This Week from Olympus: Return to Sport with Deep Core Stability
As athletes around the world begin to ramp up their training, deep core strength and stabilization are more important than ever. This week, Olympus Movement brings families and athletes valuable knowledge. Keep reading to learn how your breathing plays a vital role in your body’s athletic performance. Take it away, Annemarie! BUILDING THE FOUNDATION: THE […]
THIS WEEK FROM OLYMPUS: Life after an ACL Injury (final chapter)
ACL Injuries: The good, the bad, the ugly: A preventative approachAnnemarie Alf, PT, DPT, CSCS, SFMA If you missed the first two chapters of Annemarie Alf’s ACL series, be sure to check them out here! One of the most common and yet most dreaded injuries a soccer player can endure, is to hear that you’ve […]
THIS WEEK FROM OLYMPUS: ACL INJURIES. THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY: A PREVENTATIVE APPROACH (PART 2)
See Part 1 HERE This week, Dr. Annemarie Alf continues her series on preventing ACL injuries. So many injuries seem unavoidable, and they are! We’ve all heard the saying, “You could do that stepping off a curb…” However, there ARE WAYS to greatly reduce the risk of an ACL injury. Soccer teams of all ages […]
ACL Injuries. The good, the bad, the ugly: A preventative approach (part 1)
This Week from Olympus ACL Injuries: The good, the bad, the ugly: A preventative approach, by Annemarie Alf, PT, DPT, CSCS, SFM One of the most common and yet most dreaded injuries a soccer player can endure, is to hear that you’ve torn your ACL- anterior cruciate ligament. The ACL is a ligament in the center […]
This week from Olympus: When training just isn’t enough.
WHY THE FMS (FUNCTIONAL MOVEMENT SCREEN) OR SFMA (SELECTIVE FUNCTIONAL MOVEMENT ASSESSMENT)? Many of you train hard, you train consistently, you eat healthy, and rest well. I ask you though, are there times when you need more than just this to keep performing at an optimum level day in and day out with the same […]
SAVE THE ICE FOR YOUR DRINKS! Modern Injury Recovery Advice from Olympus Movement
Why you are better off NOT using ICE post-injury: Because it delays Recovery! (OH, and same for anti-inflammatory meds like Ibuprofen) The following is an important and out-of-the-box article from: Dr. Annemarie Alf Athletes, coaches, trainers, and physical therapists alike have all used my “RICE” (rest, ice, compression, elevation) guideline for decades. Now it appears […]
Fighting Inflammation with Food
Expert advice for Soccer families from Olympus Movement Performance Welcome to our weekly feature from the athletic experts at Olympus. This week, you’re going to learn all about how to help your body to fight off and recover from illness, infection and injury with OPTIMAL NUTRITION. Inflammation is your body’s way to protect itself from […]
Myths About ACL Injuries – Part I
As an expert in ACL injury prevention, I’ve heard some interesting comments and perspectives about the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) over the years. There’s a lot of misinformation floating around, unfortunately; and with such a serious and devastating injury at stake, we need to get the facts straight so we can start protecting our athletes […]
Why Female Athletes Have More ACL Injuries Than Males
Female athletes rupture their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) more frequently than males…nearly 6-8 times more! In a case like this, health insurance for college athletes would be a step worth taking. As your health should be your top priority, at least if you cover your back, you won’t have much to worry about, even if […]
Best Off-Season Conditioning Strategy for Serious Soccer Players
Every year, as Summer approaches and many sports are winding down for a brief rest period, supportive parents of serious athletes ask, “What should I have my kid do to stay conditioned during the off-season?” In this article, we discuss whether or not a break from sports is beneficial and why; and we discuss some […]
3 Ways to Protect Your Players’ Knees in 3 Minutes
In this series, I’ve put together 3 exercises showing 3 different components of training that will help to strengthen your legs and protect your knees from injury. The best part is that this will only take you a few minutes to do. So, who is this for, you ask? This is for you, if: – […]
An Injury Prevention and Performance Secret Revealed
You have 60 SECONDS before the most competitive event of your life… What do you do to optimize performance and safe execution? In the final minute before she raced in the 2018 Winter Olympics, the camera zoomed in for a close-up of American alpine ski racer, Lindsey Vonn, as she prepared for one of the […]
What exactly is a pulled hip flexor?
Chances are, that pain is probably not from a pulled hip flexor. Hip impingement, also known as femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (or FAI), is a relatively new concept in the orthopedic and rehabilitation realm. Hip impingement occurs when the head/neck of the femur (thigh bone) contacts the rim of the socket. The area of impingement can […]
5 Tips on the Art of Preventing Ankle Sprains
Ankles are anatomically stabilized passively with ligaments and actively with muscles that cross the ankle complex. An ankle sprain occurs when the joint is forced beyond normal range of motion, causing ligaments to be stretched too far. The result is some degree of ligament fiber failure, which typically includes swelling, stiffness, and pain. If it […]
Goalkeepers Get Injured Too!
When we mention soccer and injuries in the same sentence we tend to think of ankle sprains, torn ACLs and other injuries that are specific to the lower body. Although lower body injuries are the most commonly seen soccer injuries- to the field players- we fail to include the incidence of injury to the last […]
ACL Injuries – Get to Know the Risk Factors
The Anterior Cruciate Ligament, commonly referred to as the ACL, is a dense band of tissue that provides stability to the knee. Fibers of the ACL can be injured or torn when abnormal movement forces the ligament beyond its capacity. Typically, a combination of motions involving twisting at the knee while weight-bearing results in excessive […]