Gaston Rehab Associates, Inc.

PrepStar Elite Football Showcase

On Saturday July 18th 2009, PrepStar Magazine will be hosting its Elite Football Showcase for high school football players at North Gaston High School 1133 Ratchford Drive, Dallas, NC 28034.

All combine participants receive an Athlete Player Profile on CSAPrepstar.com website used by thousands of college coaches nationwide. For more information or to register for this event call 704-604-7700. Cost is $50 to attend.

New Research Shows Sprint Training on Woodway Force Works

The Physical Performance Center at Gaston Rehab Associates, Inc. has been using the Woodway Force training platform for the last year with our athletes in our Gastonia, NC office. A recent study published in the March 2009 issue of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research confirms what we already knew; that this training tool works.

When combined with a resistance program, the Force is able to increase sprint speed, improve overall conditioning, and make our clients overall better athletes. Don't just take our word for it, ask the athletes we train and look at the results! Football players, basketball players, baseball players and even wrestlers have all benefited from the use of the training platform. In fact three of our wrestlers trained on the Force 1 time a week for 8 weeks and all three made it to States for their first time ever and 2 of the 3 finished fourth overall.

What can the Force do for you? The only place to train in Gastonia when you want to improve is The Physical Performance Center. For more information or to schedule your FREE initial assessment, please call 704-864-4424 today.

Golf Workouts and Fitness Training Gastonia, NC and Statesville, NC

The Physical Performance Center at Gaston Rehab Associates, Inc., with convenient locations in both Gastonia and Statesville NC, wants to help you take your golf game to the next level.

Dr. Brian J. Boyle, DPT,  Physical Therapist takes each client through a step by step assessment of their current muscle flexibility and physical strength. Following the assessment, Dr. Boyle takes each client through a video motion analysis of their swing to pick up on the dynamic aspects of strength and flexibility. The biggest flaw in most programs is that all too often these other programs stop short of this analysis and only pick up on the limitations while the person is standing still. Golf is played while moving and not while standing still. The video camera is able to detect flaws in your swing that could easily be missed by the naked eye and could directly take off yards from your drive and worse yet could cause you injury in the long run.

After your functional assessment and swing analysis we provide you with a step by step strength and flexibility program custom fit for your needs. This is not some exercise DVD or off the shelf program that tries to fit you into a mold; this custom program is designed specifically for you. Each client leaves knowing that the program they get was designed for their exact needs and will help their game improve.

Even better still is that the whole program comes with a 100% money back guarantee. If you play golf more than 3 times a month, work out with us 2-3 times a week for up to 12 weeks, and follow our advice and you do not improve your golf game we will give you back all of your money! That is our promise to you and how sure we are the program works!

For more information or to sign up to improve your golf game, please call Dr. Brian Boyle at 704-864-4424
today to schedule your appointment.

Fitness Classes and Camps Gastonia, NC

The Physical Performance Center at Gaston Rehab Associates, Inc. is now offering daily Adult Fitness classes. These small group (6-7 people only) training sessions are designed to take the blah out your exercise routine and get you excited about working out again. For more information please call 704-864-4424 for class schedule and prices.

We are also offering fit camps for children aged 8-18 daily from July 6th, 2009 through August 20th, 2009. These sessions are designed to get children introduced to a healthy lifestyle. Workouts will include functional activities to keep children interested and injury free. Sessions start at only $5 per child. Please call 704-864-4424 for more information.

High School Sports Injuries

In a recent look at the incidence of injuries in high school sports in the American Journal of Sports Medicine it shows that football, wrestling, girls basketball and girls soccer made up the top four sports where most of the injuries occur. The three most common injuries were fractures, complete ligament sprains and incomplete ligament sprains. The three most common areas of injury were knee, ankle and shoulder.
With this information we can tailor programs better suited to meet the needs of the prevention of injuries in high school student athletes.

Joint Hypermobility Syndrome

What we know about Joint Hypermobility Syndrome (JHMS):

·         Often this condition gets misdiagnosed or goes undiagnosed

·         Many different names: Benign Joint Hypermobility Syndrome, Hypermobile Joint Syndrome

·         Upper end or beyond of normal joint movement due to ligament laxity and associated with pain and or injury

·         More prevalent among Asians and Africans than Caucasians

·         1.1 to 5.5 times more prevalent in females than males

·         Hypermobility appears to decrease with age

·         Symptoms can present at any time from age 3 to 70 years

 

Diagnosis: No Universal agreement at this time

·         Beighton Scale of >5/9

·         Carter and Wilkinson scale of  >3/5

 

Associated Clinical Conditions:

·         Increased incidence of nerve compression disorders

·         Osteoarthritis

·         Sprains, subluxations, and dislocations more common

·         Anxiety disorders more prevalent

·         TMJ, fibromyalgia, and sleep disturbances

 

Treatment:

 

EDUCATION

·         Teaching proper body mechanics and muscle control

·         Job selection, sports participation, and or recreational activities

 

Other Options

·         Splints, braces, and taping

·         Strengthening exercise and proprioceptive exercises for the affected joints

·         Stretching exercises should be limited to muscles and not the joints themselves

·         Medications (controversial; mixed results)

 

Beighton Scale: Score _____/ 9   (one point for each positive test)

Hands to floor:  _________

Little finger extension beyond 90 degrees: _________

Thumb apposition to forearm: __________

Elbow extension 10 degrees beyond neutral: _______

Knee extension 10 degrees beyond neutral: _______

References: 

Russek, LN. Examination and Treatment of a Patient with Hypermobility Syndrome. Phys Ther. April 2000; 80(4): 386-398.

Russek, LN. Hypermobility Syndrome. Phys Ther. June 1999; 79(6): 591-599.

Athletes excel on and off the field

Gaston Day School recently graduated their senior class of 2009. Congratulations to Catherine Maier who was the Salutatorian for this year's class. Catherine was a member of their girls soccer team.

Way to go Catherine and best of luck with your future endeavors.

Physical Performance Center Athletes take top honors at Gaston County Schools

The Physical Performance Center at Gaston Rehab Associates would like to honor and congratulate the following athletes on their athletic accomplishments this past school year in Gaston County, NC.

Forestview High School:

Shannon Smith-  Most Valuable Player Girls Basketball

Kelsey Harris- Defensive Player of the Year Girls Basketball
                      Female Athlete of the Year

Hunter Huss High School:

T. J. Wilson- Leading Rebounder Boys Basketball
                   Best All Around Football
                   Most Valuable Underclassman Award

Jontavian Hall- Leading Scorer Boys Basketball
                      Best All Around Football

These athletes all have one thing in common: a strong desire to better themselves even though they have achieved a great deal of success already. They are also athletes who utilize the facilities at the Physical Performance Center to improve their game.

If you would like to train like these champions, give us a call at (704) 864-4424 to get started today.

Little League Baseball Pitching injuries

A 2006 study performed by Olsen, et al.(1) looked at 95 adolescent baseball pitchers who had either undergone shoulder or elbow surgery and 45 adolescent baseball pitchers (control group) who had never had a pitching related injury.

What the investigators found was that the injured group pitched significantly more months per year, games per year, innings per game, pitches per game, pitches per year, and warm up pitches prior to a game. Additionally the injured pitchers tended to utilize ice and anti-inflammatory drugs more often than their uninjured counterparts.

The investigators found that incidence of injury increased by five times when young athletes pitch more than 8 months a year, by four times when throwing more than 80 pitches per game, and that athletes were 2.5 times more likely to injure themselves when pitching fastballs greater than 85 miles per hour.

This information is useful in that it really gives some credibility to the implementation of pitch counts for young pitchers and for the need for rest. Unfortunately there are too many young pitchers who just want to play baseball and too many coaches out there that just want to win. Unfortunately these kids sometimes play on 2 and 3 different teams at the same time and are expected to pitch in back to back days when moving from school team to club team and so on.

An example from my own office is that we recently had a 13 year old left handed pitcher come in with reports of left elbow pain. He was on 3 baseball teams at the same time and in one week had thrown in 4 different games. When I asked about his pitch count, the family looked at me surprised and they had no idea how many pitches this pitcher had actually thrown. Faulty mechanics were an issue, however I believe that the excessive pitching expedited the process and advanced the faulty mechanics to the point where the child experienced pain. Fortunately we were able to work with this player and his pain was only a warning sign. But not everyone is so lucky.

Parents please be sure to implement a "pitch count" for your adolescent pitchers and make sure they have ample rest between pitching and in the "off season." Not everyone is Bryce Harper, he is a baseball prodigy.


1) Olsen et al. Risk Factors for Shoulder and Elbow Injuries in Adolescent Baseball Players. Am J Sports Med 34(6): 905-912.