Why Aspetar?
Well, we had investigated the Aspetar Sports Clinic upon learning of Joel Embiid’s initial visit. This is not just a hospital, but rather an intensive clinic which boards and monitors the 24 hour cycle of each and every patient. More intensive than the individualized treatments available in most professional sports teams, this is a full room and board boot camp, designed to be a 100% controlled environment that measures inputs, outputs, activity, healing process, stresses, and graphical trends that can be tracked and analyzed.
The science and medicine for Navicular bone treatment must first focus on the cause of the initial injury. In any stress fracture, the bone breaks due to unnatural forces acting upon it. “Unnatural” in this case merely describes pressure coming at the foot bone from an odd angle, or from overexertion, or from hyperextension.
After surgery, the joint is immobilized until the site is no longer tender to the touch at the top of the foot. This can take from six weeks to as many as twelve weeks to heal. During this time, the joint must remain immobilized and in a full hard shell cast. After tenderness fades, the foot can be freed from its cast and can begin the slow rehabilitation process. Initially, walking with fully supportive footwear is sufficient, augmented by reverse gravity workouts.
ALSO ON SIXER SENSE: Aspetar Holds the Key
But the challenge with Joel Embiid’s injury is more complex than just “fix it”. It requires the team to retrain the athlete to avoid future events of stress, which has afflicted Embiid in both his back and foot. To do so, the Aspetar Podiatry clinic gives more than just a menu, a list of exercises, and a farewell handshake. The treatment plan there involves intensive massages to stimulate blood flow, recording the athlete’s body positioning through exercises while monitoring both the body stress as well as vital signs.
Joel Embiid is a very tall and athletic basketball player. Over the course of his career, he’s learned to command his body to respond to a basketball game, but seldom had training in the proper way to make his body respond. Recall the Jedi Master Yoda’s reluctance to train Luke Skywalker? “he is too old to begin the training.” Well Joel Embiid is not too old, but he must unlearn improper techniques.
Right now, Joel Embiid must adhere to proper training techniques. Training errors in terms of technique or over training should be identified and immediately corrected. During this learning process, a podiatrist can check if there are any bio-mechanical factors such as over pronation of the foot which should be corrected with orthotic inserts in the shoes. Tarsal coalition where the tarsal bones fuse together as well as restricted dorsi flextion of the ankle will also make the athlete more susceptible to a future navicular stress fractures.
Aspetar personnel, monitors Embiid’s jumps, stops, starts, pivots and gate. The podiatrist reviews the data from his jumping exercises, and then directs the proper inserts to mitigate any over stress going forward. Somewhat like getting corrective lenses to fix poor vision. The several weeks is to run Embiid through the entire gamut of exercises in order to instill proper techniques and create the proper aids to ensure that his body mechanics optimize balance of pressure across the entirety of his feet.
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