MENU

Home » Chiropractic Blog » Archives for tennis elbow

Top 5 Foam Rolling Mistakes

1. Only foam rolling AFTER exercise.

Foam rolling is a great way to warm up your body BEFORE exercise.  Foam rolling followed by a quick dynamic warm-up is a great way to prepare your body for movement. To learn how to foam roll and perform a dynamic warm-up click the following link: The 6 Characteristics of a Good Dynamic Warm-up by Eric Cressey. 

2. Rolling over the greater trochanter.

The greater trochanter is a bony prominence of the femur.  If you google it, you can see pictures of it.  If you run your hand down the side of your thigh, you will feel a bony bump at the top.  When you are rolling the side of your leg avoid rolling over that bump.  It can irritate the bursa that is over top of it.

3. Hyperextending low back.

The foam roller is a great way to mobilize your mid back (thoracic spine) into extension.  If you go to the 1:35 mark in the following video (Foam rolling Series) you can see how to perform this.  You will notice that he doesn’t go near the low back (lumbar spine) when performing this movement.  The low back and mid back work differently and hyperextending the low back can irritate it.

4. Using the foam roller on every muscle.

The foam roller works great for most muscles but it doesn’t work that great in the calf area. Try using a massage stick (The stick) instead.  Make sure the calf is relaxed in order to get the deep calf muscles as well.  Sit down lifting your knee straight toward the ceiling let your foot relax so it points toward the floor and relax as much as possible as you roll/massage your leg.

5. Using the foam roller to treat pain.

Foam rolling shouldn’t be used to treat pain. Foam rolling may reduce or eliminate your pain temporarily but ultimately it only delays you from getting the proper treatment.  Proper treatment involves removing adhesion, which the foam roller cannot do. To learn more about this topic click the following link: Can foam rolling remove adhesion?

If you are experiencing pain or have any questions regarding your pain, please click the button below.

Can you really “work through” the pain?

The short answer is maybe, but eventually it will catch up with you.  I have many patients that come in and say they can usually work through the pain but this time it will not go away.  This response indicates to me that they never actually worked through the pain.  Their body compensated by loading up another area.  Eventually there will be no other areas to compensate to and pain will result.  Most of my patients are between the ages of 30-55.  This is the common age range when the body runs out of areas to compensate to.  One of the most common under diagnosed sources of pain is muscle adhesion.  If you have a nagging injury that will not go away or you have been “working through” the pain, please call our office to schedule an exam.  This way you will know if adhesion is at the root of your pain.

Part 3: How to diagnose and treat adhesion?

Part 3 of 3: Click here for part 1 and part 2

After understanding how adhesion forms and what it can lead to, we can now focus on how to treat and reduce adhesion.  Adhesions are diagnosed and treated by a skilled certified provider.  Adhesions can’t be broken down by foam rolling or massage. There are two main methods of achieving this goal:

1.     Manually (Dr. uses hands)-MAR (Manual Adhesion Release) and ART (Active Release Techniques)

2.     Instruments—The newest instrument on the market today is the Instrument Adhesion Release (IAR).

The key to breaking down adhesion in a muscle is finding it. This may seem very obvious but adhesion is very common and finding the relevant adhesion takes years of training. Once the proper diagnosis is made, treatment can begin.  MAR and ART take advantage of the different attachment points of muscles to achieve maximum tension on the adhesion. These techniques are non-invasive and done exclusively through a skilled doctor’s hands.  Once the adhesions are broken down over a series of visits, the muscles can function normally again.  They can lengthen and contract with the appropriate force to allow for normal joint motion resulting in less pain for you.

If you have pain or stiffness, get the proper diagnosis first by clicking the button below.

Part 2: How can adhesion lead to pain?

Part 2 of 3: click here for part 1

In part one, we covered how adhesions form, but how can adhesion lead to all of the following problems?

  • Neck pain
  • Low back pain
  • Disc injuries
  • Carpal tunnel
  • Tennis elbow
  • Golfers elbow
  • Headaches
  • Plantar Fasciitis

Adhesions can create abnormal movement of a joint resulting in pain. The easiest way to visualize this is to look at the shoulder joint. Read more

What are adhesions and how are they limiting you?

This will be a three part series that will explain everything you need to know about adhesion.

Part 1: How does adhesion form?

Part 2: How can adhesion lead to the pain that I have?

Part 3: How does MAR and ART break down adhesion?

So let’s start off with:

Part 1: How does adhesion form?

There are two main pathways for adhesion formation:

  1. Acute conditions, such as pulls and tears.  This requires actual trauma and the body repairs the damaged tissue with adhesions. This is more commonly called scar tissue.
  2. Hypoxia (low oxygen) pathway is the most common generator of adhesion in muscle.  This will occur without you knowing it and can occur from repetitive motions or from standing or sitting in sustained postures. If a muscle doesn’t get adequate oxygen it will trigger adhesion formation.

An example of the hypoxic pathway occurs while you work at your computer. Typing results in continuous contraction of the forearm muscles (controlling your fingers) and can cause a low oxygen environment in those muscles. This will trigger fibroblasts to form muscle adhesions.  Muscle adhesions can overload the the attachment point of the muscles on the outside of the elbow and causes elbow pain (this will make more sense after reading part 2).  This is commonly called lateral epicondylitis or tennis elbow.  Tennis players abuse the forearm muscles as well, especially during backhand movements and can trigger adhesion formation as well.

Who would have thought that these two activities could lead to the same problem?

Part 2: How can adhesion lead to pain?

Part 3: How to diagnose and treat adhesion?