Re-Building the Efficiant Athlete

The Importance of Assessment

Now that the team is in the off-season there is plenty of time to address any movement issues, pain, and pay respects to injury prevention. It is very typical in American football that athletes who get hurt find a way that will allow them to play through an injury. Understandable, but as they continue to play on an injury, most likely the implement allowing them to play is doing serious harm to the joints above or below.

For example, here is a picture of our running back. He had complaints of bad back pain and played the season with knee pain in his left leg all while earning all-conference honors. Clearly by the photo of some static assessment positions you can see the significant lordosis in overhead reach. He admitted to me that he hurt it lifting something over his head. The is a clear indication that not everyone is qualified for overhead lifting. In his case he lacked the needed thoracic extension and it was way to much stress on his lumbar region.

On his single leg lift he showed a significant tilting of his pelvis (he actually leaned much worse prior to photo.) This being on the same side of his knee injury led me to anticipate some poor glute function in the test to follow. Through the multiple ROM and strength test revealed a significant lack of internal rotation on left side, very delayed glute function with lumbar rotation, and in his Thomas Test his TFL pretty much dominated him on his left side especially.

So, all those underlying issues add up to the described pain sites and were putting him at some serious risks. Luckily he as plenty of time to get this sorted out and will be feeling much better in no time. This goes to show the importance of a assessment in regards to identifying faulty movement patterns and reason for pain. All things that are negative towards athletes and everyday people. After prescribing certain corrective stretches/exercises and avoiding a couple patterns until he is ready, he should be better in no time. I will be sure to post his progress as he continues.