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Health & Fitness

Keeping your Athlete Healthy throughout the Fall Sports Season

Some simple tips any parent can implement to help keep their athlete safe during the fall sports season.

Fundamentally, most injuries occur when an athlete is broken down, nutritionally depleted and flat-out tired.  Heavy practice schedules, reduced sleep patterns, over-training and inadequate pre- and post-practice, workout and competition are to blame.  So, as a parent, what can you do to help?  

Provide easy opportunities to replenish the body-

Pre-Activity- athletes should intest liquid carbohydrates an hour or less before the start of physical activity.  Find something that your athlete tolerates well and train them to ingest it consistently.

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During Competition- a specialized electrolyte and carbohydrate blend is ideal to replenish fluids and electrolytes lost through sweat.  Endurance is also improved when consuming carbohydrates during exercise.

Post-Activity- a protein/carbohydrate blend should be ingested within 20 minutes to kick start protein resynthesis and glycogen replenishment.  Within 2 hours an athlete should either eat a balanced meal.

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We really love the Gatorade G-Series Pro as they offer advanced fueling options for before, during and after exercise.

Strive to maintain a consistent Sleep cycle- if your athlete isn't sleeping well this could be a sign of over-training.  Sleep deprivation can mess with cognitive abilities, metabolism and will result in decreased athlete performance.

Eat Breakfast- so many of our athletes are skipping breakfast in order to rush off to school or simply because they just aren't hungry.  They are missing a huge opportunity to get ahead of their caloric needs for the day and spurring their metabolism into overdrive!

A Day Off/Week- most of our athletes we are suggesting in-season a full day of recovery which would linclude foam rolling and passive stretching.  However, this is not a day to put your nutrition guard down- proper nutrition is an everyday prospect, especially in-season!

If there is an Injury- even minor, seek the assistance of your schools athletic trainer and allow them to guide you through the process of the safest (not the fastest) way to get back on the field.  We are seeing a lot of athletes who were injured, have completed their therapy script, but have no business returning to full-speed competition.  Their risk of a reoccurrance is huge!  Please keep in mind that your athletes knees, hips, lower back and shoulders are the only ones they are going to have their entire life, is it really worth risking an injury that can affect the rest of their lives?  

Best of luck to all the Fall Sports Athletes out there and we wish you a safe, productive and fun season and school year!                   

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