Dr. Paul Morin shares everything athletes and active individuals need to know about joint pain.
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Weekend Warriors and Joint Pain
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Dr. Morin is the official medical provider at several area high schools as well as for both the Lakeland Magic and the Florida Tropics.
Learn more about Paul M. Morin, MD
Paul Morin, MD
Paul M. Morin, MD specializes in orthopedic surgery and has a special interest in sports-related injuries and general orthopedic conditions related to the knee, shoulder and treatment of fractures. Dr. Morin is board certified in Orthopedic Surgery and fellowship trained in Sports Medicine. He received his medical degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. Johns, Newfoundland where he also did his general surgery residency. Dr. Morin completed his orthopedic surgery residency at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. His fellowship in orthopedic sports medicine was completed at the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Alabama.Dr. Morin is the official medical provider at several area high schools as well as for both the Lakeland Magic and the Florida Tropics.
Learn more about Paul M. Morin, MD
Transcription:
Weekend Warriors and Joint Pain
Melanie Cole (Host): If you’re a weekend warrior, someone who likes to golf and play tennis or just likes to keep active, if you start to develop joint pain and that pain begins to interfere with your daily life, it might be time to see a physician to assess that pain because the key is to stay active so you can stay in the game. My guest today is Dr. Paul Morin. He’s an orthopedic surgeon with Bay Care. Dr. Morin, I’m so glad to have you joining us today. Tell us a little bit first, what is sports medicine? Is it only for athletes or can it also help the weekend warrior?
Dr. Paul Morin (Guest): The weekend warrior can absolutely benefit from services by a sports medicine specialist. Sports medicine is really the practice of joint and muscle tendinous injuries, and this can happen to everyone from the elite athlete but also the weekend warrior, your average person with overuse type injuries at work. So for sure it encompasses the average person.
Host: So what are some of the most common injuries that you see? Explain a little bit about the prevalence of sports injuries in the weekend warrior. What do you see most often doctor?
Dr. Morin: Most often you’re going to see injuries such as sprain and strain. So the common ankle sprain, people playing tennis, golf, basketball. You can always see strains of the muscles so hamstring pulls or shoulder sprains, these are the most common things that we’re going to see overall for all sporting events or activities.
Host: So then let’s talk about some of the factors that lead to those injuries. We know that there’s things we’ve heard about like ACL and girls soccer players, injuries that athletes face, but if someone’s a golfer, or they play tennis, or they’re a runner, then what are those injuries like and what’s the best way to prevent them?
Dr. Morin: So a lot of these injuries are going to be either overuse injuries, someone who all the sudden starts playing a lot of tennis, a lot of golf, or sometimes they’re injuries where people have been sedentary for a long period of time, and then they go out and try to compete in sports or do activities like they did in their 20s or in their teens and the bodies just can’t take it, and what I mean by that is that as we get a bit older, we get a bit tighter and our muscles and our tendons don’t work quite the same way, so they’re much more easy to injure. The best way of really avoiding these types of injuries is when you do start playing these sports as you get a bit older, you want to gradually get back into the sport, not overdoing it, not doing too much at once, but also really concentrate on a lot of stretching and warm up prior to starting a competitive event or even something as simple as just start jogging again.
Host: Okay, so I want to hit that point right there. As an exercise physiologist I get the question all the time, do you stretch prior to or after sports and activities? Would you like people to warm up for a few minutes before they start stretching that cold muscle? What do you want them to do as far as stretching?
Dr. Morin: Absolutely, you should actually do both, stretching before and after. Stretching before is very important. The best way of doing it is actually a little bit of a light warmup, it’s something that’s nonimpact, nonstrenuous, like just a gentle walk. You want to get the blood circulating, you want to warm up your muscles as far as increasing the blood supply too, and then you want to do gentle stretches, especially among the muscle groups that you’re going to use. If you’re going to go for a run or you’re going to go for a jog, you really want to stretch out your hamstrings, you want to stretch out your gastrocnemius, your gastrocsoleus complex, the Achilles tendon area in your quadriceps. If you’re going to be doing racket type events, tennis, racquetball, even golf where you’re swinging something, you really want to take the time to warm up your shoulders, you want to do nice gentle stretches for your shoulder, your elbow, your wrists, but you also don’t want to forget the lower extremities warming up the legs as I said before with regards to gentle stretches. This is the best way to avoid injuries.
Host: If someone starts to feel the pain, a golfer who keeps hitting the ground, they start to feel their shoulder, or a tennis player who’s just been playing a little bit too long, what’s the first thing you want them to do if it hurts? Are you an ice man, do you like heat, wrapping, bracing, what do you want the athlete to do when they start to feel that type of pain?
Dr. Morin: The most important thing is to recognize the pain as a mild injury or potential injury. There’s the pain you get the day after working out or when you start working out that’s more muscular, lactic acid buildup, that’s okay to try to work through and stay active, but when you start to get joint pain with an activity, that usually represents a mild injury that could turn into a bigger injury if you don’t recognize it and first of all just stop that event that you’re doing or that activity, and then icing is always good especially for acute type of injuries. It diminishes that inflammatory process and a lot of times the inflammation around a tendon or a muscle when it gets injured is actually more painful than the mild injury itself. Heating is always good after the acute inflammatory process has occurred. So some people can heat but that’s usually several days after they’ve had a mild injury or something’s a bit sore.
Host: When is the time to see a doctor if you’re feeling that pain?
Dr. Morin: If you’re feeling that pain, a lot of it depends on the injury. There was obviously a sudden injury where you felt or heard a pop, where the pain was significantly sharp and now you have trouble using that limb whether it’s your arm, picking something up or your ankle or your knee, you have difficulty ambulating, those are times that I would see a doctor, earlier than later to get an x-ray and just have an assessment by a professional. Other times where it’s just a mild ache, mild soreness, often times you can just ice, rest, and see how it feels over the next several days. Usually if you continue to have trouble about a week or so in, it might be worth seeing an orthopedic surgeon specialist or a primary care sports medicine specialist.
Host: Dr. Morin when we were talking about ice and heat, what about bracing and wrapping? You see people with their knee wrapped and there’s all kinds of big braces on the market today. Do you recommend that or is that sort of continue to atrophy the muscles? Does it not really support it the way you would like it to, and in which case then is strength training something that’s indicated or not?
Dr. Morin: With regards to bracing, bracing is a very individualized type of treatment. There are for sure some injuries where a brace will help. If you have a ligament injury to one of the side ligaments of the knee, a brace will help because they’re going to stabilize against any pressure going in or out and that will actually not only help with the pain but help the knee heal in an appropriate way. Other times, just knee sleeves just make the knee or the elbow feel more comfortable. They don’t provide a lot of support but in those joints you’re not really going to get a lot of atrophy of the muscle because they’re not really taking the place of any muscular function. With regards to strength training, strength training is an important part of just overall health conditioning and staying in shape, but it’s got to be done correctly. For people who have never strength trained before, worked out at a gym, I always suggest to them seeking professional advice by a trainer so that they’re doing the appropriate exercises that are going to help their injury or prevent injury because sometimes if you do these exercises incorrectly, you can actually cause injury.
Host: So then let’s talk about returning to play after an injury, if it hurts to play tennis or golf, do you supplement by biking or swimming or using the elliptical, something along those lines and if your range of motion is limited like it might be in golf, do you then work on just the flexibility? Tell us what you can do in the interim while that injury is going on and when you know it’s safe to return to play.
Dr. Morin: Yeah so that’s a great question, return to sport, return to play or activities is usually one of the first things patients ask following an injury. It really depends on the injury per say. A lot of the times there’s only certain activities that cause pain. So for example, one of the more common things I see people that enjoy running. So they like to run 5, 6, 7 times a week, they like to do long distances, but now their ankle or their hip or their knee are giving them pain and problems running. A lot of times what I’ll ask them to do is just supplement those activities with low impact activities such as stationary bike or elliptical and swimming. Anything that’s nonimpact is usually not going to put the same type of stress on the joint and they can do pain free, it’s not going to cause them more injury and it will keep them in shape. Other times, it’s just modifying the activity they do with weight training, avoiding those activities that give pain but still concentrate on an activity that will strengthen the muscle groups that they’re looking at.
Host: So as we wrap up, your best advice of prevention of sports injuries for the weekend warrior, for staying active, and even if there are some supplements or things you would like athletes to know about that can help them or maybe even help lubricate their joints, what would you like us to know, give us your best advice.
Dr. Morin: Best advice is really to eat a healthy diet, to stay active and really get a good understanding for what you can and can’t tolerate with regards to activity levels. You don’t want to keep doing an activity that causes pain, the best thing you can do is stay active but find an activity that does not cause you any discomfort, that you can continue to do and that you enjoy to do, remaining flexible and strong with regards to core and all your joints is especially important as well to make sure that you can continue to do activities that you enjoy throughout your life.
Host: What great advice, thank you so much Dr. Morin for joining us today and really sharing your incredible expertise. This is information that so many people need to know to prevent those injuries. Thank you again. That wraps up this episode of BayCare Health Chat. Head on over to our website at baycare.org for more information and to get connected with one of our providers. If you found this podcast as informative as I did, please share with your friends and families, any athletes and weekend warriors that you know and on your social media and be sure to check out all the cool podcasts in our library. I’m Melanie Cole.
Weekend Warriors and Joint Pain
Melanie Cole (Host): If you’re a weekend warrior, someone who likes to golf and play tennis or just likes to keep active, if you start to develop joint pain and that pain begins to interfere with your daily life, it might be time to see a physician to assess that pain because the key is to stay active so you can stay in the game. My guest today is Dr. Paul Morin. He’s an orthopedic surgeon with Bay Care. Dr. Morin, I’m so glad to have you joining us today. Tell us a little bit first, what is sports medicine? Is it only for athletes or can it also help the weekend warrior?
Dr. Paul Morin (Guest): The weekend warrior can absolutely benefit from services by a sports medicine specialist. Sports medicine is really the practice of joint and muscle tendinous injuries, and this can happen to everyone from the elite athlete but also the weekend warrior, your average person with overuse type injuries at work. So for sure it encompasses the average person.
Host: So what are some of the most common injuries that you see? Explain a little bit about the prevalence of sports injuries in the weekend warrior. What do you see most often doctor?
Dr. Morin: Most often you’re going to see injuries such as sprain and strain. So the common ankle sprain, people playing tennis, golf, basketball. You can always see strains of the muscles so hamstring pulls or shoulder sprains, these are the most common things that we’re going to see overall for all sporting events or activities.
Host: So then let’s talk about some of the factors that lead to those injuries. We know that there’s things we’ve heard about like ACL and girls soccer players, injuries that athletes face, but if someone’s a golfer, or they play tennis, or they’re a runner, then what are those injuries like and what’s the best way to prevent them?
Dr. Morin: So a lot of these injuries are going to be either overuse injuries, someone who all the sudden starts playing a lot of tennis, a lot of golf, or sometimes they’re injuries where people have been sedentary for a long period of time, and then they go out and try to compete in sports or do activities like they did in their 20s or in their teens and the bodies just can’t take it, and what I mean by that is that as we get a bit older, we get a bit tighter and our muscles and our tendons don’t work quite the same way, so they’re much more easy to injure. The best way of really avoiding these types of injuries is when you do start playing these sports as you get a bit older, you want to gradually get back into the sport, not overdoing it, not doing too much at once, but also really concentrate on a lot of stretching and warm up prior to starting a competitive event or even something as simple as just start jogging again.
Host: Okay, so I want to hit that point right there. As an exercise physiologist I get the question all the time, do you stretch prior to or after sports and activities? Would you like people to warm up for a few minutes before they start stretching that cold muscle? What do you want them to do as far as stretching?
Dr. Morin: Absolutely, you should actually do both, stretching before and after. Stretching before is very important. The best way of doing it is actually a little bit of a light warmup, it’s something that’s nonimpact, nonstrenuous, like just a gentle walk. You want to get the blood circulating, you want to warm up your muscles as far as increasing the blood supply too, and then you want to do gentle stretches, especially among the muscle groups that you’re going to use. If you’re going to go for a run or you’re going to go for a jog, you really want to stretch out your hamstrings, you want to stretch out your gastrocnemius, your gastrocsoleus complex, the Achilles tendon area in your quadriceps. If you’re going to be doing racket type events, tennis, racquetball, even golf where you’re swinging something, you really want to take the time to warm up your shoulders, you want to do nice gentle stretches for your shoulder, your elbow, your wrists, but you also don’t want to forget the lower extremities warming up the legs as I said before with regards to gentle stretches. This is the best way to avoid injuries.
Host: If someone starts to feel the pain, a golfer who keeps hitting the ground, they start to feel their shoulder, or a tennis player who’s just been playing a little bit too long, what’s the first thing you want them to do if it hurts? Are you an ice man, do you like heat, wrapping, bracing, what do you want the athlete to do when they start to feel that type of pain?
Dr. Morin: The most important thing is to recognize the pain as a mild injury or potential injury. There’s the pain you get the day after working out or when you start working out that’s more muscular, lactic acid buildup, that’s okay to try to work through and stay active, but when you start to get joint pain with an activity, that usually represents a mild injury that could turn into a bigger injury if you don’t recognize it and first of all just stop that event that you’re doing or that activity, and then icing is always good especially for acute type of injuries. It diminishes that inflammatory process and a lot of times the inflammation around a tendon or a muscle when it gets injured is actually more painful than the mild injury itself. Heating is always good after the acute inflammatory process has occurred. So some people can heat but that’s usually several days after they’ve had a mild injury or something’s a bit sore.
Host: When is the time to see a doctor if you’re feeling that pain?
Dr. Morin: If you’re feeling that pain, a lot of it depends on the injury. There was obviously a sudden injury where you felt or heard a pop, where the pain was significantly sharp and now you have trouble using that limb whether it’s your arm, picking something up or your ankle or your knee, you have difficulty ambulating, those are times that I would see a doctor, earlier than later to get an x-ray and just have an assessment by a professional. Other times where it’s just a mild ache, mild soreness, often times you can just ice, rest, and see how it feels over the next several days. Usually if you continue to have trouble about a week or so in, it might be worth seeing an orthopedic surgeon specialist or a primary care sports medicine specialist.
Host: Dr. Morin when we were talking about ice and heat, what about bracing and wrapping? You see people with their knee wrapped and there’s all kinds of big braces on the market today. Do you recommend that or is that sort of continue to atrophy the muscles? Does it not really support it the way you would like it to, and in which case then is strength training something that’s indicated or not?
Dr. Morin: With regards to bracing, bracing is a very individualized type of treatment. There are for sure some injuries where a brace will help. If you have a ligament injury to one of the side ligaments of the knee, a brace will help because they’re going to stabilize against any pressure going in or out and that will actually not only help with the pain but help the knee heal in an appropriate way. Other times, just knee sleeves just make the knee or the elbow feel more comfortable. They don’t provide a lot of support but in those joints you’re not really going to get a lot of atrophy of the muscle because they’re not really taking the place of any muscular function. With regards to strength training, strength training is an important part of just overall health conditioning and staying in shape, but it’s got to be done correctly. For people who have never strength trained before, worked out at a gym, I always suggest to them seeking professional advice by a trainer so that they’re doing the appropriate exercises that are going to help their injury or prevent injury because sometimes if you do these exercises incorrectly, you can actually cause injury.
Host: So then let’s talk about returning to play after an injury, if it hurts to play tennis or golf, do you supplement by biking or swimming or using the elliptical, something along those lines and if your range of motion is limited like it might be in golf, do you then work on just the flexibility? Tell us what you can do in the interim while that injury is going on and when you know it’s safe to return to play.
Dr. Morin: Yeah so that’s a great question, return to sport, return to play or activities is usually one of the first things patients ask following an injury. It really depends on the injury per say. A lot of the times there’s only certain activities that cause pain. So for example, one of the more common things I see people that enjoy running. So they like to run 5, 6, 7 times a week, they like to do long distances, but now their ankle or their hip or their knee are giving them pain and problems running. A lot of times what I’ll ask them to do is just supplement those activities with low impact activities such as stationary bike or elliptical and swimming. Anything that’s nonimpact is usually not going to put the same type of stress on the joint and they can do pain free, it’s not going to cause them more injury and it will keep them in shape. Other times, it’s just modifying the activity they do with weight training, avoiding those activities that give pain but still concentrate on an activity that will strengthen the muscle groups that they’re looking at.
Host: So as we wrap up, your best advice of prevention of sports injuries for the weekend warrior, for staying active, and even if there are some supplements or things you would like athletes to know about that can help them or maybe even help lubricate their joints, what would you like us to know, give us your best advice.
Dr. Morin: Best advice is really to eat a healthy diet, to stay active and really get a good understanding for what you can and can’t tolerate with regards to activity levels. You don’t want to keep doing an activity that causes pain, the best thing you can do is stay active but find an activity that does not cause you any discomfort, that you can continue to do and that you enjoy to do, remaining flexible and strong with regards to core and all your joints is especially important as well to make sure that you can continue to do activities that you enjoy throughout your life.
Host: What great advice, thank you so much Dr. Morin for joining us today and really sharing your incredible expertise. This is information that so many people need to know to prevent those injuries. Thank you again. That wraps up this episode of BayCare Health Chat. Head on over to our website at baycare.org for more information and to get connected with one of our providers. If you found this podcast as informative as I did, please share with your friends and families, any athletes and weekend warriors that you know and on your social media and be sure to check out all the cool podcasts in our library. I’m Melanie Cole.