Vestibular Rehabilitation (Dizziness and Vertigo)
While many people consider seeing a physiotherapist to help with their recovery after an injury or surgery, few consider scheduling a physiotherapy appointment for injury prevention. When it comes to fall prevention, we observe and assess functional movements including your walking pattern, balance and lower extremity strength. A personalized program including education and home exercises can then be designed based on the information we gather from the assessment to help improve your strength, balance and walking pattern.
To avoid tripping while walking, it is important to develop a safe walking pattern. The swing through leg should be lifted high enough to properly clear the ground. A shuffle pattern can result in catching the toe and tripping. Also, since a large portion of walking is spent standing on one foot while the other leg is swinging through, we want to assess balance and stability on the stance leg. If unsteadiness is noted while standing on one foot, a walking aid such as a cane or walker can be beneficial to add stability and support. A physiotherapist can adjust a walking aid and provide instructions and a demonstration. A physiotherapist can also teach safe and effective exercises to help improve walking pattern and endurance for those who feel weak or unsteady while walking.
It is very important to stay active and keep moving. Daily physical activity is essential to maintain aerobic endurance, lower extremity strength and balance. It is never too late to start an exercise program. It is best to think of exercise as a slow gradual progression rather than an all or none activity. It is important that you find an activity that is enjoyable to you to stay motivated and keep active. This may include walking, hiking, cycling, swimming, tennis or golfing. In addition to aerobic activity, a physiotherapist can design an appropriate home exercise program to help improve endurance, balance, coordination and strength.
Shoulders
Get Your Head Around Your Shoulders this Summer!
With summer fast approaching, many of us are jumping back into one or more of our favourite fair weather activities, be it golfing with an orchard view, volleyball on the sandy beach, swimming in the crystal clear Okanagan lakes, playing tennis with friends or a little extra gardening for all of you green thumbs! Whatever the summer activity of choice, we all hope this warm weather finds us ready to tackle the ‘fun in the sun’ at full steam without having to worry about those pesky aches and pains that often set in over the winter.
One aspect that many summer activities have in common is that you will undoubtedly require a pair of healthy shoulders to fully enjoy them. As a practising physiotherapist treating patients with various conditions and injuries for almost a decade, I must say that shoulder pathology and dysfunction are some of the most common conditions walking in and out of our clinics on a daily basis.
When you dissect this shoulder issue further, there are a few key things that make the shoulder one of the most biomechanically impressive but also one of the most vulnerable regions to injury in our body.
First of all, the shoulder is the most mobile joint in the human body. The ‘ball and socket’ anatomy of the shoulder allow for movement that we see in no other body region. Whether it be flexing the shoulder 180 degrees overhead to smash a beach volleyball or fully externally rotating your shoulder during your golf swing follow-through, the shoulder girdle demonstrates phenomenal flexibility.
This fantastic mobility in the shoulder girdle however comes with a price. In order for this flexibility to be functional when teeing off with your driver on 18 or lifting heavy pot of flowers up on your deck, the shoulder requires a significant amount of dynamic stability. This dynamic stability is accomplished by work of a few important muscles that surround the very flexible shoulder joint…most notably, the rotator cuff as well as other scapular stabilizing muscles.
For our shoulders to remain healthy and function at the high levels required for our summer fun, this balance between flexibility and stability must be maintained.
Some common conditions and injuries that we as physiotherapists assess and treat where shoulder flexibility and stability become compromised include; Shoulder Impingement, Tendinitis/Tendinopathy, Bursitis, Rotator Cuff Tears, Shoulder Dislocations/Separations, Frozen Shoulder, and Scapulothoracic Dysfunction.
If your summer involves getting or staying active and you want your shoulders to be ready for the action, book a consultation and some treatment with your physiotherapist to ensure your shoulders are ready to shoulder the load!
Jordan Ruder is a Registered Physiotherapist and Associate at the Downtown location of Sun City Physiotherapy. He is a member of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association and is also a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Manipulative Physical Therapists (FCAMPT). He can be contacted by phone at (250) 861-8056 or by email at downtown@suncityphysiotherapy.com.
Sports
This is the time of year where you are starting to ramp up your training for triathlons and running races. It has been shown that as many as 80% of runners sustain a running-related injury in a given year. So what are the reasons for so many running injuries? And how can they be avoided?
Training schedule, running technique, and tissue strength/tolerance are three major determinants as to whether or not you will be sidelined with an injury this season.
Here are more detailed explanations of the three common causes for injury:
Too much too soon. An overly ambition training schedule is a classic mistake. It is believed that as much as 80% of running injuries occur because of training errors. An easy to follow guideline is the 10% rule: avoid increasing your running mileage more than 10% from the previous week.
Poor or inefficient running technique. A potential cause for injury is technique, or rather, a poor technique. It can result in too much impact too quickly (vertical loading rate) as you land. A high vertical loading rate can be caused by any of all of the following: heel striking with your foot too far in front of your hips (over-striding), a lack of bend in your knee or hip during landing, a lack of strength in core/hip musculature to help absorb impact. Instead, gradual increased training in a flatter/minimalist shoe (to reduce heel striking), increasing step cadence to approximately 180 steps per minute, and aiming to land softer or ‘quieter’ are all ways of reducing tissue overload.
Core and hip muscle weakness. It has been shown that a lack of gluteal muscle strength can lead to increased stress on the knee and foot, resulting in a greater chance of tissue breakdown. Taking part in a consistent individualized strengthening program throughout the year can be a key component to avoiding injury.
Remember, don’t wait until minor aches and pains turn into significant injury. Every runner is different, so book an appointment with Sun City Physiotherapy to determine how best to avoid injury this season. Call 250-861-8056 to book your appointment today.
Sports
Swimming has a relatively low risk of sport related injury, yet, swimmers often complain of shoulder pain. This can be caused by muscle overuse and incorrect technique. By making stroke adjustments, you can not only minimize pain and prevent injury, but also improve performance.
The Physiotherapy Association of British Columbia (PABC) recently outlined some simple steps, call the Physio-4, that swimmers can use to reduce their chances for injury, prevent pain, and swim more effectively.
The Physio-4 for swimming:
Be mindful of body rotation. Never swim with a “flat body” as this limits the rotation of the shoulder along the axis of the spine. Develop a symmetrical way to rotate your body for an efficient breathing pattern and this will greatly reduce the risk of shoulder injuries.
Enter the water with a flat hand. A hand directed outwards when entering the water leads to unhealthy internal rotation. This is one of the most common causes of acute pain in the shoulder as it overuses the muscles. It is best to enter the water with a flat hand, fingertips first.
Maintain good posture. The saying “shoulders back, chest forward” applies both in and out of the water. Hunched or rounded shoulders can lead to a wide arm recovery that causes shoulder injuries and “cross-overs” in your stroke. Strengthening the muscles at the back of the shoulder and stretching those at the front will help prevent injury, and help you to swim faster.
Incorporate bilateral breathing into your swim workout. Breathing only on one side will develop the muscles on that side more than the other. This can eventually lead to shoulder problems. By breathing on both sides with every workout you can prevent this from happening.
Aside from these injury-prevention techniques, there are important things to remember when swimming outdoors. Never dive head first into water unless the depth is known. When swimming in lakes or oceans be aware of any natural hazards such as tides and rapids, never swim alone, and always let someone know where you are training. And always be mindful of boaters – because they may not always be looking for you.
If you are injured or in pain during or after swimming, or require an exercise program to help avoid or overcome shoulder injury, Sun City Physiotherapy can help. Call 250-861-8056 to book your appointment today.
