My Injury Prevention Series with Team in Training and The Courier Journal

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the past month I’ve had the great joy and opportunity to work with Jessie Halladay during her training for the Dublin, Ireland Marathon on October 31. Jessie is a reporter for the Courier Journal and runs with Team in Training. Team in Training is a wonderful endurance training program that works to raise money to support the mission of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to find a cure for blood cancers by funding research and to provide important patient services and patient aid to blood cancer patients and their families.

Jessie has been blogging about her training and invited me to take part in a series of interviews on some of the most important aspects of injury prevention for the runner. I’ve linked all of the interviews below, check them out!

1) Importance of Proper Footwear

2) Running on Different Surfaces to Prevent Injury

3) Specific Stretching to Avoid Injury

4) Specific Strengthening to Prevent Injury

5) Gait Analysis for Efficient Running

For more information on Team in Training, visit their website Here.

Gait Analysis Lab Is Up and Running! (pun intended)

I’ve recently implemented a small gait analysis lab into Kentucky Sports Chiropractic. As I stated in a previous post, determining what kind of gait you have is imperative for successful injury prevention. Using a treadmill, specific lighting, and a high speed camera allows us to film a runner’s gait, then watch in ultra slow motion for asymmetry and/or biomechanical deficiencies while running.

To test out the new office addition, I decided to use myself as a guinea pig considering I have a significant history of overuse injuries in my left leg. The results were pretty surprising to me. Watch the initial video below and see if you can pick out what’s going on in my gait.

Pay close attention to the angle of my waist line when each leg strikes the ground. You’ll notice that when my right leg hits, my waist line and hips are completely level, this is optimal. However when my left leg strikes the ground, my waistline and hip slope down towards my right side. This is a classic example of having weak abductor muscles. For the runner, abductor muscles (specifically the gluteus medius) work to stabilize the hips and evenly distribute stress and impact throughout our lower extremities when striking the ground. If the hip stabilizers are weak and/or not functioning correctly (like with me!),   an overuse injury will inevitably occur as a result of the lack of stability.

To correct this, I’ve started a specific exercise regimen that targets core stability and hip abductors. We’ll reassess my gait in a few weeks to see the improvements.

Kentucky Sports Chiropractic’s New Location

I’m very proud and excited to announce the new location of Kentucky Sports Chiropractic. We’re now located in the Highlands, at 2010 Cherokee Pkwy Suite # 3, Louisville, KY 40204. This move accommodates the primary goal of KSC which is to be a leading provider in the Louisville and Southern Indiana areas of evidence-based chiropractic, soft tissue mobilization, rehabilitation and patient education to eliminate symptoms, restore full function, and promote a healthy lifestyle.  Stop by the office anytime or to learn more about the treatment we provide, visit our website here.

-KB

What’s the blue tape?

One of the primary goals at Kentucky Sports Chiropractic is to not only get you better, but enable you to continue your active lifestyle WHILE getting better. One of the tools we use to help you do this is called Kinesio tape. You may remember our last summer Olympics where athletes in several sports wore the weird looking tape on their shoulders and knees. This was Kinesio tape.

Kinesio Taping gives support and stability to your joints and muscles without affecting circulation and range of motion. It is also used for Preventive Maintenance, Edema, and to treat pain.

Kinesio Taping is a technique based on the body’s own natural healing process. This Kinesio Taping exhibits its efficacy through the activation of neurological and circulatory systems. This method basically stems from the science of Kinesiology, hence the name “Kinesio”. Muscles are not only attributed to the movements of the body but also control the circulation of venous and lymph flows, body temperature, etc. Therefore, the failure of the muscles to function properly induces various kinds of symptoms.

The Kinesio Taping Method is applied over muscles to reduce pain and inflammation, relax overused tired muscles, and to support muscles in movement on a 24hr/day basis. It is non-restrictive type of taping which allows for full range of motion.

In contrast, traditional sports’ taping is wrapped around a joint strictly for stabilization and support during a sporting event obstructing the flow of bodily fluids as an UNDESIRABLE side-effect.

Dana, DCCF’s writer in residence blogs about her experience with Kinesio tape here.

-KB

Training for the Triple Crown or Mini? Make a foam roller or “The Stick” your best friend to avoid injury.

With the Louisville Triple Crown running series and Mini-marathon upon us, the very common overuse injuries that runners  experience are starting to rear their ugly heads. I’ve been seeing a lot of shin splints, plantar fasciitis, IT band syndrome, patellofemoral pain (runner’s knee), and lower extremity muscle strains lately. What a lot of people don’t know is that these injuries can be prevented in a few simple ways.

First, let’s go over the anatomy of what’s going on when we have these issues. Overused muscles are the culprit for a lot of these conditions. A muscle becomes overused in three ways:

-Acute injuries (pulls, tears, collisions, etc.)

- Accumulation of small tears (micro-trauma)

- Not getting enough oxygen (hypoxia)

So now the question is: “How do I keep these things from occurring?” One major key to this answer is to make a foam roller or “The Stick” part of your everyday warm-up and cool-down routine.

The foam roller (pictured above on the left) is a form of myofascial release that increases blood flow and oxygen to the treated area which will prepare the muscle for activity. Post-run, rolling will help flush out any inflammation that has occurred during activity and prevent adhesion or scar tissue from forming on overused tissue.

“The Stick” (pictured above on the right) works similarly to the foam roller and might be a little easier for transport and on-the-go treatment.

Taking 5 or 10 minutes a day to roll or stick your muscles will go a long way in preventing these very common overuse injuries.

If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comment section.

-KB

Dana’s 2nd blog post about Kentucky Sports Chiropractic

Dana McMahan, the Derby City CrossFit “writer in residence” has been hard at work transforming herself into a power lifter over the past few months. Under the guidance of the CrossFit coaches, she’s improved leaps and bounds and is preparing for her first weight lifting competition in two weeks.

I’ve had the privilege of working with Dana to improve and maintain both muscle and joint mobility that is necessary for optimal performance.

Read her 2nd blog post about her experience at Kentucky Sports Chiropractic here: The Pain That’s Worth It. (By Dana McMahan)

DCCF “writer-in-residence” Dana, blogs about her experience at Kentucky Sports Chiropractic.

Kentucky Sports Chiropractic recently opened up inside of Derby City CrossFit Gym (DCCF) in downtown Louisville. One of the great joys of starting my clinic here has been getting to know and treat the athletes who train at CrossFit. My objective in treating these athletes  focuses on several things: Injury Prevention/Treatment and Performance Enhancement. One of these athletes, Dana McMahan who also happens to be a fantastic writer, blogs about her experience with Kentucky Sports Chiropractic and how I address the aforementioned objectives.

See her article here: If it hurts, take care of it (Dana McMahan)

-KB

Kentucky Sports Chiropractic Is Open!

Hello All,

I am extremely excited about this announcement. Since August of this year I’ve been working to get to this point. A lot of people (mainly banks and other financial institutions) told me that it could not happen and that I should settle for something less. Well, to them I’m not going to say I told you so……..but I did.

To find out more about what I do, please visit my office website here.

A few people who I want to thank who helped to make this happen. First of all, my beautiful wife Laine. Her undying support has been everything. My parents as well, I’m very lucky to be the son of such special people. Next thanks goes to the Carolina Sports Clinic, who Kentucky Sports Chiropractic is modeled after. Dr. Josh Kollmann and Dr. Brad Wiest run the show out there and are the best at what they do. They’ve been vital in getting KSC’s doors open and we are honored to be affiliated with them. Also, big thanks to Jeff Finn who designed my awesome website. See more of his work here. Last but definitely not least, thanks to Ben Carter and Kat Gresham at Derby City CrossFit where Kentucky Sports Chiropractic is located. All of the coaches at DC CrossFit are extremely knowledgeable and offer the most advanced fitness training that I’ve ever seen.

Ok time to get back to work! Come by and see me soon. Post on shoes that promote mid-foot and forefoot striking comes next.

-KB

Decrease running and overuse injuries…..Here’s how.

I stumbled upon a great article today from the Harvard Gazette.  The Harvard University department of Science and Engineering recently concluded a study comparing barefoot running to our traditional shod (shoe wearing) running. The study showed a major decrease in foot stress when running barefoot.  When we run barefoot, we tend to avoid “heel striking” and naturally opt to strike the ground with the front or middle of our feet. Daniel Lieberman who is a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard and co-author of a paper appearing this week in the journal Nature states: “By landing on the middle or front of the foot, barefoot runners have almost no impact collision, much less than most shod runners generate when they heel-strike.” This means your legs will absorb shock much more efficiently!

If you’re a traditional heel striker and have had injury problems in the past (like me!), this change in running mechanics could GREATLY enhance injury prevention.

This does not mean to trash the running shoes and head out the door, Fred Flintstone style. There are specific types of shoes that promote forefoot strike, so literally running barefoot is not the only way to take advantage of this change. A slow transition needs to be made from heel strike to toe strike. A physiologic change has to occur in the muscles of our legs and feet to support the switch in biomechanics. Special attention needs to be made to build strength primarily in the calf and foot muscles. In my next few posts I’ll go further in detail about the exercises and shoe models that will aid in this transition.

You can read the article from Harvard here.

-KB

How to deal with Overpronation

Sorry for the delay in posts!

As I discussed in my last post, over-pronation is a very common gait deficiency. If you have ever looked at the tread on your worn running shoes and noticed the inside edge of rubber being unevenly worn down, you are more than likely an over-pronator. This means you are running/walking on the inside of your foot which will in all likelihood create an overuse injury (shin splints, plantar fasciitis, IT band syndrome, stress fractures)  at some point.

Some things to consider if you are over-pronating:

- Specific types of Shoes can help with over-pronation. “Stability” or “Motion Control” shoes have built in support that can help guard against an overuse injury. Some good models of shoes to look at are the Mizuno Wave Inspire, or the New Balance MR760. Both of these are built specifically for support of over-pronation.

- Exercises to help strengthen the intrinsic muscles of the foot can also be helpful. Livestrong.com provides a great explanation of the exercises HERE.

- If proper shoes and exercises have not helped, then specifically made Orthotics may be the way to go. Orthotic shoe inserts can be ordered and specifically molded to your foot which helps to correct the gait deficiency. Orthotics can get pricey but are sometimes the key to injury free running.

–K.B.