Sports Medicine

At the sidelines of track meets, road races, and ball games, the most common accident isn’t a fracture. It’s someone collapsing. And the first question to ask on the scene isn’t “Are they dehydrated?” but “When did they collapse?" The answer to this question splits the situation into two different worlds: collapsing during the race, and collapsing after crossing the finish line. Collapsing during the race: Treat as the worst-case scenario first If a person suddenly falls to the ground while running, playing, or competing, and wasn’t hit by anything, the correct response is to first treat it as cardiac arrest: call for help, call an ambulance, grab an AED, and start CPR. ...

Let’s start with the most counterintuitive thing: when a kid collapses during hot weather exercise and their mental status is off, the right order is to cool them down on site first, then send them to the hospital. Not call an ambulance and figure it out on the way. The international consensus is blunt—cool first, transport second. Because what determines whether they suffer permanent damage isn’t how fast they get to the ER, but how long their body temperature stays above 40°C. ...

Bottom line up front: If your child has a painful bump just below the kneecap, it’s not growing pains. It has a name: Osgood-Schlatter, also known as tibial tubercle apophysitis. And contrary to what many people have heard—it doesn’t “completely go away when you grow up." I’m writing this for parents who have 10- to 15-year-olds currently running and jumping in sports. How to tell if it’s growing pains Growing pains usually happen in both legs, ache in the evening or middle of the night, and have no clear point of tenderness. By the next morning, it’s like nothing happened. ...

I got my American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM-CPT) certification! I guess I’m someone who really learns through my body. Back in college, I especially loved anatomy because I could feel those structures on myself. By observing my body, I could feel the presence of each part, try to see how they change under different conditions, and verify what the textbooks said. During my internship, learning about exercise prescription in PM&R was really interesting too. Even though I’m not a particularly sporty person, it gave me another discipline where I could observe the body. Trying to dissect the mechanics of a movement and imagining what’s happening inside is really fascinating! Maybe that’s also why I eventually chose PM&R~ ...

ACSM isn’t very common in Taiwan, but it’s an internationally important certification, so if you study in English, there are a lot of resources! However, because time was limited, around the time I registered for the ACSM, I also signed up for the neurorehabilitation annual meeting, lower limb orthotics, dysphagia, and pediatric muscle spasticity courses (everyone crams these into April and May!). So, I moved forward with the goal of learning as quickly as possible. Here are the resources I used during my prep: ...

The ACSM exam is 135 multiple-choice questions. Overall, the questions are very flexible. There are very few rote memorization questions. Many questions don’t have a single correct answer, only a best answer. You have to rely on a thorough understanding of each topic to judge which is the best option. This post is mainly to let you understand the direction of the questions, and I’ll also provide a few questions I remember so you can see how flexible they are. ...

It took me 25 days from taking the course to taking the exam. I was taking other classes in between, so my actual time spent studying for the ACSM was about 10 days. Because I’d previously interned in physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R), I’d already picked up a lot of related knowledge, and I was very familiar with the anatomy and physiology. My prep time was probably on the shorter side, so you can adjust the time you need accordingly. ...