One of the most beautiful things about working and living in this part of the country is the convenience.

At the Post Independent, the newsroom’s go-to mountain is Sunlight Mountain Ski Resort to fulfill our need for fresh powder.

At the Aspen Times, writers can whip up a story, reach their early afternoon deadline and then walk a few blocks toward Aspen Mountain for a couple runs.

Then you account for all the lovely trails, rivers and lakes in the mountains. Which means, no matter what time of year, there’s always something to do.

Like anyone, we sometimes suffer through injury and ailment, especially as we age. Here’s how we at these valley newspapers try staying fit and maintaining our mobility

Back to normal

My girlfriend had to help me put on my socks.

Using the bathroom was much more of a burden than relief.

The typical dinner libation grew to three or four.

The epic 2022-23 ski and snowboard season was heaven, but the past four months of my life were hell.

On a fateful day in May, I sneezed too hard. Suddenly the disc in my back bulged and doctors at Grand River Health in Rifle told me it irritated my sciatic nerve. 

Abject pain ensued. Ice picks stabbed my lower back every day. Persistent electrical currents felt like they constantly incinerated the veins in my legs, which were partly immobile at that point.

I then sunk into a depression deeper than the snowpack of Mount Sopris. 

Summer was supposed to be my skateboarding days. Instead, I was mostly marooned on a couch, a fistful of muscle relaxers and negative thoughts.

I, simply put, was a giant man baby (still am).

Injury — even suffered by the young (I’m 34) — takes a heavy toll on mental health. A potent concoction of vulnerability, hopelessness and delirium attack the psyche, and suddenly we’ve spelunked below zero with no harness.

How do you get over it? How do you convince yourself everything will be OK? 

Everyone I encountered during these awful days imparted their advice on how they personally got over their back issues. See a chiropractor, pay for acupuncture, kidnap a masseuse, they told me.

All valid suggestions. 

I’ll never forget one day, however, a friend of mine told me that, at the end of the day, I’m just going to have to wait and be patient. To this day, some of the best advice I ever received.

Wait and be patient. 

Reflect on how you got to this point: 

I didn’t stretch properly before hitting the slopes. I scarfed filth like a scavenging New York pigeon. I didn’t work on my core if I wasn’t at Sunlight or upvalley. 

Reversing course, I then looked into the future: 

I’m not dead yet. I’ve overcome other challenges in life, surely I can heal and, before I know it, I’ll be back in a pair of bindings, shredding in the winds.

My doctor and girlfriend also convinced me to quit being so stubborn and pursue physical therapy. So, reluctantly, I did. 

Now, I’m not going to promote one healing method over another. But the absolute angel of my physical therapist at Grand River gave me new hope.

We had appointments at the end of every week all summer. I dreaded getting into my car every Friday and causing an accident getting there. But in addition to the stretches, electric shock therapy and hip alignments, my therapist told me my nervous system had degenerated but that it will build back. We also talked about simple life things. She told me about a novel she was writing. I talked about my favorite restaurants in Glenwood Springs.

Sitting in the waiting room was also interesting. I smiled at older patients leaving their appointments hunched over walkers and canes, construction workers with limps, people rolling in wheelchairs.

Don’t take yourself for granted, I thought.

Then, over time, less and less my girlfriend had to help me clothe myself. Bathroom trips were easier. Even Glenwood Springs residents watering their plants while I passed by them on my afternoon walks said, “You’re walking again!”

Whenever you find yourself in catatonic state of despair, let people in. Absorb the positivity, and look beyond the horizon of this breathtaking valley.

For me, I look forward to being back at Sunlight.

A board underneath my feet. A brisk breeze at the top. An ice-cold beverage at the bottom.

— Ray K. Erku, Post Independent and Citizen Telegram managing editor

It takes more than just putting one foot forward

I was bounding down the north end of Scout Trail when being young at heart finally caught up with me.

With 10 months sobriety, I had reconnected with the joys of physically pushing myself further than I had in years. I was a new runner and figured a pair of trail shoes and running shorts was all I needed to get started. 

Partly from embarrassment of being slow but mostly from thinking that running was simply putting one foot in front of the other (hopefully quickly), I didn’t so much as read an article on beginning trail running, let alone seek out advice from so many knowledgeable locals. It was a mistake that caught up with me in less than a dozen runs.

That day on Scout Trail I was breezing through the cool springtime evening, enjoying the sun setting west through South Canyon. Coming through a flat section, I extended my stride into near-leaps — forgetting in the fun of the moment about my stubborn weak left ankle. A hard landing on loose dirt was quickly followed by my ankle bending inward and sudden shooting pain. I remember the shock at how much pain there was despite the fact that I hadn’t tripped or fallen. I sat down in the middle of the trail for a moment, breathing hard and wondering if I’d broken something.

I was fortunately able to limp back to my truck, but the injury lingered well past a few weeks. It joined me for many bike rides, hikes, a few trepidatious runs in the fall and then for much of the ski season. It’s much better a year and a half later, but my ankle still gets sore on days with lots of verticality.

I’m very lucky it wasn’t worse — and the event taught me how important it is to be intentional in caring for my body; that intentionality is what will carry me into the great outdoors for years to come.

Talking with those more knowledgeable than I helped me understand the importance of warming up and stretching on a regular basis. Even then, I put stretching off as a tedious activity I was too busy to bother with for a few more months. The difference in how I felt when I finally started a stretching routine was remarkable.

I also got a lot of good advice about being patient: you don’t have to burn yourself out in the first mile. People get faster by seconds over months or years, and focusing on maintaining a steady pace for longer will help you enjoy the outdoors more and recover faster.

All of this might seem obvious, but it’s not — it’s also easy to ignore when we’re in one of the most beautiful parts of the country surrounded by so many athletically capable people. But keeping ourselves humble and realistic in our wellness goals means we’ll be able to enjoy more of the Roaring Fork Valley — and western Colorado in general — for years to come. That’s what we hope to help inspire you to do with our Longevity series this fall.

— Peter Baumann, Post Independent and Citizen Telegram publisher and editor

Listen to your body

As I count down the days until my ankle replacement surgery in October, it’s given me time to reflect on what got me to this point and what I’ll do differently going forward. 

My life has been filled with running, hiking, skiing, skimo, triathlons, and more. I have hundreds of races and thousands of miles under my belt, and am accustomed to the normal niggles of tight calves, plantar fasciitis, and ITB pain that can come from constant training. Anyone in this valley can share stories of ski injuries, sprained ankles, and overuse, and, more often than not, can pinpoint the direct reason for the pain. Whether it’s doing a 14er off the couch, not stretching, skipping gym days, or doing a flying superman dismount from your mountain bike, we know what we did to contribute to our injury. 

And that is why I was so confused seven years ago when my left ankle went from feeling solid on a training run to non-weight bearing in the span of two hours. In retrospect, I’d felt a niggle in my ankle for the week or two prior, and had been dealing with a mild fever, but I chalked it up to pre-race tapering stress, and maybe being a bit run down. Overall, I was feeling good and was beginning to focus on getting enough sleep, hydrating, cross-training, and doing yoga because being in my 40s, I knew I had to do more than lace up and run. 

On crutches, with a clear X-ray and MRI, my doctor and I were at a loss until the cultures from my ankle fluid came back to show that I had a staph infection in my ankle joint. Since I had not paid attention to the signals my body was sending, the situation was way beyond taking antibiotics and going back to my routine. My ankle joint was flushed out to minimize damage, I was non-weight bearing for six weeks, and was put on IV antibiotics for four. 

Things like arthritis and never running again were mentioned. I saw arthritis as something future me could deal with, and I even worked my way to running again, albeit for shorter distances and at a more leisurely pace. As for the arthritis, that kicked in about three years ago, and “future me” is now dealing with end stage osteoarthritis, with the options of fusion or replacement. 

While admittedly mourning the things I can’t do at present, I’ve gained a greater appreciation for the things I can do. I enjoyed every moment of a recent and decidedly chill bike ride, soaking up the warmth of the sun on my arms and relishing in the golden leaves all around me. Mobility work and lifting weights are more critical now than ever, both to prepare for recovery from the surgery and set me up for many active decades to come.

Most importantly, I’ve learned I can’t take my body for granted. My list of mountains to climb, ski, and traverse, bike rides to take, and general adventures to go on is long. The best outcome of my replacement is no limitations and greatly reduced pain. To get there, my training at 53 will be much different than it was in my 30s and 40s. Now, I won’t just hear what my body is saying, I’ll actually listen, with stretching, mobility work, weight lifting, and walking as the norm, and big adventures being my just reward. 

— Allison Patillo, The Aspen Times publisher

Biking, running, and swimming at any measurable distance prove to be challenging workouts. Roll all three into one race and you have an event that would push the boundaries of anyone’s body. But for a women’s team of triathletes in the Roaring Fork Valley, that challenge can be conquered alongside strangers turned sisters and plenty of adaptive training.

“We’re good at teaching people the sport. And we’re teaching them to believe in themselves, that they have more than they think they have to give,” said Head Coach Carla Westerman, 59. “We teach them to enjoy what they’re doing and that the process of ‘becoming’ is way better than ‘being’ part of it. The process of becoming that triathlete is better than being a triathlete.”

The Roaring Fork Women’s Triathlon team was founded in 2000 by Judy Haynes and Nancy Reinisch as an outlet for women of western Colorado to reconnect with athleticism they may have known in their youth. But over the years, the team’s mission evolved to introduce women of any athletic ability to triathlons. 

The team generally consists of about 25 returning athletes and 25 first-timers, or “babes” as they’re affectionately called on the team. 

Training starts mid-May, with the women committing to two weekly training sessions as a team, plus whatever they can do on their own time. Coaches teach the team about road running, trail running, hill running, track running, road and triathlon cycling, and swimming in a pool then open-water swimming. 

The summer of training culminates in the Outdoor Diva Sprint Triathlon in Longmont on the third Sunday in August. It consists of a half-mile swim, an 11.8-mile bike ride, and a 5k run around Union Reservoir.

Last month, the team celebrated their 24th season and 45 team members competed in the race, some taking first place in their division.  

Age spread among the athletes ranges from 17-68 last season, but the team has recruited women up to age 73 in the past. 

“It’s not just the fastest ones or the slowest ones — that’s not really what we’re about. We have a space for everybody,” Westerman said. “And we will make it as comfortable as we can and we will do everything we can to get you across the finish line.”

Westerman, alongside co-lead coach Sharma Phillips and a roster of six assistant coaches, has designed a program to prepare the team for the race in Longmont since 2018, when she stepped up as lead coach. 

They focus on meeting women where they are and challenging them to perform their best and never sell themselves short as a competitor or teammate. Westerman herself started on the team in her 40s without a storied athletic career behind her. But the team met her where she was and taught her the tools to succeed. 

“I learned to swim at the ripe old age of 45 (or 46) and completed my first sprint distance and was hooked. Hooked on the sport, hooked on the team. I guess it filled a void in my life,” she said. “I’d always had this image in my head of an athlete that I wanted to be, but didn’t quite know how to get there until I joined the team.”

For Assistant Coach Sydney Miller, 29, joining the team was a natural next step. She swam in college, committed to CrossFit for a while, and coached triathlon at Colorado Mesa University. But after moving to the Roaring Fork Valley in 2020, she was looking for a community. 

COVID-19 threw a wrench in her plans — then she became a mom two-times over — but this past season Miller finally got to participate with the team. 

“It was just physically good for me, emotionally good for me, and mentally good for me to be a part of a team like that,” she said. “I was around so many women that had the same mindset and same goals and like-mindedness of wanting to push themselves to be better and help each other.”

Miller coached swimming for the team, and said that coaching for a group of women ranging in age from 17-68 differed greatly than coaching a group of 18-22-year-old college athletes. For one, she said, everyone wanted to be there. 

“Coaching was so easy because the team wanted to learn and they just soaked it all up so much,” she said. “Every practice it was like, ‘OK, what can we do better? Can you watch this? How can I improve this?'”

But challenging moments arose when a certain drill wasn’t clicking or a lingering injury complicated a set. Miller said that happened a fair bit with the team, but refocusing her team member to an adaptive move or stressing the importance of rest prevented injury.

“Sometimes you just need to have someone feel your frustration, and just listen, take it in,” Miller said. “(Addressing the issue) was either changing the set so they can still participate or just having them rest and knowing and reassuring them that rest is OK. It’s not going to hold you back. It’s not going to deter you from your goal. It’s just reminding them that yes, it’s frustrating, and it’s hard. But the more we take care of it now, the faster that we can get around it and get you to that end goal.”

For one team member, learning the value of rest came down hard. Sherrie Setterberg, 66, has competed with the team for 12 years, serves the team as assistant coach, and shows no signs of slowing down. 

She’s been competing in triathlons for about 34 years, just after the birth of her oldest child. In high school, she said her sport was synchronized swimming, noting that she was a teenager when Title IX passed. 

“I would say that triathlon is what picks me up, it gives me that reason to kind of push through, and I love it for that. I just love it. I really don’t see myself stopping,” she said. 

Setterberg plans her race schedule every January — entrance fees are lower if you sign up early. And she once even qualified for nationals, which serves as a motivator to keep improving and qualify again, especially after a grueling year for her health. 

About five years ago, Setterberg was diagnosed with breast cancer. After a mastectomy and starting on a year of chemo treatments, a skier collided with her. That crash resulted in a broken femur and a severe concussion, she said. And the main thing that kept her motivated was the hope of competing again. 

“The sport of triathlon was my carrot. It was like, I’ve got to get through this. I’ve got to do my PT, I’ve got to finish my chemo. I waited for my doctors to say, ‘Yep, go ahead.’ (The doctor said) I won’t be able to train all summer like you really want,” Setterberg said. “I couldn’t push against the wall while swimming because my chest still wasn’t up to speed … And I said, ‘I don’t care how I do. I just want I don’t care if I’m not trained up, I just want to go.'”

And the summer following cancer treatment and the crash, Setterberg competed. Training was complicated because she still couldn’t push off the pool wall and her femur was recovering, but her teammates got her through it.

Everyone agreed that the sisterhood among the team is what makes it so special. Making intergenerational friendships and sharing advice, competitive drive, and compassion keeps the team close-knit.

“We start as 50 strangers. And then as the season goes on, and they are training together and they are riding in our cars at the Harvey Gap when we started our open water training, and they start to make these connections with each other,” Westerman said. “And by the time we get (there), we’re a team of sisters.”

Biking, running, and swimming at any measurable distance prove to be challenging workouts. Roll all three into one race and you have an event that would push the boundaries of anyone’s body. But for a women’s team of triathletes in the Roaring Fork Valley, that challenge can be conquered alongside strangers turned sisters and plenty of adaptive training.

“We’re good at teaching people the sport. And we’re teaching them to believe in themselves, that they have more than they think they have to give,” said Head Coach Carla Westerman, 59. “We teach them to enjoy what they’re doing and that the process of ‘becoming’ is way better than ‘being’ part of it. The process of becoming that triathlete is better than being a triathlete.”

The Roaring Fork Women’s Triathlon team was founded in 2000 by Judy Haynes and Nancy Reinisch as an outlet for women of western Colorado to reconnect with athleticism they may have known in their youth. But over the years, the team’s mission evolved to introduce women of any athletic ability to triathlons. 

The team generally consists of about 25 returning athletes and 25 first-timers, or “babes” as they’re affectionately called on the team. 

Training starts mid-May, with the women committing to two weekly training sessions as a team, plus whatever they can do on their own time. The summer of training culminates in the Outdoor Diva Sprint Triathlon in Longmont on the third Sunday in August. It consists of a half-mile swim, an 11.8-mile bike ride, and a 5k run around Union Reservoir.

Last month, the team celebrated their 24th season and 45 team members competed in the race, some taking first place in their age group.  

Age spread amongst the athletes ranges from 17-68 last season, but the team has recruited women up to age 73 in the past. 

“It’s not just the fastest ones or the slowest ones — that’s not really what we’re about. We have a space for everybody,” Westerman said. “And we will make it as comfortable as we can and we will do everything we can to get you across the finish line.”

Westerman, alongside co-lead coach Sharma Phillips and a roster of six assistant coaches, has designed a program to prepare the team for the race in Longmont since 2018, when she stepped up as lead coach. 

They focus on meeting women where they are and challenging them to perform their best and never sell themselves short as a competitor or teammate. Westerman herself started on the team in her 40s without a storied athletic career behind her. But the team met her where she was and taught her the tools to succeed. 

“I learned to swim at the ripe old age of 45 (or 46) and completed my first sprint distance and was hooked. Hooked on the sport, hooked on the team. I guess it filled a void in my life,” she said. “I’d always had this image in my head of an athlete that I wanted to be, but didn’t quite know how to get there until I joined the team.”

For Assistant Coach Sydney TK, 29, joining the team was a natural next step. She swam in college, committed to CrossFit for a while, and coached triathlon at Colorado Mesa University. But after moving to the Roaring Fork Valley in 2020, she was looking for a community. 

COVID-19 threw a wrench in her plans — then she became a mom two-times over — but this past season TK finally got to participate with the team. 

“It was just physically good for me, emotionally good for me, and mentally good for me to be a part of a team like that,” she said. “I was around so many women that had the same mindset and same goals and like-mindedness of wanting to push themselves to be better and help each other.”

TK coached swimming for the team, and said that coaching for a group of women ranging in age from 17-68 differed greatly than coaching a group of 18-22-year-old college athletes. For one, she said, everyone wanted to be there. 

“Coaching was so easy because the team wanted to learn and they just soaked it all up so much,” she said. “Every practice it was like, ‘Okay, what can we do better? Can you watch this? How can I improve this?'”

But challenging moments arose when a certain drill wasn’t clicking or a lingering injury complicated a set. TK said that happened a fair bit with the team, but refocusing her team member to an adaptive move or stressing the importance of rest prevented injury.

“Sometimes you just need to have someone feel your frustration, and just listen, take it in,” TK said. “(Addressing the issue) was either changing the set so they can still participate or just having them rest and knowing and reassuring them that rest is OK. It’s not going to hold you back. It’s not going to deter you from your goal. It’s just reminding them that yes, it’s frustrating, and it’s hard. But the more we take care of it now, the faster that we can get around it and get you to that end goal.”

For one team member, learning the value of rest came down hard. Sherrie Setterberg, 66, has competed with the team for 12 years, serves the team as assistant coach, and shows no signs of slowing down. 

She’s been competing in triathlons for about 34 years, just after the birth of her oldest child. In high school, she said her sport was synchronized swimming, noting that she was a teenager when Title IX passed. 

“I would say that triathlon is what picks me up, it gives me that reason to kind of push through, and I love it for that. I just love it. I really don’t see myself stopping,” she said. 

Setterberg plans her race schedule every January — entrance fees are lower if you sign up early. And she once even qualified for nationals, which serves as a motivator to keep improving and qualify again, especially after a grueling year for her health. 

About five years ago, Setterberg was diagnosed with breast cancer. After a mastectomy and starting on a year of chemo treatments, a skier collided with her. That crash resulted in a broken femur and a severe concussion, she said. And the main thing that kept her motivated was the hope of competing again. 

“The sport of triathlon was my carrot. It was like, I’ve got to get through this. I’ve got to do my PT, I’ve got to finish my chemo. I waited for my doctors to say, ‘Yep, go ahead.’ (The doctor said) I won’t be able to train all summer like you really want,” Setterberg said. “I couldn’t push against the wall while swimming because my chest still wasn’t up to speed … And I said, ‘I don’t care how I do. I just want I don’t care if I’m not trained up, I just want to go.'”

And the summer following cancer treatment and the crash, Setterberg competed. Training was complicated because she still couldn’t push off the pool wall and her femur was recovering, but her teammates got her through it.

Everyone agreed that the sisterhood amongst the team is what makes it so special. Making intergenerational friendships and sharing advice, competitive drive, and compassion keeps the team close-knit.

“We start as 50 strangers. And then as the season goes on, and they are training together and they are riding in our cars at the Harvey Gap when we started our open water training, and they start to make these connections with each other,” Westerman said. “And by the time we get (there), we’re a team of sisters.”

The next Longevity Project event is slated for 5:30-7 p.m. on Oct. 4 at The Arts Campus At Willits (TACAW), 400 Robinson St., Basalt. The panel is titled, “How to maintain mobility, balance, and athleticism throughout life” and will feature experts in the field.Tickets can be purchased at aspentimes.com/longevity-project-2023-fall.

Editor’s note: This is the second of the series The Longevity Project, a collaboration between The Aspen Times and the Glenwood Springs Post Independent.

They swim, they run, they ski, they bike.

They conquer.

There are truly some unbelievable Roaring Fork and Colorado valley residents out there who maintain fantastic physique regardless of their generation.

These ageless, ironclad athletes are not only relentless when it comes to health discipline — they’re inspirational.

For the second installment of this year’s Longevity Project, the Aspen Times and Post Independent sat down and picked the brains of these folks.

And what we found out is, it’s a lot easier to overcome life’s greatest challenges if you’re fit.

Fit is fantastic

When Gary Miller was faced with life-threatening illnesses, he almost gave up. But putting up a fight proved to be the best response. 

“I think a lot of people just give up and that’s an easy trap to fall into,” Miller said. “The worst thing you can do is give up.” 

Originally, the Garfield County retiree said he did give up. He said he started balancing his checkbook and cleaned his garage. It was then, however, he reversed course. 

His solution: exercising.

Miller was diagnosed with kidney cancer and congestive heart failure and his doctor didn’t sound too optimistic about his recovery. Miller was very active throughout his life, but had a knee replacement surgery six months before his cancer diagnosis. 

There was about a year he wasn’t able to work out, and he seemed to have the odds stacked against him, which made giving up seem so easy.

“Congestive heart failure diagnosis is almost the kiss of death,” he said. “I am very lucky and very fortunate.”

He started slowly, working himself and his heart rate up. 

“I was watching myself get more and more healthy through tracking my heart recovery rate,” Miller said. 

Miller said he made the doctors remove his kidney, and when they did they were shocked it wasn’t as bad as they thought. With the cancer out of the way, his doctors said he could then focus on his heart.

Swimming and mountain biking were the treatments he needed to bring his heart back. 

“Going into a sickness being fit is so helpful,” Miller said. 

Although he didn’t start as an athlete, swimming and then mountain biking became things he loved doing.  

“I wasn’t an athlete in high school,” Miller said. “I started managing the for the (Glenwood Hot Springs Pool) and got addicted to working out and fitness. I fell in love with mountain biking.”

Starting slowly and getting a heart rate going is what he recommended for people just beginning to exercise, whether for the first time or after taking a long time away from it. 

“Building these short distances and staying with it is important,” he said. 

Warming up before extensive exercise was also recommended. For example, if someone thinks they will lose their breath on Doc Holliday’s Grave Trailhead, they should warm up by walking a couple blocks on a less-steep section beforehand, Miller said. 

“I’ve always been aware of maintaining a rapid heartbeat recovery from peak,” Miller said. 

And bringing your heart rate back down steadily after a good exercise is helpful for heart health. 

Breathing is also important for working up to harder forms of exercise and heart health, he said. Make sure to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. And don’t hold your breath, he said.

“I really feel like I stumbled onto a process of recovery from congestive heart failure that worked for me,” Miller said. “At 76 years old, I consider myself pretty darn athletic.” 

Formidable Frenchy

Attitude goes a long way in staying healthy late in life, and nobody embodies that better than longtime Roaring Fork Valley resident Jacques “Frenchy” Houot. A passionate skier and cyclist who was competing in Aspen Cycling Club events into his 80s — he officially “retired” from competition in recent years — his journey to becoming one of the area’s most passionate racers was showcased in a short documentary called “The Frenchy” by Michelle Smith, which made its debut in 2018.

“I am 41-years-old, each leg,” Houot said in the film, which documents him skiing shirtless, biking technical terrain, pedaling a fat tire bike through snow, paragliding, and offering nuggets of wisdom from his Carbondale home.

In talking with the Aspen Times around the film’s release, Houot credited laughter with being what’s kept him going all these years. He admitted to surviving cancer, a heart attack, an avalanche, and numerous crashes.

A nagging back injury, he said in the film, was cured by volunteering at a disabled military veterans’ ski race at Aspen Highlands.

“They don’t complain,” he said then. “I said to myself, ‘I don’t have a right to complain.’ … Then I said, ‘No problem!’ to my back. That fixed me.”

Even when not competing, Houot could always be found near the course, cheering racers on, whether that be on skis or a bike. His continued enthusiasm for the sports — not to mention his distinct accent — is part of what drew Smith to want to focus on Houot for the documentary. As Smith recalled, he was eager to share his life story and his idiosyncratic health remedies — often arriving at her home unannounced to impart wisdom, tell jokes, chat about his day or discuss the latest World Cup results.

“The energy was infectious,” Smith said then. “He is just nonstop.”

“I want people to think that it doesn’t matter how old you are, you can still do what you want with your life, have fun and laugh,” Smith added. “That’s the most important thing. … You can defy aging if you have the right attitude.”

Not just another day

As the brisk morning air fills the Roaring Fork Valley, 62-year-old Mike Vidakovich embarks on a run that challenges many half his age. This isn’t a new pursuit; it’s a testament to a lifetime of athletic tenacity and a steadfast dedication to well-being.

“I’ve been lucky when I was a sophomore in high school here playing basketball. I had to have minor knee surgery over Christmas break, but I was right back out on the court like three weeks later,” Vidakovich said.

Despite the years and various sports he’s engaged in, injuries have been few. When they have occurred, his recovery approach combined advice, intuition and a dose of patience.

“I just seek advice from people who have had similar little setbacks and just try to do the rehabilitation,” he said, referencing a previous leg ailment. “I would still go out and jog for a little ways. And then I’d walk when it started to tighten up.”

Beyond the occasional injury, Vidakovich’s commitment to fitness isn’t just about physical prowess. It’s also a mental game.

“I’ve always enjoyed exercise, especially the anaerobic stuff like distance running,” Vidakovich said. “I like to see how far I can push myself.”

For Vidakovich, age is just a number. He remains the oldest player in the Rifle co-ed softball league and stays active with regular stints at the athletic club. His morning ritual often includes runs near West Glenwood, pushing himself up challenging terrains and reflecting by a creek.

His advice for those looking to stay active as they age? Don’t stop.

“There’s no stopping,” Vidakovich said. “I’ll be 63 in November and it’s much more difficult to try to come back if I stop now. I just enjoy it. Movement, runs, softball, golf. Part of it I may even call competitiveness, but I feel I was born to push myself and I enjoy doing it.”

And perhaps that’s the secret. Every morning Vidakovich wakes up in the Roaring Fork Valley, it’s not just another day. It’s a bonus, another opportunity to push limits and savor life’s vibrant pulse.

Channeling energy

Sheldon Wolitski’s story is one of transformation. At 51, his earlier years on the hockey rinks during high school and college came with a cost: lingering shoulder injuries that forced him to quit the game by his sophomore year. 

“The impact on my body became overwhelming,” Wolitski said.

Now, with a household bustling with five children under the age of nine, he’s channeled his energy into a pursuit of longevity and optimal living.

“The injuries from my hockey days set a trajectory. Longevity is now front and center for me,” Wolitski said. “At 51, living an optimal life has taken precedence.”

As the founder and president of Colorado Xtreme Hockey, Wolitski’s commitment to health isn’t just a personal endeavor. His home is a testament to this, featuring wellness tools like hyperbaric chambers, cold therapy units, a 210-degree sauna and red light therapy.

“After hockey, I started competing in Ironman competitions. By my eighth competition I started to understand the importance of recovery,” Wolitski said. “From there, focusing on longevity, especially as an older father, was a clear path.”

Wolitski’s vision expanded to the workplace when he founded Aspen HPX, an organization welded to assist those looking for a healthy lifestyle. There, a study aimed at employee wellness and peak performance yielded impressive results — a 35% increase in performance for employees involved with organization compared to their counterparts.

“Taking care of oneself has tangible benefits, both professionally and personally,” he observed.

For those keen on emulating his approach, Wolitski points to Tony Robbins’ novel “Lifeforce” as a starting guide. He’s also a staunch advocate for functional integrative medicine, emphasizing its holistic and preventive perspective.

“The healthcare landscape is evolving. A holistic, preventive approach is the future,” Wolitski stated. “Grasping one’s biomarkers and connecting with the right medical experts can redefine health.”

For the former hockey player, the pursuit of longevity is a game worth playing, and in the Roaring Fork Valley, he’s seizing each day with purpose.

The next Longevity Project event is slated for 5:30-7 p.m. Oct. 4 at The Arts Campus At Willits (TACAW), 400 Robinson St., Basalt. The panel is titled, “How to maintain mobility, balance and athleticism throughout life” and will feature experts in the field.

Tickets can be purchased at https://www.aspentimes.com/longevity-project-2023-fall/.

Editor’s note: This is the first of the series The Longevity Project,a collaboration between The Aspen Times and the Glenwood Springs Post Independent.

When former Olympian Jeanne Golay recalls her racing days, her emphasis isn’t just on winning championships or representing her country in the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympics. For Golay, the daily commitment to movement was and remains her secret weapon.

“I aim for at least an hour of exercise per day, preferably biking,” Golay said. “A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself, ‘Can I accomplish this task on a bike?’ If the answer is yes, then you should do so for your health.”

The Roaring Fork Valley resident, 61, who holds three U.S. National Road Race Championships and was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2008, believes in the importance of consistent movement.

“Daily movement, even if it’s just a short walk of a few blocks,” Golay said. “Navigating variable terrain like sidewalk curbs and inclines helps to maintain balance and coordination. I’m trying to do more high-impact activities like hiking and walking, given that age and menopause contribute to a decline in bone density.”

But what of those who aren’t Olympians or professional athletes? Is there a simpler regimen they can adopt to maintain their fitness, balance, and mobility?

Danelle Docken, a Doctor of Physical Therapy at Grand River Health, thinks so.

“One of the biggest challenges I see, especially as people age, is just the ability to stay moving,” Docken said. “Our bodies are a use-it-or-lose-it system.”

To aid in the quest for lifelong mobility, Docken recommends a series of simple stretches.

“First, focus on your calf muscles by getting into that runner’s pose up against a wall and stretching the calf,” Docken said. “A seated hamstring stretch is great for balance. Sit with one leg extended out and lean forward to work that back hamstring muscle and glute.”

For spinal mobility, Docken suggests a cat-cow seated position. 

“Sit upright, open your arms out wide, then bring them around as if hugging a barrel,” Docken said. “This benefits your cervical spine down to your sacral region. Also, work on some posterior and anterior hip tilting for balance and mobility.”

Lastly, arm stretches can improve posture. 

“Try simple doorway or corner PEC stretches. Ensure your hands are below your shoulders and lean into a doorway to open up the chest,” Docken said.

“These stretches can go a long way in helping keep your mobility and balance and also strengthen your posture,” Docken added.

But it’s not just about stretches. As Docken highlights, the sedentary lifestyle can be a silent killer.

“It can happen so quickly,” Docken said. “Someone can get sick, lay down for a week, and the body needs to revamp its energy. But you start to lose muscle mass so quickly.”

To shift perceptions of exercise, Docken suggests a linguistic tweak.

“Exercise is viewed as such a negative word. It’s like the word diet,” Docken said. “Nobody wants to do it. Just moving a little bit more, even if it means walking from your doorstep to the end of your driveway and back up, that’s day one. Exercise doesn’t have to be done all at once.”

As for Golay, she believes in the power of repetition and adaptation.

“Our bodies are truly amazing, especially our capacity for adaptation,” Golay said. “‘Getting in shape is the result of creating new habits and perpetuating them over time. My muscles were sore at the start of each day’s stage, but once warmed up, I felt like a well-tuned Ferrari.”

Both Docken and Golay agree: Whether you’re an Olympian or just someone looking to stay mobile, the journey to lifelong fitness starts with daily movement.

The next Longevity Project event is slated for 5:30-7 p.m. Oct. 4 at The Arts Campus At Willits (TACAW), 400 Robinson St., Basalt. The panel is titled, “How to maintain mobility, balance and athleticism throughout life” and will feature experts in the field.

Tickets can be purchased at https://www.aspentimes.com/longevity-project-2023-fall/.

Editor’s note: This is the first of the series The Longevity Project, a collaboration between The Aspen Times and the Glenwood Springs Post Independent.

Whether the lure of a ski bum winter or the appeal of a summer hiking 14ers, something about the mountains in the Roaring Fork Valley draws people from across the country in and holds them here.

Many journey to Aspen for a ski season, taking jobs in the hospitality industry to make ends meet while skiing as many days as they can fit in. While some call it quits after a single winter, others fall in love with the picturesque scenery and the tight-knit community and decide to plant their roots here.

Ellen Winter came to Aspen after graduating from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. She planned on doing one winter as a “ski bum” before moving back to pursue jobs aligned with her degree in marketing and communications.

“My first job was at Gwyn’s High Alpine, working as a server at the sit-down restaurant,” she said. “I thought I had made it in life because I was commuting to work on a chairlift, while all my friends were commuting in traffic.”

She wrapped up her first season in Aspen and headed back to Minnesota, where she got married the following summer. Her husband decided he wanted to give the ski bum winter a try, and the pair headed back to Aspen for another season.

“He worked for a bank ,and I worked back up at Gwyn’s. We just loved it,” she said. “You come for a winter, stay for a summer, and then you’re here for life.”

The Winters were fortunate to stitch their existence in Aspen with affordable housing and rentals, which Winters said was one of the biggest hurdles when it came to staying in Aspen.

After a couple of seasons at Gwyn’s, she took a job at Grassroots TV doing marketing and communications, what she went to college for.

“Grassroots introduced me to the Aspen community in such a different way,” she said. “It just made me love the community even more.”

Now she’s the marketing director for Christie’s International Real Estate, and her husband works for the city of Aspen Transportation Department. They have two daughters they are raising in Aspen and have created a network of friends through connections they found in the community.

“A lot of the jobs that I’ve had, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. And so, being in a tight-knit community, and starting in the service position and growing to know the network of people that live here and visit here allowed me to change jobs and find new opportunities here,” she said.

Her time in the service industry is what allowed her to create a life for herself in Aspen, as well as invaluable skills she still carries with her in her job today.

“So much of what serving is is what marketing is, which is selling ideas,” she said. “Being able to multitask and hustle, I think, has stuck with me.”

After graduating from the University of Denver in 1997, Katherine Fry had a job in human resources with the city of Denver lined up. A friend of hers had an interview in Aspen, and since Aspen was one city in Colorado Fry had yet to travel to, she decided to join her friend for the trip.

“I woke up in the morning, and I opened the blinds, and I was overlooking Red Mountain. And I was like, ‘I am moving here,'” she said.

She marched down to the HR department at what was then the Ritz-Carlton and now the St. Regis and got a job at the fitness center. She said she went back to Denver to let her employers know she was relocating, then she moved to Aspen and has been here ever since.

“I fell in love with Aspen completely unexpectedly and sort of uprooted my future plans because I had to live in this valley,” Fry said.

She knew she wanted to use her degree in human resources and gave herself a year to find a job that aligned with her passions in Aspen. She spent her first six months in the fitness center at the Ritz Carlton scheduling massages, cleaning pools, and maintaining the fitness equipment.

“It was just such a fun summer,” she said.

In November of the same year, Fry got a job as an HR coordinator for the Aspen Club. The Ritz-Carlton was closing, and she was determined to find a job, so she could stay in Aspen.

“I just didn’t want to leave. I was hell bent on figuring out how to stay here,” she said.

Fry’s job at the Aspen Club is just one of the few positions she held before starting her own consulting business in 2022. She worked at Design Workshop for 12 years and then at the town of Snowmass Village for six.

“I wanted to be ingrained in my community, and the town of Snowmass Village had never had an HR professional. So I sort of developed the fundamentals for them,” she said.

Last winter, Fry blew out her knee and was forced to take her first-ever break from working in human resources after having her foot on the gas for 25 years.

“I took the opportunity to say, ‘OK, what do you actually want to do? What do you love about HR?’ And I just realized I really love the coaching side of HR. I’ve done career coaching for 25 years, but I really wanted to start to narrow down and focus on that element,” she said.

Her time off allowed her to go back to school for coaching, and from that, Marble Peak Consulting was born.

Through her company, Fry helps clients transition from deficit-based thinking to asset-based thinking. With 25 years of coaching experience, her passion lies in helping humans lead and live by leveling up, individually and collectively. 

Holding multiple jobs allowed her to hone in on what she wanted to do and now. She preaches the same thing to her clients.

“No matter what age you are, you can completely refresh your life. You can completely risk you know, re-invent yourself; it’s just never too late,” she said. “I think that’s so exciting.”

Her advice for someone moving to the valley who wants to make a life there is simple: It’s all going to work out.

“Sometimes, we get caught in patterns of deficit-based thinking. So, being mindful of our thoughts, understanding the power of our brains, and choosing thoughts like, ‘It’s going to work out’ is powerful,” Fry said.

Every year, an estimated 1.5 million people in the United States are diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury (TBI). For some, they may experience a mild concussion. For others, the impacts of brain injuries can be long-term or even deadly.

For those in the age group 65 years or older, the impacts of brain injuries can be the most severe when compared to other age groups. According to the National Library of Medicine, an estimated 80,000 people in this age group visit an emergency department each year with concerns of brain injury. 

One doesn’t need to be in the NFL or participate in extreme sports to endure the harmful affects a brain injury can have on the body. A simple fall, for some, can change the rest of their lives in the a blink of an eye.

Falls are the leading cause of TBI-associated death in the United States for women over 75 years old and men over 85 years old.

“Falls are one of the most common reasons why older adults get brain injuries,” said Krista Fox, occupational therapist at Aspen Valley Hospital. “And, it’s usually falls from just a standing height.”

The National Institute of the Aging estimates that one in four people ages 65 or older will experience a fall every year.

While no one can predict a fall, there are plenty of preventative measures one can take to better protect themselves.

According to Fox, there are three main areas to focus on when preventing accidents that could lead to TBI:

1.) Biologic

This population may experience muscle weakness, changes in their vision, changes in sensation of their feet, or alterations in equilibrium. With this, it’s recommended to see a physician if you notice any changes in your balance. In addition, physical exercise is highly recommended in order to build muscle and improve joint, tendon, and ligament flexibility, according to the National Institute of the Aging.

2.) Behavioral

Inactivity in this age group is a cause for concern when thinking about how to prevent falls. When someone is inactive, they may have slower reaction times, making falls more likely when active. By cultivating an active lifestyle, one can improve their overall health and balance.

3.) Environmental

Decluttering one’s home can significantly prevent falls. In addition to maintaining an organized space, it’s highly recommended that this age group make alterations to fall-proof their home. This can include having hand rails on both sides of a stair case, getting rid of rugs, and keeping electrical chords out of walkways. These small alterations may seem like insignificant improvements, but they can help save one’s life.

For more tips on how to fall-proof your home, read The National Institute of Age’s tip guide.

What to do if you’re a caregiver of an elder

While experiencing a traumatic brain injury is a significant injury, those who may have a TBI may not even know an injury has happened. One can experience brain fogginess as a symptom of their brain injury or not remember that a fall had occurred, making it challenging to recognize the severity their accident.

According to Fox, if you’re a caregiver of someone who may be significantly impacted by TBI’s, it’s important to ask questions like: “Have you fallen in the last year?” and “Do you have concerns with your balance?”

If you’re concerned that someone you know in this age group may have fallen, she recommends to bring them to a doctor.

“We always recommend that if you have concerns about falling as an older adult, or have concerns for a family member, to see your physician get physical therapy because it is clinically shown to help people,” she said.

Activities for seniors in Aspen

In addition to keeping in mind the three areas to prevent falls, seeing a doctor if you have concerns with your balance and coordination, there’s also groups for those 65 years or older can participate in here in Aspen to improve their overall health.

Pitkin County Senior Services Center offers balance, yoga, tai chi classes and more to seniors. Aspen Recreation Center offers a fitness program designed for seniors called Silver Sneakers.

To reach Kristen Mohammadi, call 304-650-2404 or email kmohammadi@aspentimes.com.

Editor’s note: This is the third of a weekly series The Longevity Project, a collaboration between The Aspen Times and the Glenwood Springs Post Independent.

In 2016, Aspen resident Nadine Adamson, 66, spent the Fourth of July in Aspen enjoying the parade in front of Jerome Hotel. The following day, however, changed her life.

On July 5, 2016, she was riding her bicycle on her way to pick up groceries from City Market. She was going to attend a potluck later that evening. She can recall her grocery list: organic spinach, berries, and nuts. What followed was a blur.

She learned years later that she biked her way across the river. She imagines she was taking in the beautiful mountainous terrain and perhaps lost sight of what was in front of her. On her way back from the store, she catapulted over the handle bars of her bicycle.

Her head hit the street first; the front of her skull fractured.

“My whole body flew over the handlebars,” said Nadine, who was 59 at the time.

“I was riding a bike without a helmet, which is something I can’t emphasize enough: Always wear a helmet when you’re riding a bike,” she said. “No matter how old you are, wear a helmet.”

Her friend, David, was bicycling home from work and found her lying on the ground. There was blood coming from her head and mouth. Her eyes were rolling back in her head.

She was rushed to Aspen Valley Hospital. Then, she flew in the Flight For Life helicopter to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Lakewood.

She was later told the doctors didn’t think she would live.

“I’m sure maybe with all the different vital signs that the doctors took, that’s why they really didn’t know if I’d survive the flight or not,” said Nadine. “Thank goodness I did. God had better plans for me.”

She has three daughters, one of whom took a photo of her while she was in the hospital.

“All I could think of was right away is how I must have scared my three daughters horribly,” said Nadine, after seeing the photo.

However, after the feeling of horror set in, she let out a chuckle. The metal rod coming out of her head reminded her of a television show she used to watch as a child called “My Favorite Martian.”

She spent two weeks at St. Anthony’s Hospital. Then, she was transferred to Craig Hospital in Denver.

In recovery, she had to go back to relearning the basics. She spent over a month relearning to walk. She relearned how to use the left side of her body, as she couldn’t quite open her left hand.

Learning to drive was one of the most lengthy recovery-processes, taking over a year. Her driving therapist, Lizzy Ransbottom, later told her that her treatment process inspired a new program at Aspen Valley Hospital.

“She said, and because of that, we’ve helped hundreds of people that have had TBI, accidents, or strokes,” said Nadine. “They’ve been able to incorporate that program to help several people. So, I think that’s a huge blessing.

“I’m so thankful and grateful for that.”

Despite the long recovery process, the devastating injuries, she knows her recovery is a miracle.

Bicycling and Traumatic Brain Injuries

While many may think of brain injuries in connection to football, bicycling is actually the type of recreation in which traumatic brain injuries most commonly occur, according to The American Association of Neurological Surgeons. 

Nadine is one of an estimated 596,972 U.S. residents who went to the emergency department during the time 2009 through 2018 for bicycle-related TBIs.

While we cannot predict when an accident may occur, wearing a helmet while riding your bicycle has been proven time and time again as a way to mitigate the impacts of bicycle-related injuries.

According to a meta-analysis of 55 studies, “The use of bicycle helmets was found to reduce head injury by 48%, serious head injury by 60%, traumatic brain injury by 53%, face injury by 23%, and the total number of killed or seriously injured cyclists by 34%.”

Despite the benefits of wearing helmets, many still do not wear helmets while riding their bicycles. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed 4,170 U.S. residents in the summer of 2012 and found that only “29% of adults and 42% of children always wore a helmet.” 

Colorado ranked No. 6 in the country in The League of American Bicyclists’ 2022 “report card” of the most bicycle-friendly states. Despite the popularity of bicycling here, Colorado state law does not require the use of helmets while riding a bicycle.

Exercise as Medicine

While Nadine was in recovery, her doctor told her that she would likely not be able to return to her long career as a real-estate agent in the Denver area.

“I have to agree with him on it when I think about it now,” said Nadine. “I think there was a lot more healing needed to happen over the next couple of years.”

Fortunately, she had another part-time career that she was told she encouraged to continue, teaching Zumba.

During her last week as an inpatient at Craig Hospital, her therapist scheduled her to instruct a Zumba class. Some of her friends from the Denver area, patients, and therapists came to the class, which was scheduled to be only 30 minutes long.

After instructing the class, Nadine learned she had led the class for 45 minutes, 15 minutes more than she anticipated.

“I handled it, and I think that they were pleasantly surprised that I did that so good,” she said. “I said, you know, that’s amazing.”

Now, six years following the accident, she instructs Zumba once a week in Aspen.

“It’s a happy thing,” said Nadine. “It just makes you feel really good.”

In addition to the emotional health benefits of Zumba, her doctor told her by teaching and participating in Zumba classes, she was creating new pathways in her brain.

“A neurologist at Craig Hospital showed me a scan they had of my brain, and there were two different dark areas there, and he said, ‘That will never come back,’” said Nadine. “So, to regain everything, to learn to adapt, learning to walk, and all that, plus the dancing and Zumba, it’s all really good because it’s building new pathways in my brain.”

Nadine’s hopeful recovery

Nadine said her name translates to “hope” in French, in line with the kind of person she is and her preservation through her accident.

During the challenges of her recovery, she was frequently asked about her emotional state and whether she experienced depression or feelings of hopelessness. But, she always tried to look on the positive side of things.

“I’m a happy person,” she said. “I’m mainly just so grateful and thankful.”

She credits God, the neurologists and doctors, as well as the treatments available to her recovery.

To reach Kristen Mohammadi, call 304-650-2404 or email kmohammadi@aspentimes.com.

You can help prevent traumatic brain injury

Be sure to wear a helmet or appropriate headgear whenever you or your children:

• Ride a bike, motorcycle, snowmobile, scooter or use an all-terrain vehicle;
• Play a contact sport, such as football, ice hockey, or boxing;
• Use in-line skates or ride a skateboard;
• Bat and run bases in baseball or softball;
• Ride a horse; or
• Ski or snowboard.

Helmets should be age-appropriate, fit properly, be well-maintained, be worn consistently and correctly and be appropriately certified for protective use.

While there is no concussion-proof helmet, a helmet can help protect your child or teen, and adults, from serious brain or head injury. Even with a helmet, it is important to avoid hits to the head.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Returning to play after a concussion

A concussion is a type of mild traumatic brain injury caused by a forceful blow or jolt to the head or body that disrupts how the brain normally works. A person does not need to be knocked out or lose consciousness to have a concussion.

Many parents wonder if it is safe for their young athlete to return to playing football, soccer, lacrosse or other sports after a concussion. An appropriately trained health care provider can answer these questions and provide guidance on when it is safe and sensible for an athlete to return to sports.

Athletes should not be allowed to continue playing sports, including practices and conditioning, while recovering from a concussion for a variety of reasons:

Recovery time: In one study among high school athletes, athletes who were immediately removed from play after a concussion recovered twice as fast as athletes who continued to participate.

Worsening symptoms: Strenuous activity soon after a concussion has been associated with worsening symptoms.

Increased risk: Parents and young athletes should be aware that a second head injury while an athlete is recovering from a concussion can increase the risk of complications, including the potential for worsening symptoms and longer recovery.

Catastrophic brain injuries, such as those that result in death or permanent neurologic injury, are extremely rare in youth sports. Nevertheless, it’s important to understand that they can happen so that they can be identified immediately and appropriately managed.

Source: Children’s Hospital Colorado

Editor’s note: This is the second in a weekly series called The Longevity Project, a collaboration between The Aspen Times and the Glenwood Springs Post Independent. Read part 1, “Traumatic Brain Injuries in the High Country” in the Oct. 17 Post Independent.

Every high school sports sideline, courtside or team box in Colorado has an extra-special set of eyes and ears on the action.

While the coaches and players focus on trying to call or make the best play, athletic trainers are close by intently focused on the heads themselves.

If a player stays on the turf, floor or ice for an extended time after a play, or gets up a little wobbly, certain concussion protocols must be followed, per state law which is now written into the rules of the Colorado High School Activities Association.

“Sometimes you see a hit or a fall, or something that might cause a concussion, and it’s our job to assess the kid from there,” said Ryan Erickson, Certified Athletic Trainer (CAT) for Roaring Fork High School in Carbondale.

“Other times you don’t see what happened, but a kid will self-report or come over and say they’re not feeling right,” he said.

Then there are times when it’s not immediately obvious to the player or the sideline staff that an injury may have occurred, or, in the heat of game battle, the player won’t speak up right away.

That’s when those eyes and ears have to be especially astute in order to keep health and safety at the forefront of youth sports.

Erickson is part of a team of CAT’s sponsored by Valley View Hospital/Valley Ortho in partnership with the Roaring Fork School District to provide preventative services, emergency care, therapeutic intervention and rehabilitation for student-athletes at Glenwood Springs, Roaring Fork and Basalt high schools.

Erickson’s work, along with Marni Barton at Glenwood Springs and Mike McCann at Basalt, covers the gamut of sports-related injuries and medical conditions. But concussions and protection against traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) through very careful “return-to-play” policies and procedures are a major focus.

At National Athletic Trainers’ Association conferences he’s attended over his 18 years as a trainer, Erickson said that about a third of the overall attention is given to concussive head injuries. That includes prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.

“It’s a major topic, and there is lots of new research coming out constantly,” he said.

The texts he used in college in 2005 on the topic might as well be tossed out, but not because the people who were researching and studying it at the time didn’t know what they were doing, he said.

“They were the leaders in research and the care of concussions,” Erickson said. “It’s just that so many new things have come to light, and we need to stay up with that.”

Concussion law

The Colorado Legislature in 2012 passed Senate Bill 40, or the “Jake Snakenberg Youth Concussion Act,” named after an athlete from Grandview High School in Aurora who died after suffering a concussion during a football practice.

The law laid out a series of measures and protocols to protect young athletes from head injury during sports, including:

• Requirements for coaches to take annual training around proper concussion protocol.
• Immediately removing athletes from play who sustain a suspected concussion, and not allowing them to return to a game or practice the same day.
• Notifying parents if their child has been removed from play due to a suspected concussion, and providing them with information about signs and symptoms so that they can monitor their child at home.
• Ensuring that a health care provider evaluates the player and gives written clearance for them to return to play, including practices and games.

Kim Gorgens is a neuropsychologist, board-certified in rehabilitation psychology, and also a professor for 22 years at the University of Denver. She helped write Jake’s Law, and continues to be a brain injury policy advocate.

“At the time, Colorado was really out in front in responding to the risks due to concussions in sports,” she said. “There’s been a real push since then to quantify the risk for players, so that those in charge can make the right decisions.”

Gorgens gives TED Talks on the subject, focusing on preventative measures in youth sports, from pee-wee leagues through middle school and into high school, return-to-play policies and sharing information about DU’s biomarker studies around the long-term impacts from head injuries, including dementia and other conditions that appear with age.

“There is a lot of research on some of the poorer outcomes, so that we can better understand what confers the risk for these really terrible outcomes,” Gorgens said. “We are coming to understand youth sports brain injury from every angle, and we’re working really hard to do better by coaches, trainers and parents who are out there coaching on the sand lots.”

Sideline protocols are critical when it comes to avoiding successive concussions, which can lead to more severe TBIs.

When a suspected concussion occurs, coaches and trainers get involved by checking for any immediate symptoms and questioning the players directly involved or who might have witnessed what transpired in order to know what to look for.

“We gather the history of what happened, look for any symptoms they may have at the moment, test their balance and just generally observe them and their behavior,” Roaring Fork’s Erickson said. 

Symptoms typically include headache, dizziness, nausea, vision problems such as double vision, and sudden sensitivity to light or sounds.

“From that, it’s usually not very hard to determine if they have a concussion,” Erickson said.

But that’s not his call. A medical doctor is often on site at the game or event, or on call so that they can come and give the diagnosis.

Concussions aren’t limited to contact sports, either, he said.

“Football gets all the attention, because of the violent nature of the sport,” Erickson said. “But soccer can have as many or more concussions, and in basketball you have kids taking charges and hitting their head on the hardwood.”

Oftentimes, it’s not the initial blow from contact with another player that causes the concussion, “it’s you falling hard and hitting your head on the ground or the court,” he said.

Prevention key, but no fail-safes

DU’s Gorgens is also involved on the technology side of protective sports equipment — another science that’s ever-evolving, but an area where youth sports programs have a hard time keeping up.

And it’s an area where Colorado has fallen behind other states on the prevention side, due to high equipment replacement costs and a lack of routine equipment replacement plans, Gorgens said.

Following the implementation of Jake’s Law, school districts across Colorado were able to ride a funding push to buy new, more-advanced football helmets and other equipment, such as extra-protective Guardian caps that can be used on helmets during practice. Some soccer teams also began using protective headgear.

But much of that equipment is now at or beyond its lifespan, leaving school and club sports programs to hold fundraisers to buy new equipment, Gorgens said.

“We’re having bake sales for brain health, which is sad but true,” she said.

“It is an expense, and it’s an ongoing expense. And it’s an investment that school districts, especially the smaller ones, really wrestle with,” she said.

Gorgens said there may be opportunities for high school sports programs to obtain equipment through corporate research sponsorships, similar to college and professional programs, to test some of the newer advancements. Helmets can be equipped with what are called accelerometers, which measure the G-force and provide important research data, she said. 

“Manufacturers need that field research,” she said.

Glenwood Springs High School head football coach Tory Jensen said much of the protective equipment in his program is at the end of its life cycle. But even that seven-year-old equipment is far superior to what he used in his playing days, and even in his earlier coaching days at Roaring Fork High School in the early 2000s.

“We had terrible equipment when I played, and we hit 10 times harder than we do now,” Jensen said of the evolution of his sport.

“It’s a conversation that has been going on at the high school level for, what, 20 years now,” he said. “It’s a question of how we help our athletes work through playing a collision sport, and it’s difficult. As a coach, it’s unnerving when a head injury happens. You don’t want to see any athlete, or any parent, go through it.”

It’s the down side of any sport, whether it’s a collision sport like football, or even skateboarding, skiing and snowboarding, or mountain biking.

“We are a very active community, and we put ourselves at risk all the time,” Jensen said. “It’s definitely a part of our culture in this valley, no matter what you do.”

More to prevention than padding

There’s a lot more to prevention than just wearing the proper, up-to-date protective equipment.

As Erickson said, “There’s no perfect helmet.”

For Jensen’s football squad, it starts in the weight room.

“The number one thing we do to prevent those kinds of injuries is getting into the weight room and doing the strength and conditioning training you need to help your body absorb the contact that comes with football,” he said.

That can apply to any sport, really. 

“We work on the preventative piece year-round, just trying to get in the weight room as much as possible and working on our strength and conditioning, so when a collision happens you’re less likely to get injured.”

Gorgens concurs.

“Neck strength in particular is a really important predictor in avoiding head injuries,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons we’re really focusing now on the junior high kids, because they don’t have the neck muscular build yet to be able to take those hits.”

Strength and conditioning is a big part of recovery from a head injury, too. 

“The physical therapy field has really emerged as a leader in successful treatment, which runs upstream to doing more on the prevention side,” Gorgens said.

Proper conditioning is a practice Jensen said he carries into his athletic pursuits as an adult. 

“I play hockey all winter long,” he said. “It’s not really a contact sport but, yeah, there’s contact, whether that’s a collision with another player or contact with the ice.

“Think about it; a bunch of old dudes on skates, sometimes things don’t go the way you want it to.”

Staying properly hydrated during physical activity is also key to avoiding injury, including head injuries, Jensen said.

One of the things he emphasizes with his athletes is avoiding energy drinks and certain supplements, which can have the negative side effect of causing dehydration.

“Part of the concussion prevention piece is dehydration, because your brain works within a liquid base that helps protect itself from bumping into the skull,” he said. “If you’re on a two-hour mountain bike ride and crash in the last hour when you’re dehydrated, it’s going to have more of an impact on your body.”

Recovery to return

“The only healer in a brain injury is time. It just takes time,” Jensen said.

A bad concussion can sideline a player for the rest of the season, if not longer. That’s just one of the risks, he said.

The statistics coming back from the National Football League around prevention and proper recovery when concussions occur is encouraging, and something youth programs can learn from, Jensen said.

During the just-concluded NFL preseason, the league reported 70% fewer concussions than in previous years, after new safety measures were put into place.

“I think it would be silly not to follow down that path and get all of our kids doing the same things,” Jensen said.

Erickson said the brain should be treated like any other muscle that gets injured.

“You have to work that injury out, same as any other muscle,” he said.

It can take some athletes longer to recover than others, which is why the return-to-play procedures are so critical. Initially, there’s a five-day progressive return protocol, but the doctor’s advice is the last word.

“We refer to the doctor to say do or don’t return to play,” Erickson said. Initially, that may even include a doctor’s order to stay home from school for a period of time and to not engage in other activities.

“We start with light activity, then gradually increase that activity, and if the symptoms come back, then they’re not ready to return to play yet,” Erickson said. “If they clear all the steps, they’re usually ready to go.”

It’s also important to understand that no two concussions are the same, and no two people are the same when it comes to sustaining a concussion and recovering from one.

“I played a lot of rugby, and I know there are people who have coconut heads, and who can just take more than another person,” Jensen said.  

Still, “Every time you get hit in the head, it’s got to add up,” he said.

Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are called a “silent epidemic” because the injury impacts millions but can go undetected. Over the years, concerns for TBIs has grown, in part due to the attention paid to long-term health complications experienced by professional football players.

“For a long time, people would say to somebody, ‘You had a concussion, brushed it off. Get back out on the field, no big deal,”‘ said Krista Fox, occupational therapist at Aspen Valley Hospital.

We’ve come a long way since then. Research shows that even a mild concussion can have lasting impacts that may go away over time.

So, what should you do if you or someone you know have experienced a head injury?

The first thing you should do is call 911. The sooner an injured person receives professional medical treatment, the better.

While you wait for emergency responders, you can administer the following steps, according to Mayo Clinic:

1.) Keep the injured person still.

The injured person should be laying down, with their head and shoulders slightly elevated. If they are wearing a helmet, it is advised to not remove it.

2.) Stop any bleeding.

Apply pressure to a wound with a sterile gauze or clean cloth. If there is a skull fracture, do not apply direct pressure.

3.) Watch for changes in breathing and alertness.

Pay close attentions to changes in breath. If necessary, administer CPR.

Applying a cold compress to a head wound is also advised to mitigate swelling.

According to Mount Sinai, it is not advised to wash a head wound that is deep, move an injured person unless absolutely necessary or shake an injured person if they seem dazed.

However, according to Fox, for some it can take a bit of time before an injured person starts to recognize that a brain injury could has occurred.

“Sometimes, it can even be that someone has had an accident or an injury, and they don’t recognize anything happened to their head,” she said. “Then, it may be a couple of days later, and they’ve got headaches, or they’re nauseated and have dizziness.”

If you’ve hit your head, it is important to watch for symptoms.

If you notice any unusual changes after an injury, or if you suspect you may have a traumatic brain injury, contact your doctor immediately.

To reach Kristen Mohammadi, call 304-650-2404 or email kmohammadi@aspentimes.com.