Health blog Category: strength
Solution to that Back Strain
Are you feeling:
- Pain across the low back into the buttock and hip area
- Stiffness and limit motion
- Swelling
- Inability to maintain positions
- Muscle spasms
If you are experiencing any of these symptoms you may be dealing with a lumbar strain. A lumbar strain is when the muscles or tendons in the back get overstretched or tear. Microscopic tearing can occur suddenly due to injury or develop overtime. Strains are classified into varying degrees based on the severity of the injury.
Read full blogLow Back Pain & Core Strength
There are many people today who suffer from general lower back aches and pain of no known cause or injury. The likely culprit would point to poor postural awareness and poor abdominal or core strength.
We are presented throughout our day with various different postures with sitting and standing being the most problematic. We are required to hold and maintain these postures for long periods of time. Over the course of this time our body and muscles that support these postures begin to fatigue and we start to take on a more slouched posture.
Keeping up with Home Exercise Programs
Bodily maintenance is important for you whether you’ve finished a course of physical therapy, or you’re currently attending physical therapy.
It is important to continue at home exercises to reach the goals you have set for yourself and maintain the strength you have gained. Now is a good time to make time everyday to do some exercises from your HEP to maintain strength that you have built up.
What is Your HEP?
Read full blogTried and True Solution to Back Issues
Back issues often start when we feel that we have done too much, then later on or the next day we experience some aches or muscle soreness. While the discomfort usually goes away in a day or two, your body is telling you that there was straining and microscopic tearing of muscle tissue, causing inflammation. Microscopic tears and inflammation if allowed to occur repetitively can result in the potential for long term problems in the future.
Read full blogSitting is the New Smoking: How Physical Therapy Combats the Negative Effects
We all know that smoking is bad for our health for a variety of reasons, but sitting can be every bit as dangerous to our long-term health. While many office workers strive long and hard to obtain a job that is “better” than damaging your body through strenuous hard labor, desk jobs may actually be worse for your body than being on your feet! Everything from obesity and metabolic syndrome to high blood sugar, abnormal cholesterol levels and even cancer have been linked to an excess of time spent on our rumps.
Read full blogGet Rid of That Creeping Back Pain
Back pain can creep up on us after simply sitting too frequently and for long periods of time, after a bad night’s sleep, after strenuous activity such as repeated lifting, or after participating in leisurely sports. This could even prevent us from standing straight, and bending over to tie our shoes or do the laundry.
Signs and symptoms:
- Muscle ache
- Shooting or stabbing pain
- Pain that radiates down your leg
- Pain that worsens with bending, lifting, standing or walking
- Pain that improves with reclining
Some common causes:
- Muscle or Ligament Strain/Sprain
- Bulging or Ruptured Disc- (compression of the intervertebral discs resulting in bulge outward (herniation) or rupture
- Radiculopathy- compression, inflammation and/or injury to a spinal nerve root
- Arthritis
- Skeletal Injuries/Deformities
Why You Should Address Back Pain Right Away:
It is important to address the cause of your back pain when it starts.
Read full blogBalance Issues Occur in Both Older and Younger Populations
Balance issues occur in anyone, regardless of age. However, the cause of balance issues and how to treat them differ in older and younger populations.
We all have three systems that all work together to ensure we have good balance.
- We have our balance organ, which is our vestibular system in the inner ear.
- We have our leg strength.
- We also have our visual component which we rely heavily on when something else is not working properly.
How Physical Therapy Can Correct Muscle Imbalances
Many people still believe that physical therapy is only needed for rehabilitation after injury, accidents, or surgery. In reality, almost everyone can benefit from physical therapy to prevent minor recurring aches and pains or subtle losses of flexibility from becoming debilitating health issues. Physical therapists can help because many of our aches and pains are caused by muscle imbalances. This is true whether we are couch potatoes, dedicated fitness enthusiasts or athletes.
Read full blogIt’s Not Just Our Posture That’s Affecting Our Neck
With the high prevalence of desk jobs, everyday cell phone and computer use, as well as ample time spent relaxing in front of your TV; your posture certainly suffers more often than you realize. Over time, these repetitive tasks put you into a position called forward head posture, in which your head and neck protrude forward into a flexed position.
Neck problems, neck spasms and general neck pain are common complaints in the orthopedic rehab world, and we’ve certainly treated our share of patients who suffer from various conditions related to neck pain at LSTC.
“Living With” Low Back Problems
Many of us think low back problems are just something we have to “live with” so we try to push through the pain. However, physical therapy can be extremely beneficial for resolving our lower back pain thus greatly improving our quality of life.
When it comes to this condition, the number one complaint is pain and stiffness which gets worse when you stand, walk or are in one position for a prolonged period of time.