Joint & Muscle Pain
Do you wince when you reach overhead, slip on a T-shirt, or roll over on your shoulder at night? If so, you probably know firsthand how debilitating and frustrating a shoulder pain condition can be. Whether you injured your shoulder in a recent accident, strained your shoulder by over-training, or simply are dealing with age-related shoulder joint dysfunction, you may find yourself struggling with day to day functions which you might have once taken for granted.
If any of this sounds like you, our physical therapist team wants you to know that relief and resolutions (drug- and surgery-free!) are possible!
What Is Shoulder Pain?
According to data shared by the National Institute of Health, 1 out of 4 people struggle with shoulder pain at any given time. Both acute and chronic shoulder pain can feel dull, achy, sharp, or throbbing. It may be associated with weakness, tenderness, swelling, bruising, and instability at the shoulder joint and make it difficult for a person to lift their arm. Sometimes, numbness, tingling, and weakness can also develop in the arm, hand, or finger.
Your shoulder is actually the most mobile joint in your body and requires the intricate coordination of many muscles (including the so-called rotator cuff), ligaments, tendons, joint capsules, joint labrum (a joint lining to improve alignment), nerves, and bursae (friction-reducing sacs found between tissues like tendons and bones). Damage or dysfunction of any of these structures can lead to a shoulder pain condition.
What Causes Shoulder Pain?
Acute shoulder pain is a common condition which usually develops after some traumatic event in sports, occupations, personal injuries, or auto accidents. Chronic shoulder pain lasts longer and may come on more gradually; this is typically due to repetitive movement or overuse. Other risk factors for shoulder pain include poor posture and advancing age.
Our physical therapist team commonly treats the following shoulder pain conditions:
- Adhesive Capsulitis (Frozen Shoulder): progressive and marked range of motion loss in the shoulder generally following some sort of injury, illness, or infection affecting the shoulder area
- Arthritis: Wearing down of joint cartilage causing painful bone-on-bone rubbing and inflammation.
- Dislocation: The humeral head inside the main “socket” of the shoulder joint (called the glenoid fossa) can become partially or fully dislocated (dislodged out of place, usually due to significant trauma). Even if it “pops” back into place, your shoulder will likely be more unstable and at risk for re-injury unless treated.
- Bursitis: Inflammation and swelling of the bursae.
- Rotator Cuff Tendonitis and Shoulder Impingement: Friction or pressure on tendons (e.g., if they rub against bones) can inflame the tendons and cause swelling, pain, and decreased mobility. Acute or chronic trauma can also lead to small tears in the rotator cuff muscle fibers.
- SLAP tear: this is a tear in the superior part of the labrum in an anterior to posterior direction and can be caused by acute or repetitive trauma.
How Physical Therapists Treat Shoulder Pain
The right course of physical therapy can help you manage shoulder pain without surgery. By meeting with a physical therapist for your condition, you will be able to learn the underlying diagnosis and contributing factors of your dysfunction, get relief from your symptoms, and then learn how to avoid recurring problems in the future.
Following a thorough examination in which we look at your physical body, medical and family history, fitness, age, and other characteristics, we can devise a treatment plan to address your impairments, needs, and goals. Our customizable and comprehensive services for shoulder pain generally include:
- Therapeutic exercises to heal tissues, improve mobility, and increase joint strength and stability
- Modalities like low level laser therapy and electrical stimulation to reduce swelling and accelerate healing
- Joint mobilizations to improve shoulder alignment
- Postural training and kinesiotaping to improve posture
Looking to get the frustration of shoulder pain “off your shoulders”? Contact our physical therapy clinics at our Jackson, WY, Pinedale, WY or Alpine, WY locations to learn more.
Your hips and knees experience the brute force of your body’s exertion. Day after day, as you go through your routine and push your body to complete the tasks you demand of it, you are putting an endless amount of pressure on your hips and knees. Every time you stand up, sit down, take a step, or dash up the stairs at the office to make it to your next meeting you are putting pressure on your hips and knees. It is really no wonder, then, that these are also two of the areas of your body that are most susceptible to long-term pain.
Hips and knee injuries are particularly difficult to recover from because providing these parts of your body with the rest they need to recover from an injury takes a lot of work. Even shifting your weight around in bed can put pressure on your hips! So how can you overcome hip and knee pain, then? The answer is right in front of you: physical therapy.
What is Hip and Knee Pain?
Hip and knee pain refers to pain that radiates from these two primary joints. There are many causes of lower-body pain, but hip and knee pain refers precisely to pain that comes from the joints, frequently as a result of inflammation.
The knees and hips rely on cartilage to prevent friction as the bones move against one another. Your joints wear down this cartilage over time, and the more you move, the more likely you are to experience this breakdown. In addition to the breakdown of cartilage, muscles and tendons can begin to experience overuse and will start to breakdown, and all of this combined can stimulate inflammation, which can lead to further stress on the joints. This creates a cycle that can lead to major discomfort, especially if it isn’t addressed quickly.
Causes of Hip and Knee Pain
There are a lot of different reasons as to why hip and knee pain may develop. For some, the reality is that a lot of activity means a lot more potential for pain, and so this is why athletes, as well as those who work in fields that are physically demanding on the body, are more likely to experience pain in the hip and knee areas.
However, hip and knee pain is certainly not unique to athletes. Factors like age, being overweight, and other environmental and personal health factors can increase your risk of developing hip and knee pain.
Most common causes of hip and knee pain
The following are the most common symptoms of hip and knee pain. However, each individual may experience symptoms differently. Symptoms may include:
- Arthritis: There are several types of arthritis, including osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, both of which can cause significant pain to the hips and the knees. Arthritis causes inflammation, which causes the joints to swell and increases the amount of friction in the joint, causing cartilage to wear down even worse than before. When the problem is caused by arthritis, the pain typically grows worse over time and doesn’t go away with traditional over the counter treatment options.
- Fractures: Any injury can cause long-term pain in the joint, but fractures are especially worrisome because they aren’t always obvious. There are many situations in which someone fractures their hip and attempts to cope with the pain, which causes the hip to heal incorrectly, as it didn’t receive the treatment it needed.
- Tendinitis: In addition to the cartilage and muscles, the joints are held together by tendons which can also experience inflammation. When this happens it is not referred to as arthritis, but is a condition that leads to comparable pain, tendinitis.
- Other common causes of hip and knee pain include injuries, including tears to the muscles or tendons, as well as sprains and strains.
How Physical Therapy can help with Hip and Knee Pain
Physical therapy is one of the best options for treating hip and knee pain. When you meet with a physical therapist they will work to identify the cause of your hip and knee pain, and then will create a customized care plan that takes into account the best strategies to reduce your pain as quickly and effectively as possible. These strategies often include a combination of targeted massage, strength and muscle building, and flexibility and range of motion training. For more information about how physical therapy can help to reduce hip and knee pain, contact us at our locations to learn more.
About Elbow, Wrist and Hand Pain
Do you often experience shooting pain in your wrist and hands when you try to type, drive, chop fruit, write your shopping list or play with your dog? Do your fingers sometimes go numb and tingle, making it hard to get a firm grip when you try to lift a grocery bag or briefcase? Does it hurt to bend your elbow? Do sharp wrist pains wake you up at night? If you’re losing sleep and having a hard time with daily tasks, get relief by scheduling a free consultation with our physical therapy team today. Your physical therapist can help you get natural, drug-free pain relief for most hand, wrist and elbow pains.
Symptoms of Elbow, Wrist and Pain
Elbow, wrist or hand pain can take several forms: from a dull, throbbing ache that immobilizes your elbow, to sharp, shooting pains in your wrist, to pins, needles and numbness in your hand and fingers. These structures are complex and intricate, and pain can happen due to a sudden injury, or from repetitive, un-ergonomic motions that gradually cause inflammation in joints and soft tissues, leading to pinched nerves. You can get a proper diagnosis from your physical therapist to pinpoint the reason behind your pain, so an individualized physical therapy treatment plan can help you get pain-free function back in your hands.
Causes of Hand, Elbow, Wrist and Pain
The following are some of the most common causes and symptoms of hand, wrist and elbow pain. If these symptoms sound familiar, visit with your physical therapist soon to get effective, lasting pain relief treatment:
- Arthritis — Your hands each have a host of joints in the fingers, not to mention the wrist and the elbow. If pain and stiffness afflict these joints, your physical therapist can teach you hand exercises to help improve motion and reduce pain.
- Bursitis — Pain and swelling in the small, fluid-filled bursa that cushion your joints and tendons is often caused by overuse and poor ergonomics. Your physical therapist can show you better ways of working to avoid overuse injuries.
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome — Swollen tendons, muscles, and other tissues pinch the median nerve inside of the bony carpal tunnel in the wrist. Symptoms include shooting pain in the wrist and hand, sometimes up to the elbow; numbness, tingling, and hand weakness are also common.
- Cubital Tunnel Syndrome — Soft tissue inflammation in the elbow’s cubital tunnel pinches the ulnar nerve, causing pain, weakness, numbness and tingling from the elbow down to the hand.
- Strains and Sprains — Sports, work and home injuries, or overuse from poor ergonomic movement, can injure your hand, wrist and elbow muscles, tendons and ligaments.
- These are some of the most common causes of hand, wrist and elbow injury and pain, but there are others. A visit with your physical therapist can help you determine what the underlying problem is, so you can start a pain relief treatment regimen.
How Can Physical Therapy Relieve Elbow, Wrist and Pain?
In many cases, physical therapy provides a safe, effective, non-surgical treatment option for elbow, hand and wrist pain. If surgery is needed, physical therapy can also improve surgery preparation and accelerate post-surgical recovery time.
Your physical therapist will fully examine your hand, wrist, and elbow and review your medical records. With a full understanding of your condition, your physical therapist can then design a physical therapy plan, complete with anti-inflammatory treatments, exercises, stretches and ergonomic adaptations designed to speed your recovery, improve strength and range of motion, and help you resume a normal activity level without pain, or the need for painkillers. Your physical therapist will also advise you on activities to help you prevent future injury.
Don’t let hand, wrist and elbow pain keep you from living life any longer! Contact our physical therapy team to schedule a free consult and get back to your active, pain-free lifestyle sooner.
Do you dread having to look up, down, or to one side because of the pain you know you’ll experience? Do you struggle for hours to find a sleeping position that doesn’t torture your neck? Has your neck never been the same since that scary car crash or sports accident? Neck pain can make ordinary actions and tasks a major chore, ruining your quality of life. If you’re sick of that pain in the neck and you’re looking for non-surgical methods of ridding yourself of it, physical therapy can very likely turn your life around.
What Is Neck Pain?
Nearly one-third of Americans suffer from neck pain every year, especially individuals in the 30-to-50 age bracket. Neck pain can take a variety of forms, sometimes in combination with other uncomfortable symptoms and limitations. The most common area in which people feel neck pain is the top rear of the neck, near the base of the skull. You may also experience pain radiating to your arms or shoulders. This pain may be either acute (resolving as an underlying cause is resolved) or chronic (continuing for several months or years, either constantly or in recurring bouts).
What Causes Neck Pain?
Where does neck pain come from? In many cases, the cause is a violent one. A traumatic accident can do acute damage to the complex structures and delicate tissues that make up the neck. But even more frequently, neck pain develops gradually in connection with an underlying chronic issue. Some of the more common causes of neck pain include:
Bulging or herniated discs – Discs which protrude from the spinal column can press against the nerve roots of the cervical spine.
Osteoarthritis – Osteoarthritis of the facet joints (which articulate the neck vertebrae) can cause chronic pain.
Poor posture – A stooped posture, such as the “text neck” caused by always gazing downward at your smartphone, can strain the neck muscles.
Repetitive motion injuries – If your job or sport causes you to crane or turn your head over and over, you may develop a repetitive motion injury such as tendonitis.
Whiplash – A violent impact can throw your head around with enough force to tear your neck muscles, sprain ligaments, herniated discs, and pinched nerves.
Less commonly, neck pain can also be associated with diseases ranging from cancer to meningitis. Even lifestyle choices such as smoking or pillow choice can raise your neck pain risk.
How Physical Therapy Helps With Neck Pain
Physical therapy is an ideal solution for many neck pain sufferers. It provides more lasting relief than medications without introducing the risks and recuperation time of surgery. Our physical therapist understands how the various structures of the neck should work together, and what kinds of symptoms indicate specific disorders or injuries. Once our physical therapist has examined your cervical spine, range of motion, symptoms (including neurological symptoms referred to the upper extremities), and medical history, we can create a physical therapy regimen to help you tame that nagging discomfort. Common physical therapy options for treating neck pain include:
- Exercises – In spite of the familiar image of the neck pain patient spending all his time in a neck brace, exercises to mobilize the neck can do a world of good as long as they’re prescribed wisely and performed carefully. These exercises can limber your neck muscles and give them the strength they need to support your head properly.
- Physical Therapy techniques – Our physical therapist may recommend heat, ice, ultrasound, electrical stimulation, massage therapy and other techniques to ease inflammation, relieve neck spasms, and speed healing.
- Lifestyle advice – Our physical therapist can recommend changes to your work environment, sleep position, pillow, everyday posture, and any other alterations to help you keep your neck comfortable.
Our Physical Therapists Are Ready to Help
Why suffer from a pain in the neck when physical therapy can take that pain away? Contact our physical therapists to obtain that welcome relief!
Do you find yourself missing out on many of your favorite activities due to foot and ankle pain? Has limping, hobbling, or simply staying off your feet replaced walking, jogging, dancing, or doing a day’s work? From soft tissue strains and degenerative joint problems to broken bones, problems afflicting the foot and/or ankle can put serious constraints on your life. But you don’t have to let your foot and ankle pain dictate your mobility and comfort. Physical therapy can get you back on your feet again, so contact our clinics to talk to our physical therapist about a personalized treatment plan!
What Is Foot and Ankle Pain?
When you consider how much work your feet and ankles have to do, it’s little wonder that these structures feature so many working parts, each of which must cooperate with the others to permit normal function. The foot contains up to one-quarter of all the bones in the human body, with 30 joints articulated by about a hundred different muscles and connective tissues. A network of fine nerves branches from the leg through the ankle and into the foot and toes — nerves which ensure that you feel pain whenever a problem occurs in this area. Since the foot and ankle are responsible for supporting and balancing your body under its full weight as you stand and move, even a small injury or dysfunction can cause big pain.
Causes of Foot and Ankle Pain
Some causes of acute foot and ankle pain may seem straightforward enough. A fracture in one of the many foot or ankle bones will obviously cause intense pain that prevents you from putting any weight on it. “Turning” your ankle by accidentally hyperextending it inward or outward can cause an acute strain (stretching or tearing of tendons or muscles) or a sprain (stretching or tearing of the ligaments).
Other causes of foot pain may prove harder to figure out because you can’t connect them to a particular accident or traumatic event. These chronic foot pain problems include:
- Plantar fasciitis, an inflammatory strain of the connective tissues that supports the foots arches
- Arthritis, which may be due to cartilage deterioration (osteoarthritis), autoimmune inflammation (rheumatoid arthritis), or uric acid accumulation in the joints (gout)
- Postural imbalances or excess weight, either of which can place undue stress on one or both feet (learn more about managing Achilles tendon pain here.)
- Adhesions, collections of internal scar tissue (left over from a previous injury) which limit ankle or foot motion
- Nerve damage or impingement (such as tarsal tunnel syndrome in the ankle joint)
How Physical Therapy Helps Foot and Ankle Pain
Why might you take your foot and ankle pain to a physical therapist? The most common alternatives, painkilling drugs, only provide temporary relief — and some of them can cause physical damage, dangerous interactions, or dependence. Physical therapy not only eases your pain safely and effectively; it also treats the underlying issues behind your pain so you can enjoy better function and health.
The physical therapy plan you receive for your foot or ankle problem will vary according to the exact cause of your pain and what stage of the problem you’re experiencing. Common techniques include:
Ice therapy – Applications of ice can help reduce acute swelling and pain in the first 72 hours following an injury.
Heat therapy – Heat is sometimes applied, either on its own or as a complement to ice therapy, to soothe inflammatory soft tissue pain.
Ultrasound, class IV laser, radial pulse wave therapy, and electrical muscle stimulation – These techniques can all help you heal more quickly.
Manual therapy – Massage therapy and other forms of tissue manipulation can boost blood flow, ease pain, and break up adhesions.
Exercise – Range of motion exercises can help both chronic conditions such as arthritis and acute sprains or strains (after the initial swelling has come down). Strengthening and balancing exercises can increase joint stability and rehabilitate an injured foot/ankle.
Get your feet back under you the safe, effective, drug-free way. Request a consult at Four Pines Physical Therapy today!
Are you preoccupied with pain throughout your day? Do you have to avoid or curb participation in work-related or desirable activities due to discomfort and dysfunction? While most of us will experience at least some physical pain from time to time, for some people their pain becomes chronic and long-lasting, which can lead to significant physical and mental distress.
If you’re one of these people, we encourage you to call our physical therapy clinic and schedule an initial examination today. We have so much to offer chronic pain sufferers looking for relief from their symptoms and an improvement in quality of life—ideally without having to rely on drugs or invasive procedures!
What Is Chronic Pain?
According to the American Physical Therapy Association, as many as 116 million Americans are living with chronic pain, a broad condition which costs upwards of $635 billion annually for medical treatment, disability, and lost wages. Chronic pain is technically defined as pain and dysfunction persisting for longer than three months.
Chronic pain conditions often (though not always) begin as acute pain conditions which do not properly heal and/or are not properly treated. For many, chronic pain becomes a lifelong struggle that can severely disrupt a person’s ability to participate in work, sports, leisure, and life in general.
Causes of Chronic Pain
Chronic pain generally has a combination of environmental and genetic components. Risk factors include family and medical history, advancing age, a history of trauma, alcohol use, tobacco use, mental health, and the presence of other comorbid conditions like obesity. In some cases, chronic pain is considered “idiopathic,” meaning there is no clear cause.
Our physical therapy team frequently diagnoses and treats the following chronic pain conditions:
- Soft tissue injury: microscopic tears in muscles and tendons which do not heal properly can become inflamed, painful, and stiff. This often leads to scar tissue and areas of tightness in the fascia (a widespread inner connective tissue layer encasing the musculoskeletal system) which can further inhibit movement and lead to persistent pain.
- Muscle spasms: abnormal stress on muscles (or even mental and emotional stress) can cause muscles to enter painful chronic spasms. Muscle spasms in the neck can also tug on cranial membranes, leading to chronic headaches.
- Degenerative joint conditions: osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis, and joint misalignments can cause persistent achy pain along with other symptoms depending on the area of the body involved.
- Compressed nerves: nerves in the extremities or spine can become pinched by altered joints, injured discs, spasmed muscles, and other structures, leading to inflammation, swelling, and symptoms like numbness, tingling, shooting/searing pain, and weakness. Common nerve impingement conditions include carpal tunnel syndrome and sciatica.
- Fibromyalgia: this is a chronic pain syndrome hallmarked by widespread pain, fatigue, and additional symptoms including insomnia and anxiety. Neurochemical changes and Belief Systems can continue to drive the sense of pain even though tissue has completely healed. This leads to “fear avoidance” of movements and activities.
How Physical Therapy Can Help Chronic Pain
Our experienced physical therapists can prescribe a variety of medication-free techniques to improve or resolve your chronic pain and help you get back to the job roles and activities you enjoy.
Common techniques we offer for chronic pain sufferers include:
- Therapeutic exercise to restore mobility, reduce inflammation, increase strength, and correct abnormal movement patterns
- Massage and other types of manual techniques to increase circulation, break up scar tissue, and provide physical/mental stress relief
- Non-invasive modalities like heat, ice, cold laser therapy, and electrical stimulation to relieve pain and reduce spasms
- Lifestyle and nutritional guidance to reduce the risk of recurring pain and reduce chronic inflammation
- Pain Science education to help you understand how our body’s hormone adrenal systems and neurochemistry play into our pain experience and how you can help change it and reduce your pain,
Is chronic pain keeping you from the lifestyle you want? It is possible to find holistic relief that lasts without having to expose yourself to side-effect riddled drugs and invasive interventions. Contact our physical therapy clinics in Jackson, WY, Pinedale, WY or Alpine, WY for a consultation so we can help you thrive!
Four Pines Physical Therapy offers quality and efficient care with individualized treatment approaches.