Sports Medicine and Functional Movement Screening
Functional movement screening can help to decrease the incidence of injuries suffered by the competitive athlete or the recreational weekend warrior. This type of sports injury screening assists clinicians in identifying injury factors that can improve overall performance.
What Can Functional Movement Screening Detect?
• Lack of muscle control/coordination (motor control dysfunction)
• Stability issues
• Lack of mobility in joints
• Decreased strength
• Decreased flexibility
• Decreased conditioning
• Decreased posturing
What Kind of Sports Injury Screening Is Available?
• Screens that assess posture, alignment, range of motion, strength and balance
• Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA) assesses seven fundamental movement patterns to find the cause of the problem(s) and not just the source of the pain.
• Functional Movement Screen (FMS) identifies limitations or asymmetries with movement patterns that are key to the quality of movement in individuals who have no complaints of pain and/or any known injury.
Based on the results of a functional movement screening, individualized programs are developed that address the nature of deficits. Some athletes will require mobility and flexibility training and/or sports injury rehabilitation and conditioning while others will need to address stability and motor control disorders/dysfunction.
Preventative Sports Medicine Services/Programs
The SKIP (Successful Knee Injury Prevention) program was designed to reduce knee injuries, specifically in female athletes. In addition to demonstrating decreased knee landing forces, SKIP also improves jumping/landing mechanics that results in a three- to four-fold reduction in the risk for serious injury.
As a unique brand of sports medicine, SKIP has rapidly evolved to help both male and female athletes enjoy improvements in their vertical jump, speed, agility and power.
Designed to be performed two times per week for six weeks, SKIP incorporates strength training, static and dynamic stretching, and comprehensive jump/plyometric progression.
Treatment of Injured Athletes — Sports Injury Physical Therapy
Unfortunately, injuries do occur to the most well-conditioned, professional athletes. Applying the correct sports injury rehabilitation and conditioning therapy depends on the mechanism and severity of the injury and is essential to promoting healthy, therapeutic healing.
Each patient/athlete seeking sports medicine services will have a customized program established to maximize the potential for precise healing and maintaining consistent sports performance levels. People heal at different rates and require different treatments in order to return to their prior levels of functioning.
Sports injury physical therapy options include:
• Modalities
Ice, heat, ultrasound, iontophoresis and electric stimulation to relieve pain and inflammation.
• Manual therapy:
Hands-on work by the therapist to address muscle and/or myofascial tightness, trigger points, muscle spasms, decreased range of motion in the joints, lack of motion in the vertebrae of the spine, swelling, and/or reduced flexibility to improve overall mobility while decreasing pain.
• Exercise:
Prescribed by the clinician to decrease edema and increase range of motion, flexibility, strength and endurance to prepare athletes for returning to rigorous physical activity