You do what you want to do. You bike or lift or run or climb when you want to. You can’t imagine not grabbing life by the saddle horn and riding hard until you can’t ride any more.
But after that last hike or basketball game or marathon lifting session, you are wondering if you should switch from that stallion you’ve been riding to a Shetland pony! Now, every time you move, your back (or maybe it is your knee or your shoulder) screams in protest. You are pretty sure that you can’t even get onto that pony’s saddle, now.
You did not want to, but you went to see your orthopod, who just shook her head. She suggested that you should rest, put ice on the area and wear a brace or support to take the strain from the injured area as it heals.
For over sixty years, we here at Mueller Sports Medicine have been designing and building the sports medicine braces and supports that are used by orthopods and athletic trainers around the world.
What part of your body did you hurt? Don’t worry, we have a device for that.
Shoulder – The shoulder, like all of the joints of the body, is a complex, precise machine. For many of us, it works flawlessly for all the years we have here on earth. Issues that shoulders can have over time include fractures, dislocations, arthritis and rotator cuff damage. The rotator cuff consists of the SITS (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis) muscles and their tendons, and serves to stabilize the shoulder joint. We have a variety of precut and rolled kinesiology tape designed to help your therapist or orthopod support your healing shoulder.
Spine – The spine is a collection of (usually) 24 irregular bones called vertebrae, and two collections of small fused vertebrae called the sacrum and coccyx. The spine serves to protect the spinal cord and the nerves below the spinal canal, called the cauda equina (horse’s tail). Additionally, the spine holds us erect and serves as an anchor for all of our movement. The spine is divided into the cervical spine (7 vertebrae) or neck, the thoracic spine (12 vertebrae – one for each pair of ribs) and the lumbar spine (5 vertebrae usually) or low back. In addition to sprains and strains of the spine, arthritis and vertebral disk issues are the most common complaints. Different problems need different solutions, and we have the spinal braces and supports you need.
Ankle – The ankle, like the wrist, is composed of several small, irregular bones called tarsals (carpals for the wrist). These tarsals fit together like a 3-D puzzle, allowing them to glide and slide past each other, giving you the 360° range of motion necessary to make the complex movements you need to on the rock face or the basketball court. In addition to sprains (damage to ligaments) and strains (damage to muscles and tendons) of the ankle, fractures are another common type of injury. Interestingly, a broken ankle is probably not a fracture of one of the tarsals, but instead of the lower tibia or fibula (bones of the lower leg). The calcaneous, or heel bone, is the most likely of the tarsals to fracture. Whatever your ankle injury, your orthopedist knows that Mueller has a wide variety of ankle braces.
Since 1960, when Curt Mueller realized that athletic training supplies for serious athletes were entirely inadequate, we’ve been designing and building the orthopedic devices people need to treat their sports injuries and help more people be healthier by engaging in athletic activities. To find out more about our state-of-the-art devices, please contact us.