Repetitive Use Injury Archives

Steps to manage first step pain

A definitive symptom of plantar heel pain is “first-step pain” First-step pain is felt on the first step out of bed in the morning or after other periods of inactivity such as sitting in meetings or long car drives. The following are simple steps to manage the 1st step pain: Purposeful pandiculation for pain plantar…

How to improve the quality of a selfie video to facilitate motion analysis

In a previous article, I described how sharing selfie videos with healthcare professionals can facilitate motion analysis for the management of painful musculoskeletal syndromes, injury prevention, and performance enhancement. This article describes how to improve the quality and standardize the process of capturing selfie videos to facilitate the motion analysis process. I am a healthcare…

Healthcare Whisperer versus Con Artist

The popular idiom of a “whisperer” is used to describe an individual who has special skills to interact with humans or animals to alter behavior and achieve outcomes that others cannot. What are the characteristics of a whisperer? A whisperer: Has high level of empathy Has specialized skills Focuses is understanding Uses body language communication…

IT Band Syndrome – Controversy Regarding Stretching Exercise

The Iliotibial (IT) Band is a tendon on the lateral aspect of the hip/thigh/knee. It is a large, wide, thick tendon. A tendon is a structure that attaches muscle to bone. IT band syndrome is a typical injury occurring in runners. A commonly recommended treatment for IT band syndrome is stretching exercise. Searching Google for…

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…

Don’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…

Evolution of the running shoe: evidence & opinion

Forty years ago there was only one running shoe designed for long distance running. Itwas a black canvas shoe shaped like a track spike shoe with a gum rubber outsole andConverse was the manufacturer. Now there is a veritable plethora of running shoes tochoose from. Ten years ago I wrote an article highlighting the fact…

Hamstring, Buttock, Back, Neck Pain and the Car Seat

I frequently hear from my patients that their hamstring started hurting after they ran a marathon or that their back pain developed after they went body surfing at the beach. After closer questioning I discover that the problem did not occur during the marathon or while body surfing, but that it occurred afterwards during the…

Are 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…

Runners Knee versus Gas Pedal Knee – IT band syndrome

A middle-aged male adventure racer who had been struggling with right knee pain for six months sought my assistance. Adventure racing involves competing over multiple days, ultra-distance walk/running combined with other activities such as mountain biking, swimming, kayaking, and rock climbing. His knee pain was focused to the anterior lateral aspect of the right knee.…