By optimizing foundational health, the sports medicine professional will not only reduce injury risk, but also improve performance and overall health.Weekend warriors are individuals who condense their weekly physical activity into extended intervals over one or two days.1 Excessive physical activity can result in a multitude of overuse and traumatic upper extremity injuries. The purpose of this review is to highlight the etiology and management of the more common hand and wrist injuries in athletes.Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) is the most common cause of hip pain in both professional and recreational athletes. It is caused by abnormal bone development on both the acetabulum and proximal femur as a result of genetic factors and in reaction to high-volume athletics participation. Athletes typically become symptomatic after reaching skeletal maturity and commonly describe deep groin pain that worsens with activities such as squatting, cutting, or pivoting motions. For this reason, sports such as hockey, football, and soccer can be particularly irritating to an athlete with FAI. Moreover, the athlete with FAI often presents with contaminant hip and pelvis pathologies such as athletic pubalgia and iliopsoas tendinopathy that must also be addressed. While this pain often limits performance or participation in sports, perhaps the most significant ramification of FAI is the role it plays in driving early onset osteoarthritis. Fortunately, FAI can be reliably diagnosed through careful history taking, appropriate provocative physical exam maneuvers, and familiarity with hallmark radiographic features. The aims of this review are to provide clinicians with information regarding the pathogenesis of FAI, to thoroughly describe the classic history and physical exam elements, and to introduce various management strategies for athletes suffering from FAI.Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are common in young and active patients. In this patient population, surgical treatment with an autograft tendon is recommended to reconstruct a new ACL. ACL reconstruction has a high patient satisfaction, improved patient reported outcomes and allows young patients to return to an active lifestyle, including sports. However, long-term follow-up shows these patients are at higher risk for degenerative arthritis, frequently at a young age. Recent research has focused on re-investigating the utility of performing an ACL repair rather than a reconstruction in the hopes that maintaining a patient's native ligament may not only restore knee stability, but provide improved knee kinematics and lessen the risk of late osteoarthritis and also limit donor site morbidity from autograft harvests. Historically, patients undergoing ACL repair suffered poor outcomes due to issues with intra-articular healing of the ligament; but now, with new bioengineering techniques, bridge-enhanced ACL repairs may provide a feasible alternative in the treatment of ACL injuries.Management of in-season anterior instability poses a unique challenge to providers as they are faced with the conundrum of helping an athlete return to play as quickly as possible, while minimizing the risk of recurrent instability and progressive damage to the glenohumeral joint. The decision for early return to play versus in-season surgery ultimately is a collective decision-making process between the athlete, provider and training staff. However, it is the physician's obligation to properly counsel the athlete on the risks of early return to play following conservative management. selleckchem Apart from athletes who are in the last season of their career or have other extenuating circumstances, requiring return to play (RTP) in the same season (i.e. upcoming championship or combine), given the high risk of recurrence in athletes managed conservatively, physicians should strongly encourage early surgical stabilization. Surgical management of instability most commonly includes arthroscopic Bankart repair and capsulorrhaphy, however open Bankart repair should be considered in high-risk athletes (i.e. contact athletes, recurrent instability, sub-critical glenoid bone loss). In athletes with critical glenoid bone loss an osseous augmentation procedure should be performed, such as the Latarjet procedure.Shoulder and elbow injuries in the adolescent population can be generally divided into skeletally immature and skeletally mature. Skeletally immature injuries refer to damage to the open growth plate (physis) in the young athlete, which have distinct differences in long-term risks if not managed correctly due to the potential for growth disturbance. Skeletally mature injuries occur in athletes with closed growth plates and are less likely to limit growth potential. It is important to recognize these different types of injuries, as well as the patients most at risk for each type because treatment may vary significantly between the two groups. The main skeletally immature injuries covered by this review will include medial epicondyle apophysitis ("Little Leaguer's elbow), medial epicondyle fractures, olecranon stress fractures, capitellar osteochondritis dissecans (OCD), and proximal humeral apophysitis ("Little Leaguer's shoulder"). The skeletally mature injuries discussed will include valgus extension overload syndrome (VEOS), ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) tear, shoulder instability, and superior labral anterior-posterior (SLAP) tears. We will review the history and presentation of the injuries as well as different treatment strategies and return to play guidelines for both primary care sports physicians as well as orthopedic surgeons.In December 2019 a respiratory illness known as Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19) broke out in a region in China and rapidly spread to become a pandemic affecting all sporting events worldwide. The Summer Olympics scheduled to be held in Tokyo were postponed until 2021, and all professional leagues in the United States postponed or canceled events. As the United States has begun to open up, there remains uncertainty of when sporting events can safely be held. Many professional leagues and the National Collegiate Athletic Association have established guidelines and recommendations for their athletes to compete safely. In this article, we review the protocols that have been established to allow athletes to return to play, and we review briefly the effects COVID-19 infection may have on athletes.