seems to be a large part of what’s
going on with some young athletes today.
Anyone who studies the basic ideas of the Alexander Technique will very
quickly see just how important the quality of one’s posture and
movement is to the effectiveness and safety of any activity. This is
true whether it’s a vigorous activity or something as mundane as using
a computer or even watching TV. And if they decide to take up a new
sport or fitness program, they have the knowledge and ability to
approach it with skill, and with an appropriate level of body awareness
and care.
(The article, “Doctors See a Big Rise in Injuries As Young Athletes
Train Nonstop” can be found on page 1 of the February 22, 2005 issue of
the New York Times.)
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