Injury Rehabilitation
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Are you an Athletic Trainer, Physical
Therapist, Physician, or other health professional caring for athletes
or active individuals?
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Do you have a patient with an injury
that just doesn't seem to get better?
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Or, are you interested in improving
your knowledge base and skills to aid in the care of your
patients?
WE'RE HERE TO HELP
Injury rehabilitation is about restoring
function, whether its a simple ankle sprain, shoulder reconstruction,
or patellar tendonitis. This can be done in a variety of ways
with a variety of modalities based on a host of factors.
Every professional has their favorite
techniques and equipment that work for them most of the time.
But, what happens when the old standby doesn't work? At MTS, we
believe the more tools in the tool box, the better.
One of the keys to growing the size of your
toolbox, is understanding how the body functions. Unfortunately,
many of us go through school learning by memorization. It is
oftentimes easier to learn a short list of modalities to "fix" an
injury than it is to really understand why the athlete is hurt, and
then creating ways to restore function. MTS can help you bridge
the gap between memorization and true knowledge.
The first step to understanding function,
is to understand
anatomy. The easiest and most effective way to learn how the
body truly works together to create movement is to review your
anatomy. Knowing the exact origin and insertion of every
muscle in the body is the key to movement.
The best way to truly understand
functional anatomy...head to the cadaver lab.
No
lab? No Problem. MTS is here to help you understand how
muscle contractions affect function.
Commonly Misread Injuries
It seems that both professionals and athletes come to
MTS with many of the same struggles while treating their
athletes. It seems that the same injuries tend to be misread,
misdiagnosed, mistreated, or some combination of the three.
Many times, we as professionals try the old standby
treatment, and if that doesn't work, we treat the athlete
symptomatically, just trying to reduce pain at the sight instead of
finding the root of the problem. Unfortunately for the athlete,
they soon get the feeling that they will never be pain free and either
travel from therapist to therapist, hoping someone has an answer.
Or, worse yet, they stop their activity because they have no hope.
Here is a list of the most common misunderstood and/or
poorly treated conditions that many athletes suffer from. Click
on the link to the injury for more information and treatment ideas for
each condition.
- Sacroiliac
Joint Injury or Lumbopelvic Dysfunction - This
is a pretty broad topic, and affects as much as 90% of athletes
(depending upon their sport and activity level). Lumbopelvic
Dysfunction typically occurs with an anterior
rotation on the right half of their pelvis, or an upslip of
the left half, or both. This will typically lead to a functional
leg length discrepancy on either leg. It doesn't take long
with one leg being longer than the other for an athlete to break
down.
- Poor Ankle Dorsiflexion - Poor Ankle
Dorsiflexion is another poorly understood injury. An athlete's
inability to dorsiflex will cause dramatic biomechanical issues for the
entire lower extremity. It will cause problems at the foot, such
as Plantar Fasciitis. The knee tends to be affected because they
body will search to find the extra range of motion that it needs to
perform activity. It usually finds the extra range of motion at
the hip. So, as the joints above and below the knee are
compromised, its only natural that the knee will break down. We
also can't forget that the glute's ability to fire is directly related
to an athlete's ability to dorsiflex.
- Thoracic Spine Mobility - The
shoulder is likely the most misunderstood and complex joint in the
body. We have known for years that the Scapular stabilization
muscles are immensely important for good shoulder health. What we
are now finally understanding is the relationship between the Scapula
and the Thoracic Spine that is sits so close to. Poor T-Spine
mobility will affect an athlete's shoulder health, ability to squat,
and perform sport specific movements.
- Lateral Knee Pain - Often referred
to as "IT Band Syndrome", it can be debilitating for thousands of
active people, especially if they're runners. So, we massage,
ultrasound, ice, and hope for the best (which is usually not very
good), right? And, we can can't forget that we try hard to
stretch tissue that can't be stretched (Fascia) in order to free our
patients from pain. But, have you every looked at the proximal
Tibio-Fibular joint? It is amazing how much this little known
joint can affect the lower extremity.
- Neuro Tension - The neurological
system is by far the most important system to train as it relates to
athletes. For the patient that just can't seem to get ride of
that nagging pain that oftentimes accompanies injury. The tension
on a nerve can increase after an injury as the cells around a nerve
will shrink and essentially suffocate a nerve over time. When
this happens, the nerve struggles to receive oxygen and nutrients and
becomes irritated. By "flossing" the nerve, you can reduce
tension and rid your athlete of that nagging pain.
- Flexibility - It is common knowledge
that joint range of motion has an impact on an athlete's health.
What appears to not be so well known, is how to efficiently improve
joint range of motion. We need to get past the thought process of
holding stretches for long periods of time and learning to integrate
concepts such as reciprocal inhibition and PNF patterns to increase
flexibility.
- Tendonopathy - Another poorly
understood concept as it relates to rehab. Tendonopathies can
occur in a variety of areas (i.e. Patellar tendon, Peroneal tendon,
etc.) but always occur because of some sort of strain and
counterstrain. Finding the strain is the most important
part. After that, we must address the issues that tendonopathies
create within the tendon. After only a couple of weeks of pain in
a tendon, calcification will set in and cause permanent pain, unless
treated appropriately.
As always, MTS will try our best to educate and inform
you through our website. But, keep in mind that many of these
issues are complex. If you have questions or are interested in
learning more about working with MTS on improving your sports medicine
treatment program, please visit our Contact
Us page and we'll do everything possible to help.
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