Health blog Category: Loudoun Sports Therapy Center
What is Dry Needling?
Dry needling is a buzzword right now and is likely one you have heard thrown around by your doctor or friends currently receiving physical therapy treatment. A lot of people think of acupuncture when they first hear about dry needling. They use similar needles, but the similarities start and finish there.
Thin microfilament needles are used to penetrate skin and subcutaneous tissue to address the underlying tissue directly. In most cases, the needle will be inserted into a trigger point in a muscle.
Read full blogSeasonal Injuries for Fall or Winter
With the gorgeous seasons comes seasonal injuries, due to outdoor responsibilities like:
- Raking leaves
- Bagging leaves
- Shoveling snow
- Cleaning snow off our vehicles
How often have you or someone you care about moved the wrong way or lifted something and all of the sudden had significant back pain that was never there before?
Many people have a tendency to push things like this aside until they negatively affect our activities of daily living.
Read full blogWhat Activities Cause Elbow Injuries?
Elbow injuries are a common thing we see in the clinic. It can be caused by many activities but most of the time it is from doing repetitive movements or by suddenly stressing the elbow joint. Often, elbow pain is ignored with the thought that it will just go away with time. However, this will cause the pain and injury to flare up and could prolong your recovery time.
There are many injuries that could be causing you to feel pain in your elbow.
Read full blogWhat is Ergonomics?
To start, Ergonomics is the study of individuals in their workplace in which workplaces are designed to fit individuals who use them. This aims to improve the environment to minimize the risk of injury.
Since the pandemic, many more individuals around the world began working from home and at desks/computers not realizing they have been sitting in a poor position for several hours a day and multiple days a week. Walking around and standing up in a typical office setting has decreased due to being in the comfort of our homes.
Read full blogLow Back Pain and Radiating Symptoms
Many people suffer from low back pain of varying levels and usually don’t take measures to resolve or work on it until the pain becomes debilitating on some level to where it becomes limiting in day to day activities.
There is also a common theme in today’s society where people feel going online and doing just a few minutes researching a topic; all of the sudden have gained enough knowledge about a that topic to be able to treat it.
Read full blogHealing Our Heel Pain
The heel, also known as the calcaneus, is located on the bottom of the foot directly below the ankle joint. The heel bone has many muscles and ligaments attached to it. When injuries or irritation occur to the attached muscles or ligaments, it can create pain in the heel. This pain can lead to many other additional issues in your daily life.
The pain can be described as:
- Tight
- Spasm
- Burning
- Numbness
- Tingling
- Dull
- Achy
- Sharp
Why Does Heel Pain Occur?
Read full blogRehabilitation vs. Surgery: Rotator Cuff Tears
Regardless of the time of year, we see plenty of patients complaining of shoulder pain. Most shoulder pain occurs following repetitive movements. These movements cause wear and tear that breaks down the rotator cuff tendons.
What Is The Rotator Cuff?
The rotator cuff is made up of four small muscles that control movement and provide stability of the shoulder joint. Collectively, these muscles are referred to as the ‘rotator cuff’.
Read full blogShoulder Tendonitis Defined
Shoulder tendonitis is a very common problem for every age group and one we treat often at Loudoun Sports Therapy Center. Tendonitis is inflammation of the tendon that attaches the muscle to the bone. With respect to the shoulder, the muscles that are most frequently inflamed are your rotator cuff and bicep tendon. Our patients will typically complain about pain along the front of the shoulder. Patients often complaint of pain with overhead activities, lifting items, reaching behind their back or pain when washing their hair.
Read full blogWhy the Spine Needs Discs
What are they and why do we need them?
To start, let’s talk about what these discs are. You may have heard the analogy that the discs in your back are like a jelly doughnut. The disc should be filled with fluid kind of like the strawberry jelly in one of these treats. The outer lining of the disc is made of up rings and then in the center, there is a jelly-like fluid.
Read full blogWhat is the most underrated form of physical activity? Walking!
Definitions:
- Physical Activity: any movement that’s carried out by muscles, thus requiring energy
- E.g. walking from the front door of your house to the mailbox at the end of your driveway
- Exercise: planned, structured, and repetitive movement intended to improve or maintain health/fitness.
- E.g. Taking a ¼ mile walk around a track because you want to get your heart rate up
Benefits of Walking:
- Gentle mobility for the lumbar spine (low back): the rotational movement at your trunk keeps the joints in your back lubricated
- Bone Loading: when taking a step, we put force into the ground and the ground puts force back into us (if it didn’t exert force back into us, our feet would be sinking).