Article by: Dr. Jeff Heddles
drheddles@activebodychiro.com

Ever wonder why certain injuries keep coming back no matter how much you rest, foam roll, ice, stretch, or strengthen? Maybe the area of pain isn't the problem at all.

With repetitive activities like running, faults in the mechanics can eventually lead to injury. The difficult part in resolving these conditions is identifying the problematic muscle group/joint. Often the area that is giving someone pain is not the problem, it is the area that is receiving the stress of the activity.

Let's use I-T band pain in running as an example. If a runner over-pronates with their foot, the result can cause a torquing of the tibia and fibula. This torquing motion at the knee can cause small rotational stresses to the ligaments and non-contractile tissues that stabilize the knee. In small amounts the stress at the knee may be pain free and cause no problems. However, as the miles of training begin adding up the stress will continue to build. Then eventually the runner will notice the pain as starting "all of a sudden" with no real rhyme or reason as to why. In this case rehab, rest and ice of the knee are of little help to the long term resolution of the problem - the problem in this case is the foot! The over-pronation of the foot is what started this chain of biomechanical imbalances so ignoring the foot would be ignoring the source of the problem.

This is only one basic example of how faulty mechanics can cause injury. In the case of I-T band pain that was used, the hip or groin or a host of other faults could be the primary cause of the pain at the knee. And who says there can't be more than one problem involved at the same time!?!

Here in our office we will often videotape an athlete. It allows us to break down a person's mechanics to help find a biomechanical correlation to the area of pain. Even though an activity like running is a very natural and basic activity for us, the mechanics involved are anything but basic. Not only can the video camera help with identifying sources of pain, it can also help identify restrictions to the proper mechanics. Biomechanical imabalances can cause ineffiency, wasted energy, and eventually lead to injuries.