Blogs & News

World-Class Sports Medicine care at OrthoCarolina

Rotator cuff issues are a common culprit of shoulder pain. Four muscles make up the rotator cuff and keep the head of the upper arm bone in its socket, enabling it to work. Those muscles turn into tendons that attach near the head, which is the ball of your shoulder, a ball-and-socket joint.

Chronic pain can keep your body hurting for weeks, months, or even years at a time, impacting your day-to-day life and even your work and time with family. It can be a result of an injury, other health issue, or there may be no apparent reason for the pain. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy is one of the newest ways to treat pain. PRP uses a highly concentrated solution of your body’s own platelets to accelerate the natural healing of damaged tissue.

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is a vital stabilizing structure within the knee. The ACL helps to control rotation and translation with a knee that is abruptly changing direction or speed. As a result, it is commonly injured in athletes who participate in sports with cutting, pivoting, jumping, and quick running.

Being an NFL athlete is no easy feat. Those guys are constantly training, but not all NFL players focus on the same areas. It largely depends on the position they play.

Rotator cuff tendon tears affect more than four million people annually in the U.S. and are the most common source of shoulder pain and disability. Dr. Patrick Connor of the OrthoCarolina Sports Medicine Center, team physician to the Carolina Panthers, is pioneering the use of a breakthrough technology designed as a new option for millions of people suffering from rotator cuff tendon tears in the shoulder joint.

It can be difficult to end a career in any sport for those who are hard-wired to do what they love, but the post-football career can be tough physically as well as mentally.

Swimming is a great lifetime activity. Whether you're a recreational, masters level, triathlete or competitive swimmer, doing some dry land cross training should be an integral part of your regular weekly workout routine. It can be hard to leave the pool for one day and opt for a dry land workout, but there are many benefits that will leave you a better swimmer and with a more well-rounded level of fitness.

Is it ever too early to start talking about football? No way!

These days, most people usually agree that athletes should be doing some type of warm up prior to taking the field, including sports like soccer. What is less clear is exactly what that warm up should look like. Just jogging or doing prolonged hold, stretching is inadequate, and may actually do more harm than good.

A former professional soccer player’s perspective on playing the sport

Not too long ago I was working with the U.S. Men’s National Beach Soccer team in their Beach World Cup qualifier tournament.

Any sport will cause wear and tear on the bodies of athletes over time, but for a NASCAR pit crew, roles on the team can play a big role in the type of injuries they face.

Keeping the Charlotte 49ers in the game

Dedicated to keeping you in the race

Committed to keeping you in the game and proud to support numerous area youth soccer clubs.

Dr. Patrick Connor, Head Team Physician of the Carolina Panthers, offers his perspective

When an athlete gets injured, we tend to focus on the physical aspects: What was hurt, the surgery, and when can the athlete get back on the field or court...

“In what other sport do you get a 15-second break every hour?” –Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

OrthoCarolina, a Charlotte orthopedic clinic. Over the past decade, OrthoCarolina staff members have become as much a part of the NASCAR traveling circus as the other regulars who roam the same roads as drivers, crews and officials.

At Belmont Abbey, we strive to educate our students in three areas: body, mind, and spirit. In athletics, we focus a little more on the body area and work to keep our athletes in optimal physical condition both to prevent injury and to compete at a high level.

The American Medical Association recently declared cheerleading a sport, saying that the rigors and risks led them to the decision.

If you know OrthoCarolina, you know that we’re passionate about sports, including our local and regional college teams...