Remembering why we introPLAY

We started introPLAY to help all our Players train hard and train together to reach higher levels of health and fitness. The main elements of introPLAY are sports, camaraderie, competition and fun. If you’re having fun, the achievements and health benefits will follow. Regardless of what your personal or group goals are, we know that consistently working out is the only way to get there.

On the eve of the launch of the new introPLAY, we remember and renew our commitment to creating a community dedicated to the improvement of our collective physical health and conditioning. Recently, health experts reminded us of how bad the obesity epidemic will get if we do not do something about it. They projected that 86% of Americans will be overweight or obese by 2030 if the current trends continue. This statistic is shocking: it means that 312 million of us will be overweight or obese in less than a single generation.

Not only that, but we need to work out more to sustain weight loss. Researchers now recommend 55 minutes of exercise 5 days a week for sustainable weight loss. That is significantly more than the traditional 5×30 (30 minutes of exercise 5 times a week) that has been promoted. It is also said that being consistently active is the single most important factor in achieving sustainable weight loss–perhaps even more important than diet.

This is a call to action for every one of us. We at introPLAY are committed to doing our part by providing a community that revolves exclusively around sports and activities to help us be engaged in consistent physical activity. Most importantly, we need to have fun together. If you are in great shape, then get involved and help out someone who has a tough time with working out or someone who is struggling with weight loss. Start an introLEAGUE and stay on top of one another’s workout habits. Let’s get our families, friends, work colleagues and everybody to introPLAY together.

Link Science Daily and link to Time

Female Athletes and Knee Injuries

We here at introPLAY want all our Players to train to reach their utmost potential and achieve their personal goals. One of the most important things to remember is the need to train smartly and focus on injury prevention. With that in mind, we want to help spread awareness on preventing knee injuries suffered by female athletes.

Several weeks ago, the New York Times Magazine featured an article entitled “The Uneven Playing Field.” The author discussed at length injuries sustained by female athletes, focusing on ACL injuries in younger female soccer players.

The author mentioned one routine that focused on injury prevention, called the PEP Program created by the Santa Monica Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Group. The PEP Program is a 15 minute warm up replacement session, meant to be practiced 2 to 3 times per week. Results from this program are proving to be successful in bringing down the number of ACL injuries experienced by women playing soccer. (A PDF of the program can be downloaded here.)

Also, in an article released today, Medical News Today reported that the Neurologic and Orthopedic Hospital of Chicago has released a pamphlet titled “Leveling the Playing Field: Knee Injury Prevention Strategies for Female Athletes.” The pamphlet reports facts on such injuries and tips and techniques to help prevent them. Unfortunately copies are not available online. You can contact Sandy Langston at 773-250-1009 or email sjlangston [at] neuro-ortho [dot] org to request a copy.

If you are a female athlete or you are a coach or trainer charged with the conditioning of female athletes, we highly recommend you take a look at the PEP Program and the Neurologic and Orthopetic Hospital pamphlet and adopt some or all of the routines recommended by these great, free resources.

Big Changes are Coming!

In a few short weeks we are going to be putting out a completely new version of introPLAY! We listened to all the great feedback from our Players and made a number of changes and additions to the site. Here are some things you can expect with our official launch:

• New look. Cleaner interface, easier to navigate.
• Faster!
• Easier to communicate with other Players
• More analysis
• More “friend” features

Thanks to all our current Players for your support, feedback and comments. We are really excited to bring you a better introPLAY!

Moose at the U.S. Olympic Trials

The U.S. Olympic Trials is still going on in Eugene, Oregon. The decathlon took place over two days on Sunday and Monday. introPLAY’s own Mustafa Abdur-Rahim finished in 9th place out of a field of 20 in the decathlon.

We here at introPLAY salute Moose’s strong performance at the Trials. We are definitely inspired by your will and determination, Moose. Thanks for representing us at the biggest athletic stage in the nation.

If you are interested in keeping up with the all the results at the U.S. Olympic Trials, please click here.