Dr. Ross Henshaw in the News

Dr. Ross Henshaw: Testing his own limits

Dr. Ross Henshaw, medical director for Sports Medicine at Danbury Hospital, has taken his school-days love for athleticism into the world of coaching and from there into the world of triathlons.

"I'm an orthopedic surgeon," said Henshaw. "I've been athletic all of my life; in college I played lacrosse at Johns Hopkins, which is a Division 1 school." Henshaw grew up in Waccabuc, N.Y.

"I went to the Harvey School and then went away to school where I played hockey and lacrosse, said Henshaw. "I actually played soccer too, that's my favorite sport."

When Henshaw went to Hopkins he wanted to make the soccer team, but because he was able to attend pre-season was not allowed to enter the team. Henshaw walked on instead as a lacrosse player.

"Lacrosse is really a year round sport," said Henshaw. "And I didn't know I wanted to go to medicine at first. I did pretty well in grades, but I really wasn't scientifically inclined."

At Hopkins, a friend's father, an orthopedic surgeon invited him to watch a hip replacement.

"He was a really happy guy and everyone seemed so respectful of him and I thought that was cool," said Henshaw. "I just thought the surgery was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I hung out with him in the office a couple times and then I did an internship with an orthopedic surgeon. It just was so fascinating."

Henshaw went on to Columbia Medical School and followed a stream of Columbia grads to Danbury Hospital. At Columbia, Henshaw continued to participate actively in sports at the Chelsea Piers sports center. Perhaps not surprisingly, he specializes in arthroscopic surgeries.

"It’s essentially surgery of the knee the shoulder or the hip,” said Henshaw. “Most of the surgery we do is through incisions of about the width of your ring fingernail and you just need a band-aid to cover them. It’s elegant surgery; it’s minimally invasive and there’s a lot of strategy in doing it because you’re trying to make it as minimal as possible."

After moving to Bedford, N.Y., with his wife Leslie and their sons Marshall and Carter, Henshaw became involved in the area lacrosse program.

"There’s a very active junior lacrosse league there," said Henshaw. He has been involved for the past five years.

"It’s been great to coach my sons,” said Henshaw. “The sport is so much more popular now. When I was at Hopkins, you either came from Long Island or Maryland and there were only ever a few guys who weren’t. Now it’s expanded tremendously."

Henshaw doesn’t play anymore because of the amount of things that can happen injury-wise with lacrosse.

"I don’t have time and I just can’t get injured,” said Henshaw. “I see 40-year-olds who come in and have popped their ACLs and I just can’t go there." Not one to adopt the "coach-potato" role, upon putting away his lacrosse stick he nearly immediately picked up his running shoes, bike and swimsuit and began doing triathlons.

"It’s such a great outlet for stress relief," said Henshaw, who has competed in 10 triathlons. "When I started to practice out here in Danbury, I started running a lot to stay in shape and I began to have a lot of patients that are tri-athletes. They encouraged me to try it. About three years ago, I began doing triathlons. It’s been a fairly easy transition for me, because I ran so much."

"What I like about it and what I try to tell my patients to do all the time is that it’s about cross training all the time," said Henshaw. "So if you’re just a runner or if you’re a one-sport athlete, you can tend to have overuse injuries, something will breakdown."

Henshaw said that triathlon competing is all about willpower.

"If you want to get it done, you’ve got to get up and do it at the crack of dawn," said Henshaw. "You get through them and they become more fun. It seems like such a daunting event to do, but it’s a great way to get in shape without hurting yourself. It gives me and other people a real sense of accomplishment. The people who are out there are not these really buff athletes; the majority of the people are there to challenge themselves. There’s this constant discussion with yourself to see if you’re pushing yourself too hard and is it worth it. It’s about testing yourself and testing your limits."

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