Filed under: Lower Extremity, Movement Dysfunction, Runners, Sports, Tennis | Tags: Athletics, Fitness, Running, Shoes, Sports
Athletic shoewear have recently gained a lot of attention for their role in assisting a person to acheive a variety of health and fitness related goals. Skechers, being on of the first in the industry, have now come to the forefront of our attention again as some of their claims have been refutted.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/skechers-toning-shoe-customers-to-get-refund/?ref=health
Oftentimes we see patients who are flirting with shoes to solve an underlying biomechanical issue. In actuality the shoes are a “band-aid” and not solving the true physical issue at hand. Once the physical issues are resolved, the shoes become a means to assist instead of a failed solution. If you have questions regarding your shoewear and what it may or may not be doing for your health, please get in touch with one of the Motion Stability therapists!
Filed under: Lower Extremity, Movement Dysfunction, Musicians, Spine, Sports, Upper Extremity | Tags: core, exercise, movement, Movement Dysfunction, redcord, strengthening
Do you think you have a strong core? The latest trending exercise for core enthusiasts is at Motion Stability! Redcord is gaining popularity in the world of wellness and with elite athletes as a strengthening appartaus which emphasizes perfect form and maximizes muscle specificity! The advantages of redcord as an exercise also play a key role in the world of rehabilitation for the correction of movement dysfunctions found in musculoskeletal pain and chronic pain.
Redcord was featured in a recent edition of Marie Claire magazine! Check out the article here: http://www.neuracpt.com/pdfs/Marie%20Claire%20Cover%20March%202012.pdf
Filed under: Courses, Lower Extremity, Motion Stability News, Movement Dysfunction, Upper Extremity | Tags: Continuing Education, Courses, Janda, Movement Dysfunction
Available to all residents, fellows, physical therapists! Please see the link below for more information:
As the height of running season approaches, it is prudent to address the importance of the hip musculature in keeping a runner pain-free while maintaining the efficiency required for long distance events. Motion Stability has partnered with Phiddipides, a local running store, to discuss this topic with their runners.
A lack of hip muscle strength can cause a myriad of problems in any person, but is especially problematic for runners as the hip muscles not only provide the propulsion for a powerful stride, but also the pelvic stbility required to keep the lower legs moving efficiently. For a closer look at how weak hips can literally be a “pain in the butt” for runners, read the article posted on Motion Stability’s website: http://motionstability.com/mediacenter.php. The website has been redesigned to include a running section and will have more updates and interesting articles available to download in the coming months, so keep checking back in!
Filed under: Movement Dysfunction, Myofascial Trigger Points, Pain Sciences, Tissue Pathology
Thank you to Georgia Representatives Sharon Cooper and Edward Lindsey, the use of dry needling in clinical practice has been adopted into the Georgia Physical Therapy Practice act under bill HR 145. Dry needling is a technique to improve myofascial pain and dysfunction, which includes treatment of trigger points. With proper clinical reasoning and treatment methodology, trigger point dry needling can help significantly with improvements in pain, dysfunction, range of motion, and movement patterns. For more information please view our website: www.motionstability.com
For more information on the bill follow this link.
Filed under: Movement Dysfunction, Pain Sciences, Spine | Tags: Low Back Pain, Post-partum, Women's Health
Recently we have seen a growing number of women presenting to our clinic with low back pain and who incidentally have had a baby within the last couple of years. Unfortunately many of these women have been told 1 of 2 things by their medical practitioners: it is an unfortunate side-effect of being post-partum and that it should go away in due time or go try some physical therapy and see if it helps. The problem is that the women is caught between her ObGyn saying it is a post-partum issue and her orthopedist diagnosing her with non-specific back pain, but not attributing it to the fact that she has just had a baby. Oftentimes, the problem goes undiagnosed and women who are even 10yrs post-partum can have dysfunction and pain directly related to the pregnancy numerous years ago.
As physical therapist’s, we have the responsibility of linking these events together and explaining to the women how pregnancy alters the stability and mechanics of her back, abdominal, and pelvic regions. We have the unique ability to catch these women as they fall through the cracks of traditional medicine and significantly alter how the woman is able to go about her day caring for her newborn pain-free. A knowledgeable clinician will be able to create an individualized treatment program structured around the effects that a pregnancy and delivery can have on the woman.
At our clinic, the therapists are able to use ultrasound (similar to ones at the Ob’s office) to evaluate the muscle integrity of the abdomen and pelvic floor (areas most often affected by pregnancy.) It has become a useful tool to integrate into the treatment programs for these patients. The ultrasound allows the therapist and patient to visualize exactly how the muscles are being used and in what manner. Please check out this article for more information on the use of ultrasound imaging in the PT clinic: http://www.motionstability.com/assets/docs/articles/a_2010_09_ultrasound.
Hides JA, Stanton W, McMahon S, et al. Effect of stabilization training on multifidus muscle cross-sectional area among young elite cricketers with low back pain. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2008;38(3):101-108. This study reinforces previous studies on low back pain, and the need to perform specific stabilization techniques to improve pain and function rated scores. In this study, cross sectional area (CSA) of lumbar multifidus was found to be assyemtrical in size at the L5 level in young elite crickters with low back pain. With specific retraining of the transversus abdominis, pelvic floor, and lumbar multifidus, athletes with low back pain had improvements in CSA and reports in decrease pain. General exercise strategies for core stabilization need to be specified, especially with patients with low back pain.
Filed under: Movement Dysfunction
In the adjacent picture is a real-time ultraound image of the pelvic floor. It is a transverse view, meaning the black area is the bladder, and the white layer below is the pelvic floor musculature. Looking at the image, as you can tell, the left side drops down more, like a tear drop, compared to the right side of the picture…which essentially means that the left pelvic floor is ‘hypotonic’. This could mean the muscle is inhibited or de-innervated. Either way..the patient whom I saw this with, has a 5 year history of SI pain on the same side…unable to sit. She has had multiple interventions from physicians and other PTs attempting to improve myofascial trigger points and other things…where in actuality much of the SI pain is due to instability of the SI joint due to lack of muscle support, or what we call ‘force closure’. This image is great, as this demonstrates the opposite of what typically happens in pelvic floor dysfunction, in which musculature usually is ‘hypertonic’ or spasms. This further demonstrates our need to use rehabilitative ultrasound imaging to make clear assessments of the type of muscule tone we are working with and treating.
Filed under: Movement Dysfunction
Bergmark, A. Stability of the lumbar spine: A study in mechanical engineering. Acta Orthop Scand 1989;60:Suppl.230
In this mechanical engineering dissertation, Bergmark differentiates the concept that certain muscles surrounding the lumbar spine play different roles. In physical therapy lingo, we call the larger muscles, that we tend to exercise at the gym, as ‘global’ muscles..while the smaller muscles that connect more vertebrae to vertebra as ‘local’ muscles. ‘Global’ muscles such as the rectus abdominis, external obliques, and latissmus dorsi are more designed for force production, movement and torque. While the ‘local’ muscles such as the lumbar multifidus, primarily the deep multifidus that attach 1-2 vertebrae are designed for intersegmental spinal stability. In daily function we need an interplay between ‘global’ and ‘local’ muscles to so that we have muscle that are designed to stabilize the spine, while others provide movement and force production. In core stability training, we need to design programs that can specify muscle contractions of both groups of muscles. Too many general programs focus on the larger global muscles, and even when professionals talk about exercising the ‘local’ muscles, we have found a lack of specificity to the situation. The use of real-time ultrasound imaging in ‘local’ muscles provides the most direct visual feedback to the client how to contract the transversus abdominis, pelvic floor, and lumbar multifidus.
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