The Doctor is In to Chat About Football Injury, Prevention and Rehab

One of the few certainties in a game of football is that if the players play long enough, they're going to be injured and they're going to need some help in recovery.

Tonight we have Dr.

Eric Broadworth, a physical therapist from Michigan, coming on to talk to us about physical therapy and how players can get rehab and back in shape and on the field.

It's all coming up in just a moment with the doctor.

This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history.

Your host, host Darren Hayes, is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time.

Hello, my football friends.

This is Darren.

He's a pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history.

And boy, do we have an exciting episode for you today.

We've talked last year a lot about the physical wellness of players and how, you know, they can prepare for a season, how they can get over some injuries and maybe prevent some injuries.

But we have an expert on today, we have Eric Broadworth, the founder of the Fuel Physical Therapy and Sports up in Michigan.

And Eric is joining us today.

Eric, welcome to the Pig Pen.

Yeah, thanks so much for having me on, Darren.

It's a pleasure to be on here.

I love talking about this stuff, Eric.

You know, it's exciting things to talk about because you know so much of football at every level.

Your, your local high school team, your favorite college team and of course the NFL and maybe Canadian football.

It always seems to get hampered.

A big game comes up and one of your star players is out and boy, it's just a kind of depressing thing.

And things have to, teams have to overcome and fans, us fans have to, you know, we might be wearing their jersey and they're sitting on the bench.

So really like to, to talk about that.

But before we do, why don't you describe a little bit about your business and maybe how you got into this career path.

Yeah, so I am a, I'm my doctorate in physical therapy and I've gone on to further specialize.

I'm also a orthopedic clinical specialist and I own Fuel Health and Wellness in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

We also go by Fuel, physical therapy and sports performance.

And I really specialize in athletes, anyone ranging from the weekend warrior to high school collegiate professional athletes.

So I love talking about this stuff and especially, you know, football season is around the corner.

You know, it was tragic seeing in the, the playoffs Here, this most recent playoff, when I think it was the, the, was it the Green Bay game where there was just like garbage time and you saw several guys get hurt and I, I saw those injuries and I'm like, man, they possibly could be out next year depending on what exactly how bad the injury was, if they need surgery and all of those things.

I mean, you're looking at, you know, a lot of times a 9 to 12 month recovery.

They can speed things up sometimes and go six to nine months.

But yeah, so that's really what I specialize in, is being able to help treat these type of injuries, whether it's avoiding surgery.

A lot of times that's what we try to do, is if we can avoid surgery and if not, you know, getting the best possible outcomes after surgery when it comes to an injury.

And I dealt with ACL injuries, hips, shoulders, you know, you name it.

I've really worked with all of that stuff and I'm very passionate about it and getting people to live an active, healthy, pain free life.

You know, for me, with these athletes too, if I am treating them, it's not just getting them back as quickly as possible onto the field, but it's about getting them back as quickly and safely as possible so that way this injury doesn't happen again and they don't just end up right back where they were or worse in that week.

And so, you know, I think as you play fantasy football or anything like that, that can always be a bummer when you see your player come back and you're excited.

But then if they're injured, you know, in that first game again, you're out, or if that's your guy on your team.

So you want to make sure that not only are you getting them back quickly, but you want to make sure that they're getting back safely and that they are ready to take the field.

Yeah, definitely some interesting items there.

Now, I guess you brought up ACL and mcl.

Now I'm a little bit older.

I watched football, you know, I was born in the mid-60s, I watched as a kid in the 70s.

And you know, I'm in Western Pennsylvania, so I'm a Steelers fan.

So it was a great time to grow up as a kid to be in that.

But you know, the word ACL and mcl I don't think came into the football vocabulary.

At least I had never heard them until probably maybe the late 90s.

You know, it was always described, oh, he has a knee injury, is a lower leg injury.

So what exactly is an ACL injury.

Yeah.

So the ACL is the anterior cruciate ligament.

And so what that's going to do is that's going to.

It helps with knee stability.

And you know, when you've got that, essentially what happens is you blow out one of the main ligaments in your knee is when someone has an injury to that and so that knee becomes unstable.

Now, some of the research with those ACL injuries is actually showing that you don't necessarily need surgery, but you're seeing more and more of them happen.

And I think it's due to a number of reasons.

One, more people are playing sports, more people are being active.

I think that's one of the reasons why they're becoming more predominant.

And then two, you know, I think when it comes to football, you got guys packing on pounds.

You have, for example, like D linemen who are super agile and they are big, big dudes.

And I think both of that is playing a role.

And what we really look at in, you know, from my line of work is I also screen these athletes on how they're moving.

Ideally, we're seeing them preseason before they get injured.

And I'll actually hook sensors up to the body and use a specific system we use in my clinic.

It's called the dorsavi movement suite.

And so we can take them through a series of tests.

And this system was actually intended to help prevent ACL injury.

So it'll give them a score and really break down their quality of movement to see are the, is this individual at risk for an injury?

And then what we can do, since we can break down the movement, we can help give them corrective movement patterns and exercises to help prevent those injuries from happening.

And we have a lot of really good data on that.

And really what they found even from that dorsavie is while it was intended for ACL injuries, it's really helped with all non contact lower limb injuries.

And so, you know, going to the mcl, the medial collateral ligaments, that's also going to be one of the ligaments that help to stabilize that knee.

And oftentimes that acl, mcl, you'll.

It's not, it's fairly common to see them both torn at the same time.

Just because a lot of times it can be a contact injury where say, another player collides with the knee wrong.

And that tears it and blows it out.

Or they're.

You've seen the classic.

They're running down the field, they make a cut, boom, they're on the ground, no one touched them.

That is usually not a very good sign.

That's typically an ACL injury right there.

I guess, almost astonishing, something I'd never heard of, it's happened in the last year, is the Pittsburgh Steelers, drafted out of North Carolina State last year, Peyton Wilson.

And he's a middle linebacker.

It runs like a 4 4.

And it is claimed that he does not have an ACL anymore, which I found astonishing.

And I don't know, is that possible that a player could still run that fast and maneuver at a linebacker position without an acl?

Yeah.

So again, going back to a little bit of what I was saying was.

So there are individuals who.

They're able to function just fine without an acl or they tore their ACL and it's not really intact anymore and they heal just fine.

And there's actually some studies that I've seen even to show that that say they have an ACL tear and they don't have surgery, that that ligament can potentially heal on its own.

So there's a lot of very interesting research on there.

And it is fairly inconclusive as to like, you know, what do you do?

Do you do surgery right away?

Do you not do surgery?

But yeah, I mean, we are.

We are seeing some things like that where some people can function just fine.

Yeah, I thought it was like you're having a heart or something, you can't do without it and walk.

I was amazed by that.

So I guess moving on body's got ways of.

The body's got ways of like healing itself and moving and things like that without necessarily, you know, needing that.

The body is very incredible as to how it can operate and move and compensate and.

And all of those things.

And so definitely not like, you know, if your heart's missing, you know, that that's going to be vital.

Obviously you got to get.

Pump blood to all your organs and everything like that.

So you can't.

I was being over dramatic by saying hurt, but you know, one of those things I thought was a necessary thing.

I.

I guess maybe more annoying occurrences that happens in, in all levels of football.

Your favorite player is like the groin injuries.

You know, you see these things pop up all the time and it really puts a guy down for, you know, weeks at a time.

Is there anything to prevent groin injuries?

You know, again, going back, the body's very.

It's very interesting as to how these injuries can pop up and how they happen.

So I'd be curious a lot of times with these injuries if.

If for one, an athlete's not taking care of himself, that's going to be an issue.

But for example, if an athlete has a history, for example, of a concussion, and if that athlete comes back, that athlete is much.

I want to say the research shows that it's a 9 times increased likelihood of an ACL tear from a concussion.

So the reason being is, for example, with concussions, right, it's going to affect not only it's a brain injury, the brain is a part of the central nervous system which controls our ability, our proprioception, our balance, our ability to maneuver, all of those things.

So there is a motor component with that, with it being a brain injury.

And so just the reason I bring that up is you have a concussion, then we now know that you're a significant likelihood for an ACL injury.

Going back to what you said about groin injuries, that really could be for any lower body injury.

So whether that's a concussion or say an athlete has a knee issue that's bugging them or an ankle issue that's bugging them and they're compensating with their movement.

Well, they're going to have to compensate right.

Somewhere else along the chain and that could be the groin as to how that, you know, movement is being compensated.

So just the point being is like if you're, you have stiffness, say at one joint, you're going to have to make up that movement somewhere else.

And that's where you can definitely run into problems.

If you're nursing injuries and trying to patch things together, you might end up with more issues at other parts of the body.

Okay.

Now I guess we talked a little bit about some of the injuries.

What are some of the more common injuries?

Not the acl, mcl, and, and growing.

We talked about that happened, you see happening to football players that come in for therapy.

Yeah.

So I mean, concussions, one of the top ones.

Right.

Like I mentioned there, it's a, it's a high impact sport and you're taking a lot of hits and everything like that.

So concussions are definitely one that the NFL has gotten a lot better about screening for and creating concussion protocols and everything like that.

And those do need to be taken seriously because those can also lead to one, you know, it's a brain injury, it can lead to brain damage, it can lead to other injuries.

Like I mentioned before, ACLs, ACLs are a big one.

MCLs, anything that's going to be contact, groin pulls, ankle sprains are a big one.

Right.

You're seeing more too, which I found interesting is I feel like I've Seen more Achilles ruptures lately.

Not necessarily sure why we're seeing more Achilles ruptures, whether that has to do with, you know, some people blame the turf and everything like that, but saw Aaron Rodgers right two years ago now go out with the Achilles rupture.

Kirk Cousins that same year.

I feel like you're just seeing quite a few of those more recently.

But those are definitely some of the big ones, shoulder injuries, including, you know, whether it's dislocation, subluxations with, if you're hitting the ground wrong or anything like that.

And you have these receivers just sprawling out for the ball with rotator cuff stuff.

See quite a bit of those.

I would say those are definitely the, the top ones there for sure.

Okay.

Are there any one position or position group that seems to have more injuries, the concussions and everything that you're talking about coming in for therapy, or is it sort of a spread across the board?

You know, I don't have the research as far as like, by position.

I am sure that more different positions are at risk for different injuries and it, it's going to depend, depend on the physical demands of the position.

So I'm not necessarily sure with exactly what positions are at risk for, you know, necessarily what.

However, when rehabbing these people, one of the things that I try to do and look for is what are the specific demands for not only their sport, but their position to make sure that we are getting them ready to get back to play and clearing them to play again, not only as quickly as possible, but as safely as possible.

So that way they can go out there, they can make plays and make a difference on the field and not be at a significant risk for injury because, you know, injury risk and performance all can go hand in hand.

If you move well, you're likely going to be at a decreased risk for injury.

If you're moving poorly, you're going to be at a greater risk for injury and you're not going to perform as well.

So.

Okay, now let's go a little bit more into the prevention.

Now.

I've heard a couple different things of thought.

When I was younger, I used to do a lot of running, you know, try to do some 5Ks and things like that.

And I had some people tell me, you know, you know, stretch before you run and, and warm up.

And then other people are like, oh, no, you don't want to stretch and you don't want, you know, you want to stretch afterwards you run.

There's a lot of schools of thought for that is what's sort of your prognosis on how people should prepare before they're doing some heavy exercise, like playing a game of football.

Yeah.

So anyone preparing for whether any type of training, whether it's football practice or game or, you know, if you're even say like a crossfit athlete, weekend warrior, that kind of thing, one take into consideration just how your body feels, right?

So like if you're feeling stiff and that kind of thing, you might want to roll out before you even warm up.

So roll out with a foam roller or lacrosse ball or something like that to just get those tissues moving a little bit better.

And then what I recommend before any type of training or competition is I recommend a dynamic warm up.

So back in, you know, when I was a kid, they would have me, you know, bend over, touch your toes, hold that for 10 seconds, then you're gonna go to one side, 10 seconds, other side.

What I recommend now is get the heart rate up a little bit, do about a few minutes of cardio.

So light jogging, biking, elliptical, something like that, walking, get blood flow going.

And then you're moving through ranges of motion.

So things like just slow, deep squats, working that range of motion, lunging, and then getting into those end range of those tissues.

So you could do like say some leg swings and things like that.

But we're actively moving through the movements and really preparing the movements we want to move through are the movements that we're going to be performing during those training sessions.

And again, whether that's weightlifting or football practice or whatever.

And then afterwards, after the training session is complete or at the end of a day, is when I recommend doing say your static hold.

So if you need to improve flexibility after and you want to do that static hold where say you're doing a forward bend and touching your toes, you know, you can hold that for 30 to 60 seconds.

That'd be a static hold where we're just holding that position for a prolonged period of time to help with overall muscle flexibility, improving muscle length and recovery that way.

But some research has actually showed if you're going to be doing some of those static holds and stretching, kind of what you were alluding to before that, that may put you actually at risk for increase of injury or in a decrease in performance.

It can actually inhibit your performance.

Okay, now I'd like to move on to hydration a little bit as athletes are competing or somebody's exercising.

I sort of saw a big change in not only the game of football, but a lot of medical advice.

You know, back when I played and back when I started officiating, you know, we had coaches that, okay, you don't get water till the end of practice.

And, you know, and if you had a bad practice, you know, you're.

You're gonna make.

Run 10 laps or something before you get a drink of water even.

And now, you know, again, probably in the mid-90s, you know, we came to the realization, hey, you know, people need water to survive, and it helps them perform better.

What does water do to the muscles and.

And everything going on in the body to help keep somebody fit?

Yeah.

So you definitely want to stay hydrated in order.

In an optimal amount of hydration in order to function.

Right.

So our body and our tissues, our body's primarily made up of water, and water really helps with different energy processes with helping our cells function.

And so if you're dehydrating your body and your cells, you are not going to function as well.

And you are going to put yourself at risk for some of these, say, tendon and ligament and injuries and things like that.

So not only just like dehydration or, you know, you hear people having heat strokes, say, with football practice in the summer, when people are doing two days, yeah, that's a big risk.

But also just all the other injuries that come from being dehydrated.

A lot of times, too, if, like, we're dehydrating those tissues and putting those under stress, they're going to become more brittle and more likely to have injuries there.

So water is definitely important not only for just the body of function and for safety.

So you don't, again, if you're having any type of training or practice and a high amount of heat, but also to help with those injuries.

So it's definitely important for your cells and your body to function, to be hydrated.

Okay, now, let's say, you know, we're going to be coming across, you know, people are going to be starting to get ready for football season.

We're a few months away from that.

We're still trying to get out of football season.

But the young athletes and the parents of young athletes and even, I guess, more mature athletes, what if they come to you, your office, perfectly healthy, and they ask you, hey, what can I do to prepare now to lessen my chances of having injury?

What would be your recommendation for them?

Yeah, I mean, so what we.

What we recommend and what we do is we put those athletes through, again, that dorsavi.

It's called the Dorsey Athletic Movement Index.

Specifically the software is called the Dorsavi Movement Suite.

And we would put them through that testing specifically to see again how well they are moving and to be able to put quant actual data on their movement and then be able to give them corrective exercises to improve their movement as well as improve their performance.

And usually what we're doing too, on top of that is we're taking a medical history.

Do they have any history of injuries that we need to be aware of and check and see how well you know, for example, that knee, does the knee have full range of motion and how's the strength and not only at the knee, but the hip, the ankle and then comparing both sides.

And that's what one of the things that I like about the Dorsum v Athletic Movement index is that we're going to actually compare both sides of the body and see what your limb symmetry index does.

So how symmetrical are your two limbs?

Because if one, you know, if you're at say 80%, it's a pretty significant difference that you're 20 off from one side to the other.

And that's going to put you at increased risk for, for injury there.

So that's usually what we're going to recommend starting with for an individual that wants to prevent injury.

Okay, very interesting.

All right, so why don't you tell us a little bit if you know, somebody wants to come and get treatment at your facility if they're in your area, maybe you know, give your locations, tell what you have in any programs you have out there that maybe even people can do that are in the local Grand Rapids area in Michigan.

Yeah, so we, so I have two locations of Fuel Health and Wellness, one in Grand Rapids and one in Grandville, Michigan.

That's usually going to be the easiest way to go about it.

But we have a whole host of services to help athletes live active, healthy, pain free life.

So one the things we do is physical therapy.

Absolutely.

So if they have an injury, we're able to help rehabilitate that.

But even if they don't have an injury and say they just have like some stiffness, we have a program, it's called Fuel Stretch.

And what it is, it's an assisted stretching program utilizing fascial planes.

It's called Fascial Stretch technique.

But we use A very specific program to help with mobility throughout the body.

We also do personal training.

We have massage, we have red light therapy.

Red light therapy is used to help the body and the muscles recover, can help with skin health.

It can help with a whole host of things that we use it for.

We've got laser therapy that we'll use for speeding up healing of specific injuries.

And then we do also like dry needling.

So if you're familiar with dry needling with helping to we take acupuncture style needles, we insert them into specific trigger points and areas of the body to help muscles essentially recover, heal faster.

So those are some of the services that we offer at Fuel Health Wellness.

Oh, very, very cool.

Well Eric, we really appreciate you coming on here and explaining some of these injuries to me.

The naive person watches football, doesn't really understand what's happening to the body and I'm sure helped a lot of our listeners and viewers as well.

And getting your expertise is really paramount to helping make football a better sport and safer sport.

And we appreciate what you do and folks like you do and really appreciate you coming on today to talk about it.

Yeah, thanks so much.

I really appreciate you having me on.

It's been a pleasure.

It's been fun talking about it and I was always enjoy talking about this stuff.

I really eat, sleep and breathe it.

So thank you so much for having me.

This is fun.

That's all the football history we have today, folks.

Join us back tomorrow for more of your football history.

We invite you to check out our website pigskindispatch.com not only to see the daily football history, but to experience positive football.

With our many articles on the good people of the game as well as our own football comic strip cleat marks comics, pigskindispatch.com is also on social media outlets, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and don't forget the Pigskin Dispatch YouTube channel to get all of your positive football news and history.

Special thanks to the talents of Mike and Gene Monroe as well as Jason Neff for letting us use their music during our podcast.

This podcast is part of the Sports History Network, your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport.

You can learn more@sportshistorynetwork.com.