Functional Movement Check

I have patients of all ages – from 9 days old to 90. Increasingly, I am seeing kids from the ages of about 7 to 18 coming in with sports-related injuries. Youth sports injuries are the second leading cause of emergency room visits for children and adolescents, and the second leading cause of injuries in school. These stats don’t even include the kids who might suffer a minor injury, which treats with ice and ibuprofen once they get home.Physical activity is necessary for normal growth and development in children. I would never discourage children being active! However, when the activity level becomes too intense, tissue breakdown and injury can occur. In the past, overuse injuries were frequently seen among adult recreational athletes, but they are now appearing much more frequently in kids. Overuse is excessive and repeated use resulting in injury to the bones, muscles, or tendons involved in the action. The biggest contributing factor to the increase in youth sports injuries is the focus on more intense, repetitive, and specialized training along with year-round participation at much younger ages.Factors that cause overuse injuries in kids are: specializing in one sport at a young age, training errors, imbalance of strength or joint range of motion, improper footwear and intense repetitive training during periods of growth. Immature bones, insufficient rest after an injury, and poor training and conditioning also may contribute to overuse injuries.To prevent these overuse injuries in kids, it’s important for them to undergo a functional movement checkup. The screening should be conducted before a season starts and after an injury before the child returns to action. This checkup assesses any potential risks for injury. It can help spot imbalances in mobility and stability during movement patterns, which allows the assessor to identify movement flaws that may cause injury. It identifies muscle flexibility and deficits related to movement, meaning which areas are weak when other areas are in motion. Many professional and college teams put their athletes through functional movement screens before workouts start, and design conditioning programs to strengthen weak areas.It is vitally important for kids, who are still growing, to undergo this checkup so that overuse injuries do not interfere with their growth. Specifically, it looks for muscle asymmetries, tightness, weakness and other risks for injury by examining the mobility and stability of the hips, core, shoulders, knees, spine and ankles.The check includes:

• The Deep Squat, which screens hips, shoulders, knees, spine and ankles.
• Hurdle Step: Used to screen hips, knees and ankles.
• The In-Line Lunge, which is used to screen ankle and knee stability, as well as abductor or adductor weakness.
• Shoulder Mobility: Used to screen the shoulder’s range of motion, external and internal rotation, and posture.
• Active Straight-Leg Raise: Used to screen hamstring and calf flexibility, hip mobility, and pelvic stability.
• Trunk Stability Pushup: Used to screen trunk stability and core strength.
• Rotational Stability: Used to screen core stability and asymmetry.

Whether your child is prepping for fall sports or you are looking to get back to recreation league basketball after an injury, call Homberg Chiropractic to make an appointment for your functional movement checkup.