Graham+S

=Arm Injuries, Treatment, and Prevention = My project was researching and observing athletes being treated with arm injuries. Along with seeing treatment I researched prevention because the severity of the injuries can be damaging to an athletes career. toc

==Goals == The purpose of my observation was to get an understanding of what care and treatment must an athlete go through to maintain a healthy arm. The sport I focused on mostly was baseball because every year a franchise can lose a key pitcher or player due to and arm that is not properly ready for the duration of the long season. This is also relevant to high school athletes because a long season with a lot of physical exertion can also damage the arm.

= = = =

 __Chip__ : Pain above right (throwing) elbow. Hurts when tightening fist. Trainer gently stretches arm and finds range of motion. Cause was from overthrowing with out rest the day before. Treatment was just ice and some rest.

 __Liam__ : Mild inflammation in right (throwing) elbow. From overthrowing at the start of the season without proper stretching and muscle strength. Treatment was interval time periods of icing and just resting.

__Mike Leary__ : Tendinitis in left shoulder. Damage was done through out the duration of the hockey season. The sensitive area was constantly being strained and then not being cared for. Treatment is light workout with light weights so the area can restrengthen without extreme force being placed on the area. Workout consisted of 3 sets of 10 front raises, lateral raises, lateral raises on bench, and superman on bench. Five pound weights were used but as Mike became stronger he increased the weight slowly.

__Danny Wanger__ : Rotator cuff strained from throwing an excessive amount with force. Trainer moves Danny’s arm in a controlled manner to find soreness, range of motion, and to stretch out the area. Two days of ice and 3 days of rest allowed Danny to recover and no longer have soreness when throwing.

 All of these cases were treated by using ice and allowing the patient to rest. The treatment is not the problem, the possibility of prevention is the problem. Many athletes, just build the bigger muscles that are able to be seen. All of these cases could have been prevented if proper off season conditioning was used. Athletes will naturally have stronger big muscles, like back, chest and legs, but they must be complimented by also having stronger small muscles. They must exercise to lengthen and strengthen there muscles so that they are lean and not too bulky. This idea also allows for the muscles to be properly balances. Most injuries occur when muscle ratio’s are imbalanced. For example if a runner has large quads and small hamstrings then he is at risk of injury because the quad will allow the runner to work harder than the hamstring would allow for. Once the athlete has a proper muscle balance, then they must stretch to maintain a flexible and relatively loose type of muscle that will not tighten up and tear or strain. Overall building a healthy ratio of lean muscle will help prevent the majority of injuries that involve muscles, ligaments and tendons.

**Challenges**
The biggest challenge of my project was combining the information I obtained online and the data I received observing with the trainers. I had to observe the trainers and record data, which then had to be understood by using the previous research. Then all of the information had to be tied together for the conclusion. The project was not to hard but it did take time and effort when trying to collect and process the information.

<span style="color: #e401a0; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">**Looking Back**
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Looking back I could have observed more specialists on my topic. Seeing what specialists of this topic thought of high school athletes and these types of injuries would have enhanced the depth of knowledge and would have given me a wider range of information to work with. Working with the trainers was a good experience though, because is gave me a more personal experience which allowed me to learn at the same time. ==<span style="color: #ff0009; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">**Project Resources** ==