We Can Help You Get Ready for Fall Sports
Are you wondering how to prepare yourself for the fall sports season this year? Have you been struggling with an old injury that just doesn’t seem to be going away? Before you know it, the cooler season will come, and so will fall sports!
Everyone involved in athletics knows that one thing is for sure: competition comes with a risk of injury. Fortunately, we know how to prepare athletes for the fall sports season. At Leaps and Bounds, our team specialize in helping athletes recover from injuries and preparing them for their upcoming seasons.
Whether you compete in cross country running, football or soccer, one of our skilled team members can help you resolve an injury and provide you with the tools you need to be at your peak physical condition for the start of the season!
Request an appointment to get our team to help you get ready to compete!
How Our Team Can Help Athletes Prepare For Fall Sports
Making sure your body is strong, stable, and prepped for the game is vital for maintaining high performance. Playing the sport you love, whether competitively or just for fun, is an important part of staying healthy and enjoying your life.
Conditioning is a significant part of staying healthy when you play sports. Conditioning programs can lower your risk of sustaining an injury during the game and improve your performance. Our programs focus on keeping your joints healthy and strong. We implement sports-specific strengthening and training methods to ensure your body can tolerate the demands of your sport while improving your ability to compete at a high level.
We utilize targeted exercises, lifting weights, and proactive recovery practices to prevent athletes from injuring themselves. We strive to help our athletes be prepared for the ups and downs of a sports season.
Injury Prevention With Leaps & Bounds
One significant aspect of treatment at Leaps and Bounds is that it can help you prevent an injury this fall. Injuries are a part of any sports season and are typically placed into two categories: traumatic or overuse.
Traumatic injuries are caused by a specific incident, such as:
- Sprains (i.e., ankle or ACL)
- Strains, including pulled muscles
- Concussions (i.e., football collisions, soccer ball heading, falls, etc.)
In contrast, overuse injuries are caused by repetitive movements and/or poor technique performed over time. Some examples of overuse injuries include:
- Repetitive stress with poor technique (i.e., stress fractures, throwing injuries)
- Tendinitis (i.e., shin splints, jumper’s knee)
Injury Prevention With Our Team
Sprains are extremely common in sports. Ligaments connect your bone to bone. When a ligament is stretched beyond its limits, a sprain can occur. Once the ligament is stretched, it is looser and more susceptible to being sprained again in the future.
Strains, or pulled muscles, are similar to sprains but occur to muscles and tendons, not ligaments. Tendons connect your muscles to your bones. When a tendon is stretched beyond its limit, a strain can occur. Once the tendon is injured, it needs to be resolved fully, or it can lead to a chronic overuse condition.
Receiving therapy before you begin playing this fall could make all the difference in how ready your body is to be out on the field or court. We will perform an injury screening to identify any underlying condition that can lead to future injuries. If/when we identify limitations and weaknesses, we will address them head-on to resolve them thoroughly.
As you progress through rehabilitation, our focus will shift to increase the intensity and complexity of your program. Our team will incorporate sports-specific training to prepare your body for the demands of a competitive sports season. We will work to ensure you are ready for the start of your season.
Request an appointment at Leaps & Bounds today
At Leaps & Bounds, we make it our top priority to encourage healing and injury prevention for our athletes. In addition to treating injuries, our team can help you improve your range of motion, flexibility, strength, and overall function to prevent additional harm from occurring and get you ready for your sport.
Are you an athlete prepping for fall sports? Call us today to learn more about how we can get you geared up to have your best season yet!
Common Injuries in Hockey: How Leaps and Bounds Can Help
You’re gliding across the ice, the hockey puck dancing against your stick. The goal is just ahead, and you know you can shoot that puck straight past the goalie. You move to make your shot–
Only for a player on the opposing team to slam into you, throwing you hard against the ice. Your shoulder breaks your fall, and you immediately feel pain through your shoulder joint. Moving it definitely isn’t going to happen.
You just suffered a shoulder dislocation, one of the most common injuries among hockey players. After the dislocation is treated, you’ll need to spend some time in rehabilitation. That’s where Leaps & Bounds comes in. Our team loves ice hockey–it’s fast, thrilling, and intense. What we don’t love is the high risk of musculoskeletal injury it can put on its players. That’s why we’re here to work with any hockey players who’ve suffered an injury or want to work to prevent one from occurring. If you’re a hockey player looking for a team who understands your sport, call to schedule an appointment today!
Which Injuries Are Most Common in Hockey?
When you play hockey, physical collisions are part of the game. This means hockey is a contact sport–which puts you at higher risk for sudden, acute injuries such as the following:
- Wrist fractures
- Shoulder dislocations
- Knee ligament tears (particularly MCL tears)
- Sprained ankles
- Concussions
Preventing these injuries is just a matter of wearing proper equipment and following the rules of the game, all of which are put in place to protect players. However, regular conditioning is crucial in helping ensure that a sudden injury isn’t catastrophic.
Conditioning is also important in preventing overuse injuries. Overuse injuries develop over time due to repetitive movements or awkward posture. Some athletes will try to ignore the signs of these injuries, such as nagging but not debilitating pain. But you do this at your own peril. An overuse injury weakens the impacted joint or tissue and makes it more likely that you’ll suffer severe consequences during a body check or fall.
Some common overuse injuries in hockey include the following:
- Hip impingement, which throws your hip bones out of alignment. This is mostly a problem for goalies.
- Lower back strains, which occur due to the forward bend posture required for fast skating
- Hamstring or groin strains, which result from frequent skating sprints
What Our Team Can Do to Help
The Leaps & Bounds team helps ice hockey players in two ways:
- Prevention
- Rehabilitation
The best way to deal with injuries is to keep them from happening at all. Before the season starts, take time to schedule an assessment at Leaps & Bounds. Our therapists will conduct a thorough physical evaluation to identify areas of weakness (and strength) so you know what you need to work on before things get going. We’ll check your…
- Strength
- Endurance
- Mobility
- Biomechanics
Then, we’ll create a customized conditioning program to ensure you address the right areas to protect you from overuse injuries.
Our team can also help if an injury does occur. Many of the major acute injuries discussed above will require medical intervention. However, you won’t be able to jump right back into the rink–you’ll need to spend time rehabilitating the injured area.
We’ll work closely with you and your medical team to develop a comprehensive rehabilitation program that meets your needs. These programs will vary depending on several factors, including your injury and the treatment you received, but we’ll generally guide you through the following steps:
- Acute pain management using manual therapy or other drug-free options
- Mobility work
- Strengthening exercises
- Functional training, including hockey-specific movements
- Prevention information
This Season’s Going to Be Great!
Start this year’s hockey season off right with a physical assessment at Leaps & Bounds. We work with hockey players of all ages and abilities, from high school athletes to adults who play pick-up games on the weekends. Call to schedule your evaluation today!
Help Us Help Our Community
This month we will be raising money for the Oakville Hospital Foundation! We will donate $10 for every Google review we receive!
We donated $550 to local charities based on reviews last year alone. So, if you are a long-time client of ours and have received exceptional service with a great outcome, please consider leaving us a review.
Fall Salad With Pomegranate Dressing
Ingredients:
- 12 oz. spring salad mix
- 1 pear sliced or chopped
- 1 sweet apple sliced or chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped red onion
- 1/2 cup roasted salted pepitas
- 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
- 4 oz. soft crumbled gorgonzola cheese
- roasted pecans
- 3 cups butternut squash peeled and chopped into 1/2″-3/4” cubes
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon, salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- Dash of cayenne
- 1/2 cup pomegranate juice
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoon sugar more or less to taste
- 1 tablespoon poppyseeds optional
- 1 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- ¼ tsp garlic powder, salt, pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon ginger powder
Directions:
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Combine all of the Pomegranate Vinaigrette ingredients in a bowl or jar with a tight-fitting lid. Either whisk or shake vigorously until combined.
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Store in the fridge until ready to serve (up to 5 days). Shake/whisk before serving.
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Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
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Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
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Add butternut squash followed by olive oil, maple, cinnamon, salt, pepper, cayenne and toss until evenly coated.
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Lay in a single layer and roast for 15-20 minutes, or until tender.
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When ready to serve, toss all of the salad ingredients together in a large bowl. If serving right away and you don’t expect leftovers then you can drizzle with desired amount of dressing and toss to combine.
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If you expect leftovers, serve dressing on the side.
Patient Success Story
Savor a Pain-Free Football Season
As Friday night lights illuminate the field and the spirit of football echoes throughout the community, ensure that back pain doesn’t get in the way while rooting for your team in the stands. Experience the thrill of the season without the discomfort of back pain. Our treatments are designed for your unique needs, ensuring you’re game-day-ready every time.
Your game plan to tackle back pain involves the following:
- Effective treatments to alleviate pain and guard against future flare-ups.
- Customized strategies to boost your mobility and strength so you can cheer on your favorite teams without hesitation.
- Tips to enjoy those tailgate barbecues and halftime huddles without a second thought to your back.
Get ready to chant, cheer, and celebrate without restraint. Connect with Leaps & Bounds today, and let’s ensure you’re in prime shape for every touchdown this season!