Exercise
Strengthening Exercises for Intrinsic Foot Muscles
Exercises to strengthen the foot are frequently used to treat injuries to foot, ankle, knee, hip and low back. Toe curl or toe scrunching exercises is not appropriate for strengthening the muscles intrinsic to the feet. Muscles about the foot and ankle are described as either extrinsic muscles or intrinsic muscles. Extrinsic foot muscles have…
Read MoreMugged – Smacked and Common Sense: Exercise In Dark Outdoors
The short dark day of winter pose a challenge for the exercise enthusiast who prefers to exercise out doors. Most everyone has some fear walking/running in the dark. There are justifiable concerns related to safety. On the positive side there can be significant benefits and rewards from getting outside in the dark winter days and…
Read MoreDon’t do that
A widely held belief among health care professionals is that it is a waste oftime to recommend to an injured runner to stop running. The assumptionis a dedicated runner will not follow recommendation of “don’t do that”. With a few exceptions most injured runners do not need to be told “don’trun”. The exception is a…
Read MoreShould you stretch it out – Pain too loose too stiff?
Generally, there are one of two scenarios related to musculoskeletal pain and injury. Either there is not enough movement or there is too much movement. If a muscle is in spasm, if a joint is stuck, or if a muscle-tendon unit has adaptively shortened in length are all examples of not having enough movement. If…
Read MoreSooner is Not Always Better than Later – Healing Recovery from Injury
Sooner is not always better than later when recovering from an injury. Biological tissues adapts to physical stress in a predictable way. There is a threshold where physical stress results in a positive adaptation of the tissue, that is, tissue grows larger and stronger. Conversely if there is insufficient physical stress tissue wastes away gets…
Read MoreMuscles and Stretching
What is known about benefits of stretching and flexibility exercises continues to evolve. Some commonly held beliefs are being supported with new research and some beliefs are being proven false. Common beliefs about stretching exercises are that stretching exercises decrease risk of injury, relieves pain associated with stiffness, and improves sports performance. Stretching exercises are…
Read MoreOsteoarthritis – Cartilage and Exercise
Osteoarthritis is primarily a degeneration, or wear and tear, of the hyaline cartilage that covers the end of the joint surfaces. Osteoarthritis occurs as a result of “the parents you choose” (genetic influence) or as a sequel to a prior joint trauma or injury. There is a great deal of information dealing with the…
Read MoreAre you a half ass? – stretch weakness of gluteal muscles contributing to heel, foot, shin, knee, hip pain
There is a growing body of evidence that many repetitive use injuries such as knee pain, shin pain, heel pain, and forefoot pain can be addressed by improving the strength of the gluteal muscles. The gluteal muscles consist of gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, piriformis, and smaller less recognized muscles are commonly called “bun…
Read MoreRunning Injury – Asking better questions – Socratic Method
As a clinician and as a participant in internet discussion forums related to running injuries I have the opportunity to observe and respond to questions. The questions asked by individuals who are striving to solve repetitive use injuries are varied, in terms of type of questions and the degree of sophistication of the questions. Many…
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