The physicians at Orthopaedic Associates of Zanesville welcome Dr. James Gasparine to the practice. Dr. Gasparine comes to Zanesville from West Virginia University where he completed his sports medicine fellowship. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from West Virginia Wesleyan College. He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from West Virginia University.

Dr. Gasparine is board-certified in family medicine in Florida, West Virginia and Ohio. He completed his residency at the University of South Florida with a concentration in nutrition and weight loss. Dr. Gasparine also worked for the Seminole High School football team as its physician and with Division I collegiate athletics while a resident at the University of South Florida and a fellow at West Virginia University. He manned a medical tent for a World Ironman competition and acted as team physician for the Arena Football League team, the Tampa Bay Storm.

Dr. Gasparine is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Medical Society of Sports Medicine and the American Medical Association. He will be a strong sports medicine resource for the Zanesville community and throughout southeast Ohio.

OAZ’s southeast Ohio Orthopaedic surgeons are pleased to see the National Physical Activity Guidelines recently released. The plan provides a roadmap to get people moving and meeting the recommended amount of activity. It addresses the behavioral, policy, educational, medical, and physical infrastructure issues that affect how and why many Americans are not moving. It also unites professionals across sectors – health care, transportation and urban planning, business, education and recreation – in a massive effort to unite and solve the problem.   

Good news southeast Ohio… summer is just around the corner, which means swimming season! While not a sport associated with high risk of injury, it can create issues for the shoulder. Improper technique or just overuse can cause pain, but you can prevent it.

According to About.com, here are some helpful tips:

1. One of the most important things in stroke technique when it comes to freestyle and avoiding shoulder injuries is to bend your elbows underwater during the pull. This is proper form and will keep you from putting your shoulder in an awkward position that leads to a rotator cuff problem.

2. When you’ve had some time away from swimming and are resuming training, always ease back into it. If, for example, you train with weights and had a 3-month layoff, you wouldn’t try to max out on your bench press the first day back. The same applies to swimming. Instead of jumping back in and resuming the 5,000 meters you were doing before your break, start with something very light, like 1000 the first day, 1200 the next, etc.

3. Avoid the use of pull buoys and paddles. Although it is tempting, buoys merely give you a false sense of floatation and put unnecessary tension on your joints, especially your shoulders. Although there are paddles designed not to cause shoulder problems, most of the paddles out there are not needed in training, and will cause shoulder problems if you give it enough time.

4. Swimming only freestyle at all of your workouts may seem like a good idea if you are training for a triathlon, but you will gain more from cross training with other strokes. And most importantly, excess in any one stroke leads to a higher probability of an “overuse” injury.

5. If you breath to only one side, you will develop the muscles more on one side than the other, and this could cause a breakdown and a shoulder problem. Incorporate bilateral breathing into your workouts to avoid this. If it is extremely awkward at first, start with just breathing bilaterally in warm-up and warm-down, and slowly add it into the rest of your workouts as it becomes more comfortable.

Tell us, southeast Ohio, where’s your favorite place to swim?