Unfortunately, back pain is a common occurrence in hockey players. Hockey seems to be amongst the highest prevalence when compared to other sports. The low skating position in hockey likely plays a role in flexion-based LBP. What’s the best way to manage flexion-based low back pain in hockey players? Most clinicians will give deadbugs, glute […]
Playing change of direction sports is a well-known risk factor for athletic groin pain. Yet most clinicians don’t look at this. I believe this is the case because most clinicians aren’t sure what they’re looking for. This means they are often treating the symptoms but not changing the largest risk factor. I’m hoping this tool […]
Skating mechanics often get blamed for the development of FAI in hockey players Most blame the flexion and internal rotation of the femur during stride recovery. This combined hip motion is thought to lead to repetitive bony contact of the femur and the hip joint. Cam morphologies, thought to a precursor to FAI, will develop […]
Research has shown that athletes with groin pain lack stiffness in change of direction tasks. This is thought to add strain on the groin eventually leading to groin pain. Today, I’m going to share my approach to restoring lower body stiffness in athletes with groin pain. Most hip and groin rehab misses this valuable part. […]
When I was a young PT, I started noticing a lot of hockey players dealing with hip impingement, or FAI. This led me to dig deeper into the issue itself, but also why it was so common in hockey players. Most of the stuff I read was about how the skating stride caused bony contact […]
I hear from a lot of therapist who feel lost when it comes to late stage hip rehab with hockey players. I can’t blame them! Post-op hip rehab is a relatively new area (since the early 2000’s) and it’s not very well understood. But, players who only do band exercises are probably not going to […]
Hip impingement is a very common diagnosis for hockey players. It’s often described as a pinching in hip flexion or in flexion and internal rotation. The majority of hockey players will show signs of cam morphology on x-ray, even those without pain. Most believe hip impingemnt is caused by a structural pathology. This can only […]
I see a lot of youth hockey players with low back pain.  The #1 reason I see that youth hockey players have low back pain is because they are undertrained. Most people will tell you the opposite. That year-round ice times has kids overworked. I don’t disagree, but that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon. […]
If you’re groin rehab is squeezes, banded adduction and Copenhagen’s, you’ve fallen to the reiteration effect of social media. I know this because it happened to me. The reiteration effect creates a bias where the more you see or hear something, the more you believe it to be true. Because we spend so much time on […]
As rehab and performance professionals, we are in the field of creating change.  However, we often don’t think ahead enough to consider what impact change will have. Our ability to think ahead is what makes us humans such a brilliant species compared to others. I often see practitioners and other professionals thinking one step at a […]
