Podcast #146: Hydration and Stretching (Part 3)
Just two quick questions before we wrap the show up. Both of these come from Barat in California. First question I'm a little curious about myself because I don't know if it's…. “I've noticed a lot of pro players wearing cycling shorts under their regular tennis shorts. Roddick, and the Bryan brothers do this– is this something that they do to prevent injury etc? Or is it simply a wardrobe choice?
Dr. Jack: I guess it depends on the player. You are taking me back to my Andre Agassi days with denim shorts with the hot pink compression shots sewn in. So you didn't have a choice, it was all in one. Remember those?
Ian: Absolutely.
Dr. Jack: I'm going back to the 80s when I was a resident down in Florida. Ian: Didn't Jimmy Connors also rock the compression shorts? Dr. Jack: I think so. I like to wear them when I play tennis sometimes under my shorts just because they feel comfortable. But there are companies now that are designing compression shorts and the way that the stitching is made into the short helps to activate your muscles to contract and decrease the risk of injuries.
In fact, I was talking to some of my colleagues at our Sports Performance and Rehab Center and they said that actually the compression shorts– the one's that this company has come out with and I don't remember their name– but they are only for women. And they show that in a box jump test, these collegiate female athletes will jump off a box and land and then jump up as high as they can and land and they look to see how much their knees become like knock-knees during this maneuver… It's one of the things that shows their risk of getting a ACL injury. The girls did it before and after putting these shorts on and without telling them what the shorts were meant to do, the majority of them improved their landing wearing the shorts where they didn't become as knock-knee'd just because of the way that the shorts activated their muscles in their thighs and hamstrings… So that was kind of cool. There definitely can be benefits to wearing the compression shorts. They will be ones that would be marketed towards activating your muscles to fire in a certain pattern to help prevent injury and maximize efficiency.
But that's not going to be all your basic compression shorts. Your basic bicycle short underneath is just a fashion statement. But there are certain ones that have certain stitch patterns that can help with your muscles firing.
Ian: OK. I assume that it was– you know, when the players would sit down on the chairs and put a towel over their shorts to keep photographers from taking embarrassing pictures etc.
I always kind of assumed it was that type of reason. I didn't actually know that they had specifically designed shorts for actual athletic benefit.. that's pretty cool. Dr. Jack: It is. And I think now that this is becoming more popular, I think you are going to see more and more of this over the next few years.
Ian: Alright, so there you go. Something to watch out for.
Last question here having to do with braces. Barat wrote and said, “Few places wear ankle braces and they seem to usually only wear it on one leg when they do have one.
I think Murray used to wear it on both legs, but I'm not sure if he still does. I guess the ankle brace prevents your ankle from twisting and lateral movement of the ankle. Does this prevent your mobility to a certain extent because some players prefer it but most don't unless it is beneath their socks and not visible etc. Is it worth it for the recreational player to wear this type of brace? And does it effect one's mobility or is it just up to each player's individual comfort level. What do you think?
Dr. Jack: That's a good question. I don't think anyone is going to want to wear an ankle brace unless they have a problem. They shouldn't be used [inaudible] to help prevent an ankle sprain. Because whether you talk about ankles or knees, there is no brace in the world that is as effective as preventing a sprained ankle or knee injury as good as strong muscles.
So you are much better spending some time every day during exercises that will strengthen your muscles and hope with what we call [inaudible] of the muscle. And that is much more beneficial then wearing a brace to prevent.
One of the easiest exercises to do is a stork stance. I'm sure I've talked about this in the past– you stand on one leg, bend your knee a little bit, close your eyes and maintain your balance for one minute. And do that for each leg every day. And that helps tone the microfibers that go from muscles to your brain and back to your muscle to help the muscles fire more efficiently.
And this exercise has been shown to both prevent ankle sprains and to help get athletes that have injured their ankle back to competition quickly when doing those exercises. It's a really nice thing to do. And usually if someone is wearing an ankle brace, it's more because they have an acute injury or they've had so many chronic ankle injuries that they are just gaining stability from that. And that may just be what their trainer, physician has recommended for them to wear.
There are other things you can do, and that would lead to the whole topic of [inaudible] to help ligament damages.
I'm not a big [inaudible] certainly in an acute injury, if someone is in a big tournament and they sprain their ankle a week before or several days before, they may have to wear it. But otherwise, I don't know if it's beneficial to have to continue to wear an ankle brace. Most athletes would tell you that it will affect them or their performance slightly. Most athletes don't like to wear them and I have to prod them into wearing it. And it's usually because it's an acute injury and not because it's something chronic. Ian: So definitely only used as a last line of defense. Or if they have no other choice, that's really the only reason why players should be using it. Dr. Jack: My personal philosophy is that there are other exercises and other treatments that are much more beneficial then an ankel brace.
Ian: Good stuff. Any final thoughts on any of these topics Dr. Jack? We covered some good stuff– hydration, stretching, compression shorts and ankle braces as well.
Anything further on any of those topics?
Dr. Jack: You know what? For the time allotted, I think we've covered some nice stuff. They were excellent questions and all very pertinent to tennis. It was very enjoyable to talk about all of them and I hope your listeners have learned a few things.
Ian: I'm sure they have. As we were going through our conversation here, just for old times sake, I went back into the archives because I was curious when our first show was.
So this is going to be episode 146. The first show that you were on was today Dr. Jack joins me on the show to talk about about [inaudible] and how to treat it. And that was July 7, 2008.
Dr. Jack: I remember that like it was yesterday.
Ian: And this is our 10th episode together. So thank you for all the time you've spent with me on the show Dr. Jack. You've provided a huge amount of resources and information for my listeners. For those of you listening who this is maybe the first time you've heard Dr. Jack, go to essentialtennis.com slash podcast and on the right, click injuries and sports medicine and you can check out all of the shows that we've done together. So again, thank you Dr. Jack.
Dr. Jack: My pleasure. [music] [music] [music]
Ian: Episode of 146 of the podcast. Thank you very much for your support of the show by downloading today's episode and for listening to it. Thank you to all of you who go check out tennisexpress this week at essentialtennis.com slash express. And definitely check out the new podcast page as well, with all the new categorized setups. On the right hand side of the page, all the different categories are there so you can find exactly what topics you'd like information on and download them from there. And make sure to check out iTunes as well as it's the best way to download the show on a weekly basis. OK, that does it for this week. Thanks again everybody, take care and good luck with your tennis.
