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ninevirtuesThis research idea refuses to leave my head:
Shoulder dislocations frequently happen as a result of a FOOSH, or a fall on a hyperflexed arm... and both of these falls may occur while mountain biking. And women (my professors say, especially blond or redheaded women, but I don't have enough clinical experience to personally know that yet) more frequently have shoulder instability. It's also true that, once you dislocate your shoulder, you have an 80% chance of re-dislocating it, and surgery is required to repair it.
Hmm, I wonder how these things are related, and I wonder how I can keep the mountain bikers on my racing team out of the OR and on the trails. (This idea was inspired by a woman who's earned the nickname "Bella Loca", because she falls on her MTB, dislocates her shoulder, pops it back in, gets back on, and keeps racing.... and by another woman who dislocated her shoulder while racing, and now it occasionally dislocates when she sleeps.)
Things I would want to study and/or prove:
Thesis 1) Female mountain bikers are more prone to dislocation than the general population of women, and risk of dislocation rises with some criteria (riding frequency or racing category or amount of instability or score on a proprioception test?)
Thesis 2) Pre-emptively screening female mountain bikers for shoulder instability and poor proprioception, and teaching them a home exercise program that improves both of those, decreases their risk of traumatic dislocation.
Shoulder dislocations frequently happen as a result of a FOOSH, or a fall on a hyperflexed arm... and both of these falls may occur while mountain biking. And women (my professors say, especially blond or redheaded women, but I don't have enough clinical experience to personally know that yet) more frequently have shoulder instability. It's also true that, once you dislocate your shoulder, you have an 80% chance of re-dislocating it, and surgery is required to repair it.
Hmm, I wonder how these things are related, and I wonder how I can keep the mountain bikers on my racing team out of the OR and on the trails. (This idea was inspired by a woman who's earned the nickname "Bella Loca", because she falls on her MTB, dislocates her shoulder, pops it back in, gets back on, and keeps racing.... and by another woman who dislocated her shoulder while racing, and now it occasionally dislocates when she sleeps.)
Things I would want to study and/or prove:
Thesis 1) Female mountain bikers are more prone to dislocation than the general population of women, and risk of dislocation rises with some criteria (riding frequency or racing category or amount of instability or score on a proprioception test?)
Thesis 2) Pre-emptively screening female mountain bikers for shoulder instability and poor proprioception, and teaching them a home exercise program that improves both of those, decreases their risk of traumatic dislocation.
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Some half baked thoughts...
Date: 2004-12-11 10:51 pm (UTC)If it is a muscular thing, does leaning forward on handle bars for long periods of time cause some imbalance in muscle development? Even if only small fraction of a persons torso weight is resting on the arms, serious riders spend a lot of time in that posistion. Make me think of a pushup/plank style posistion on one's elbows. Are there statistics on the strength ratio of general chest vs. upper back musculature? And would a different ratio show up in serious riders, and how different is it in men and women?
Some quick half asleep thoughts and questions from me.
Re: Some half baked thoughts...
Date: 2004-12-12 07:11 am (UTC)Those are not half baked. They are good questions!
Men and women can both have unstable shoulders, but I suspect that women are more prone to it. Women generally have more joint laxity issues.
I've seen more than one athletic woman who lifts weights regularly... who also has very unstable shoulders. (Case in point: One of my classmates, a female weightlifter who is clearly "built", was advised years ago to do shrugs and lateral raises to stabilize her shoulders. As a result, she says her shoulders are more stable now than they used to be, but my instructor was still able to grasp the lower inside corner of her shoulder blade and lift it clear off her back. When that happened, it became crystal clear to my entire class (and you could hear the "eeeewwww!" as we all saw this) that raw strength was not the issue.)
I think it's more of an education/strength issue: Regular work on rotator cuff muscles and serratus anterior would help this situation a lot. I'm not sure, though, and it would take a lit search to find out. (Hold that thought!)