New System for Testing and Training at the SportKlinik in Bad Nauheim, Germany
(translated to English from original story found on speed-magazin.de)
For more than 18 years the SportKlinik in Bad Nauheim has been recognized as a specialized clinic for Orthopaedic, Traumatology, Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and Sports Medicine. In the 1500m2 (16,000 sq. ft.) facility one finds a cash medical practice with highly-qualified specialists, Physiotherapy, Sports Training, Ergotherapy, and Massage Therapy.
Johannes M. Peil, MD is the leading physician of the SportKlinik at Bad Nauheim. For the past fifteen years high speed sportsman from Austria and Germany have sought the SportKlinik ’s expertise. In addition to auto racing, Dr. Peil has served as a medical consultant for Germany’s elite Olympic athletes and at World and European championships.
In 2001, Michael Schumacher and his driving team came to Dr. Peil and and his team of sport scientists at the SportKlinik led by Stefan Wagner for strength training and conditioning in preparation for the racing season. Mr. Schumacher recognized that physical training was needed to keep up with the forces placed on the neck and back encountered while piloting the high speed Formula One race cars. As with the design of any sport specific training program, it must begin with a purposeful training therapy the muscular stability and mobility of the neck spinal column. However, at that time, there was nothing available to assess the program effectiveness. Testing was necessary, but was only performed manually and results were relatively subjective and problematic, since there were no objective measuring systems.
Fortunately there is equipment from the USA (BTE Technologies Inc. Hanover, Maryland), and distributed and supported by Proxomed (Alzenau, Germany) which provides a precise analysis of the neck muscle strength and range of motion in all 3 planes of movement. The SportKlinik in Bad Nauheim is the first center in Germany to introduce this level of technology into their sports training and physiotherapy programs. For the past several years Dr. Peil has been searching for an efficient assessment and strength training system to use with all of the racing teams. None has been as impressive at the MCU.
With the MCU, an objective evaluation of the neck spinal column was made possible by a specially developed software. The equipment notes degree-specific strength the strength in 360-degree “radar graph” to pinpoint weakness and range of motion asymmetries. Assessment is done prior to treatment so that a customized strength program can created for each driver. The test and training procedures do not only apply to sport medicine, but also with general chronic neck pain, whiplash trauma, muscle-related headaches, volume disk problems, and work related neck injuries.
The Speed Magazin.de wanted to know a little more about the MCU and interviewed Andreas Rooker, sports scientist, from the Proxomed Medizintechnik GmbH, which has planned the European introduction of the MCU for 2008. The complete interview with Mr. Rooker can be found here.
The SportKlinik exterior in Bad Nauheuim, Germany
The MCU Multi-Cervical Unit testing and training team at SportKlinik.