Category: Fitness

3 Tips for Dealing with Shin Splints

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Shin splints, or medial tibial stress syndrome, are a common complaint especially among new runners, those getting back to training after a break, or those significantly upping their running mileage. The bad news is, shin splints are painful. They lead to a dull, sometimes throbbing, soreness on the inner side of your shinbone and sometimes even swelling in the lower leg. The good news is, shin splints are not hard to treat, and in most cases, they don’t require a visit to the doctor.

Shin splints are a classic overuse running injury. They are caused by the pounding as you run, impacting the muscles at the shin and the connective tissue that attaches to the shinbone. When the muscles swell, they press on the bone and cause pain. If you keep running, the muscles will continue to swell, bringing the pain with it. In extreme cases, the continued pressure on the shinbone can cause cracks and even stress fractures.

But before you get to that point, here are three ways you can treat your shin splints at home:

1. Slow down

The pounding from running is what’s causing the shin splints, so you need to reduce it and give your muscles time to recover. If you’ve just started running, consider cutting back to walking your mileage, then walk-running until your legs improve. If you are a seasoned runner, scale back any recent mileage increases and allow two or three days between each run. You can keep up your fitness during this period by cross-training on a bike or in the pool. Water running is an excellent (and surprisingly challenging) way to work your running muscles without exacerbating the shin splints. You might also check your running shoes for good, running soles.

2. Ice

Ice your lower legs, not just after runs, up to eight times a day, no more than 20 minutes at a time. After several days of this, you should feel some relief.

3. Rolling your shins

Using a foam roller can help reduce inflammation and may help to alleviate shin splint pain. It can ease your throbbing legs while also working on soothing the muscles that are causing the pain. Spend about 2 minutes slowly rolling each leg on the sides and back. Start with rolling the calf first from the knee, all the way down to the ankle, and back up several times. Next, turn to roll the inside of the inner calf and side shin. Roll the outside of your calf and side shin using the same method. Last, roll the top of the shin by placing the foam roller between the ground and your shin.

If, despite taking these measures and reducing your time running, you still are suffering from shin splints, you may want to visit Dynamic Sports Medicine for myofascial release, acoustic compression therapy, or laser therapy. The doctor can assess to make sure the shinbones aren’t damaged, which is rare. With some restraint and the above home remedies, you should be back to running without pain in no time.

Elbow Discomfort? It Could Be Tennis Elbow!

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Chiropractic Care for Tennis Elbow

If you have pain or burning on the outside of your elbow that worsens when gripping objects, shaking hands, or performing other tasks that require turning your forearm and underside of your wrist over, you could have tennis elbow – even if you don’t play tennis! 

Tennis elbow is a painful condition that results from overuse and repetitive motions utilizing the arms and hands. It can be acute, due to inflammation of the joint, or chronic, due to degenerative microtears in the tendons that attach the muscles to the outside of the elbow. 

Its name is misleading because it doesn’t only affect tennis or other racquet-sport players. Baseball players, swimmers, golfers, actually anyone who performs sports or other activities that require repetitive and energetic use of the forearm muscle or repeated extension of the hand and wrist can experience tennis elbow pain.

Repetitive stress causes tendons in the area to become irritated and inflamed, resulting in pain in the bony knob on the outside of the elbow that can even radiate up and down the arm. The area can become so sensitive that even typing on the computer or turning a doorknob is difficult. 

Fortunately, sports chiropractic specializes in the prevention and treatment of this type of injury. 

Preventing Tennis Elbow

Proper technique and equipment are both important, but conditioning the joint is also helpful. Conditioning exercises for tennis elbow help stretch and strengthen the muscles in the wrist and forearm before play and on recovery days. 

Exercises for Tennis Elbow

Forearm Stretch

Get down on the ground on all fours with the fingers pointed back toward the thighs. Lightly press into the ground while gently rocking back and forth. After 30-60 seconds, turn the hands over so the knuckles are face down but the fingers are still pointed toward the thighs (palms up). Make sure not to put your full body weight onto your wrists. You want to apply just enough pressure to feel the stretch in the underside of the arm.  

To do this from a standing position, place one arm straight out in front of you and use the opposite hand to stretch the other in both directions: With energy in the working arm, bend at the wrist and point fingers towards the floor. Exacerbate the stretch by using the other hand to gently pull the fingers back toward the forearm. Hold. Next, with the arm still outstretched, point the fingers toward the ceiling and gently pull the fingers back toward the body. Repeat on both sides even if the pain is only on the dominant side.

Wrist Stretch

Tennis balls are a valuable at-home rehab and recovery aid. Not only are they great for massaging out knots in muscles, but they are also an ironically effective tool for strengthening the wrists to prevent tennis elbow. Gripping and releasing the ball for two to three minutes several times throughout the day while gradually building up grip intensity is great for both prevention of, and active recovery from, tennis elbow. 

Caring for Tennis Elbow

If you already have elbow pain, it is best to get it evaluated before the injury worsens. Beginning with a thorough assessment of your pain to determine the cause, sports chiropractic care employs a variety of helpful modalities to help relieve it.  

Often, chiropractic limb adjustments to the wrist and elbow can reduce inflammation by allowing for greater mobility in the joints. 

Electrical pulse stimulation improves blood flow to the area to encourage faster healing, and soft tissue work around the joint breaks up adhesions compressing tendons. 

If you think you have tennis elbow, or just suffer from regular elbow pain, contact Dynamic Sports Medicine for an evaluation. We can address existing injuries as well as guide you through exercises for tennis elbow to prevent the initial onset or recurrence of this painful condition.

Optimizing Sports Performance

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Optimizing Sports Performance Through Chiropractic

Performance sports athletes are always pushing their bodies to the limit by training harder, running faster (or longer,) jumping higher and lifting more.

Did you know that regular visits to the chiropractor can help you achieve these goals? 

Athletes of all levels and ages can benefit from a sports chiropractor’s expertise in hands-on, drug-free methods for achieving peak sports performance. More than experts in skeletal structure and alignment, the therapy for which they are best known, chiropractors also specialize in how muscles, tendons, and ligaments work with joints to produce movement, as well as the athlete’s need for specific nutrition and supplementation, all of which factor into helping the body function as efficiently as possible.

Peak Performance

No matter your sport of choice, optimal body function can only be achieved when everything is working the way it should be, and this can’t happen when your body is not properly aligned.  Spinal misalignment affects everything from posture and mobility to blood flow and nerve function.  Chiropractic adjustments free up restrictions to improve mobility, and reduce nerve interference between the brain and the rest of the body.  This ensures that the messages from the brain to organs and muscles are properly sent and received so that athletes find more success in achieving goals like improved speed, agility, balance and strength. Each of these benefits, in turn, offers protection from potential injury, and shorter recovery times in the event you do get injured.

Post-Workout and Injury Recovery

Because many sports injuries are as much the result of poor posture and form as they are lack of proper training, chiropractic adjustments can prepare bodies for performing sports activities correctly and safely. This is particularly important with young athletes since their bodies are still growing and changing so rapidly. 

Chiropractors can improve teen sports performance by identifying skeletal issues when the patient is young and correcting them before the athlete’s form/technique has been too negatively altered.

In addition, sports chiropractors can assist young athletes in building strong muscles, increasing flexibility and mobility, and injury healing and prevention.

Chiropractic therapies are also great for assisting in post-workout recovery. Soft tissue mobilization, which encourages recovery at a cellular level, along with specialized massage therapy and targeted electrical stimulation are all techniques used by chiropractors to speed recovery and reduce soreness after activity. 

Faster recovery lets you resume training faster and free of pain. 

Schedule an appointment to discuss how regular chiropractic can help you get the most out of your athletic training and optimize your sports performance.

Prevention & Care of Ankle Sprains

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An ankle sprain is a very common athletic injury, especially in sports requiring lots of running, jumping, or quick directional changes.

Running on uneven surfaces or landing awkwardly after a jump or other maneuver can cause you to roll or twist the ankle to the extent that the ligaments of the ankle are overstretched or torn. You may even hear or feel a popping sensation.

Symptoms you have sprained your ankle include pain when attempting to use or apply pressure to the affected foot, as well as swelling and bruising of the ankle. 

It can be very uncomfortable and dramatically interfere with training. 

The first means of healing is the standard R.I.C.E. therapy: Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. This addresses the immediate inflammation of the tissues surrounding your injury. After that, it’s important to allow complete healing of the ankle joint before resuming activity in order to prevent further damage and increase the risk of subsequent injuries to the weakened structure. 

Sports chiropractic care is great for rehabbing strains like those to the ankle with active recovery treatment plans based on the severity and type of ankle sprain. Each individualized ankle sprain physical therapy plan is specifically designed to achieve proper motioning and alignment, as well as to strengthen the muscles and tissues surrounding the joint with specialized exercises for ankle sprains. 

Regular sports chiropractic care is also great at helping prevent injuries such as these in the first place. Along with bracing weak joints, being cautious/aware of training surfaces, wearing the proper footwear for your foot shape and sport, and regularly warming up the ankle before activity, sports chiropractic care takes injury prevention even further.  

With manual adjustments, soft tissue manipulation, and a variety of state-of-the-art therapies and technologies, we can help correct misalignments that are comprising ankle structures, increase strength, flexibility, and range of motion around the ankle joint, and analyze gait and other body mechanics, including an athlete’s landing and jumping techniques, that increase the likelihood of injury.

If you regularly participate in a sport where ankle sprains are common — or even possible — let Dynamic Sports Medicine provide you with effective therapies and proven expertise to fully heal with shorter ankle sprain recovery times and/or reduce your chances of an ankle sprain in the future. 

 

Chiropractic Care Offers Basketball Players The Competitive Advantage

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Sports chiropractic can help athletes in all sports maximize their performance and reduce the risk of injury. Basketball players are no exception. 

In fact, because of the dramatic bursts of energy and the frequent stop-start motions required in hoops, basketball players often find regular chiropractic to be particularly beneficial.

Jumping, landing, sprinting, and suddenly stopping on hard court surfaces mean the lower back and legs take a lot of abuse in practice and in play. The impressive on-court maneuvers fans appreciate often result in skeletal misalignments in players that can affect the range of motion and flexibility, as well as cause muscle strains, sprains, and tears.

Players who include sports chiropractic as part of their training routine report improved overall mobility and flexibility as well as freer nerve communication, both of which are important for a player to perform optimally. 

Chiropractic adjustments realign the body for pain-free play, and eliminate undue physical stress that can lead to common basketball injuries such as those to the lower extremities (foot, ankle, and knee,) hip and thigh strains, and back and neck sprains, among others. 

It seems obvious that mobility is extremely important for a player to be able to quickly bend, twist, jump and otherwise maneuver on the court. However, many underestimate the role that nerve communication plays in hand-eye coordination and effective body mechanics. If nerve flow is impeded by spinal misalignment, not only will mobility be affected, but the information transfer from the brain to the body can be delayed. 

Along with spinal and limb manipulations, sports chiropractic utilizes myofascial massage, a variety of instrument-assisted rehabilitation techniques, as well as exercise, stretching, and dietary assistance to improve speed, flexibility, strength, and balance on the court. In doing so, the risk of injury is reduced and performance is naturally enhanced.

What’s more, if a player already has an existing injury, sports chiropractic can work alone or in conjunction with orthopedics to shorten recovery time, leading to faster, more complete healing. 

If you want the competitive court advantage no matter your level of play, let Dynamic Sports Medicine be part of your training routine.

 

Common Knee Injuries: ACL, MCL, & Meniscus

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As the largest joint in the body, and one with multiple moving parts and connections, common knee injuries are something we deal with often. Some occur from acute trauma when the pain of the injury is definite and sudden, and others are the result of repetitive motion or wear and tear over time. The latter is generally suspected following a period of gradually increased pain, weakness, and/or stiffness during and after activity. 

Knee pain is one of the most common reasons people seek sports chiropractic care. Following the well-known RICE method (Rest, Ice, Compression & Elevation) for the initial relief of swelling and pain, sports chiropractic offers a number of diagnostic and rehabilitation therapies to effectively treat acute and chronic knee pain. 

* Ultrasound imaging
* Interferential therapy
* Trigger point therapy, soft tissue/deep tissue massage
* Eventual introduction of strengthening and stabilizing exercises to improve mobility & function

These therapies are great non-surgical ways for addressing pain from ligament injuries, meniscus tears, and other common knee-related issues, but also work as a complementary treatment when surgery is required.  

Ligament Injuries

The knee has four main ligaments that work together to provide strength and stability during various back-and-forth and side-to-side motions. 

* Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)
* Posterior cruciate ligament (PCL)
* Medial collateral ligament (MCL)
* Lateral collateral ligament (LCL) 

Ligament injuries, particularly to the ACL and MCL, are not a rare occurrence among athletes. When any part of the knee is forcibly overextended due to traumatic impact to the joint or an awkward landing during activity, the ligaments can fail to adequately support the motion. When pressed beyond capacity, ligaments can be strained and torn.

The pain, swelling, and bruising experienced are dependent upon the severity of the injury. When dealing with a Type I or II ligament injury, defined as a sprain or partial tear, chiropractic adjustments to the knee joint can help improve functionality and mobility in the area and both encourage quicker healing times and help prevent further damage. 

Once completely torn, ligaments often require surgery.  In these cases, sports chiropractic care is an invaluable adjunct approach to rehabbing the knee following surgery to offer more complete healing in a shorter time period. 

Meniscus tears

A torn meniscus is common in athletes who participate in sports requiring a lot of jumping and twisting or sudden change in direction while running. Volleyball, football, and soccer are good examples. Wear and tear over time, especially when combined with sudden cutting and pivoting motions, can result in a meniscus tear, which can be quite painful. While these injuries can occur on their own, they often accompany ACL injuries. 

Mild to moderate meniscus tears, whether degenerative or traumatic, usually don’t require surgery, with patients being told to rest the knee, and treat pain and inflammation while the meniscus calms down. Eventually, physical therapy is introduced to help patients regain mobility.

But instead of just waiting, why not try sports chiropractic care? The meniscus actually responds extremely well to therapies like myofascial release applied to the muscles surrounding the meniscus, dry needling, Active Release Technique, and corrective exercises designed to strengthen the structures of the knee during healing and provide relief and protection from future injury.  

Because injuries are inevitable for athletes, sports chiropractic care should be a regular part of any training program. Designed to identify weaknesses in the structure of the knee and the connecting muscles of the leg that lead to pain and injuries, sports chiropractic can assist in the rehabilitation of the knee and get you back into pain-free training. 

Even when there is a known knee injury, sports chiropractic care begins with a full-body assessment to identify biomechanic issues — such as poor quadricep strength, gluteal weakness, patellofemoral tracking disorders, and foot over or under pronation — that have potentially led to knee instability, and work to correct those issues while addressing the knee pain. 

If you are experiencing new or chronic knee pain, contact Dynamic Sports Medicine today for an evaluation. Training through your pain may lead to more serious issues down the road.  

 

Chiropractic Care for Sports Injury Rehabilitation

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Speed Recovery and Prevent Re-injury

If you’re involved in any kind of sports activity, you’ve probably experienced a sports-related injury in one form or another. Strains, sprains, tears, and fractures, among other complaints, are often common byproducts of being physically active over time. 

Whether for a team sport such as football or soccer, or solo activity like running or dancing, hours of training result in natural wear and tear on the body causing many people to train in pain.  In addition, sports injuries sustained from tackles, falls, improperly warming up, and overtraining leave many people sidelined for long periods of passively waiting for injuries to heal. 

Chiropractic care can help keep you in the game by assisting with active healing, reducing both recovery time and the likelihood of re-injury.

How does chiropractic care help in sports rehab?

Chiropractors specialize in body alignment issues and routinely perform manual adjustments of the spine to ensure, among other things, proper movement and maximum mobility. Properly aligned and balanced bodies allow muscles, ligaments, and tendons to work together instead of against each other in the performance of physical tasks. By identifying and correcting alignment issues, allowing the body to work in balance, chiropractors can both treat and help prevent injuries of the neck, back, shoulder, knee, and ankle.

Often, when extremely sore or mildly injured, an athlete will change their gait, grip, or other motion to allow themselves to still participate in their sport. This not only prevents the original injury from healing properly, but it can also create new issues in other areas.

By performing a detailed assessment of body alignment, a chiropractor can identify causes of pain and inflammation leading to a patient’s impaired range of motion, and with gentle chiropractic adjustments restore the neck and spine to proper form.  This can relieve pain in the immediate area, and eliminate pressure on nerves that might be causing radiating pain in the extremities.

Resting the affected area is generally advised, but isn’t always enough on its own for complete healing, particularly when dealing with chronic or recurring pain.  Including chiropractic care as part of your sports rehab allows you to be proactive with your healing process and get you back to your usual activity in less time.

Injuries are a possibility when participating in almost any sport, but there is no doubt that the benefits far outweigh the risks in your efforts to be physically fit. However, it’s important to treat sports injuries quickly no matter how minor, so talk to us about how chiropractic care can be a valuable part of your sports injury rehabilitation, as well as a beneficial, ongoing part of your physical fitness program.

 

Immediate Help for Teen Sports Injuries

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Many people suffer sports injuries each year for which they don’t feel the need to seek treatment, particularly young athletes. Fear of being sidelined leads them to think that because it only hurts a little or only during certain activity they can safely push through the pain during workouts, or “treat” the injury themselves with ice, wraps, pain relievers, and self-designed workout modifications. 

But over time, minor knee, shoulder, or elbow pain not treated properly can become lingering discomfort, or even a permanent health problem, despite the fact that complete recovery is possible.

It’s vitally important to seek early and proper treatment, and chiropractic rehab is increasingly relied upon by youth and teen athletes of all levels for full and faster healing of sports injuries.

With specialized training and knowledge of sports-specific body mechanics, sports chiropractors can restore functional integrity and stability to affected areas to provide faster pain relief and prevent minor pain from becoming exacerbated or chronic.

“Proper” Treatment is Not the Same for Everyone

Every injury and every athlete is different. While two people may have the same complaint, the events that led to the reported pain may be different, as are the health, lifestyle habits, and body compositions of the patients.

Sports chiropractic utilizes thorough evaluations of posture, alignment, and body mechanics to formulate an individualized rehab regimen for each patient consisting of a number of therapies and modalities. To recover fully, patients must achieve an intricate balance of rest, activity, and lifestyle support, along with proactive sports rehab.

Rest: Activity. Rest equals repair, but while the immediate point of injury may need a period of inactivity, it’s important to strengthen the surrounding soft tissue, ligaments, and tendons with appropriate stretches and exercises. Sports chiropractors utilize proven tools and therapies that speed healing and often leave injured areas stronger than they were before. 

Lifestyle Factors. To restore an injured part of the body, the athlete needs adequate sleep and healing nutrition. While most teen athletes can consume vast amounts of junk foods without gaining weight, diets high in sugary, processed foods don’t assist repair. Not only will vitamins, minerals, and proteins energize the body for rehabilitation, they will prevent other illnesses like colds and viruses from demanding important immune-system attention. Likewise, smoking/vaping, drinking alcohol, and overusing OTC pain meds slow the regeneration of injured tissues and interrupt the healing process.

Sports chiropractic rehab. While it’s tempting to think minor injuries can be self-treated, it’s important for young athletes to seek guided professional care. Because youth and teen athletes are still growing, not properly taking care of issues early on can damage growth plates and affect development.  In addition, athletes who have been attempting to play with minor injuries tend to have altered techniques to compensate for pain, affecting their performance and creating bad habits that can contribute to future injuries. Alleviate pain with sports chiropractic allows the body to function more optimally to enhance performance.

Sports injuries are a natural part of sports. Whether you have a new injury or are dealing with lingering pain from a previous one, chiropractic sports rehab can help you heal more quickly and get you back in the game.

 

Back To School With Chiropractic Care

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Even with so many unknowns in the world today, there are some things you can always count on when heading back to school:

* Backpacks will be heavy
* Back to school means back to sports
* Excitement equals stress for parents, students, and teachers
* Boosting wellness is vitally important

Regular chiropractic care can help!

Backpack Basics

While style, brand, and color may be your student’s primary concern when shopping for backpacks, yours should be size, shape, and construction. That’s because book bags fit and weight distribution are very important for reducing stress on growing bodies, as well as for maintaining spinal alignment. Look for backpacks with ergonomic straps that are wide (and preferably padded) and can be adjusted so that the bag doesn’t hang too loosely or too far down the back of the body. Encourage the use of both straps when they have them, or regularly rotating the side it’s carried on when they don’t. Crossbody bags may be an option as well so that the whole load doesn’t hang off of one shoulder all the time. 

Getting in the habit of regularly cleaning out backpacks is also a great idea. Often, much of the weight of a book bag’s contents are comprised of things that no longer need to be in there.

Overburdened backpacks can eventually present in uneven shoulders and hips, as well as other skeletal problems that can lead to pain and affect growth. Spinal adjustments and routine monitoring for alignment issues can address many of the problems caused by heavy backpacking through school hallways. 

Sports Conditioning

Whether your student-athlete took the season off or trained their summer away, sports chiropractic care can be extremely beneficial for entering Fall practice in peak shape. There’s a reason so many professional sports teams have a chiropractor on staff and this is it: when the spine is properly aligned, and areas of muscular weakness are identified, performance can be improved, and injury much less likely. Chiropractic care can make a dramatic difference in the health and performance of athletes of all ages and levels. With regular care, football and soccer players, cheerleaders, and swimmers, among others, all can experience greater strength, flexibility, and mobility, along with the reduced risk of injury, to help keep them on the field, court, and track all season long. 

Stress relief

Back-to-school time is exciting, but it can also be physically and mentally stressful. Social, academic, physical, and health-related stressors, like sitting for long periods of the day, subconsciously adopting a hunched posture when anxious or uncomfortable, and overtraining in after-school sports or other activities can leave young bodies drained and misaligned, and young minds mentally stressed. It’s important to eat well, get plenty of sleep, and ensure kids are not over-scheduled.  The addition of regular chiropractic care to other healthy lifestyle habits can reduce tension and improve circulation, keeping bodies — and minds — in a more relaxed state. 

Overall Wellness

We all want to keep our families as safe and healthy as possible, especially in the face of Covid-19, seasonal flu, and even the common cold. Regular hand washing and other hygiene, proper nutrition and exercise, supplementation when necessary, and appropriate social distancing contribute to our efforts toward better wellness. Chiropractic care can support all of those efforts. By encouraging spinal health, restoring joint function, and supporting nervous system communication, all body systems can function more optimally. Spine and limb adjustments when necessary, therapeutic massage, transcutaneous electric nerve stimulations (TENS), and many other proven treatment modalities can relieve pain and stress, allowing for better overall body function, including immunity. Of course, we aren’t saying that chiropractic care cures Covid, but it is a great preventative tool for both improving the body’s natural ability to resist and recover from infection. We can even assist with nutrition counseling and lifestyle modification plans. 

While making what are sure to be many back-to-school checklists this time of year, put chiropractic care at the top. Dynamic Sports Medicine can help ensure that your students (and you) are ready to face this school year in the best way possible!

Individualized Sports Strengthening Programs

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Sports Chiropractic Sports Medicine: A Key Component of Your Fitness Regime

At Dynamic Sports Medicine, our patients are dedicated to a regular, vigorous exercise routine aimed at maintaining good health. This includes enjoying benefits like boosted cardiovascular health, high-quality sleep, improved bone density, and firmed muscle tone.

Yet, many fitness enthusiasts like runners and cyclists often grapple with aches and pains that hamper their active lifestyle. Common ailments include plantar fasciitis, tight hamstrings, and pain in the lower back, shoulder, or knee.

How Our Chiropractic Sports Medicine Can Help

Our aim is to keep you physically active and injury-free. We provide adjustments and evaluations for when you’re injured, but our services extend beyond that. We prescribe bespoke exercise techniques and sports strengthening programs built around your individual body type and fitness goals.

Your Individualized Sports Strengthening Program with Dynamic Sports Medicine

Our comprehensive sports chiropractic consultation results in your own targeted sports strengthening program – just one component of our many services. We offer physical evaluations of posture and strength, body alignment guidance, nutritional counseling, and stretches and exercises tailored to you and your routine.

These programs aim to support your exercise regime by relieving tight muscles, reducing chronic pains, and improving range-of-motion issues. Many athletes incorporating our regular chiropractic care into their fitness regime have reported a decrease in pain, a lower risk of future injuries, and additional benefits such as improved digestion, circulation, and neurological function.

Let Dynamic Sports Medicine design an individualized sports strengthening program to optimize your workouts, making them more satisfying and less painful.

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