Hyper mobile: a condition also called loose joint. This is commonly found in young girls that are in gymnastics, cheer leading, dance, etc. Often the hyper mobility occurs in the lumbo-pelvic area, or hip area. Even Mary Lou Retton, Olympic Champion, has had a hip replacement (June 24, 2005) as a result of over use and ultimately hyper mobility. The damage to the joint area includes ligamentous structures of the joint, increase quantity of joint translation and muscular imbalances (Panjabi, 1992)
Joint Stability is critical to our young athletes. Too often today, we have middle/high school students actively participating in year round athletics. Their bodies are growing, and developing. We don't allow time for the muscles to "catch-up" to the skeletal development. Often conditions such as Osgood Slaughter creep in since they are not resting during the so-called "off-season", since there really is none.
If we are to have students competing year round, they need to have counter muscle strengthening to the repetition of their sport. Tennis players need to work rotator cuff muscles, rhomboids, scapula retraction and depression. Swimmers need to have a program where they stabilize their shoulder girdle, such as rotator muscles, and eventually deltoid muscles. So much can be done to assist young athletes if directed and carefully approaching their program design for strength and growth development.
Think about this......so many injuries are occurring now earlier than before. Joint stabilization is critical.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Probably the bigger issue we see clinically in young female athletes is knee hypermobility, particularly laxity of the retinaculum around the knee. This is commonly seen as patella subulxations in soccer, volleyball and other sports. The subluxations lead to PFS in the late twenties and early thirties after the female athlete's career has ended. Yes, Osgood's is present but in the young female the undiagnosed patella subluxation is far more prominent. (Noyes 1989) The important point is to determine if the young athlete demonstrates systemic hypermobility. With that determination we can then make the appropriate selection of flexibility, stability and strengthening activities for the conditioning program.
ReplyDeleteIf we know the client is hypermobile then in time we may see excessive joint translation that will cause arthritic changes. The ligamentous structures are already lax so the damage isnt too these but the arthritic changes damage the joint structures (cartilage, joint capsule, etc) which further deteriorate the ligamentous structures. This causes of cascading cycle of joint dysfunction. The key concept with training young athletes that exhibit hypermobility is based on both Janda's and Brunnstrom's work: "proximal stability gives distal mobility". If the concept is adhered to, then we can significantly minimize the chances of severe joint damage and dysfunction.