By HESH DONNERSTAG Health and fitness expert This is the unfortunate truth to what will hold back most young athletes. The number one indicator for future injury is previous injury. Injury prevention should be the number one priority for any strength and conditioning program, as well as any athletic sports program. The FMS (Functional Movement Systems) screen is the first and most important step in preparing a young athlete — or any athlete, for that matter —to be on the right track to reaching their athletic potential. Without it, you will not know where your weaknesses or vulnerabilities are. There’s a saying: If you’re not assessing, then you’re guessing. High school sports injuries Unfortunate facts indicate that high school athletes alone suffer more than 2 million reported injuries, 500,000 doctor visits and 30,000 hospitalizations each year. There are three times as many catastrophic football injuries among high school athletes as college athletes. Overuse injuries are responsible for nearly half of all sports injuries to middle school and high school students. The rate of non-contact ACL injuries is much higher in female than male athletes, primarily due to movement patterns. 
Hesh Donnerstag is one of the premier personal trainers in the Atlantic County area and has a new training studio in Somers Point. Give hime a call at 609-975-2454 to find out how he can help you reach your personal fitness goals. According to The Chicago Tribune, youth ACL injuries are up more than 400 percent in the past few years. Traditional surgery on the ACL requires tunneling into parts of the leg bone. In children, these areas are still growing; the drilling can risk stunting development or creating deformities that are difficult to correct. Again, young athletes are often still growing, and growth is generally uneven. Bones grow first, which pulls at tight muscles and tendons. This uneven growth pattern makes younger athletes more susceptible to muscle, tendon and growth plate injuries. Injury prevention Our number one focus at Function Personal Training is injury prevention. You can’t play if you’re not on the field. Playing hurt will not only limit your ability, but set you up for a more severe injury down the road. Because many young athletes are focusing on just one sport and are training year-round, doctors are seeing an increase in overuse injuries. Playing one sport year-round, in my opinion, is not the problem. Not having a well-rounded training program to include proper movement training is the problem. The body is designed specifically to move in a pre-determined manner. If you do not follow this innate structuring of joints and muscles, bad things are likely going to happen. From a recent report by Safe Kids Worldwide, overuse injuries to tendons, bones and joints can result from playing the same sport and performing the same movements too often, too hard or at too young an age with inadequate recovery time. Letting the body rest, adding preventive and strengthening exercises, and following proper technique are among injury prevention strategies recommended in the new report. The solution All junior high and high school athletes should receive a FMS screen. This screen is becoming more and more utilized by top collegiate and professional teams. It is simply a movement test consisting of seven specific screens to help identify any imbalance or asymmetry, as well as mobility and stability. The screen will help identify any dysfunctional or potentially dysfunctional movements that lead to injury and performance reduction. Then they can be fixed. It is frightening that this screen is not mandatory for all junior high and high school athletes. Even more discouraging is that it’s not even recognized. Instead, young athletes are thrown into the weight room to perform power lifting exercises without having proper movement patterns, sufficient mobility and stability, and a basic level of core strength first. You can’t put functional strength on an imbalanced or asymmetrical athlete. Any strength and power gained will strain and overload a poor structure, and can result in a serious injury. This is even more magnified when the athlete has poor posture. Correcting bad posture is one of the main focuses at Function Personal Training. The Functional Movement Screen is extremely useful for developing athletes. We use it with great success at Function and will continue to use it while designing our programs. This simple screen allows us to gather a deeper look into who we’re working with and what we can do to help an athlete get better. The screen is a great tool from young to old. After all, it’s just movement we’re looking at. The screen was designed off fundamental patterns we learned as we developed, so the principles are the same. We ALL need to push, crawl, reach, squat, lunge, etc… So, essentially, FMS is good for just about anyone, young or old. Hesh Donnerstag is one of the top personal trainers in Atlantic County and has worked with various professional athletes and celebrities throughout his career as a personal trainer. Follow him at facebook.com/functionpersonaltraining. You can also call Hesh at 609-975-2454 to find out more about how he can help you become more functional in everyday life and achieve your personal fitness goals.
Health & Fitness: Movement screening very important for young athletes
