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.

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The goal of this collaboration is to elevate the quality, efficiency and safety of orthopedic care by integrating clinical and administrative leadership. The collaboration will bolster resources, with an initial emphasis on general orthopedics and total joint care while continuing our focus on sports medicine. 

The OSF Orthopedics with OrthoMidwest office will be located at the expanded space within the current OSF Medical Group – Sports Medicine building at 2406 E. Empire in Bloomington. OSF Rehabilitation will also occupy space in this facility.

Joining OrthoMidwest will be Robert Seidl, MD, an orthopedic surgeon who focuses on sports medicine and serves as the medical director for Illinois State University athletics and Illinois Wesleyan University athletics through the relationships that OSF HealthCare has with both universities.

Additionally, Bryce Paschold, DPM, is a podiatrist who focuses on foot and ankle concerns.

Brad Cole, APRN, Joseph Meyer, PA, and Jeff Williamson, PA, will also join this team.

“At OSF Medical Group – Orthopedics, we further strengthen our commitment to providing exceptional personalized care for the community,” said Sarah Zallek, MD, chief medical officer at OSF HealthCare St. Joseph Medical Center. “Our collaboration with OrthoMidwest allows us to bring additional resources, including leading-edge technological advancements, to enhance the experience for our orthopedic patients. With the support of our board-certified physicians and dedicated staff, we’re prepared to positively impact the orthopedic patient journey.”

“The expanded relationship between OSF HealthCare and OrthoMidwest is rooted in shared values of excellence, dedication, and innovative patient care,” said Derrick Frazier, interim president of OSF St. Joseph. “Our collaboration will facilitate the exchange of best practices, ultimately enhancing the standard of care to new heights.”

Tyler Neal, DO, an orthopedic surgeon, will be leaving Orthopedic Sports Enhancement Center to pursue new opportunities. We are grateful for his dedication and commitment to our patients and community.

The agreement between OSF HealthCare and OrthoMidwest took effect on December 1, 2024. Appointments to this team will continue to be made by calling the existing phone number of the previous Orthopedic & Sports Enhancement Center, which is (309) 663-9300.

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) makes clear that energy drinks are “fundamentally different” than sports drinks like Gatorade or Powerade. 

But scrolling through social media or strolling through the grocery store aisle, and the lines start to blur a bit. When quarterback Justin Fields was a rookie, he inked an endorsement deal with C4 – an energy drink brand.

More recently, CELSIUS signed six Heisman Trophy “hopefuls” to NIL (name, image and likeness) deals. The company’s slogan is “live fit,” a motto many athletes can relate to.

Karan Rai, MD, is a sports medicine physician with OSF HealthCare who works in partnership with Illinois State University to see and treat ISU athletes. He says he’s having a lot of conversations with athletes about these types of drinks, and he always urges caution.

"Quite a few of them are not FDA approved," Dr. Rai says. “The reason that matters is that we often don't know the exact ingredients or mix of ingredients that are in the drinks. Depending on what's in the drink, that can affect your performance and your health. For example, caffeine is commonly involved in making these drinks.”

CELSIUS and C4, both have 200mg of caffeine content in a 16 ounce can. In contrast, a can of Pepsi has 38mg in a 12-ounce can, while an average 8-ounce cup of coffee has between 80-100mg of caffeine. Dr. Rai says higher levels of caffeine can have a negative effect on performance.

"It can cause excessive energy, anxiety and jitteriness, which depending on your sport or activity, can affect how you play,” Dr. Rai says. "The data is still a little bit mixed on the benefit things like green tea extract or guarana are providing, which are commonly marketed and used in sports drinks. 

In terms of what liquids athletes are putting into their bodies, Dr. Rai likes to break down hydration based on the activity.

"In activities that are generally 60 minutes or less, I recommend maximizing your water intake and timing that for at least 30-60 minutes before your activity," Dr. Rai says. “Then as you get into longer duration activities with more endurance, and you're pushing that 60-minute mark or longer, that's when you need to look into the type of electrolytes you're ingesting as well. Looking at drinks or gels out there that have a mix of sodium and potassium. Those typically help with performance during your activity.”

Another sign if you’re drinking enough water? The color of your pee.

"I often tell my patients and athletes to consider their urination. Typically, we have various scales we use based on your urine color, the amount you're urinating and how thirsty you feel. That can play a role in deciding if you need to hydrate with water alone or use a sports drink like Powerade or Gatorade. Or if you need to adjust your salt intake, things like that," Dr. Rai says.

If you have an underlying heart condition, are younger than 18 or are pregnant, Dr. Rai urges you to steer clear of these drinks.

“With quite a few of the sports performance drinks nowadays, which CELSIUS is one of them that's more publicized, the amount of caffeine in it, and ingredients like guarana, which has a caffeine component to it, can exacerbate underlying arrythmias,” Dr. Rai says. “This can put someone with a pre-existing risk at a higher risk.”

Sports drinks like Powerade and Gatorade have a sugar and electrolyte component that is "fairly safe," Dr. Rai says. But the effects of Celsius, Prime and other drinks out there aren't fully understood yet. So, proceed with caution. Talk with your primary care provider or sports medicine physician to get an individualized take on it. 

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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.

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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?

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.

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