Iliotibial band syndrome is a common knee injury and primarily seen in runners. In this blog we will delve into the symptoms, causes and management for ITBS.
Rotator cuff related pain is a common musculoskeletal condition that affects millions of people worldwide. The rotator cuff consists of a group of four muscles and tendons that stabilize the shoulder joint and allow for a wide range of motion. When these structures become injured or damaged, they can lead to pain, discomfort, and limited mobility. In this blog post, we will delve into the causes, symptoms, acute phase management, and long-term outcomes of rotator cuff related pain.
Flexor Hallucis Longus muscle (and subsequent tendon) runs down the medial border of the tibia past the malleolus and inserts into the plantar surface of the foot and into the base of distal phalanx of hallux. Its role is to move the big toe downwards. FHL pain is usually characterised by medial ankle and foot pain. Sometimes, the discomfort can run up into the medial calf.
In the early stages of rehabilitation, the focus was acute management and early loading to assist with pain relief and base tendon activation avoiding compressive/provocative positions.
In the middle to early phase the focus is on progressive loading of the tendon, isotonically in initially non-compressive loads but gradually progressing to them.
You may have heard various athletes suffering a high ankle sprain or injuring their syndesmosis. But what exactly is a syndesmosis injury? And how does it differ to a normal lateral ankle sprain?
The ankle syndesmosis is the joint between the distal (lowest aspect) of your tibia and fibula. It is comprised by three main supporting ligamentous structures – The Anterior inferior tibiofibular ligament, Posterior inferior Tibiofibular ligament, and interosseous membrane (see Figure 1). The role of the syndesmosis is to provide stability to the tibia and fibula and resist separation of these two bones during weightbearing tasks. It also plays a role in assisting with mobility of the ankle.
Are you unable to recover between training sessions? Experiencing severe wide-spread muscle ache/DOMS? As a female athlete, has your menstruation ever been affected by your training? These can all be signs of energy deficiency and overtraining. Our blog explores what energy deficiency is, how to identify it and how to treat it.
A big focus of returning to activity post injury is reducing the risk of recurrence. As a physiotherapist, we can somewhat measure the risk via tests which give us values that we can A: compare to the uninjured side or B: compare to normative data that has been collated through research.
There is a lot of information out there on low back pain and injuries. Some of which is very useful but on the other hand there is a lot of misinformation which can sometimes lead us in the wrong direction. In this blog we will look to debunk some of the most common low back pain myths!
The rotator cuff are a group of four muscles which provide stabilisation of the shoulder (glenohumeral) joint during movement. These muscles include the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and the subscapularis.
There can be many medical reasons for chest, rib and upper back pain including heart and lung conditions, infections and trauma incidences like fractures.
However, once that has been ruled out a diagnosis to be considered is costochondritis.
The condition is classified as inflammation of the costochondral junction of the ribs (where the bone and cartilage meet) or of the costosternal joints (where the ribs connect to the chest bone). The issue is normally unilateral (one sided) but can sometimes be bilateral.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is the result of wear and tear of the joint cartilage. It can result in pain and stiffness when loading a joint. But is OA always a sign we need to protect our joints and stop certain activities? The answer may surprise you.
Ankle inversion injuries, commonly known as a rolled ankle, are prevalent in court sports such as basketball, netball and tennis and field sports including AFL football and soccer. They affect the lateral ligament complex, which is important for stabilising the ankle joint.
The PosteroLateral Corner describes 3 main structures at the back and outside corner of the knee that are important for stabilisation. These resist against hyperextension and rotational forces.
Whiplash is a common term often related to motor vehicle accidents. But what exactly is whiplash? What is the best treatment and what does it mean for the longevity of your neck health? Read below!
The dietary supplement and health food market is massive and is continuing to grow. To gain that extra edge it is not a surprise that athletes of all backgrounds find themselves drawn to additional dietary help to improve their physical output. Unfortunately, most of the supplements on shelves are not what they are made out to be and there is no substitute for good old-fashioned hard work.
This topic seems somewhat timely given these particular injuries are normally load related.
As discussed in my previous blog about Load Management, the last 6 months have played havoc with people’s Acute Chronic Workload Ratio and children/adolescents are no exception.
The conditions I will be discussing are usually related to a big spike in activity which has been the case this year with most sporting organisations eager to recommence their seasons. These spikes will be somewhat amplified in young athletes who participate in multiple sports or who are already specialising in their chosen sport which can mean numerous training sessions/games per week.
Upper Trapezius gets a lot of blame as the cause of long-standing neck pain. If you have received treatment for ‘neck pain’ it may well have consisted of some massage, taping or advice to ‘relax’ your upper trapezius muscles - but is this what our treatment should target? Are we relaxing, stretching and massaging a muscle we should really be strengthening?
What is PFPS?
Patellofemoral pain is the most common cause of pain at the front of the knee.
It occurs with ‘patella mal-tracking’ i.e. when the under surface of the patella (kneecap) slides in the grove of the femur as the knee bends and straightens as the quadriceps contract and relax.
When the knee is bent, mal tracking often causes the patella to shift laterally, causing pain with squat, moving from sitting to standing and using stairs.
I started writing this blog about 2 months ago as Winter Sports pre-seasons started to ramp up. What a difference 2 months can make right? Back then, my purpose was to focus on the consequences of increasing physical activity (too much load) too quickly. However, on further reflection, the focus can also be on not enough physical activity (under-loading) which is probably more topical.
With a large percentage of people now working from home the team at East Vic Park Physio thought it would be a good idea to provide some simple but useful information on workstation ergonomics.
Previous to what we used to think, there is not one way to correctly sit at your workstation. Your set up should be able to accommodate for a range of comfortable positions that you can frequently change throughout the day.
Neck or cervical pain is becoming increasingly common, with the highest prevalence among office and computer based workers. Physios commonly hear clients admitting to ‘bad posture’ – but do we really know what bad posture is?
In a world focused on optimal performance, adequate recovery is paramount in allowing consistent high intensity effort. Exercise in general uses various body energy systems in which the waste products (eg lactic acid) can hinder performance. The quicker the waste is processed and cleared out from the body, the quicker the body returns back to homeostasis.
With running season well upon us, here are some hints and tips about a common running injury achilles tendinopathy.
Soft tissue injuries are very common in sport/physical activity and recovery timelines can take anywhere from 10 days – 16 weeks. These timelines are decided using physical assessment and understanding of muscle-tendon complex injury healing but, in the case of lower limb injuries, can be aided with an MRI of the area. The radiologists who interpret the scan results will often use the BAMIC system to identify the area and grade of the injury which can help in determining return to play timelines.