Health blog Category: strengthening
What Are You Doing to Prevent Fall Sports Injuries?
The leaves turning and the cooling of the air brings back the clatter of football and the squeak of sneakers on a basketball court. Along with a return to these dynamic sports subsequently has an uptick in ankle and knee injuries. Let’s talk about how to prevent these injuries!
One of the best things to do for injury prevention is to have a well balanced, dynamic routine for stretching and strengthening to prevent those injuries to our athletes.
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 blogStrengthening the Foot and Ankle
Strengthening the Foot and Ankle: Ankle and foot strengthening is very important in preventing all sorts of injuries including plantar fasciitis, ankle sprains and tendinopathy. Here are some basic exercises to help:
Toe Raises: Standing or sitting with your feet shoulder distance apart, try lifting your toes up off the ground, and slow and controlled come down.
Heel Raises: Standing or sitting with your feet shoulder distance apart, go up and down onto your toes and come down slow and controlled.
Shoulder Fractures
Fractures at the top part of the shoulder are very common.
The risk of fracturing the shoulder increases with age for various reasons:
- Increase in balance issues with age
- More common to have osteoporosis
- Lack of physical activity leading to weaker muscles in the winter
- Increased number of people over the age of 65 with osteoporosis
How do the above lead to more fractures?
The more inactive you are, the weaker your muscles become because of disuse. When your muscles are weak, your balance becomes affected which increases your risk of falling. Then there is osteoporosis. Osteoporosis involves a decrease in new bone formation while the body is continuing to break down bone. This results in more brittle bones and a more increased risk of fracture when a fall occurs.
How do you know that you may have a shoulder fracture?
Read full blogLower Back Problems: A Common Complaint
Lower back problems are one of the most common complaints we encounter in physical therapy. The majority of adults will experience back pain at some point in their lifetime. The back pain they experience may only last a short time or it could linger for months. Back pain affects men and women equally and can even be seen in children and teenagers.
Structures in our Back
There are many different structures that are at risk for injury in your lower back.
Read full blogSore Hip & Getting Relief
What is hip pain?
The hip is comprised of the acetabulum- a ring shaped surface, and the head of the femur- a ball shaped structure. It’s where the leg attaches to the trunk. The hip has the functional ability to rotate out (external rotation), rotate in (internal rotation), move forward(flexion), move backward (extension), move toward the center of your body (adduction), and move out from the center of your body (abduction). Conditions named for the hip are those associated with pain during production of any of the above movements and/or pain located at your hip bone or inner thigh region with activity.
Why is it so confusing?
Read full blogFreezing, Frozen, Thawing
Frozen shoulder, or adhesive capsulitis, is a common shoulder issue that involves the first layer around the shoulder joint called the joint capsule. The capsule begins to thicken and tighten around the joint. It’s pretty typical to see a gradual loss of motion in the shoulder accompanied by pain in multiple motions.
Stages of a Frozen Shoulder:
Frozen shoulder involves three different stages. Each stage may take up to a few months:
Freezing: Pain starts to occur and the range of motion of the shoulder begins to decrease.
Core Importance and How to Keep it Strong
The “core” is a term that loosely means the muscles of your trunk and sometimes the muscles of the hip or pelvis is also included. Some examples of core muscles are your abdominals and back muscles.
Abdominal Muscles
There are actually 3 layers of muscle included in the abdominals and each one has a specific function. One of these muscles is the transverse abdominis. This is the deepest muscle of the abdominals and its function is to act as a “corset” and to help keep your abdomen firm while doing your normal daily activities.
Read full blogBone Health and Fitness by Walking
Walking is a great step to improve bone health and fitness. It is one of the easiest ways to get a workout and it offers many physical and mental health benefits. So, lace up your shoes and go for a walk.
Bones and Muscles Strength
Walking is a low impact exercise, which means that it is gentle on your joints. Unlike running, the amount of stress placed on your joints is much less when walking making it a great exercise alternative for those with knee, hip or back problems.
Read full blogReaching into Our Cabinets Shouldn’t be a Problem
When reaching above shoulder height or across the body as we do when reaching into a cabinet or washing our hair, the acromion (which is an aspect of the shoulder blade) may rub against a tendon and this could result in pain. This is known as shoulder impingement.
Causes of shoulder impingement:
- Overuse Injuries
- Strain in our Shoulder
- Poor posture
- Disuse
- Sleeping on affected side
- Repetitive motions such as lifting boxes, playing tennis, or picking up your kids
Symptoms you may experience:
- Painful arc – pain when reaching above shoulder height
- This includes reaching up to get something out of the cabinet or top of the closet.