All Categories

The Cause of Plantar Fasciitis You’ve Never Heard About and a New Way To Resolve Your Foot Pain

9/24/2018

One of the worst ways to start your day is to feel a sharp, stabbing pain near your heel when first getting out of bed. Yet, approximately 3 million Americans every year experience this sensation with a condition called plantar fasciitis.

Plantar fasciitis is the inflammation of the thick band of tissue that runs along the bottom of your foot. The cause of this pain is attributed to small tears in the thick band, and it’s for this reason that many of the treatment options are focused on the foot.

However, surprising to most, the foot itself is often not the root cause of pain.

So what is the plantar fascia and what is it for? What causes it to tear? And what can be done to treat the pain?

1 Comment

Why Your Daily Walks May Not Be Benefiting You (But What Steps You Can Take to Change That)

8/29/2018

1 Comment

As the consequences of prolonged sitting have become more well known, people have made a real conscious effort to incorporate walking throughout their day. For some, it’s making time to walk during lunch time. For others, it’s making sure to take at least 10,000 steps per day.

However, despite our good intentions many of us are simply walking the wrong way. Not the wrong way as in the wrong direction, but rather with the wrong technique.

Since the majority of our day has shifted to more and more sitting at work and home, we’ve lost touch with the proper way to walk. What that means is that we aren’t benefiting from our walks as much as we think we are.

So what are the benefits that we’re missing from walking improperly? What is the proper way to walk? And what are the unnecessary costs to our body when we don’t walk properly?

1 Comment

Why Hip Flexor Stretching Doesn't Work and What You Ought to be Doing Instead

7/24/2018

1 Comment

If you live an active lifestyle it’s very likely you experience tightness in the front of your hips, what many refer to as their hip flexors. This is especially true if you spend your day sitting at work or bike commuting, since these activities shorten your hip flexors over time.

Tight hip flexors can wreak havoc on your body as they cause your pelvis to tip forward excessively, a condition called anterior pelvic tilt. This abnormal positioning of the pelvis increases the arch in your low back and can contribute to low back pain. In addition, it can put your hamstrings on a constant stretch, making them feel tight as well.

It’s for that reason why you’ve probably incorporated some type of stretching of your hip flexors into your regular exercise routine to combat the tightness.

So what causes anterior pelvic tilt to occur? Why do your hip flexors continue to feel tight even with consistent stretching? And is there a better way to address this problem?

1 Comment

What You Need to Know About Your SI Joints If You Have Low Back Pain

6/26/2018

0 Comments

The prevalence of low back pain is the reason why numerous treatments for the spine are available. Despite this, some low back pain sufferers simply don’t respond to treatments aimed at spine pain. That’s because the spine isn’t the only source capable of producing low back pain.

Current estimates suggest that about 15-30% of the cases of low back pain may actually be caused by problems in a little known joint in your body called the sacroiliac (SI) joint. Pain generated by the SI joint rather than the lumbar spine is referred to as SI joint pain.

What makes SI joint pain challenging to treat is that it can mimic symptoms normally associated with lumbar spine pain, such as buttock pain and sciatica. To make matters worse, SI joint pain is difficult to diagnose with common diagnostic testing, including x-ray, CT scan, or MRI.

So what are the SI joints and how do they contribute to low back pain? What’s the best way to diagnose SI joint pain? And what treatment methods are most effective?

0 Comments

Why Non-Contact ACL Injuries Prevail Despite Injury Prevention Training for the Knee

5/1/2018

1 Comment

Knee injuries are common among athletes and probably the most well known of these injuries involve the anterior cruciate ligament (or ACL for short).

The American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine reports approximately 150,000 ACL injuries occur annually in the United States alone, with the highest risk occurring in athletes playing in high-demand sports, such as football, basketball, and soccer.

There are two main ways that the ACL gets injured during sports and competition:

With direct contact, for example, when an athlete collides with another player.
During non-contact activity, such as when an athlete lands awkwardly.

If you guessed that the majority of ACL injuries is attributed to contact injuries, you'd be wrong. Only 30% of the annual cases account for contact related injuries, while the majority of these cases result from non-contact activity!

So why do so many non-contact ACL injuries occur? What are coaches and trainers doing to help prevent these injuries? And what is still missing in current injury prevention protocols that allows for this to continually happen?

1 Comment

2 Key Strategies to Help Lessen Your Low Back Pain (and Spare Your Spine From Further Damage)

4/22/2018

0 Comments

Low back pain is a prevalent problem that affects 80% of the population, and the third most common reason for doctor visits. The rate of low back pain is so high, that WebMD claims that “low back pain is a universal human experience—almost everyone has it at some point.”

For being such a universal experience, however, it’s strange that most of us can’t attribute a specific injury leading to the onset of low back pain. That is, many low back pain sufferers cannot recall having any direct trauma to the spine.

This may be why low back pain is generally regarded as a problem of “wear and tear”, with repetitive bending and prolonged sitting commonly cited as the major contributing factors to this problem.

But as sitting and forward bending are an integral part of everyday living that we simply cannot avoid, what are we to do?

Exactly what is it about these activities contributes to low back pain? And are there strategies to support the low back when performing these activities?

0 Comments

Why Your IT Band Will Be Tight Long After Foam Rolling (Unless You Make the Following Changes)

3/1/2018

0 Comments

Over the past several years there has been increasing interest in incorporating foam rolling into our fitness routines. It’s such a part of popular culture now even TIME magazine has touched upon this subject.

Though the foam roll can be applied to any part of the body, the area that seems to garner the most attention is the iliotibial band (or IT band for short), the connective tissue that attaches your hip muscles to your knee.

That’s because a tight IT band can lead to IT band syndrome, an overuse injury that causes pain on the outside of the knee. So it should be no surprise that many active people dedicate a portion of their workouts to address this tightness.

While no one finds the ritual of rolling back and forth on the foam roll particularly enjoyable, many continue to do it believing it is the only way to get relief from the tightness and pain that the IT band can cause.

So what is it that causes the IT band to get so tight? Is foam rolling really necessary? And is there a better alternative to address this problem?

0 Comments

6 Simple Exercises to Relieve the Knot That Will Not Go Away

2/1/2018

1 Comment

You're probably aware of the painful spot located midway between the neck and shoulder. While it’s simply referred to by most as “the knot”, it’s more formally known as a trigger point.

According to the National Association of Myofascial Trigger Point Therapists website, “a trigger point is the contraction mechanism of the muscle locked into a shortened position.”

It goes on to state that, “the treatment of the trigger point involves unlocking this contraction mechanism.” In other words, in order to release the tension contained within it, the trigger point needs to be “kneaded” or stretched.

Yet despite the various types of treatment available, what’s unique about the trigger point positioned between the neck and the shoulder is that it seems to return over and over again. In fact, this point can become so tight at times that it can often feel like a rock!

So why is this trigger point so common? Why does this trigger point form in the first place? And what causes it to return even after treatment?

1 Comment

Why Younger Patients Are Getting Hip Replacements (And What You Can Do To Avoid One)

1/1/2018

2 Comments

The acceptance of hip replacement surgery as a treatment for hip pain may explain why the number of cases performed in the U.S. has surged. This has been confirmed by a recent report released by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

The report states that, from 2000 to 2010, the number of hip replacement surgeries in the U.S. increased from 138,700 to 310,800. This is a rate increase from 142.2 to 257 cases per every 100,000 people.

At first glance, one might conclude that the increase is simply due to the fact that people are living longer, and that a more aged population needs more hip replacements.

Surprisingly, what actually accounted for the significant increase in the number of surgical cases was the 45-64 age group, and not the 75 and over group!

So what’s the cause of this? Why are the hip joints degenerating prematurely? And what can be done now to avoid the need for a hip replacement later?

2 Comments

Why Standing Desks Won't Solve Our Sitting Problem (But What You Can Do About It)

12/1/2017

0 Comments

It’s becoming common knowledge that sitting for long periods of time is bad for you, and can lead to pain in the areas of the neck, shoulders, and low back. What might surprise you is just how severe the health consequences of sitting can be.

The World Health Organization ranks “lack of physical activity” as the fourth largest preventable killer, capable of causing the following health conditions:

Cancer
Obesity
Heart disease
Type II Diabetes
Depression
Decreased bone density
Early death

It’s no wonder, then, that some have coined the catchphrase, “Sitting is the new smoking.”

The negative consequences of sitting have led people to rethink of alternate positions while working. That's why it's easy to see why standing has been suggested as a healthier alternative.

While this has convinced some to believe that the standing desk is the panacea for the problems associated with sitting, many others realize that standing desks are actually difficult to use for long periods of time. So much so they have actually resorted back to sitting!

So why has the transition from sitting to standing desks been so challenging for some? And what's the fundamental problem that’s still being ignored?

0 Comments

The Best Type of Exercise for Injury Prevention is Not What You Think

11/1/2017

0 Comments

Any person concerned about living and maintaining a physically active lifestyle should assume some risk for potential injury. Therefore, it’s vital to incorporate some form of workout for injury prevention into your regular routine.

There is some debate, however, as to which form of exercise is best for reducing injury risk. Here are the most popular arguments:

Weight-lifting is the best form of exercise, as it helps to increase muscle strength and bone density.
Cardio exercises, such as running and cycling, are better because they not only tone muscles but they also improve muscle endurance.
Group movement classes, such as bar method, yoga, and Pilates, are the best form of exercise because they incorporate stretching movements to enhance flexibility.

So which form of exercise is best for injury prevention? And what is the essential component that is still missing from all three forms of exercise?

0 Comments

Why We Experience Pain When There's No Injury To Blame

10/1/2017

0 Comments

Of all the sensations that the human body is capable of experiencing, pain is one of the most devastating.

Pain is the sensation that tells us we’ve done harm to our body. While most of us would prefer to avoid this sensation altogether, we understand that it’s a risk of living a physically active lifestyle, and typically a consequence of suffering an injury.

Then why is it that so many people experience pain when there hasn’t been an obvious trauma? And how can an activity that we’ve done for years without any difficulty suddenly become painful?

0 Comments

4 Reasons Why Your Hamstrings Get Tight and When Stretching Is a Bad Idea

9/1/2017

2 Comments

A common complaint that is experienced by active people is hamstring tightness. Many resort to stretching for relief, but there is much debate as to the best type of stretching.

Some claim that static (sustained) stretching is more beneficial than dynamic (movement-based) stretching. Of course, to add to the confusion there are others who report just the opposite.

The problem is, regardless of the type of stretching utilized, many people continue to experience hamstring tightness that returns time after time.

So what's going on? Why do your hamstrings get tight in the first place? And why does the tightness return soon after stretching?

The Cause of Plantar Fasciitis You’ve Never Heard About and a New Way To Resolve Your Foot Pain

Why Your Daily Walks May Not Be Benefiting You (But What Steps You Can Take to Change That)

Why Hip Flexor Stretching Doesn't Work and What You Ought to be Doing Instead

What You Need to Know About Your SI Joints If You Have Low Back Pain

Why Non-Contact ACL Injuries Prevail Despite Injury Prevention Training for the Knee

2 Key Strategies to Help Lessen Your Low Back Pain (and Spare Your Spine From Further Damage)

Why Your IT Band Will Be Tight Long After Foam Rolling (Unless You Make the Following Changes)

6 Simple Exercises to Relieve the Knot That Will Not Go Away

Why Younger Patients Are Getting Hip Replacements (And What You Can Do To Avoid One)

Why Standing Desks Won't Solve Our Sitting Problem (But What You Can Do About It)

The Best Type of Exercise for Injury Prevention is Not What You Think

Why We Experience Pain When There's No Injury To Blame

4 Reasons Why Your Hamstrings Get Tight and When Stretching Is a Bad Idea

VIDEO: The Type of Muscle Tightness That Doesn’t Respond to Stretching

Authors

Archives

Categories

Join Our Subscriber List So You Don't Miss a Thing