Health blog Category: knee pain
Looking to Run a 5K This Year?
Looking to run a 5K this year? As the New Year continues, keep your fitness goals strong with a fitness revolution. Below, we’ve outlined a Couch to 5k running program that incrementally increases mileage over time, allowing your body to properly adjust to additional activity. It’s vital to start slowly and build your mileage over time to avoid injury. All too often, people begin running too many miles too quickly and injure themselves as a result.
Read full blogExperiencing weakness, limited range of motion or pain in the knees?
Knee Arthritis is a very common condition that we treat here at Loudoun Sports Therapy. Arthritis in this joint actually impacts every age group. Even younger athletes deal with arthritis. Arthritis is the break down of the cartilage between the bones in a joint.
Given how much wear and tear our knee joints undergo throughout our lifetimes, it might not surprise you that arthritis is most common in these joints. Knee arthritis can cause a lot of problems such as pain, limited range of motion, weakness, swelling and difficulty performing daily and functional activities.
Avoiding high impact activities because of joint discomfort
Knee injuries are one of the most common injuries that we see in physical therapy, whether it is sports related or just degenerative changes that occur as we age. Some of the most common injuries are sprains and strains, osteoarthritis, ligament injuries and meniscus injuries. All of these cause pain, weakness and a decrease in functional activities.
Ligament injuries more commonly occur with the more active patient population. Sports such as soccer and basketball that involve jumping, planting of the leg or a change in direction can cause ACL tears.
Read full blogEver slipped or changed directions suddenly?
By: Jeremy Schain PT, DPT, CSCS
Do you ever find yourself limping through the last few aisles of the grocery store? Or maybe you pass up a golf trip with friends for fear of having to quit before the eighteenth hole? Do your first few steps out of bed in the morning cause you to grimace in discomfort? Knee pain can affect the lives of people of all ages, inhibiting both routine daily function and the ability to exercise.
How the body needs to work to walk properly
By: Mike Bills, MS PT
Walking is something that we all do everyday whether that be to simply get from one point to another or for exercise or for relaxation. Because walking is such a necessary part of daily life, it’s important to understand what should and should not be happening when we walk is important to help us live a safe and healthy lifestyle. When you walk there are many major parts of your body that need to be working properly together to ensure that the activity of walking is efficient, safe, and beneficial.
Let’s start with your legs.
Ever Walked with a Limp or on Your Toes Because of Knee Pain?
Knee issues can begin for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, knee pain can be attributed to a specific incident like a fall or an injury while playing sports. Knee problems can begin when you take a wrong step as you are run or walk. A knee issue could start after you walk us more stairs one day than you normally do or just by stepping down awkwardly from just one or two steps. Sometimes knee pain just occurs for no apparent reason.
Read full blogJoint stiffness making daily activities difficult
By Devin Wurman, DPT
We’ve had many patients coming in and complaining about their joints being stiff and sore. That’s folks being treated for arthritis and patients coming here for something else. Temperature and humidity changes can certainly cause joint pain, a prime symptom of arthritis.
So what exactly is arthritis?
What happens with arthritis is that the joint begins to wear down. In normal joints, there is a material that covers the bone called cartilage.
Need Some Convincing to Start Running? Here are 10 Reasons
Whether you are pounding the pavement for a short jog or you’re a routine racer, running is great cardiovascular training. It is a gratifying way to maintain overall fitness. Although the act of running itself may initially seem daunting if you’re not an avid runner, you will reap the physical benefits within a few weeks. The key is to start slowly and add distance incrementally to decrease the risk of injury.
Here are the top 10 health benefits of running:
- Improve Longevity: Running 1.5 – 2 hours 20- 30 minutes per week can increase your lifespan by 5-6 years!
Hate using stairs because of joint discomfort?
By Cierra Washington, ATC
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, also known as the patella. 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. Based on the nicknames of PFPS, most people tend to believe that it can only occur in athletes or those who participate in high intensity sports, however it can also occur in the older and more sedentary populations.
Nagging, Noisy Knee Pain
When knee pain starts, that’s when we start to notice and appreciate how big of a role our knees play in our day-to-day activities and the things we do for fun. Going up and down stairs becomes a dreaded part of the day. Getting on and off the floor when playing with our children is no longer an easy task. And we start to think twice before squatting down to get something off the floor or out from a lower cabinet.
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