Health blog Category: Physical Therapy
Why Do Our Knees Pop and Crackle?
Knee noise in the form of a crack, click, or pop is very common. It may be caused by simple soft tissue catching or by more serious damage to the bearing surface of the joint: the articular cartilage.
No worries: Painless clicks & pops
The rice crispy noises coming from your knee is common and this is called crepitus. Sometimes the noise is due to tiny air bubbles inside the joint fluid, which build up with changes in joint pressure.
Read full blogAnkle Sprains
Ankle sprains are a common injury for people. Ankle sprains are when your ankle “rolls” either in or out and causes the ligaments in your joint to stretch. The most common ankle sprain is when your foot rolls inward and you have pain on the outside of your ankle. This can happen from playing sports, or just stepping off a curb wrong. If not treated properly you can have chronic problems with your ankle such as:
- Decreased rain of motion
- Recurring ankle sprains
- Pain
When ankle sprains first happen you might experience any of the following signs or symptoms:
- Swelling
- Bruising
- Tenderness in or around the ankle
- Limited range of motion
- Inability to bear weight
- Pain with ankle or toe movement
To help with the initial pain of the ankle sprains:
- Elevate your ankle
- Ice your ankle as soon as you can for no more than 20 minutes
- Wrap your ankle with an ACE or compression wrap to help reduce some of the swelling
You should consult a medical profession to make sure your ankle injury not anything more serious and to help get you back to your favorite activities.
Read full blogTendonitis vs Bursitis
Tendinopathy is a common issue with physically active individuals. Tendinopathy is a generic term for conditions that deal with overuse injuries with a tendon (tendonitis/tendinosis). A tendon is end of a muscle usually were stress is usually concentrated.
Tendinopathy signs and symptoms usually include:
- Pain during or after exercise
- Reduced exercise tolerance
- Usually the pain worsens as time goes on without physical therapy.
The most common places to have this issue are in the shoulder, elbow, knee, Achilles tendon and gluteal tendons.
Bursitis is the irritation of fluid filled sacs in our body called bursaes.
Read full blogSciatica – A True Pain in the Butt
WHAT IS SCIATICA?
Sciatica is the inflammation of a nerve that travels from the back down to the foot. This means, sciatica can cause pain in your back, buttocks, hamstring, calf, shin, or foot depending on where the nerve is irritated.
It can also be a referred pain from spinal levels L4-S2 sending pain signals to the body parts that they innervate in the regions as listed above.
Read full blogWhat to Expect for Post-op Physical Therapy
After you have any type of surgery, chances are you will be referred to physical therapy for post-op treatment to restore your range of motion, strength and get back to the things you love!
Depending on your age, surgery and many other factors your physical therapy may be different. Meaning, you may need to spend a night or two in the hospital after surgery so the staff can keep an eye on you if there are possibilities of complications or infection.
Read full blogWhat to Expect for Pre-op Physical Therapy
Pre-op or what is also known as “prehab”, can be seen a couple of different ways. This can be before surgery is even scheduled to see if the help of physical therapy and exercise can reduce your risk of needing surgery or it can be a few weeks or days before your scheduled surgery to provide exercises to do leading up to the big day.
No matter what kind of prehab you have, going to these appointments is more important than you think!
Read full blogStrengthening the Foot and Ankle
Strengthening the Foot and Ankle: Ankle and foot strengthening is very important in preventing all sorts of injuries including plantar fasciitis, ankle sprains and tendinopathy. Here are some basic exercises to help:
Toe Raises: Standing or sitting with your feet shoulder distance apart, try lifting your toes up off the ground, and slow and controlled come down.
Heel Raises: Standing or sitting with your feet shoulder distance apart, go up and down onto your toes and come down slow and controlled.
Scoliosis
What is Scoliosis?
Scoliosis in layman’s terms is the abnormal sideways curvature or rotation of the spine. Any curve, lateral or rotational greater than 10 degrees is considered Scoliosis. As the curve progresses to 20 degrees or beyond, there is an increased chance that the person or an observer, such as a parent or teacher, might notice abnormalities such as clothes hanging unevenly or the body tilting to one side. For The anatomy of the spine has “normal” curves in different regions to allow for proper movement mechanics and the absorption of force, however once those curves become excessive and/or create pain in additional areas it becomes an anatomical concern.
Read full blogWhat is a Fracture?
Simply put, a fracture is the medical term for a break in a bone within the body. There are many different classifications of a fracture and each one has its own characteristics and healing time. Being told that you have a fracture can be a scary thing, but knowledge is power! Read below to learn about the different types of fractures and what to expect as you recover.
Types of fractures:
Overall classification of break
- Displaced: Bone breaks and moves out of place
- Non-Displaced: Bone breaks but does not move out of place
- Closed: Bone does not break through the skin
- Open: Bone breaks through the skin
Patterns of fractures:
Ways in which the bone can break
- Avulsion: A piece of bone breaks off
- Comminuted: Bone breaks into many pieces
- Greenstick: the bone bends but does not break completely (common in children)
- Spiral: The bone was twisted to create the break
- Stress: A small fracture in the bone (hairline)
How long will it take to heal?
Read full blogWhat are Shin Splints?
“Shin Splints” is a term used for pain in the front of your shins, mostly from overuse in runners, jumpers, or hikers. The pain runs along the tibia (lower leg bone) where the muscles insert. The 2 most common muscles involved in shin splints are the tibialis anterior and the tibialis posterior. Tibialis posterior acts to move your foot inward, and brings your toes away from your nose.
What Causes Shin Splints?
Shin Splints can be caused by several different things including:
- Overtraining
- Increasing mileage or pace too quickly
- Not varying mileage, pace, or surface on which you are running
- Poor Footwear
- Shoes that are worn out
- Incorrect shoes for your type of foot
- Shoes with poor shock absorption
- Poor running mechanics
- Lack of hip strength
- Excessive pronation or supination at the foot
- lack of ankle strength
- Tightness in the calf or hamstring
- Excessive stride length
