Category Archives: lower limb

Knee Pain

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When people traumatise a knee through having it bent the wrong way or smacking it up against something hard, it is fairly obvious why you will feel sore afterwards. When your knee starts hurting for no apparent reason and a trip to the doctor and an x-ray still does not explain the cause of the problem it might be a muscular one even if it feels deep inside the joint. This happens because uneven muscular tensions in your upper or lower leg can interfere with how well your leg can bend and weight bear.

If you have a problem knee (whether it is recent or long term) have a good feel of your leg muscles and compare the same locations with even pressure on both legs. Press into the muscles right and left and above and below your sore knee.

Feel along the full length of the muscle. Do you get identical sensations under the same pressure in the same locations? If not you might explain your knee pain, you may need a massage or some acupuncture.

If you have had a knee x-ray and there is evidence that you have some osteo-arthitis (cartilege thinning) but it has not yet worn to the point where you need surgery, there are things that can be done that can slow further deterioration and alleviate your symptoms.

Sometimes stiff leg muscles can make your knee sore, check your knees now, do your thigh and calf muscles feel exactly the same on both of your legs? Some Self Massage over your stiff leg muscles may improve how your knee feels even though your leg muscles dont feel particularly sore.

Sometimes knee pain is brought about by neglect, like through lack of exercise. Sometimes doing things when you are young that do not bother you at the time (like kneeling on cold hard surfaces or playing contact sport) can affect you later on in life. Sometimes our efforts to achieve stronger and better bodies can be a little misguided through poor exercise and sports practises.

Many times I have seen at  gyms  a bunch of guys standing around a leg-press machine all egging each other on to out-do one another, grunting and straining against heavy weights in the heels-to-butt position doing god knows what damage to their knees. Ego can really mess you up.

The practise of strapping dodgy ankles to stop them from twisting can damage your knees. Your ankles are naturally designed to move side to side to help us walk on uneven ground, our knees have no natural sideways movement. When ankles are strapped to prevent side ways movement we force our knees side ways which is a really bad idea.

Stiff knees can stop us doing many common place things like tying shoe laces, pulling weeds from your garden and safely squatting to lift things. Your knees are likely to give you many subtle hints that they are not happy before they really let you down. Fully squatting especially under load is not good for your knee joint.

Self Massage and correct exercise and posture are useful for knee comfort and function.

Arthritis

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There are many forms of arthritis ( the word means joint inflammation), by far the most common form is osteo-arthritis (OA) characterised by cartilage thinning at the ends of the bones where they meet other bones to form joints. All the joints are lined with cartilege, the smooth, slippery-when-wet nature of cartilege allows the bones the slide easily against one another and they can absorb shock. Considered to be a normal process of aging if you live long enough, OA can interfere with smooth joint movement.

If your genes have been passed on by OA sufferers it can predispose you to it, contact sport will greatly increase your chances of getting it as will being chronically overweight and unfit.

OA is the number one cause of needing hip and knee replacement surgery, you can sometimes actually hear and feel the bones grinding against one another in OA sufferers- when it gets to that stage it can get quite debilitating and very uncomfortable.

The good news is you can help yourself by following some sensible strategies. Walking and running on grass is easier on knees than the pavement. Wear good joggers check your running posture. Getting regular massage is useful, it helps free up muscle and joint action. Sometimes muscles tighten and increase the pressure inside your joints reducing your comfort and performance. Physio, osteopathy, chiropractic, massage and acupuncture are useful in combatting the effects of OA. Alkaline diets can reduce joint inflammation too.

There are other less common forms of arthritis such as rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis and unfortunately some people can suffer from more than one type at the same time.

Climate can play a part in the severity of arthritis, OA for instance usually feels worse during cold weather where rheumatiod arthritis (RA) will be more acute when the weather is hot.

Arthritis can also be compounded by other problems such as weight gain, tendonitis and shin splints, causing pain to radiate further from the joint itself along your legs, a common location for OA. Arthritis often effects people’s spines and hands too which can be extremely debilitating, basically where ever you have cartilege you can get arthritis.

Some arthritis sufferers find pharmaceutical medications quite satisfactory in controlling their symptoms but for others the side effects just aren’t worth it, if your stomach lining is a little on the sensitive side for instance you may be one of those people.

If you do get aching joints don’t just fob it off as getting older, be open to the possibilities and try them enough times to show some results.

Please remember to massage your “good side” too, when you are limping it adds to the wear and tear of the good side. It is common for knee and hip replacement patients to have a second joint replaced in fairly quick successuion so make a point of looking after both sides.

Back Pain II- Your Legs

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Like the foundations of a building supporting what is above it, so your legs (and feet) support the weight of your body, any weakness or pain in your legs  given long enough,  eventually effects your spine and all that is attached to it. When people limp for instance it creates a lop-sidedness in the body. Lop-sided bodies are not as energy efficient, well balanced, comfortable or attractive as straight bodies .

Broken bones, sprains, strains, torn or stiff muscles, arthritis or just plain laziness and lack of fitness in your legs, can and often do cause back and neck pain, some times long after your leg and foot actually stop hurting.

This explains why people are often mystified by a sudden onset of  back pain that seems to be unrelated to anything that has happened to their back such as through  heavy lifting  or falling awkwardly.

The best prevention for leg related back pain is to have a good exercise regime that includes stretches and strengthens  your leg muscles, constant postural awareness and wearing good shoes.

Getting back pain from a sore knee or ankle is a type of compensatory effect, a sore knee may cause your knee, ankle or hip on the other side of your body, to become sore too for no apparent reason.

A sore knee can cause back pain through compensatory affects, it is like driving your car around with a wheel missing, the rest of the car will eventually be damaged by it.

People awaiting hip or knee replacement surgery often require further joint replacement surgery later on because of the compensatory affect. Their other previously healthy joints work harder and at stressed angles to keep you upright. Weight gain usually results through reduced mobility.

If you possibly can, get all niggling leg and foot problems sorted out before they worsen and spread. Such problems are not rare , they happen all the time, and not just to the elderly, many young people every year sustain sports injuries to their legs. Even if you may have had successful surgery at the time it does not mean it will be a permanent and complete remedy, anyone who follows football knows that once a player has sustained a leg injury another often quickly follows, proof  again of the compensatory effect.

The truth of the matter is that your body is busy doing all sorts of stuff that you are not normally conscious of, like breathing and  placing one foot infront of the other when you walk. The way a body manages to keep itself moving when parts of it are sick or injured is also something that requires little conscious thought.

There are many forms of therapy that can help you deal with leg and back problems such as acupuncture, osteopathy, chiropractic and massage therapy. Exercise in the form of  yoga, pilates and Tai Qi can be effective too. Some find that switching to a less acidic and low sugar diet can reduce symptoms. A regular dietary review can be helpful, poor eating habits can creep up on you like poor postural habits can.

Do something today about that dodgy knee before it gets dodgier.

Sore Feet

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Our feet work hard and usually in hot, cramped and poorly ventillated conditions so is it any wonder that they get sore from time to time!.

Ingrown toenails, bungeons and neuromas can contribute to plantar fasceitis through changing the way we walk, ignoring one problem can be the beginning of other problems.

Plantar Fasceitis (PF) is a condition that commonly afflicts people who are on their feet a lot and is often accompanied by heel spurs.’ Plantar’ means the sole of your foot, ‘fasceitis’ refers to inflammation of the tough fibrous tissue beneath the skin of our soles.

I have treated many people over the years with PF , on each and every one of them their calf muscles were tight and sore and so too was the achilles tendon (tough cordlike structure joining your heel bone to your calf muscle).

When our muscles tighten or contract they shorten slightly, when this tightening becomes chronic it can start to inflame the fascia in the heel and sometimes tighten the muscles in the arch. It can change the way we walk and cause other lower leg problems.

If you are on your feet a lot in your job (nursing, restaurant waiting, shop assistance) or maybe do it for fun when you go on long runs and walks PF may sooner or later effect you.

Have a feel of your calves and achilles tendons now, sink your thumbs in, are they sore? do you stretch them enough? is the way they feel stopping you from doing things you enjoy ?.

Maybe you are not on your feet that much but still get PF, I have met a few drivers who get sore calves and heels from driving, so too with bicycle riders because they use their calves so much, PF is treated the same way if this applies to you. Overweight can cause PF too.

It is not uncommon for PF sufferers to have had shin splints at some stage (or concurrently if you are unlucky), PF can be a major nuisance but it is usually fixable and you can help yourself  with this.  If you use the methods described in the Self Massage book you can work the calves for longer without the sore thumbs. Stretching your calf and sole muscles afterwards helps too.

In Self Massage & +40 fitness you will find numerous massage techniques and exercises that your feet might respond well to.