Early sport specialization where our youth athletes focus on a single sport year round has become more popular over the last decade. The 10,000 hours reference (original study in violinists not athletes) reinforced this concept despite the adverse events of early sports specialization include burnout, depression/anxiety, lower athletic performance, and sports injuries. Research into high...
In our previous blog posts we have written on the limitations of MRI for many injuries and conditions. In general, these expensive tests have high rates of false positives where patients without pain often have positive results including ligament/labrum tears or tendon changes. The incidence of false of positives increases in athletes with the majority...
As we move through the Spring and into Summer many of our Boulder youth athletes are into their competitive baseball seasons. With increased games come increased pitch counts, arm fatigue, and over use injuries. From the literature we know there are some specific risk factors for future arm injury including pitching with a fatigued arm,...
In our Physical Therapy practice, we continue to see early sports specialization in our youth athletes (pre pubescent). These athletes focus on playing one sport >8 months out of the year instead of changing sports more frequently or incorporating longer periods of rest. Despite scientific evidence showing a lack of performance benefit and a higher injury...
As we move into Spring we begin to see our youth athletes return to the baseball diamond often with a sudden increase in practice volume. The sudden increase in throwing volume, either in the field or on the mound, places the athlete’s shoulder and elbow at greater risk of baseball injuries. The greatest risk factors for...
A common question we receive from young throwers and their parents is how to improve throwing velocity safely without undue stress on their arms. Our prior posts on throwing have focused on reducing arm stress through injury prevention and lower quarter strengthening. This post will focus on the research surrounding exercise programs designed to improve...
In our practice, we commonly see adolescent baseball athletes suffering from shoulder and elbow injuries. On average 1 in 2 youth throwers will develop arm injuries and on average major league throwers lose 22 days per season due to arm injury (Conte et al. 2001). These injuries are mainly overuse in nature secondary to muscle...
Shoulder and elbow injuries are on the rise among youth and professional baseball players. Our previous post on baseball injuries detailed the risk of future injury if an athlete has lost range of motion in his shoulder prior to the season. In particular, emphasis has been placed on the amount of internal rotation (hand behind lower...