Spine Specialist Team: Agility & speed are necessary for athletes and individuals who actively engage in physical activity and sports. These individuals often depend on these abilities to increase their overall performance. Quickly and gracefully, both mental and physical skills are often a key element towards overcoming challenges related to the individual’s specific sport. The key to improving agility is to minimize the loss of speed when redirecting the body’s center of gravity.
Rapid change drills that change direction forward, backward, vertically, and laterally will help improve individuals by training your body to make these changes more quickly. Dr. Alex Jimenez describes various stretches and exercises utilized to enhance agility and speed throughout his collection of articles, focusing largely on the benefits of fitness and occasional injuries or conditions resulting from overexertion.
The body is meant to move. Muscles allow that movement to happen by contracting and making joints flex, extend and rotate. Muscles attach on each side of the joint to bone by thick bands of fibrous tissue called tendons. When a muscle contracts, it shortens and pulls on the tendon, which allows the joint to go through a range of motion.
A strain occurs when the muscle tendon unit is stretched or torn. The most common reason is the overuse and stretching of the muscle. The damage may occur in three areas:
The muscle itself may tear.
The area where the muscle and tendon blend can tear.
The tendon may tear partially or completely (rupture).
Joints are stabilized by thick bands of tissue called ligaments which surround them. These ligaments allow the joint to move only in specific directions. Some joints move in multiple planes; therefore, they need more than one group of ligaments to hold the joint in proper alignment. The ligaments are anchored to bone on each side of the joint. If a ligament is stretched or torn, the injury is called a sprain.
Causes of Sprains and Strains
Sprains and strains occur when the body is put under stress. In these situations, muscles and joints are forced to perform movements for which they are not prepared or designed to perform. An injury can occur from a single stressful incident, or it may gradually arise after many repetitions of a motion.
Signs and Symptoms of Sprains and Strains
The first symptom of a sprain or strain injury is pain. Other symptoms, such as swelling and spasm, can take time (from minutes to hours) to develop.
Pain is always a symptom that indicates that there is something wrong with the body. It is the message to the brain that warns that a muscle or joint should be protected from further harm. In work, exercise, or sport, the pain may come on after a specific incident or it may gradually progress after many repetitions of a motion.
Swelling almost always occurs with injury, but it may take from minutes to hours to be noticed. Any time fibers of a ligament, muscle, or tendon are damaged, some bleeding occurs. The bleeding (such as bruising on the surface of the skin) may take time to be noticed.
Because of pain and swelling, the body starts to favor the injured part. This may cause the muscles that surround the injured area to go into spasm. Hard knots of muscle might be felt near the site of the injury.
The combination of pain, swelling, and spasm causes the body to further protect the injured part, which results in difficulty with use. Limping is a good example of the body trying to protect an injured leg.
For more information, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
Preventing Sports Injuries
Many athletes largely depend on chiropractic care to enhance their physical performance. New research studies have determined that aside from maintaining overall health and wellness, chiropractic can also help prevent sports injuries. Chiropractic is an alternative treatment option utilized by athletes to improve their strength, mobility and flexibility. Spinal adjustments and manual manipulations performed by a chiropractor can also help correct spinal issues, speeding up an athlete�s recovery process to help them return-to-play as soon as possible.
Focusing too much on playing one favorite sport probably isn’t a good idea for kids under 12, researchers report. That’s because specializing in a single sport seems to increase a child’s risk of injury, researchers say.
“Young athletes should participate in one competitive sport per season, and take at least three months off (non-consecutive) from competition per year,” said the study’s leader, Dr. Neeru Jayanthi. He’s a physician with Emory Sports Medicine and an associate professor of orthopaedics and family medicine at Emory University in Atlanta.
For the study, Jayanthi’s team assessed the risk of sports-related injuries among nearly 1,200 young athletes. After tracking their training schedules over the course of three years, the investigators found that nearly 40 percent of the athletes suffered an injury during the study period. The findings also showed that injured athletes began specializing in one sport at an average age younger than 12 years. In addition, nearly two-thirds of these athletes in highly specialized sports sustained a repeat injury. Athletes who didn’t sustain injuries began to focus on one sport when they were older than 12, on average, according to the report.
“While different for each sport, determining a possible age of specialization, as well as other training factors, may help guide young athletes in reducing risk,” Jayanthi said in an Emory news release.
Young athletes who had sports-related injuries during the study period tended to play more year-round sports, played more organized sports each week and were more specialized in specific sports than those who didn’t have an injury, the researchers found. The study authors advise young athletes to play more than one sport. In addition, they said, younger children shouldn’t train more hours than their age each week.
The study was published online March 16 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The findings were also presented Thursday at the International Olympic Committee World Conference on Prevention of Injury and Illness in Sport, in Monaco.
SOURCE: Emory University School of Medicine, news release, March 13, 2017
For more information, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
Preventing Sports Injuries
Many athletes largely depend on chiropractic care to enhance their physical performance. New research studies have determined that aside from maintaining overall health and wellness, chiropractic can also help prevent sports injuries. Chiropractic is an alternative treatment option utilized by athletes to improve their strength, mobility and flexibility. Spinal adjustments and manual manipulations performed by a chiropractor can also help correct spinal issues, speeding up an athlete’s recovery process to help them return-to-play as soon as possible.
Female soccer players suffer the highest rate of concussions among all high school athletes in the United States, a new study finds.
“While American football has been both scientifically and colloquially associated with the highest concussion rates, our study found that girls, and especially those who play soccer, may face a higher risk,” said study author Dr. Wellington Hsu. He is a professor of orthopaedics at Northwestern University in Chicago.
“The new knowledge presented in this study can lead to policy and prevention measures to potentially halt these trends,” Hsu said in a news release from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
The researchers analyzed data on nearly 41,000 injuries suffered by high school athletes in nine sports between 2005 and 2015. The injuries included nearly 6,400 concussions. The sports studied included football, soccer, basketball, wrestling and baseball for boys; and soccer, basketball, volleyball and softball for girls. During the study period, participation in the sports rose 1.04-fold, but the number of diagnosed concussions increased 2.2-fold.
In sports played by both girls and boys, girls had much higher concussion rates than boys, Hsu’s team found. Between 2010 and 2015, the concussion rate was higher in girls’ soccer than in boys’ football, the findings showed. During the 2014-2015 school year, concussions were more common in girls’ soccer than in any other sport in the study.
Girls may be at greater risk of concussion while playing soccer due to “heading” the ball, a lack of protective gear, and an emphasis on contact during the game, the researchers suggested.
Each year, about 300,000 U.S. teens suffer concussions or mild traumatic brain injuries while participating in high school sports, the study authors said.
The findings were presented Tuesday at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons meeting in San Diego. Research presented at meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
SOURCE: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, news release, March 14, 2017
For more information, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
Additional Topics: Headache and Auto Injury
Whiplash is a common type of automobile accident injury. Characterized by symptoms of neck pain, whiplash is caused when the complex structures and tissues of the neck are stretched beyond their limit as a result of an abrupt back-and-forth motion of the head. While neck pain is the most common symptom associated with the auto injury, headaches can also occur due to complications along the cervical spine.
“Runners need an incredible amount of nourishment to stay healthy, since running puts stress on not only muscles but every system in our body,” notes Elyse Kopecky, a chef, nutrition coach, and coauthor (with four-time Olympian Shalane Flanagan) of Run Fast. Eat Slow. “We often obsess about having the right amount of protein, carbs, and fat in our diet while forgetting about important micronutrients, including vitamins and minerals like iron, magnesium, potassium, and calcium, all of which can become depleted from distance training.”
Her post-run smoothie to replenish muscle stores and restock nutrients: whole-milk yogurt, frozen blueberries and banana, peeled carrot, a handful of kale, ginger, coconut water (or regular water), and coconut oil.
Working out in the gym is great, but even the biggest treadmill loyalists can get bored on the moving belt. Our advice? Mix up your sweat sessions whenever you can. Introducing different types of movement into your fitness routine can actually help you get in shape faster because they challenge your muscles in new ways.
That�s why we love with this samba reggae dance workout. It�s a total change of pace from your standard barre class. And you don�t need to be a pro dancer to try the moves either.
Samba Workout
In the video, dance teacher Quenia�Ribeiro, of the�renowned dance school Ailey Extension demonstrates basic samba reggae moves that work up a solid sweat. Ready to get down and groove? Follow along for a heart-pumping, fat-blasting workout you�ll actually have fun doing.
Samba reggae basic step: Standing with your feet slightly wider than hip-width, bounce from one foot to the other, moving your hips from side to side as you bounce.
The snake: Adding on to the basic step, roll your upper body and arms in a snake-like movement to the right as you step to the right side. Clap as you return your torso to center, then repeat on the left.
The shake: Standing with your feet slightly wider than hip-width, step your right leg out to the side as you sit into a squat and pop the hips forward and back. Continue to stay low as you repeat this movement on the other side, stepping out with the left leg. Stay loose in the hips as you alternate stepping out onto each leg.
Cross-and-pull: From standing, step and cross the right leg over the left as you pull the right arm down in front of the body. Return to center and repeat on the left. Bounce from side to side as you alternate doing this cross-and-pull movement on the left and right.
Window washers: Standing with your feet slightly wider than hip-width, shift your weight as you bounce your hips from one side to the other, holding your arms out to each side and moving them in quick circular movements, as if washing windows.
The bodies of runners who put in a lot of mileage appear to be more efficient at running compared to those who run less, a new study finds. Jasper Verheul and colleagues at Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom compared two groups of runners. One group ran more than 27 miles a week, the other group ran fewer than nine miles a week.
Anatomy of Runners
The researchers examined the activity of muscle groups in the thigh and the motion of knee joints with a variety of tools as the participants ran at different speeds during the research study.
“Given the importance of the knee joint in running, it was hoped that by examining knee joint stiffness and muscle activation levels across a range of running speeds, the adaptations of neuromuscular factors due to running training could be closely explored for the first time,” the researchers wrote.
When their feet landed on the ground, the knees of the runners who put in the most miles had less muscle activity and more stiffness. The researchers also saw that the tendons in the high-mileage runners worked more efficiently at pushing the body forward.
“From this, we concluded that high-mileage training leads to changes in the muscles and tendons that likely reduce energy expenditure during running, and these adaptations are enhanced the faster you go,” the researchers said.
The study appeared in the Journal of Applied Physiology.
News stories are written and provided by HealthDay and do not reflect federal policy, the views of MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health, or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
For more information, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
Additional Topics: Chiropractic and Athletic Performance
The prevention of sports injuries through the practice of proper stretches and exercises is essential for athletes. When an injury caused by an accident does occur however, many athletes seek chiropractic care to help diagnose and treat any possible sport-related injuries and conditions. Chiropractic treatment focuses on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of injuries and conditions associated with the musculoskeletal and nervous system through the use of spinal adjustments and manual manipulations. Chiropractic is beneficial for many athletes’s performance.
A common soccer move — bouncing the ball off of the head — may not be as harmless to the brain as has been thought, new research suggests.
A study of more than 200 adult amateur soccer players of both genders found that regularly “heading” the ball, as well as suffering accidental hits to the head, significantly boosted a player’s risk of concussion.”The prevailing wisdom is that routine heading in soccer is innocuous and we need only worry about players when they have unintentional head collisions,” study leader Dr. Michael Lipton, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, said in a college news release.”But our study suggests that you don’t need an overt collision to warrant this type of concern,” said Lipton. He is professor of radiology, psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Einstein.Another concussion expert who reviewed the findings agreed.Soccer Athletes at Risk
The study “seems to provide additional evidence that such practices within the game of soccer can put athletes at risk for traumatic brain injury,” said Dr. Jamie Ullman. She directs neurotrauma at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y.Much of the research into sports-related concussions has concentrated on high-impact sports, such as football or hockey. But head trauma experts have long known that other sports — including soccer and rugby — might carry risks, too.In prior studies, Lipton said his team found that “30 percent of soccer players who’d had more than 1,000 headings per year had a higher risk of microstructural changes in the brain’s white matter, typical of traumatic brain injury, and worse cognitive performance.”Exploring the issue further, the new study focused on online questionnaires answered by 222 adult amateur soccer club players in the New York City area, both male and female. All had played soccer at least six months during the prior year.Men averaged 44 headers in two weeks, the survey found, while women averaged 27. One or more accidental head impacts, such as a ball hitting the back of the head or a head colliding with another player’s knee, were reported by 43 percent of women and 37 percent of men.Players who regularly headed the ball were three times more likely to have concussion symptoms than those who didn’t head the ball often, Lipton’s team reported.Players who suffered accidental head impacts two or more times within a two-week span were six times more likely to have concussion symptoms than those without accidental head impacts, the findings showed.Of those who headed the ball or reported accidental head impacts, 20 percent had moderate to severe concussion symptoms, according to the report.Of the seven players with very severe symptoms, six had two or more unintentional head impacts over two weeks, four were among those who headed the ball the most, and three were in the group that headed the ball second-most.Lipton stressed that the findings cannot be generalized to child, teen or professional soccer players.Still, “our findings certainly indicate that heading is more than just a ‘sub-concussive’ impact, and that heading-related concussions are common,” Lipton said. “We need to give people who have these injuries proper care and make efforts to prevent multiple head impacts, which are particularly dangerous.”That means watching out for symptoms, he added.”Many players who head the ball frequently are experiencing classic concussion symptoms — such as headache, confusion and dizziness — during games and practice, even though they are not actually diagnosed with concussion,” Lipton explained.”Concussion sufferers should avoid additional collisions or head impacts during the following days or weeks, when their risk of incurring a second concussion is extremely high,” he said. “Because these injuries go unrecognized and unmanaged, there may be important clinical consequences for the short and long term.”Dr. Salman Azhar is a neurologist and director of stroke services at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. He said the new findings are in accordance with prior studies, and the odds for concussion appeared to rise along with the frequency of head impacts.”The chance of having moderate-to-severe symptoms increased when the unintentional heading went from just one per two-week period to two per two-week period,” Azhar noted.The study was initially published online Feb. 1 in the journal Neurology.
For more information, ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900
Presented By:
Dr. Alex Jimenez D.C.,C.C.S.T
Spinal Trauma Specialist
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