Sunday, January 27, 2013

Reebok's Latest Running Shoe ATV 19+

The ATV 19+
Have a look at Reebok's latest running shoe the ATV 19+. Rather crazy looking the say the least. Reebok is saying that this is their version of an all-terrain athletic running shoe.

In an article in Fast Company, the author writes that the inspiration for the shoe comes from one of those bouncing Reaction balls meant for agility training.
Reaction ball for agility training
Reebok's research team found that the shoe gave its wearers more stability, especially on uneven ground. There are 19 nodes meant to work like large thread tyres digging through the mud to find traction. The nodes in the centre are meant to be run on while the nodes on the side function like training wheels (on a kid's bicycle) to  give stability.

Well, let's hear your comments on the shoe, especially if you've tried it.

*Picture of ATV 19+ from Reebok
*Reaction ball from here.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Treatment For Hamstring Tear

Nasty looking muscle tear on 080113

Have a look at my patient's injured hamstrings when he came to see me 2 days ago on Tuesday (8/1/13).

After assessing him, I first treated his back (if you're wondering why, read this), and treated his hamstring with some dry needling as seen below.


Of course I also used Kinesio tape on his hamstrings and showed him what he had to before sending him home. Well here's how his leg looked today, just 2 days later (100113).

2 days later after Kinesio Taping 
Amazing or what? You be the judge.

Have a read of some of our other posts on hamstring injury management.
Not just in your hamstringsMore on hanstrings and
Hamstrung..

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Knee Pain In Female Runners


More evidence that your knee pain (especially in female runners) is a result of weakness in your hip/ gluteus (or buttock) muscles in a recently published paper (Wilson et al, 2012). Also have a look here.

In the paper, the researchers studied twenty male and twenty female healthy runners. The runners all ran regularly and had 5-6 years of running under their belts. The female runners were found to have 40 percent greater peak gluteus maximus (or buttock) muscle activation and 53 percent higher average gluteus activation compared to the male runners.

The researchers concluded that with the greater gluteus activation, fatigue will set in faster (in the glutes) such that it alters the lower extremity running biomechanics (greater hip adduction and less knee internal rotation) leading to knee pain.

Come see us at Physio Solutions or Sports Solutions, we'll help you run without knee pain.

Reference

Wilson JD, Petrowitz I et al (2012). Male and Female Gluteal Activity and Lower Extremity Kinematics during Running. Clinical Biomechanics. 27(10): 1052-1057.

* Picture from Flickr.com