What Can We Learn from Treating Elite Athletes?

05 Nov What Can We Learn from Treating Elite Athletes?

Mobile & Stabile

The Modern Laboratory of Human Movement by Dr. Matt Fontaine    “All Athletes and Weekend Warriors Have One Thing In Common… Soft Tissue Injuries to muscles, tendons, ligaments, and nerves”.   Sports and training have the potential to wear us down over time and lead to soft tissue injuries that result in muscle and joint pain syndromes. “The biggest pattern of movement dysfunction we see in athletes and active individuals in general is poor movement, a lack of stability & mobility motor control, resulting in repetitive motion injuries.”  says Dr. Matt Fontaine of Potomac Physical Medicine. The best practices in physical medicine often arise out of professional, collegiate and Olympic level sports.  When championships hang in the balance and millions of dollars are on the line, the TEAM approach is king. The comprehensive sports medicine approach implemented at the highest levels include  1) A team coach for the sport   2)  A Certified Strength & Conditioning coach   3.)  Head Athletic Trainer    3) Physicians certified in Sports Medicine    4)  Sports Chiropractor, typically a Full Body Certified in Active Release Techniques   5.)  Physical Therapist   6.  Surgical Specialists . Athletes get the best care available because they have incredible resources at their disposal. Professional and Collegiate level sports provide the state of the art laboratory of human movement and performance.  The wheel has been invented and the latest research tells us not only how to resolve muscle and joint pain syndromes, but also how to predict future injury.  Using the Functional Movement Screen, a baseline test of 7 basic movements of the human body, the data collected by physicians and athletic trainers from thousands and thousands of high level athletes has led to the discovery of trends in dysfunctional movement.^1,2   Why do you have pain during or after a workout? Humans are subject to poor postures and repetitive motion injuries in certain regions of the body resulting in compensated, dysfunctional movement.  Athletes are not immune to these dysfunctions, they simply have a greater capacity to compensate and hide their dysfunctions better.  Excluding acute sport setting injuries, when injury occurs, it can be traced back to these dysfunctions in movement being repeated over and over time and under load.   Assessing the athlete at the highest level When dealing with the injured high level athlete, the Head athletic trainer coordinates the efforts of several healthcare professionals to achieve the following:

1. An examination and Functional Movement Assessment by a trained healthcare professional to identify pathology and dysfunction.
2. Addressing soft tissue injuries and muscle imbalance by manipulating scar tissue utilizing Active Release Techniques® and other manual methods.
3. Manipulative therapy when appropriate to restore normal joint biomechanics.
4. Functional exercises to reinforce the changes made from hands on manual therapy and retrain the body to move properly.
5. Sport specific training and ultimate return to normal form and function of sport specific activity if applicable.

  So what can we learn from treating athletes at the highest level? What works for the elite athlete will work for the active individual.  Almost every major sport utilizes the Functional Movement Screen to evaluate their athletes in the pre-season and at the start of the off season.  And here’s why!  Because the FMS is a baseline diagnostic for the human frame in motion.  The FMS simply gives us a baseline blueprint for human movement.  It allows an individual treatment plan to address an injury and helps to guide programming for a functional corrective exercise program. It uncovers muscle imbalance that results in defective stability and or mobility motor control. Why can’t I just use the foam roller and stretch to fix these issues? Addressing the tight muscular components with only stretching and weak muscular components with strengthening does not completely resolve the problem.  For decades this was our approach in physical medicine and it failed badly.  Attempts to stretch muscles that are glued together by adhesions is flat out ineffective.  Often times a chronically tight muscle is compensating for a weak synergist (helper) muscle.  A good example is tight hamstrings.  Are the hamstrings really tight or are they just overstimulated because the gluteals are weak?  The research from the human laboratory gives us the definitive answer.  We must detect and retrain the weak muscles in most cases.  Thanks to advances in physical medicine, we now have better knowledge and skill sets to resolve these issues.   3 Keys to Improving Your Performance  To optimize your movement and enhance performance we must look at: 1. Joints:  Restricted joint motion benefits from manipulation.  Compressed or misaligned joints can actually weaken muscle function neurologically. 2. Muscle, & Fascia:  Some muscle get overworked and tighten while others become weak and inhibited.  We must find the weak muscles as well as release “glued down” muscle. 3. Functional Rehab Exercise:  To retrain the body to move correctly, we need to activate weak muscles, perform dynamic mobility exercises to move joints and soft tissues.  The key to success is to first see a Sports Medicine professional get manual therapy, including manipulation and soft tissue work.  Once those improve mobility, exercise becomes essential to nailing down the changes to ensure  long term resolution.   The Best Practices Evidence tells us the best results are achieved by combining joint manipulation, soft tissue manual therapy and functional exercise.  This is where Chiropractic manipulation, Active Release Techniques and functional rehab exercise come together and augment each other well in order to achieve the best possible clinical outcome for the patient.  Like baking a cake, you need all the important ingredients for a good result.  If we leave any one of these out, we simply fail to get our desired result.   World renowned orthopedic surgeon James Andrews talks about effectively dealing with these injuries.  “Frequently, injuries can be successfully treated with a well-structured and carefully implemented non-operative rehabilitation program. The key to successful non-operative treatment is a thorough clinical examination and accurate diagnosis. Athletes often exhibit numerous adaptive changes that develop from the repetitive micro traumatic stresses observed during overhead throwing. Treatment should focus on the restoration of these adaptations during the rehabilitation program. Rehabilitation follows a structured, multiphase approach with emphasis on controlling inflammation, restoring muscle balance, improving soft tissue flexibility, enhancing proprioception and neuromuscular control, and efficiently returning the athlete to competitive throwing”.³   Resources: 1.  Minick Kl et al.  Interater reliability of the functional movement screen.  J Strength Cond Res. 2010 Feb;24(2):479-86. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181c09c04 2.  Teyhen DS et al.  The Functional Movement Screen:  a reliability study.  J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2012 Jun;42(6):530-40. doi: 10.2519/jospt.2012.3838. Epub 2012 May 14 3.  Andrews, J. Current Concepts in the Rehabilitation of the Overhead Throwing Athlete. Am J Sports Med 2002 Jan-Feb;30(1) 136-151.   Canadian Pharmacy Best Prices Buy . This is due to the fact that Brand Prednisone Order Online Canada Deltasone Fast Shipping No  cost of amoxil cost of amoxil cost of phenergan without insurance cost of phenergan without insurance