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tips Archives » Physical Therapy Clinic | CA | ReVITALize Rehab Club

Physical Therapy Clinic | CA | ReVITALize Rehab Club

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  • How to Overcome Hip Tightness

    Do you have tight hips?

    Hip tightness can have several negative effects on your well-being. First, it might cause you pain and inhibit you from doing your favorite activities. In some cases, hip tightness has dissuaded people from carrying out their exercise routine. 

    So, how do you deal with hip tightness once and for all?

    Below, we’ll get into various tips and tricks for overcoming tight muscles in your hips. Keep reading so you can ease your pain and get on with living your life!

    Spend Less Time Sitting

    Hip tightness is becoming more common in our society because of the sheer number of people who sit every day. 

    Many people need to sit at a desk all day, bent over their work or school. This leads to poor posture and extra pressure on your hip flexors. How do you deal with this? 

    First, try to spend less time sitting. See if you can get a standing desk for your workstation. If you can’t, try buying an ergonomic chair. These types of chairs provide extra support to your back, lumbar region, and arms. They decrease the chances of tight muscles by promoting a proper sitting posture.

    You can also get up and move about the office. Consider taking a short walk during your lunch break to take the pressure off your hips.

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  • Tips for Avoiding Sports Injuries as You Age

    Adults lose 10% of their strength and endurance every decade after the age of 30. They experience a 30% decline in muscle power each decade, too. As a result, seniors experience decreased physical function, which often leads to falls and injuries.

    In fact, an older adult is treated in the emergency room for a fall every 11 seconds.

    You don’t have to stop participating in the sports and activities you love, even as you get older. Instead, use these six tips to avoid sports injuries as you age.

    With these tips, you can remain physically active without worrying about the increased risk of an injury. Instead, you can stay strong, fit, and mobile.

    Keep playing the games you love! Start improving your health with these six simple tips today.

    1. Stretch and Rest

    Our bodies get less flexible as we continue to age. Before participating in your favorite sports, make sure to stretch. Stretching daily can keep your muscles loose.

    It can also help you maintain a full range of motion in your joints before you start playing.

    Over the years, repetitive movements (such as swinging a bat, golf club, or tennis racket) can cause muscles to become tight. Repeat motions can cause your muscles to become shorter over time as well. A sense of imbalance between the right and left sides of your body might develop as a result.

    Stretching each day before you start playing could help address muscular imbalances.

    Otherwise, continuing to play and participate in athletic endeavors without stretching could make the imbalance worse.

    Take the time to develop a routine stretching regimen. Consider consulting a licensed physical therapist. They can help you develop a customized stretch routine.

    You can target specific muscle areas based on your health, mobility, and range of motion. Working with a physical therapist can ensure you target the imbalances you’ve developed, too. 

    After playing your favorite sports, make sure to rest as well. Resting after working out will give your body time to record. Otherwise, you might risk playing unintentional stress on your joints and muscles.

    Developing a stretch regimen and giving your muscles time to repair could help you avoid sports injuries. It can help minimize the pain you experience after playing, too. 

    2. Consider Your Diet

    Consider working with a doctor or dietitian to adjust your diet this year. Our bodies require the right balance of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients to remain in peak performance. 

    Make sure to drink water to remain hydrated as well. Water also flushes out toxins from the body.

    Consider having a light snack or small meal one to two hours before working out or playing sports. Eating right before could cause stomach problems. As you exercise, blood moves to your muscles, leaving less for digestion.

    Before working out, consider consuming carbs. Your muscles use the glucose in carbs as fuel for your game-play. 

    Make sure to add protein to your diet, too. Eating protein before exercising can increase muscle protein synthesis. Protein can also:

    • Improve muscle recovery
    • Produce a better anabolic response (muscle growth)
    • Increase muscle performance
    • Boost strength and lean body mass

    Improving your strength could help you avoid sports injuries.

    Eating after athletic endeavors is important as well.  

    After playing, make sure to refuel to rebuild muscle tissue. Your muscles use up their glycogen as you play, leaving them partially depleted. Some of the proteins within your muscles could become damaged as a result. 

    Consuming carbs and protein after a workout can enhance your recovery. It can also decrease muscle protein breakdown while restoring glycogen stores. A nutritious meal can increase muscle protein synthesis (growth) as well. 

    Use protein to repair and build muscle, along with carbs to boost recovery. You can also consume healthy fats like avocado, nuts, or nut butters.

    Don’t forget antioxidants! Antioxidants can fight oxidative stress from free radicals. Otherwise, oxidative stress can cause chronic fatigue and other problems. 

    Antioxidants like vitamins C and E can minimize inflammation as well, which could reduce muscle soreness after gameplay. 

    3. Consult a Physical Therapist

    If you’re looking for ways to improve your physical and mental health, consider consulting a physical therapist. Their experience and expertise can help you avoid movement problems. They can help you manage your pain and maintain mobility as you get older, too. 

    Physical therapy can help improve your:

    • Mobility
    • Endurance
    • Range of motion
    • Balance
    • Strength

    Remaining strong can help you avoid potential sports injuries. You can work with a licensed physical therapist to develop a customized treatment plan. Your PT will consider your goals, challenges, and personal needs.

    Their advice could help you manage your pain without the risks of opioid use or surgery, too. 

    4. Add Strength Training to the Routine

    Consider adding strength training to your workout routine. Otherwise, you might push your body too hard, increasing the risk of injury.

    Work with an experienced trainer to develop a customized strength training program. Their expertise will ensure you don’t injure yourself using the wrong technique. The right types of training can help combat the loss of bone density, too. 

    5. Improve Your Technique

    If you want to avoid a potential injury, make sure you’re using the right technique.

    For example, you’ll want to avoid overbending your knees or twisting them too quickly. Make sure to play on flat surfaces to avoid twisting an ankle. Consider playing on soft surfaces, too. 

    Learning how to use the proper technique can help you avoid an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear or other common injuries.

    6. Wear the Right Gear

    Are you wearing protective gear each time you play? Make sure you’re wearing the right gear for your sport of choice. Protective gear can help prevent new injuries.

    It could even keep existing injuries from getting worse.

    Make sure you’re wearing the proper shoes, too!

    Work Up a Sweat: 6 Ways to Avoid Sports Injuries as You Age

    You don’t have to give up your favorite sports as you get older. Instead, use these tips to avoid future sports injuries. With these tips, you can play safe, improve your strength, and remain healthy. 

    Want to develop a customized routine with a licensed physical therapist? We’re here to help.

    Contact us today to get started.

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  • How to Avoid Back Pain When Weight Lifting: 8 Top Tips

    Did you know that building up muscle is a great way to heal or prevent back pain? That’s right, having strong and flexible muscles can help prevent major injuries.

    The problem is that if you’re not lifting properly, you can actually cause pain and injuries in your back. This may seem counterintuitive, but the trick is making sure that you’re lifting weights the right way.

    To make your life a little easier, we’re going to talk about the things you can do (and what not to do) when lifting weights so that you can learn how to avoid back pain.

    Read on for eight important tips that will protect your spine and back muscles as you begin or increase your weight lifting routine.

    1. Start Small With Smaller Weights and Fewer Repetitions

    One of the easiest ways to injure yourself while weight lifting is to go too far too fast. In other words, you don’t want to go from never lifting weights to free-lifting one hundred or more pounds.

    When you’re performing any kind of weight lifting, you should always honor your edge. Start with smaller weights and perform 10-15 repetitions. After a week or so, you can use heavier weights or perform more repetitions. Allow your body to build strength slowly to avoid straining or tearing your muscles.

    2. Warm Up Your Muscles First

    Before you hit the weight room, make sure that your muscles are warmed up. Start by stretching each part of your body from your legs to your hips to your arms, neck, and shoulders. It can also be beneficial to perform a bit of lit cardio before you start lifting weights, as this will get the blood flowing and loosen up your muscles and joints.

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  • Five steps when exercising with an injury.

    Where do I start if I am trying to exercise with an injury?

    Exercising and becoming physically fit should not be difficult to do, but it is for most people at the beginning phase. You have the Ixcela’s fitness template and have read through what you need to do to get your body right. You are excited, but nervousness and overwhelm hits you like a brick. The idea of going to the gym or working out at home is where most people start and end. When you have an injury, being confident in how and what to do becomes harder to achieve. Well, you have come to the right place. As a Sports Medicine Physical Therapist specializing in bridging injury management with performance, this article will give you a first glance template on how to exercise with an injury.  

    Here are five steps when exercising with an injury.

    • Show up daily.
    • Cardiovascular health is a building block for muscle growth or fat loss.  
    • Find strength-based exercises to our non-injured limbs and body regions.
    • Know your purpose, and this makes it is perfect to start light with a strength-based exercise. Add intention to your movements.
    • Full mobility is always a priority as you start and level up.
    1. The key to everything is to show up daily. Everyone knows this idea, but acting on this idea can lead to numerous excuses and reasons. Our brain drives engagement and subsequent actions. When you are not feeling well, it is more comfortable to accept the status quo. The science of neuroplasticity, or our brain’s ability to change how we function, requires the feeling of challenge or uncomfortableness. This uneasy feeling is driven by the release of the neuromodulator epinephrine, similar to the hormone adrenaline. Epinephrine excites us when released but converted to a sense of uncomfortableness when the task is novel and scary. Most people know that exercise can give a sense of well-being called exercise high. Endorphins are our own’s body way of reducing pain. You have to start and maintain a certain intensity to reap the benefits of endorphins.  
    2. Many people know that cardio-based exercises are essential for heart and lung health but have not connected the importance of blood flow to muscle or joint health. You cannot recover without adequate blood flow and oxygen to carbon dioxide ratio. After an injury, it is common to rest, but the tendency is to rest too long. As a Sports Medicine Practitioner, rest should last only 2-3 days after an injury. You want to maintain a high level of physical tolerance. This is what conditioning-based exercises will help. It is crucial to re-establish your desired conditioning level with various low-impact total body movements that you can tolerate.  
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  • Improving Mobility: Your Complete Guide

    Inhibitions to our mobility can be devastating. In most cases, though, it’s possible to retain most, if not all of our mobility and get back to a place where we can be functional and enjoy the ins and outs of daily life again. 

    We’re going to explore some ways of improving mobility in this article, giving you some insight into what you can do and how it might help you. 

    Let’s get started.

    Methods of Improving Mobility

    Naturally, there are a number of ways that you might have your mobility reduced. As a result, you might be wondering how to improve hip mobility, improve ankle mobility, improve shoulder mobility, or just get general help with mobility.

    In most cases, our difficulties lie with issues in the joints, legs, hips, and spine. A lot of these problems come from an injury or from sedentary lifestyles that contribute to the slow decline of our body’s functions. 

    Each particular issue will require some unique physical training if the problem is significant enough, but there are a few principles that you can carry through in your life to address your mobility. 

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  • 8 Effective Stretches for Loosening Up Tight Hips

    Does pain prevent you from doing the things you love? If your lower back, knees, or ankles are constantly aching, you could have tight hips. The number one cause of hip tightness is sitting still, a habit that is hard to avoid in today’s world. 

    If you spend many hours at a desk, in a car, or in front of the television, it’s important to make time for movement. Waking up your hip flexors will relieve pain and help you get back to enjoying your favorite activities. 

    Are you wondering how to release tight hips? Practicing a series of yoga-inspired hip flexor stretches daily is a great idea.

    Keep reading to learn more about the hip flexors and 8 effective stretches for loosening up tight hips. There’s no equipment required, so try these movements anywhere! 

    What Are Hip Flexors?

    Your hip flexors are a group of muscles that connect your upper legs to your hips. They help you walk, kick, bend at the waist, and swivel your hips. 

    Tightness in the hip flexors and related areas of the body is often caused by a sedentary lifestyle. Pain is a signal that you need to take better care of your body by exercising and stretching every day. 

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  • 5 Useful Exercises for Tennis Elbow Pain Relief

    An estimated 1 in every 3 people has tennis elbow at some time in their lives. This common yet painful condition can be treated though! We have done our research to provide you with the top 5 exercises for tennis elbow to help get you back into the swing of things in no time. 

    These exercises can bring tennis elbow pain relief and strengthen muscles. Let’s take a look into what tennis elbow is, the causes of tennis elbow, and the exercise treatment for tennis elbow!

    What Is Tennis Elbow?

    Tennis elbow is a form of tendonitis which is a swelling of the tendons. This swelling causes pain in the arm and elbow area. Although its name is tennis elbow you don’t have to swing a racket to suffer from this painful condition!

    Repetitive gripping motions can cause a flare-up of the condition. Tennis elbow generally only affects one elbow, however, it can affect both depending on the activity. The condition can occur at any age, however, it is more common in people over the age of 40.  

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  • Rotator Cuff Tendinitis 101: How to improve mobility, strength, and possibly, avoid surgery.

    Everyone has an opinion on the management of shoulder pain. Whether it is a family member, co-worker, or neighbor, you are bound to find someone that tried to rid of their shoulder pain conservatively or surgically. You will hear both sides of people’s experiences when it comes to having shoulder surgery. Some will say that it helped and they would recommend it. Others will say that it was a horrible and painful experience. This article will focus on providing you some basic shoulder exercises that will support a rotator cuff tendinitis or torn tendon diagnosis, and possibly avoid rotator cuff surgery.

    Since we specialize in athletes’ shoulders, we will provide our spin for the more complex rotational athlete’s shoulder. This article is still very useful for the everyday shoulder. The difference between the athletes’ shoulders, such as baseball pitcher, swimmer, volleyball or tennis overhand serve, and an everyday person’s shoulder is that the athletes’ shoulder needs a continual obsession about maintaining the foundational basics that this article talks about. This is an article of the basics of rotator cuff function and performance, so you can resolve your tendinitis or torn rotator cuff myotendinous unit.  

    A muscle and tendon work together, so we are going to establish that they will be both called a contractile unit. All muscle and tendon, both help you to contract a muscle and move your arm. Your Sports Medicine Physical Therapist or Orthopedist Surgeon will decide that you have rotator tendinitis if you have “sharp” pin-point pain to the tip of your shoulder or “dull and achy” broad pain to the general region of your shoulder. It will hurt to raise your arm overhead. You may or may not have a limited range of motion. If you have fallen on your shoulder or had suffered a direct blow to your shoulder, they might suspect a tear over tendinitis. There is research that shows age is a contributing factor of one having a rotator cuff tendinitis or tear.

    If you are wondering how your Orthopedist or doctor concluded your rotator cuff tendinitis after looking at your shoulder for 5 minutes, only to tell you to take painkillers, apply ice, and seek a Physical Therapist, it is because of the general guidelines listed above. It does not take long to tell your age. He hears your story for 1-3 minutes. Trauma? Occupation? He or she can see there is shoulder pain when you raise your arm. Touching your arm does not tell much more, so if the doctor is in a rush, he may or may not touch your arm. This might disgust and frustrate you even more.  

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  • 3 reasons to not stretch your tight hip flexors pain.

    The saying to keep it simple silly holds, but when it comes to fixing tight hip flexors pain, you have to understand why you should not stretch something that feels tight. A tight muscle should only be stretched out when you had a prolonged event that required you to not use that muscle(s). A case where stretching of a tight muscle is appropriate is during the rehabilitation of a body part that has been cast or splinted.

    When muscles are have been cast or splinted, there is shortening the basic contractile unit of muscle fiber called sarcomeres. This effect impacts your ability to produce power and strength. The shorter the sarcomeres, the more difficult it will be to get good contraction of a muscle. When you perform static stretching of a muscle, you lengthened the sarcomeres.

    This article will point out the case that your tight hip flexors are not due to a sarcomere and muscle fiber issue. But before we dive into the 3 common reasons for having a tight hip flexor, we will point out what a tight hip flexor muscle can do to your body. A tight hip flexor muscle will result in a compensated pelvis to be rotated anteriorly, thus resulting in one side of the pelvis to be in an exaggerated lumbar lordosis, pubic bone to be positioned more forward and down, and tailbone (coccyx bone) to be tipped up and back. Imagine a teapot with the spout placed down (like the pubic bone) to serve tea. The handle is the position of the coccyx. Every bone and joints that are associated with this posture adapts and will be malpositioned, accordingly.

    The list of common local complaints is included below.

    • Lower back pain.
    • Feeling like you have one leg shorter than the other leg.
    • Sacroiliac joint pain or dysfunction.
    • Groin pain or femoral-acetabular impingement.
    • Sciatica nerve pain.
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  • 5 Ways to How to Improve Gut Health

    Contrary to popular belief, bacteria isn’t always bad. In fact, an ecosystem of trillions of bacteria called the ‘gut microbiome’ plays a vital role in our body’s overall health. As we’ve previously shared in our ‘Stool Testing 101 and How Your Gut Impacts How You Feel’ post, a healthy gut microbiome is important for our mood, our muscular system, and our cognitive functions. If you’re not quite sure how to maintain a healthy gut, here are some tips.

    1. Eat the Right Food.

    Eating the right diet is a key factor in keeping your gut healthy. Case in point: Consuming food that’s rich in fiber stimulates the growth of good bacteria in your gut — from fruits and vegetables, to legumes and grains. True enough, SELF Magazine notes that whole grains not only block the reabsorption of cholesterol in the gut, but they also supply it with prebiotics — which is essentially food for healthy gut bacteria. Also, foods that contain polyphenols such as nuts, soy products, and dark chocolate, help promote both diversity and the number of bacteria in your gut.

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