Proper warm-up, conditioning exercises can help prevent youth sports injuries

Even though snow is still falling, banners and signs are sprouting up everywhere announcing open registration for any number of youth sports and activities. Whether you’re the parent, coach or lucky to have both titles, as adults it is our job to make sure these budding athletes learn proper technique, and build muscle and strength throughout the season to help prevent injuries and damage to their growth plates.

However, young athletes do not have the same capacity to build muscle mass and strength as older athletes. Therefore, it is important to use age-appropriate exercises.  My foundation, the Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine Teaching & Research Foundation (OTRF), developed a general exercise program consisting of warm-up, finishing and conditioning exercises that can be used for all youth sports. Click to download a PDF copy of this program, or visit otrfund.org/sports-performance-programs for a complete list of all sport and activity-specific programs available as PDFs.