Young guns pad-up for muscle scans

Australia’s best young cricketers have had their muscles scanned and measured by Brisbane researchers to prevent muscle deterioration and injury.

The 24-man-squad from Cricket Australia’s Centre of Excellence in Brisbane, were examined by University of Queensland’s senior physiotherapy lecturer Dr Julie Hides.

Dr Hides spent three days with the 24-man-squad at the Wesley Hospital and at UQ scanning their back and stomach muscles, muscle movements and testing their strength.

She said the players would be scanned again next in July after an intensive 14-week-training program to improve their stability muscles.

About 38 percent of the cricket squad, mostly bowlers, have back pain.

Centre of Excellence performance co-ordinator Shaun McMahon, a former UQ student, said the players had been working on their core stability three times a week.

He said the aim of the partnership with UQ was to test the centre’s training program and chart a history of back pain suffered by players.

Dr Hides and her team from the Department of Physiotherapy and The School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ITEE) are looking for improvements in muscle patterns, joint stability and pain relief.

Research shows cricketers are just as prone to muscle pain as Australian Rules footballers, particularly fast bowlers.

“The amount of fast bowlers that have stress fractures is very high,” Mr McMahon said.

For more information contact Dr Hides (phone: 3365 2718, email: j.hides@shrs.uq.edu.au) or Miguel Holland at UQ Communications (phone: 3365 2619, email: m.holland@uq.edu.au)