Athletic Training and Assessment

Question: Discuss about the Athletic Training and Assessment. Answer: Client interview and physical assessment Client Details Mark (name changed for maintaining confidentiality) is a 21-year-old athlete pursuing a career as a soccer player. The player has been a defender and has been playing soccer for a long time. Medical history questionnaire The client had a history of hypertension and was on medication. He has a habit of smoking and smokes a pack of cigarettes in a day. He has a family history of hypertension, and his father had died of heart attack. The client shows no signs of cardio-respiratory disease. His body height is 170 cm while his body weight is 65 kilograms. Treatment The client has earlier suffered an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tear in his left knee. The injury he had suffered was three months back. He had been treated for the ACL by an athletic trainer. The client had moderate swelling in the area of injury. Symptoms The client had rotated the left knee forcefully at the time of changing direction. After the injury, there were complaints of pain in the left knee. Though he is relieved from the pain, he needs to take up muscle strengthening activities as he is weak after the injury. Psychosocial The client has the understanding of the seriousness of the injury and the effect on his body strength and stamina. However, he has been suffering from depression off late. He has the fear of losing his career and wants to regain an ability to play again. The client has been facing emotional issues due to the gap in his career. Activity level Presently his activity level is low, and he does not take up extensive physical activities of any form. Pre-injury, ha had been a high activity level. Client goals To get back into playing soccer, the client needs to take up specific activities that do not lead to discomfort or pain. Proper technique is to be followed for doing so. Mark wants to demonstrate endurance and full strength. He wants to score high on functional tests and is iso-kinetic devices tests. Social barriers or support network The client has a lack of self-motivation. Moreover, he is suffering from a lack of confidence to be physically fit again. There is a need of encouragement and companionship to be given to him. Physical assessment proposal It is desirable to undertake a series of tests for differential diagnosis. The tests that would be beneficial are valgus and varus stress test and patella apprehension test. Risk stratification and contraindication A crucial challenge is the identification of denominators of injury. The client has the anatomic, environmental, biomechanical and hormonal risk of injury due to the sport he plays. Program Design and Implementation Exercise prescription The prescribed training program would be beneficial for improving strength as well as hypertrophy. The gain in body composure would also be achieved. Program structure Aerobic physical activity Frequency- The client needs to perform the aerobic physical activity of moderate intensity on 5 days in a week. If he performs an aerobic physical activity of vigorous intensity, then he needs to restrict it for 3 days in a week. A combination of exercise of moderate and vigorous intensity in 3-5 days in a week would be suitable. Intensity- The client is recommended to undertake a combination of vigorous and moderate intensity aerobic exercise. A target heart rate can be calculated on the basis of 64-93% maximal heart rate. 40-84% heart rate reserve can also be the basis of the calculation of a target heart rate. Time- The aerobic exercise of moderate intensity is to be performed for 30 minutes in a day. The total minutes in a week needs to be a minimum of 150 minutes. If the exercise of vigorous intensity is performed, a minimum of 20 minutes in a day is required, and in a week it needs to be a minimum of 75 minutes. A suitable alternative to the continuous exercise can be intermittent exercise. Such form of exercise can be performed for a minimum of 10 minutes. The purpose of carrying out this exercise is the accumulation of the duration prescribed previously. It is advantageous if the individual gets additional health benefits. For gaining extensive benefits, the client can add to his aerobic physical activity and make it up to 300 minutes that is 5 hours, in a week. This physical activity would be of moderate-intensity. The other suitable option can be 150 minutes of aerobic physical activity of vigorous activity in a week. A combination of vigorous and moderate intensity activity equival ent to 150 minutes can also be undertaken. Mode- the nature of the aerobic exercise has to be rhythmic. Large muscle groups are to be involved in it along with best skills. Depending on the skills the client has, a higher level of fitness is recommended. Muscle-strengthening physical activity Frequency- The client needs to take up resistance exercise of each muscle group. This should be carried out at least 3 days in a week. A gap of minimum 48 hours is to be kept between the two consecutive exercise sessions carried out for the same muscle group. Intensity- a load of 80% of 1 repetition is the recommendation in case of resistance exercise. Time- the recommendation for the client is 8 resistance exercises. 4 sets with 12 repetitions are preferred for each set in case of each muscle group. The rest interval between two sets needs to be 3 minutes approximately. Mode- Stair climbing, weight bearing calisthenics, weight training programme and other activities that strengthen muscles are recommended for the client. Such kind of activities needs to involve all muscle groups that are important. It is recommended that multi-joint exercise involves multiple muscle groups. The target of the multi-joint exercise needs to be antagonist and agonist muscle groups. It is also desirable to include single-joint exercises that target the major muscle groups[1]. Other exercises Stretching exercises are recommended for the duration of 10 minutes. These exercises would involve the major tendon groups present in the body. Such tendon groups involve legs, hips, pelvis, lower and upper back, shoulder, and neck. A minimum of 4 repetitions is recommended for each muscle groups. This needs to be carried out for at least 2 days in a week. It is desirable that the stretching activities are carried out on all those days when the muscle-strengthening and aerobic activities are performed[2]. Effectiveness of program Documentation of the outcome of the exercise program is necessary for an effective decision-making process regarding the exercise design. The documents that would be referred to in the present case are Master Scenario Events List, Situation Manual, and Exercise Evaluation Guides. Client education The client needs to be given pertinent information regarding the exercise program recommended for him and the related aspects. Exercise is required for maintaining well-being and health. The structured, planned and repetitive activity would be beneficial for him if carried out on a regular basis. It will assist him in physical rehabilitation effectively. Aerobic activities help in making the lungs and heart work harder. This is achieved through the increase of blood flow through ones heart. In such form of exercise adequate oxygen is supplied to the large muscles for sustaining prolonged activity. In the case of muscle-strengthening activities help in maintaining balance and flexibility. The client also needs to be educated about the importance of maintaining a proper diet along with the physical exercises prescribed[3]. Exercise progression The volume of activities can be increased gradually over time for pursuing the prescribed level. The response given by the client to the exercise prescription is to be monitored. In case he is faced with difficulty in completing the prescribed exercise, he needs to reduce the duration and intensity. If the level is found to be easy, an increase in the duration and intensity can be considered depending on the comfort level. References Kenney, W. Larry, Jack Wilmore, and David Costill.Physiology of Sport and Exercise 6th Edition. Human kinetics, 2015. Haff, G. Gregory, and N. Travis Triplett, eds.Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning 4th Edition. Human kinetics, 2015. Powers, Scott.Exercise physiology: Theory and application to fitness and performance. McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2014.