Hip Flexor...important muscle

Runners and endurance athletes are a big part of my chiropractic practice. A common problem that I see in a lot of athletes is tight hip flexor muscle. This contributes to a decrease in performance and an increase in injury. For example runners with hamstring problems often have tight hip flexor as well.

The hip flexor is also called psoas-iliacus muscle. There are other muscles that help with hip flexion but this is the main one. The psoas-iliacus can be divided in two; the psoas has its origin on the entire lumbar spine, the iliacus on the posterior of the ilium. They both join to attach at the top and inner side of your femur.

The hip flexor brings our thigh up during the running. It is an important muscle and if it gets tense it will usually get weak as well. Because of it’s anatomy it will also lead to a decrease in hip extension. In simple term our stride length will be shorter. Another thing to note is that when a muscle is tight in our body, the muscle that makes the opposite motion will usually be weak. In the case of a tight hip flexor, this means that our gluteus maximus will be weak. The gluteus maximus is one of the muscles that propel us forward. This will also lead to a decrease in our stride length. This ultimately leads to a decrease in performance.

Why is hip flexor so tight in a lot of people?
Well if you look at the anatomy of the muscle you will find that this muscle is in a short position when we are sitting. And most of us sit for many hours in a day. Some people have office jobs that require that they sit for 8 hours. We also sit to drive to work, we drive back home, we sit to watch TV…you see where I’m going. Sitting is in my opinion the main cause but there are also other causes.

I often talk to groups of runners and I ask people in the audience if they know how to stretch there hip flexors. It is always surprising that most people have never stretch there hip flexors. It is impossible to explain how to stretch your hip flexor properly in an article. So the best thing to do is to ask your coach, chiropractor, physiotherapist, athletic therapist or anyone else that is competent.

Muscle imbalances are detectable with proper testing and treatable with proper treatment, stretching and strengthening exercises. By preventing imbalances from happening in the first place you can improve your running performance and prevent injuries.

Hope this makes sense.

Graston Technique

We have all experienced injuries that don’t seem to go away or always tend to come back. One of the reasons could be a build up of scar tissue in muscles. In the healing process our body attempts to repair muscles, tendon and ligaments with “scar tissue”, much like that scar that forms on the skin when you have scrapped or banged your knee. As you can imagine, that scar tissue is not as strong and flexible as normal, healthy undamaged tissue. Over time we can have a build up of this fibrous scar tissue, particularly in the muscles, tendon and ligament that get a lot of use. This can lead to pain and dysfunction because this replacement tissue lacks the strength and flexibility of healthy tissue (in some areas it may even mat down and entrap a nerve).

A soft tissue treatment technique called Graston Technique allows us to better detect and treat these areas because it uses a stainless steel instrument that glides along a patient’s muscle, tendons or ligaments and acts like a “scar tissue” stethoscope. When knots or bands of scar tissue are encountered, both the doctor and the patient sense a restriction or a granular feeling. The instrument can then be used to “break up” this restriction or adhesion. After treatment there is usually a decrease in pain, increase flexibility and increase in strength in the muscles.

The following are some of the more common conditions that respond well to Graston Technique:

Tennis elbow
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Back pain
Plantar Fasciitis
Rotator cuff tendonitis
Reduced range of motion due to scar tissue
Achilles (Heel) pain
Post surgical traumatic Scars
Myofascial Pain/ Restrictions
Iliotibial Band SyndromeWrist tendonitis

For more information regarding this technique visit www.grastontechnique.com

Dr. Steve Pelletier
In Balance Chiropractic and Health Centre
www.inbalancechiro.ca

Hatha Yoga and Yoga for runners

We will officially start our first yoga classes on January 7th 2008.

One class will be designed for runners. It will be held Monday mornings from 7 am to 8 am. This is a great cross training exercise for runners. This beginner program will be designed to teach proper breathing, proper body alignment and we will also focus on stretching those tight muscles that runners tend to get.

The other class will be a beginner Hatha yoga class. This one will be held on Tuesday mornings from 7 am to 8 am. This class will also focus on proper breathing technique, proper body alignment and proper technique.

Both classes will be limited to 5 participants per classes to make sure that everyone gets proper supervision and feedback from the instructor. They will be of 8 week duration and the cost is $96. With only 10 spots available the classes will fill up pretty quickly. To reserve a spot email us at inbalancechiro@gmail.com.

Dr. Steve Pelletier