Rock climbing is one of the most popular outdoor sports in Boulder, Colorado. Often these athletes present to our Physical Therapy clinic with both traumatic and overuse injuries. Most commonly, these overuse injuries involve the upper extremity and cause decreased performance and loss of climbing days each season. Each discipline of climbing including sport, bouldering,...
In prior posts we described risk factors for an initial episode of achilles tendinopathy including muscle imbalances, calf weakness (concentric and eccentric), and loss of mobility within the foot and ankle. Once the tendinopathy is established, patients demonstrate significant deficits in range of motion, strength, balance, endurance, and jumping ability (Silbernagel et al. 2006). These...
In a previous post we highlighted the importance of a dynamic warm up to gradually increase cardiovascular work, improve mobility, decrease injury risk, and improve performance. Conversely, traditional static stretching has been shown to reduce run, sprint, and jump performance in athletes. Clearly, these static holds should be held until an athlete’s cool down period after...
Have a student athlete that is injured, or always seems to run into issues as the season ramps up? At Mend, we are dedicated to keeping our young athletes healthy. One of the tragic consequences of sustaining an injury or experiencing pain as a young athlete is becoming the adult that doesn’t run, ski, hike,...
Over the last few years there has been a spike in athletic injuries in our community’s youth and adolescent athletes. Authors believe the spike can be blamed in part on the pressure placed on young athletes by their parents and coaches to specialize in sports early in their childhood. Specialization is described as intensive year...
When we began playing sports, our pre game routines consisted of a cardiovascular warm up, some agility work, followed by static stretching (sustained holds >15 seconds of the muscles). This type of stretching has fallen out of favor in the last decade because of the negative impact of static stretching on muscle performance. Research has...
Basketball has one of the highest injury rates in sports with articles reporting up to 7-10 injuries per 1000 athlete exposures (Dick et al. J Athl Train. 2007). As expected, the majority of these injuries occur in the lower extremity, in particular within the knee and ankle. Authors report both overuse (tendinopathy) and traumatic (sprain,...
Are you wondering when it will happen to you? Not what , but when will you feel pain or develop an injury? Can you determine your injury risk? The answer is YES! There are screening tools that allow athletes to assess their injury risk. The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) is a valid indicator of injury...
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure-Benjamin Franklin As warmer weather returns, many of us will increase our physical activity each week in an effort to improve our health, well-being, and physical performance. A common question asked in our clinic by our patients and clients recovering from an injury is “could...
Athletic Injuries More than 10,000 athletes seek treatment for sports, recre- ation, and exercise based injuries on a daily basis(12). 7 million Americans received medical attention for sports and athletic injuries between 1997-1999(1). Incidence of athletic injuries has been reported as 15.4-25.9 injuries per 1000 in the population(2,3). 50-80% of these injuries have been described...