What body part is affected by an ACL injury?

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of the two major ligaments in the knee, the other being the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL).These ligaments perform the vital function of connecting the large femur bone of the thigh to the lower leg bone called the tibia.

The ACL’s main purpose is to maintain the overall stability and support of the knee, the largest joint in the body. The ligament is positioned just behind the kneecap and holds the leg and thigh bones in place preventing the leg bone from slipping forward and rotating during pivoting movements. The ACL is supported by the thigh, buttock and very importantly the hamstring muscle groups.

Ligaments are tough bands of tissue that connect various bones together within your bodies. Although they are very strong too much stress on them due to intensive sports or overloading during a sudden twisting movement can cause them to stretch too far, possibly even to snap. If the ligament snaps, that is a complete rupture, we use the technical term ‘’he did his ACL”.

My first two weeks of induction at Mount Merrion Physiotherapy were spent mostly with Katie and Simon in preparation for Katie's departure and my first official week.

Last week I officially took over from Katie and it was great to get started on my own and to meet many clients as well as to start teaching on the new summer term of Pilates.

My induction weeks were undoubtedly beneficial and I am very grateful to Simon and Katie for all their effort and time making this transition a smooth one. I really enjoyed my first official week and I am delighted to be a part of the Mount Merrion team.

Over the years the scientific understanding of "unexplained" chronic pain has increased. Some examples of "unexplained" chronic pain include conditions such as chronic low back pain or chronic whiplash or fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome.

The research now shows that a concept of central sensitization is the underlying cause of this "unexplained" phenomena. Central sensitization is a process where the brain is receiving too many messages from the nerves to inform the brain that there is a problem with the body, which causes an over-sensitization of the problem.The brain is being over-bombarded with alarm bells that there is something wrong with the body.

By being educated on this concept and how central sensitization works can help to improve understanding of pain and how pain works.

A review on chronic unexplained pain discusses practice guidelines for explaining "unexplained" pain. This educational process involves two sessions lasting 30 minutes each approximately.

The first step in this process is to meet face-to face with a therapist in order to improve your knowledge on pain inlcuding:

We usually prefer to talk about the fun and health-promoting benefits of exercises but in this article I want to highlight 2 reasons why exercise may possibly cause damage to your long-term health.

I appreciate that for some people exercising is a chore and is done out of a sense of obligation to their own health as a result of advice from a doctor, friend or relative. If you fall into this category then these risks I am about to talk about will likely not apply to you. In case you decide to stop reading this article right now let me leave you with one simple nugget of wisdom before you go - you need to find an activity that is fun. When you really enjoy the sport or activity you are doing it no longer feels like a chore. One sure way of finding more enjoyment in your activity might be less about the choice of exercise but rather your choice whether to exercise alone or with a partner. Sharing your workout time with a friend is a lot more fun and motivating than doing it alone.

Back to those who may be at risk, people like me. I have always loved to be physically active but as I get older I become more aware of the need to self-regulate. If I don’t, it catches up with me and negatively affects not only my body but how I think and feel about life in general.

Our next Pilates course schedule starts on the 30th of June and 26 places from 36 have already been booked. As of today we have 6 places left on our Beginner classes and 4 places on our Improver-Advanced class.

To view our course schedule please visit our website here - http://mmphysiopilates.com/dublin/join-a-class.html

Summer Promotional Price

We are offering our 7 and 8 week courses at the 6 week price of €120.00
This is to accommodate some flexibility for holidays. If you are able to attend the full course that's great, the extra 1 or 2 classes are on us.

Adequate preparation as well as appropriate rest and recovery from sport and activity can help prevent overuse injuries from occurring. However with every good intention an overuse injury is easily sustain and is a common type of injury we see here in our Physiotherapy practice.

To fully understand the nature of the overuse injury, how to treat it and prevent it from happening again we must take a look at some background information about this common condition.

What is an overuse injury?

As a result of our sport or activity we can sustain one of two types of injuries - acute or overuse types.

Acute injury

This type of injury can be characterised by the sudden onset of a ‘sharp’ pain with the potential for the sudden loss of function, usually as a result of a traumatic event. Some examples of acute injuries would be sprains of the ankle, dislocation of the shoulder, bone fractures, etc.

Overuse injury

This type of injury is quite different from the acute injury in that the presence of pain and in some cases inflammation too can be totally absent. Instead of the sudden onset of pain and dysfunction there are numerous and repetitive micro traumas that occur to the muscles, tendons, joints and bones. These micro traumas are subtle and if frequent enough they will eventually lead to pain and dysfunction due to the eventual breakdown of the affected body part.

We have written a fair few articles about the barefoot running movement, exploring the debate for and against the merits of ditching the traditional running shoe.

Recent article: Running Confusion - Shoes vs Orthotics vs Barefoot Movement

The very first version of the five-fingered running shoe (a flat, rubber soled slip on style shoe with glove like inserts for each toe) was made by a company called Vibram. Since this first design a lot of other manufacturers have produced a diverse range of flatter style shoes to meet the growing demand for the more ‘natural’ running with less supporting cushion under your feet, AKA barefoot running.

Arguments over the merits of barefoot running have been intense with questionable claims supporting for and against it. The company Vibram has just recently settled a claim of nearly $4million for deceptive marketing about the health benefits of the five-fingered. It seems an estimated 70 million Vibram customers might be getting a payout to some extent.

Read about the Vibram lawsuit here…- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/10/_n_5302213.html

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my personal experience in how I recognised I was suffering from patellar tendonitis. I covered some technical points about who is at risk and what some of the contributing risk factors are for developing patellar tendonitis.

If you are considering whether your knee pain might be patellar tendonitis then be sure to read my initial blog post - What Is Patellar Tendonosis

In this part 2 follow-up I want to share some of the first stage rehabilitation activities that I have been doing to help my recovery.

After doing all the wrong things at first I sought advice from the Mount Merrion Physiotheray team who set me straight on what I should be doing. Having an inquisitive mind for the detail I asked for some evidence-based literature on the treatment of patellar tendonitis which I duly studied and supports my personal account here.

It is incredible that many powerful healing effects can be achieved by simply inserting needles into the skin and muscle, positively influencing most of our bodily systems. Just as amazing is the fact that Acupuncture as a treatment technique was discovered many thousands of years ago and has been practised by the Chinese ever since.

Only much more recently, within the previous 40 years or so, has Acupuncture been introduced into our western society. For many of these years the Acupuncture taught and studied has been based on the traditional Chinese Acupuncture method, understandably. The Chinese Acupuncture system is one based on the energy meridian model, a system not subscribed to by the majority of our scientific community.

The term Medical Acupuncture relates to a more modern interpretation of the needling technique and one researched and explained in more scientific terms. This has caused something of a divide between the two camps of Traditional Chinese and Western Medical Acupuncture practitioners. This is also not much of a surprise and such opposing stances can be seen in many other health related topics. That said, some practitioners are able to rationalise both approaches and use Acupuncture with one foot in both camps so to speak.

The first time I felt the sharp and stabbing front of left knee pain was a few months ago while enjoying my usual afternoon run with my dog. It was unlike the more familiar muscle aches and pains and there was no swelling present. I remember worrying this could be a potentially serious issue because this was a knee pain I had not felt before.

I was experiencing for the first time a condition which has since been diagnosed by my Chartered Physiotherapist as patellar tendinosis. After discussing my condition with my physiotherapist he directed me to various evidence-based online information resources as well as sending on relevant journal articles to help me understand the condition better. What follows is an account of a knee problem from a patients point of view.

This condition can become a more serious and chronic issue requiring many months of rest and rehabilitation if not appropriately cared for in the early stages. My knee pain started with repeated deep squat movements in the gym with a heavily weighted bar across my shoulders. Oddly the pain did not last more than a second during the exercise and almost no pain followed in the days after. Naturally I did not give it much more thought at the time until many weeks later when the pain returned, much more intensely and persistently, during a less than demanding run.

I now find myself in a delicate situation having to manage my knee pain very carefully indeed with fear of my condition becoming a much more difficult one to cure if I don’t give it the right attention.