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.
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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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