sports and body

[steve88]

When you participate in sports at a young age does it take a toll on your body at an older age? soccer to badminton etc.

 

[73ss454]

Oh God Yeah, my knees and fingers kill from playing football. Playing defensive line is not good for the body. I should've played badminton.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

Oh yeah.

Cycling has worn my knees down to nubs - I am still trying to learn how to ride slower (12 mph is my goal).
Hiking did the same to my ankles - very easy to twist now. I have to walk carefully on trails.
Beach volleyball gave me a back injury about 25 years ago that still acts up today.

 

[steve88]

Oh God Yeah, my knees and fingers kill from playing football. Playing defensive line is not good for the body. I should've played badminton.

Is it an annoying pain or is it a pain that restrict you to do what you want?

 

[73ss454]

I still do what I gotta do but my knees and fingers remind me all the time to slow down.
Thinking back, sports like football should only be played if your getting paid. Sorta makes the pain easier to handle.

 

[FinanceDude]

Thanks to my high jumping days, my neck and back are a mess. Funny, it didn't hurt 20 years ago........

 

[harley]

Oh God Yeah, my knees and fingers kill from playing football. Playing defensive line is not good for the body. I should've played badminton.

Badminton is killer on your knees, ankles and hips. Not to mention elbows. Competitive badminton, not the backyard game. One of the fastest sports in the world.

I used to play a lot of baseball and soccer, but luckily got a couple of serious injuries early enough to make me quit while still being young enough to be able to recover completely. I have a number of friends that are now (in our 50s) becoming nearly disabled due to old sports injuries.

Unless you can be a pro and make a gazillion or so dollars at it, I recommend playing whatever at a slightly less intense level if you want to avoid injury.

Of course, you'll still hurt when you turn 50. It's just part of life. Like reading glasses at 40.

 

[Sarah in SC]

One weak knee and ankle from a jumping spill with a young mare at a show, the owner asked me to school her over fences just this once. The horse was called, I swear, Lacy Underalls. She tried to pitch me off on three jumps, and tried to run out on the fourth. I hauled her back and she thanked me by running my leg right into a massive jump standard. Witch! I still hurt if I don't warm up properly, even after three years of working diligently with a trainer to build up muscle in that area.
Of course, I've never been to a doctor or anything silly like that to have it evaluated, then or now.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Oh God Yeah, my knees and fingers kill from playing football. Playing defensive line is not good for the body.

My somewhat older high-school friend, who 4F'ed out of Vietnam (but
volunteered anyhow, and said he had a ball, managing an officers'
club and juggling Vietnamese girlfriends), once told me "you just have
to play football and tear your body up, and the military won't want you".

 

[HFWR]

Thanks to my high jumping days, my neck and back are a mess. Funny, it didn't hurt 20 years ago........

When I first started high jumping as a freshman, we still had sawdust pits. Thud...

 

[REWahoo]

When I first started high jumping as a freshman, we still had sawdust pits.

Sawdust! You must have attended one of those rich city schools. We had nothing but gravel...

 

[jIMOh]

I play soccer and am 35 yo. I play once per week and have been playing off and on since I was 8 yo.

I think it helps me. If I don't stretch before and after my muscles talk to me for about 36 hours, but it goes away if I stay active (one of worst things you can do if you tweak a hammy or groin is to rest and only move muscle occasionally).

 

[Moemg]

I worked for several years in sports medicine and the answer to your question is YES !

 

[steve88]

i've always thought that if you engage in sports you make your muscle and bones stronger. i guess to a certain degree. can you guys put the age when you start organize sport.

 

[73ss454]

Jr. HS I think I was around 19 or so.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

i've always thought that if you engage in sports you make your muscle and bones stronger. i guess to a certain degree. can you guys put the age when you start organize sport.

Your muscles and bones get stronger, but your joints get weaker. That is why I have to be so careful cycling - I can push hard enough to tear up my knees and ruin my ride in a very short time, because my leg muscles are still full strength.

 

[Ronstar]

yes,

bone chips removed from right knee while crashing into the bleachers in basketball

broken left wrist while rollerblading

torn right rotator cuff while trying to dunk a basketball

left ankle sprains that led to recurring cysts

I feels the results of these every day

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

steve88, don't give a second thought to what you do to your knees early in life; just enjoy yourself. you'll never notice the damage in older age anyway. you'll be concentrating too much on the pain of arthritis that'll flare up by then everyplace else. getting old sucks.

 

[Khan]

steve88, don't give a second thought to what you do to your knees early in life; just enjoy yourself. you'll never notice the damage in older age anyway. you'll be concentrating too much on the pain of arthritis that'll flare up by then everyplace else. getting old sucks.

Somewhere in your 40s previous injuries start saying: "Remember me?".

 

[mews]

Somewhere in your 40s previous injuries start saying: "Remember me?".

I call it "the bills coming due"

Neck injury, Karate

Pulled my lower back - weights

Let's not discuss the knees...


'twas fun, though!

ta,
mews

 

[HFWR]

Somewhere in your 40s previous injuries start saying: "Remember me?".

I don't remember there being so many...

 

[Sarah in SC]

If they were laid end to end...

 

[Caroline]

I've been fairly active in my life (running, biking, rafting, weightlifting, desert backpacking (humping own water), and mountain trekking.

But the absolute WORST and most tenacious "injury" I have suffered is the damage done to neck, back, shoulder, hip, backside, arm, and hand(s) from sitting in front of my computer all day long.

My physical therapist says he can help make it less worse, but if I want it to go away I have to quit my job.

Told him I was trying just as hard as I could to make that happen.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Somewhere in your 40s previous injuries start saying: "Remember me?".

ya, got it. just the sardonic wit i apply in self-preservation towards aging, having already witnessed its ravages.

 

[Kronk]

For those who answered, "yes" to sports-related injuries, would you go back and do anything differently knowing what you know now?

In sports, I've dislocated both shoulders (football, volleyball, basketball, martial arts), torn my ACL (basketball), had pain from a ganglion in my wrist (shot putting), Osgood-Schlatters (that still hurts, probably exacerbated by basketball ages 12-15), broken literally half my toes (martial arts), sprained ankles (basketball, tennis), dislocated rib (martial arts), back muscular issues (martial arts), hip issues (martial arts), and bumps, bruises, scrapes and abrasions too numerous to remember.

Something always hurts, and I'm 34. Looking back on it, I don't see any way that I would have chosen to do anything differently. I enjoy physical sports, and I don't see that I could have done anything with less intensity. The alternative to this, is a less active me -- I tried that and ended up 65 pounds heavier.