🔷 HOW DO YOU STRAIN YOUR HAMSTRING?

So imagine you just played a pick-up game of soccer for an hour. You go for that final break-away and 💥BAM💥 it feels like you've been hit in the leg with a hammer.
.
This has happened to a lot of us, likely you've experienced a hamstring strain. An injury to one of the 🔙thigh muscles, and one of the most common strains in the body.
.
How does this happen? When you're running 🏃🏼⚡️ at high speeds there's a lot more demand to the muscles of the hip (compared to jogging it's more the knees).
.
The hamstrings run from the back of your pelvis to below your knees. So when your hip is driving your leg forward ⏩, the hamstrings act as the breaks ⛔️to slow down the leg in the last part of 'swing phase'. This breaking action is called 'eccentric contraction' of the muscle.
.
The most force ⚡️goes through a muscle with this eccentric load. It's why you see these injuries happen on TV 📺 with no contact to an athlete. Examples:
🏃🏼Sprinters at the end of a race
⚾️Baseball players reaching for 1st base
⚽️️Soccer players following through on kicks
.
These injuries are commonly mismanaged 🙅and a lot of times rest doesn't help the muscle. In fact 1/3 of these injuries reoccur 💢within 2️⃣ weeks of return to sport (Heider 2010)

🖥 WHAT CAUSES NECK PAIN AT WORK?

😣So its been a long Monday at work, a lot of us have been catching up on paperwork. Your neck starts to get tense and sore. Let’s be honest, the Christmas Parties this weekend didn’t help 😅

❓Why does this happen? After long periods of activity, muscles start to lose their endurance, having to work harder to support the task demanded. Pain receptors in the joints and muscle fibres start to fire, giving off discomfort. 

💠So what’s the cure? 🔄Movement and variety of posture…movement acts as a distractor to the pain receptors in your tissues. Below are some of the top muscles that get tired > then tight during your work day

🔵Trapezius - huge muscle attaching from C7-T12 vertebra, to the occiput, even to the shoulder blade

🔵Levator Scapulae - attaches from C1-C4 to upper border of shoulder blade

🔵Scalenes - attaches from vertebra of C2-C7 to the 1st and 2nd ribs

🔵Splenius Capitis - attaches from C7-T3 vertebra to the mastoid (skull)

🏅Honorable Mention: SCM, Supraspinatus, Suboccipitals

👟HIGH VS LOW ANKLE SPRAINS!

There’s a big soccer game ⚽️ in Toronto today, and inevitably there will be ankle sprains 💥. THE most common sports injury period. Many of you have probably heard of the terms 🔻‘Low’ vs 🔺‘High’ ankle sprains as categories of these injuries. But what’s the difference?? These terms distinguish which part of the anatomy (higher or lower) the injury occurs:

🔵Low Ankle Sprain - a lot of us know about these. Usually occurs from the foot plantar-flexing  ⤵️and inverting ↩️. Happens a lot in sports like soccer, basketball and football where the footwear is less stable. Generally these have shorter recovery times. The injured tissue is usually:
🔻Anterior Talo-Fibular Ligament
🔻Calcaneo-Fibular Ligament
🔻Posterior Talo-Fibular Ligament

🔴High Sprain - these are less known, but usually take much longer to heal (6-8 weeks usually). Occurs from the foot being dorsiflexed, then being driven into External rotation ↪️. Sports where you have the foot locked in position with a boot (skiing or hockey) get these more. There is more damage to the tissue holding the tibia and fibula together. The injured tissue is usually:
🔻Interosseous Membrane
🔻AITF and PITF Ligaments