We treat people with many different injuries and ailments, and so hear many different stories of how people have sustained their injuries. The unusual always stand out but it is the common problems that need discussion. This is to hopefully help people understand more about the reason behind their injuries and subsequent issues. Some common descriptions of injuries from our clients are, ‘I bent over and suddenly my back went’, ‘I stepped down off the curb and immediately felt a sharp knee pain’ and the classic ‘I did this 8 years ago playing tennis and it resolved in two days, but it’s not settling this time’.
Invariably we spend time explaining to the client the mechanisms of their injury. However about 90% of the problems we treat are caused by underlying habitual postural changes affecting soft tissues around joints and they therefore affect the biomechanics of the area in terms of functional movement patterns.
Our bodies are designed to move through good range of movement, using our joints, muscles and other soft tissues. Movement keeps our bodies healthy and functioning normally. Yet all too often we are in relative static positions placing excessive stresses through the soft tissues in these regions.
Over time soft tissues will either adaptively shorten or lengthen in response to sustained positioning, this will greatly affect joint control and movement patterns. This is known as ‘relative flexibility – relative extensibility’. As you can see in the photo, if we look at the lumbar lordosis, the soft tissues where the arrow is are going to be in a relative shortened position and will adapt to this. Obviously the soft tissues on the abdominal side are being stretched and so will give to this low grade stress that they are under.
The more time spent in these habitual postures the greater the effect of soft tissue adaption. We are not talking about this happening in hours but over years. It builds up and explains why an injury 8 years down the track will take longer to correct, the tissues have simply continued to adapt. This changes the movement patterns further, and eventually your body will ‘fail’ to cope with the stresses in the region and this is when you experience pain. This can often be a sudden onset as your body has the stresses to other regions until it has hit this ‘fail’ point.
Our advice is: make sure you are getting some movement into your daily routine and walking is excellent, together with a few stretches to cover all the major muscle groups. This will assist greatly in preventing injuries and ensuring that you continue to enjoy all activities.
Walking Tips:
Stride Out
Move Those Arms
It Should Be Tiring
Stay Tall
At Body Logic Health we can identify problem areas before they become a problem through movement, walking & running screens.