At this time of the year our sports pages are filled with news about our major league baseball heroes and the quite public drama of their trials, tribulations and injuries.
As they report to spring training they begin the steady progression of drills designed to prepare them for the rigors of a very long baseball season. Despite what is often year-round conditioning, injuries occur. Pitchers, for example, begin a very structured program of progressing toward an ever increasing number and intensity of pitches. During this process multiple problems can occur, particularly for those athletes who were nursing an injury through the off season or who may have had surgery. This is also a time when athletes are under extra stress to make the team and may push themselves harder than they should and not report symptoms to their athletic trainers and physicians.
In many ways this is no different than what occurs with weekend warriors and others emerge from a winter of relative inactivity to clean up their yards and to begin recreational activities. Relative overuse occurs. Tendinitis and muscle strains are common. Muscles that have not been used much over the winter are suddenly called into ever greater activity. Such weekend warriors might not typically have progressed through such a structured program as one’s professional idols. Preseason conditioning is just as important for this set of "athletes" as for the professionals. There are many similarities. Rotator cuff tendinitis is common to both. Sometimes the weekend warriors and the backyard workers push themselves harder than they should just to get the job done, even though they don't have to officially "make the team." Be wise. Listen to your body.
