“Technology plays a leading role in the care of athletes”

This week, Dr. Struan H. Coleman, a surgeon, specialist in sports medicine and hip preservation from the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), was in Lima, offering the Biologics in Sports Medicine conference to national specialists.

The also family doctor of the New York Mets baseball team spoke with El Comercio about the current state of injuries in both highly competitive athletes as in weekend athletes.

— How much does an athlete’s preparation influence the severity of an injury?

tremendously. One of the most important things in the sports medicine is that the athlete is in excellent condition. It is essential that he is under the supervision of someone who knows how to train him. Not just how to squat correctly, but knowing how to train the muscles that most people forget about. For example, for an athlete, the muscles of the trunk are very important, from the chest to the thighs. But many forget it and we see many injuries in those areas. One of the things we do at HSS in New York is work with a multidisciplinary team to really assess athletes, find their weaknesses, and focus on those areas during training. That is the best way to avoid injury.

— And you also forget that, in addition to your muscles, you have to take care of your bones…

It’s true. Bone health is very important. We exercise to build strong muscles, but—especially for the female athletes– it is necessary to pay attention to the bones. We have seen, especially among younger athletes who train a lot, some cases of osteoporosis or osteopenia. What we do is test them to focus on what we call metabolic bone health, using calcium, vitamin D, and other substances that can help keep your bones healthy.

“Commercial ‘wearables’ monitor sleep hours and that is key for an athlete.”

— Can modern medicine protect athletes from injuries?

Yes, through exhaustive evaluation of the patient. So we can know which training will be more efficient. We have analysis of the movement, we can know in which routines he is stronger and in which movements he is slower. With that we design targeted training. Imaging also plays an important role: magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography. Thanks to modern computer programs, we see if the athlete has any problem in any part of the body.

— How important is the role of technology?

It has a leading role in the care of athletes. Not only in the images, but in the detailed analysis. Even many of the commercial ‘wearables’ are quite efficient, since they monitor your hours of sleep and that is key for an athlete, because he travels constantly and has to take care of his rest moments between competitions.

— All the metrics generated by athletes during training and competitions are an invaluable input today…

There are now a large number of sensors that can do very sophisticated analysis of your movements. From there, you can design a tailor-made workout that helps you become more efficient.

— I read in an interview that he gave some time ago that he considered that the wearables [como relojes inteligentes] It is important, but does it matter if it is from a commercial brand or refers to a specialized one?

Actually, many of the commercial wearables are quite efficient. They allow you to measure your hours of sleep. That is key when you are an athlete, because you travel constantly and you have to take care of your rest moments between competitions. But of course, you also have more sophisticated and specialized devices. For example, baseball players have a sleeve full of sensors to analyze their arm angle and how fast they can throw the ball. You can know how far to push it and then continue with other exercises.

— What about recovery times? Have the advances been achieved that these can be reduced, or are they natural processes that have to be waited for?

All the knowledge that was known about recovery is what made the times longer, regardless of whether the athlete was young or old. Now we have much more sophisticated processes, which allow us to return the athlete to the competition in less time. Now we better understand the different types of injuries, we know how long recovery processes take. Progress is also being made in this area towards personalized medicine.

— After talking about athletes, what would be your recommendations for weekend athletes to avoid injuries?

I call this group “weekend warriors” and they are almost 90% of the patients I see. My recommendation is that you try to find a simple exercise routine at home and do a lot of stretching throughout the week. As I mentioned at the beginning, the key is to work the core muscles a lot. If you have to focus on one area of ​​the body to prevent most injuries, that’s where you should focus.