Health blog Category: sports medicine
Why even younger populations might be having this kind of discomfort
By: Kieran Loving, ATC
What in the world is an SI joint? Why is it even important? When I worked in a high school, many young athletes would complain about lower back pain or symptoms that radiate down there legs. They’re young, they can’t have low back problems can they? They’re in peak physical condition able to practice and do activities for hours a day! So why were they coming into the athletic training room with lower back issues.
What Makes Up a Proper Warm-Up?
Do you know what constitutes a complete warm-up? Too often, sports-related injuries occur and could have been easily prevented had the athlete thoroughly prepared their body for practices and games. So what is an appropriate warm-up? The warm-up, which typically lasts between 10-15 minutes, feeds the body. Whether it’s a run, a jog, a swim or a brisk walk, the change in activity does several things:
- It increased the blood supply to the muscles
- It increases the heart rate
- It begins to produce more lubrication for the smooth joint motion
Now that the body is warm, the next step is to thoroughly stretch.
Read full blogProgression of a Disc Issue in the Spine
There are many things that can go wrong with a disc in your spine. You may have heard the terms degenerated, bulging, herniated, ruptured, slipped and many more. These are basically all describing the same thing just a slightly different progression in each case.
A disc that is irritated or has some abnormal pressure on it may be termed a “slipped disc”. What this means is that the surrounding muscles have not done a good job supporting the spine and maintaining proper alignment of your spine and as a result, the increased pressure on the disc or discs from the surrounding muscles has allowed the disc to start to lose its shape and/or potentially move slightly to one side.
What is the Job of the Rotator Cuff?
What Does a Rotator Cuff Problem Feel Like?
If you have ever had:
- pain
- soreness
- stiffness
- pinching
- cracking
- popping
in your shoulder or in your upper arm, you most likely have had a rotator cuff problem.
If you have ever felt:
- stiffness
- difficulty moving one arm as far as the other
- weakness in your shoulder or arm
you have had a rotator cuff problem.
Read full blogThe Importance of Addressing Mobility and Stability
As physical therapists, we see this scenario play out all too often: you feel pain and the stretching and strengthening you do is focused solely on that painful area. However, this only solves part of the problem and does not address a key fact: the joints in our body have a relationship. They pick up the slack for each other when our mobility or stability is impacted in a particular area.
Here’s an example of how this plays out.
Tennis, Golf and Other Activities Requiring Repetitive Motions
Many people have heard and will use terms like “tennis elbow” and “golfer’s elbow” but what exactly is the difference?
Not much really….Tennis Elbow and Golfer’s Elbow are both overuse injuries that are caused by any activity that requires repetitive motion of the arm and wrist. The difference between the two conditions lies in where the elbow is inflamed.
Both of these conditions are forms or epicondylitis, which is a medical term for inflammation of a tendon that attaches to bone (Epicondyle) of the elbow joint.
Discomfort reaching, typing or driving?
By Rachel Herrmann, DPT
The shoulder is a complex region of the body made up of three joints, four muscles of the rotator cuff and over 10 other muscles that attach around the bones/joints that make up the shoulder. This means there has to be a lot of body parts in good working condition in order to have a healthy and happy shoulder.
One common shoulder issue is called impingement. This is when the muscles of the 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.
Inflammation, Swelling or Weakness in the Upper Body?
Shoulder pain is one of the most common problems we among patients in physical therapy. It’s not just athletes like baseball players or swimmer either; we treat patients of all ages for shoulder problems. This condition can be the result of repetitive overuse of muscles in the shoulder, poor posture or traumatic injury to the shoulder.
Repetitive overuse of muscles can lead to tendinopathy or irritation of the tendons that attach at the shoulder.
Discomfort or Difficulty Reaching Up to Grab Dishes
You’ve probably just spend the past month or so sprucing up your garden, putting mulch out around your home, and/or performing other projects while the weather was a bit more tolerable. Now it’s summer, and you get to look at all of the sweat equity that you just finished putting in. You may also notice that your shoulder is talking to you.
It’s pretty common that different joints become sore after repetitive use over a short period of time. The shoulder is no exception. Your shoulder is a joint that is very mobile and is made up of multiple muscles which attach to the bones via tendons. Those muscles and tendons, the rotator cuff, are notorious for getting inflamed and becoming painful with overuse. In addition, as we get older, usually in our 50’s and 60’s, it is common to find arthritis in the joint. This is just from “wear and tear” over time. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Is it painful to reach overhead into the kitchen cabinet or to change a light bulb?
Discomfort sitting, standing or exercising?
By Kate Zanoni, LPTA
If you’ve experienced pain behind your kneecap or in the front of your knee, you may be suffering from patellofemoral pain syndrome or ‘Runner’s Knee.’ Runner’s knee is often characterized by pain behind the knee (retropatellar pain), pain around the kneecap (peripatellar pain) or pain in the front of the knee (anterior knee pain). It is associated with activities that put stress on the knee joint, such as running, sports and recreational activities.
