Dr. Jacob Miller - Sports Medicine

Transcript

Voiceover:
Welcome to another special edition of prescribed listening from the University of Toledo Medical Center. We continue to feature UTMC providers, sharing advice on how to start off 2022 right. This week, Dr. Jacob Miller, an Orthopedic Surgeon specializing in sports medicine.

Dr. Jacob Miller:
My name's Jacob Miller. I'm an Orthopedic Surgeon at the University Toledo, specializing in sports medicine and shoulder surgery. I've been at the university for five years now and also did my residency training here. I also take care of the University of Toledo athletes from an orthopedic standpoint and help with football coverage. And I am also the Medical Director for our athletic training program at the University of Toledo Medical Center, where we provide an athletic trainers for area high schools. Well, obviously, starting an exercise program is very important and there's no better time than the new year to have that as your resolution. That being said in oftentimes with a lot of resolutions, they don't necessarily come to fruition after January. So I think an important part of starting an exercise program that's going to keep going is to establish goals at the beginning.

Dr. Jacob Miller:
And you got to make sure that these goals are reasonable to obtain. Don't make goals that you're not going to do after the first two weeks. So that's number one. And then, once you start getting into your program, you want to make sure that you do it the right way. That involves doing a proper warmup before your program and a proper cool down at the end. A good warmup involves some low impact cardiovascular activity at a slow rate. And the goal is to kind of warm up the muscles and get your heart rate up. And then after that period of time, you want to do stretching of your muscles and that's to help prevent any injuries to occur. The type of activity that someone should start really should first be appealing to them, but it also should be a balanced exercise program.

Dr. Jacob Miller:
And that includes kind of three components, aerobic conditioning, flexibility exercises and strength training. With regards to the aerobic activity. Obviously if you've never run before, it probably not wise to just get up and start running. You want to, with any sort of new activity, you really want to slowly build up to the activity that you'd like to do. And so when you start and try and go full tilt with an activity, that's typically when you'll start to get injuries.

Dr. Jacob Miller:
The other important thing is to do something that you think you're going to like. So some people feel like they are better off on their own or they want to work out at home because it's convenient and it's cost effective. But you have to have certain type of equipment there that's going to peak your interest. Similarly, some people feel like they'd be more motivated to work out if they're in a group setting. In which case, getting a membership to a gym that has programs might be better for those people. There's financial constraints or time constraints to joining a gym, then one way to keep exercise or fitness program interesting is to do it with a friend that specifically one that you know either already works out and will keep you motivated to continue your workout track.

Dr. Jacob Miller:
There are also nowadays a lot of different online exercise channels or social media where you can get all types of exercise programs on for either low or low cost or for free. And so that's certainly a way to keep your interest going for not a lot of money. Proper hydration and rests, obviously are important components to a proper exercise plan. With hydration, when you're doing a strenuous activity and sweating, you're losing fluid and you need to replenish those fluids. And sometimes even those electrolytes, in order to maintain, first of all, so you don't get dehydrated and don't get lightheaded.

Dr. Jacob Miller:
And then obviously rest. A lot of times people will start out the year and they have these goals in mind. They think that if they do a lot in a short period of time that that's an easier way or a faster way to attain those goals. And actually what you're going to do is you're just going to end up injuring yourself. So rest is definitely an important factor to help prevent injuries. But it doesn't mean that you can't work on other muscle groups or different types of activities. If you're looking to exercise on almost a daily basis then maybe one or two of the days, supplement or integrate stretching as part of that program for that day. So that you still feel like you're doing something but it's also a way to help prevent injury.

Dr. Jacob Miller:
So in terms of a healthy diet, I know we had Dr. Brendan on, and she's a registered, board certified Dietician. So she's probably better to address that. In terms of muscles and bones though, it's very important to have a diet that's rich with calcium vitamin and D. Ways to do that is to have your green, leafy vegetables, fish, milk, dairy products and these all help to provide us with good bone growth. And obviously, if you're doing strength training, having a sufficient protein diet or sufficient protein in your diet will help with building muscle. So to keep people on track and stay motivated, January is a very common time for people to come up with resolutions and exercises as one of them.

Dr. Jacob Miller:
But there's no reason why January should be the only time that people can come up with a resolution. So anytime that you feel that you're kind of slowing down or coming off track then make a new resolution. If you feel like your goals are maybe too high to obtain then maybe adjust your goals so that it becomes something that is more realistic. For your life and your daily activity and your work setting so that you can feel accomplished when you reach those goals. And then maybe if you feel like they're now easy to obtain then you increase them to make them a little bit more challenging. But I think a lot of people lose interest in their resolutions because they come up with these goals that just really aren't realistic.

Dr. Jacob Miller:
I mean, if your diet is not good and you feel like you want to change it saying, "Well, I'm going to eliminate, if you eat pizza seven days a week, I'm going to eliminate pizza every day." That's probably not a realistic goal. So I think it's much easier if you say, "Well, maybe I'm only going to eat it twice a week." And then for six months, eat it twice a week and then maybe just once a week. And I think that's a much easier way to get to the point to the goal that you're actually looking for. So daily activity and specifically aerobic activity where you're doing a lot of moving. It's not only good for losing weight which a lot of people attribute to in terms of their resolution and their goals. But it's good to help prevent health problems.

Dr. Jacob Miller:
So a program where you have regular cardiovascular or aerobic activity can help avoid a heart disease, hypertension, it can help with preventing strokes sometimes. Even build your bones and improves your muscle strength. It can improve your mood. Studies suggest that people who exercise have better or their overall moods are improved. And so, I think everyone wants to see or a lot of people wants to see a physical benefit to exercise. But there are benefits that maybe aren't as tangible, but are equally if not more important. So I will say that especially this time of the year, a lot of the injuries that we do see are overuse injuries. And especially, you know we have a marathon here in April. And so this is the time of year where a lot of long distance runners will come in and the vast majority who develop these overuse injuries admit that they don't do any sort of warmup before they go out and do their training.

Dr. Jacob Miller:
They don't do any cool down they're not stretching. And then you get to March or the beginning of April and they've developed this overuse injury. And they've put in so many hours in the months leading up to this. And then unfortunately, it's all for naught because they're not able to compete in the race. And so the best advice I can give you is, do everything that you can to help prevent these overuse injuries. So that you're not disappointed, two weeks before the race and that's to have a good warmup plan, a good stretching plan and to listen to your body. If you feel like something just doesn't feel right, then maybe you need a little bit more rest time to let things recover before getting back out there. But you'd rather listen to that little ache early on before you let it fester into something worse.