Greg Oden and the Portland Trailblazers – Why All the Injuries?

The Blazers are falling apart.

Patrick Mills (foot) and Jeff Pendergraph (hip) started the season injured.

Then Nicolas Batum’s right shoulder

And Travis Outlaw’s foot

Coach Nate McMillan’s ruptured Achilles tendon

Now Greg Oden’s knee

Greg Oden after injuring knee

Why?

Are they unlucky? Cursed? Hopeless?

No, I don’t think so.

Let’s look at why we get injured (especially non-impact injuries). Injuries are not accidents. We think of accidents as unavoidable or unpredictable. But injuries can be predicted and avoided. Let’s look at how this works.

First let’s talk about how the human body is designed. Humans are bi-peds – which means we walk on two feet. In order to do that we have to be balanced – meaning symmetrical left to right. In addition to that we have eight major load bearing joints (ankles, knees, hips, shoulders) that are designed to be vertically stacked one on top of the other. This allows us to absorb shock. When you look at this design you see 90-degree angles at all the load joints. When these 90-degree angles are violated the structural integrity of the body is compromised leading to pain and/or injury.

Proper posture front

Proper Posture Side

Let’s look at the knees. The knees are designed to point straight ahead in-line with your hips and ankles and vertically aligned one-on-top-of-the-other. If your right foot turns out and your right knee turns in and your left side lines up the way it’s designed to, which knee do you think you are going to injure? Yes, the right knee. It’s just basic physics – all about forces, action-reaction, friction, and stress. If joints line up correctly you easily distribute forces through the structures the way they are designed, the proper action-reaction in the bones and muscles occurs, and friction and stress on the body are minimal. Joints don’t line up? Hello friction, stress, pain and injury. Misaligned joints are injuries waiting to happen.

What’s cool is it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see postural imbalances. When we look at Greg Oden and his history, things become very clear: he’s been told his right leg is longer than the left (if I was able to look at him, we’d probably see that it’s actually a hip disparity (hip elevation/tilt imbalance) that is causing the leg to appear longer when it’s really not), his feet turn out (evert), his right shoulder is lower than his left, and his knees do not line up with his ankles and hips.

Greg Oden

All of these postural imbalances are setting his body up for pain and injury – which is exactly what he’s had. Look at the list:

• bulging disc in back
• right wrist
• right ankle
• right foot
• right hand
• right knee
• left knee

So why are almost all the injuries to his right side?

It starts with how his body is out of alignment. His right hip is higher which throws his body off balance causing his upper body to compensate. We see that in his right shoulder rotating forward and down. His lower body is also affected which we see in his feet turning out and no longer lining up with his knees (they should point straight ahead in-line with each other).

The disc injury was from the uneven pressure on his vertebrae and discs caused by the misaligned hips.

The wrist and hand injuries were exacerbated by the right shoulder being forward and down – meaning the shoulder could not help the elbow, wrist and hand properly.

The right knee has not had help from his right hip for a long time and his feet turn out enough to compromise their function.

Why the left knee now?

Good question. But I think it comes down to compensation. His body is not balanced and has been compensating because of the imbalances and because of the injuries and these imbalances put his left knee under increased stress – enough to fracture his patella while jumping.

They are already saying the surgery was successful…but that only fixes the symptom not the cause. He has to correct his posture if he wants to recover to 100% and avoid future injuries.

How do you correct posture?

Muscles move bones. So it is a muscle imbalance issue.

Didn’t Greg Oden rehab his muscles after his last knee injury and surgery?

He got stronger, that’s for sure. But not in proper balance. The problem with the conventional approach is people think let’s just get in the weight room as get as strong as we can. Let’s get as fast as we can. Let’s get as flexible as we can. And we think that means he’s rehabbed.

The problem with that approach is you have just strengthened every imbalance in the body making you more prone to injury! The opposite of what the desired result is!

Think: Straighten before you strengthen.

Then strength is a beneficial thing.

Are you injured? Have you had surgery? Want to know how to make sure you rehab your entire body and posture?

Get this book:

Pain Free by Pete Egoscue

Of give us a call and we’d be happy to help you figure out what is going on and how you can fully recover and prevent future injuries: 503-350-0888

Who has used Egoscue? Jack Nicklaus, John Lynch, Junior Seau, Dave Roberts, Trevor Hoffman, Brian Urlacher, Tom Dolan, former Blazer Chris Dudley, and the list goes on.