Athletic Trainer's Guide to Using mTrigger Biofeedback - Lower Extremity

As an athletic trainer, taking care of multiple athletes simultaneously is a regular occurrence. Implementing the mTrigger biofeedback device into your athletic training room can help to improve your efficiency, increase athlete motivation, and maximize outcomes. mTrigger biofeedback provides athletes with autonomy, gets more out of every rep, and makes rehabilitation more fun. Let’s explore how and why.

This guide will highlight some of the most common injuries treated by athletic trainers and how you can use mTrigger sEMG biofeedback to make your job easier while achieving superior results.

Hamstring /Adductor Strains

Muscle strains are one of the most common injuries in high school and college athletes. Especially amongst soccer, track and field, and hockey players. Focusing on the strength of the injured and surrounding muscles is a big component of recovery and injury prevention. When it comes to adductor and hamstring muscle strains, strengthening the target muscle group is essential. Often times due to pain, weakness, or compensation, athletes can struggle to effectively and consistently perform key exercises correctly. Using mTrigger biofeedback during exercises such as a Copenhagen plank or an adductor slide out, can help guarantee the athlete is using the correct muscle group and performing exercises in the most effective way.

mTrigger biofeedback can also be used for multiple exercises throughout the course of rehab program. Once the electrodes are applied to the target muscles and the athlete is set up, they can perform hamstring curls, deadlift variations, and other hamstring exercises sequentially, all with immediate feedback. As an athlete progresses through their recovery, it is important to continue using mTrigger biofeedback to increases the effectiveness of eccentric exercises, dynamic movements, and plyometrics.

Ankle Sprains

Ankle sprains occur at an alarmingly high rate. Ankle sprains account for 25% of the injuries seen in men and women’s basketball and women’s volleyball.(1) Over a 16-year tracking period, the rate of ankle sprains amongst collegiate athletes has remained stable(1). This indicates the occurrence of ankle sprains is not increasing; however, we are also not getting better at preventing them as a sports medicine team.(1)

Although ankle sprains result in a shorter amount of time loss than other major injuries, their frequent re-occurrence is still cause for concern.(1) Research has supported the use of neuromuscular and balance exercise programs for reducing the risk of re-injury.(1) When implementing an ankle stability and strength program with athletes following an ankle sprain, it can often feel monotonous, but that doesn’t decrease its importance. Here are a few ideas for implementing mTrigger biofeedback to improve athlete engagement and compliance with ankle sprain rehab. By incorporating biofeedback, the athlete can see first-hand their success in completing the exercise. This is also a great time to utilize mTrigger biofeedback games.

Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries (ACL)

While the highest rate of ACL injuries occurs in women’s soccer, gymnastics, basketball, and football, it is no secret that the increasing incidence of ACL injuries amongst athletes is a growing concern.(1) Each year, the rate of ACL injuries increased by 1.3% on average, over a 16 year period.(1) For this reason, a tremendous amount of effort has gone into primary and secondary prevention of ACL injuries in both men and women’s sports.

Restoring quadriceps muscle function following ACL reconstruction has proven crucial.(2) The use of mTrigger biofeedback can help to facilitate the necessary muscle activation during exercises early on and throughout the rehab process to prevent extensor mechanism deficits.(3)

Additionally, the neuromuscular deficit testing function on the mTrigger device allows for assessment and progress tracking of quadriceps muscle deficit throughout the course of an athletes rehab. This provides essential information that can help inform clinical decision, rehab effectiveness, and sports readiness.

Check out our ACL Protocol for more exercise ideas following ACL reconstruction using the mTrigger device. It is important to remember the importance of biofeedback doesn’t stop once quad activation has been re-established. It is just as imperative biofeedback is used to ensure continued proper movement patterns and continued quad activation as exercises get more challenging.

Summary

If you are not yet utilizing mTrigger biofeedback in the training room with your athletes, you are missing out. By using biofeedback, you can help athletes to stay engaged in their recovery, track results, provide autonomy and independence, increase motivation, and improve your workload management as an athletic trainer. All while seeing improvements in muscle activation, strength, and progressing towards the results you want.

NMES vs sEMG Biofeedback