A committed sports enthusiast, Ben Foreman has suffered shin splints, chronic heel pain, back problems and broken bones. Such injuries are relatively common for hard-core fitness buffs but somewhat surprising considering Ben's age: 14.
Basketball, which he's been playing since he was 5, has been the source of most of Ben's injuries. "He's played seven days a week, no less than two hours a day, since starting," says his mother, Caroline Aaron, of Los Angeles.
Recently he made his high school's varsity team, and his workouts intensified. "He was playing from 6:30 to 8:30 in the morning and then required to play again from 5 to 7 after school," she says.
For years, pediatricians have been warning parents about the dangers of childhood inactivity. A sedentary lifestyle during the early years increases the risks of obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, stroke and perhaps cancer later in life. But children can get too much of a good thing -- even exercise -- as demonstrated by the large number of injuries in children participating in competitive sports.
Inspired by the superstars they see on television, and often pushed by their parents and coaches, young athletes are motivated to train harder and play more intensely than ever before.
Many children are electing to concentrate on a single sport at a very young age, exposing the same muscles, bones and joints to physical stress all year long. Children who specialize in track may run as many as 10 to 15 miles every day; gymnasts and tennis players might spend hours each day tumbling or swinging at balls.
But children suffer the same types of injuries, such as tendinitis and stress fractures, that adults develop when they overdo exercise. Repetitive pitching or throwing, for example, can cause inflammation of the tendons of the elbow (a condition referred to as Little Leaguers elbow); inflammation of the tendons of the knee can be triggered by repetitive jumping.
Stress fractures also are increasingly a young person's problem. They typically occur in the lower legs of runners and basketball players, in the hands of tennis players and in the wrists of volleyball players. In 2001, a stress fracture involving the spine forced junior tennis player Sam Wagner off the court at a national tournament. "He bent over to pick up a ball and was in so much pain he couldn't stand up," recalls his mother, Diane Wagner.
