Research and News
Posts tagged sports rehabilitation
Developing Thera-Band exercise programs for overhead throwing athletes
Dec 17th
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our email updates for new blog posts. Thanks for visiting!
The overhead athlete’s shoulder must be strong, flexible, and enduring for optimal performance. Shoulder exercises for the throwing athlete must reflect the specific functional demands required both for injury prevention and rehabilitation. Head Athletic Trainer for the Boston Red Sox, Mike Reinold, DPT, ATC, CSCS, published a “current concepts” paper on preventive and rehabilitative exercises for overhead throwing athletes.
Dr. Reinold and his colleagues outlined 6 principles of injury prevention and treatment programs:
1. Maintain range of motion
2. Maintain strength of the glenohumeral and scapulothoracic musculature
3. Emphasize dynamic stabilization and neuromuscular control
4. Core and lower body training
5. Off-season preparation
6. In-season maintenance
In addition, the authors outlined a rehabilitation progression for shoulder conditions including impingement, instability, and rotator cuff tendonitis. They recommend the use of products such as elastic tubing, exercise balls, soft weights, and band loops throughout the program. By understanding the demands on the throwing shoulder, rehabilitation professionals can improve their clinical decision-making and progressive exercise prescription. For more information on the overhead throwing shoulder, I recommend Dr. Reinold’s book co-written with Kevin Wilk PT and James Andrews MD, The Athlete’s Shoulder. The Thera-Band family More >
New book helps develop “Effective Functional Progressions in Sport Rehabilitation”
May 20th
Developing functional exercise programs for athletes is sometimes difficult, particularly for rehabilitation professionals without much experience in their patients’ sport. Human Kinetics recently released the book, Effective Functional Progressions in Sport Rehabilitation by Todd Ellenbecker, Mark De Carlo, and Carl DeRosa. The book is divided into 2 parts. Part I provides the benefits and guidelines for developing successful sports rehabilitation programs, while Part II reviews functional progressions for 3 body regions: upper extremity, lower extremity, and trunk.
Functional Exercise Progressions
Each regional chapter reviews relevant functional anatomy and describes appropriate functional tests with normative data. The normative data can be used to set goals for the athletes’ rehabilitation, which can be very helpful to practicing clinicians. Exercises are grouped into specific progressions and labeled with different stages in the progression. The exercises start with isolated, joint-specific exercises and progress to more functional movements. Some exercises also include “Pearls of Performance,” which provide additional hints on performing and progressing the exercise. The 3 chapters also include interval programs that provide specific exercise protocols for returning to sports such as tennis, baseball, football, soccer, and basketball. The exercises include easy to use and convenient equipment such as elastic tubing, dumbbells, and exercise balls, making them More >
