Resistance Training
Posted on May 7, 2020 by admin
Resistance training, also known as strength training, is a form of exercise that improves muscular strength and endurance. During a resistance training workout, you move your limbs against resistance provided by your body weight, gravity, bands, weighted bars or dumbbells. Resistance training is recommended to be exercised 2 times in a week. Exercises should be individualized depending on the individual’s knowledge on how to do specific exercises. Kinesiologists specialize in designing exercise programs for patients that need help overcoming chronic injuries and pain.
Types of Resistance Training:
- Calisthenics – Consists of a variety of movements that exercise large muscle groups, including push ups, sit ups, and running
- Weights – Strength training tools such as free weights, machines, kettle-bells, cables/pulleys
Benefits of Resistance Training:
Resistance training can increase tensile strength of connective tissues – helping to strengthen tendons, muscle, and ligaments. It allows tissue to generate more tension and which makes them more resistant to injury. Strength exercises can contribute to optimal performance in daily activities, as it improves posture, encourages weight loss and maintenance, and lowers injury risk. Strength training also reduces the need to do more cardiovascular activities because it helps control blood sugar.
This type of training can also be extremely beneficial for older adults because it improves mobility and functional independence. Implementing resistance training in your physical activity can help in the long run by delaying bone diseases such as osteoporosis – a condition where bones lose their mineral content/bone density and become more vulnerable to fracture. Bone density is improved when stress is put on bones by doing resistance exercises.
Guidelines for Resistance Training:
- Do exercises that involve all major muscle groups (chest, shoulders, back, hips, abdomen, arms)
- To improve good posture, select exercises that strengthen the trunk (abdomen)
- Never lift heavy weights alone (have a spotter)
- Warm up prior to high intensity exercises
- Use proper lifting techniques to prevent musculoskeletal injuries
- Exercise larger muscle groups before smaller ones (Ex. exercise legs before arms)
Shockwave Therapy – Accelerate Healing Process
Posted on February 26, 2020 by admin
A shockwave is an intense, short energy wave that travels faster than sound. By introducing these high-energy waves into the body, shockwave therapy can speed up the healing process through stimulating the metabolism and enhancing blood circulation. These processes help regenerate damaged tissues at the injured areas. When human body fails to heal itself on its own, shockwave therapy could be a great solution.
Why Shockwave Therapy?
Shockwave therapy is an affordable non-surgical procedure that effectively speeds up the healing process after 1 to 2 treatments. Each treatment is rather short, usually takes 20 to 30 minutes. It is effective on treating many conditions such as calcific rotator cuff tendintis, plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinopathy, scar tissue treatment, tennis elbow, jumper’s knee, stress fractures and non-healing ulcers.
The Procedures
Chiropractors will precisely locate the area to be treated by palpation. Then, sufficient amount of gel will be applied to the area for efficient and smooth transfer of the sound wave. The shockwave applicator will be slightly pushed against your skin, and the sound waves will be fired.
Here’s a link to a video illustrating the process of the treatment: https://youtu.be/rXj6ugQuYps
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Posted on January 16, 2020 by admin
MRI is a technique that uses magnetic field and computer-generated sound waves to obtain detailed images of organs and tissues in our body. The magnetic field inside the MRI machine temporarily realigns water molecules in your body. The aligned molecules produce faint signals with radio waves, and create cross-sectional MRI images. 3D images can be produced with MRI by viewing the organ or tissue in various angles.
This noninvasive imaging technique gives high-resolution images of our body tissues which helps identify different health issues. MRI is the most frequently used method to obtain images of the brain and spinal cord. Other common organs and tissues imaged with MRI include heart, blood vessels, internal organs (liver, kidney, pancreas etc.), bones and joints, as well as the breasts.
However, since MRI uses powerful magnets to generate a strong magnetic field, any presence of metal in your body can be attracted to the magnet and can be a safety hazard. Metal can also distort the MRI image. Tattoos or permanent makeup might contain metal and might affect the MRI result. Report to the doctor if you are pregnant or breast-feeding, as the effects of the contrast material that has to be injected are still not well understood.
Patellar Tendonitis
Posted on January 9, 2020 by admin
Patellar tendonitis, also known as jumper’s knee, is the inflammation of the patellar tendon, which connects your knee cap to your shin bone. This condition can weaken the connective tissue and can possibly lead to tears in your tendon. Possible causes of the inflammation of the patellar tendon include practicing repetitive movements, overusing the tendon or adding too much pressure to your tendon repeatedly.
Knee pain is one of the most common symptoms of patellar tendonitis. If you feel pain especially when jumping, running, stretching and bending your leg; tenderness or swelling at the lower part of your knee cap, it is likely that your patellar tendon is inflame. Some symptoms resemble other medical condition, X-ray is one of the best ways to diagnose patellar tendonitis.
Once diagnosed for patellar tendonitis, it is important to stop the activities that caused the problem until fully recovered. Other treatments such as applying ice packs to your knees helps reduce inflammation, and shockwave therapy speeds up the healing process.
Facet Syndrome
Posted on October 24, 2019 by admin
Facet joints:
Facet joints are sets of synovial joints between two adjacent vertebrae. There is a pair of facet joints on each vertebra. The joint’s main function is to guide and limit movements and motions such as rotation. Lumbar facet joints also have some minor impact on limiting the range of motion of side bending.
Definition and symptoms of facet syndrome:
Facet syndrome is defined as the unilateral or bilateral backpain that originates from the facet joint and/or its capsule. Though it might not be common, the pain could radiate to one or both buttocks, the sides of groin and/or the thigh, and usually stops above the knee; but in most cases, the pain is localized which helps practitioners easily located its source. Patients would experience more pain when they extend their back (bend backwards) than when they flex (bend forward).
Diagnosis:
Physical examinations and diagnostic facet joint block detect and indicate facet syndrome, but false positive rate for both diagnostic methods are high. Interventional radiology such as MRI is a more accurate way to detect the syndrome.
Treatment:
Chiropractic adjustments are great ways to treat facet syndrome; the syndrome responds to standard chiropractic treatment procedures like heat and modalities really well. Trainings that can improve time of response and proprioception help with the pain as well.
Plantar Fasciitis
Posted on October 3, 2019 by admin
Plantar Fasciitis is one of the most common causes of heel pain. When the plantar fascia, the flat band of tissue connecting your heel bone to your toes, is strained, it gets inflamed and swollen, and causes pain at the bottom of your foot or at your heel.
Most people with Plantar Fasciitis experience pain when they take their first step after sitting for a long time or getting out of bed. The stiffness and pain might reduce after a few steps. Some might also feel painful after climbing stairs and standing for a long time.
To treat Plantar Fasciitis, you have to give your foot a rest. Cut back from exercises and activities that make your foot hurt. You can also try to put ice on the affected area to ease the inflammation. Toe stretches, calf stretches and towels stretches are excellent stretching exercises to do to relief the pain. It’s always a good idea to get yourself a pair of orthotics to adjust how your shoes fit you.
Start your treatment soon! With the right treatment, you will experience much less pain in a few weeks, but it usually takes at least a few months to a year for the pain to go completely.
Text Neck
Posted on September 3, 2019 by admin
Excessive texting or mobile device use can cause stress injury to the neck, commonly known as the text neck. Symptoms associated might include pain in the neck, upper back and/or shoulder, forward head posture, rounded shoulders, headache, increased pain when neck flexion and reduced mobility.
A lot of extra pressure is put on your cervical spine when our head is bent. The unnatural posture can lead to stresses on the spine and surrounding supportive soft tissues.
Here are some tips to avoid text neck:
- Raise the phone to eye level to minimize bending of neck
- Take breaks from time to time while using your phone
- Stretching exercises during breaks to release tension in the neck and to ease muscle pain
If neck pain keeps returning or is accompanied by severe headache, one should seek medical attention for the right treatment.
Sprain Vs. Strain
Posted on July 30, 2019 by admin
Many people confuse these two words or use them interchangeably, but there is a difference between a sprain and a strain.
To understand the differences you would need to also understand what a tendon and a ligament is. Ligaments are fibrous tissues that connect bones to bones whereas tendons are fibrous tissue that connect muscles to bones.
A sprain is a stretch or tear in a ligament and strains are stretches or tears in a muscle or tendon. The most comment injury is an ankle sprain, for example when you roll your ankle when you stepped on an uneven surface. Strains are most common in contact sports or overworking the muscle. Both are accompanied by swelling, redness and pain. It is important to ice the area and see a doctor if symptoms persist or worsen or you can’t bear weight.
Achilles Tendinopathy
Posted on June 26, 2019 by admin
Achilles tendinopathy is an injury to the Achilles tendon is some way. Different types of Achilles tendinopathy are:
- Achilles tendinitis: this is the acute inflammation of the Achilles tendon
- Achilles tendinosis: this is when no inflammatory cells are presen, collagen fibers in the Achilles tendon are scarred and disorganized. This is usually the cause when people have pain in their Achilles.
- Achilles tenosynovitis: inflammation of the Achilles tendon sheath. This causes fibrosis and scarring that restricts the motion of the tendon within the sheath, in other words, the tendon becomes stiff.
Isometric vs Isotonic Exercisesas
Posted on May 22, 2019 by admin
- Isometric exercises are when the muscle contracts without changing in length, like when you are flexing. An example of this type of exercise would be wall sits or planking.
- Isotonic exercises are when the muscle changes in length. there are 2 types of isotonic movements:
a. Concentric: this is when the muscle is shortening. Example, the upward motion when you do a bicep curl.
b. Eccentric: this is when the muscle is lengthening. Example, moving your arm back to straight from the bicep curl.
Isometric exercises are less stressful than isotonic exercises, so when individuals are recovering from an injury, they should start with isometric exercises and gradually move on the isotonic exercises.