Body Knots

What is a frozen shoulder?

A frozen shoulder is stiffness and pain in the shoulder.

A frozen shoulder usually develops after a shoulder injury that causes pain and does not allow you to move your shoulder enough. Sometimes, however, a frozen shoulder may occur for no known reason. If you have limited movement of your shoulder for weeks, months, or years because of an injury, the capsule surrounding the shoulder joint may become very stiff. Your shoulder may develop scar tissue, or adhesions, in the joint.

What are the symptoms?

Your shoulder will lose its normal ability to move in all directions. You may not be able to lift your arm above your head or be able to scratch your back. Movement of the shoulder may be very painful. You may feel grinding when moving your shoulder.

Piriformis Syndrome/ Siatica

Piriformis syndrome is an irritation of the sciatic nerve as it passes through or next to the piriformis muscle. Inflammation of the sciatic nerve, causes pain in the back of the hip that can often travel down into the leg.

How does it occur?

The piriformis muscle is located deep in the buttock and pelvis and allows you to rotate your thigh outward. The sciatic nerve travels from your back into your leg by passing through or next to the piriformis muscle. If the piriformis muscle is unusually tight or if it goes into spasm, the sciatic nerve can become inflamed or irritated. Piriformis syndrome may also be related to intense downhill running.

What are the symptoms?

You have pain deep in your buttock that may feel like a burning pain. The pain usually travels down across your lower thigh. Your pain may increase when you move your thigh outward, such as when you are sitting cross-legged

Calf Strain

What is a calf strain?

A strain is an injury in which muscle fibers or tendons are stretched or torn. People commonly call such an injury a "pulled" muscle. A calf strain is an injury to the muscles and tendons in the back of your leg below your knee.

How does it occur?

A strain of your calf muscles can occur during a physical activity where you push off forcefully from your toes. It may occur in running, jumping, or lunging.

What are the symptoms?

A calf muscle strain may cause immediate pain in the back of your lower leg. You may hear or feel a pop or a snap.

You may get the feeling that someone has hit you in the back of the leg. It is hard to rise up on your toes. Your calf may be swollen and bruised.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

What is carpal tunnel syndrome?

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a common, painful disorder of the wrist and hand.

How does it occur?

Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by pressure on the median nerve in your wrist. People who use their hands and wrists repeatedly in the same way (for example, illustrators, carpenters, and assembly-line workers) tend to develop carpal tunnel syndrome.

Pressure on the nerve may also be caused by a fracture or other injury, which may cause inflammation and swelling. In addition, pressure may be caused by inflammation and swelling associated with arthritis, diabetes, and hypothyroidism. Carpal tunnel syndrome can also occur during pregnancy.

What are the symptoms?

The symptoms include:

* pain, numbness, or tingling in your hand and wrist, especially in the thumb and index and middle fingers; pain may radiate up into the forearm

* increased pain with increased use of your hand, such as when you are driving or reading the newspaper

* increased pain at night

* weak grip and tendency to drop objects held in the hand

* sensitivity to cold

* muscle deterioration especially in the thumb (in later stages).

Lateral Epicondylitis (Tennis Elbow)

What is lateral epicondylitis also known as tennis elbow?

Lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow) is the name for a condition in which the bony bump at the outer side of the elbow is painful and tender.

The elbow joint is made up of the bone in the upper arm (humerus) and one of the bones in the lower arm (ulna). The bony bumps at the bottom of the humerus are called epicondyles. The bump on the outer side of the elbow, to which certain forearm muscles are attached by tendons, is called the lateral epicondyle.

Lateral epicondylitis is also referred to as wrist extensor tendonitis.

How does it occur?

Tennis elbow results from overusing the muscles in your forearm that straighten and raise your hand and wrist. When these muscles are overused, the tendons are repeatedly tugged at the point of attachment (the lateral epicondyle). As a result, the tendons become inflamed. Repeated, tiny tears in the tendon tissue cause pain. Among the activities that can cause tennis elbow are tennis and other racket sports, carpentry, machine work, typing, and knitting.

What are the symptoms?

The symptoms of tennis elbow are:

* pain or tenderness on the outer side of the elbow

* pain when you straighten or raise your wrist and hand

* pain made worse by lifting a heavy object

* pain when you make a fist, grip an object, shake hands, or turn door handles

* pain that shoots from the elbow down into the forearm or up into the upper arm.

Hamstring Strain

What is a hamstring strain?

A strain is a stretch or tear of a muscle or tendon. People commonly call such an injury a "pulled" muscle.

Your hamstring muscle group is in the back of your thigh and allows you to bend your knee. It is made up of three large muscles: the biceps, semimembranosus, and semitendinosus.

How does it occur?

A hamstring muscle strain usually occurs when these muscles are contracted forcefully during activities such as running or jumping.

What are the symptoms?

There is often a burning feeling or a popping when the injury occurs. You have pain when walking or when bending or straightening your leg. A few days after the injury, you may have bruising on your leg just below the injury

Iliotibial Band Syndrome/ Runners Knee

What is iliotibial band syndrome?

Iliotibial band syndrome is inflammation and pain on the outer side of the knee. The iliotibial band is a layer of connective tissue. It begins at a muscle near the outer side of your hip, travels down the outer side of your thigh, crosses the outer side of the knee, and attaches to the outer side of your upper shin bone (tibia).

How does it occur?

Iliotibial band syndrome occurs when this band repeatedly rubs over the bump of the thigh bone (femur) near the knee, causing the band to be irritated. This most often occurs in running.

This condition can result from:

* having a tight iliotibial band

* having tight muscles in your hip, pelvis, or leg

* your legs not being the same length

* running on sloped surfaces

* running in shoes with a lot of wear on the outside of the heel.

What are the symptoms?

The symptom is pain on the outer side of the knee.

Neck Strain/ Whiplash

Neck strains most often occur when the head and neck are forcibly moved, such as in a whiplash injury or from contact in sports.

A strain is a tear of a muscle or tendon. Your neck is surrounded by small muscles, that run close to the vertebrae, and larger muscles, that make up the visible muscles of the neck.

What are the symptoms?

You have pain in your neck. When the neck muscles go into spasm you feel hard, tight muscles in your neck that are very tender to the touch. You have pain when you move your head to either side or when you try to move your head up or down. The spasming muscles can cause headaches.

The pain may start right after an injury or may take a few hours or days to develop. Other symptoms may include neck stiffness, dizziness, or unusual sensations, such as burning or a pins-and-needles feeling.

Overuse Injuries

What are overuse injuries?

Overuse injuries make up nearly half of all muscle and bone injuries seen by health care providers. An overuse injury is not caused by a specific injury or accident, but rather by repeated stresses on the body.

Overuse injuries can affect muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones. Stress fractures are an example of an overuse injury to the bone. The constant stress on the bone causes it to break. Ligaments are strong bands of tissue that attach bone to bone and can also be injured from overuse. They may be strained over time and become inflamed or even tear. Tendons are strong bands of tissue that attach muscle to bone. Tendons can also become strained and torn from overuse. Common tendons injured from overuse are the Achilles tendon in the lower back of the leg and the patella (kneecap) tendon.

How do overuse injuries occur?

Overuse injuries occur from stress on the bone, muscle, tendon, or ligament. Over time these stresses cause the tissue to become inflamed and weaken. Usually it is a certain activity that causes the injury. For example, a runner may have a stress fracture in a foot bone from too much running. Or you may injure a tendon in your elbow from doing a lot of hammering or typing.

What are symptoms of overuse injuries?

Common symptoms of overuse injuries are:

* muscle aches and soreness

* swelling

* decreased strength or speed

* pain with exercise or activity.

Shin Pain (Shin Splints)

What is shin pain?

Shin pain is pain on the front of your lower leg below the knee and above the ankle. It can hurt directly over your shinbone (tibia) or over the muscles that are on the inner or outer side of the tibia. Shin pain has often been called shin splints.

How does it occur?

Shin pain generally occurs from overuse. This problem can come from irritation of the muscles or other tissues in the lower leg or from a stress fracture. This injury is most common in runners who increase their mileage or the intensity of their running, or who change the surface on which they are running.

When you walk or run your foot normally flattens out a small amount when it strikes the ground. If your foot flattens out more than normal it is called over-pronation. Over-pronation can contribute to shin pain.

Some specific conditions that cause shin pain include:

* Stress fracture: This is a hairline crack in one of the lower leg bones, the tibia or fibula.

* Medial stress syndrome: This is when the muscles that attach to the inner side of your tibia are inflamed.

* Compartment syndrome: Your anterior compartment is an area in your leg that contains the muscles that point your foot and toes toward your body. Your lateral compartment contains muscles that move your foot and ankle away from your body. When a compartment is overused the muscles will become painful.

What are the symptoms?

You have pain over the front part of your lower leg. You may have pain during exercise, at rest, or both. Stress fractures of the tibia will give you pain directly over your shinbone. It will hurt to touch the part of the bone that is fractured. Stress fractures of the fibula will cause pain on the outer side of your lower leg. With medial tibial stress syndrome, you will have pain and tenderness along the edge of the shinbone, especially along the muscles. With compartment syndrome the muscles in that area will be painful. Blood vessels and nerves are also in the anterior compartment. If the muscles in this compartment become swollen during exercise they may irritate these nerves or blood vessels and your foot may become weak, numb, or cold.