Page 6 - Healthbeat March 2015

Tip-top SHAPE
Former Hog, medical experts emphasize conditioning in injury prevention
STORY BY BRUCE GUTHRIE
As sports have become more about contact and collision, the risk and occurrence of injury, especially joint injury, is ever prevalent.
That’s where prehab comes into play. This practice is defined in the sports-performance industry as any program that conditions the body to prevent injury.
No one knows the value of training to get faster, stronger and preventing injury more than former Arkansas Razorback wide re- ceiver J.J. Meadors. In fact, he’s made it his business.
TRAINING AND MENTORING
Nearly 20 years removed from his glory days on the gridiron, the former standout receiver and national track champion spends his days imparting knowledge to aspiring athletes who come from around Arkansas and the country to his Salt County Sports Performance facility in Bryant.
Spending time at Meadors’ facility might afford the casual fan an opportunity to catch glimpses of such possible future stars as K.J. Hill and D.J. Brown of North Little Rock, or Steven Murdock, who just finished his senior season as a defensive back for the Bryant Hor- nets. Murdock, who has a 3.9 grade-point av- erage, will likely run track in college.
Meadors also works with former college players who are aspiring to play professionally. Adrian Nelson, who played quarterback for the University of Central Oklahoma and has been working tirelessly in Meadors’ facility, said the training and knowledge he is getting
has been invaluable.
“Working on speed, and agility — getting
back to it — I feel like it’s helped a lot,” Nelson said. “It’s all about the legs. We work on legs, speed every single day.”
KEEPING ATHLETES OFF THE OPERATING TABLE
Dr. William Hefley, a surgeon at Ortho- Arkansas, speculates that 40 percent of his
surgery practice is sports-related, much of which Hefley said consists of injured knees, the most serious being tears of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial collateral ligament (MCL). Torn labrums in shoulders are also sports injuries that Hefley commonly encounters.
Hefley has a vested interest in the health of athletes, not only as a surgeon, but as the father of an athlete and a volunteer coach at the youth level. His son, Will, a former stand- out quarterback at Pulaski Academy, is set to play college football at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma next season.
Hefley said females are more at risk for ACL tears than males. This is why females may have to work harder in their prehab and preparation as athletes.
“Experts will postulate that girls tend to land differently,” Hefley said. “There are actu- ally training courses girls can go through to try to ‘land like a boy’ so their ACL isn’t at risk,” Hefley said. “Female soccer players and bas- ketball players are more likely for ACL tears.”
Hefley said the best way to minimize the risk of serious joint injury is strength and con- ditioning.
“Highly conditioned athletes with a lot of strength and speed and endurance are less likely to get hurt,” Hefley said. “When you are out on the field, and you’re not in shape and you’re not strong, as the game goes on, your legs are weak, and you’re going to be at risk of not protecting yourself.”
As fatigue sets in, Hefley said, reflexes ar- en’t as quick to react, causing injuries to occur more frequently. While football players sustain impact injuries to their shoulders and head, as well as knees, athletes in other sports, such as baseball, softball and basketball, as well as volleyball, can sustain trauma to knees and ankles, as well as hips.
“A lot of not getting hurt, not rolling an ankle, not twisting a knee, involves reflexes,” Hefley said.
A reflex that travels to the spinal cord tells muscles to fire and correct bad positioning of the joint. Hefley said if the reflexes aren’t sharp, and joints and muscles aren’t strong, and the athlete is fatigued and not in shape, then the risk of getting hurt increases greatly.
‘WHEN PREPARATION MEETS OPPORTUNITY’
Known by Razorback fans for the catch that beat the Alabama Crimson Tide at Tuscaloosa in 1995, Meadors said training and the devel- opment of his speed and quickness are what allowed him to play football for Arkansas and be a part of the history of Razorback football.
That success includes being a member of a class that was the first to play a full season as a member of the Southeastern Conference after leaving the old Southwest Conference. The Hogs struggled on the field until 1995, when they won their first SEC Western Division title and played Florida in the championship game. On the way to an eight-win regular season,
ANGIE DAVIS/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
the 5-6 receiver made his unlikely mark.
With six seconds to play, down 19-13, Meadors got his hand under a low pass from quarterback Barry Lunney Jr. for a touch- down that beat Alabama by a point. The pass from Lunney was low enough to cause some controversy over whether the ball hit the
ground or if it was a clean catch by Meadors. Meadors said that reception is still some-
thing he is asked about nearly 20 years later. “Razorback fans love to talk about that catch,” Meadors said. “It’s just great to be a part of something like that. When it’s fourth down and you’re at Bryant-Denny (the Uni- versity of Alabama’s home field), it’s the last play — it makes me feel good that they called
my play.”
Meadors takes the lessons of his success
into his training sessions.
“I tell them all the time that what’s beautiful
about sports is that you actually go out there and you play the games, and people see that you did well or you didn’t do well, and it’s just about the training,” Meadors said.
Former Arkansas wide-receiver coach Fitz Hill instilled an attitude in Meadors and his
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