Shoulder rehabilitation for contact sports and the rugby shoulder with Dr Ian Horsley

Shoulder rehabilitation for contact sports & the rugby shoulder with Dr Ian Horsley

Contact sports including rugby place unique demands on athlete's shoulders, particularly during tackles. How can you rehabilitate your contact athletes to prepare for full return to training and play? Following shoulder surgery, what are the important elements to include in your athletes rehabilitation?

Discover the key principles, exercises and progression to incorporate into your contact athlete's shoulder rehabilitation with Dr Ian Horsley, Lead Physiotherapist and Technical Lead for the North West for the English Institute of Sport, Physio for England Rugby Union for 14 years.

Parts 1-5 provides you with information specifically on rugby and rugby-related shoulder injuries. If you would like to improve your shoulder rehabilitation for contact sports, and are not involved in rugby specifically, you can start with Part 5.

Part 1

• Introduction to Rugby
• Injuries that occur during training compared to match play injuries
• Injury rates in rugby union compared to other sports
• Common shoulder injuries in rugby

Part 2

• What is the most common cause of shoulder injuries in rugby?
• Collision comparison between rugby union and rugby league
• Impact forces on the shoulder

Part 3

• Shoulder force GPS data and impacts
• When do most injuries occur during a match, and what are the implications?
• Shoulder instability in the collision athlete
• Types of shoulder impact injuries

Part 4

• Injury patterns in different player positions
• Recurrence of adolescent shoulder injury
• Risk factors for shoulder injuries
• The effect of previous injury

Part 5

• Tackle technique and injury
• Case studies and postop shoulder rehabilitation of 4 professional rugby players

Part 6

• Immediate post-op rehabilitation
  • Exercises your patient can perform while in a sling
  • Thoracic spine and sternoclavicular joint mobilisation
• Post op rehabilitation - 3 days to 3 weeks
• Improving active external rotation
• Closed chain exercises
• Instability rehabilitation and progressions

Part 7

• Assessing joint position sense
• The effect of tackling on shoulder joint position sense
• Drills to help prepare players to tackle

Part 8

• Progression of contact
• Drills and drill progressions you can use to prepare your player for tackling
• Effect of tackling on shoulder strength, and the clinical implications

Part 9

• Strength testing and results
• The effect of injury on proprioception and joint position sense

Part 10

• Functional tests of athlete's shoulder power
• Retraining proprioception and joint position sense
• Reactive neuromuscular work
• Exercises and progressions you can use to retrain shoulder control and proprioception
• Incorporating neck strength and stability into shoulder rehab to prepare athletes for contact

Part 11

• Important elements to incorporate into your rehabilitation
• Developing power
• Preparing athletes for return to play and sporting demands
• End stage shoulder rehabilitation
• Incorporating trunk strengthening into shoulder exercises
• Long head of biceps control and loading

Part 12

• Managing workload
• Measuring and improving upper limb force and power
• Summary