Predicting Joint Injury in Athletes

How many times have you heard ‘AFTER THE FACT’ when the athletes says it just came on but I did feel some discomfort on and off for a while. Well I can tell you that discomfort the patient was feeling for a while was slight warning sign that was not paid attention to.

This past summer I witnessed and treated an increase in shoulder and elbow injuries in baseball players. Here’s the bad part…many of them where in Little League.

Pitching and throwing places an extreme combination of force, velocity, and stress to the shoulder while throwing overhand. You probably didn’t notice but there is almost no injury to shoulders and elbows to female softball players. That is mainly because of the throwing motion is underhand and is more natural movement for humans.

Male baseball players experience high velocity range of motion during overhand throwing that pushes the shoulder and elbow joints to their limits.  It’s not surprising then that shoulder and elbow injuries are so common in baseball.

 

Clinical studies have shown that there doesn’t have to be this high incident of injury. In my office we do a careful study of the passive range of motion of the patient prior to the season. Studies have found that the players who had a decrease of 25 degrees of internal rotation in their dominant arm were 4 times more likely to suffer an injury, and a 10-20 degree loss of total range of motion doubled the risk of injury. (American Journal of Sports Medicine)

This study shows that a decrease in the range of motion of the player’s dominant arm, mainly internal rotation, is a strong predictor of possible shoulder or elbow injury.

So if you notice that your young baseball or softball player has a little restriction in their shoulder or elbow and/or complains of stiffness or restriction in either their shoulder or elbow it’s best that you take time to get them checked out. Don’t wait until it’s too late when a full blown injury takes place.

Proper training of the muscles of the upper quarter including the upper back, shoulder, neck and upper extremity can not only prevent injury but allow for your athletes to increase their performance in their sport.

We have developed a unique way of finding the exact area to where the muscles broke down or weakened to begin with. You see, the pain in the joint is where the damage 'ended' NOT where it began. The muscles that are responsible to aborb the force were not doing the job and that force continued to travel into the joint where increase friction and compression began to cause inflammation...which caused the pain.