How do we treat lateral epicondylitis?  There are many techniques that we utilize to achieve great success when it comes to tennis elbow.  Keep in mind that with lateral epicondylitis the ligament is inflamed and there may be scar tissue involve.  Scar tissue is fibrotic tissue that will hinder a soft tissues flexibility.  Therefore, in order to effectively treat the ligament that is inflamed we have to aggressively strip the tissue to allow it to heal stronger.  Think of it like when you work out and are sore the next day.  Essentially you are creating microscopic or very small tears in the muscle fibers so they will heal back bigger and stronger.  This is why you are sore the next day.  This premise is similar to how we treat tennis elbow.  These techniques are ART and Graston respectively.

If you are or know someone experiencing lateral epicondylitis, call 630-857-3704, or click HERE to make an appointment to see if one of our skilled chiropractors can help.

As an athlete, it’s not difficult to understand the numerous demands that you may face in the practice sessions or during the actual event. Tackling, running and jumping can result in painful strains, sprains and tears.

Failure to warm up properly, over-training, repetitive motions and forceful impacts are some of the main reasons athletes suffer from sports injuries.

Visiting a chiropractor can certainly help you when you’ve suffered any sports injuries. Moreover, with the chiropractor’s help, future sports injuries can also be prevented.

When Should I Consider Visiting a Chiropractor?

A chiropractor who has specialized training in treating sports injuries can successfully help you recover and also help prevent any future injuries. It’s essential to detect the problems earlier on to avoid aggravating the sports injuries.

If you experience any of the warning signs mentioned below, you should consider contacting a chiropractor immediately.

●      Swelling or tenderness in a muscle or joint before or after an activity.

●      Extreme tingling or numbness.

●      Any pain during range of motion.

●      Unusual looseness, stiffness in a joint or reduced range of motion from a previous injury.

●      Some sort of weakness in a muscle.

How Can Chiropractors Help With Sports Injuries?

A chiropractor’s practice is often misconstrued. They are often associated with treating only the spine and neck.

But most chiropractors, like us, also treat many other types of sports injuries to the ligaments, joints and muscles of the body, including but not limited to the ankles, knees, wrists and shoulders. We do this by manually adjusting the spine and active rehabilitation of the surrounding soft tissues.

If you’ve suffered a sports injury, it’s best to seek the assistance of a chiropractor, especially professionals who have experience in treating as well as preventing further sports injuries.

We are based in Naperville and our chiropractors, Dr. Tom Campbell and Dr. Chris Kessler offer the best in sports injury recovery and prevention, in addition to health enhancement, performance enhancement and healing enhancement.

Before suggesting any treatment, chiropractors need to assess the injuries properly to ensure that the athlete recovers quickly.

Diagnosing, Evaluating and Treating Sports Injuries

The very first step in diagnosing and evaluating sports injuries is by getting all the details like how, when and why it happened. If the doctor thinks it’s vital, an x-ray may also be required.

After the diagnosis and the severity of the injury has been determined, a suitable treatment will be recommended. Since the nature of the sports injury differs from person to person, the treatment will also vary.

So, depending on the treatment required, physiotherapy or adjustive procedures may be used. This reduces the swelling and improves the area in and around the injury.

In the initial stages of treatment, your chiropractor may use any one of the following modalities to lessen the swelling around a muscle or a joint.

●      Ice massage

●      Ultrasound

●      Galvanic stimulation

Another technique that your doctor may use is called passive range of motion. It is a proven modern technique to minimize the swelling. It will also initiate and enhance the healing process to the injured area.

As the treatment progresses, the later stages of care will lay emphasis on improving the strength and use of the injured tissue. This can be done through stretching, careful mobilization, massage as well as application of heat.

All of these therapies are great to remove any waste products or chemicals from within the injured area. If it’s left untreated, it could potentially lead to arthritis. So, it’s very important that you follow the entire treatment until the end.

Once the sports injuries are well-healed, the doctor will give you a strengthening plan to prevent injuries in the future.

However, there are some precautions that you can take to prevent sports injuries in the first place. Let’s take a look.

Stretching

Recent studies have shown that excessive stretching before an event is quite unnecessary. But what you must do is stretch the muscles to ensure ease of use through the expected range of motion. This is a way of warming up the muscles, which is highly recommended.

Using Ice Before Warming Up

New studies suggest that using ice on a joint or a muscle before warming up increases the blood supply to those areas. So, icing them first and then warming up is a great option.

Warming Up

Your warming up routine should include mimicking parts of the activity that you would actually perform during the event. So, things like a brief jog before running or rotating the shoulders before pitching the ball is advisable.

Cooling Down After the Activity

You should take about 5 to 10 minutes to cool down by walking, jogging, or doing some light exercises before leaving the activity completely. If you cool down properly, your body will benefit in the following ways.

●      Removes waste products like lactic acid.

●      Lowers your heart rate and respiration slowly.

●      Helps in preventing muscle soreness.

Eating Right

Eating a proper diet not only helps in managing your weight, but it also helps in controlling your cholesterol levels. Moreover, it helps to build healthy muscles and maintain your joints. You can talk to your chiropractor who can help you with a special diet plan that will suit your sport.

If you’ve ever been sidelined due to a sports injury, you should definitely consider visiting a chiropractor. Sports chiropractors are able to understand the exact injuries and know how to address them.

Instability, imbalance, lack of muscle flexibility and structural misalignment of the joints are some of the reasons of sports injuries. Many elite athletes and competitors at NCAA as well as Olympic levels have benefited by visiting a chiropractor.

Sports injuries are inevitable, but proper care and management will ensure that you don’t miss the next match or activity.

But what if you’re working out and you hear something snap, crackle, and pop – and not on purpose?

Hearing your knee popping can be a bit jarring – and you might even feel pain, depending on what’s going on. In this article, we’re going to get to the bottom of what makes your knee pop and whether or not you can let it slide or call a doctor.

WHY CAN YOU HEAR YOUR KNEE POPPING?

You’ve overextended a squat or you’re transferring from downward dog into triangle pose and then you hear it – cracking in your knee joints. Along with back injuries, knee injuries are the most common musculoskeletal impairment, so hearing a crack or a pop might set off alarm bells. But what is it that’s making that noise? There are a few causes, some that aren’t serious and some that are – or could get worse if not tended to immediately.

Knee popping can be caused by nitrogen bubbles bursting in your synovial fluid when applying force to your joint. The official term for this is cavitation and is as harmless as popping your knuckles. Usually it’s a painless, but this next cause can go from painless to problem if you don’t pay attention. Cartilage on your femur, tibia, or patella wears down, leaving rough spots that grind against each other and lead to knee popping. This isn’t always uncomfortable but it can eventually become painful and lead to osteoarthritis. If you tear your meniscus, a rubbery C-shaped disc that acts as your knee’s shock absorber, you’ll definitely hear popping and feel pain. In addition to their knee popping, patients with this condition feel like their knee locks up too.

When you feel pain or experience swelling, those are indicators something went wrong and you need to seek help.

PREVENTION IS KEY

Before your knees get noisy, it’s best to take care of them and avoid the question of why they’re popping in the first place. Regular exercise is a wonderful way to get healthy overall and can help your knees too.  Give your knees the support they need by strengthening muscles that work in tandem with them. Always warm up before doing any kind of exercises. You’ll get the blood pumping and send a wake up call to your muscles before moving onto your main routine. Plus it lubricates your joints, which includes your knees.

Now, onto the exercises that are going to keep knee popping to a minimum.

HIP FLEXORS

If you sit all day for your job, you know what a tight hip flexor feels like. Your hip flexors affect your knees, too. For a great stretch, get into a half-kneeling position. If the floor is hard, put a yoga mat or a towel under the knee that’s on the floor. If you practice yoga regularly, feel free to keep your hands on your front knee or on your hips, but if you need more support, try holding a dowel or rod up and down, like a walking cane. While keeping your body upright, squeeze your glutes so your pelvis is posteriorly rotated. You’ll probably start to feel a stretch here already. Carefully lean forward just a bit, stretching to the point where it feels good. Don’t push yourself too hard, and don’t hold for longer than two seconds.  Release and switch legs, doing eight to ten reps per side.

ACTIVATE YOUR GLUTES

Believe it or not, your glutes can help protect your knees.  A good way to build them up is with squats, although you might hear knee popping while doing these. One reason why people injure their knees while doing squats is because they don’t perform them correctly.

Let’s go over proper squat form.

Start by straightening your spine and perfecting your posture: chin up, shoulders down, chest raised and a slight arch in your lower back.  Make sure your knees and toes are out; putting them out of alignment will hurt your knees. Start your squat from your hips and sit back, keeping your heels on the floor the entire time.  When coming out of the squat, engage your glutes for a little extra push.

AFTER CARE

After a workout and in your everyday life, there are lots of great things to keep that knee popping to a minimum or even eliminate it for good.  Do some soft tissue work and focus on getting the knots out of your muscles, allowing your knees to glide with ease. If you’ve got a tennis ball lying around, it can feel good to roll it over any tension you feel, especially in your legs.

For an extra-deep massage, put it on the floor and lean your body down onto the tennis ball, using your weight to roll it around. Just be careful and stop if anything hurts. Foam rollers are another tool you can use to lessen any knee pain you feel. They come in lots of shapes and sizes so there’s a lot of variety in form and function to choose from.

A lot of time, good health comes from within. That’s why you should pay attention to what you eat and incorporate food that’s good for your joints.  Fish oil, whether from a high quality supplement or from trout, sardines, tuna and more, keeps your joints well-lubricated.  Berries are a great source of vitamins and minerals and fight inflammation. If you needed another reason to eat more leafy greens, add joint health to that list.

No matter what, if you feel joint pain and hear your knee popping more than usual, it’s best to check in with a professional.

Don’t ignore knee pain; make an appointment at Victory Rehab today.

We put together a guide to managing the most common tennis injuries and preventing them so that you can enjoy this fabulous sport without pain.

Check out this awesome guide!

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO MANAGING AND PREVENTING COMMON TENNIS INJURIES

Say goodbye to tennis related aches and pains with these handy common tennis injuries tips and tricks.

Common Tennis Injuries And How They Can Affect Your Game

These five injuries are by far the most common injuries experienced while playing tennis.Some of these may seem easy to just walk off, but avoiding treatment and prevention of these injuries could permanently affect your ability to play your favorite sport.

Tennis elbow

Also known as lateral epicondylitis, this condition involves inflammation of the tendons that connect the forearm muscles to the underside of the elbow.  Tennis elbow’s ‘sister’ condition would be golfer’s elbow, which affects the inner part of the elbow rather that the outer part.  Because of the repetitive motions of tennis, overuse of these tendons can occur and cause painful inflammation.  Avoiding treatment and prevention of this injury can lead to pain and burning sensations that cause a weaken grip strength on the racket.

Stress fractures

Stress fractures in the back and abdominal area is the result of constant hyperextension while playing tennis, which includes constantly bending, leaning, and rotating of the waist. Pressure on the vertebrae in the lower back area can result in ‘pars interarticularis‘, a condition that can cause chronic pain and other spine-related problems.

Rotator Cuff Tear

A rotator cuff is the union of four separate muscles that stabilize and allow movement in the shoulder.  Like tennis elbow, the repetitive swinging motions in tennis cause cause overuse and tearing of these muscles. Rotator cuff tears can also happen as the result of trauma, such as falling when playing tennis.  Pain, extreme tenderness, and weakness are all unfortunate symptoms of rotator cuff tears. Avoiding treatment could lead to an inability to lift one’s arm and possible permanent popping and snapping noises in the moving shoulder.

Ankle Sprains

Ankle sprains are a very common injury, inside and outside of tennis.  While an ankle sprain is far from deadly, the time it takes to heal can be annoying and will prevent one from playing the game for a while.

Patellar tendonitis

Known commonly as ‘jumper’s knee‘, this condition affects the patellar tendon that connects the kneecap to the shin. Jumping puts a lot of strain on this tendon, causing tears that get worse over time.

Without treatment, swelling and pain can occur that will prevent one from playing the sport.

Managing And Treating Common Tennis Injuries

Those injuries seem pretty unsettling, but it’s incredibly easy to prevent and treat them.

First and foremost, if any of these conditions are affecting you, you should see a sports chiropractor immediately.  Sports chiropractors are specially trained to treat your injuries in a way that facilitates extra speedy healing, and they are well-versed in methods of prevention of injuries as well.

In the meantime, there are some methods you can try after you make your sports chiropractor appointment.

Tennis elbow – Management and Treatment

Sports chiropractors can treat tennis elbow effectively with strengthening techniques. A great way to help prevent tennis elbow is to do a specific tennis elbow stretch.  Start by extending your arm to your front. Point your fingertips downward and pull your hand to your body with your other hand.  By doing this stretch on either arm, tension is relieved in your elbow tendons as well as your elbow ligaments. Relieving this tension effectively prepares the area for repetitive movement.

Physical activity is also a great way to treat this injury.

Stress fractures – Management and Treatment

Preventing stress fractures is actually quite simple. Adding adequate strength training and endurance training into your workout routine before playing a rigorous game of tennis can help strengthen muscles around the bone to prevent breakage.  Wearing footwear specifically for tennis can also help prevent stress fractures.  A chiropractor is highly recommended for treating this injury.

Rotator cuff tears – Management and Treatment

Extending and flexing the rotator cuffs is a great way to help decrease the chance of injury.  You can do this by extending the wrist with minor resistance and flexing. Strength training exercises like shoulder presses and pulldowns are suggested as well.

Using an exercise band is also a good way to strengthen the shoulder muscles.  Regular stretching and in some cases physical therapy will be used as treatment for this injury.

Ankle sprains – Management and Treatment

Despite being such a common injury, it’s actually really easy to prevent ankle sprains in any sports.  Take the time to stretch before and after you exercise, always. Do exercises like calf raises to strengthen the ankle, but be careful not to go overboard and accidentally sprain your ankle before it’s had time to toughen up. Doing exercises that improve your overall balance is also a great way to prevent ankle rolling and injury.

Sprains in the ankle are typically treated with ice and compression.

Patellar tendonitis – Management and Treatment

The best way to prevent patellar tendinitis is to never play through the pain.  Continuing to play when pain begins is a sure fire way to get patellar tendinitis. Instead, ice the area and rest until the pain has subsided. Repeat as needed when pain arises.  Strength training for the thighs is also a great way to prevent this injury. A chiropractor or physical therapist is your best bet if this injury gets serious.

PREVENT AND TREAT TENNIS INJURIES THE RIGHT WAY

As a tennis player, it’s important to take care of your body while engaging in the sport. How was our guide to tennis injuries? Do you have tennis injuries prevention tip or hack you’d like to share?

Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!