Monday, June 01, 2009

Hip Injuries Bringing More Athletes to Their Knees - NYTimes.com

The quest to build ever more proficient athletes keeps hitting unexpected snags, and perhaps nowhere is this more vivid than in Major League Baseball. Several top players have been hampered by a hip ailment that was unheard of in the sport a decade ago.

Knee injuries to countless recreational and professional athletes in recent years made anterior cruciate ligament a household phrase and compelled trainers to emphasize building leg strength. Sports medicine experts now say that approach, while mitigating knee injuries, may be making hips vulnerable.

"No matter what we do, as complex as we try and make workouts and training methods, we lose sight of other things," said Mackie Shilstone, a trainer based in New Orleans, who works with baseball, football and hockey players who are rehabilitating injuries. "We tend to concentrate on what is directly in front of us.

"In all my years as a trainer, I have not seen anything like the increase in hip injuries that I have seen over the past two years."

No studies have been published to confirm this phenomenon. But many trainers and orthopedists say the anecdotal evidence is jarring, and medical staffs for Major League Baseball teams and franchises in other sports are scrambling to understand why athletes' hips suddenly seem so fragile.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/sports/01hips.html?th&emc=th

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