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Power Plate Hamstring ROM for Runners

https://youtu.be/FtDQjdMu-pA

As part of our internship curricullum, we like to have our students write up a piece on a subject that interests them in the confines of their internship. James Armstrong, ASU student, wrote this piece about Whole Body Vibration via the Power Plate, a rehabilitation tool we’ve found very valuable at Rehab Plus.  Thanks to Jo Dibuz, University of Illinois-Chicago Physical Therapy Clinical Rotation Intern for the video demonstration.

The Power Plate is continuously producing positive outcomes for all types of people, whether an athlete training or a patient going through rehabilitation protocols. The Power Plate machine provides what is called whole-body vibration (WBV), which is designed to decrease muscle soreness, increase circulation, increase muscular power and strength and even promote better range of motion. The Power Plate accomplishes this by emitting vibrations throughout the body at different frequencies, rest intervals, and amplitudes in order to promote the body to recruit more muscle fibers, thus training more muscle fibers than traditional training. By offering the wide variety of settings, The Power Plate is able to offer the greatest performance outcomes to a wide variety of users. Rehab Plus recognizes The Power Plate as a top-tier rehabilitation and performance machine, and are able to offer these benefits to produce astounding outcomes.

Call today to schedule an evaluation for injury assessment, biomechanic analysis, or just to find out more cool stuff on the Power Plate (602) 954-7742.

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FOOT AND ANKLE INJURY TREATMENT AT REHAB PLUS: PART 1

We have always prided ourselves on giving patients the most comprehensive rehab protocol to return them to their activity of choice.  We are always “searching for a better mousetrap” and are continually working in-house on protocol development as well as scouring the clinical research data.  While we were developing the K.I.M. (Knee in Motion) device (reference archives for previous articles) we came up with an attachment for foot and ankle rehab called the “A.I.M.” or Ankle in Motion device.  It simply attaches to the machine and provides range of motion benefits previously very difficult to attain with manual therapy techniques.  Check out this cool video with Mitch Bruning, PT, taking Michael Humphreys through a program on the A.I.M.  Michael started as a true freshman on the Stanford basketball team this year and suffered a severe ankle sprain late in the season.  We have been getting tremendous range of motion outcomes on the A.I.M. machine.

 

https://youtu.be/6ebYpGtP-H4

 

In addition to the necessary modalities, soft tissue mobilization and manual therapy techniques are another critical component of foot and ankle rehab.  Here is another short video of Mitch performing manual therapy techniques on a patient.

 

https://youtu.be/Y6wX7IBXapk

Part 2 we’ll get to some of the exercise protocols we use to treat foot and ankle injuries.

 

 

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Single Sport vs. Multiple Sport (Part 2)

In part 2 of our Single Sport vs. Multiple Sport discussion, we provide commentaries from our staff  on a great article we found written by sports writer, Jonah Keri called The Tommy John Epidemic:  What’s Behind the Rapid Increase of Pitchers Undergoing Elbow Surgery?  In the article, the author talks with Dr. Glenn Fleisig who was the research director at the American Sports Medicine Institute and adviser to Little League, USA Baseball, and Major League Baseball.  Dr. Fleisig has extensively studied pitch counts and injury rates over his career.

 

Dr. Fleisig quotes in the article,

“Here, look at this. This is a graph of surgeries done at our center. For a while, there were none in youth leagues or high school. Then they started happening, and trending up. Back in the mid-1990s, 100 percent of our patients were adults. By the time we get to 2010, [the adolescent rate is] pushing 40 percent.

So is this strictly overuse?

Right. We found out that the ones who had surgery tended to be the ones who would throw more than 80 pitches in a game, the ones who pitched more than eight months per year. Again, this was 15- to 20-year-old kids. The pitchers who have surgery were almost always the ones who kept pitching when they were fatigued.

The basic problem is that too much pitching leads to injuries. People ask me all the time, “Is pitching natural?” I would say that excessive pitching, throwing 100 full-effort pitches every fifth day, is not natural.”

We asked our own Hal Wyatt, Certified Athletic Trainer for our high school program and former NFL athletic trainer what he thought about this article.  Hal says,

“I think the guy hit it on the head with the identification of the “one sport generation”….I think uncorrected poor mechanics in  kids is a contributing factor…in general, kids are not nearly as physically fit today as they were 50 years ago…. then the proliferation of all the travel and all star teams when they’re 10-14 yrs old and they play year round…more stress on more poorly conditioned bodies…bad combination”.

As sports performance and physical therapy specialists to athletes at all levels for over 20 years, we continue to advocate for our young clients to engage in multiple sports throughout the year, appropriate strength training, and adequate “active rest” and recuperation.  Not only are you reducing the risk for overuse injuries, but your chances of becoming a better overall athlete increases.
We asked our owner and sports perfomance specialist, Warren Anderson, his thoughts on this topic.

“Even IF a youngster has devoted himself to one sport, like baseball, he or she has to “carve” out time in the calender year for general athletic development , and , at some point appropriate strength training. Some in the medical community use the term “serial pattern overloading”, which basically means if the majority of your training revolves around one movement: i.e throwing, linear running, freestyle swimming, etc.  or activity: i.e. volleyball, baseball, swimming, etc. the likelihood of injury raises dramatically.  “

At Rehab Plus, we provide sports performance training to appropriately strengthen our young athletes to help them to not only perform to “make plays”, but to decrease the chance of traumatic and overuse injuries.  We also have been providing injury rehabilitation and physical therapy to professional athletes, Olympic athletes, collegiate athletes, and high school athletes for over 20 years.  We’ve trained and rehabbed the best.  If you have sports injuries or looking to become a better athlete, come and train and rehab like the pros with Rehab Plus Sports Performance and Injury Rehabilitation.

Call us at (602) 954-7742 to set up a consultation.

Check out this great article from the Chicago Tribune, Cubs’ Joe Maddon no fan of travel baseball and how he appreciates multi-sport athletes and his thoughts of travel baseball.