Musculoskeletal Screening
At Dynamic Physio & Rehab we spend a lot of time helping athletes and sporting teams prevent injuries.
What is a Musculoskeletal Screening?
A musculoskeletal screening involves gathering information about an individual’s injury history and conducting a series of sport specific assessments to identify risk factors that could predispose an athlete to injury. Sport specific screening protocol tests are constructed with the knowledge of what the sport involves and the most common injuries associated with it.
A musculoskeletal screening is ideally performed before training commences or early in the pre-season phase of training, so that there is time to address the potential risk factors prior to commencement of competition.
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What are the benefits of a Musculoskeletal Screening?
Any level of athlete can benefit from a musculoskeletal screening. These include junior developing and recreational players right through to elite and professional athletes.
The primary benefit of a musculoskeletal screening is the prevention of injury. The screening can identify any factors that may increase the risk of musculoskeletal injury in the approaching season. This could be anything from a stiff ankle, tight hamstrings, limited hip mobility or weak gluteals. All of which can lead to injuries such as muscle tears, lower back injuries, ankle sprains and ligament damage.
Once these issues or deficits are identified, an individualised treatment or training plan can be put in place to address these factors to reduce the risk of injury whilst competing. Further benefits include the potential to improve your athlete performance. by assessing your strength, mobility, function and technique specific to your sport, areas to improve upon can be identified.
A musculoskeletal screening also provides a baseline measure that can be used for general monitoring throughout the season and for future rehabilitation purposes.
During a screening, the following areas are considered:
- Joint range of motion
- Upper and lower limb strength
- Upper and lower limb flexibility
- Trunk control
- Posture
- Balance and coordination
- Running technique
- Sport specific functional tests
- Fitness testing
Following the screening, a detailed summary report can be provided including all test results outlining your functional abilities. The report will also include advice regarding injury risk as well as recommendations on how to best manage problems identified. An individualised injury prevention program will be prescribed incorporating appropriate exercises to target the areas required for improvement. This may include physiotherapy treatment if required.
