tranverse fracture in teenager

[Phil Atkinson]

My 15 year old son suffered a cowardly knee to the back playing rugby league 6 months ago and suffered a fractured L4 transverse. He kept playing with the injury and only had a 7 week lay off that ended today, with the all-clear from our physio. The fracture has healed, but I am worried about long term effects in the L4/L5 region. He is an elite player and is required to play a lot of both Rugby League for Club and Rugby Union for school. He has done a stack of core stability rehab, but getting those small muscles to switch back on is not easy. How can he long term strengthen this part of his back?

[RCheesley]

Hi Phil,

You mentioned that your son had a lot of physio/rehabilitation - did they not give you an ongoing rehabilitation plan for strengthening the muscles? Continuing with the rehab that he has already done might be a simple way to maintain his level of development. It is quite important to ensure your son maintains his core stability so something like pilates might be a good avenue if it would be acceptable to him. If it's any help I think the UK teams are looking at incorporating pilates type exercise into their training for the rugby teams :)

The other option you might want to consider is whether there is a gym that your son could attend (although over here if you're under 16 they often won't accept you, and 16-18 have to be supervised) where a personal trainer could develop him a program to help strengthen these muscles in parallel to the other aspects of his training for the rugby. Involving the coach of the teams he plays for might also be beneficial at this stage.

Hope this is of some help!

Regards,

Ruth