What To Do For Your Tight Back?
Your mid-back as a structure overall is built to be stiff and stable. This is because attaching to it are your ribs which are crucial for protecting your organs that are underneath it. But a lot of people are in poor postures during the day and therefore have a rounded upper back. If the upper back is stiff then you will be unable to extend your back fully. Not being able to extend your upper back fully has knock-on implications for your neck, lower back and especially your shoulders. So, when trying to fix these issues it is important to not just look at the site of pain but try to fix the mobility in your upper back. If a fire starts in your house and you running to the smoke alarm and taking out the batteries is similar to just focusing on the site of pain when you get an injury. Without looking at your upper back mobility you can miss the true cause of your problem and therefore not recover efficiently or perform optimally at a chosen sport. This is especially true for gym-goers and throwing athletes. It is very common for people not to have enough mobility […]
Sort your hamstring pain out
Chances are you know someone with a hamstring injury or have had one yourself. If you have had a hamstring injury you will know first hand they can be very difficult to get rid of. Also, you are faced with the problem that if you have a hamstring strain you have a very high chance of re-injuring the hamstring again. But what are hamstring tears? Class I: There are only a few muscle or tendon fibers are torn. You will usually have pain during or after activity which would be worse when sprinting. There may be a small amount of swelling and discomfort. Usually associated with minimal strength loss. You will likely be able to walk directly after the injury. Class II: A partial tear of the fibers. You will usually have pain during activity which stops activity. There will be a significant loss of strength and a significant amount of pain. You will likely have some pain when walking. Class III: This is when there is extensive tears to the muscle, you will usually have felt pain immediately and may have fallen to the ground. Your range of movement at 24 hours is usually significantly reduced with pain on […]
Test Your Balance
Hip pain is very common in people who exercise regularly. But how can you help your hip pain and tight hips? To prepare the body to be able to squat or lift weights pain-free, you should improve your sense of balance and general control single-legged. Think about it, when was the last time you trained single leg exercises? I mean, really trained it? But it’s never too late to start incorporating it into your workout routine. The hip airplane which was designed by Dr. Stuart McGill with the aim of being an active flexibilty exercise deals with both balance and general control head-on so will seriously challenge you to perform it equally side to side. Therefore, the hip airplane will test and improve the stability of the muscles in and around your hip. Even people who can squat huge amounts of weight can struggle with this and it will lead to injury. This is because of progressively causing micro-trauma to your tissues because you don’t have the functional stability around your hip. So, people of all athletic ability can benefit from training single movements. So why is the hip airplane so important for the squatting movement pattern? When you squat […]
Easy tips to help your back pain
Most low back pain is primarily caused by the way you move and how you sit. During the day there are ways to do these things that put less stress on your back. Your spine has 24 vertebrae and it is common to think that all the parts move evenly. But certain areas take on more movement than others which are called hinge points. This blog post will give you some techniques and ideas to help remove these hinge points and to start getting you more pain free. In between the segments of your spine, there are discs that act as little shock absorbers. As you sleep the discs gather water and hold the water so they become more pressurised when you wake up first thing in the morning, this means they are easier to injure. After an hour the pressure decreases to nearly normal so this is why it is extra important to be careful in the morning. Ways to manage this in the morning: Don’t bend and round your back when getting out of bed When brushing your teeth, avoid spinal movement. Try and hinge from the hips. You should feel like you’re gliding your bottom backwards in […]
What to do for tight hips
Tight hip flexors are a common issue we see in clinic. With tight hips people commonly look for one of two reasons to why they are tight: – Is it tight because it’s short and so we should stretch it? Or – Is it tight because it’s weak so we should strengthen it? This brings us to an important point. The psoas muscle plays a role in hip flexion but hip flexors shouldn’t purely be judged off the muscles action but should be judged from the function of the muscle, which for the Psoas is stability of the lumbar spine. The psoas has a broad origin that is from all the segments of your lumbar spine. Your lumbar spine has no structural stability unlike for example its neighbour, the thoracic spine. So the lumbar spine relies on muscles to stabilise it. What can we learn from this? Rather than attempting to fix your tight psoas by really pushing the muscle into a stretched position or by just directly strengthening it, a different line of attack can be taken by focusing your time on stabilising the lumbar spine and your core muscles. To really increase the effectiveness when you try to […]
Back pain in cyclists
Many cyclists suffer from back pain. Firstly, cycling in comparison to other sports has a low rate of injury, apart from crashes or collisions from, for example, someone jumping into the cycle lane on your morning commute and your morning coffee failed to wake you up in time. However, cyclists do need to take care of their backs because in general, the most common thing cyclists complain of, is their back. Being hunched over on a road bike will take an effect over time. Low back pain is reported by more than 50% of cyclists and in overuse injuries lower back pain causes the highest rates of functional impairment and medical attention amongst cyclists. Why do cyclists get low back pain? There are many potential reasons why cyclists can get back pain but the following are the most likely: Poor bike fit: This can be from an incorrect saddle height or and uneven saddle Knee has a less than 25% bend at the end of the stroke. This will force you to rock your pelvis from side to side to get enough power at bottom of the stroke. Your handlebars are too far forward causing you to overstretch which will […]
Let your high heels gather dust after lockdown.
Wearing high heels shoes can create a lot of problems when it comes to walking biomechanics which could cause injuries in your feet and further up your body into your hip and lower back. What changes high heels make? It creates a-lot of pressure in your big toe It will reduce the ability to get a spring in your step because there is less tension in your calf due to it being in a shortened position. You have to step higher to clear your foot off the ground and this can cause injuries to other areas of the body. The higher the heel, the higher you have to step. With your heel raised the knee is moving forwards so there is more loading through your quadriceps and therefore more compression across the knee. Whereas the people who use a low heeled shoe are more likely to put the foot under their centre of mass and use the muscles around the front of your lower leg as shock absorbers. Simply put, if you run downhill you will feel like your knee is under more pressure. Therefore, if you wear high heeled shoes you are changing the biomechanics of your walking to […]
Why you need to stay active over lockdown
During the current climate it may be difficult to find the motivation to train with no gyms or sports clubs open for business. However, regular physical exercise can still be done which will have significant benefits for your health and will get your body prepared for when sport starts up again. Evidence shows that the benefits of physical activity and training in the senior population continue to grow. These benefits include that people have fewer falls with injury, improved muscular strength and endurance, a decreased incidence of coronary artery disease, and a lower risk of cardiovascular related mortality. Senior athletes can enjoy participating in a variety of athletic or sport related activities including running, walking, swimming, golfing, lifting weights, cycling and tennis. Based on the activity you are training for, the training regimen should be specifically designed to produce both metabolic and physical adaptations aimed to improve health and performance. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends the following training guidelines for senior athletes: •Train 3-5 days per week •20 to 60 minutes of continuous or intermittent aerobic activity •Any activity that engages the large muscle groups like walking, jogging, running, cycling, rowing, stair climbing. •Perform resistance training: One […]
Tight Calves?
💥Have you had overly tight calves for a long time? Hip extension may have something to do with this. 🏃🏻 Your hip and ankle are key components in your gait/running cycle. Normal range of motion is 10 degrees for hip extension and 40 degrees for ankle dorsiflexion. 💥If you are restricted in these movements then there may be long term effects of your running performance and you could incur injuries or overly tight muscles along the way. 💪🏽There are 2 main muscles in your calf. The Gastrocnemius and the Soleus. The main firing of these muscles is when your heel lifts. The gluteus maximus at the back of your hip stops firing just before your calf muscles, this acts as a one two punch that propels you forwards. 💥Normally ankle dorsiflexion should be equal to hip extension. So if your ankle is restricted in movement, then you will not be able to access your full hip extension and therefore affect performance and increase your susceptibility to injury. This is termed the Z angle. ✍🏻 It has been shown if you can not get into full hip extension then your calf has to fire early to still help you move forward […]
Can we help with Scoliosis?
What is scoliosis? Scoliosis is a lateral bending and/ or rotary deformation of the spine presenting as one or multiple curves in the back. It can be functional or structural. If it is functional, then it is usually a compensatory pattern, possibly posture-related, and can be corrected with stretching, strengthening, joint manipulation, and postural retraining. If it is structural then it is due to anatomical changes. There are wide varieties of structural scoliosis, but the most common one is Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS). What is Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis? Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) is of unknown cause and usually happens during adolescence- age 10 to 18. It is more common in young girls and the progression usually slows down after the menstruation starts. What is the treatment for AIS? There are many different approaches to help prevent AIS progression and also possibly decrease its curve if it has a functional component. It can be addressed with: Possible bracing depending on the severity of the curve Strengthening and stretching exercises to properly address the curvature Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilisation Chiropractic treatment Breathing exercises Soft tissue work Below is an exercise that can help: If you suspect that your child has a scoliosis contact […]
