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Beverly Hills Chiropractic: Shin Muscle Stretch for Tibialis Anterior Pain Relief

By On · Add Comment · In Beverly Hills sports chiropractic, gait cycle, lower leg pain, martial arts, runners, shin splints, soccer, tibialis anterior, tight calves
Shin splints is a very common malady limping into my Beverly Hills sports chiropractic office. Yes, runners are at a high risk for developing shin splints, but other athletes can become afflicted too. Shin splints is a pain in the lower leg, or shin area. It can be on the front of the leg or sometimes even felt in the calf area.

Shin splints have a number of musculoskeletal structures involved, and I encourage you to read the article I have written on fixing shin splints, but what I would like to show you here is how to stretch one muscle often involved in shin splints: tibialis anterior.

The tibialis anterior runs on the front part of the shin, or the anterior compartment, and it dorsiflexes the foot, which is bringing the foot closer toward the chest. It is involved in stabilizing the ankle during the gait cycle, particularly on heel strike, when the foot hits the ground. It then contracts to firm up the foot in the full weight bearing stage when the other leg swings past. In sports that rely on kicking objects like soccer or martial arts, the tibialis anterior locks the foot and ankle in place for a toe kick.

When the tibialis anterior gets tight it can cause pain in front of the shin or ankle area. Shin splints is an extreme version of pain that can be felt to a lesser degree by just about anybody that is active, or even in those that have recently walked a longer distance than they’re used to. In the video below, I demonstrate a simple, yet effective, way to stretch the dorsiflexors of the foot, including the tibialis anterior. Depending on your level of tightness, you may need the help of a yoga block or rolled-up towel, but watch the video for the instruction. Enjoy.

Los Angeles Chiropractic: Rectus Abdominus Exercises for Core Strength

By On · Add Comment · In abdominal core, abdominal crunches, low back pain, low back stretches, martial arts, MMA fighting, plank pose, ripped abs, six-pack abs, Ultimate Fighting

We’ve been talking a lot about low back pain, and I’ve showed you some great stretches that might help relieve your low back pain, particularly if the source is muscular. Tight low back muscles can be a major, if not the primary, source of low back pain. But sometimes tight low back muscles are only part of the equation–the muscles of the abdominal core may also be weak, causing instability of the lower back and pelvic regions.

I have showed you a fantastic exercise to strengthen the core called plank pose, and for overall firming and stability it can’t be beat. However, the rectus abdominus muscles are also important, especially for athletes. These abdominal muscles are the ones most hardcore exercisers strive to develop; they are the six-pack of ripped abs fame.

Aside from the aesthetics, however, having strong rectus abdominus muscles are important posturally, and they help maintain the integrity of the internal organs by keeping them fixed firmly in the abdominal cavity. But as muscles of movement, the rectus abdominus flexes the torso–that is, they bring the chest toward the pelvis or vice versa, depending on which end is fixed (or both toward one another if neither end fixed)

How is this important to athletes? Anytime one needs to get up off the ground–as in MMA fighting, wrestling, Ultimate Fighting (PrideFC) or any other martial arts competition–the rectus abdominus is involved. As an endurance muscle, a weak rectus abdominus can fatigue leaving you unable to get up. Think body blows in any fight game. The idea is to wind the opponent. Because the rectus abdominus also assists in breathing, particularly when winded, you can see how important it is for these muscles to be fit.

In the video below, I demonstrate the best exercises to strengthen the abdominal muscles. It’s a standard crunch, but with a few critical nuances. Everybody and their mother knows how to do one version or another of the crunch, but so many are rife with biomechanical faults that I encourage you to watch below and refine your crunches–you’ll get the most out of the exercise if you follow the details I demonstrate. You will need to master these two movements–the abdominal hollow and the pelvic tilt–before you start, so give them each up to a week of practice (depending on your fitness level) before starting on the crunches. And then enjoy.

Cutting-Edge Sportswear Improves Posture, Performance and Healing

By On · Add Comment · In Intelliskin PostureCue Performance Apparel, low back pain, martial arts, muscular imbalances, posture, rotator cuff, sports bra, sports chiropractor, sports injuries, sportswear

I love this product: Intelliskin PostureCue Performance Apparel is sportswear that improves posture and athletic performance by positioning your frame into the most biomechanically correct alignment. As a result, your body has a greater chance to heal from injuries, and it develops in proper accordance with your specific sport. Now that’s something to get excited about.

I’ve got the Intelliskin Foundation 2.0 shirt and have been wearing it during my martial arts training. Because I had tweaked my shoulder (subscapularis of the rotator cuff) about a month ago, and it really seemed to be responding slowly, I was merely going through the motions in class. But I finally got smart and donned my Intelliskin Foundation 2.0 shirt and…booyah!…I started seeing amazing results. Here’s how it works:

The shirt is made of 56% nylon and 46% Lycra and is a compression fabric, so it fits snugly, but also expands elastically. It has posture panels, which are strips of material perfectly positioned to pull your shoulders back and expand your chest. The panels are oriented in in specific patterns, similar to the sports taping techniques, developer and designer, Dr. Tim Brown, a sports chiropractor, specializes in.

The shirt design works because it places the body in the correct biomechanical posture–shoulders back, chest expanded, core tightened and compressed. Postural misalignments and muscular imbalances are what often cause overuse injuries–shoulder impingements, chronic neck pain and tightness, and even low back pain–so by helping the body structurally, and neurologically, the Intelliskin PostureCue Performance Apparel helps decrease injuries. But even better, by helping correct the dysfunctions, current injuries do not get exacerbated, and the body can go through an uninterrupted healing process.

Sports chiropractors like myself know how difficult it is to keep athletes from playing through injuries. As a weekend warrior myself, I am no different from your average jock–I’ll only sit for so long. That’s why the Intelliskin was great for me, because I am going to do something…anything…as it’s my way of life. The Foundation 2.0 shirt helps my mechanics when I throw punches or any other upper body movement.

Interestingly, when I first started wearing the shirt I noticed that I’d fatigue earlier, which means I was using muscles that had gotten lazy leading to muscular imbalance. The beauty is that the small stabilizer muscles needing to work during my sport were engaged, fatiguing earlier, yes, but developing along the way. This means the fatigue will not last long as the muscles become conditioned. The increased heat takes a little getting used to, but as the body is the great adapter, it will over time.

Like I said, I love this product. And I recommend it for athletes or anybody trying to heal an injury. Intelliskin has women’s products as well, including a sports bra; and it has its LC-1 Reactivator shorts for lower back and pelvic stability. Check out Intelliskin and get your shirts, shorts and sports bras today–you’ll play longer, and better, in Intelliskin.

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