Remember when you were kid and you played a different sport every season. Maybe you became a better athlete and you started specializing in one sport. Did you notice that you started to feel a lot more pain too?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you noticed that kids that specialize in one sport starting at a young age are starting to experience an epidemic of injuries?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The quest for performance enhancement in youth will usually make people realize that practicing the same thing over and over again will yield greater and greater success in a given sport. It will also often get a person into very good shape. But it can cause side effects as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The simplest path to any overuse injury is to vigorously and consistently perform the same motions over and over again. The best way to avoid this pattern is to consciously perform significantly different athletic activities throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Growing up in New England, I found this pattern to be intuitive and mandatory due to the changing seasons. Nobody wants to be outside in the winter, and nobody wants to be inside in the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I stopped playing football, I expected my joint pain to diminish as well. But what I found was due to my unwillingness to lower my training intensity and volume and my desire to do everything all year long, I continued to struggle with joint pain for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n