December Movement Newsletter
We are in the end of fall season and winter starting soon which means the weather gets colder and makes for prime napping. This gets us on this month’s topic: sleep. As many of you have seen, when you fill out intake paperwork with us there are questions on sleep. We know that a main question that may pop in your head can be: “how can sleep relate to my pain and overall health?” We want to answer that as well as give you a few tips we like to use to help address sleep issues you may be having.
"Knowledge is, by far, the most powerful tool to treat and cure pain. More powerful than any pill." - Dr. David Butler, author of "Explain Pain".
What Is Mechanical Diagnosis & Therapy (McKenzie Method)?
An internationally researched system of assessment and rehab for spinal and extremity musculoskeletal pain. Clinicians that have training in the Mechanical Diagnosis & Therapy (MDT) system are able to assess, classify, manage, and properly refer out when indicated for all complaints of the musculoskeletal system. This means that if a pain complaint is coming from the spine, extremity joints, muscles or tendons, then a MDT evaluation is appropriate. A clinician with MDT training will be able to identify what management strategy is best and outline a predicted recovery plan. All using movement and patient education as a guide toward self management.
The Ankle and Plantar Fasciitis
Limited Ankle Dorsiflexion (foot going toward shin) is shown to be a low to moderate risk for developing plantar fasciitis. Why? Our body is incredibly smart and even when it is lacking joint range of motion in the ankle it will still accomplish the task at hand like running, squatting, lunging by compensating and increasing strain up and down the chain. This commonly means increased demand and force placed upon the plantar fascia over time.
Treatment and rehab for plantar fasciitis can involve everything from foot, ankle, hip, and core based on your individual presentation. We will start from the bottom and move on up in an succeeding blog.
Many times, pain in the bottom of the foot or heel can be pushed into a blanket diagnosis of “you have plantar fasciitis”. But is it plantar fasciitis? Could it be another condition like tibialis posterior tendonitis, stress fracture in the heel, radiating pain from the low back? While getting a blanket diagnosis of plantar fasciitis based on zero exam with some basic rehab and soft tissue techniques thrown at it may work, there is a good chance it probably will not. You must know what you are aiming at. And in the same boat, what is causing the plantar fasciitis? Just because there is pain and inflammation in the plantar fascia does not mean that the CAUSE of the pain is coming from that area as well. In fact, it rarely does. This is why seeking out help from sports chiropractor or physical therapist is important to get a proper diagnosis and most importantly find out the main cause of the pain.
PAIN GUIDELINES
First off it has to be said, if you have a NEW INJURY that is causing pain and is not getting better with any techniques you are doing at home please see a rehab specialist as soon as possible to get it assessed. Grinding through pain in workouts and daily activities is not normal. Also if you start to notice a decrease in range of motion in a joint during a workout or daily activity that is not getting better, please take note. Pain is usually the last thing to come on. We can save a lot of aches and pains and speed up the rehab process if these things are accessed early and not looked at until you are in unrelenting pain.
Now for this post we are talking the rehab process of an injury AFTER it has been accessed and serious red flags have been ruled out. Meaning we have a plan and are on our way to healing the injured tissue. So the questions become in this process: Should I avoid all movements that are painful? When should I stop doing an activity if it is painful? Let the stoplight system be your guide.
STOP LIGHT SYSTEM TO PAIN
Remember: Hurt does not always equal harm.
RED LIGHT:
1. Major loss in range of motion or strength (more than 50%) after doing an activity.
2. Pain increases during activity
3. Lingering pain (not workout soreness) that last several days after doing an activity.
Action Plan: STOP THE ACTIVITY THAT CAUSED IT and seek medical advice from your rehab professional.
YELLOW LIGHT:
1. No change in range of motion, strength, and function.
2. Pain spikes during the activity.
3. Pain persists AFTER activity by 3 numbers (ex: 2/10 to 5/10) for more than couple hours or you wake up the next day and is still spiking.
Action Plan: Remember a flare up in pain does NOT equal harm. It is a part of the process and it just means too much too fast. Take note and stay course with normal activity. Avoid increasing activity (speed, load, volume of an exercise) or adding any new activity. If same pattern continues the next time, decrease activity by 50% (load, sets, reps, duration, speed) and go back and see if persisting pain decreases. If it is better then stay there for couple days and then increase activity gradually again. If it is not then consult your rehab professional.
GREEN LIGHT:
1. No change in range of motion, strength, and function.
2. Pain spikes during the activity.
3. Pain is no worse after activity and back to baseline after few minutes.
Action Plan: Stay the course. Be confident and gradually load and challenge the tissue more and more over time.
HOW ICT MUSCLE & JOINT CAN HELP YOUR PAIN
Here at ICT Muscle & Joint in Wichita we have techniques like chiropractic adjusting, dry needling, IASTM, and cupping to help relieve pain a little bit, but all that is a means to get you moving and get you strong again. We use this stop light system to help guide you to being more resilient and come out of any injury being more educated and stronger than before.
References: "A World of Hurt: A Guide to Classifying Pain"
There are a lot of misconceptions and confusion that come with rehab and recovering from an injury. Some common questions we have pop up or know people are wondering are: why am I having to do exercises at home? Can’t you just “fix” me with your treatments at your office? Why I am doing these low-grade rehab exercises at the beginning? Why am I continuing to come and progress with exercises if I am out of pain? These are just to name a few, and we will try to answer each as best we can.
There are two things behind this idea. One that everyone should be treated with the same presence, time, listening, care and attention to detail as an athlete is in today’s culture of rehab. Two that care should be dictated toward getting the patient back to moving better and finding or encouraging a movement practice they love. Just like when we are doing a “return to play” strategy with an injured athlete.
My name is Riley Dreher and I was blessed with the opportunity to complete 500 total hours of shadowing at ICT Muscle and Joint Clinic through Wichita State University. This internship was my final project to complete my Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science. I have been accepted into Cleveland Chiropractic College in Overland Park, Kansas where I will begin attending school next January. During my time here at ICT Muscle & Joint Clinic, I was able to develop, study, and seek further knowledge of what I can offer to the future chiropractic world and what ICT Muscle & Joint Clinic has to future patients.
The ICTMJC Mindset
If you knew Patrick Mahomes was going to come to the presentation you were doing, how much more would you prepare, wanting to give the best presentation of your life? Maybe you could care less, but you get the point. The majority of people would automatically prepare like an over-caffeinated-mad-man to make sure the presentation was top notch. But what if we treated everyone like that? What if we were fully present and brought our “A” game with everybody? What if we went that extra mile no matter who was in front of us? This is the mindset we at ICT Muscle & Joint want to have. Nobody is more important than anyone else. Everybody deserves that world-class-athlete-treatment.
Happy New Year Wichitans! Hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday season. With the new year comes reflecting on goals and resolutions to make 2020 the best year yet. Keeping that in mind, we wanted to roll out a new series describing a concept that is near and dear to us at ICT Muscle & Joint and our goals for patient care: Treating Everyone Like an Athlete.
In today's technology age, most people spend a lot of time sitting at desk looking at a computer, or looking down at their phone. There is nothing wrong with this posture. I'll say it again, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS POSTURE. I wrote this while sitting in that position. However, because of this position and how gravity works, our postural muscles work as our anti-gravity muscles. Without them, we would technically face-plant on our computers and phones 🤦♂️.
What’s up Wichita Community! My name is Tyler Panko and I am a recent graduate of Cleveland University in Kansas City with a Doctorate of Chiropractic degree. I grew up on a small town, cattle farm in Tekamah, Nebraska with my parents and four older brothers. Within that environment, I developed an empathy and passion for helping people. As a kid, I cultivated a great interest in sports and human performance. While most kids asked for toys at the grocery store, I asked for the monthly edition of Men’s Health magazine to investigate new training strategies. Throughout high school and college, I considered athletic training and physical therapy, but eventually settled on chiropractic medicine after obtaining my undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. Go Big Red!
