John Butler
Cheer Parent
- Dec 27, 2010
- 371
- 2,335
To all my fierceboard friends, families and athletes:
Today we took my youngest daughter to a PT Dr. to take a look at her back. She was having some pain in her lower back and being that I have lived with lower back pain most of my life from years of springboard & platform diving stress, I wanted to make sure my little one was OK.
The Dr. we met with was very good and very thorough. He took the time to explain his findings after examining an X-ray of my daughter's lower back and pelvis area. What he shared was quite surprising and I felt something that was extremely important to share, especially since my other daughter Gabi is looked up to quite a bit for her flexibility.
It seems that my younger daughter Amanda has been putting undo stress on her lower back and hips because she has been working her flexibility too much on ONE SIDE ONLY. Basically, in her quest to get more back, shoulder and leg flexibility for her scorpion and other flying positions, she has really been working on stretching on the side where she pulls her positions, but has not been spending equal time in stretching the other side as well. Apparently, this lack of stretching the other side has created a little bit of extra curve in her spine which he was concerned about. His suggestion was that she make sure she spend the time to equally stretch both sides.
He also said that the scorpion body position is not a natural stretched position for the back and hips, thus it is very important that you are careful when stretching in this specific position (not that most don't already know that, but worth sharing none-the-less).
Anyway, I just felt like it would be important to share this. I know that more and more as the sport continues to grow girls are working really hard on getting those body positions and I felt like it was important to share this to anyone who might read it to prevent bad hips and lower backs later in life for many of our young ladies who are so dedicated to this sport.
Good luck to all this season and thanks for listening!!
PS. He recommended a book called "Wharton Book of Stretching" as an excellent resource on proper stretching techniques.
Today we took my youngest daughter to a PT Dr. to take a look at her back. She was having some pain in her lower back and being that I have lived with lower back pain most of my life from years of springboard & platform diving stress, I wanted to make sure my little one was OK.
The Dr. we met with was very good and very thorough. He took the time to explain his findings after examining an X-ray of my daughter's lower back and pelvis area. What he shared was quite surprising and I felt something that was extremely important to share, especially since my other daughter Gabi is looked up to quite a bit for her flexibility.
It seems that my younger daughter Amanda has been putting undo stress on her lower back and hips because she has been working her flexibility too much on ONE SIDE ONLY. Basically, in her quest to get more back, shoulder and leg flexibility for her scorpion and other flying positions, she has really been working on stretching on the side where she pulls her positions, but has not been spending equal time in stretching the other side as well. Apparently, this lack of stretching the other side has created a little bit of extra curve in her spine which he was concerned about. His suggestion was that she make sure she spend the time to equally stretch both sides.
He also said that the scorpion body position is not a natural stretched position for the back and hips, thus it is very important that you are careful when stretching in this specific position (not that most don't already know that, but worth sharing none-the-less).
Anyway, I just felt like it would be important to share this. I know that more and more as the sport continues to grow girls are working really hard on getting those body positions and I felt like it was important to share this to anyone who might read it to prevent bad hips and lower backs later in life for many of our young ladies who are so dedicated to this sport.
Good luck to all this season and thanks for listening!!
PS. He recommended a book called "Wharton Book of Stretching" as an excellent resource on proper stretching techniques.