Health blog Category: Healthy Tips
Fall Into Winter Fitness Challenge Month #2
You made to the second month of our Fall Into Winter Fitness Challenge! Can you believe it’s already December? During this time of the year when the weather is chillier, cookie exchanges are more frequent, and the holiday festivities are in full swing, it can be tough to make your health and wellness a priority. It’s tempting to just say, ‘I’ll get back to the gym in 2016.’ LSTC is here to help!
Read full blogFall Into Winter Fitness Challenge: Week #2
Great job on completing Week #1 of our Fall Into Winter Fitness Challenge! Get set for a brand new exercise to incorporate into your workout regimen!
Need to catch up on week one? No problem! Watch our demo video HERE to see LSTC’s Kate Zanoni show you how to do Bent Over Rows properly.
JUST TO REVIEW: All month long, Loudoun Sports Therapy Center is putting you up to a ‘Fall Into Winter’ Fitness Challenge.
Fall Into Winter Fitness Challenge: Week #1
In the seasons of pumpkin spice everything, Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas cookie exchanges and snow days, it can be easy to let chillier weather push our fitness goals to the back burner. That’s where we’re stepping in. Starting in November, Loudoun Sports Therapy Center is putting you up to a ‘Fall Into Winter’ Fitness Challenge. You might already have some resolutions you plan on getting around to once 2016 hits. Let’s get a jump start! Our goal is to help you stay active during the Fall and Winter months, which can become a challenge as daylight fades into cold winter nights and holiday festivities (often involving unhealthy foods) take precedence over exercise.
Read full blogAre You Breathing Correctly? How To Correct Your Posture and Breathe Better
Do you have to deal with aches, pains, feeling stiff, headaches or just plain fatigue? Your breathing patterns may be to blame. Believe it or not, the stresses we feel during throughout the day can cause us to change our breathing patterns subconsciously. The normal responses to stress are a whole host of reactions. These include shallower but rapid breathing and increased blood pressure to name a few. This can lead to actual changes in blood chemistry and gets your body ready for a fight or flight response.
Read full blogNo Pain, No Gain Is Not Always the Best Policy: How to Protect Yourself from Acute and Overuse Injuries
The phrase, ‘no pain, no gain’ can certainly be motivating, but it isn’t always the best policy if you want to avoid acute and overuse injuries. As the weather begins to warm up, many people rush into doing some type of outdoor activity. It is important to know that if you’ve been sedentary during the cold winter and spring months, rushing into a sport can lead to serious injuries.
There are two types of injuries to be aware of when starting a new activity: acute and overuse. Acute injury is usually caused by a traumatic event. This could be spraining your ankle, dislocating your shoulder, or tearing a ligament in your knee. Overuse injuries are different. The most common cause of these is repetitive movement. Overtime, these can cause micro-tears or trauma to the tendons, bones, or ligaments. Have you ever heard of tennis elbow? That’s a common example of an overuse injury. Tennis elbow isn’t just caused by playing tennis. It can also occur when someone starts gardening after long winter months indoors or weekend athletes who work at a desk all week and are just getting back into softball and baseball on the weekends.
What is Foam Rolling and How Do Physical Therapists Use It?
By Devin Wurman, DPT
What is foam rolling and how do we use it in physical therapy? As physical therapists, we are always looking at new techniques and exercises to incorporate into our sessions with patients. We challenge and work their bodies so they become stronger, more flexible, and more mobile. Foam rolling is a technique many of my current and past patients have asked me about to see if it would benefit their particular condition.
Mobility and Stability: What’s the Difference and Which Comes First?
By Kristen Empson-Hayden, DPT
Mobility and stability: what’s the difference and which comes first? As physical therapists, we see this scenario play out all too often: You feel pain and stretching and strengthening you do is focused solely on that painful area. But this only solves part of the problem and does not address one missing aspect: the joints in our body have a relationship. They pick up the slack for each other when our mobility or stability is impacted in a particular area.
How to Cross Train if You’re a Performing Artist
We treat a wide range of performing artists at Loudoun Sports Therapy Center; from dancers to cheerleaders, from gymnasts to figure skaters. The demands placed on a performing artist require a large amount of strength, control, and endurance. In addition to the physical demands, there is also the artistic/aesthetic component that must be a primary focus. In traditional dance training, there is a strong emphasis on the artistic component rather than the physical conditioning. Both elements must be trained equally so that the performing artist is well-rounded and able to progress their training without injury.
Read full blogSuffering from Knee Pain? It Could be “Runner’s Knee”.
Are You Suffering From Runner’s Knee?
If you’ve experienced pain behind your kneecap or in the front of your knee, you may be suffering from patellofemoral pain syndrome or ‘Runner’s Knee’. ‘Runner’s Knee’ is often characterized by pain behind the knee (retropatellar pain), pain around the kneecap (peripatellar pain) or pain in the front of the knee (anterior knee pain). It is associated with activities that put stress on the knee joint, such as running, sports and recreational activities.
Limited Hip Mobility Can Cause Back Pain
Believe it or not, your hips play a large role in the health of your back and limited hip mobility can cause back pain. Do you have an aching back at the end of the day and wonder where the source of your pain is coming from? You are not alone! More than 80 percent of the population will suffer from back pain at least once in their life, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control.
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