Clinical Research Directory

The Use of the Functional Movement Screen™ in Preventing Injuries in Amateur Rugby Players

Rugby is a team contact sport that demands unparalleled physical engagement. This practice, which combines random running patterns with changes in speed and direction, also involves frequent contact situations with other players. These phases of the game account for 48% to 80% of total injuries. Injury prevention is an integral part of the physical therapist's expertise and plays a crucial role in reducing the occurrence of musculoskeletal injuries and mitigating their devastating consequences. The implementation of a risk prevention tool is particularly relevant for a population prone to injuries. However, the practicality of such a tool must be considered, as adherence to an injury prevention program depends on the "perceived usefulness, intensity, and time investment of the program". One tool appears to meet these criteria: the Functional Movement Screen™ (FMS™). This tool is designed to "evaluate an individual's functional movement patterns" and, according to its authors, can serve as "a crucial tool" for returning to sports after an injury or a period of inactivity. Given the high incidence of injuries in rugby players, calculating the injury incidence in this population and correlating it with FMS™ scores could provide valuable insights. For this prospective study, forty amateur rugby players from various clubs in Normandy competing at the Federal 3 level will be recruited using a recruitment letter and a call for volunteers. Each participant will perform two FMS™ (7 movements), at the beginning of the competitive season and at the end of the competitive season. The test will last 30 minutes per player. The initial interview will last 20 minutes. There will also be a follow-up of the players throughout the season to collect all injuries sustained by participants in the intervention. The main expected outcome is a significant correlation (p \< 0.05) between the FMS™ score and injury incidence. This correlation may then indicate a good predictive capacity of the FMS™, allowing it to be considered a predictive tool for injury risk. To evaluate the correlation between two variables (injury incidence sustained by the player and the FMS™ score), the Spearman correlation coefficient will be used. This coefficient, if its value approaches -1 or 1, will indicate a good correlation between the player's injury incidence and their FMS™ score. Conversely, if the coefficient approaches 0, the correlation will be considered poor. In a second phase, it is expected that a competitive season will directly affect the FMS™ score, highlighting the difficulty for an amateur player to maintain their physical capacities throughout an entire season.

Effectiveness of a Quick Release Dynamic Muscle-strengthening Program on Dynamic Stabilization of the Cervical Spine

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if Quick Release dynamic strengthening of the cervical spine extensor muscles' reflex could improve dynamic stabilisation capacities of the cervical spine by reducing muscle activation delay in amateurs rugby players. The main questions it aims to answer are described as follows: The primary outcome measure is the comparison between the intervention and control groups of the variation in activation delay of the cervical spine extensor muscles in milliseconds (ms) between the beginning and the end of the strengthening program. The activation delay in milliseconds corresponds to the time between the onset of impact application on the head and the onset of reactive muscle force production measured by the Cervistab© ergometer. The secondary outcomes are also a comparison between the two groups of the variations from the beginning to the end of the strengthening program for the followings parameters, measured during with the Cervistab© machine: * Reflex Force Production Rate (N/ms): slope of the force/time graph. * Maximum Reactive Force (N): maximum force value produced within 300 ms following impact. * In both intervention groups: measurement of the variation in head displacement (in mm) during quick release strengthening protocol. * In each subgroup, 10 participants will be equipped with Instrumented Mouthguards. Researchers will compare the variation in workload measured by these mouthguards during Cervistab evaluations conducted before and after the training protocol. Researchers will compare the intervention group to a distractor (control) arm to see if our training protocol has an impact on the activation delay.