In response to the rise in the incidence of hamstring injuries among both minor league and major league baseball players, it may be possible to create a program to prevent such injuries.

Lead author Holly Silvers-Granelli, MPT, PhD Candidate at the University of Delaware in Newark, presented her study recently at the American Orthopaedic Society of Sports Medicine’s (AOSSM) Annual Meeting in Colorado Springs, Colo, which discussed such a prevention program.

The study included a total of 213 athletes: 173 from the minor league, and 40 from the major league. Some of the participants were provided with a hamstring injury prevention program, including both concentric and eccentric hamstring exercises and lumbo-pelvic stability exercises preparing the athlete for the demands of competitive baseball from a neuromuscular perspective. The average weighted utilization of the injury prevention program was 25.3 doses for the uninjured group and 13.53 doses in the injured group, explains a media release from the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine.

The injury-prevention program was also distributed to each member of the medical staff (team physician, certified athletic trainer, and strength and conditioning coach), and each member was instructed on how to implement the program.

The individuals in both groups who participated in the injury prevention program saw a 40% reduction in their hamstring injuries, as well as a significant reduction in playing time lost due to their injury. Among the Major League players, there was a 65% reduction (9 days versus 25.9 days lost). Among the Minor League players, there was a 45.3% reduction in lost playing time, according to the release.

“Our study confirmed that utilizing hamstring injury prevention programs can help lessen lost play time and be a cost efficient way to do so. Further research is needed to fine tune the best mechanisms for these injury reduction programs,” says Silvers-Granelli, in the release.

[Source(s): American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, Science Daily]