Get A Leg Up A Physical Therapist can treat tennis leg and implement prevention strategies necessary to get you back on the court safely and quickly. Injuries to the lower leg are common in tennis due to the high demand of the sport and the repetitive, quick movements required. Tennis leg is an incomplete tear or rupture of the calf muscle in the lower leg. The calf muscles include the superficial gastrocnemius, the larger of the lower leg muscles, and [...]
Anisha Drake PT, DPT, MCS Have you ever gotten been hit with a feeling of sudden urgency to run to the bathroom. All the sudden you have to drop everything you have in your hands, dodge obstacles on the way to the bathroom and as you close the bathroom door and try to sit on the toilet, you squeeze your legs to make sure nothing comes out? This common pelvic floor dysfunction is called trigger bladder. It is caused [...]
Risks of Early Sport Specialization in Young Athletes Youth sport participation has increased tremendously over the past several decades. In the past 30 years, there has been a 200% increase in the number of children participating in youth sports. Sports are a great way for kids to develop skills, learn teamwork, set goals, and socialize with their peers. However, the days of simple recreational sport are slowly fading for many of our nation’s youth. Kids are being asked to [...]
Don’t let saddle pain ruin your summer I spend a lot of my time around cyclists, and the most common complaint I hear from my friends, clients, and patients is of saddle pain. Some have given in, resigning themselves of a life of painful riding because they were once told to “suck it up, because all saddles are painful”. Some have significantly reduced how much they ride, or stopped riding entirely. As a lifelong cyclist, I too have invested [...]
The best kept secret to maximizing your sports performance and keeping you active is simple: “Recover better”. The use of a simple piece of foam for foam rolling can help you optimize recovery, which is ideal for athletes and active people of all levels and ages. Why foam rolling? Hard exercise may lead to increased tension/stiffness in your muscles and joints, which can alter joint motion and lead to poor movement patterns, a faster rate of fatigue, and injury. Self-massage [...]
What is heat illness, what causes it and how can you treat it? By Melissa Baudo Marchetti, PT, DPT, SCS, MTC Heat-related illness is always a possibility when playing sports out in the sun, especially in excessive heat and humidity like Atlanta in the summer. There are three stages to heat illness: Heat Cramps: The first stage of heat illness is Heat Cramps, the signs of which are excessive sweating and/or involuntary muscle cramps. These cramps usually occur in [...]
Lights Out // The Importance of Sleep Sleeping well directly affects your physical and mental health, and the overall quality of your life. Lack of sleep can have negative effects on your daytime energy, productivity, physical health, emotional balance, and even your weight. Since there are many factors that affect sleep let’s start with the basics. Control your exposure to light! A naturally occurring hormone called melatonin regulates your sleep-wake cycle. Light exposure controls when your brain produces melatonin. [...]
Have you experienced pain on the outside of your hip? Up to 25% of people report an episode of hip pain that impacts daily activities, exercise, and even sleep! Sometimes the pain resolves quickly, and sometimes it doesn’t. When patients finally see a physician, they are often diagnosed with greater trochanteric bursitis (inflammation of a fluid filled sac on the outer hip) and physicians often recommend corticosteroid injections into the bursa to help decrease the inflammation, therefore resolving the [...]
Seven years ago I made a career change that altered my life from an organically active lifestyle to a naturally sedentary one. Moving from a job as a college professor living in a major Asian city where I didn’t own a car to a desk job in the suburbs of Atlanta meant a pretty drastic lifestyle change. All of a sudden health problems popped up that hadn’t been an issue with my previous lifestyle – back pain, nerve [...]
