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Mend Physical Therapy Blog and Injury Information

Early sport specialization where our youth athletes focus on a single sport year round has become more popular over the last decade. The 10,000 hours reference (original study in violinists not athletes) reinforced this concept despite the adverse events of early sports specialization include burnout, depression/anxiety, lower athletic performance, and sports injuries. Research into high...

As we move through the Spring and into Summer many of our Boulder youth athletes are into their competitive baseball seasons.  With increased games come increased pitch counts, arm fatigue, and over use injuries.  From the literature we know there are some specific risk factors for future arm injury including pitching with a fatigued arm,...

In our Physical Therapy practice, we continue to see early sports specialization in our youth athletes (pre pubescent).  These athletes focus on playing one sport >8 months out of the year instead of changing sports more frequently or incorporating longer periods of rest.  Despite scientific evidence showing a lack of performance benefit and a higher injury...

A common question we receive from young throwers and their parents is how to improve throwing velocity safely without undue stress on their arms.  Our prior posts on throwing have focused on reducing arm stress through injury prevention and lower quarter strengthening.  This post will focus on the research surrounding exercise programs designed to improve...

Shoulder and elbow injuries are on the rise among youth and professional baseball players.  Our previous post on baseball injuries detailed the risk of future injury if an athlete has lost range of motion in his shoulder prior to the season.  In particular, emphasis has been placed on the amount of internal rotation (hand behind lower...