Health blog
Plantar Fasciitis: A Common Foot Problem
Ouch! If you’ve ever had plantar fasciitis, you know just how excruciating those first few steps are when you get out of bed in the morning. It can feel like you’re stepping on a knife as the tight connective tissue on the bottom of your foot stretches out. As someone who has had a recurrence of plantar fasciitis over the years, beginning in high school, I can tell you first hand just how painfully necessary it is to address the underlying cause to avoid flare-ups.
Read full blogRotator Cuff Strains: Causes, Symptoms, and Effective Treatments for Quick Recovery
The rotator cuff is a group of muscles that help stabilize our shoulder within it’s socket as we do overhead movements. There are four muscles that make up the rotator cuff, each muscle has a different action and all must be equally strong and flexible in order to avoid a number of different shoulder injuries.
Shoulder Injuries
Rotator cuff strains are common in professions that require a lot of repetitive overhead movements and rotator cuff tears are common in sport athletes who participate in overhead motions for example baseball, tennis, and basketball.
Read full blogFrom Tee to Treatment: Physical Therapy for Golf Injury Recovery
Golf is a sport that requires complete full body movements that are not always the same for the average golfer. With a golf swing you will use everything from lower body movement up to mild rotation of the neck. If you have any imbalances throughout the body whether it’s involving strength differences or mobility impairments it can start to affect other areas of the body to try and compensate for these imbalances.
Some common injuries that arise with golfer are:
- Lower back pain
- Rotator cuff injury
- Medial epicondylitis (golfer’s elbow)
- Wrist injuries
- Knee injuries
Why Do Injuries Occur?
Physical Therapy’s Role in Total Knee Replacement Recovery
Both pre- and post- op physical therapy treatment are crucial for a smooth and fully recovery of a total knee replacement.
Preoperative Treatment
Preoperative treatment has been shown to reduce the recovery time of those undergoing a total knee replacement. Here are some things to expect:
- Knee flexion range of motion (ROM) improved at 3 months postop.
- Knee extensions ROM improved at 1 to 3 months postop.
What Makes this Joint Pop, Snap, and Crackle?
If you hear or feel your joints pop, snap, or crackle, this could be a sign of patellofemoral pain.
What exactly is patellofemoral pain?
Patellofemoral pain is a general term used to describe pain that resides in the front of the knee and around the kneecap. Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome, PFPS, is also known as both runners’ and jumpers’ knee due to the type of athletes who commonly complain of the problem.
Read full blogSitting for Several Hours Each Day?
Neck pain is a common complaint that we see in physical therapy. Our posture as a society has continued to decline with the increased use of phones and computers. Poor posture when sitting or standing can lead to many neck injuries that can be addressed with physical therapy.
Common Neck Injuries:
Cervical radiculopathy is a term that means radiating pain down into your arms/hands or upper back. This is due to nerve compression in the neck.
Read full blogThe Importance Of Core Strength
When most people think of the core, they think of the abdominals and doing sit-ups and generally know that one needs to have good core strength. Beyond that, most people don’t know much else about the core.
So what are the core muscles and what do they really do?
The core muscles consist of the muscles surrounding and providing stability and postural control to the torso, abdomen and pelvis.
Read full blogCauses of Shoulder Discomfort
Shoulder injuries are one of the most common injuries. Injury or overuse are the most common causes of shoulder discomfort. Some of the most common ailments related to the shoulder include tight/overworked muscles, tendonitis, impingement, and joint stiffness. These not only may cause pain, it may also cause weakness, and limit your ability to drive, prepare your evening dinners, reach into your overhead cabinets and other everyday activities.
Common Causes of Shoulder Injury
- Traumatic injury/dislocation
- Weak muscles
- Repetitive movement
- Poor shoulder mechanics
- Post Surgery
Shoulder pain and discomfort can present itself in many different ways.
Read full blogElbow, Achilles, and Rotator Cuff Tendonitis
Tendonitis can be summarized as inflammation or irritation of the tendon. A tendon is a thick cord like structure that connects muscle to bone. All throughout our body, we have muscles that are attached to bones by tendons, which is why so many people suffer from tendonitis somewhere in their body. Some of the most common types of Tendonitis are; Elbow, Achilles, and Rotator Cuff Tendonitis.
Tendonitis is a result of small micro-tears in the soft tissue.
Read full blogPhysical Therapy Before Surgery
Facing the prospect of joint replacement surgery can be daunting. Attending physical therapy before surgery (pre-operative physical therapy) is the key to a smoother recovery.
You might be asking, “Don’t I do therapy after surgery?” Actually, pre-operative therapy plays a crucial role too.
Why is Physical Therapy Before Surgery Important?
Pre-operative physical therapy prepares you physically and mentally for surgery.
During these sessions you will:
- Learn what to expect and what will happen in therapy after surgery.