2 min read

Myodetox

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How to fix IT Band Syndrome


If you’re an active individual, you may have experienced discomfort or irritation at your IT band a.k.a. the iliotibial band.

IT band syndrome is pain along the outside of the knee that is typically felt while the knee is slightly bent during movement, and can become so bothersome that it sidelines you from activity. It is the second most common cause of knee pain.




Who Is At Risk of IT Band Syndrome?
IT band syndrome typically affects people that run, cycle, hike and participate in sports that require significant power and strength from the legs. Those that experience IT band pain often present with some form of dysfunction with one of the muscles that attach to the IT band – that is, the gluteus medius, gluteus maximus, tensor fasciae latae, or vastus lateralis. Dysfunction in these muscles can include muscle tightness, weakness, and overuse.




IT Band


What Are the Symptoms of IT Band Pain?
IT band syndrome is felt along the outside of the knee joint. This pain tends to worsen with activity, and ease with rest. IT band pain is sometimes known as “IT band friction” in that clicking may be heard when the knee is moving from a bent to straightening position (flexion into extension). The most intense pain is often present when the knee is bent at 30 degrees (a position typically seen in running). Other symptoms can include: clicking on the outside of the knee; warmth and tenderness to the touch along the outside knee; tension and pain along the hip and thigh.

You may notice more prominent IT band syndrome symptoms if you’ve:

  • Increased training volume
  • Changed surfaces while training e.g. trail running vs. road running
  • Present with muscle strength and length differences at the hip and outer thigh.

    IT Band Syndrome



    What Can Be Done to Address IT Band Pain?
    Immediate resting, icing, and stretches are typically prescribed when treating acute IT band syndrome. This may be followed by gradual changes to volumes in training, and specific treatment catered to your needs.

    Your licensed therapist at Myodetox can provide a thorough assessment to determine what structures and movements may be contributing to your IT band pain. Discomfort and tension along the IT band is often the result of dysfunction of the muscles that attach to it along the hip. In fact, some evidence suggests that IT band pain may be muscle weakness at the hips(1). Your licensed therapist can also help with differential diagnosis of your pain, carefully reviewing other structures that may or may not be contributing to your pain.

    Interventions that can help IT band syndrome include:

  • Hands-on therapy e.g. myofascial release along the hips and thigh.
  • Exercise e.g. corrective movements for muscle lengthening, strengthening, and movement coordination.
  • Education & Self-management e.g. load changes, foam rolling, ice vs. heat.

    Two Home Exercise Tips:

  • Foam roll: the video below focuses on foam rolling the entirety of the leg, and not just the area that hurts. Remember, the IT band connects multiple muscles!
    Click here to watch the video

  • Leg strengthening: the following exercise incorporates the entirety of your leg. You want a strategy that can focus on getting your hips and thigh involved so that you move pain free!
    Click here to watch the video



    Ready to take the next step?
    Your licensed therapist at Myodetox can provide a thorough assessment to determine what structures and movements associated with the IT band may be contributing to the symptoms. They can help you figure out which movements, muscles, joints, or even nerves may be contributing to the IT pain. And most importantly, they’ll devise a plan with you to treat and manage your pain so you can get back to doing what you love.

    Find your nearest clinic!

  • 3 min read

    Gopi Kang

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    3 Ways to Prevent Shin Splints


    We’ve all had them at one point.
    Shin splints can be the downside to a new workout regime.

    As we come into the warmer months, our time spent being active increases and so does the risk of shin splints.


    It’s estimated that 20% of the population experiences shin splints, increasing as we age. Preparing your body and understanding the causes of shin splints is the key to preventing pain.



    3 Ways To Prevent Shin Splints
    If you’ve been increasing your walks and runs, you may need to reduce or break up your volume. Do your best to not increase distance by more than 5% per week. Having an appropriate warm-up, mobility, strength, and recovery routine will do wonders for your shins.

    Mobility: Ensuring minimal tightness at the Achilles tendon, posterior calf muscles, and anterior shin muscles is key to minimizing shin splints. Focus on exercises to maximize your range. Try maximal rotations of the ankle, as well as calf stretches.

    Strength: Weakness with the posterior calf muscles may lead to overuse of the shin muscles. Focus on strengthening the soleus, gastrocnemius muscles, tibialis posterior muscles, and tibialis anterior.

    Warm-Up and Recovery: Foam rolling along the back of the calf muscles and front of the shin can provide stimulus to these muscle groups. This allows relaxation and nourishment to the muscle group with increased blood flow, pain relief, and improvement in range of motion.

    Finally, hands-in therapy involving joint mobilizations along the ankle, tibia, as well as myofascial treatments can provide relief of surrounding tissues contributing to shin splints. Using these ways to prevent shin splints will ensure you stay active all season long!




    What Are Shin Splints?
    Shin splints are an overuse and repetitive stress injury at the shin. It happens when the muscles surrounding the tibia (the larger lower leg bone) cannot recover or heal in response to repetitive contractions like walking, running, or hiking. Shin splints are medically known as medial tibial stress syndrome (they can also exist as anterior tibial stress syndrome).

    They are a common complaint amongst runners new and old – nearly 70% of runners experience them. Those experiencing it will often complain of dull, aching pain during and after activity. What makes shin splints odd for many is that they can be experienced and eased during activity, only to persist as a dull achy pain for days. People that walk for leisure and exercise can also experience shin splints.


    What Do Shin Splints Feel Like?
    Shin splint pain is either felt at the front, middle, or side of the shin. This means you either feel pain along the thick muscle along the outside of your shin bone or around the large ankle bone along the side of the foot. Most commonly the pain is felt at the bottom third of the shin.

    For many, pain along the shin will increase at the beginning of a new activity, and ease with movement. Pain also tends to be the worst for most people after their activity. 24-48 deep dull aches are the average symptom.






    How Do Shin Splints Happen?
    It’s thought that shin splints occur due to repetitive microtrauma to the muscle or tendon. This leads to a point where the ability to recover and heal is outpaced by stress and inflammation of the muscle group.

    Increased walking or running volume, speed, and surface changes like concrete or trails, can all lead to these microtraumas.


    Need Help With Your Shin Splints?
    Book a session with me! I’ll assess your movements and set you up on a FutureProof plan to increase your mobility, reduce pain and prevent injury.

    Book your session today

    3 min read

    Janny Chan

    Posted on

    Test Your Hip Mobility


    How tight are your hips?
    Test your hip mobility with these simple exercises.

    Stiff hips may be an early indicator of arthritis.
    Here’s what you need to know.


    It’s estimated that roughly 10% of the population experiences some form of hip pain, increasing as we age. Hip stiffness is often the first sign of impending hip pain.

    Understanding the characteristics of tight hips and what you can do to help is the key to preventing pain.


    5 Ways To Test Your Hip Mobility
    Here are a few movements you can do to test your hip mobility.

    These movements are best reviewed with a physical therapist, chiropractor, or massage therapist. Doing the tests yourself will give you an indication of your hip’s mobility and stiffness.

    Squat Test: sink into a squat, and attempt to shift side-to-side. You may find one hip feeling more tension than the other.

    Internal Rotation: lay on your back, bring your knees to a 90 degree angle, and rotate the feet outwards. This is the internal rotation of the hip. Compare range and feel side-to-side.

    External Rotation: lay on your back, and bring one knee to a 90 degree angle. Keeping the thigh still, rotate your foot inwards. This is the external rotation of the hip. Compare range and feel side-to-side.

    Flexion: lay on your back, with your legs flat. Bring one knee towards your chest. This is flexion of the hip. Compare range and feel side-to-side.

    Extension: lay on your stomach, legs flat on the ground. Keep your knees straight, bring one leg off the ground. This is a hip extension. Compare range and feel side-to-side.




    3 Common Reasons For Hip Stiffness
    The hip is a highly mobile joint that relies on cartilage, bone, muscles, and nerves to work together. Each one of those components may contribute to feeling stiff in the hip.

    Nerves: the ability to rotate the hip, and move it into adduction and abduction is limited by the mobility of the major nerves of the hip and thigh. Issues with major nerves of the hip build up over time due to movement, postural habits and/or a lack of mobility.

    Muscles: your muscles and tendons are the most common sources of hip stiffness. Many office workers and athletes may complain of “hip flexor” stiffness or “glute stiffness”. The stiffness here may coincide with weak muscles, decreased range of motion in certain directions, and pain with use.

    What starts off as stiffness and a pinch can become a chronic issue if not appropriately addressed. Hip pain can often feel like a pulling, cramping, or sharp pains at the front, back, and side of the hip. These will often be aggravated by general movements like sit-to-stands, side-to-side movements, running, or even walking.

    Joint: cartilage damage (e.g. labrum of the hips) or surface degeneration of the articulating bones, “wear-and-tear” at the hip joint leads to significant reductions in the range of motion..

    With joint issues, hip stiffness and pain are often felt deep in the groin. This pain is not palpable, meaning massage (or any other similar intervention) brings no temporary relief. There may be clicking, locking, or a feeling of “catching” at the hip. Athletic movements and stair climbing get more and more difficult.

    Those with arthritis feel stiffness in the morning, continuing with aggravation and groin pain throughout the day, making a simple walk very difficult.



    What Can I Do About My Hip Stiffness?
    Regardless of the causes of your hip stiffness, understanding which movements are restricted or painful and what activities are limited is important to know moving forward. Thankfully, movement and exercise routines deliver amazing outcomes for hip stiffness.

    Physical therapy can guide your hip mobility, and start creating movement goals. Along with massage therapy and chiropractic treatment, manual therapy techniques such as joint mobilizations and myofascial techniques provide relief for hip stiffness.



    Want To Have FutureProof Hips?
    Book a session with me! I’ll assess your movements and set you up on a FutureProof plan to increase your mobility, reduce pain and prevent injury.

    Book your session today

    3 min read

    The Gluteus Medius Stretch Is Key To A Stronger Butt

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    The Gluteus Medius Stretch Is Key To A Stronger Butt

    If you’re not texting on your phone, you’re sitting at your desk hunched over and working away on your laptop. To avoid any pain, a good gluteus medius stretch is necessary for a stronger butt.

    If you’re feeling hip pain, it’s probably because you’re not activating your glute muscles enough. Though you may not feel any pain now, the mid-day walk to grab lunch will eventually catch up to your hips.

    To get a better idea how your butt is related to your hip pain, allow us to explain.

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    This important group of muscles do this as their major actions:
    Medius: abducts the hip (hip to the side)
    Maximus: extends the hip (pulls the thigh behind you)
    Minimus:abducts the hip (hip to the side)

    These important muscles are often weak and underworked. So many of our jobs require us to sit for prolonged periods of time that it gets difficult to fix hip pain. The lack of mobility causes our gluten to “turn off” or stop firing as effectively. Once our glutes stop firing, we start developing imbalances within the hip which can lead to aches and eventual hip pain.

    When building strong glute muscles, you can expect to see some of these things happen along the way:

    Alleviate back pain: Learning to contract your glutes in a multitude of ranges can alleviate a lot of the mechanical back pain you are currently experiencing. Your glutes work to stabilize the pelvis and keep the hip joint centered. When they’re strong, your lower back doesn’t need to compensate and take excessive mechanical stress.

    Increase performance: If you want to maximize your athletic potential, squatting should be a top priority. Stronger glutes will improve your speed, agility, and jumping skills, and quick side-to-side movements. Every time you take a step, your glute max stabilizes your pelvis, making transitions into movements safe on your pelvic joints and ultimately your back.

    Abolish knee pain: A strong glute medius keeps the pelvis stable and prevents swaying from side to side. When your pelvis isn’t stable, it puts a lot of excessive pressure on your knees and ankles. When your glutes are strong, it helps to maintain proper alignment of the knee, hip and ankle. This natural alignment keeps your knee from hurting by tracking the knee cap properly.

    Try out these 3 gluteus medius stretch movement techniques and see if you can hold the positions for 1 minute each with total control.

    This will give you a good indicator of how well your glutes are doing.

    Kick Backs
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    Single Leg Bridges
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    Side Clamp
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