Articles

Click Here to download a PDF of this article High blood pressure is a public health crisis that causes more than 10 million deaths annually.  Standard medical treatment for hypertension is pharmacological intervention (for people with systolic pressure greater...

Published April 1, 2015 by Dynamic Chiropractic Magazine Tibialis posterior is the deepest, strongest, and most central muscle of the leg, with fibers originating from the tibia, fibula and the interosseous membrane. The tendon of tibialis posterior forms in the...

Published Jan. 16, 2016 by Competitor Magazine The piriformis is a small muscle in the back of the hip that is notorious for causing trouble in high mileage runners. The word piriformis is Latin for pear-shaped, since the muscle’s wide base and tapered attachment...

Published January 13, 2015 by Dynamic Chiropractic Magazine Although heel pain occurs with a variety of injuries (e.g., calcaneal stress fractures and/or infracalcaneal bursitis), by far, the most common cause for heel pain is plantar fasciitis. The word fascia is...

Published Oct. 19, 2015 by Competitor Magazine According to a few well-respected paleoanthropologists, our ancient ancestors (specifically, Homo erectus) were so efficient at running they could chase prey for hours, eventually killing the exhausted animals by hand. In...

Click Here to download a PDF of this article Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common of all joint diseases, affecting more than 30 million Americans. In the next few decades, the number of people suffering with osteoarthritis is expected to skyrocket, as people are...

Originally referred to as “athlete’s ankle” and later “footballer’s ankle” because of the high prevalence in soccer players, this condition occurs when osteophytes on the anteromedial tibia and dorsal talus collide during ankle dorsiflexion, pinching the soft tissues...

Initially discovered in the 1960s by Eklund and Hagbarth (1), a surprising body of research has shown that placing small vibrating motors over the belly of a muscle can produce presynaptic inhibition of the muscle’s spindles, which can reduce muscle tone by as much as...

Click Here to download a PDF of this article The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is a powerful stabilizer of the knee, possessing 2 different bundles (Fig. 1) that help stabilize the knee against anterior shear force, valgus collapse, and excessive internal tibial...

Click Here to download a PDF of this article Published in Dynamic Chiropractic, Vol. 30, Issue 3 The word sesamoid is Latin for "sesame seed." These small bones are located inside specific tendons, where they improve mechanical efficiency by pulling the tendon farther...

Click Here to download a PDF of this article The popliteus muscle originates from the lateral aspect of the distal femur and inserts along the posterior aspect of the proximal tibia. It is comprised of three separate fiber bundles that are under different degrees of...

Unlike the hip joint, which possesses a deep ball and socket that provides inherent stability to reduce stress on the restraining ligaments, the knee is particularly prone to injury because the flatness of the tibial plateau provides little protection against...

Excerpted from his book, Human Locomotion Limb length discrepancy (LLD), which is divided into functional and structural categories, is a common cause of injury. In a study of 3,026 subjects with radiographically confirmed LLD, Harvey et al. (152) determined that...

Fig. 1. The Triple Stick Strap Summary: The latest research confirms that blood flow restriction training using lighter cuff pressures can markedly increase the production of growth hormone, allowing you to substantially increase muscle mass while exercising with...

The process of applying thigh and arm tourniquets to impair blood flow while strength training was developed more than 50 years ago in Japan, where it is referred to as KAATSU training (1). Original advocates of this training technique wrapped straps around their...

Weakness of the intrinsic toe flexors, specifically the flexor digitorum brevis muscle (FDB), is a common and underappreciated cause of a wide range of injuries. In 2015, Sullivan et al. (1) examined 202 people with chronic heel pain and compared them to 70...

Given the popularity of running, it’s surprising how much controversy exists over which style of running is best for improving performance. Some coaches advocate that all you need to do to achieve the ideal running form is to run with a cadence of 180 foot strikes per...

Summary Interdigital neuromas are common, poorly studied, and notoriously difficult to treat. By offloading the third and fourth metatarsal heads throughout propulsion, the new Peel and Stick interdigital neuroma balance allows you to effectively treat interdigital...

Summary Sesamoid injuries are extremely common, especially in high-arched individuals. The new Peel and Stick Sesamoid Balance is thicker than most sesamoid balances, and is made of a blend of urethane rubber, PPT, and synthetic suede designed to significantly reduce...

Over the past 100 years, there have been 4 major pandemics that have collectively killed more than 60 mil- lion people. The most notorious of these pandemics is the 1918 Spanish flu, which infected 50% of the world’s population and killed over 50 million people....

In any given year, nearly one in 100,000 adults will develop a vertebral artery dissection (VAD) (1) (Fig. 1). Factors that increase the risk of dissection include elevated homocysteine levels, Marfan’s syndrome, family history of stroke, migraines, and even seasonal...

Twenty years ago, when a group of runners got together for a workout, a few would casually be stretching either their hamstrings or calves, but the stretches seemed pretty random and inconsistent. It was almost as if the runners knew they were supposed to stretch, but...

Ankle sprains are surprisingly common. In the United States alone, 23,000 people sprain their ankle each day (Fig. 1). The medical costs associated with treating ankle sprains exceeds $1.1 billion annually (1,2). To make matters worse, these numbers do not take into...

Shortly after age 50, the rate at which a person loses muscle mass begins to accelerate (1). Figure 1 is a graphical representation of the average number of quadriceps muscle fibers present in adults aged 18 to 82 (2). Looking at the center of the graph, it is clear...

In any given year, nearly one in 25 athletes will tear their anterior cruciate ligament (1). More commonly, one in 10 recreational athletes develop patellofemoral pain annually, and once diagnosed, more than 90% will continue to suffer with chronic knee pain years...

In any given year, nearly 40% of senior citizens aged 70 and over will fall at least once (1). Each fall significantly increases the risk of not only sprains, strains, and contusions, but also fractures. The resultant injuries often begin a downward spiral of weakness...

Each year, nearly 2 million Americans seek medical attention for a painful heel. In the US alone, the annual economic cost for managing this common condition is in excess of $300 million (1). While the majority of patients with painful heels respond favorably within 3...

Next to osteoarthritis, greater trochanter pain syndrome is the most frequently encountered hip injury, and it is estimated that it will eventually affect between 10% and 25% of the population (1). The typical patient complains of pain with single-leg stance and the...

For more than 30 years, researchers have been trying to identify specific risk factors that can predetermine whether or not a runner is likely to be injured. With an annual injury rate exceeding 50%, runners could save them selves a lot of time and frustration if they...

The best running coaches in the world continually have their athletes work on their running form, either through daily drills or through significant biomechanical adjustments. Nike Oregon Project coach Alberto Salazar is famous for changing everything from the tilt of...

In any given year, more than one in five runners will sustain a stress fracture (1). In the U.S. alone, this trans- lates into nearly 2 million stress fractures annually (2). In a study of 320 patients presenting with stress fractures, Matheson, et al., (3) note that...

Iliotibial band syndrome is a common injury, occurring in up to 12% of all runners (1). The pain associated with this syndrome is often described as “burning” and is reproduced clinically with Noble’s test, in which the examiner compresses the distal band against the...

Of all the gait-related muscle injuries, hamstring strains have the highest rate of recurrence, with as many as one third of injured athletes suffering reinjury within the first few weeks following return to sport (1). Because their stride lengths may exceed 3.5...