Tag: injuries

Dr. Andrew Fagan Article

A solid core crucial for healthy athletes

porthopesportsrehab

Athletes in nearly any sport can benefit from having well-functioning core musculature.

Having a solid core allows us to avoid injury. Whether you are taking a slap shot, rebounding a basketball, swinging a golf club or picking something up off the ground, your core is there to support you.

The core is made up of a group of muscles around your mid to lower torso. These muscles include the rectus abdominis, external oblique, internal oblique, transverse abdominis, quadratus lumborum and the set of gluteus muscles. This group of muscles act in concert to support your spine during movement to maintain functional stability.

The main goals when working on this core group of muscles are to increase endurance and strength, and allow you to exercise in a safe manner for your spine. I do not recommend traditional sit ups or crunches for athletes, as this puts a tremendous amount of strain through the joints and discs of the lower back (lumbar spine).

To get started, often what’s known as “the big three core exercises” from spine researcher Dr. Stuart McGill are given. These are safe core exercises for your lower back.

First, the modified sit up. While lying on your back, one knee is bent and the other straight. This locks your pelvis into a neutral position. The athlete will stiffen the abdomen, then lift the head and shoulders as a unit off the ground two to three inches while keeping the chin tucked. During the movement it is important to maintain the arch in the lower back.

Second, the side bridge consists of stiffening your abdomen while in a side propped position on your elbow and feet, then lifting your hips off the ground. It is important to keep your body and spine straight while maintaining the natural spinal curve.

Third, the bird dog starts in the hands and knees position. Start again by stiffening the core, maintaining a neutral spine. Lift your right arm directly in front of the shoulder, followed by lifting the left leg directly behind and level with the hip. Alternate this motion from side to side while maintaining a neutral spine.

Dr. Andrew Fagan is a licensed chiropractor, kinesiologist and clinical acupuncture provider. You can reach him at dr.fagan@porthopehealthcentre.com or 905-885-5111

Dr. Andrew Fagan Article

Proper sleep, stretching and diet crucial to avoiding sports injuries

porthopesportsrehab

Dr. Andrew Fagan says many young athletes not getting enough rest

Many young athletes are full swing into their hockey season.

Evenings and weekends, after-school life can consist of multiple practices, games and tournaments.

With these busy schedules for months on end, young people start getting physically and mentally run down. Sport fatigue elevates the chances of players sustaining injuries on the ice.

 There are a few basic, yet important, things young athletes and parents can do to avoid sport injuries.

A lot of school-aged young athletes are not getting enough sleep. Late evening practices and games combined with homework can often cut into sleep hours.

Athletes need to get enough sleep in order for their bodies to recover from the physical exertion they consistently give through the week.

The recommended range for school-aged children between the ages of 6 and 13 is 9 to 11 hours of sleep. For teenagers aged 14 to 17, the number slightly decreases to 8 to 10 hours of sleep. If young athletes are not getting enough sleep, they create a sleep debt, and muscles do not get enough rest time to recover fully.

Young athletes, especially hockey players, are not stretching enough and when they do stretch they are often using erroneous methods.

Before practice or games, athletes should utilize dynamic stretching. This form of stretching uses momentum to move body parts through ranges of motion used during play. Dynamic stretches aide in increasing blood flow to the muscles while they are being lengthened and shortened.

At the end of the practice session or game, athletes as a team need to make the time to do static stretching of main muscle groups being used during play. This will help with recovery and general flexibility.

Lastly, along with rest and stretching, young athletes need to eat proper foods that are going to intellectually get them through the day at school, prep them for evening activity, and help with muscular recovery after play.

This does take some planning by parents, but will help young athletes’ bodies physically perform better and help prevent sport injuries.

Consulting a dietitian or sport-focused health-care provider can assist with specific dietary requirements.

Dr. Andrew Fagan is a licensed chiropractor, kinesiologist and clinical acupuncture provider. You can reach him at dr.fagan@porthopehealthcentre.com or 905-885-5111

Dr. Andrew Fagan Article

The importance of medical responders in sport

porthopesportsrehab

Everyone has witnessed it in sport: an athlete goes down during the play, the game is stopped and a member of the team’s staff is rushed on the field to assess the player’s status.

After a period of time when an injury is present, a decision is made whether the player can get off the playing surface bearing weight, or if assistance is required. In serious cases, 911 could be called to address a sports injury emergency.

Who are the people making these decisions for the best interest of the athletes? What type of sport or medical training do they have to make the call on what happens?

Depending on the sport organization and/or the level of play, a person with trainer/medical certification is present for the best interests of everyone involved.

Some sport organizations state there must be a certified person on site, while other organizations recommend someone with trainer or medical certification is present, but this is not mandatory.

For instance, the Ontario Minor Hockey Association provides a hockey trainer certification program to educate laypeople on the safety, prevention, recognition and management of hockey-related injuries. The course can be completed online and is a good baseline certification for someone on the bench to have at a minor league game.

Unfortunately, the majority of other sporting organizations do not have these programs in place to educate laypeople on the management of injuries. More often, recently, many teams bring in outside people with sport-specific first responder training. These first responders assist with medical situations on field and sideline care serving the best interests and well-being of the athletes.

This is seen especially in tournament situations where many games are running in a short period of time.

First responders are trained in techniques for sustaining life, preventing further injury, and caring for illness and injuries until the next level of medical personnel arrives.

Many sport-focused manual and medical providers complete this additional training to become a first responder as a requirement to help with teams at national and international levels.

Dr. Andrew Fagan is a licensed chiropractor, kinesiologist and clinical acupuncture provider. You can reach him at dr.fagan@porthopehealthcentre.com or 905-885-5111

Dr. Andrew Fagan Article

Tommy John surgery a pain in the elbow to baseball players

porthopesportsrehab

Pitchers most commonly affected

We have all heard baseball announcers talk about players who have undergone Tommy John surgery after a throwing injury at the elbow.

But what is it, exactly?

Over the course of time, a baseball player’s elbow withstands a lot of force from repetitive hard throwing. This is most common in pitchers.

The ligament on the inside of the elbow, the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL), can become stretched, frayed and torn over time. This can cause irritation of the neighbouring ulnar nerve on the inside of the elbow, and thus cause pain with throwing.

As the body goes through the throwing cycle from the acceleration phase to the deceleration phase, force is transferred from the arm through to the baseball. This transfer of force creates torque at the UCL and leads to the injury.

The surgical procedure involves grafting a tendon from the athlete’s own body or using a tendon from a cadaver.

Holes are drilled on either side of the elbow joint. The tendon is woven into a figure eight pattern through the holes and anchored into place to simulate the UCL ligament.

Normally the ulnar nerve is slightly moved to prevent future pain symptoms as scar tissue can accumulate in the area and cause pressure on the nerve.

The surgery was named after the first Major League Baseball (MLB) player to have the procedure successfully completed. Tommy John returned after rehabilitation to win 164 additional career MLB games.

The problem can also occur in mature children and collegiate-aged athletes.

Studies show that the greatest determinant of sustaining the injury has to do with the amount of pitches thrown by an athlete. There are different guidelines to suggest how many pitches an athlete should make in a game, and how much rest time they should have between games.

After an athlete has the procedure done, rehabilitation takes about six months for position players, and at least a year for pitchers.

Over time, results have shown that 80 per cent of MLB players who have the procedure completed have returned to the same level of pitching as before the injury.

Dr. Andrew Fagan is a licensed chiropractor, kinesiologist and clinical acupuncture provider. You can reach him at dr.fagan@porthopehealthcentre.com or 905-885-5111

Dr. Andrew Fagan Article

Good posture a benefit to athletes

porthopesportsrehab

Athletes from young to old, recreational to expert, can benefit from having good posture.

Having an upright posture not only makes us feel better about ourselves, it also helps to prevent injuries in sport.

I often see young athletes from various sports coming in to the clinic because their shoulder, neck or lower back are generally achy and sore.

Often these young people are sitting slouching in a chair with their shoulders rounded, head and neck forward, and lower back slumped, regularly with a cellphone in hand. At this point I usually ask the athletes if they sit like this all the time. Almost always I am given an affirmative response, as they simultaneously try to sit up straighter in the chair.

These young athletes during the evening and weekends storm playing surfaces for one to three hours, then afterward sit or stand the remainder of their day in poor postural positions. These positions cause various forms of muscle tightness, imbalances and joint creep, leaving their bodies more prone to injury.

There are two common postural positions athletes find themselves in.

The first is forward (anterior) rolling of the head and shoulders. This can cause chest (pectoralis) and neck (cervical) muscular shortening. This combination of positions can lead to an increased prevalence of shoulder, upper back, neck and headache symptoms.

The second common position athletes find themselves in is forward (anterior) pelvic tilt. This involves the front of the pelvis rotating forward and downward, while the rear side of the pelvis rotates back and upward. This can cause a number of problems including low back pain, hip flexor strains and decreased biomechanical efficiency with movement.

Various strategies can help avoid these common undesirable postures. Stretching of shortened musculature can help avoid progression of the imbalances. Activating opposing muscle groups using corrective exercises helps to reposition body parts back to where they are supposed to be. Also making a conscious effort to sit and stand with proper positioning makes a pronounced difference.

If you are struggling with any of the above problems I suggest consulting a functional movement professional.

Dr. Andrew Fagan is a licensed chiropractor, kinesiologist and clinical acupuncture provider. You can reach him at dr.fagan@porthopehealthcentre.com or 905-885-5111