Live Well Dayton- Sports Medicine

LIVE WELL DAYTON ›› SPORTS MEDICINE

Keeping Yourself in the Game Switching to summer sports brings health challenges

BY JENNIFER PAT TERSON LORENZET TI

DAYTON MAGAZINE . June/July 2019

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Helping Artist-Athletes Get Back in Action

Performing arts medicine provides specialized care to artist-athletes

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f you’ve ever been to a ballet, watched a comedian do a pratfall or seen a stuntman dive through a plate glass window in your favorite western, what you may not realize is that you were looking at highly skilled, performing athletes. Dancers and other performing artists can experience the same kinds of physical injury as a linebacker, golfer, basketball forward or hockey player.

Sometimes physicians and physical therapists may not understand the nature of this kind of work and the physical stress put on the body in its practice. But one program at Kettering Health Network can provide treatment especially suited to these patients, who have different therapeutic needs and unique range-of-motion requirements to be able to return to daily activity.

Carol Fisher is the coordinator of the Performing Arts Medicine program. When starting the program, Fisher set out to see that these “artist-athletes” have access to high-quality physical therapy and injury care. “They really are athletes,” she said. “They have the same types of physical risk of injury that any other athlete might experience.”

As a gymnast and dancer, Fisher experienced her first injury while in high school and ended up seeing many physical therapists. While this was in the late 1970s and early 80s, she said that, even today, health care providers rarely understand what dancers, gymnasts and performing artists really do. Fisher saw an entire group of patients that was either being overlooked or underserved because of a lack of knowledge, so she set out to change that.

Targeted Physical Therapy Options Fisher recognized that it was imperative for the physicians and therapists who treated these patients to have a clear understanding of the types of movements involved in dance and other physical performing arts.

“Biomechanically, once you see movement of the dancing, you can help them,” she said.

“We create programs that simulate what their needs would be.”

The Performing Arts Medicine Program has therapists trained in arts-specific equipment for the rehabilitation and performance enhancement of the patient. The program is

available to any dancer, gymnast, cheerleader and other performing artist with an injury that requires treatment. Specialized care can make the difference between resuming their craft or ending it. Patients come from all over the region, including Dayton Ballet, Wright State University dancers and students from many of the dance studios around the Dayton area. The program has even treated older patients, into their 70s, like ballroom dancers.

In addition to traditional methods, therapists in the program also utilize other approaches including Pilates and gyrotonic expansion, which is a multidirectional, spiraling machine used to simulate the movements of a dancer. Fisher said the one-of-a-kind program is expanding, now available at several clinics within Kettering Health Network.

For more information about this program, visit ketteringhealth.org/sports-medicine/programs/therapy.cfm or call (937) 395-3910 to make an appointment.

LIVE WELL DAYTON ›› SPORTS MEDICINE

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lmost every athlete, even the weekend variety, looks forward to summer.

With schedules lightening up and the weather becoming increasingly inviting it is a natural time to move exercise out of the school, gym or studio and go outside.

However, an abrupt change in sport or in training routine can mean an increased potential for injuries, sidelining you just when you most want to be active. We spoke to some Dayton-area experts about how to keep yourself and your family on the links, the trails or the bike all summer long.

AGE IS JUST A NUMBER When it comes to switching to summer sports and activities no one is immune to problems that can occur. According to Kyle Dorsten, a certified athletic trainer with Miami Valley Sports Performance, growing bodies can bring their own set of challenges. “With basketball players we are getting lots of long, lean kids that are growing into their bodies,” he says. Continued training in their sport, including cardiovascular work and hip strengthening exercises is important to help them learn

to use their bodies safely and be ready for the coming season.

Young women also need to be aware of the challenges they might face as they mature.

As girls develop the broader pelvises characteristic of women, the Q angle, or angle between pelvis and knee, increases. This can create problems when jumping and landing, as volleyball players do. These players might spend summer focusing on developing their gluteus maximus and medius, two muscles that help control the hips and therefore protect the knee from collapsing on landing.

However, mature adults have their own set of challenges when facing a change in activity level in the summer, whether that is switching from ballroom dance to golf or from the couch to the hiking trail.

Dorsten encourages adults to start off slowly as their activity changes in the summer. This might mean starting with nine holes of golf rather than jumping straight to 18. “You don’t rebound as quickly” from a period of inactivity, Dorsten reminds adults.

It also means taking steps toward “maintaining overall mobility and strength,” Dorsten says. He recommends cardiovas-

Kyle Dorsten, a certified athletic trainer with Miami Valley Sports Performance, recommends easing into a new activity. cular training, such as using an elliptical machine or a bike, as well as doing exercise to promote strength and flexibility. For golfers, among others, such exercises might focus on maintaining mobility through the DAYTON MAGAZINE . June/July 2019

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LIVE WELL DAYTON ›› SPORTS MEDICINE

Dr. David Buck, Kettering Physicians Network Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, says stretching and warming up are important. hips, shoulders and thoracic spine as well as building core strength.

This advice is echoed by Dr. David Buck of Kettering Physicians Network Orthopedics and Sports Medicine. Buck routinely sees a number of conditions in his regular practice, including issues like tennis elbow, Achilles tendonitis, shin splints, patellar tendonitis and even concussion. Every summer activity seems to take its toll somehow, from tennis elbow to injuries from riding bicycles or playing on trampolines.

Buck agrees with Dorsten that a graduated start to the season gives the best chance of preventing injury. “If they know they’re going to switch sports start conditioning (for the new sport) six weeks out,” he says.

This is particularly important for those who are not moving from sport to sport but who are moving from a sedentary winter to a summer of more activity. “Go slow and (gradually) increase,” Buck says, warning against being “too aggressive too soon.”

Going slow “doesn’t have to be fancy,” Buck says. Conditioning can start as simply as doing resistance band exercises or working with one- to two-pound hand weights.

Stretching and warming up prior to activity are also important to preventing injury.

But what if, in spite of your good preparation, you find yourself with a sports-related injury? Many of these injuries can be treated at home, Buck says. If you suspect a minor sprain with mild pain and no significant

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swelling or deformity (meaning nothing looks misshapen or out of place) then it is likely something you can treat at home. Try the RICE method (rest, ice, compression, elevation) and take anti-inflammatory medication to help with both the pain and the swelling. However, if this does not help

or you suspect the injury is more severe it’s time to visit the doctor.

By following some common sense precautions athletes of all ages and levels can be ready for a healthy and active summer. What better way to enjoy this beautiful Ohio season than by practicing an activity you love? n

CUSTOMIZED TRAINING AT PREMIER HEALTH For athletes wanting to take their performance to the next level Premier Health Sports and Human Performance offers a variety of programs aimed at improving ability and safety.

At Miami Valley Hospital South programs range from Edge Elite, an individualized program aimed at professional athletes or those transitioning from high school to college play, to Knee-Fit, a training program that improves dynamic stability of the knee in movements like pivoting, cutting and jumping.

Miami Valley Hospital North offers a similar array of programs, plus Golf-Fit, a program offered by a certified Titleist Performance Institute instructor who looks at a player’s functional abilities with the goal of improving golf swing and overall performance.

Additionally, Premier Health offers a camp in Tipp City aimed at high school, college and professional athletes who want to improve speed, power and agility.

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Premier Health

866-608-FIND (3463) | premierhealth.com/sportsmed

Premier Health’s Sports Medicine Centers are committed to taking a comprehensive approach to caring for you and your loved ones. The multidisciplinary training of our board-certified sports medicine physicians, certified athletic trainers, sports-certified physical therapists and strength and conditioning specialists work in collaboration to provide a seamless approach to the treatment of operative and non-operative injuries. Here you will find a well-rounded approach to caring for active individuals and athletes of all levels from little league to the professional.

SPORTS MEDICINE SERVICES: • A comprehensive program geared toward diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of operative and non-operative injuries

• Concussion management – including the region’s most Credentialed ImPACT Consultants and ImPACT Trained Athletic Trainers providing specialized treatment before and after a concussion occurs SPORTS PERFORMANCE: • Outcome-based training programs that focus on an athlete’s functional ability • Assessments measuring speed, power, agility and identifying areas of weakness • Seven-week camps for grades 9 through 12 • Endurance training teaching techniques to reduce the likelihood of overuse injuries • KneeFit program designed to improve the dynamic stability of the knee

• Largest number of sports certified physical therapists providing rehabilitation of injuries

• Specialized programs addressing movement patterns, bike fitting, golf and the tactical athlete

• Supportive services including nutrition counseling, massage therapy, and exercise programs

• Sports performance partnerships with Orion Sports Medicine and Enhance U Sports Performance Academy

School and community partnerships: • Athletic training and team physician services for 39 schools including the University of Dayton and Wright State University • Providing free injury assessments and consultation at local YMCA’s, recreation centers, and running stores • First responder education, injury assessment and wellness through our Healthy Heroes program Premier Health’s Sports Medicine Centers are located at Miami Valley Hospital, Miami Valley Hospital North, Miami Valley Hospital South, Atrium Medical Center and Upper Valley Medical Center.