Newsletter by Balance Rehabilitation
N E W S L E T T E R
Step Away FromKnee & Hip Pain
See Inside • 3 Powerful Steps To
Stronger Hips And Knees • Why Does My Knee Hurt? • Healthy Recipe • Improving Sports Performance
balance-rehab.com
N E W S L E T T E R
3 Powerful Steps to Stronger Hips and Knees
For many people, knee pain can be a way of life, limiting their ability to climb stairs, squat down to get something off the floor, enjoy long walks, shopping and a host of other daily activities. The knee joint is one of the most complicated joints in the body and has to bear up to 6 times your body weight with running or jumping. This incredible joint has to move over a million times each year and over 80 million times over a lifetime. This is also the reason why things can go wrong, causing injury and pain. Just like taking care of your heart, your joints need attention to maintain a healthy state. Here are easy ways for you to take care of your knees, avoiding arthritis and other joint problems: 1. Stretch your hamstrings, quadriceps and adductor muscles each day. By keeping these muscles flexible, the forces on your knee joints can be balanced, allowing your joint to bend, rotate and for your patella (kneecap) to track properly. 2. Keep the muscles around your hips and knees strong. Especially the gluteals and quadriceps muscles. Studies show that those adults,
especially over 55 who have stronger gluteals and quadriceps, tend to have less back pain and more ability to do daily activities. 3. Exercise regularly. While this is good for the whole body, the knees especially need exercise to keep their cartilage healthy. The cartilage does not have much blood supply and requires its nutrition from joint fluid. Most of the joint fluid absorbs into the cartilage only through movement and compression of the knee. Therefore, it is important to do weight bearing exercise such as walking, running and other sports. However, if you have arthritis, it is advised to do more low-impact activities such as biking, elliptical machines, aquatic exercises, etc. Having a regular physical therapy checkup ensures that your joints are working at their peak performance. In addition, any problems will be discovered early, preventing the onset of arthritis and joint injury. If you do have arthritis or have had surgery, then a regular physical therapy check-up is especially important. If your attention is on that sore knee, then it is time you called us for a free knee joint analysis. Talk to one of our expert physical therapists today and see how life can be with freely moving knees.
Call us today to setup an initial consultation and see just how well your knees and hips can feel with physical therapy.
SIMPLE GRILLED SALMON & VEGETABLES Healthy Recipe
WHY DOES MY KNEE HURT? Hamstring strains are common in athletes and can cause pain around the thigh or knee. Your hamstring is a group of three muscles that run along the back of your thigh and help in allowing you to bend your knee. One or more of these muscles can become strained, or even torn, through excessive use or injury. You can avoid hamstring tears by doing
and kick. However, when the tendon experiencesexcessiveoveruse, itcan become torn and inflamed, resulting in patellar tendinopathy. Those with patellar tendinopathy typically experience pain between the patella and tibia. You may only notice the pain while running or working out at first, but over time it can become more frequentandsevere, interfering with daily activities. Iliotibialbandsyndrome. Iliotibial (IT) band syndrome occurs frequently in runners, since it is caused by an excessive repetitive bending of the knee. The IT band is made up of a thick clump of fibers that run from the outside of the thigh, down the knee, and to the top of the tibia. IT band syndrome occurs when the IT band becomes too tight, making it difficult to glide smoothly over the knee, and resulting in pain and swelling. IT band syndrome can be avoidedbydoing thoroughstretches before a run, preventing the band from becoming too tight. If you are suffering from knee pain, then talk to one of our physical therapy specialists today.
A meniscus tear is one of the most common knee injuries. It occurs when theknee is twistedorrotated in a way that it shouldn’t be, especially when your full weight is put on it. Both knees have two menisci, which areC-shapedpiecesofcartilage that cushion your tibia and femur. When a meniscus is torn, the surrounding areas can become painful, swollen, or stiff. The movement in your knee mayalsobe limited,making itdifficult to bend or extend the knee. Patellar tendinopathy. This injury specifically affects the tendon that connects your patella to your tibia. That tendon is known as the “patellar tendon.” The patellar tendon works together with your quadriceps toallowyou torun, jump,
Ingredients • 1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise • 2 red, orange and/or yellow bell peppers, trimmed, halved and seeded • 1 medium red onion, cut into 1-inch wedges
• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil • ½ tsp salt, divided • ½ tsp ground pepper • 1¼ pounds salmon fillet, cut into 4 portions • ¼ cup thinly sliced fresh basil • 1 lemon, cut into 4 wedges
run. You talked with my surgeons when there were questions about a treatment plan. You treated me as a whole person rather than just an injured body part. In my case, this treatment of my whole person became even more critical as the injuries began to accumulate and I didn’t always recover back to preinjury condition. As you treat me now, I am an older and less able bodied but still wanting to stay as active as possible because some of my greatest enjoyment in life comes from being outdoors. Many of my best memories involve sharing my enjoyment of being outdoors with the people I love. For the past several years I have been blessed to be sharing my passion for the outdoors with people that have disabilities. As I think about doing this for the next 20-30 years, I see you in the picture after each fall helping to put humpty dumpty back together again as you have done so many times before. There is so much more to say, so many stories to remember involving you, Balance PT, me and every member of my family including my sister Bev who would come to see you from New York. Rather than reminisce any more I would like to leave you with some words that embody you, Pete and I think all of the staff at Balance PT: Instructions Preheat grill to medium-high. Brush zucchini, peppers and onion with oil and sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon salt. Sprinkle salmon with pepper and the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt. Place the vegetables and the salmon pieces, skin-side down, on the grill. Cook the vegetables, turning once or twice, until just tender and grill marks appear, 4 to 6 minutes per side. Cook the salmon, without turning, until it flakes when tested with a fork, 8 to 10 minutes. When cool enough to handle, roughly chop the vegetables and toss together in a large bowl. Remove the skin from the salmon fillets (if desired) and serve alongside the vegetables. Garnish each serving with 1 tablespoon basil and serve with a lemon wedge.
PATIENT TESTIMONIAL Chris,
In thinking about why I followed you from Bedford to Windham while there were several physical therapists within a few miles of my house in Bedford, anecdotes keep popping in to my head. I met you first when Steph hurt her hip during a ski fall, you took a genuine interest in her recovery working to get her back on her skis. While she was seeing you for her hip, she injured both her wrists snowboarding. We called Merrimack Valley to cancel her future appointments for a bit while she recovered her wrists because we knew her ski season was over and we weren’t in a big rush for PT. You called a few weeks after we cancelled her appointments just to see how she was doing. After that, I had a nagging hip injury brought on from running so I went to see you. Within a few months you correctly diagnosed the injury and it took longer than a year, several visits to orthopedic doctors, a visit to a neurologist (which you came to) and a call to my cousin who is an orthopedic surgeon in NY to finally find a doctor who correctly diagnosed what you had diagnosed so long ago. All while we were searching for answers, you worked to help to get me strong so I could continue running which was my stress release and my passion. That was just the beginning of a long litany of injuries, surgeries and recoveries. So why you, why Balance PT? First and foremost, I think you have the unique quality of making a person feel valued and important no matter what their position in life. I was fortunate to not only experience this myself but to see how you and Pete treated each patient at Balance with the same respect and compassion that you treated me. I also think that you go above and beyond what one would expect from a physical therapist in terms of treatment of an injury or condition. You ran with me outside to see how I looked after I ran a bit when I said Iwould feelokay tostartarunbut Iwould feelsomethingchangeduring the
• Respect • Compassion • Trust
• Laughter • Humility • Laughter again • Good People • Laughter one more time
-Diane S.
Call Balance Rehab at 603.890.8844 , or visit our website at balance-rehab.com to schedule your appointment today!
Whether you are a high school athlete or just like to exercise for fun, improving your body’s ability to exercise is a good challenge. While there are many different ways to train for your particular sport, including nutrition, we are going to focus on improving your joint performance and stability. This will allow you to run longer, cut faster, and throw better. Joint Stability: Improve your sports ability through joint stability. When a joint is more stable, muscles can function better. For knees, ankles and hips try balance exercises on uneven surfaces such as foam or a folded towel. Try standing on one leg while doing small knee bends. Joint Flexibility: Joints need to be flexible in order to move through their proper range and allow muscles to pull correctly. For many people who are runners, stretching must be done every day to maintain muscle and tissue elasticity. Dynamic stretching is often best, where the stretch is done in a moving fashion, such as in Yoga. This is different than a prolonged stretch. Joint Strength: Incorporate strengthening exercises into your sports routines. This is especially important for runners and weekend warriors. A little strengthening exercising can go a long way to prevent sports injuries and soreness. The stronger your muscles are around your joints, the better ability you have to play and avoid injury. Joint Coordination: You have an inherent sense of where your joints are in space (proprioception) and how they are moving in space (kinesthetic sense). This allows your brain to coordinate the muscle movements around your joints. By improving your balance and coordination with specific exercises, you greatly reduce the chance of injury and will enhance your sports performance. IMPROVING SPORTS PERFORMANCE
STAFF SPOTLIGHT Say hello to our canine staff Dozer! He’s been a part of the Balance family for 3 years now. Dozer travels between both offices in Windham & Goffstown so you’ve probably seen him at some point throughout your treatment. He may stay in the office during the day but outside of Balance Dozer loves to hike the trails and mountains of New Hampshire. He has hiked 45 of NH’s 4000 footers including Mt. Washington recently, and plans to complete all 48 this year! Dozer is a smart dog and knows several commands besides the basics like “high five” and “army crawl”. His favorite treats are cheese, apples, and watermelon among other healthy foods. All of us at Balance love having him there!
If you would like to enhance your ability to run, play sports and prevent injury, then talk to one of our physical therapy specialists today.
PMC KIDS RIDE
This past June two of our Balance PTs, Doc and Piercey, led the dynamic warm-up and manned the medical tent at St. A’s for the PMC kids ride for Cancer. Chris and Stephen volunteered to help with this event supporting the Pan-Mass Challenge’s mission to raise money for cancer research with all proceeds going to the Dana-Farber cancer institute. After the warmup the kids were off riding their bikes around a loop at St. Anselms’ beautiful campus. The PMC Kids ride has been an official event since 2005. One hundred percent of donations go to the Dana-Farber cancer institute for research and treatment. I think all the kids, as well as Chris and Stephen, might have had some fun along the way!
balance-rehab.com
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