Experiencing discomfort on the outside of your elbow? This might be a sign of an overuse injury referred to as Lateral Elbow Tendinopathy—often known as 'Tennis Elbow' among the public. While its association with tennis is widely recognised, this condition isn't confined solely to athletes.
Lateral Elbow Tendinopathy is understood to be a degenerative alteration in the tendon's structure—not simply an inflammation. It involves the tendons attached to the muscles responsible for extending and stabilising the wrist, including the Extensor Carpi Radialis Brevis, Extensor Carpi Ulnaris, Extensor Digitorum, and Extensor Digiti Minimi.
Are you feeling pain on the outer part of your elbow, especially when moving your wrist or gripping objects? Common signs of Lateral Elintented-keep Elbow Tendinopathy include:
Lateral Elbow Tendinopathy can strike anyone but is particularly common in:
Recent studies highlight the success of managed exercises done within a person's threshold for pain, aiding in the alleviation of discomfort and fortification of impacted muscles and tendons. Evidence from 2022 also endorses:
Between the long runs, pre-race nerves, and the endless number of energy gels, preparing for a marathon can be a physically and mentally draining task. There is no need to add injury or high levels of pain into the mix as well. Ensuring you take care of your body can be the difference between coming up short with an injury or crossing that finish-line. This post explores some of the areas that those brave enough to complete a half or full marathon should check themselves before they wreck themselves.
The muscle strength and stability of the hip and knee have a direct effect on structures further down the chain such as the foot and ankle. Just like any team, if one player isn’t working hard and pulling their weight, everyone else will have to work harder to achieve the same result. In this case if muscles around the hip are weak the muscles around the knee and ankle will have to compensate possibly resulting in pain and injury.
The Gluteus Medius is commonly one of the muscles which can be inactive or weak causing other muscles to compensate. The Glute Med is crucial in helping to keep the hips level and stable during running and walking, and if weak, can be a cause of pain or injury in other structures compensating for this weakness. This pain commonly comes in the form of pain at the front of the knee, pain in your calf region and pain under your foot and when bad can limit your running ability. Adding three or four strengthening exercises to your regular training program will help to make sure your body is working well as a team and that no one part is compensating for weakness further up the chain. Exercises such as the standing clam, resisted hip abductions, glute bridges and knee extensions are all great exercises to help activate and strengthen muscles around the hip and knee that are vital to ensuring you remain pain-free on your long run.
Spending hours running both in training and on the big day can take a large toll on the anatomical structures below your knee. Muscles in your calf region such as the Gastrocnemius and Soleus play a huge role in running with the Soleus potentially support 3-8x your bodyweight during your run. These large weight bearing loads means that these muscles are at risk of succumbing to pain and injuries with increased training loads. Incorporating some strength exercises along with your regular running schedule can be hugely beneficial to your overall performance and reduce your risk of calf pain and injury. Two simple exercises you could include in your training are the standing calf raise and the seated calf raise. These will target both the Gastrocnemius and Soleus muscles allowing them to be able to withstand the large weight bearing forces over the course of your training and your marathon event.
Your running shoes also obviously play a vital role in your run and looking after them will be crucial to your race day success. Ensuring you have adequate running shoes that provide you with support throughout the course of your training runs and on the big day to prevent pain and injury. Everyone’s foot is different, so it is important to speak to a professional if you are feeling any pain or you believe your shoes are inadequate for the 21km or 42.1km challenge ahead of you. It might be time to replace those old kicks and give your feet some TLC.
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In summary, a marathon or half-marathon should be a fun and challenging experience as you push yourself to your physical limit and complete a feat that not many people would dream of doing. Ensuring you take care of your body as mentioned above can be the difference between completing your training or even completing the event itself. By adding some strengthening exercises to your regular program, you can help mitigate the risk of pain and injury as you stride toward the finish line and a well-earned post-race beverage. If you are starting to feel the effects of the long training sessions, feel any small aches or pains you want to get ahead of or are just curious about ways to stay physically fit, book in and see the friendly team at Sportstec to help you achieve your goals this marathon season.
From feeling like your head is about to explode to the inability to complete simple tasks and increased irritability, headaches are a pain condition that affect everyone in different ways. In fact, headaches have been found to be one of the top 10 causes of disability globally (1). Along with the variable symptoms, the types of headaches and causes of headaches are different person to person. The topic of this post is to explore a common type of headache, the cervicogenic headache, which affects many people and is commonly misdiagnosed.
The cervicogenic headache (CH) is a painful condition that arises from stiffness and pain in the neck. CH are a type of referred pain meaning that the pain felt in the side or back of the head is being caused by stimulus of the pain receptors in the upper portion of the neck and spine. The nerves carrying this pain message to the brain all converge and relay this pain to the brain. The brain then makes an error and sends the feeling of pain to the head instead of the neck. This is why people who suffer from some headaches may experience more pain in their head when they push on areas in their neck as the feeling of pain is being incorrectly distributed to the head rather than the actual structures causing the painful stimulus in the neck.
CH are more common in the people over the age of 30 and subjective studies have found the mean age of those experiencing this type of headache are around 33 years old (2). CH commonly have a gradual onset pattern with pain intensity only increasing when the provocative stimulus is maintained. This means that it is important that the cause of the headache is addressed in order to relieve symptoms and get you back to your pain-free self. A CH can also arise whilst participating in a sport or physical activity but again occurs as a result of poor positioning or sustained awkward positions. For example, a cyclist with a poor bike set-up in which their saddle is too low and handlebar stem is too long can result in the cyclist experiencing neck stiffness/pain and therefore possibly also headaches. The headaches aren’t necessarily related to the cyclist’s high load of exertion but more to do with their poor positioning.
Some common symptoms of a CH include:
Other signs:
Although most headaches are benign and don’t require intense medical attention, it is also important to understand some of the signs and symptoms that are considered ‘red flags’ and may mean you require medical attention:
It is important to understand the background behind a CH in order to understand how to help relieve pain. A CH is commonly managed with the help of a physiotherapist. A physiotherapist can provide hands-on treatment to help reduce the symptoms and help reduce stiffness felt at the neck. Along with hands-on treatment, a physiotherapist can provide stretches, strengthening exercises, and education regarding posture and desk ergonomics to make your set up ‘neck friendly’, aiding in the reduction of the number and intensity of future headaches.
Two stretches that may help to reduce pain and tightness in the neck are the ‘Arm-pit stretch’ and the ‘ear to shoulder stretch’. Along with stretches, incorporating an easy strengthening exercise such as the ‘chin tuck’ can provide your neck with extra support and strength to reduce the likelihood of future CHs.
In summary, headaches are horrible, and the pain may feel unconquerable. Although, after exploring the cause of one of the common types of headaches affecting Australians today, you can see that addressing the root cause of a cervicogenic headache can help to reduce the number and intensity of future headaches.
If you're grappling with neck pain or persistent headaches, don't hesitate to schedule a consultation with the welcoming professionals at Sportstec Clinic. Our highly skilled physiotherapists are here to attentively address your concerns and devise a tailored treatment plan to alleviate your discomfort. Let our team guide you towards relief and help you wrap your head around headaches.
In the unlikely event that you decide to complete any of the exercises described in this post and feel an increase in pain, dizziness, nausea or any of the other red flags listed above, cease exercises and seek attention from your physiotherapist or GP. If symptoms become severe, consider visiting the Emergency Department.
