Health blog Category: Physical Therapy
How Stretching can Improve Our Health
There are several benefits to stretching, including; pain relief, increased flexibility, and functional improvement. Our bodies are incredibly interconnected. While some stretches may seem obvious (for example, stretching your back to relieve back pain), sometimes stretching certain parts of your body can provide relief in areas you may not have expected.
5 important benefits of stretching:
Stretching has a lot of benefits that we don’t always think about. The top 5 include:
- Relieving pain through targeted stretches.
Is Bending Your Knee Painful?
When your knee is painful, odds are good that you are not using it as designed. Which may result in loss of range of motion, strength, and stability. This in turn may also contribute to other problems associated with the way you choose to move differently to avoid pain. This increases stress on the other areas in our body. Persistent knee pain is something that you should not ignore.
Many people associate knee pain with the older population.
Read full blogHow to Treat A Herniated Disc
Do you experience achy or sharp radiating pain to your shoulder, arm, buttock or leg? This may be an indicator of a bulging or herniated disc in your neck or back.
Between each of the vertebrae that make up your spine are small cushions called discs. Herniated discs are more common in the 30-50 age bracket. A herniated disc is when the material inside the disc pushes outwards, irritating the nerve exiting at that level.
Hip Pain and Common Causes
Hip problems make doing our daily activities like walking difficult and painful. Anyone who has experienced hip problems, knows how it can affect our quality of life and stop us from doing what we love. It is important to know the common causes of hip pain to determine what treatment can be done.
What are the three most common causes of hip pain?
- Arthritis: Chronic hip pain is often due to arthritis, particularly osteoarthritis.
Common Sports Injuries
If you have ever played a sport, you have probably experienced some type of injury, whether it be a concussion or a broken foot. The most common sports injuries occur due to acute trauma or overuse of a joint. Acute trauma is an injury that occurs due to force from a fall or tackle. These types of injuries have immediate sharp pain and swelling, and usually lead to a trip to the emergency room.
What are the most common acute trauma injuries?
Strengthening Weak Shoulders
Repetitive overuse of muscles in your shoulders can lead to irritation of tendons. Some examples of common repetitive activities include:
- Gardening
- Yard work
- Throwing a baseball with your kids
- Carrying or lifting things
Shoulder irritation and discomfort can also be a result of falls, forceful contact with a person or object, or other sports related injuries.
Protecting and strengthening your shoulders:
- Keep your shoulder aligned: The number one reason for injury and pain in your shoulders is from poor posture.
Does Getting Older Mean We Can’t Exercise…
Statistics show that roughly about one third of people 65-years-old are physically active. That’s in contrast to the roughly 80 percent of the general population. As you age you may begin to think that your body won’t be able to handle exercising, and you may just stop exercising all together. The reality is, folks over the age of 65 should be doing 150 minutes of exercise each week, per the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Read full blogDon’t Let Your Hands Live in Discomfort
Inflammation, swelling, and other discomfort in your hands and wrists can make doing everyday things not only difficult, but painful. Your hands are required for everything you do; cooking, cleaning, writing, typing, grabbing things, and the list goes on. At Loudoun Sports Therapy Center there are a couple of things we often see in hands and wrists.
Here are the three common issues we see:
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: This syndrome is a result of the compression of a nerve as it goes through the wrist.
Prevent Falling with Physical Therapy
Falls happen more often than you may think. In fact, more than one third of adults 65 and older fall each year. Thankfully, more often than not, these falls don’t result in serious injury. But, if you experience any symptoms or the reason that caused you to fall in the first place are not recognized or treated, there is a much greater chance of future falls and more serious injury.
As you age, your bones are more prone to fractures or breaks.
How to Solve Hip Problems
Many people in all age groups have experienced hip pain at one point or another. Hip pain can result from weakness in the joint, injury from sports, or when the joint becomes irritated. There are many different types of hip problems that can arise. Injuries range from bursitis to fractures to replacements. Some hip problems happen to healthy joints, while others occur in the elderly due to osteoporosis or because of congenital deformities.
Common Hip Problems
- Bursitis: Hip bursitis is a common problem that occurs when the fluid around the joint becomes irritated. The most common complaint is pain on the outside of the upper thigh that may radiate down the side of the leg.
