Newark, N.J. --Too much of a good thing can be harmful, especially when it comes to children playing sports. As more children and adolescents participate in organized sports, pediatricians are seeing an increasing number of children and adolescents with overuse injuries caused by too much training and not enough rest.
A new American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) clinical report issued June 4, 2007 entitled “Overuse Injuries, Overtraining, and Burnout in Child and Adolescent Athletes,” recommends young athletes limit training in one sport to no more than five days a week, with at least one day off from any organized physical activity. In addition, athletes should take time off from one sport for two to three months each year.
“Taking a break from a sport allows injuries to heal and reduces the risk of future injuries,” says Wendy Neal, M.D, MPHTM, Adolescent Medicine Specialist, who provides medical services at The Adolescent Clinic, part of The Pediatric Health Center at Children’s Hospital of New Jersey at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. “It also helps kids take a psychological break, which is necessary to avoid burnout, or overtraining syndrome.”
Preventing Overuse Injuries
An overuse injury is defined as a micro traumatic injury to a bone, muscle or tendon that has been subjected to repetitive stress without sufficient time to heal or undergo the natural healing process.
The risks of overuse are more serious in the pediatric or adolescent athlete because the growing bone of the young athlete cannot handle as much stress as the mature bones of adults,” says Dr. Neal.
Dr. Neal reports that symptoms of burnout include chronic muscle or joint pain, personality changes, elevated resting heart rate, decreased sport performance, fatigue, lack of enthusiasm about practice or competition, or difficulty completing ordinary activities.
“It’s important that youth athletes are educated about appropriate nutrition and fluids, and how to avoid hypothermia, hyperthermia, overtraining, overuse injuries, and burnout,” she adds.
Additional recommendations from the AAP report include:
• Weekly training time, number of repetitions, or total distance should not increase by more than 10 percent weekly.
• Focus of sports should be on fun, skill acquisition, safety and sportsmanship.
• Join only one team per season.
• Be aware of risks associated with weekend tournaments (soccer, baseball, tennis), such as heat-related illness, nutritional deficiencies, overuse injuries and burnout.
• Multi-sport athletes who use the same body parts for different sports especially need to take a break between seasons to avoid overuse injuries.
• Getting caught up in making the professional leagues or Olympics is unrealistic. Children and adolescents train year-round on multiple teams of one sport often with the hope of earning a college scholarship in that sport or becoming a professional athlete, but less than 1 percent of high school athletes make it to the professional level.
“Lifelong fitness and enjoyment of physical activity should be the overall goal of participating in athletics,” adds Dr. Neal.
For a referral to an attending Saint Barnabas Health Care System pediatrician or pediatric specialist, please call 1-888-724-7123.
DATE: June, 2007
CONTACT: Beth Salamon, Public Relations (973) 322-4926
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