Partial Weight Bearing Squat+

I took a pair of adult medium crutches & drilled two extra sets of holes to make the handles 1.5 & 3" higher. The athlete places as much pressure on the hands as is needed and works as much range of motion as is comfortable & appropriate. They may also be done in a stride stance.

R Medial Meniscus Tear Pre-Hab, Day 5

Circuit:

10 pushups

10 side bridges, 5 each side

20 R leg kneel BUE 7lb. medball rotations @ shoulder height.

10 yard forward/back bear crawl

20 Mountain Sliders

20X Partial weight bearing L leg pivot lunge on 6" box (R foot in slight varus)

20X Partial weight bearing L leg lateral pivot lunge on 6" box

20X Partial weight bearing squat+

stationary bike

Repeat 3X.

Busy

Sorry I'm behind in my posting. Things will be crazy here at EHS for the next few weeks. 12-15 hour days, 6 days per week for about the next 3 weeks. I don't pretend to like this time of the year, I swear I can feel my brain rotting from the long hours combined with the assembly line nature of it all. Got to dig in & get by these next few weeks. I'll need you guys to get me back in the groove.

Down to the wire

This is the last week before football camp officially begins. I have been scrambling to clear out some nagging injuries from the month I had been away from EHS. Some PFSS, a possible athletic hernia, a few groin & ham strains, and an ankle sprain.

I am beginning my 3rd week of working on the sprain. Not that bad of a sprain, I would say a mild grade 2. But it had been neglected a full month before I got my hands on it. The athlete still has about a 3cm functional dorsiflexion deficit. I will keep you posted.

Ankle Sprains & the Core

Impaired Trunk and Ankle Stability in Subjects with Functional Ankle Instability
PAUL W. M. MARSHALL1, AMANDA D. MCKEE1, and BERNADETTE A. MURPHY2- Medicine & Science in Sport/Exercise; August 09.

My blog readers know ankle injuries are "my bag" as Austin Powers said.

The authors found TTS (time to stabilization) delays in the trunk musculature of athletes with FAI (functional ankle instability). They are cautious of prescribing traditional "core training" to ameliorate this. In other words, they are unsure as to who is zooming who- is the trunk assisting proprioception deficits in the lower extremity, or is the ankle sending erroneous neural drive to the trunk? Either way, you see what a pain in the ass a sprained ankle is? They provide reference to an '08 Clinical Biomechanics article that showed improvements in whole body postural stability as well as localized ankle stability by way of ankle rehab alone.

At GAIN '09 I presented several recent real life cases I had with athletes with chronic back pain that I helped resolve by never even touching the back, or administering traditional back pain exercises. Rather I chose to attack the trouble makers that were directly or indirectly overloading the lumbar spine.

So take your time when you evaluate those ankle sprains. There is no such thing as just an ATF tear, or a just a high ankle sprain. They are all a little different, and a good eval will tell you which way to go first. Stop protocol cookbooking.

Curves & Korn

A Biomechanical Comparison of the Fastball and Curveball in Adolescent Baseball Pitchers
Carl W. Nissen, MD†*, Melany Westwell, MS, PT‡, Sylvia Õunpuu, MSc‡, Mausam Patel, MS‡,
Matthew Solomito, BSBE‡ and Janet Tate, PhD§; AJSM, August '09

The researchers came to the conclusion based on the kinematic and kinetic data that the rising incidence of shoulder and elbow injuries in pitchers may not be caused by the curveball mechanics. The fastball actually produced higher shoulder & elbow moments.

Coach Korn told me this decades ago. The way he teaches it, you use the whole body to throw it, not just just the wrist & elbow. However, he chooses not to teach it until the high school years because he feels developing sound throwing mechanics comes first. He is officially retired as of last month. What will we do without him?

P.E. Class Injuries

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20090803/D99R9MI00.html

A 10 year study showed a 150% jump in P.E. class injuries over a 10 year period. I think the conclusions the authors come to are right on the money for the most part. By the way, are "heart palpitations" & "fainting" considered bonified injuries now?