Over the following days, I will briefly go over some of the lectures at this year’s PSTM conference in Wroclaw. These short articles will not be exhaustive summaries but rather a collection of bullet points on the most important concepts and ideas (in my opinion). Today, I cover Dr. Kimike Dato’s lecture on the Evidence-based athlete test & evaluation.
Assessing shoulder and hip range of motion (ROM) is easy and can be done without equipment. The shoulder should have 90 degree of total ROM, with 45 degree of internal and 45 degree of external rotation. Throwers will need more external rotation. When testing, observe a pattern. Even if there is a lot of compensation going on, this will improve your understanding of the athlete. Assess where limitations come from
- Test scapular retraction
- Test T-Spine Rotation
- Quadruped
- Side Lying
Fix mobility problems with dynamic stretching or PNF, and stability problems with stabilization exercise. Stretching improvements are fast, stability takes time. Right handed people usually have less T-Spine rotation to the left.
Lack (and excess!) of internal hip Rotation is linked to low back pain . External Rotation not so much. Equally bad ROM on both sides is actually ok. Asymmetry is a problem.
After having identified limitations and having decided on appropriate corrective strategies for each athlete, allocate a short block of time during warmup for individualized work.
Tomorrow I will release another summary, so stay tuned.
So long, don’t get hurt
The Performance Engineer 