Physiotherapy clinic in Tambaram Are you Lookin...

Physiotherapy clinic in Tambaram Are you Looking for Physiotherapy Treatment in Tambaram, Sunshine Super Speciality Physiotherapy Clinic, We Provide Electrotherapy, Exercise and Manual Therapy, Orthopedic, Neuro, Cardio, Pediatric, Sports and Geriatric Rehabilitation, Post Operative Physiotherapy Treatment, Fracture Rehabilitation, pain free movement. THE SURPRISING CAUSE OF IT BAND ISSUES, BACK, HIP AND KNEE PAIN! The psoas has become the sexy hip flexor muscle to talk about and work on. But what if I told you that all too often the TRUE culprit of our back, hip, IT BAND, knee pain and even ANKLE pain had to do with ANOTHER hip flexor muscle?! What if I told you that you should actually be paying attention to your TFL or your Tensor Fasciae Latae. TFL muscle The TFL can be a nasty little sucker, compensating for a week glute medius, perpetuating IT Band tightness and impacting everything down to our feet and ankles. It contributes to internal hip rotation AND external tibial rotation. Because of its far reaching impact it is a muscle we can’t ignore. However, the hard part about addressing TFL tightness and overactivity is that many of the moves we need to do to CORRECT the issue, can often PERPETUATE IT! For instance, to help prevent the TFL from continuing to compensate, we need to include glute medius strengthening. But ever notice how you’ll do Monster Walks and feel the front side of your hip working? Ever push through thinking “Oh yea! Feel that burn!?” Or maybe you don’t even think about what is working. You’re doing the “right moves” so you just believe you SHOULD get results, right? WRONG! If you’re doing the right moves but still allowing muscles to compensate, not only are you NOT correcting the problem, but you may be making it worse. So when you feel that front outside of your hip working during those mini band walks? Guess what is not working as it should and what is also COMPENSATING for that underactive muscle!? Well your glute medius is not getting the benefit of the exercise it should be getting and instead you’re perpetuating the overuse of your TFL! So all of that rehab? It isn’t going to pay off. While you need to strengthen your glute medius, you need to realize that all too often our TFL can compensate for a weak glute medius. Because this muscle then becomes even further overworked and even shortened, it can lead to lower back hip and knee pain, not to mention even IT Band issues and foot and ankle problems! Yup! Through our IT Band the TFL can create movement compensations down our entire leg! And when we then see changes to our ANKLE mobility guess what happens? Those changes only further perpetuate those compensations back UP our kinetic chain. It’s why you can’t just IGNORE aches and pains. The longer you ignore them and keep pushing through, the more you then just allow compensations and imbalances to build up so there is more to have to sort through later. If you don’t address TFL issues, you’ll end up having to address issues from your feet up! So how can we prevent our TFL from leading to all of these aches and pains when it wants to work during the exercises we NEED to be doing to correct it? Here are three tips to help you quiet down that TFL and get your glutes activated! And to then implement these tips, check out the quick series I’ve included at the end of this post! As you go through implementing these tips, be CONSCIOUS of what you feel working. Don’t just rush through the moves! Be intentional with your prehab moves! 3 Tips To Strengthen Your Glutes And Prevent Your TFL From Compensating! #1: Treat the TFL like a toddler. Keep it distracted so you can get work done! Basically, you want to adjust movements to help make it EASIER to establish that mind-body connection. One way to do that is to “keep the TFL busy” by internally rotate your foot during lateral raise, or abduction, movements. Because the TFL performs hip internal rotation, you can almost “distract” it with that movement AS you use the glute medius to perform the lateral raise. So if during lateral raises you notice you often feel the front of your hip, turn your toe down toward the ground. You may even notice often that your toe is turned out toward the ceiling. The TFL contributes to tibial external rotation. So internally rotate your foot is the OPPOSITE action, which can help “shut off” the TFL. Not to mention when you internally rotate your tibia, you often then even internally rotate our hip by extension. Maintaining this internal rotation, you can then perform your lateral raise movement. If you still are struggling to feel your glute medius, you can even kick slightly back as you raise up OR put your hip into extension, driving back into a slider or wall AS you perform that lateral raise movement. This hip extension and slight kick back will engage your glute max, which will also hinder the TFL from taking over and allow you to potentially better activate your glute medius. This works because the TFL is a hip flexor so by putting your hip into extension, you can inhibit it from working! #2: Change the hip flexion during those abduction moves. When you’re first starting to “rehab” an issue, you need to use the moves you feel the most and build off of those. Basically you want to take the path of least resistance to establish that mind-body connection. If you feel a move working those glutes, use that first THEN even dive into other moves because you’ve already established that mind-body connection. To find that move that helps you establish that mind-body connection, you may need to adjust the exact POSTURE you use during basic abduction moves. By adjusting the amount of hip flexion or extension you perform the move in, you can find a way to maximize your glute medius engagement and minimize your TFL compensation. It isn’t a clear cut and dry rule of what posture is best so you may want to play around to see what matches your personal recruitment patterns. For some more flexion may “distract” the TFL because it is a hip flexor. However, for some, more hip flexion may perpetuate it being overactive during those abduction moves. In this case, putting the hip into more extension may be key to inhibit the muscle. While you of course want the glute medius to be strong in both a slightly more hip-flexed or hip-extended state, you do want to start with the move you feel working correctly to make sure you establish that mind-body connection. The fact that hip flexion can play a role in how much you’re able to engage the TFL is why that oh so “basic” clam exercise can so often backfire too! The clam is a traditional glute activation movement. But this seemingly simple move is so often butchered. First off, you may find you need to use that internal rotation of the tibia I mentioned in the first tip to help. Secondly, you may adjust how much you pull your knees forward or straighten your legs out. The key is being conscious of what you feel working to then ADJUST your exact amount of hip flexion. A great way to play around with different amount of hip flexion during even a bilateral abduction move is even seated on a bench. SUNSHINE ® SUPER SPECIALITY PHYSIOTHERAPY CLINIC - #DrParthiban #Sunshinephysioclinic.in #Physiotherapyclinicintambaram DR.M.P. PARTHIBAN.M.P.T (Ortho), Chief Orthopedic Physiotherapist, Call for Appointments: - 9345122177 East Tambaram, CHENNAI