Don't Take A Knee: 3 Ways To Keep Your Joints Healthy
Our knee joints naturally take a beating throughout life. From running on pavement to lifting heavy objects, we’re constantly putting wear and tear on one of the most important joints in our body. To keep your knees feeling healthy and pain-free, follow these three techniques:
Build Adequate Muscle Strength
You can’t get away from using your knees, but you can help support them so that they don’t get worn down. A few days a week, take some time to do exercises that target neglected areas that support the knee, such as hamstrings, quadriceps, lower back, and glutes. Oftentimes, our quad muscles are overdeveloped on the outside compared to the inside, which can cause the kneecap to become off-balanced. By doing various workouts that build up each of these muscle groups, you’ll develop a more balanced body that won’t create stress on your knees. Our Next Level Wellness team suggests doing a few straight leg lifts, wall sits, and single calf raises every day to keep your body strong and healthy.
Don’t Lock Your Knees
When your knee joint is locked, the soft tissue becomes damaged. This greatly increases the risk of a more severe knee injury down the road. To help prevent this from happening, try taking shorter strides. By taking too large of strides when you run or walk, you can cause your knee to lock up as you over-extend your legs. If your leg lands in front of you, as opposed to under you when you walk, then your stride is too large. Aim to keep your knee joint soft throughout your entire stride and let it naturally bend when your foot hits the ground.
F.I.T.
Fascial Integrative Treatment, or F.I.T., is an innovative and advanced soft-tissue system that treats problems with muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia, nerves, and joints. It is a manual, hands-on therapy that corrects the dysfunctions that these soft-tissues can undergo.
By using F.I.T., our chiropractors are able to re-instate normal tissue flexibility and restore balance and stability to the injured area. We can also assess and correct problems in other areas of the kinetic chain, which are often contributing factors to the problem. All of the areas of soft tissue that have become dysfunctional and are contributing to the specific injury are addressed, even if they have not yet developed pain.
Our chiropractic team of wellness doctors, Vasili Gatsinaris, DC, QME, James Kim, DC, Adam Abulghualya, DC, BS, ART and Caprice Leonard, MA, ATC specialize in chiropractic and wellness care, especially for workplace injuries. Our Irvine chiropractic office is located near John Wayne Airport, convenient for people living in Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Tustin, Santa Ana and other surrounding Orange County communities.
Let our Orange County chiropractic team make a plan and treat your injury so that you are not restricted from your active lifestyle. To learn more about our variety of services or to schedule an appointment, take advantage of our Facebook new patient special and contact us or call 949-263-9003 today.