Piriformis Syndrome is a not too uncommon sports injury that if left untreated, can attack your sciatic nerve which will run either very close or through this muscle, depending on how your individual body is wired. How it works is simplistic. The Piriformis is one of a group of small muscles that is seated deep in the buttocks region of the body and the job of this muscle is to rotate the leg outwards.

When their is an injury to this muscle and it’s usually an impact injury that causes this; the muscle will become tight and put pressure on the sciatic nerve and cause pain which can radiate down the leg. Another cause for this injury is failure to stretch before rigorous physical activity involving leg movement.

If you do have a piriformis injury. Apply heat as needed and then stretch Piriformis muscle when the pain subsides. A good stretching exercise is the hip stretch roll. Simply lay on your back and put one leg over the other. You should feel this in the hip and buttocks area. Hold the stretch for 10 seconds initially and work up to 30 seconds as your injury heals.

After you recover, make it a point to always stretch and warm up your muscles before engaging them in any activity. This will keep you on the field of play and off the benches!

With the joint of the knee you will find some smooth and fibrous tissue that connects where each bone comes into contact with another. When the joint is functioning normally, the tissue works as a shock absorber for the bones and additionally buffers other tissue known as the synovial membrane, that produces synovial fluid that lubricates the joint and makes moving easy.


Enter osteoarthritis which is also referred to as regenerative joint disease and those helpful tissues thin and in some cases, wear away completely. The result is that the bones become thicker and may form spurs which make movement of the joint painful.

The reason this type of arthritis strikes is still unknown; but what is know is that osteoarthritis can strike any part of the body but is mostly seen in weight bearing joint areas such as the hips, legs, knees and feet. Women are much more likely to suffer from this condition after they reach 50-years of age. Symptoms of arthritis in the knee.

This condition makes itself readily known. There will be a deep aching pain in the knee that is worse after any type of exercise or repetitious movement. Initial stiffness upon waking in the morning is also very common. Popping or clicking noises when moving the knee may also be heard.

There is currently no cure for this condition but there are a number of things you can do to alleviate the pain. Knee supports have given pain relief for some people.

Keeping your weight at a healthy level will do wonders for taking away pain. If you’ve been carrying a little extra baggage on your body. Work to lose it through healthy diet modification and you’ll notice your knees will love you again.

Individuals with knee based arthritis may have been discouraged to exercise as they experienced pain afterwards. However there are specific exercises that a specialist can prescribe that are safe to do as well as helping keep your joints, muscles and tendons conditioned and strong as possible.

Heat and cold treatments administered after exercising can bring total relief to your joints.

Surgery can be an option for some people and your individual lifestyle and commitment to exercise and your weight can play a big role in whether or not you’re a viable candidate for this avenue of treatment.

There are a lot of ways you can treat your painful knees, in short the pain isn’t something you have to learn to deal with - see a specialist and you’ll find that there is a route for treating the pain in your knees that will let you have your full quality of life back!

A sprained ankle is something that a good number of athletic people will face. Knowing what to do in the event it happens to you will mean you can get back in the action of what you love to do even quicker.

A sprain is simply the tearing or over-stretching of a ligament. The most common way that an ankle is sprained is when the ankle is weight-bearing such as in running, and turns under so the sole of the foot is facing inwards. The weight of the body is suddenly shifted and ligaments on the outside of the ankle tear or pull in response.

There are three degrees to a common ankle sprain.

1st Degree - Indicates light tearing and there is almost no joint instability. Mild pain and mild swelling will be noticed.

2nd Degree - Moderate tear and some instability of the joint will be noted. Moderate to severe pain and there will difficulty walking on the ankle. Swelling will be very noticeable.

3rd Degree - Complete rupture of the ligament, extreme instability of the joint will also be apparent. Severe pain will usually turn into no pain felt whatsoever but the swelling of the area will be severe.

A sprain, especially if it is suspected to be second or third degree should be seen by a medical professional as quickly as possible. Until you can get in to be seen, put cold on the area to minimize swelling and keep it mobilized to stop any further damage from being done. Using R.I.C.E. (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) will do wonders for relieving pain and swelling until you can get the injury diagnosed professionally.

A common question many people have when they have an injury is why the ice pack is put on and off the injury so often. It would seem that once your injured body part “got used to” the cold, to leave the pack or wrap on and let it does its job, right? Wrong!

Ice is a very, let me stress, very effective way to relieve swelling and pain in an injury; however it can also actually slow down the healing process and even damage tissue if the ice is applied for too long of a period at a time. Done correctly, ice is a marvelous part of a recovery therapy for an injury.

It works so simply. The cold constricts the blood vessels in the area that it’s applied. This in turn reduces the blood flow around the injured site. The cold also works to reduce swelling in the area of the injury too. Ice will numb the injured area and this will lower the pain factor substantially as well as prevent painful muscle spasms.

Using the cold wrap in short periods is important as the skin is sensitive to cold and really doesn’t “get used to” it. Obviously don’t apply ice directly to your skin and a wrap or cold pad is really the best choice. Applying ice directly can lead actually lead to frostbite of the area or even nerve and tissue damage. Another point to know about your body, when your skin is cooled to a temperature below 59-degrees, the body will open up the blood flow to the cold area and that’s what you don’t want to happen around your injured area.

A good icing schedule is 10-minutes on and 10-minutes off. You can repeat this cycle several times without risk of causing further damage and it will help keep pain under control along with swelling. Obviously have an injury looked at by a trusted medical professional who can ascertain the exact nature and extent of your injury, however until you can get in to be seen - this is a good way to keep your pain, swelling and spasms to a bare minimum.

A study was presented last week at the San Francisco gathering at the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine Specialty Day and at this meeting a strong case was made for changing the way injuries of the neck are treated on field for young sports participants.

One major change would be to leave helmet and shoulder pads on any athlete that is suspected of suffering a neck injury. The protective equipment is best and most safely removed in a controlled setting, the new study finds.

Dr. Gehron Treme, former sports medicine fellow at the University of Virginia stated, “There was a clear hole in the on-the-field guidelines in the treatment of young (8 to 14 year olds) contact and collision sports athletes with possible neck injuries”.

He further stated that “Skeletal proportions are different in children than adults. Kids have larger heads than torsos. With this study, we looked to see if this disproportion would result in a different recommendation, such as removing the helmet only. Our study found, however, just as is the case with adults, that both the helmet and shoulder pads should be left on for initial treatment and removed as a unit once the patient is stabilized,”

This study is important as it indicates additional injuries may be caused during on field treatments when worsening the neck injuries could be lessened or prevented by waiting to remove the protective gear. An interesting part of the study concluded that there was no statistically significant difference in alignment when the boys wore no equipment and when they wore both helmet and shoulder pads. However, wearing shoulder pads alone resulted in unacceptable alignment changes that could put a patient at risk if the helmet alone was removed.

Fortunately, on field injuries such as this aren’t common, however making a uniform way of treating them will raise the chance of the athlete that suffers a major neck injury during field play making a full and complete recovery. And the treatment received in the first 10 minutes after an injury can determine greatly how the patient will do in the long term part of their recovery.

Frozen shoulder is a lot more common than you think and the condition is exactly what the name implies, the movement in the shoulder is severely restricted, usually due to pain in movement and the shoulder is for all purposes -”frozen”. The actual name of this condition is “adhesive capsulitis” and is often a result of an injury that lead to lack of use of the shoulder due to pain in movement.

Another reason for the condition is the progression of arthritis and also shoulder surgeries are often to blame. Individuals that will have a high risk for suffering a frozen shoulder include people suffering from diabetes stroke victims, people suffering lung disease, arthritis sufferers, individuals with heart disease and people that have had accidents injuring the shoulder and haven’t rehabilitated the injury. An interesting statistic about frozen shoulder is that it is rarely seen in people under the age of 40.

Diagnosing Frozen Shoulder

Frozen shoulder is usually very easy to spot. The joint of the area becomes so stiff and tight that it is nearly impossible to move. Simple body movements such as raising the arm are nearly impossible to do. Many people with frozen shoulder will comment that their shoulder area is worse at night. To get a 100% diagnosis, your physician will do an arthrogram on the area.

Frozen Shoulder Treatment

The treatment of frozen shoulder will begin slowly and increase as the level of pain in movement subsides. In most cases, non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs will be given and the heat will be applied to the shoulder frequently to help relax and loosen the muscles. Then gentle stretching exercises will be done and the repetitions of these exercises will be very slowly increased over a period of many days. This is usually done with the help of a therapist and should never be attempted without medical supervision as you can actually tear the muscle and worsen the condition.

A more high-tech approach to the pain of frozen shoulder is found with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). This is basically a small, battery-operated unit that delivers nerve impulses that block pain. It is a pain blocker of choice method for many people and for other people it simply will not work. General manipulation of the shoulder area under general anesthesia is also sometimes necessary for a shoulder that has been allowed to “freeze” for a long period of time.

Once you begin treatment however, continue the regimen of daily stretching, heat and exercise and you should be able to have a shoulder that is back to 100% functioning in the near future.

We’re not talking about food, R.I.C.E. is the basic method for treating a large number of sports related injuries.

If you’re involved in running, aerobics, weight training or other good health-related activity, you’re doing wonderful things for your body however you’re also at a higher risk for sprained joints, strained muscles and other minor injuries. Fortunately, giving yourself proper care in the first day or two after injury can reduce the time you’re on the sidelines healing.

In the event you suffer a sprain, strain, pull, tear or other muscle or joint injury, treat it with R.I.C.E.- that’s an acronym for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. Using the R.I.C.E. can help relieve pain, limit the swelling and can protect the injured tissue, and all of these combined will speed healing of your injury.

Each component of the R.I.C.E. method works with the other parts to help your body heal as quickly as possible from injury.

* Rest: Resting your injured body part is vital to protect the injury from being further or re-injured during the healing process. Additionally, resting gives your entire body the energy needed to do complex repairs and heal completely.

* Ice: Use the power of cold to give yourself short term pain relief. An additional kiss from the use of cold therapy is that it will limit the swelling. Use in short periods as needed rather than one long use of a cold pack as over use can cause skin damage. A good rule of thumb is 15 minutes on and 20 minutes off as needed for pain and swelling.

* Compression: The use of compression limits swelling, which you don’t want to happen because along with pain, swelling slows down the healing process. Depending on the type of injury you have, many people report that they experience pain relief from compression as well. This is especially true for people suffering leg injuries. The easiest way to compress is simply to wrap a bandage firmly over the injured area. The compression should be firm but not constriction, if discomfort is experienced - loosen a little.

* Elevation: Another magic element of healing and reducing swelling is to elevate the injury. It’s especially effective to raise the injured body part higher than the heart.

After a couple of days of R.I.C.E., your injury will begin to heal and your body will take its natural course for repairing the damage. If your pain or swelling doesn’t alleviate after 48-hours, contact your physician or go to the ER and get your injury looked at to rule out a larger issue.

Otherwise you should be back in action in a very short period of time and just remember to start slow and use the 10% rule on your affected body part and increase your activity participation by 10% a week and along with gentle stretching and rehabilitation exercises for the injured part, you’ll slowly but surely be back to 100% in no time at all!

Legs cramps for pregnant women have been occurring since time immortal. However, no one still knows exactly why the leg cramps occur although strong evidence points to a combination of increased weight bearing by the legs during pregnancy since the majority of cramps occur in the late second and third trimester; along with an excess of phosphorus and a deficiency of calcium and/or potassium.

Some tried and true ways to avoid leg cramps is to stretch you legs a few times a day and especially before retiring for the night. Avoid pointing your toes as this can lead to a muscle lock up and leg cramp. Instead pull your toes upwards towards your body and very gently stretch your calf muscles (where nearly all pregnancy cramps occur) a few times. Rotate your feet and wiggle your toes to stimulate circulation as well. Start with a few and build up your repetitions.

Avoid crossing your legs or standing for long periods of time in the same position. Additionally, applying gentle heat to your calf muscles can further relax the legs and many pregnant women find this is especially beneficial at bed time after stretching their legs.

Then attack your leg cramps from a nutrition angle as well. Add potassium-rich foods such as bananas and if indigestion is an issue, a potassium based antacid will give you the double whammy against leg cramps by providing calcium and potassium. Good sources of calcium are milk, green leafy veggies, almonds, tofu and if your doctor gives the okay, salmon.Get the phosphorus-rich foods out of your diet. This will mean saying good-bye to soft drinks, processed meats and snack foods.

Also, if the pain and cramp in either leg is accompanied by any swelling or feels tender, call your doctor as you could have a condition that although rare, could be life threatening. swelling or tenderness or will not go away, call your doctor. You could have a blood clot, although it is a rare condition, your changes are increased during pregnancy and it requires immediate medical attention. Use these tips and alleviate your leg cramps so you can enjoy your pregnancy from start to finish when your healthy, beautiful baby arrives!

Sometimes a common sports injury is actually a very uncommon one. A case in point is the midfoot sprain, these are painful but often minor; however they should always be looked by a sports medicine professional.
Why? It could be a rarely seen “but it does occur” type of injury called Lisfranc’s Injury. While it doesn’t occur often, if left untreated the consequences for this injury will be severe to the sufferer and it should always be ruled out to avoid complications in the future.

What is Lisfranc’s?
Basically Lisfranc’s joint are the tarsometatarsal joins were the long bones (also called tarsals) in the foot meet and join with the smaller bones (metatarsals) of the toes. Dr. Jacques Lisfranc was a surgeon that served in Napoleon’s Army and was the first person to describe an amputation through this joint.

What are the symptoms of Lisfranc’s?
These mirror a common metatarsal injury with midfoot pain and difficulty bearing weight on the foot.
Some bone deformity may be noted in an x-ray; however this is not always seen. Swelling is common as is tenderness felt in the joints with any movement. Pain is experienced if the foot is pressed upwards and more so if the foot is rotated at the same time.

What is the best treatment?
First and foremost see a sports medical professional that will know to look for both types of injuries. The x-ray will be taken with the injured person in the a weight bearing position on the foot. Lisfranc’s sometimes doesn’t show up with an x-ray and if your doctor suspects you may have a Lisfranc’s injury - an MRI or bone scan may be required to confirm the diagnosis.

With a sprain, usually the injured foot is wrapped and the injured person is told to stay off of it. With Lisfranc’s the treatment is a little more intense. A plaster cast with a toe plate supporting the toes that usually runs inside the cast to the knee to completely immobilize the joint during the healing process will be applied. Additional treatments will depend on how severe the injury is but the usual time for the cast to be worn is 4-6 weeks as the bones must heal precisely in place so no movement can occur. When the cast is removed, generally lower foot and leg strengthening exercises are done to restore mobility and strength to the affected area.

If you have injured your foot and the pain is continuing after a day - have your medical professional rule out Lisfranc’s so you can return and participate full force in the activities you enjoy most!

According to a study published in the February issue of Injury Prevention, of the sports injuries that occurred in United States high schools over a two year period from 2005-2007.estimates that more than 98,000 of those injuries were directly due to an action that was ruled as illegal by a referee, official or disciplinary committee.

The researchers in the Center for Injury Research and Policy (CIRP) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital conducted a study that analyzed data from the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 for National High School Sport-Related Injury Surveillance. Through this study nine different common high school sports were included: boys’ football, soccer, basketball, wrestling and baseball and girls’ soccer, volleyball, basketball and softball.

The highest rate of illegal injuries were found for soccer of both sexes. Girls’ volleyball, softball and boys’ baseball had the lowest number of illegal injuries occurring. Interesting, a full 32% of the injuries related to illegal activity were to the head and/or face and 25% were concussions.

Christy Collins, Co-Author of the CIRP study reported,”Our research indicates illegal activity is an overlooked risk factor for sports-related injury and reducing illegal activity through enhanced enforcement of rules and targeted education about the dangers of illegal activity may reduce sports-related injuries.”

By definition, activities that were ruled illegal are not supposed to occur. Thus, injuries attributed to illegal activities should be largely preventable in high school sports.

Dawn Comstock of CIRP and Co-Author of the report commented,”Each sport has a unique set of rules developed to promote fair competition and protect participants from injury, thus, enforcing rules and punishing illegal activity is a risk control measure that may reduce injury rates by modifying players’ behavior.”

This study was funded in part by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and will hopefully open both the eyes of both participants as well as coaches to the dangers of straying outside the rules and keep sports both challenging and safe activities.