By J.R. Rogers
J.R. RogersAccording to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, High school athletes account for an estimated 2 million injuries each year. Overuse injuries are responsible for nearly half of all sports injuries to middle and high school students. Since 2000 there has been a fivefold increase in the number of serious shoulder and elbow injuries among youth baseball and softball players.

How does injury occur?

An Injury stems from the muscles inability to absorb force. When the muscle doesn’t absorb force properly, the joints, ligaments, and bones have to absorb the force. This now creates the injury. Think of a car: if the struts and shocks become weak and don’t absorb the force of the road, all of the bearings and bushings will get ruined over time.

How to prevent an Injury?
One of the first things I do as a Personal Trainer and ARP Wave Therapist is a postural assessment and muscle test. You can’t do a postural assessment at home, but I can teach you how to do a basic muscle test.

What is a Muscle Test?
A muscle test is a basic test used to see if the muscles in the lower body and upper body have any imbalances. The reason why you want to muscle test your child is to see if they have any basic muscle imbalances that could lead to Neurological Disconnects in the activation of muscles once force is applied. In other words, when the basic amount of force is applied to the muscle can your child resist compensating?

Lower Body Test
Have your child lay flat on their back with arms resting along the side of their body and legs extended out straight close together with feet pointing up. Have them raise one leg up at a 45o angle with toes flexed towards them. Take your 2 fingers and place them on the top side of the ankle. Tell your child to resist your pressure as you push down using about 50% of your strength. Then have your child put an arch in the small of their back, which means you should be able to slide your hand underneath their back and go to the other side. Repeat the test with the arch in the back. If your child could not resist on either one of these positions then your child has an injured S.I. Joint.

There are 2 joints on the body that absorb force before the muscle, the Sacrum Ilium joint and the Tibula Fibula joint. If either one of these joints can’t absorb force properly they will cause an extreme muscle imbalance that will lead to injury.

How to check if the Tibula Fibula Joint is unable to absorb Proper Force
While your child is lying in the same position have them hold the leg up in the 45o angle with lower back flat. Holding onto the foot with one hand, take your other hand and simulate force by pounding on the heal of the foot with an open hand. Your heal of your hand hitting the heal of their foot 5 times. Then with your index finger and thumb, pinch the joint in the front of the ankle that connects the leg with the foot. Now have your child hold the leg up and try to resist again. If your child can’t resist or weakens, then he or she has an injured Tib Fib joint.

Note: This test should be administered to both legs.

How to heal the S.I. joint and the Tibula Fibula joint?
The S.I. joint is as simple as buying an S.I. belt and having your child wear it everyday for 6 weeks. They can take it off when they go to bed or shower. The Tib Fib will require your child taping the ankle everyday for 6 weeks. The tape will go around the Tib Fib joint. Make sure when you tape the joint, you do it with a flex foot to keep the tape from being too tight.

How does the Tape and Belt allow the joint to Heal?
The support will create a Neurological connection. Your Nervous System controls everything in your body, muscles, joints, organs, and skin. By you giving an artificial support to these joints, it will give the signal that those joints are now strong. Now your nervous system will devote more to the muscles absorbing force. So it’s like putting a cast on the joints, and allowing the joints to heal so that they can absorb force properly again.

Learn more on how to prevent 90% of injuries with my body mapping session. Visit http://WWW.ARPWAVEHEALING.COM
Click the body mappign page and help your young athlete stay on the field. You can also contact J.R. Rogers at arpwavehealing@gmail.com