Injuries
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Pain
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Dysfunction
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When pain persists—in the shoulders, the lower back, the knee, the neck, or between the shoulder blades—many people go from doctor’s office to doctor’s office, hoping for a silver bullet cure. But in reality, there is no quick and simple cure. The best cure is an un-layering process, one that involves observing biomechanics, reconstructing injured areas, and restoring normal healthy motion through balancing load and capacity.
Decrease the Load and Increase the Capacity
Discomfort and Pain most often do not occur overnight. If you throw out your back while picking up a dropped pen, or pull a hamstring while sprinting, or hurt your shoulder while pitching, it’s usually not that one event that causes the injury; rather, it’s the proverbial hair that broke the camel’s back scenario. Sitting too much, over-training, excessive running with mechanical flaws, or performing the same movements over and over damages joints and causes micro-trauma to soft tissue resulting in adhesion and scar tissue formation.
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- Load = the amount of wear and tear placed on the body. For example, running ten miles or sitting in a slouched posture for ten hours at work.
- Capacity = the amount of wear and tear the body can endure before it begins to break down. Running three miles might not cause a problem, but run six miles and your body is SCREAMING for you to stop. When the load exceeds the capacity, an injury will ultimately surface.
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Name the Symptom:
Back pain, knee pain, shin splints, headaches, IT-Band syndrome, shoulder pain, running injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, arm/leg pain.
Resolve the problem:
The primary objective of treatment—whatever the symptoms may be—is to resolve the source. We do this by decreasing the load and increasing the capacity, thus allowing the body to recover while building a stronger base for future activity.
A multi-faceted approach:
Current research indicates that to achieve the best results, many facets of an injury must be addressed. For example: soft-tissue quality, biomechanics, stability, mobility, nutrition, and other lifestyle factors.
Factors that Increase the Load & Decrease the Capacity:
- Adhesion and Scar Tissue Buildup – Scar tissue restricts customary range of motion, entraps nerves, varies biomechanics, and triggers pain. In response to injury, the body lays thick, fibrous tissue that restricts movement in an effort to prevent further damage.
- Soft Tissue Restrictions – Lack of joint motion can result from soft tissue restrictions and/or tight joints that are not moving properly.
- Altered Biomechanics – Muscles (soft tissue) are designed to shorten and lengthen a particular body part. The biceps flex the arm and the triceps extend the arm, and at the same time, the muscles are contracting to stabilize the joint in its optimal position.
Injured muscles cause an imbalance in the body’s natural harmony. For example, the rotator cuff muscles are responsible for moving the shoulder through many degrees of motion. But there is more: they are also designed to stabilize the head of the humerous in the glenoid cavity (shoulder joint).
In a healthy shoulder, push-ups shouldn’t cause pain and discomfort, but if there is a lack of stability in the shoulder, the load is increased when performing a normal push-up, and pain will surface.
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Effective treatments:
Active Release Techniques, Specific Chiropractic Adjustments, Technique Modification, Stability and Corrective Exercises are geared towards decreasing the load while at the same time increasing the capacity.
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