joints | Page 4 | Biomechanics in the Wild

Brace yourself… You might need surgery

A surgery? For my PCL? Could be more likely than you think.

Usually hiding behind it’s annoying and commonly ruptured brother the ACL, the PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) is a durable ligament that usually doesn’t cause problems for athletes… until it does.

ACL Reconstruction: Which Option Is Best For You?

200,000 ACL injuries occur each year, and ACL reconstruction is the 6^th most performed surgery in the United States, so to come back bigger, faster, and stronger, the right recovery path is critical.

Patellar Tendinitis: The Kryptonite of Jumping Athletes

Volleyball is a sport of quick movements. For hitters, one of the most common movements in the game is the jump, whether that be to block or to hit. Although a higher vertical leads to improvement in game performance, it can increase the risk of developing a serious injury that affects many volleyball players: patellar tendinitis. This condition is associated with pain and tenderness directly below the knee cap that is especially apparent during explosive, jumping movements. But what exactly causes this condition? And what can be done to remedy it?

Biomechanics of Pitching: Pushing Limits on the Shoulder and Elbow

Aroldis Chapman of the New York Yankees holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest recorded baseball pitch at 105.1 MPH; a record that has held for almost a decade. Why has no one been able to top his record? — An answer to this question may be found in the biomechanical limits of the human shoulder and elbow during the throwing motion.

Runner’s Knee: Knee Pain Isn’t Just for Old People

Don’t knee problems only plague old people or people who have run for a lifetime? I questioned this when, for the seventh time in a row, my knee was hurting only a mile and a half into my run. I’m too young for this! However, a plethora of information suggests that knee pain is perhaps not so uncommon in younger runners and athletes as I thought.

The Shoulder: Super Joint or Super Hazard?

The shoulder joint is one of the most incredible joints in the human body. Humans have been recorded throwing 100+ mph fastballs, pressing nearly 600lbs overhead, and performing incredible gymnastics moves. The shoulder is a ball-and-socket joint, and it is by far the most mobile joint in the human body. But this great range of motion comes at the price of being the most unstable joint in the body.

Exciting Advance in ACL Repair

Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries are among the most common in sports, with nearly 100,000 tears annually. Additionally, the rate of pediatric tears has been increasing at a rate of 2.3% each year for the past 20 years. The high incidence of this injury is in part due to the structure of the knee complex, where the ACL is located. The ACL helps connect the two longest bones in the body and is responsible for rotation and transferring body weight to the ankle. Specifically, the primary functions of the ACL are to prevent the tibia from sliding too far in front of the femur and to provide rotational stability to the joint. This rotational motion, combined with a lack of muscle support at the knee, is why so many athletes tear their ACL. A recent paper looked into how a team of doctors led by Dr. Martha Murray at Boston Children’s Hospital have come up with a promising new approach to repairing the injured ligament.

High Heels: How They Can Affect You Even After You Take Them Off

Anyone who has worn high heels, or has even simply seen a person in high heels, knows that the foot is definitely not in its usual position in that kind of shoe – walking is more difficult and forget about even trying to run in high heels. Researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Vienna wanted to investigate if frequent, long term use of high heels caused lasting changes in the calf, in addition to the normal discomfort experienced by high heel wearers.

Female Athletes Compete Against Higher Risk of ACL Injuries Than Males

Female athletes face a greater rate of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture than males. According to Dr. Karen Sutton and Dr. James Bullock from the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at Yale University, female athletes are 2 to 8 times more likely to tear their ACL than male athletes. The majority of these injuries (more than two-thirds) are from non-contact situations. A variety of anatomical, biomechanical, and hormonal factors attempt to explain this difference.

Striking Out the Myths behind the Curveball

Anybody who has played baseball growing up was probably told “Don’t start throwing a curveball until you are ‘X’ years old.” That “X” in there for the age was normally around fifteen or sixteen years old depending on who you asked. When an eager, young ball player responded with “Why,” it was normally answered by “Because you will hurt your elbow and shoulder.” No sixth or seventh grade kid is really going to question that statement beyond asking another adult, and subsequently getting the same answer. Likewise, no youth baseball coach has really put in the effort to research whether or not learning to throw a curveball is detrimental health of young athletes.

Tag: joints