Focus on What You Can Control: Brown Alpert Med School Orthopaedic Surgeon’s Advice to Athletes
Smart Health on GoLocalProv
Focus on What You Can Control: Brown Alpert Med School Orthopaedic Surgeon’s Advice to Athletes
“These are unprecedented times and you know sports certainly has taken a back burner at every level — of course, the professional athletes get the most attention but college sports has been a huge hit,” said Owens.
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University Orthopedics' Owens is the Team Physician at Brown as well as for the Providence Bruins.
Preparing to Come Back
“In general, conditioning can be challenging right now. I think redoubling your efforts, focusing on the things you can control — you can’t control COVID and all the impacts on society but you can control your own condition, whether that’s aerobic conditioning — running, biking,” said Owens, of his advice to athletes.
“Some people are getting really inventive, folks that don’t have weights available to them are working out with milk jugs of water, sand etc. and focusing on core [strength],” said Owens. “In addition, you mentioned diet and maintaining body weight. Some people have unfortunately been more sedentary than they usually would be. You’re going to come back at potentially a higher body weight and that impacts not just athletes but us middle-aged folks trying to stay in shape.”
Surgeries in Focus
“Patients — and their safety — is our number one priority, so we work and communicate directly with the Department of Health and they’ve strongly encouraged us to continue to take care of our patients,” said Owens. “We’ve transitioned to telehealth for many but we’ve also continued to do semi-urgent surgeries for people that otherwise would have to be at the hospital.”
Owens is a Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Brown and Chief of Sports Medicine at Miriam Hospital. He is a board-certified orthopaedic sports medicine surgeon whose clinical practice focuses on complex knee, shoulder, and cartilage injuries.
About Alpert Medical School -- and Smart Health
Since granting its first Doctor of Medicine degrees in 1975, the Warren Alpert Medical School has become a national leader in medical education and biomedical research.
By attracting first-class physicians and researchers to Rhode Island over the past four decades, the Medical School and its seven affiliated teaching hospitals have radically improved the state's health care environment, from health care policy to patient care.
"Smart Health" is a sponsored content segment on GoLocalProv.com featuring experts from The Warren Alpert Medical School on GoLocal LIVE.