The faculty and residents attended the Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) in Denver Colorado on May and presented several tutorials, educational sessions and thematic and venues posters throughout the program. Drs. Kevin Vincent and Jason Zaremski chaired sessions for the CAQ I and II Board review for sports medicine physicians and Dr. Heather Vincent reviewed exercise physiology principles as part of this educational review.
Venue Poster Presentation: PGY2 Dr. Zane Thompson shared his research project titled “Age Differences in Functional Test Batteries Among Youth through Collegiate Lacrosse Players: Considerations for Early Injury Prevention” with Mentor Dr. Vincent and Faculty Coauthor Dr. Kevin Vincent. His work showed that Landing Error Scoring System scores and specific functional tests performed in youth could help identify players who may benefit from injury prevention strategies. These include education and practice on appropriate jump landing mechanics, strengthening of hip stabilizer-core-lower limb muscles, incorporation of lower extremity stretching activities and leveraging publicly-available injury prevention programs for lacrosse players.
Thematic Poster Presentations: PGY3 Dr. Aimee Madsen and PGY2 Dr. David Drozda’s work were selected as thematic poster session highlighted work in a session on “Running Injuries”. Dr. Madsen discussed the relationship of leg stiffness on running related injury patterns among runners with bony injuries at single and multiple locations in her poster “Leg stiffness Features in Runners with Single and Multiple Stress Fracture Histories.” Two interpretations of her findings were that: 1) Stiffness may be involved in the onset of a lower body stress fracture injury, 2) Increased reliance knee flexion with less pelvis rotation combined with lower stiffness may be functionally protective response to previous injury.
Dr. Drozda discussed with attendees what biomechanical features could be targeted for gait retraining among runners with low back pain with his poster “ Low Back Pain Induced Biomechanical Effects on Running Motion, A Case Controlled Comparative Study.” A constellation of biomechanical features may represent back pain, including a relatively lower cadence and variability with lateral displacement of the body, and elevated knee and hip moments in the sagittal and frontal planes. These features may reflect challenges with control of motion and average loading rates in the presence of back pain. Cadence training to increase step rate, coupled with core/hip muscle activation, may be important strategies to reduce motion variability, impact loading rate and pain symptoms while running.
Industry Interactive Session: Drs. Heather and Kevin Vincent hosted a standing room only large industry event “What is the right shoe for you?” discussing running shoe design philosophy. Several shoe companies including Xero, Brooks and Vivo barefoot shared their company’s designs and integration with running programs. Attendees interacted with the speaker panel to learn more about foot strengthening, foot shape and best shoe transitions when selecting and changing shoes.
Exercise is Medicine Tutorial: Dr. Heather Vincent and Co-PI Dr. Angelina Bernier (Director, UF Pediatric Obesity and Metabolic Clinic) co-presented and wrapped up the ACSM meeting with a tutorial session titled “Moving the Physical Activity Needle in Pediatric Clinics: Implementation of Exercise Testing & Physical Activity Counseling”. This translational talk discussed the direct implementation of Exercise Medicine in UF clinics using their own research and internship programs to make this program viable.
