New Ways to Treat Injuries of The Old

A flurry of new research and sports medicine has sprung because of those of us in the Autumn of our lives. Enough of the poetic attempts to journalism, here’s the straight goods: The greater number of older (not old,”oldER”) athletes on the scene today are pushing a new industry of how to treat injuries of the not so youthful. If you are still treating sprains and pains like your bantam hockey coach once taught you: forget about it. In fact don’t wait until you get hurt, try preventing it from ever happening.

Jenny Lee of the Vancouver Sun reports in her article, “Boomeritis” of August 27th

One key principle is muscle balance. As sport-specific muscles become strong, tight and overdominant, the opposing muscles become weaker, not just in comparison, but literally weaker, eventually leading to aches, pains and injury, says physiotherapist Carol Kennedy, a partner at Treloar Physiotherapy Clinic in Vancouver.

In other words, don’t ignore the muscles you forgot you have. If you play hockey regularly, you will use a familiar set of muscles over and again, making those muscles stronger. To avoid unnecessary aches and pains make sure you continue to use other muscle groups regularly as well for fear of atrophy.

Physician Karim Khan of Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute’s Centre for Hip Health reports, “Ten years ago, in sports medicine, we wouldn’t get someone over 60,” Khan says. “Now one-third of patients are over 65. I had an 81-year-old patient in the clinic last week. He had knee pain getting back down from a very high mountain ascent. He said above the tree line was so dangerous because there’s nothing to hang on to.

In support of the observation that older people are more active; Canlan Ice Sports recently expanded the Age Divisions in their Adult Recreational Hockey Program to include divisions for 30+, 40+ and 50+. Plus there’s the ever popular Snoopy tournament in California. And sports medicine nowadays has a s#!tload of information for us hockey players:

You’ve been sitting in the office, bending forward all day, and now you’re at the rink doing exactly the same thing. Your hip muscles are shortened in front because of all that sitting and forward bending. The result is short muscles in front of the hip and weaker muscles at the back which in time, will lead to poor core control followed by groin strain or low back pain. The solution? Work some forward lunges into your day to stretch out your hips, Kennedy says.

What about your ever expanding gut? If you can’t stop drinking beer, then start tightening up the ass. There’s something your Bantam coach wouldn’t have told you.

New research shows that hockey players need to strengthen their abdominals and butt muscles (gluteus medius) for rotational strength, Kennedy says. Sad to say, these muscles may no longer be strong enough for you to play at the level you were used to, and leaving them weak for too long will eventually affect your lower back.

Needless to Mention the Knees

Fixing knee pain is about timing, not strength, says Khan, co-author of Clinical Sports Medicine and a family practice associate professor at the University of British Columbia.

Patellofemoral syndrome is pain due to maltracking of the knee cap. Knee pain is one of the top reasons for visiting a sports medicine clinic and it’s the most common muscle complaint in family practices, Khan says.

Yes, you need to strengthen the quad and thigh muscles, but the trick is to train the vastus medialis to kick in quickly.” You’ve got to make the inside quad muscles contract early to pull the knee cap inwards, before the outside thigh muscles contract to pull it outwards,” Khan says.

Whatever you say, Dr. Now someone get me Biology 11 textbook, stat, so I can figure out what the hell they just said.