Category: Hip

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?

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

5/1/2018

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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?

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

4/22/2018

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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?

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

3/1/2018

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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?

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

1/1/2018

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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?

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

9/1/2017

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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?

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

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

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

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