Health blog
Avoiding Injuries on a Hike
It’s a beautiful time of year to be outside with the color change in the leaves, the vibrant blue sky, and the crisp autumn air. What better way to enjoy it than going for a hike!
Here are some tips for enjoying your outdoor adventure while also avoiding injury…Â
Wear good sneakers or hiking bootsÂ
- Protecting and supporting your feet can help reduce the risk of problems in your knees, hips and back tooÂ
- If your walking/hiking shoes or boots are a few years old and worn out, look at getting a new pairÂ
Pick your trail difficulty carefullyÂ
- Exploring a mountain trail can be exciting, but if you haven’t hiked in a while or are used to only walking on level/paved paths it can lead to injuries.
Say Goodbye to Hip Pain: Expert Physical Therapy Near Leesburg, VA
Hip pain can make everyday movements difficult, but you don’t have to live with discomfort. At Loudoun Sports Therapy Center, located in Sterling, VA, we help patients from Leesburg and nearby areas regain mobility and live pain-free through personalized physical therapy programs.
Common Causes of Hip Pain
Your hips carry your body through countless movements each day, making them susceptible to wear and tear.
Read full blogThe Effects of Poor Posture On Neck Muscles
Forward head posture is exactly what it sounds like. Your head starts to shift forward, instead of your head resting with your ears in line with the sides of your shoulders.
Posture plays a huge role in all of our activities and the increased use of cell phones, tablets and computers has made forward head posture a problem for many.
Over time, this can cause:
– Neck pain
– Decreased neck motion
– Shoulder pain
– Decreased shoulder motion
– Upper back pain
Why is forward head posture bad?
Read full blogThe Knee and Arthritis
Arthritis is a degenerative joint condition that occurs overtime. Our joints wear down over our lifetime, and the cartilage or cushioning layer on our bones disappears. When this layer is gone your bones begin to rub other bones. What you might not realize is that knee arthritis specifically, impacts every age group.
Knee Arthritis Symptoms:
- Pain and swelling inside the joint
- Stiffness not only in the joint but also in the surrounding muscles
- Loss of range of motion in your knees
- Bending and extending your knees becomes difficult
- Grinding and popping in your knee joint.
Physical Therapy vs Cortisone Injections
If you have ever had pain, then it is likely you have either been offered or received a corticosteroid (Cortisone) injection. It is something that is offered quite frequently in the orthopaedic realm. It is presented as something that can temporarily help with the pain, acting as a band aid for joint pain. There are also carrying timelines on how long the relief lasts. It can be anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.
Read full blogTreating the Pain in Your Feet
Have you ever hit your pinky toe off of the coffee table? Painful, right? Did you limp for a little while after so it would go away? We’ve all been there. But did you think about how limping would affect your ankle, your knee, your hip, or even your back if you hurt your foot? It’s a little frightening to think about how limping for a day or two could cause issues with additional structures.
Read full blogCore Strength Training
What Muscles Does Your Core Consist of?
Your core consists of more than just your abdominal muscles. Along with the abdominal muscles you have your lower back and deep lower back muscle and glute musculature. All of these muscles work together to give you your main foundation for stabilization and movement. The abdominals consist of 4 muscles; the rectus abdominis, internal and external obliques and the transverse abdominis which is one of the most important and least trained muscle in the abs.
Read full blogAchilles Tendinitis
The Achilles Tendon is the thick tendon at the back of the ankle. It is what connects the muscles of the calf, the gastroc and the soleus, to the heel. This tendon allows you to run, walk, jump, and change directions. Unfortunately this tendon can get injured fairly easily due to how many actions it performs every day. Achilles tendinitis is one of the most common injuries for both high school athletes and adults who are trying to get back into exercising.
Read full blogKnee Replacement Surgery in Northern Virginia
Knee replacement surgery in Northern Virginia is relatively common. A total knee replacement is when the surgeon cuts away the diseased and damaged components of the joint and replaces them with an artificial surface. The knee prosthesis is made up of metal and plastic components and usually comprises 3 components- tibial, femoral, and patellar. The picture below shows the tibial and femoral components. The patellar component is usually just a resurfacing of the underside of the patella.
Read full blogPhysical Therapy for Your Rotator Cuff
Rotator cuff tears are an extremely common injury issue with prevalence increasing with each decade of life. You probably know how common they are, and might even know people with this injury, or have even had one yourself. What you probably don’t know is that most of them are actually asymptomatic.
A research study done by Hirashima et al in 2013 looked at 664 participants with varying ages starting at 20 up to 90.
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