An interesting article written by

Drs. Tim Flynn and Dr. Terry Gebhardt

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20110801/COLUMNISTS141/108010305/Hamstring-injuries-pain-can-linger-on?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

In last month’s article, we discussed some of the most effective treatments for chronic hamstring injuries.

Despite being pain-free with typical daily activities, many athletes continue to have pain with their sport for several months and even years after a hamstring injury. Unfortunately, there is a high recurrence rate of hamstring strains because of incomplete rehabilitation or returning to sport too soon. Residual scar tissue and persistent muscle weakness are two common reasons for the persistent pain and high recurrence rate following a hamstring strain.

Fortunately, regardless of how long the injury has persisted, trigger point dry needling and instrumented massage treatments such as ASTYM (www.ASTYM.com) can help break up scar tissue and knots in the muscle called trigger points. These hands-on treatments combined with the appropriate exercise routine can help resolve even the most chronic hamstring strains.

Considering there is such a high recurrence rate of hamstring strains, many people ask what can be done to prevent these injuries from recurring, or better yet prevent them from happening in the first place. Although hamstring stretching is commonly advocated for injury prevention, a hamstring flexibility program has not been shown to reduce the incidence of hamstring injuries. It might even lead to what is called stretch weakness where the muscle is highly flexible but weak and prone to injury.

In contrast, several studies have found the incorporation of specific strengthening called eccentric exercises into a training program can significantly reduce the incidence of hamstring strain injuries. Eccentric exercise involves slowly straightening your knee against resistance to work your hamstring muscles so that the muscle is engaged while it is lengthening.

If you are recovering from an acute or chronic hamstring strain, your physical therapist can help you determine when it is appropriate to begin eccentric training. It is important to start slowly when beginning an eccentric strengthening program, as there tends to be greater muscle soreness associated with this type of strengthening.

In addition to eccentric training, exercises that focus on neuromuscular control of your core muscles and lower extremities have been shown to accelerate injury recovery and prevent re-injury. Think of neuromuscular control as the system that creates coordinated movement. This control system frequently shuts down following injury. Simply strengthening the muscles is usually not enough to restore neuromuscular control.

Exercises to re-establish the motor control are critical in preventing injury recurrence. Examples of such exercises following a hamstring strain include high knee marching, skipping and explosive running starts with a focus on leg power development.

Finally, a program emphasising varying trunk movements during running (e.g. upright posture, forward flexed and forward flexed and rotated) has been shown to reduce hamstring injury recurrence by 70 percent.

So, if you participate in sports where hamstring injuries are more common such as running, soccer, softball and tennis, remember to include exercises similar to those listed above to reduce your risk of injury.

Your physical therapist or personal trainer can help you develop the optimal training program.

See for full article:

http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2011/jan/27/271245/how-to-ward-off-muscle-aches-and-pains/

If you’ve ever completed a vigorous workout, then you’ve probably experienced some muscle aches and pains. There’s nothing unusual about that.

What about those aching joints?

That is swelling and stiffness that just doesn’t go away when you get out of bed in the morning?

Should you halt your workouts because the aches and pains in your joints keep you from feeling up to par?

The simple answer is, “no!” Keeping up your fitness regime is an important component in warding-off those pesky aches and pains.

Exercise, along with other key factors, can actually help you live pain free.

Some tips for minimizing joint pain while you stay active:

Warm-Up – Before engaging in your workout regimen or sports activity, take about five minutes for light stretching and warm-up. Failing to stretch before your workout can exacerbate inflammatory problems, such as tendonitis or bursitis.

Pump some iron – Weight-bearing exercises not only build muscle, but also help to strengthen your joints. Creating stronger muscles means that your joints are better stabilized, and are less likely to ache in the long run.

Slim down – Extra pounds create quite a bit of stress on your joints. Swedish researchers recently reported that women with a body mass index higher than 24 were more likely to undergo knee or hip replacements. That’s because extra weight increases your risk for osteoarthritis, particularly in the joints that bear the brunt of your weight.

Butt Out – Smoking wreaks havoc on your joints by lowering the amount of oxygen in your blood and hindering bone growth. Quit your cigarette habit, and you may just find that you have fewer swollen joints.

•Pay Attention – Don’t ignore prolonged swelling or stiffness in your joints. It may be a sign that you have an autoimmune disorder, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, or fibromyalgia. Talk to your doctor right away because early diagnosis and treatment can help prevent permanent damage to your joints.

Whilst browsing the internet today we came across this article:

http://www.southtownstar.com/lifestyles/2202058,042710toyourhealth.article

By James Krcik, M.D.

Millions of children participate in the fun and excitement of sports activities every day as their parents enthusiastically cheer them on.

Sports can teach kids to stretch their limits, practice sportsmanship and develop discipline – but sports also carry the potential for injury. By knowing the causes of sports injuries and how to prevent them, you can help make athletics a positive experience for you and your child.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 3.5 million children younger than 14 receive medical treatment for sports-related injuries each year. About 80 percent of these injuries result from playing football, basketball, baseball or soccer. Two-thirds are soft-tissue injuries, including sprains (tearing a ligament) and strains (tearing of a muscle or tendon). Only 5 percent are broken bones.

It’s no surprise that contact sports put young athletes at risk of injury, but what many parents don’t realize is that the bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments in children are still growing, making them even more susceptible to injury. Be sure to pay careful attention to your children’s complaints of sports-related aches and pains, because if left untreated, permanent joint damage can occur, which may hinder their physical growth and possibly affect their ability to play sports in the future.

The good news is there are ways to decrease your child’s risk for sports injury:

• Have your child prepare before the very first practice. Make sure your child is getting at least one hour of exercise each day, slowly building up the length and intensity of exercise.

Encourage them to work on certain kinds of exercise that will help them get ready for their sport. For example, if your child is going to play soccer, suggest they start running. Younger kids can start with a few laps around the field or playground and slowly increase the distance. Older kids can start slowly and work up to a few miles a couple of times each week.

And don’t forget to schedule your child’s sports physical several weeks before the season starts. This allows time for more tests or follow-up if needed.

• Know the rules and use the right safety gear. Before the season starts, explain to them that rules help keep them safe. For example, tackling rules in football help prevent neck injuries. Using the right equipment and safety gear for the sport can also lower the chance of getting hurt.

Another note about gear: Though it may be tempting to use sports equipment interchangeably, it’s not the best idea. Baseball cleats, for instance, aren’t appropriate on the soccer field. The spike on the toe can cause serious injuries if it comes in contact with another player’s shin.

• Warm-up and cool-down are a must. Warm-up and cool-down stretches are necessary to prevent muscle spasms and help promote good body mechanics. Watch your children to make sure they don’t rush through stretches.

• Be aware of the appropriate body mechanics and physiology behind each sport. Be sure your child understands what body positions and stretching techniques best protect him or her.

• Don’t play through the pain. Learn to recognize when your child is in pain. If he or she shows signs of pain or injury at practice or in the game, don’t tell him or her to “tough it out.” Pull them out of the game and seek medical attention, if necessary.

• Good nutrition is important for bone and muscle building. Try to eliminate junk and/or fast food from a young athlete’s diet. Instead, focus on needed fruits and vegetables, calcium and protein that help build strong bones and muscles.

Despite our best efforts, sometimes injuries are unavoidable. If you or your child suffers a sports-related injury, the Ingalls Sports Network can help. Comprised of board-certified orthopedic physicians who specialize in sports medicine, arthroscopy and many minimally invasive procedures, the network uses diagnostic technology to treat athletes within 24 to 48 hours of injury at several locations.

Sports Network specialists also are available to educate athletes, coaches, trainers and athletic directors about injury causes and prevention.

Our Opinion of the Dynamint Musculoskeletal Revitalisation Balm:

As appears on http://www.gymworld.co.uk

Its not very often that we recommend physio products here at Gymworld. Dynamint got our attention, though. We were sent a couple of free samples to use so we thought, why not? We exercise and use weights ourselves so we decided to give it a go.

The results were surprising. The normal post-workout aches and pains when we’ve been lifting heavy weights were reduced greatly or disappeared completely in some cases. All you need to do after a workout is rub it liberally on the muscles you’ve been exercising and you can feel it tingling after a minute or so. The aches that you normally feel when you wake up the next day are also much easier to cope with and again in some cases were completely gone.

Dynamint contains several natural oils to make it do its stuff. The other ingredients with long scary names are widely used in skin care products (we looked them up too). We are always wary of “new and exciting miracle creams” as they can sometimes be either ineffectual or harmful. Luckily Dynamint is neither of these and really worked. The peppermint aroma does seem to wake you up and give you focus too.

If you exercise at home or go to the gym regularly then Dynamint would be ideal. You can also see in the customer testimonials below that Dynamint is used by professionals at major football clubs and other organisations – and they need a good product.

What Sports People Are Saying About Dynamint:

“It is an excellent rub, has a long lingering effect, gets deep down and has a very pleasant aroma. The lads love it!
Rob Harris, Physiotherapist, Manchester City F.C.

“I’ve been using Dynamint on many of my clients at my Pilates practice at Northants Cricket Club. It has been an outstanding success with our sports people for both pre- and post-training.”
Karen Grinter, Studio Director Pilates Face & Body ltd

“The product Dynamint is as far as I am concerned, Top of the League!”
Barry Statham, Physiotherapist, Mansfield Town F.C.

“We are a sports medicine clinic specializing in soft tissue rehabilitation. Since being introduced to Dynamint, we now include it as part of our treatment on at least 60% of our clientele. It has proven to be a long lasting analgesic and being completely natural is easily accepted by our clients. The refreshing smell of mint is also accepted as a plus. Most other balms have a chemical smell reminiscent of athletic rubs. Compared to what is available on the market, we are convinced of its superiority as an analgesic balm. It is rapidly absorbed on application and is totally non-greasy, leaving no discomfort to the patient. As a further plus we have recognized the benefits to our own hands at the end of a long day of massage. We wholeheartedly endorse this product and welcome any inquiries as to its efficacy.”
Apollo Sports and Physical Rehabilitation Clinic, John Forde R.M.T. – Former Canadian Olympic Hammer Thrower, Victor Peltz R.M.T., Anu Gill R.M.T

“I have an arthritic knee and in the 1970′s had two cartilages removed. The Doctor said that the knee was very badly worn. I love to play golf and as owner of Chorley Golf Driving Range, I drive some balls every day. If I do this without using Dynamint my knee swells up. Dynamint allows me to play golf whenever I want – when medical advice would say I shouldn’t!”
Gerald Parkinson, Golfer, Owner of Chorley Golf Driving Range.

“Just ordered 237ml of Dynamint… it’s just great! It’s the only thing I have found that helps my knee injury. I thought I would have to pass on running the NY HALF Marathon this Sunday, but thanks to Dynamint I am running pain free. Thanks for your help and for your really great balm.”
Sid Busch, Veteran Runner, New York.

What Dynamint say:

Dynamint’s blend of essential oils is a perfect formula for over-worked and tired muscles resulting from competitive sports activity or exercise. More and more sports people are discovering the benefits of this natural, fast-action balm.

Used before training, Dynamint speeds circulation and reduces warm-up time. When applied after training it relaxes and refreshes aching muscles and tendons.

The recovery stage of your training is vital to future performance and injury-free sport. Using Dynamint can aid recovery and rehabilitation, whilst reducing the need for oral pain relief and medication.

Its non-greasy formula makes it an ideal balm for remedial sports massage – as a pre-training application or applied in the changing room straight after your exercise session. And remember, it won’t stain or stick to your kit or your clothes!

Ingredients:

Aqua (water), Oleum Menthe Piperitae (Peppermint Oil), Calendula Offininalis (Calendula Oil), Oleum Euclypti (Eucalyptus Oil), Pheno-Xyethanol, Sodium Acrylate Copolymer, Sorbitan Monooliate, Colloidal Silica, Oleum Melaleucae (Tea Tree Oil)

Browsing the internet today I found this fantastic article in the NY Times, full article HERE

Dynamint is an ideal sports muscle rub for both before and after sport

YOU have been playing a lot of tennis recently, and now you think you have tennis elbow. Or you’re a swimmer with an aching shoulder. A cyclist with sore knees. A runner with pain in your heel.

Filip Kwiatkowski for The New York Times

Do you go to a doctor, or tough it out?

Now, before you read on and decide I’m a therapeutic nihilist, I have to tell you that the idea for this column was suggested by a doctor-athlete, Paul D. Thompson, who is a marathon runner and cardiologist at Hartford Hospital in Hartford.

And his answer to his own question?

“I think most folks should not go, because most general doctors don’t know a lot about running injuries,” he said, adding, “Most docs, often even the good sports docs, then will just tell you to stop running anyway, so the first thing is to stop running yourself.”

In fact, he said, since you probably will have to make a co-payment if you see a doctor, you will be adding insult — the fee — to your injury.

Dr. Volker Musahl, an orthopedist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, had the same sort of response. He competes in marathons and triathlons.

“If you want to continue to run, don’t see a doctor,” Dr. Musahl said. He, like Dr. Thompson, said that if you were one of his patients, coming in with a sports injury like a sore knee or hamstring or heel or hip, he would just tell you to rest.

Dr. Musahl added a caveat, however. When he recommends staying away from doctors, he is talking about staying away if you have the usual sort of aches and pains that plague almost everyone who exercises regularly. But there are red flags that should prompt you to get medical attention, Dr. Musahl said: pain that gets progressively worse, pain at rest or at night, joint swelling or bruises that do not get better, and knees or elbows or other joints that lock or seem unstable.

Dr. Thomas Best, the president-elect of the American College of Sports Medicine and director of the division of sports medicine at Ohio State University, advises seeing a doctor if you are not recovering in your usual period of time from whatever injury or soreness you typically get. For example, he said, every weekend after his usual 10-mile run his knees are sore. He is not sure why.

“Lord knows what’s going on in there,” Dr. Best said. But the pain goes away in a day or so, and he has grown used to it. That’s his usual recovery time for that kind of knee pain.

“Know how you typically recover,” he said. “When you are not recovering as you typically do, that’s the first warning that something more is going on.”

The problem with rushing to see a doctor for common injuries, according to Dr. Musahl and others, is that doctors have a limited arsenal. For a typical sports injury — pain or tenderness in a muscle or tendon — they can’t make you get better faster. And some of the treatments doctors dispense, like cortisone shots for injured tendons, can actually slow recovery, albeit providing temporary pain relief.

There are some helpful treatments for run-of-the-mill injuries, but they often do not require a doctor, and doctors often know nothing about them.

Rigorous studies have shown that eccentric contractions, in which a muscle lengthens as it works, seem to speed the healing of tennis elbow and of injuries to the Achilles tendon, which attaches the calf muscles to the heel. They involve, for example, doing heel drops for an Achilles tendon injury — standing on a step and dropping your heel, then raising your heel to the level of the step again. In one recent study testing an experimental treatment, which turned out not to work, heel drops were used as the standard of care — the presumed-to-be-effective alternative to the treatment being tested. Participants getting the experimental treatment, as well as those who did not get it, did 180 heel drops a day.

Sometimes going to a doctor for a diagnostic workup can be a precarious thing, with scans that can show all sorts of apparent abnormalities and injuries that are not really causing any problems.

For example, in a study reported at a recent meeting of the American Orthopedic Society, Dr. Matthew Silvis, an orthopedist in Palmyra, Pa., did M.R.I.’s of the hips of 21 professional hockey players and 21 college players. They showed abnormalities in 70 percent of the athletes, even though these hockey players had no pain or only minimal discomfort that did not affect their playing. More than half had labral tears, rips in the cartilage that stabilizes the hip.

“M.R.I.’s are so sensitive,” Dr. Musahl said. “They frequently show little tears or fraying everywhere. And it is very, very common to have a small labral tear in your hip — it doesn’t mean you have to have the particular symptoms.”

The same is true for rotator cuff tears, rips in the tendons that help stabilize the shoulder. Studies have found that about half of all middle-age people with no shoulder pain have these tears, although they are unaware of them and have no symptoms

Dynamint provides temporary relief. Dynamint is great for sports related injuries or simply the aches that result from getting older.
Dynamint is an effective topical cream with all Natural Actives.
Dynamint is alcohol free and has a refreshing Minty scent. Dynamint is unique in that it is enriched with Calendula from the Marigold flower, which is a natural anti-inflammatory, used for centuries in the treatment of acute to subacture inflammation.

Dynamint is a greaseless, non-staining cream that glides on smoothly and soaks in effortlessly to provide temporary, but long lasting pain free movement.
Residue free it can be used anytime at work or play, use in contact sports or ball sports, never greasy, Dynamint can be wrapped under bandaging or dressing. Dynamint can be applied to hands and fingers when using keyboards or repetitive tasks.

Hypoallergenic and Non-pore clogging, Dynamint is a loose, non-greasy cream that goes on easily.

Deep penetration

Cool-warm soothing sensation

Perfect for remedial sports massage

No grease! No stains!

Click on the image below to purchase