Repetitive Use injury Archives - Page 7 of 9

Knee Pain Wringing Out – Gait Deviation

Knee pain can develop because of a “wringing out”. I am not referring to banging a bell ring, but the counter-rotation motion that can occur at the knee joint. The knee joint consisting of the thigh and lower leg moves on three different planes of motion. The knee can flex and extend. The knee can…

Deviant Gait – Compensation

Compensation is necessary when there is injury or a necessity of making up for something unwelcome or unpleasant. Compensation can be perceived as a negative or positive situation. With injury the dichotomy is will there be recovery or compensation? Salamanders are fascinating animals that are capable of regenerating lost limbs, as well as other…

Body Proportions – Musculoskeletal Pain – Sports Performance

The importance of knowing how tall we are is somewhat obvious. What is less obvious is the importance of knowing the proportionality of our vertical height. The ideal proportionality of a human body’s stature was defined by Leonardo da Vinci. The “Vitruvian Man” or “drawing of proportions of man” is the ideal human proportions…

Pain on Bottom of Heel: Too Much Big Toe Motion

Pain on the bottom of the heel (Plantar Heel Pain) is a complex problem with variable diagnoses and explanations. And with variable diagnoses there should be variations in treatment. Unfortunately, the common treatment recommendations do not recognize such variability. For example, the universal suggested treatment for plantar heel pain is calf stretching and stretching of…

Aging Muscles & Tendons: Achilles/Calf Strain

As we age muscles and tendons will change. Calf muscles in older individuals are weaker, smaller, shorter, less stiff, and not as coordinated. Older athletes may experience greater incidence of injuries (Tauton 2003, McKean 2006). Two most common repetitive use injuries in older runners are Achilles tendonopathy and strained calf muscle (Marti 1988). A…

Gait Analysis – Gait Training for Achilles Tendon Pain

The manner you walk or run can be one of the contributing factors to the development of Achilles tendon problems. If you are experiencing pain in the Achilles when walking or running working with your Physical Therapists and using slow motion video analysis the following model can provide a beginning point to solve the problem.…

Should 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…

Hip Pain: Gluteal Tendon Problems Postures & Positions to Avoid

Tendon problems are a common diagnosis at Achilles, knee (patellar tendon), shoulder (rotator cuff), and elbow (tennis elbow) pain. Interestingly though, pain on the side of the hip is commonly thought to be an inflammation of bursa. Recent investigation has shown that pain on the side of the hip commonly thought to be trochanteric bursitis,…

Gait Retraining – Key Concepts

Gait retraining has become popular among avid runners and Physical Therapists. The proponents of gait retraining advocate if you improve the walking/running form you can walk/run faster, farther, and injury free. Many questions remain regarding gait retraining. Who can benefit from gait retraining injured individuals, non-injured, or both (Heiderscheit, B 2011)? When is the best…

Sooner 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…