Well, it’s almost that time again when, for some, back to school means fall sports season.
According to the Center for Disease Control, youth sport-related injuries account for 2 million injuries a year. These injuries result in about 500,000 doctor’s visits and more than 30,000 hospitalizations. The fact is, most sport injuries and re-injuries can be prevented.
Did your kids suffer an injury this summer that didn’t totally heal on its own or have other chronic joint dysfunction that plagues them every season? Now is the time to think about a pre-season physical therapy program focusing on resolving those problems before their season gets into full swing. Most kids are covered under their parent’s health insurance benefit for physical therapy. Here are a few common youth sport diagnoses, which would benefit greatly from a skilled physical therapy intervention.
Chronic Ankle Sprain – This happens to a lot of athletes. Most of the time, they occur because of weakened ankle ligaments, which cannot support the forces applied to developing tarsal bones. In some cases, however, they occur, and re-occur, because of musculoskeletal imbalances in the legs and hips or improper pelvic alignments (our focus). Usually, these injuries become progressively worse with each re-occurrence and have side-lined many young athletes.
Shin Splints – Anyone who has suffered this problem knows how much it can inhibit maximum performance in your sport of choice. Once you resolve the inflammation (we prefer using cold laser), you can trace the root of the dysfunction back to weak knee or ankle stabilizer muscles and/or long limb muscular tightness. At Ease the Pain Physical Therapy, it makes us sad to envision a line of athletes sitting outside their school trainer’s room after practice with bags of ice on their shins.
Scoliosis/Low Back Pain – A very common diagnosis, which can really limit the amount of physical effort an athlete can commit to their sport. This diagnosis is often misunderstood and frustrating, but can be treated with the right plan. To accurately identify the main issues revolving around a young athlete’s spinal dysfunction, a thorough evaluation must be completed to determine the appropriate course of treatment. Our best advice is to call our office, and set up an initial consultation with our therapist.
Here at Ease the Pain Physical Therapy, we treat kids of all ages, and we love sports. If your child is inhibited by injury, have our highly skilled therapist perform an initial evaluation and determine a proper course of treatment to help your athlete regain peak performance. Please call us at (480) 854-7246.