3 Unexpected Reasons to Exercise Your Hips
Have you ever wondered about the connection between knee pain, back pain, and urinary leakage? The common denominator is your hips! The hip serves as a ball and socket joint, linking the pelvis with the femur’s head (thigh bone). Its primary role is to provide dynamic stability during weight-bearing activities like walking and jogging. Approximately twenty-five muscles attach to the hip. They can be divided up by their primary action: flexors, extensors, abductors, adductors, external rotators and internal rotators.
Common Men’s Health Concerns A Physical Therapist Can Treat
As a men’s health physical therapist, I am often asked “What exactly do you treat?” I typically have to think of a response because in actuality, there is no easy answer; men’s health physical therapy is a resource that can address a wide range of issues. From pain management to mobility enhancement, it’s a holistic approach that can help you lead a healthier, happier life. Here are a few ways that we often help our patients.
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New Moms & Birth Parents: Here’s What You Need To Know About Diastasis Recti
Becoming a new mom or birth parent is a joyous yet challenging occasion. One challenge that many face during pregnancy and after giving birth is diastasis recti. It is a common condition that occurs when the two sides of the rectus abdominis muscle (the six-pack muscle) separate during pregnancy. This separation can cause a bulge in the abdomen or other symptoms like low back pain, making it difficult to exercise or return to your pre-pregnancy function. Luckily, this condition can be treated successfully with physical therapy.
How Exercise Can Boost Mental Health During Postpartum Depression
Exercise is known to have many physical benefits, including improved quality of life and reduced risk of chronic disease. As most individuals know, exercise helps improve physical health and has mental health benefits. Exercise can help by improving self-esteem and cognitive function, as well as reducing mental health concerns, including anxiety, depression, and negative mood. Exercise plays a role in mental health care by increasing blood circulation to the brain leading to a reduced reactive response to stressors. Despite the most recent research, exercise is often underutilized as an intervention regarding mental health, specifically in the postpartum population.
Struggling With Incontinence? Here Are 3 Exercises You Should Try, According To A Pelvic Health PT
Incontinence, or the lack of voluntary control over urination and defecation, can be life-altering. It can come in six types: insensible, stress, urgency, mixed, nocturnal enuresis, and overflow. Depending on the type of incontinence, your therapy will be specific to you. However, below, you will find the most common pelvic floor retraining exercises to help get you started. For more personalized care, please reach out to a physical therapist (PT) near you.
3 Reasons to Try Pelvic Health Physical Therapy
Pelvic health physical therapy evaluates and treats health issues ranging from incontinence, pelvic and vaginal pain, prenatal and postpartum musculoskeletal pain, osteoporosis, lymphedema, to rehabilitation following breast, genital, and gender affirmation surgery. It involves the treatment of disease, injury, or dysfunction by physical methods such as stretching, strengthening, muscle re-training, manual therapy, the use of modalities and pain science for pain management, and behavioral modifications rather than by drugs or surgery. This style of conservative care can help improve the quality of life for you and the ones around you. Below you will find three reasons to seek pelvic health therapy and get the care you need.
5 Tips For Better Sleeping Throughout Pregnancy
Being well-rested and getting enough sleep are vital in a healthy pregnancy. Your body is building a baby, which takes a lot of energy! Although sleeping is important during this time, there are many obstacles to getting good sleep when pregnant. With pregnancy comes body aches and pains, leg cramps, the extra weight that can lead to shortness of breath, and insomnia due to changing hormones. Here are 5 tips for prioritizing sleep, despite these hurdles.
Physical Therapy: A New Mom’s Best-Kept Secret
Congratulations, you’ve just had a baby! Whether this is your first child, or you’ve had many before, taking care of yourself postpartum is just as important as taking care of your baby. Many new moms attend their six-week postpartum checkup and are cleared to do whatever they want but don’t feel ready or don’t know how to begin exercising safely again. Not to mention, new moms may be experiencing other symptoms like urinary leakage, pelvic pain, or low back pain. These symptoms are often assumed to be normal, but they can be helped with the assistance of a physical therapist.
