סל ניוז

Oden’s Right knee appears to have recovered from the surgery. Data indicates the ability to bear weight almost normally in the right leg’s Quadriceps and Hamstring muscles. However, a deeper look at the data indicates that Oden’s normal gait patterns have altered to compensate for weaknesses in his right lower leg.  And as a result, does not distribute weight appropriately throughout the entire right leg. To compensate for the original injury and lower leg weaknesses, Oden has started to bear at times as much as 144% of his weight on the left leg (Ex.: during running trial at 7.0mph for 15 seconds, ROM 10.8 degrees extension L compared to 4.4 degrees of extension R). To compensate, Oden’s right leg excessively internally rotates during extension (push off) at lower speeds. While at higher rates of speed excessively abducts and externally rotates indicating circumduction of the right leg. This action can lead to hip pain on the right side, lower back pain/injury and opposite side knee pain as rotational forces cause the opposite knee to twist and as a result may cause the quadriceps muscles to overload to resist the rotation. This could be the cause of the left leg Patella Tendonitis.

When asked to jump, Oden proceeded to bear more weight evenly during take off, but landed with over 30% more weight on his left leg, demonstrating a conscious or subconscious lack of use of the right knee. The overloaded landing can cause significant stress and fatigue to the left quadriceps/patella tendon.

In Greg’s case, every exercise or target area needing improvement on his list required slow, yet focused repetitions.  If Greg was asked to walk, run, squat or jump, he placed more of the load on his left leg than his weaker right leg.  I informed the medical staff that this overload would put Greg at risk for a major acute injury to his left leg.   Greg’s imbalance was so distinct that I even advised that staff that if he didn’t improve the weaknesses in the short-term and continue some of the rehab-like exercises for the entire season, his career could be at risk.