The Overuse of Youth

Leave a comment April 17, 2018 drworobec

Young athletes are a big part of my practice. From sprained ankles to separated shoulders to low back pain, my goal with them, as with all my patients, is to decrease pain and increase function as quickly as possible. But with young athletes in particular, I want to try to minimize the effect that an injury has on the rest of their body long-term. Our bodies are masters of compensation you see, so if one area becomes weak or injured or dysfunctional, another area steps up to counterbalance. And herein lies the problem: where did the injury start? Can we chase the dysfunction throughout the body to find the initial culprit?

Troubling trends that I’m finding amongst these young athletes are overuse injuries. Most often, these kids are playing their primary sport nearly year-round. Summer hockey. Winter ball. Indoor soccer. In 2016, the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine released an Early Sport Specialization Consensus Statement, which you can read by clicking HERE.

This is my favourite part:

“The primary outcome of this think tank was that there is no evidence that young children will benefit from early sport specialization in the majority of sports. They are subject to overuse injury and burnout from concentrated activity. Early multisport participation will not deter young athletes from long-term competitive athletic success.”

Please take a moment to read that again. “No evidence” of “benefit” from “early sport specialization.” And a whole lotta downside in the form burnout and overuse injury.

Make no mistake, I love youth sport. I’m a huge competitor and I was raised playing every sport around, as do my children. But remember, better movers make better athletes, and your child’s body will not learn to move well if it has only been expected to do the same thing over and over again. Multi-dimensional. Multi-sport. Multi-movement. That’s the key to a well-balanced athlete, and more importantly, a healthy human body.

If nothing else, I hope this post gives you some food for thought. Parents have thousands of choices to make throughout their children’s lives, and this one is a big one.

Tough Love

2 Comments August 22, 2017 drworobec

I’m here for some tough love today.

I work in a sports-based clinic, and while we are by no means an athletes-only environment, we do tend to attract an active population of patients. In fact, active-lifestyle patients are the reason I became a chiropractor in the first place. I had finished my Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Calgary and was unsure of my next steps- my boyfriend’s cousin was a chiropractor and needed front desk help, so I began working there and my path became clear. A year later, I packed up my worldly possessions, moved across the country to attend CMCC in Toronto, and (insert cliché here) the rest is history. Fitness and health is what I’m all about; I don’t just talk the talk, I walk the walk, and being active is one of my core values. So perhaps it comes no surprise that I ended up working at a clinic that follows the same principles.

Let’s get back to the tough love part:

You cannot expect your body to be pain-free if you do not treat it well. Please read that again, and hear me out. If you sit at work all day and do not incorporate fitness into your life, there is only so much I can do for your back pain. If you carry extra weight and ignore your rehabilitation exercises, there is only so much I can do for your knee pain. If your workplace ergonomics are terrible and you work 60 hours per week, there is only so much I can do for your neck pain.

Listen, we’re in this together. In fact, I pride myself on getting people feeling better very quickly. I will do my part, but please, you have to do yours too.

Tough love can be confrontational and irritating and uncomfortable, so if you’re feeling that now, please accept my very-Canadian apology, and make a plan. Make a plan to take charge of your health. As we age, our healing rates slow down. Cell turnover drops and recovery slows.

Make a plan to move more, for movement is the fountain of youth.

It doesn’t have to be running or CrossFit or yoga (my personal favourites), but it has to raise your heart rate, stress your muscles, and put your joints in motion.

Short and sweet. Black and white. To the point.

Get moving.

The people.

4 Comments June 23, 2015 drworobec

I suppose this graphic nicely sums up my Pan Am torch relay experience:

Carrying the torch through Burlington on Friday night was certainly one of those “moments.” A moment that won’t soon be forgotten. And you know what the best part was? The people.

The people who lined the streets as the shuttle bus dropped off torchbearers one by one, every 200m along the route. The people who held Canada flags and Pan Am signs and children on their shoulders. The people who came down in droves to catch a glimpse of the flame as it made it’s way along Spencer Smith Park. The people who cheered me on as I walked behind the always-impressive Teen Tour Band. The people who hugged me and took my picture and thanked me for representing Burlington. The people in my community.

It was you, the people. You are what made it so special, such an honour, and a never-to-be-forgotten experience.

Thank you.