Tag Archives: hip

Dynamic Golf Stretches

May 4, 2022 Teresa Stockton - Blog, Sports and Fitness

Golf requires strength, flexibility, endurance, and power to create pain-free movement and improve your game. The most common golf injury is low back pain followed by shoulder pain and knee pain. A physical therapist can assist you in improving your pain and correcting your body’s deficits. These golf stretches will make your golf game less painful and reduce those extra strokes:

Hamstring Stretch
(move from upright into stretched position 10x)

Back Extension Stretch
(hold club backwards overhead, repeat 10x)

Hip/Back/Shoulder Rotation Stretch
(hold club behind back and rotate torso to each side 10x)

Calf Stretch
(move from upright into stretched position 10x)

Lumbar Spine Rotation
(hold club, plant feet as shown, rotate to each side 10x)

Forearm Rotation
(hold club straight up, then rotate to each side 10x)

This information was written by Mishock Physical Therapy and Associates, a privately-owned, outpatient physical therapy practice operating in southeast Pennsylvania. They actively participate in the community by providing services to schools, retirement communities, and local businesses. Their mission is to provide the most efficacious, state-of-the-art physical therapy services to relieve pain, restore function and return you to the highest quality of life possible. For more information click here.

PT News

February 28, 2018 Teresa Stockton - Blog, PT News

This Month in PT News. Featuring articles from PTandMe partnering clinics!

1. Skiing and Thumb Injury
Written by the Therapy Team at the Jackson Clinics – Northern Virginia

Skiing falls can often cause injury to the inner ligament of your thumb, caused by the force of the pole against this area of the hand during a fall. This area, a band of fibrous tissue connecting the bones at the bottom of the thumb, is known as the ulnar collateral ligament. Read more

2. Amazing People Make A Difference: Megan and Earl’s Story
Written by the Therapy Team, ARC Physical Therapy+ – Topeka, Kansas

Earl Bayless was riding in his work truck on December 21, 2016 when his driver fell asleep, causing a major accident. Their truck flipped several times in the air and skidded a block down the road before coming to a stop and leaving Earl to wonder what just happened. Read more

3. 6 Benefits of Rowing
Written by the Therapy Team at Momentum Physical Therapy – San Antonio, Texas

If you are looking for a low-impact workout that targets multiple areas of the body while getting your heart rate up, rowing might be the right exercise for you! Read more

Women’s Health: The Sacroilial (SI) Joint and How It Affects You

September 19, 2017 Teresa Stockton - Back, Blog, Women's Health

It has been estimated that about 95% of the population will experience low back pain at some point during a lifetime. Low back pain may be due to many different causes and anatomical structures, one such structure is the SI joint. Here is some pertinent information about the SI joint and how it may affect your general health.

8 FUN FACTS:

What is the SI joint?
It is a joint connecting the sacrum and the ilium, 2 bones included in the pelvis. The pelvis connects the upper body to the lower body, more specifically the spine to the hips.

What does the SI joint do?
It helps to stabilize your core during functional and work activities and helps with shock absorption during weight-bearing activities including walking. Stability is also assisted by the ligaments, fascia, and muscles that attach to the joint. This includes back, gluteal, hip, and pelvic floor musculature.

Who feels SI pain?
People with leg length discrepancies, asymmetrical lower extremity weakness, scoliosis, pregnant women due to increased ligamentous laxity, women > men due to pelvic anatomy, and those who have experienced a traumatic event such as a fall or a motor vehicle accident or that perform repetitive activities with poor body mechanics including lifting and bending.

Where would you feel SI pain?
Directly over the SI joint, in the buttock, lateral or posterior thigh, or sometimes in the groin.

When may you feel SI pain?
Rolling in bed, rotating your trunk, walking, stair ascent or descent, standing from a sitting position, single leg activities

What positions/activities should be adopted?
Sleep with a pillow between your lower extremities, perform slow, controlled movements, maintain equal weight-bearing through lower extremities with transitional movements and standing, log roll during bed mobility to keep lower extremities symmetrical, swing lower extremities out of the car before standing up to prevent trunk rotation.

How can PT help?
Physical therapy has been found to help patients with SI pain get pain relief, reduce inflammation and muscle spasms, improve healing, muscle extensibility, joint mobility and range of motion, strength, muscle control, and gait mechanics.

What does PT treatment for SI pain involve?
Stretching, mobilization techniques, education on proper body mechanics with functional activities, massage, myofascial release, modalities including electrical stimulation for pain modulation and ultrasound to assist with healing and inflammation, muscle energy techniques, and a core stabilization and strengthening exercise program, tailored to the individual patient. If a leg length discrepancy is found, a heel lift may be helpful to restore abnormal forces being placed through the SI joint with weight-bearing activities. An initiation of a home exercise program is also an integral part of physical therapy treatment.

What is Causing Your Hip Pain?

July 7, 2017 Teresa Stockton - Blog, Hip

The hip is a large weight bearing ball and socket joint. We use our hips to help move our legs, and for the most part it’s stable and doesn’t give us a whole lot of trouble. That’s not the case for everyone however. Let’s take a look at hip pain and what the main culprits are.

The Most Common Types of Hip Pain
The most common type of hip pain is arthritis which literally means” swelling of the joint”. Osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and traumatic arthritis are 3 types of arthritis that may ultimately require surgical intervention such as a hip replacement. Other traumatic injuries, birth deformity or childhood hip disease can also cause hip joint damage.

Osteoarthritis is caused by wear and tear of the joint and is typically seen in people 50 years or older. The articular cartilage becomes soft and wears down causing pain, loss of range of motion, and swelling.

Rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune disease whereby your body’s immune system attacks your joints causing pain and swelling.

Traumatic Arthritis can occur following a severe hip injury or fracture. In this case, the trauma causes cartilage damage which can lead to hip pain and stiffness over time. Avascular Necrosis is a condition following a traumatic injury to the hip whereby the blood supply to the femoral head is compromised resulting in pain and damage to the articular cartilage.

For more information on hip pain or what to expect from hip replacement recovery check the articles below:

This article about hip pain was provided by PTandMe physical therapy partner: STAR Physical Therapy. More information about STAR Physical Therapy and their 65 locations throughout TN can be found on their website at www.STARpt.com

Can Your Feet Cause Pain in Your Knee, Hip or Back?

February 23, 2017 Teresa Stockton - Back, Blog, Foot, Hip, Knee

Can your feet cause pain in other areas of the body? Yes it can. The foot is an arch and arches decrease compressive forces by distributing them across the span of the arch. Engineers use arches in building and bridges to hold up greater weight across longer spans. The human foot has 3 arches that all work together to distribute the forces our bodies put on it. This allows us to walk, run and jump.

We start running into problems when the arch is either too flat or too high – causing the forces put through the foot to be abnormally distributed, resulting in strain.

Flat feet limit the range of motion of our ankle, causing our hips to rotate inward and move towards the center of our body.
High arches do the opposite to our hip joints.
These changes cause strain to our ankle, knee and hip joints, and our back.

People can be unaware that their feet cause pain throughout the body because they were born with flat feet or high arches and they do not know what “normal” feels like. As physical therapists we have treated many children who didn’t realize that their feet are not supposed to be sore. But instead of seeing them for prescribed foot pain, they come for pain in their joints or back.

Orthotics were developed to correct or adapt to changes in the foot. Orthotics should be fitted by a healthcare professional trained in assessing the foot and gait. Standing on a pressure plate in the store is not good enough. Why? If your foot hurts are you going to stand on it normally? Probably not. This results in an abnormal reading.

An orthotic by itself is not the best treatment. A physical therapist will assess your function, strength, flexibility and range of motion. Patients will present with other problems as the result of abnormal arches. Treatment with orthotics combined with strengthening and stretching exercises, balance training, functional training and manual therapy is necessary to restore full function.

Common Ice Hockey Injuries

January 31, 2017 Teresa Stockton - Blog, Knee, Sports and Fitness

Ice hockey is one of the most popular sports played in North America. Physical therapy can provide specific treatment to a number of specific ice hockey injuries. Here are a few injuries that can happen during a hockey game or practice:

Common Ice Hockey Injuries

BACK INJURIES
Hockey players are at risk for low-back injuries due to the flexed (forward) posture of skating and the frequent hyperextension (backward) stress. Low-back pain and/or a pulled muscle are the most common injuries. Stretching of the hip flexors along with strengthening of the back and abdominal muscles will help avoid these injuries.

HIP INJURIES
The hip joint and groin muscle are susceptible to injury due to the mechanisms of the skating stride. Some of the most common soft tissue injuries in hockey players include a groin strain and a hip flexor strain. Off-season strengthening and dedicated stretching before and after practice are important to prevent these injuries. In addition, a direct blow to the outside of the hip can cause a hip pointer or trochanteric bursitis. Hockey pants with reinforced padding over these areas may help protect them.

KNEE INJURIES
The medial collateral ligament is the most susceptible to a sprain because of the leg position – pushing off the inside edge of the skate blade – and contact to the outside of the knee. Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) disruption and meniscus tears (torn cartilage) can also occur but are less common in hockey that in other sports such as football, soccer and basketball.

SHOULDER INJURIES
The most common shoulder injuries in hockey are a shoulder separation and a broken collarbone. These injuries occur from direct contact of the shoulder with another player, the boards or the ice. Treatment can include a sling, rest and in serious cases surgery.

ELBOW INJURIES
The point of the elbow is a frequent area of contact, which can result in the development of bursitis. Thick and scarred bursal tissue (which feels like bone chips, but isn’t) can be a source of recurrent inflammation. The best prevention method is wearing elbow pads that will fit well and have an opening for the elbow, soft padding and a plastic outer shell.

WRIST INJURIES
A fall on the outstretched arm or contact with the boards that forces the wrist up or down, may cause a fracture. Players should try bracing themselves against the boards using their forearms instead of their hands.

Postoperative Physical Therapy

November 17, 2016 Teresa Stockton - Aging, Blog, Hip, Knee

Postoperative physical therapy after a Total Hip Replacement is essential to your recovery. Your physical therapist will follow your physician’s protocol and will focus on range of motion exercises, progressive strengthening exercises, gait training, balance training, and activity specific training to meet your specific needs. Modalities such as ice and e-stim may be used to help reduce discomfort and swelling. It is very important to complete your home exercise program as directed by your physical therapist and physician.

RANGE OF MOTION EXERCISES
Swelling and pain can make you move your knee less. Your physical therapist can teach you safe and effective exercises to restore the range of motion to your knee so that you can perform your daily activities.

STRENGTHENING EXERCISES
Weakness of the muscles of the thigh and lower leg is typical after surgery. Your physical therapist can determine the best strengthening exercises for you with the goal of no longer needing a cane or walker to walk.

BALANCE TRAINING
Specialized training exercises can help your muscles “learn” to adapt to changes in your world such as uneven or rocky ground. When you are able to put your full weight on your knee without pain, your physical therapist may add agility exercises so that you can safely and quickly change directions or make quick stops or starts. They may use a balance board that will challenge your balance and knee control. These exercises will be safe and fun.

GAIT TRAINING
Your physical therapist will work with you in retraining your gait following your surgery using appropriate assistive devices such as a walker or cane. They will make sure that you will be able to safely and confidently go up and down stairs, negotiate curbs, and inclines, etc.

ACTIVITY SPECIFIC TRAINING
Depending on the requirements or your job or the type of recreational activities you enjoy, your physical therapist will tailor your program so that you can meet your specific demands.

This article about postoperative physical therapy was written by STAR Physical Therapy, an outpatient physical therapy group with over sixty locations in Tennessee. Established in 1997 with one clinic and one mission – to serve. Today, they have grown to offer that direct service in more than 60 clinics, and while they’ve grown, one thing that has not changed is their commitment to you, their communities, and their employees. For more information click here.