Exercise & Fitness

The benefits and risks of rediscovering your favorite sport

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If you played baseball or any other competitive sport in your younger years, you may enjoy some physical and social benefits by resuming an old athletic pastime. But if you don't want to get sidelined by injury, take some precautions before you join a new team, advises Alex Petruska, a senior physical therapist at the Sports Medicine Center of Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. "Instead of getting fit by playing sports, you should get fit first and then begin playing your chosen sport," says Petruska.

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