National Cheer Safety Month

Did you know that March is National Cheer Safety Month?

Let’s face it…if you have daughters’, chances are they love to dance, flip or cheer. Does your son have amazing upper body strength, being able to flip, catch, and balance someone with their hands? Cheerleading used to have a bad rap for high incidences of injuries, however, in January 2016 research showed that cheerleading has the 5^th lowest injury rate of 22 high school sports. The American Academy of Pediatrics’ journal PEDIATRICS, Dustin Currie, et al., state that using the last five years of data compiled by the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study (NHSSRIS), injury rates in cheerleading rank 18^th out of 22 sports, with an overall injury rate of .71 injuries per 1,000 athlete-exposures.

Do our kids still need to be careful? Absolutely! Common cheer injuries can include: ankle sprains, knee injuries, wrist injuries, low back pain and head injuries (concussions). But these can all be prevented! Do your research!!

Look into the equipment your cheer facility uses. There should be plenty of mats and foam pits to be used when learning new skills.

Research your coaches. Are they experienced? Make sure they are well aware of the current rules and regulations of the sport. There are guidelines, which include restrictions on basket tosses, pyramid heights, and twisting/flipping stunts. Your coaches should be well aware of the restrictions for each age group to maintain overall child safety.

Is your son / daughter healthy? Your child should be healthy both during season and off-season. Make sure a comprehensive well, rounded flexibility and strength program are being implemented year round to avoid overuse injuries. Not sure of where to start? Reach out to our clinic to discuss details further with a licensed physical therapist.

So what happens if your child does get hurt? Or if he or she is complaining of achy pain? That is the perfect time to schedule a complimentary injury screen with one of our physical therapists. We can take your child through a sport specific movement evaluation to determine what movement patterns and functional impairments are present and give the appropriate exercises/stretches to help get them back on track. We will be in constant communication with your coach to help tailor practices to avoid further injury.

Don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions regarding injury prevention and/or rehabilitation!

Give me a T-H-E-R-A-C-O-R-E!

Jen Bazan, PT, DPT

Physical Therapist Does Physical Therapy

Well, I can honestly say that I have a whole new outlook on physical therapy.  I’ve had my share of sports injuries in the past, but recovering from double hip surgery has been as eye opening experience!  Not only did I have to physically slow down and let me body recover, but mentally I had to realize that I could not do everything I used to.   Being a compliant patient is not as easy as I thought!

I had these surgeries to relieve hip pain and lack of motion that had been bothering me for at least 10 years.  As many of you know, I played basketball most of my life and the combination of having a narrow, deep hip socket as well as the repetitive motion of defensive slides led to chronic impingement at my hip.  This caused bony lesions at the joint and basically destroyed my labrum, which is the padding in the hip socket.  The first surgery I had by Dr. Domb was an arthroscopic debridement of the lesions and labrum, and in the second surgery (a week later) my hamstring tendon was used to reconstruct my labrum.

I then spent (almostJ) 6 weeks on crutches with only 20 lbs of weight on my left leg.  I’ve been biking 1-2 hours/ day and attending PT 3x/week.  While our philosophy at TheraCORE is to try not to “share” patients and keep them with their one therapist each visit, I have had the opportunity of working with each one of our PT’s.  I had prehab with Cara at our Westmont facility where she kicked my butt strengthening my core and decreasing tightness in my hip muscles!  I can honestly say I thought I was in shape, but if I did not do those workouts before surgery, my recovery would not have been this quick and painless.   Since surgery, I have worked with Jen, Heather and Ryan at our Lockport facility.  I have truly enjoyed experiencing their various treatment methods and the creativity they have shown in my rehab as patience is not my strong suit!

I am now able to walk without crutches, drive, climb stairs and started back treating patients this week.  It will still be some time before I can run, jump or play basketball.  But, I’m starting to realize that I may not actually be a runner and maybe my basketball days are over.  I think I’ll start practicing what I preach and take up biking, swimming and pilates! 

 

- Amy Goebbert, PT, DPT