How to Use the Lower Body Return to Sport Checklist

I really think that the lower body return to sport checklist and discharge checklist can accelerate your practice, can really amplify what you're doing because it does a few things.  One, it makes sure that we're being comprehensive in nature.  The guidelines go from simple range of motion and strength and simple movement, complex movement, complex balance, motor control all the way through power, including hop testing, vertical jump testing, as well as disability questionnaires that we should be using.  So it is very comprehensive in nature, it's stepwise in nature, but it also allows us to check our math.  I mean, how do you know when someone has returned to normal?  Frequently for a lot of years in my career, it was just that they said they were feeling good and they didn't have any pain, and that wasn't good enough because people are getting injured because of previous injury at an alarming rate.  So we really have to do something about that.  And that's what these guidelines do.  So what do you do to use these checklists is you determine the level of function that the person is going back to, and then you go to at least that level of function, if not higher.  Let me give you an example.  So if we have a sedentary person, we're definitely going to include range of motion, strength, and basic movement with the top tier SFMA. If we have someone who works or works out frequently, then we’re going to go with that continuum to the FMS, Y Balance test.  We can even argue that most people should be doing a Y Balance test.  There's tons of research studies that tell us even those in those 70s and 80s in assisted living facilities have done the Y Balance test because it tells you so much good information and is a great goal for discharge.  Now, certainly if the person is an athlete now, we're going to take them all the way through hop testing and power testing. If they're even returning to any sort of running, fitness running, they need to be doing hop testing. So be sure you're taking your patient all the way through the continuum of return to sport, and use the lower body return to sport checklist to basically check your math and be sure you've done your best for that person.