An athlete that performs maneuvers the general public would never attempt requires incredible skills, courage and determination. The athlete we talking about is a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter, like the ever-popular UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). The injuries can be very extensive and often complicated.
The UFC fighter can get kicked, punched, body slammed, tackled or choked unconscious. They do however share common injury patterns with other sports of sprains and strains. They are highly skilled performers that are many years in the making because the event is so diverse.
The fighter has to be strong, agile, explosive, instinctive and mentally tough. But, with those characteristics come extensive training and competition that is brutal most days. Majority of these athletes still hold ‘regular’ jobs and then train afterwards for several hours every day of the week.
So, when one of these athletes walks thru your door you need to be as prepared in varied skills as they are. You need to be prepared to unlock those fixated joints, break up long-standing scar tissue, speed healing of sprained ligaments and strained muscles, improve lymphatic drainage, as well as working on their (subconsciously driven) limiting beliefs. If you don’t, they will go elsewhere, because they depend on the ability to train. Without training, this athlete will quickly lose strength, endurance, reactiveness and more importantly his confidence.
That is why we utilize so many diverse technologies in the treatment of these “warriors”. They are the modern day “gladiators” and yet necessitate very sophisticated modalities to keep them performing optimally. From Super-Pulsed Russian lasers with Scenar technology, to Trigenics’ neurological facilitation and inhibition, to Osteopathic Myofascial and Lymphatic Drainage, to BodyTalk’s mind-body communication, and Paraliminal’s subconscious programming, we can treat the entire athlete.
These athletes require aggressive treatment protocols with powerful and sustainable results whether the injury is acute or chronic in nature. Most of the acute injuries are strains/sprains from the brutal daily training regime they endure. These injuries are very common to other sports, such as seen in high school. (1) We employ Super-Pulsed lasers to effectively speed healing, but more importantly to the athlete, for sports performance.
References:
(1) Proportion of injuries in practice and competition, bydiagnosis. High school sports-related injury surveillance study, united states,2005-2006 school year.
Http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5538a1.htm accessed 2/7/07
Gur a, sarac aj, cevik r, altindag o, and sarac s. Efficacyof 904 nm gallium arsenide low level laser therapy in the management of chronicmyofascial pain in the neck: a double-blind and randomized controlled trial.Lasers surg med. 2004. 35(3):229-235.
Hopkins jt, mcloda ta, seegmiller jg, baxter gd. Low-levellaser therapy facilitates superficial wound healing in humans: a triple-blind,sham-controlled study. J of athletic training. 2004. 39(3): 223-229. Tiina karu(2007) “ten lectures on basic science of laser phototherapy” prima books.
