Health blog Category: physical therapy
Five Signs Your Body Isn’t Functioning Properly
The human body is a marvel of biology and genetics. It is capable of accomplishing tasks ranging from building massive structures to running a marathon. When it’s working at peak efficiency, few animals on Earth can compete with the grace and power of the human body. Unfortunately, there are times when everything just doesn’t come together.
If you feel like your body isn’t functioning optimally, here are 5 signs to look for:
Excess Fatigue
When it comes to ensuring that your body is functioning optimally, few things are as important as receiving adequate rest.
Read full blogFoot and Ankle Mechanics
The foot and ankle complex are one of the most important structures in our body. Our ankle and foot together provide a main weight bearing joint that supports your body weight, absorbs shock, and provides stability to your body. The foot and ankle complex is made up of:
- 28 bones, 33 joints
- 112 ligaments
Controlled by:
- 13 extrinsic muscles
- 21 intrinsic muscles
The extrinsic muscles are primarily comprised of the muscles starting from the lower leg that cross over the ankle joint and are responsible for ankle movements such as pointing your foot.
Read full blogHow to Prevent Injuries When Running
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
- Burn Fat
- Reduce Your Cancer Risk
- Strengthen Your Core
- Improve Your Sleep
- Reduce Your Risk of Osteoporosis
- Boost Your Mood
- Reduce Your Risk of Diabetes
- Reduce Your Risk of Blood Pressure and Heart Disease
- Boost Your Immunity
Preventing Injury: Running Ritual Musts and the Importance of Stretching
These tips are essential for optimizing your running dexterity, whether you’re an indoor treadmill devotee, an outdoor roadrunner or a trail running enthusiast.
Feel a Pinching Sensation in Our Shoulder…
One common shoulder issue we may have experienced is called impingement. This is when the muscles of our rotator cuff become subjected to repeated pinching in between the rounded head of the humerus bone and the acromion process, a bony prominence from the shoulder blade that forms a roof over top of the ball and socket joint. Initially, this pinching may only be a discomfort or may not even produce pain, but with repetition, our rotator cuff muscles will become inflamed.
Read full blogGet Rid of Headaches Without Medication!
If you have experienced ongoing or recurring headaches more often than not, you have probably taken aspirin or any other over-the-counter medication to “relieve” the symptoms. However, this is only a temporary fix. It is creating a false release of the muscles and thus a temporary release of the muscle tension and pressure.
The problem with headaches is that typically, the small muscles in our neck and those covering our skull have gotten into a more permanent state of tightness and pressure.
Read full blogRelieving Joint Stiffness
Joint stiffness may be just a nuisance at first, but if left untreated it can begin to affect your daily activities such as reaching up into the cabinets or squatting down to pick up something off the floor. The scary thing is it can creep up on you slowly and you don’t even realize you are now using your left arm to do tasks that you’ve used your right arm for your entire life or you are asking your kids to pick up the grocery bag from the ground because its too hard to squat down.
Read full blogAre Your Hips Making Everyday Life Hard?
You may have experienced stiffness in or around your hips or even your lower back. These issues create difficulty moving the joint and cause generalized weakness in the affected leg. Having pain or stiffness in your hip can cause difficulty with the following functional activities:
- Walking
- Going up and down stairs
- Squatting
- Standing up from a chair
- Standing for prolonged periods of time
When there is significant stiffness in your hip, you may also start to experience trouble completing tasks such as sitting with your legs crossed, putting on your shoes and socks and getting in and out of the car.
Read full blogHow to Cure Shoulder Discomfort
If you have shoulder impingement some discomfort you may experience include:
- Restricted ranges of motion
- Muscle weakness
- Pain when raising your arms, sleeping, or with overhead movements.
It is important to get this condition treated as soon as possible when symptoms are present, to avoid more significant injuries such as rotator cuff tears.
Shoulder impingement syndrome is a condition that occurs when the rotator-cuff tendons, ligaments, and bursa in the shoulder are pinched or compressed, resulting in pain and impaired movements.
How shoulder impingement occurs:
- Repetitive overhead movements, such as golfing, throwing, or swimming, or frequent overhead reaching and lifting
- Should injuries such as a fall or contact injury
- Poor posture and muscular weakness
- Joint tightness or structural abnormalities
- Osteoarthritis
Physical therapy is a great way to address these impairments and restore function if you suffer from shoulder impingement.
Ways that physical therapy can help with shoulder discomfort:
- Pain management
- Manual Therapy
- These techniques may include joint mobilizations, soft tissue massage, passive range-of-motion, and stretching.
- Range of Motion Exercises
- Strengthening Exercises
- Patient Education
- Patients will be educated on proper posture and mechanics that will decrease shoulder impingement.
- Function
- Patients will be educated and instructed on proper mechanics of specific functional activities such as throwing of lifting an object on a shelf.
Do not wait until your shoulder problems get worse to get treated.
Read full blogLow Back Pain and How it Affects Us
Low back pain is very prevalent in our society and can greatly limit our ability to carry out daily tasks. Many of us have complained at one point or another about stiffness, or radiating pain in to the buttock/legs or into the mid back. These are both indicators of low back pain affecting us.
The pain can range anywhere from a mild nagging pain to a severe pain that will greatly limit your mobility.
Identifying Hamstring Injuries
The most common form of hamstring injury is a muscle strain. This is a stretching and sometimes even tearing of your muscle or tendon. Symptoms you could experience with a muscle strain include pain, swelling, muscle spasms, tenderness, and restricted range of motion. The length of time for your muscle to heal is dependent on the severity of the strain and the treatment process. As with any injury, the sooner treatment starts, the better the results will be.
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