OSF HealthCare Newsroom

Don’t throw your weight around, part one

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 08:00:00 -0500

Author's note: this is part one of a two part story on weight room safety. Click here for part two.

August means high school and college athletes will be back in the weight room full time, building strength so they can excel on the field.

But for Brittany Delaney, an OSF HealthCare athletic trainer who works with high school athletes, keeping people safe in gyms and weight rooms is on her mind year-round.

“I see a lot of back and neck pain” from weight room injuries, she says. “I see muscle strains – hamstrings, quads, lats, pectorals. These kids don’t necessarily know the proper weight to start at.”

Tips to know

Have good posture and body mechanics. Delaney says to have a wide base when lifting heavy weights, and lift with your legs and core, not your back. Bend your knees while keeping them straight, and bring your rear end down, she says.

“Avoid twisting motions at the torso,” Delaney adds. “Try to overexaggerate movements. When you’re doing a rotational exercise, move your feet, not just the torso.”
Keep the weight close to your body.
There’s no glory in trying to impress the room with a heavy lift, then injuring yourself. Instead, Delaney says to start with a light weight (talk to your coach or trainer on the exact number) and more repetitions, rather than a heavy weight and less repetitions.

“That way, we can work on mastering their form first. Make sure they’re doing it properly to avoid injuries,” Delaney says.

Delaney tells her athletes to try three sets of 10 repetitions. If you don’t feel pain or fatigue, you can try increasing the weight. For the upper body, go up by two and a half to five pounds. For the lower body, increase by five to 10 pounds.
Do you need a spotter for every lift? Delaney recommends having a buddy watch you if you’re lifting a heavy weight or you’re in a position to drop the weight on yourself, such as a bench press.

“That would be a major injury if you’re bench pressing and drop a weight on your chest,” Delaney warns.
Know how to use the equipment before strapping in.

The bottom line: Communication is key

“Communicate with your teammates and coaches,” Delaney implores. “It’s always OK to not know how to do an exercise and ask for help. In no situation should you be made fun of or be nervous about asking for help. Not doing so is when you’re going to get hurt.”

Learn more

Read more about how to keep your body in top shape on the OSF HealthCare website.

Interview clips

‘It shouldn’t be a barrier to play’

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 08:00:00 -0500

For the thousands of people who have asthma (a chronic lung disease that impacts your airways), the thought of vigorous exercise may be daunting. They may think, “What if I’m working out alone and find myself short of breath or worse?”

Enter Brittany Delaney, an athletic trainer at OSF HealthCare who works with young athletes on a variety of conditions, including asthma. She says workout warriors and their parents need not be afraid. You can work up a sweat with asthma if you know your body and prepare for possible problems.

“Actually, we like that [people with asthma] exercise a lot because it will help maintain a healthy weight. It also strengthens the lung muscles,” Delaney says.

“It's very important for athletes to know how to manage their symptoms when they’re in sports. That way, we can reduce the likelihood of an asthma attack,” she adds.

Signs to watch for include shortness of breath, hyperventilation (where you breathe fast and deep), dizziness, a rapid pulse, skin changes (such as turning blue) and chest pain or tightness. If those happen, Delaney says to use an inhaler, rest and, if it’s a young person, call their parents. If things don’t get better quickly, call 9-1-1.

Have a plan

Delaney says short bursts of exercise are better for people with asthma. Think of sprinting to first base in a baseball practice rather than jogging a few miles on a cross country course.

Know and avoid your triggers. If it’s a pollen-heavy day, exercise inside. Chlorine can also make asthma worse, Delaney says. So if you’re a person with asthma who swims, be vigilant about symptoms and the amount of time you spend in the pool.

“Cold weather can be a trigger,” Delaney adds. “If you’re running outside and it’s cold, put a scarf over your face to avoid cold air getting deep [into your lungs and irritating them]. Experts also say breathing through the nose rather than the mouth can decrease symptoms.”

Also a must: keep up with medication as directed by your health care provider. For most people with asthma, the first line of defense is that inhaler.

“I see a lot of athletes who carry their inhaler, but are they following directions? Are they only taking their medication when they’re starting to feel symptoms? A lot of people with asthma actually have inflammation daily. They should be taking medication daily," Delaney says.

If you’re working out or competing with others, Delaney suggests giving your inhaler to a designated person, such as a coach or trainer. That way, if you show symptoms, you don’t lose valuable time digging through your bag to find the inhaler.

Lastly, a proper warm up and cool down are key for any athlete to have a successful workout.

“I prefer starting with some light cardio to warm up the muscles. Then, do a dynamic stretch as opposed to a static stretch where you hold the pose for 30 seconds,” Delaney explains. “Dynamic is more active. Your heart rate is getting up. Your lungs are expanding. You’re getting more air in.”

Jumping jacks and lunges are examples of dynamic stretches.

Then, cool down with a light jog and some static stretches.

“Those muscles can’t go from hot to cold in a minute. You need to slow the progression down,” Delaney says.

Learn more

Read more about how to keep your body in top shape on the OSF HealthCare website.

Interview clips

Youch! Did I just pull a hammy?

Wed, 08 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0500

Here are a couple more “cheat sheets” to add to your injury prevention checklist, whether you’re a casual runner or a star athlete. The good news: there’s a lot of overlap when it comes to calf and hamstring injuries, meaning young athletes, their parents and their coaches don’t have to cram for the test.

Hamstrings

The hamstring muscles sit in the back of your upper leg and help with all kinds of activities, like walking, running, climbing and squatting.

“Hamstring injuries can happen when you change direction or speed [in athletics.] You get a sharp, sudden pain in the back of your leg,” says Brittany Delaney, an athletic trainer at OSF HealthCare. “We grade any muscle strain as grade one, two or three. Grade one is a minor pull of the muscle fibers. It could take three to four weeks to heal. With grade two, you’re going to find tearing of the muscle fibers. Those could go four to six weeks [recovery]. And grade three would be a complete rupture of a hamstring. That can lead to three to four months of rehab before returning to your sport.”

Delaney says she often sees track and field, baseball, softball and soccer athletes complain of the cramp-like pain of hamstring injuries due to the “stop and start” nature of the sports. Initial treatment is stretching and icing.

“We want to constrict the blood vessels so you don’t get a lot of swelling or bruising,” Delaney says.

Long term, the person would perform physical therapy exercises to regain full range of motion.

“To start, this should be light stretching. You don’t want to overstretch because we want the muscle fibers to heal,” Delaney explains. “Then, we move into strengthening the muscle. On top of strengthening the hamstring, you want to strengthen the quads, calves and your core. We strengthen around the injury as well as the actual injury.”

The last phase of rehabilitation would involve exercises specific to that person’s sport. Surgery isn’t common for hamstring injuries, Delaney says.

Calves

It’s a “same song, different verse” situation for injuries to your calf muscles that sit in the back of your lower leg. Delaney says sports that involve sprinting or a sudden direction change are breeding grounds for calf injuries.

“We see it in baseball and softball outfielders. The ground might be uneven. You might hit the ground just right that you’re going to feel that calf tighten up,” leading to a sharp pain or cramp-type pain, Delaney says.

Health care providers also grade these injuries one, two or three, with three being a severe rupture. Like hamstrings, Delaney says the calf muscles can heal themselves with time and rehab.

“With calves, you can immobilize [the patient]. At times, I may treat an athlete with a controlled ankle motion boot [CAM boot] to immobilize and give that calf muscle more of a rest,” Delaney says. “With hamstrings, you can just put them on crutches and be non-weight bearing for a short time.”

Delaney says a grade one calf injury is typically two to four weeks of rehab. Grade two is four to six weeks. And a grade three complete rupture can take up to 12 weeks to heal.

Prevention

For prevention of these injuries, “dynamic” is the word of the day. As in, dynamic warmups before competition. Gone are the days of just touching your toes. Delaney has her athletes combine dynamic and static stretches before a practice or game. This might mean a light job around the baseball field to warm up the muscles.

“A lot of athletes can feel these injuries coming on,” Delaney points out. “So back off and modify your activity. Cross training also helps. My long distance runners may go to the pool and work out. Weight training can help.”

Coaches and parents should also keep an eye on young athletes for signs they need a break. Talk to a professional to know the right way to treat injuries at home. You don’t want to apply heat when you should be applying ice, for example. And, empower the youngsters to speak up when they’re hurt.

Learn more

Read more about keeping your body in top shape on the OSF HealthCare website.

Interview clips

Don’t throw your weight around, part two

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Author's note: This is part two of a two part story on weight room safety. Click here for part one.

August means high school and college athletes will be back in the weight room full time, building strength so they can excel on the field.

But for Brittany Delaney, an OSF HealthCare athletic trainer who works with high school athletes, keeping people safe in gyms and weight rooms is on her mind year-round.

“I see a lot of back and neck pain” from weight room injuries, she says. “I see muscle strains – hamstrings, quads, lats, pectorals. These kids don’t necessarily know the proper weight to start at.”

Tips to know

Keep your surroundings clean and clear. When you’re done with an exercise, clean the equipment and put the weights away. When you’re resting, move away from others. Otherwise, athletes could run into each other. When cleaning, use a wet wipe or spray. If using a spray, spray the solution onto a cloth first, not directly onto the equipment. Delaney says unclean equipment can lead to transfer of germs that cause skin rashes and more ailments.
Dress for success, not to impress. Delaney chuckles when asked about people going to the gym in blue jeans, sweaters or Crocs. All bad ideas, she says.

“You want to be in something breathable because you’re going to be sweating,” Delaney says. “You’ll see people at the gym working out in sweatshirts. It’s super hot in the gym, and they want to sweat more. That’s not advised because you can increase your chance of heat illness. And those types of clothes don’t allow for full range of motion. If you can’t fully go through the range of motion, are you truly strengthening that muscle? Not as much.”

A good pair of tennis shoes are a must for everyone. For men, Delaney says shorts and a t-shirt work. For women, leggings are OK too. Not too tight and not too loose are the keys, Delaney says.

What about listening to music to get in the zone? If you’re by yourself, that’s fine. But if you’re in a group, Delaney recommends keeping your ears free of headphones so you can be aware of your surroundings. Not to mention that weightlifting is a camaraderie building exercise, too. No headphones mean you can cheer on your teammates.
Know when to stop. If you have pain, numbness, tingling or range of motion issues (such as not being able to move your neck), talk to the adult in the room.
Know the signs of cardiac arrest and where the nearest automated external defibrillator (AED) is. Delaney says every athletic facility these days should have an AED, and she says they’re easy to use by just following the device’s prompts. Someone else should be calling 9-1-1 while this is happening.

Delaney says signs of cardiac arrest include shortness of breath, lightheadedness or dizziness, nausea, heart palpitations or a racing heartbeat chest tightness and loss of pulse.

Interview clips

A shin-termission: Navigating lower leg pain

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Outdoor track and field season is underway. That means Brittany Delaney gets reacquainted with the shin – the front part of the leg between the knee and the ankle. While shin splints are a common and treatable injury, Delaney, an athletic trainer at OSF HealthCare, says it’s important to not rush back to competition.

Shin splint basics

Whether you’re a competitive athlete or a casual runner, repetitive use of your legs (especially long distances like a 1600 meter run at a track event) can bring pain, swelling, tenderness or soreness along the shin bone (the tibia). The medical term is medial tibial stress syndrome.

“It’s usually because they’re increasing the frequency or intensity of their workouts,” Delaney says. Changing surfaces can also play a role. Delaney says she’s seen shin splints in football players who run on soft grass transitioning to basketball season and a hard court.

Diagnosis and treatment

Delaney says health care providers might take an X-ray or a CT scan to determine the extent of your injury. From there, the advice is typically to rest and ease back into competition.

“If you’re in a high impact sport, alternate days and do low impact work like pool workouts or getting on a stationary bike,” Delaney suggests.

Icing the leg can also help. A trick, Delaney says, is to freeze some water in a paper cup and tear away some of the cup so you have exposed ice. Then, massage your leg with the ice block.

“It gets a lot deeper into the soft tissue as opposed to just putting a cold pack on the leg,” Delaney says.

Delaney says rushing back into competition could cause the shin splint to progress to a stress fracture, or a tiny crack in the bone. That could mean an extended time on the sideline.

Prevention

Talk to any orthopedic provider, and you’ll be told the right footwear goes a long way to prevent injuries. Delaney agrees. She says to talk to an expert, like an athletic trainer, to find the right shoe for you. Flashy and expensive isn’t always best.

“Foot mechanics play a role,” Delaney adds. “Do you have flat feet? People with no arch support in their feet typically get shin splints. It’s a hard impact as opposed to having an arch to absorb the shock.” If this is the case, you might need a shoe insert (also called an orthotic or insole).

Get on a workout plan to strengthen your midsection and legs, and stretch before and after running. Delaney also says you can try leg compression sleeves. These can help prevent swelling and muscle fatigue and increase blood flow.

Learn more

Read more about how to keep your body in top shape on the OSF HealthCare website.

Interview clips

Decoding ankle injury terms

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 10:59:45 -0600

Basketball season is in full swing, and with it comes the possibility of ankle injuries. You’ll hear doctors and television commentators rattle off different ways to describe an ankle injury. Sprain, strain, fracture and break are common ones. Marc Leonard, MD, an OSF HealthCare podiatrist, says it’s important to know what these conditions mean and how to treat and prevent them.

The good news: you don’t need to memorize four definitions.

Sprains and strains

Dr. Leonard says a sprain and a strain generally describe the same thing: when a ligament or tendon is torn or weakened.

“Maybe it’s a basketball player who twists their ankle,” Dr. Leonard suggests. “It gets a little swollen and bruised. We’re able to treat that conservatively with the acronym RICE. Rest, ice, compression and elevation.”

Fractures and breaks

Dr. Leonard says an ankle fracture and an ankle break also generally describe the same thing: a crack in a bone. He often sees this in older adults who have fallen down the stairs or on the ice.

“If there are breaks in multiple bones and we consider it an unstable ankle, then we would fix it surgically,” Dr. Leonard says. “The process is surgery, then maybe physical therapy and perhaps a brace.”

Dr. Leonard says surgery patients usually go home the same day. A doctor will use screws, staples or both to stabilize the ankle. The person then needs to rest and not put weight on the ankle for six to eight weeks.

Treatment and prevention

Amid basketball season, here’s the take-home advice for when someone suffers an ankle injury: get them off their feet.

“We would advise them to be non-weight bearing. They would use crutches until they can get an X-ray. Then we can decide whether protecting the ankle, physical therapy or surgery may be appropriate,” Dr. Leonard says.

Prevention, Dr. Leonard says, is tough, due to all the movement that comes with sports or just a jog around the block. He advises to just be sensible with your movements. If you know your body can’t handle a cutting motion that comes with running a basketball play, don’t do it. Or, when you’re walking, go slow and watch for ice. And when you do get hurt, get care quickly. Don’t play through the pain.

Dr. Leonard also says that some people with a history of ankle problems may wear a brace during any physical activity, not just when recovering from an injury. But for others, he says a brace isn’t necessary.

“Play with a purpose. Be intentional. And hope for the best,” Dr. Leonard says matter-of-factly.

Learn more

Read more about keeping your body in top shape this winter on the OSF HealthCare website.

Interview clips

Protect the Pivot: Avoiding ACL injuries

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 10:44:36 -0500

Fall sports are running at full speed, and with them come potentially career-changing injuries.

A tear or sprain of the anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, is one of the more common knee injuries in high-demand sports like football and soccer.

Keith Corpus, MD, is an orthopedic sports medicine surgeon with OSF HealthCare and Great Plains Orthopaedics. He says while the outpatient visit to fix your ACL may only take a day, the recovery time is much longer.

“It’s at least a nine month recovery process to get you back to full sports,” Dr. Corpus says. “There’s protocol we progress through. We have to get your motion back then we have to get your strength back. Then we have to get you back running, which is normally around the four or five-month time point.”

After this, patients will use crutches and wear a brace to protect the knee.

“As we progress you into higher-level athletics at the six-month time point, we transition you typically to a smaller brace that you can wear while you’re playing. Then full return to sports is, at earliest, 9 months,” Dr. Corpus says.

Dr. Corpus says ACL injuries normally happen in sports with sharp changes in direction.

“It’s really common in cutting and pivoting sports,” Dr. Corpus says. “You’ll put your foot in the ground and then turn, and your ACL can tear. It can obviously cause things like pain, but it can also cause prolonged instability and other damage to your knee.”

In the young athletic population, Dr. Corpus says the ACL almost always has to be fixed.

“There are certain populations as we age that we don’t fix them. But in our younger athletes playing contact sports, we fix them to try and prevent things from happening down the line if your knee becomes increasingly unstable,” Dr. Corpus says. “It’s certainly surgery. We basically try to make you a new ACL.”

While the circumstances of an ACL tear are often not avoidable, Dr. Corpus says there are some proactive steps you can take to protect your knee as a whole.

“Having proper mechanics when you’re cutting, pivoting or landing are important. There are strategies we can have to try and limit those,” Dr. Corpus says.

Another tip: Take your time and don’t rush into things.

“Work up into things. If you’re transitioning from one sport to another, or if you’ve been inactive for the winter and now you’re ramping up into things, make sure you’re doing so in a slow and deliberate manner,” Dr. Corpus says.

Dr. Corpus says ACL injuries are very common during the summer months with a lot of kids playing football and soccer. OSF HealthCare has orthopedic surgeons and sports medicine doctors available to evaluate you after an injury, and work through a treatment plan to get you back in action. You can find providers and locations here.

B-Roll

Video Interview Clips

Overuse in Overdrive: Don't Overdo It!

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 09:02:26 -0500

Not all sports injuries are directly related to contact or force. Many injuries, like overuse, happen over time and are often due to not being properly prepared.

Overuse injuries are repetitive microtraumas from using the same parts of the body, often while overtraining. Microtrauma can be identified as smaller tears in muscle fibers, stress on a tendon, or bone bruising. The most common early symptoms of overuse injuries are pain and inflammation.

“Stretch and make sure you’re ramping up into activities slowly,” Keith Corpus, MD, orthopedic sports medicine surgeon with OSF HealthCare and Great Plains Orthopaedics says. “When I’m talking to my post-operation patients or patients with overuse injuries, we have to focus on building back slowly.”

Dr. Corpus says overuse injuries worsen exponentially over time, and if you don’t allow yourself to rest, you can end up with long-lasting health problems.

“A lot of the injuries turn into chronic problems that are hard to get better. A lot of them are not surgical. For example, bad tennis elbow. 99% of tennis elbow gets better without surgery,” Dr. Corpus explains. “Anytime you have a chronic patellar tendinitis or quad tendinitis, if that tendon is getting weakened in some way, it leads it to increased risk of rupture. If you let these things go unresolved, they can build to bigger and bigger problems.”

One common contributor to overuse injuries that Dr. Corpus sees in patients is from weightlifting. He says minor soreness from lifting weights is not something to be worried about but allowing your muscles to heal after a workout is paramount.

“You shouldn’t go back to that activity until the soreness you developed from the first go-around has resolved. If you keep going at it, it’s just going to build inflammation in that muscle group and you’re going to get into the cycle that’s hard to break out of,” Dr. Corpus says. “Certainly, go back to it, go lower weight, lower reps than you think you should, and go fewer sets than you think you should.”

Dr. Corpus says if you are sore the next day, take an anti-inflammatory pill, apply ice to the soreness, stretch, and do a different physical activity to keep your muscles working.

“Go for a walk or light jog. Keep using the muscles, just in a different way. If you want to go back and do lifting again on that same muscle group two days later and you’re still sore, skip that day. Go to something else and don’t go back to that muscle group until it’s resolved.”

If you’ve experienced an overuse injury that won’t go away, a visit with a sports medicine doctor may be needed. You can find resources and providers here: https://www.greatplainsortho.org/

What are the most common types of overuse injuries?

Type of overuse injury	Symptoms	Possible cause
Jumper's knee (patellar tendonitis)	Tenderness right below the kneecap on the tendon	The patellar tendon in the knee joint is repeatedly pulled on, causing inflammation and pain, especially during jumping activities.
Little Leaguers' elbow or shoulder	Pain in the elbow or shoulder area, especially during activity	Repetitive overhead throwing maneuvers done inefficiently that cause damage and inflammation to the growth plates of the bones in the arm (or as a result of a fracture).
Osteochondritis dissecans	Joint pain and swelling.	A piece of cartilage in the knee, elbow, or ankle joint that separates from the joint surface. Theories suggest that it may run in families or be caused by a metabolic problem.
Sever's disease	Heel pain with limping, especially during running and jumping activities	Repetitive running or jumping activities causes the Achilles tendon to pull on the growth plate of the heel bone.
Shin splints	Pain and tenderness over the shin area	Excessive running, running on hard surfaces like concrete and incorrect shoe wear can cause shin splints.
Sinding-Larsen-Johansson disease	Knee pain, especially after jumping activities	This condition is caused by excessive traction from the patella tendon on the lower pole of the kneecap.
Spondylolisthesis	Back pain	This condition is caused by overloading the lower back in extension. X-rays show that a part of one vertebra in the lower back slips forward on the vertebrae below it. It's commonly seen in football linemen, gymnasts, and ice skaters.
Spondylolysis	Back pain	This condition is caused by overloading the lower back in extension. It's commonly seen in football linemen, gymnasts, and ice skaters. A stress fracture of one of the vertebrae is seen on X-ray.

Treatment of an overuse injury

If your child is overdoing it, the goal of treatment is to control the pain, promote healing, prevent complications, and restore normal use of the injured area.

Initial treatment for overuse injuries includes R.I.C.E. (rest, ice, compression, and elevation).

Talk with your child's healthcare provider if the injured area has a prolonged, visible deformity. Or if severe pain keeps your child from using their arm, leg, wrist, ankle, foot, or knee.

Other treatment choices may include:

Medicine
Activity restrictions
Splint or cast
Crutches or wheelchair
Physical therapy (to manage pain, identify impairments that may have led to injury and treat to reduce complications)
Surgery. Your child may need surgery if the injury happens again, they have pain that doesn't get better, or a muscle, tendon, or ligament is badly torn.

Dr. Corpus says he and his team see Little League Elbow or Little League Shoulder often. The repetitive, overhead throwing can lead to soreness, fatigue, and loss of control. The take home message is to rest.

“When we have kids come in with little league shoulder, the main treatment is shutting them down from throwing a baseball. They are able to live their life, but we have them stop throwing for usually at least a month. Then once everything has calmed down, we start a very gentle and slow return to a throwing program and ease back into things. At the same time, we also focus on mobility, strengthening, and mechanics of the throwing motion to make sure we aren't putting undo stress across the shoulder,” Dr. Corpus says.