Do you find it harder to walk, run or exercise? Is hip, knee or leg pain keeping you from being active? If so, understanding how your body walks and moves can be the key to putting the spring back in your step.
Health&Wellness The Newsletter About Your Health And Caring For Your Body Move Freely Walk Farther
Find relief for knee and hip pain while walking
Al Flores, PT, CFCE Director of Rehab
Health & Wellness The Newsletter About Your Health And Caring For Your Body
“Do You Suffer With Knee or Hip Pain With Walking?”
Put the Spring Back in Your Step
The Remedy The simple solution is to put the spring back in your step. This is accomplished by first analyzing how you walk. There are slight changes in the way that you walk and move, that our trained medical experts can pick up on. This analysis tells us just what joints or muscles are stiff, stuck or weak. By pinpointing the exact areas of your body that are not moving as they should, we can make a plan to increasemotion, strength and improve coordination.
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Can you do these simple tests to see if your hips and legs are as flexible and strong as they should be? Try them for yourself and let us know how you did. Use caution and common sense when attempting these tests; do not continue if they cause pain or discomfort. Do not attempt if you have had a hip replacement. Can You Do This? Find out if you are moving like you should. • In sitting can you comfortably cross your legs so that your ankle is resting on the other knee? Does one knee go further down than the other? This indicates hip flexibility. If one hip is tighter than the other, it can wreck havoc with your walking and even cause knee pain. • Keeping your feet flat on the floor and holding onto something solid, how far can you squat down? You should be able to squat all the way down so your buttocks almost touch your heels. Don’t let your heels pop up! If you favor movement to one side, you probably have hip weakness on that side or limited motion in the hip joint. • Standing near a counter top put one foot in front of the other so that you are touching heel to toe. Without putting your hands down, see if you can balance for 10 seconds, keeping yourself steady. If you cannot, then you have trouble with the coordination of your balance from the nerve endings in your hip, knees, ankles and feet. Restoring Normal Pain Free Motion Restoring normal motion is key to alleviating pain and allowing you to do the activities you love to do safely. Physical therapy is the key to restoring normal joint and muscle motion. Our medical experts pinpoint the key problem areas that you may not even be aware of and focus on a custom treatment plan that will restore your normal pain-free motion. Performing at Your Best Whether you are just out for a walk or an avid athlete, we can help you walk, run and play better. With our motion analysis, strength testing, coordination testing and more, we can spot your muscles and joints that need flexibility, strength or coordination. A specific training and treatment plan is then put together to help you reach your peak movement with the least effort. Discover how our Spine Program transforms your back pain from a pressing problem, to a distant memory, allowing you to live a happy, active and pain-free life. • From standing, can you touch your toes? This indicates hip and low back flexibility.
Come Back In For A Consultation Whether you want to come in for a check-up, suffered a recent injury or you want to improve your health, you can choose the physical therapy practice you want! Come back to PTII for a consultation today!
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See our physical therapists for: • Recent injury • Nagging aches and pains • Back and neck pain • Joint pain and movement problems • Walking or balance difficulties
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6 Easy Steps To Put You On The Path To A Happier, Healthier, More Active You!
It’s that time of year again, the beginning of a new year when many of us feel compelled to make New Year’s Resolutions. What will be your resolutions towards taking care of your health? Will you set a goal to lose weight, exercise more, eat better and increase your activity level? Unfortunately, such declarations often fail after a month or two. This can often be attributed to two things: a lack of readiness to actually change bad habits and a pattern of setting unrealistic expectations. So what types of resolutions can we make that we’ll actually stick to? If you want to improve your health and increase your energy, here are some simple ways to change your lifestyle for the better. 1. Begin the day with protein. Eating protein for breakfast helps curb your appetite throughout the day and tends to improve your overall diet as well. While you may wind up consuming the same number of calories over a day’s time, you’ll be less tempted by high-fat snacks around dinner time. Keep in mind that there are plenty of plant-based proteins available, including hemp seeds, black beans, almonds, edamame, and pumpkin seeds among them. 2. Limit your drinks. By this, we aren’t only referring to alcohol. Instead, try to cut back on the calorie-laden drinks popular this time of year. Concoctions such as sweetened coffee drinks, sodas, diet sodas and energy drinks can be detrimental to a healthy diet. Focus on a higher consumption of water during the day and to make it easy, keep a glass by your desk or carry a bottle around with you. 3. Try wearable technology. Researchshows thatpeoplewhousewearable technologygadgetssuch as Fitbits, Garmin, and Withings, tend to stick to their exercise routine more faithfully than those who don’t. With many of them, you can track your heart rate, steps per minute, sleep cycles, and more. 4. Increase Your Range Of Motion. Avoidshortcutswhen itcomes toexercising.Strive forusing thegreatest range of motion. This may include making longer lunges, stretching arms more while jumping rope, or leaning over further during yoga. Whatever the case, doing so helps your muscles do more work per rep, which results in breaking down more tissue by the end of your workout.
If you have difficulty reaching a full range of motion, or have discomfort, consult your physical therapist. 5. Reduce fatigue. As anyone who has tried and failed at establishing a regular exercise routine can agree, fatigue is the number one enemy. To help kombat this, drink beet juice. Studies show that it can increase stamina by up to 16 percent. Furthermore, listen to music that keeps you motivated. Listening to the right music can actually expand your blood vessels by 26 percent. Work on a schedule routine that ensures you get enough rest, exercise, and activity. 6. Switch it up. If you’ve been plugging through the same fitness routine day after day, you may notice a reduction in strength gain. To avoid this, try different exercises,workingoutatdifferent timesofday,usingdifferent repetitions, or lifting different weights. As 2018begins tounfold,considerways toadd healthydecision-making to your lifestyle. Remember that putting things off doesn’t get you to where you want to be. We are here to help you reach your goals and achieve a healthy, pain-free lifestyle. Talk to your physical therapist at our practice today, or schedule a consultation to make your 2018 the healthiest yet.
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HIP ADDUCTION - SIDELYING While lying on your side, slowly raise up the bottom leg towards the ceiling. Keep your knee straight the entire time. The top leg should be bent at the knee and your foot planted on the ground supporting your body.
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