Archive for ‘Muscle Injury’
Nordic Hamstring Exercises
Posted on 21. Nov, 2012 by The Sports Physiotherapist.
Introduction Hamstring strains are commonly assessed and treated in the world of sports physiotherapy. They represent the most common injury in a number of sports, including AFL and soccer, accounting for up to 12-16% of injuries (Hawkins et al., 2001; Warren et al., 2010). Dvorak and Astrid (2000) suggested that hamstring injuries occur at an […]
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Sideline Management of Abdominal Injuries
Posted on 07. Nov, 2012 by The Sports Physiotherapist.
Many of the world’s sports physical therapists and physiotherapists spend their weekends at sporting events around the world. Unfortunately, many of us do not have the support of a huge medical team around us, such as that available to James Sutherland at Wallabies games. Therefore, we are often the most highly trained “medical” staff at any given event, and when it comes to injured athletes the buck stops with us. This means we require knowledge on a variety of conditions that may not be “sports” injuries and many abdominal injuries may fall outside the expertise of a physio.
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Eccentric Training for Flexibility
Posted on 17. Oct, 2012 by The Sports Physiotherapist.
How regularly do you treat injured athletes with reduced lower limb flexibility? The answer from many of you would likely be all day long! It has been well established that athletes with reduced lower limb flexibility are at greater risk of injury (Murphy et al., 2003). Thus, it would be logical that a program of regular stretching, which has been shown to improve lower limb flexibility (Harvey et al., 2002), would reduce this injury risk… wouldn’t it? Well, not conclusively…
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Exercise Induced Muscle Damage (DOMS): Can We Do Anything?
Posted on 11. Jul, 2012 by The Sports Physiotherapist.
If you work with athletes who train hard, as many sports physiotherapists do, then you will have encountered exercise induced muscle damage or delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). It is also likely that the suffering athlete has come to you and said “I’m so sore from that workout – can you do anything?”. There are many widely used post workout and recovery strategies that are touted as effective at enhancing an athletes recovery from high intensity exercise. However, as is frequently the norm in sports medicine, the evidence for their use is mostly anecdotal rather than based on high quality clinical trials. Fortunately, a new review recently published discusses the effectiveness of physiotherapeutic interventions following high intensity exercise.
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How Mechanism of Injury Affects Prognosis Following Hamstring Strain
Posted on 08. Feb, 2012 by The Sports Physiotherapist.
We all know that hamstring strains are common injuries within sports that involve sprinting and jumping. In fact, they represent a significant proportion of muscle injuries: 50% in sprinting, 40% in soccer (Yeung et al, 2009) and 14% in Australian Rules football (Gabbe et al, 2006). They have been shown to be more common than any other muscle injuries and players are 2.5 times more likely to suffer a hamstring strain compared to a strain of their quadriceps (Woods et al, 2004). This is significant as Small et al (2010) found that soccer players miss on average 3 competitive matches per hamstring injury. Consider the huge impact on the success of sporting teams when high profile players are injured!
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Lumbar Spine Mobilisation For Hamstring Strains
Posted on 01. Dec, 2011 by The Sports Physiotherapist.
As sports physiotherapists we regularly assess and treat hamstring strains, sometimes on a daily basis! Hawkins et al. (2001) showed that hamstring injuries accounted for approximately 12% of football injuries, and thus are extremely common. Given their frequency, hamstring injuries have been discussed commonly on this site. However, to date, we have not paid much attention to the often recommended intervention of spinal manual therapy and its role in the evidence based management of hamstring strains….
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Identifying Subscapularis Tears: The Diagnostic Accuracy of Clinical Tests
Posted on 16. Nov, 2011 by The Sports Physiotherapist.
Shoulder injuries to the rotator cuff are very common. Whilst rotator cuff injuries are more commonly seen in supraspinatus and infraspinatus, there has been a recent increase in awareness and recognition of subscapularis injuries. In fact, Barth et al. (2006) suggested 29.4% of those who underwent shoulder arthroscopy for a rotator cuff tear had involvement of the subscapularis. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the evidence based clinical assessment for subscapularis is essential, and is thus presented in this article.
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Immediate Effects of PNF Stretching
Posted on 16. Sep, 2011 by The Sports Physiotherapist.
Let me set the scene for you. You are at the oval and your athletes are warming up prior to competition, and one calls out “can you come stretch my hammys?”. This is an obvious request for a PNF therapist-assisted stretch, and you will likely oblige for a few reasons. Today I would like to discuss some research that challenges the notion that PNF stretching deliver superior immediate improvements in range of motion..
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The Adductor Squeeze Test: What Works Best?
Posted on 07. Sep, 2011 by The Sports Physiotherapist.
As most sports physiotherapists would know, injuries of the groin are very common. This is particularly true in sports that require lateral movements and kicking; think football, rugby and AFL. In fact in some sports the incidence of groin pain is as high as 13%. This means that we are regularly assessing groin pathologies, and should be aware of the most effective and reliable techniques to assess deficits in adductor function. This article will discuss new research on the Adductor Squeeze Test that can inform and improve your clinical practice…
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Is Compression Crushing Your Outcomes?
Posted on 17. Aug, 2011 by The Sports Physiotherapist.
It will come as no surprise to anybody that we are in the business of treating soft tissues injuries. If this is a surprise.. stand up and walk away from the screen now … this information or website is not for you! But for the majority of physiotherapists who treat acute soft tissue sports injuries we will base our early interventions around the PRICE principle (protection, relative rest, ice, compression, elevation). This would be considered a component of gold-standard management…
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