Medi-Dyne® Celebrates 20th Anniversary Medi-Dyne Healthcare Products is proud to celebrate its twentieth year as an innovative manufacturer of products that…
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Here at Medi-Dyne, one of our most popular products at is our 2Toms SportShield. We have heard some pretty wild uses of SportShield so I went around and asked our coworkers, our friends, and our families to tell me the various uses of our 2Toms SportShield. The answers we got, some serious, some not so serious, were great! So without further ado, here are 70 ways to use SportShield!
70. Chafing from crutches
What we found out is that SportShield can apparently be used for almost anything! While they all certainly sound fun, we feel the need to say try at your own risk! We hope you guys enjoy all of the different SportShield uses as much as we do!
Did we miss any new uses? Let us know!
Read more about SportShield here!
How flexible are you? If you are a Coach, how flexible are your athletes? What are you doing to increase your or your athlete’s flexibility? Get the StretchRite advantage!
StretchRite is a device to help ensure that each athlete has the necessary flexibility to stay injury free during intense athletic competition. This device enables the athlete to do the type of stretching that normally requires a second person’s assistance.
Joe Dial, former World and American Record Holder for the Pole Vault, and Head Track Coach at Oral Roberts University says:
“Our Athletes are excited about stretching now that we are using the StretchRite program. Flexibility, strength, and leg turnover are keys to maximum performance.”
Read more reviews of the StretchRite at Running Supplement or medi-dyne.com.
TEAMS CURRENTLY USING StretchRite:
University of Arkansas
University of Arizona
University of Florida
University of Wisconsin
Kansas State University
Louisiana State University
University of Oregon
University of Kansas
Illinois State University
University of Nebraska
Oklahoma State University
University of Louisiana
Oral Roberts University
Texas Tech University
Texas A&M University
University of Texas
University of Wisconsin
This weekend I read an article about Seattle Mariner player Franklin Gutierrez suffering from Plantar fasciitis. Last year it was Tampa Devil Rays’ Carlos Pena. Next month it will probably be another player.
The article states this about Plantar fasciitis, “File this one away under ‘reason to worry’. That’s because this is one of those lingering problems you don’t want cropping up in an athlete whose biggest assets happen to involve the legs.”
If you’ve been keeping up with the Medi-Dyne Blog, you know that Plantar fasciitis doesn’t have to be crippling. The problem is that it doesn’t start off feeling like much of an injury at all. For many, it can just be a dull—nagging pain, but the longer you leave it untreated the longer it takes to cure. Even worse, untreated, it can put you in a cast, night splint, or even cause surgical intervention.
Prevention is always the “best medicine”! If you’re on your feet all day (think retail, security, police, sanitation) or running for fitness (including soccer, basketball, lacrosse or triathlon) you should be doing two things to prevent Plantar fasciitis:
If you’re in significant pain, or have been suffering for a while see a Doctor. This is especially important for youth who could develop Sever’s Disease.
This is the story of how Kabri became a runner, and the tricks and tools she used along the way. Read more about her running story in Part 1.
Three years ago I began training for my very first half marathon. Little did I know, my journey of becoming a “runner” was just beginning.
If you’re just tuning in I’m Kabri, newly self-professed trail runner! For the next year I challenged myself, running and hiking distances from 10k to 50k on the trails in the Bay Area. It took quite a while for my body to adapt to the trails and I believe that many of my challenges would have been resolved or largely alleviated if I had had a ProStretch Plus back then. My lower calves would become so tight during and after my runs that they would cramp. My feet would feel “asleep” with the loss of blood flow through my calves. It was very painful. The ProStretchPlus is ideal for maintaining and restoring flexibility to these tight muscles, and is especially good at focusing the stretch along your inner or outer calf muscles, as needed.
Whether you are a strong road runner, or are completely new to running, running on trails places stresses on the ankle, leg and knee muscles that are not often used. These stabilizer muscles allow your feet to spring over rocks and avoid unearthed roots while streaming down a single-track trail system under your favorite tree canopy. After your first trail run you’re likely to be very tight in your calf muscles and hamstrings as these muscles will have been highly engaged as you picked the most stable path along river beds and steep inclines.
Along with the increased flexibility that I would have achieved by properly stretching my calves and hamstrings, I realize how helpful the RangeRoller would have been to post-run recovery. The RangeRoller provides a deep tissue massage that allows my muscles to repair themselves by breaking up the knotted muscle fibers and allowing fresh blood back into the damaged space.
Climbing and descending hills and mountains goes hand-in-hand with trail running; both the uphill and downhill portions of a run, especially, take a toll on your quads. After my long training runs, I would make an appointment with a masseuse, knowing that large knots would form in my quad muscles that could not be released with stretching alone. The RangeRoller essentially provides the same service, but is much more convenient. I’ll warn you now – whether by masseuse or RangeRoller – tackling knotted muscles by compressing and stretching the damaged fibers is a painful but rewarding process!
For more information on the ProStretch Plus or RangeRoller visit www.medi-dyne.com.
This week’s contributor is Nick Zaneto, ATC. Nick has been a Certified Athletic Trainer for 11 years, serving a variety of athletes at the high school level. He is currently the Head Wrestling Coach at a New Jersey high school and a personal trainer for a variety of athletes. An athlete himself, Nick plays Inline Hockey and is training for the New Jersey Marathon this May.
After researching products online Nick found Medi-Dyne.com. Nick quickly realized that he has already been using Medi-Dyne products. As an Athletic Trainer, he often uses the ProStretch and Tuli’s Heel Cups and recently recommended the ProStretch to a client with Achilles tendonitis. Nick told us, “I have always been happy with all of my products that Medi-Dyne has produced. I’m excited to test the new ProStretch Plus.”
We caught up with Nick after he’d had the chance to use the ProStretch Plus for a while. His feedback? “I like the calf stretch capabilities of the ProStretch Plus, it has been good to use right after a long run”. Because Nick is looking to increase calf flexibility during marathon training he liked the deep gastroc calf stretch he received with the ProStretch Plus; “I do find that the ProStretch Plus has stretched my gastrocnemius muscle much better than just using the wall.”
While Nick was pleased with the gastroc stretch he received with the ProStretch Plus, he had concerns whether the calf stretch could be extended to the soleus calf muscle as well. This is easy to do! A demonstration of the proper technique to transfer the calf stretch up the muscle from the gastroc to soleus is provided online: “Reduce Calf Pain: Gastroc and Soleus Stretches”.
Nick found that the removable toe lift was a feature he was struggling with properly utilizing. The ProStretch Plus toe lift was designed to assist those suffering from heel pain, plantar fasciitis or foot pain. It’s not always needed. The demonstration video, “Getting Started with Your ProStretch Plus”, takes you step-by-step through the process of adjusting or removing the toe lift. It is generally the best practice to begin using the ProStretch Plus without the toe lift first and then add it as needed.
Thank you Nick for contributing feedback on the ProStretch Plus. You can read some of Nick’s training tips on his blog nzaneto.blogspot.com.
How do you use your Medi-Dyne products? Let us know on Facebook today! Visit medi-dyne.com for more information on how to use the ProStretch Plus or Tuli’s Heel Cups. Check back next week for more Buzz on Medi-Dyne products.
The High Cost of Back Pain
Back pain, it’s hard to live with but it’s something everyone is likely to deal with at some point. Lower back pain is one of the top 10 reasons patients seek care from a family
physician.1 In fact, it’s one of the most common medical problems, affecting 8 out of 10
people at some point during their lives. (2)
What Causes Lower Back Pain?
It’s not often that just one event actually causes your lower back pain, although it may
seem that way. More often than not it is a series of “micro injuries” (small falls, muscles
pulls, overuse during activity). You probably don’t even remember them happening but they add up over time.
It’s All Connected
The muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints in your body act as links in an interconnective
chain, working together to allow you to accomplish basic motions like sitting, walking, and
running. If any one of these links is injured or not functioning properly the entire chain
suffers. At times a tight or sore muscle will recruit other muscles to pick up the slack so
you may not realize pain right away, but these other muscles are not made to pick up the
slack for very long and “chain reaction injuries” can occur.
Muscle Imbalances
Muscle imbalances occur when muscle strength and functioning along the interconnective chain is not equally efficient. A muscle may be shortened and tight, or weak and therefore is unable to “relax” or contract when needed. Or a muscle or group of muscles may become chronically “over stretched” and weak and are unable to contract when needed. This imbalance modifies body movement, putting strain on muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints. The end result is often lower back pain.
Repetitive Motion
We’ve all heard of carpal tunnel syndrome, but your hands aren’t the only body part that suffers when you sit at your computer all day or spend hours in a car. Any activity in which you perform a motion over and over again for extended periods of time puts stress on your body, increasing the chance of developing repetitive motion injuries (RMIs) – particularly in your back. We think of repetitive motion as doing a job over and over but individuals who sit at desks or those who stay in a seated (driver) or standing position (clerk or nurse) for extended periods of time are extremely likely to suffer from RMIs. Muscular pain is the most common symptom of RMIs, but you may also experience swelling, tightness/stiffness, tingling or numbness, and weakness.
While only your doctor can fully diagnose the cause of your low back pain, you can however identify muscle imbalances or repetitive motions that may be causing your pain. Avoiding these or putting a plan in place to negate them /remedy them is a good first step towards finding relief.
For solutions and relief of back pain read Back Pain Relief: Part 2 –Solutions
Many athletes suffer from hamstring injuries each year, but tight hamstrings can also occur from daily activities like walking. Understanding the cause of tight hamstrings is key in determining a prevention plan.
The hamstrings are not one muscle, but actually a group of three muscles that run down the back of your leg from the pelvis to the lower leg bones making up the bulk in back of your thigh. Your hamstrings function to extend the hip and flex the knee joints. The three muscles that make up the hamstrings are the biceps femoris, semi-tendinosus and semi-membranosus.
A hamstring pull is a muscle strain where muscle fibers are torn either partially or completely. If you have a hamstring injury you are likely to know it right away. A sudden, sharp pain in the back of the thigh could be your first indicator. After which it will be hard to straighten your leg out all of the way without pain. CT scans and MRI may be used to define the more serious injuries.Hamstring injuries happen when the muscles are stretched too far causing tearing of the muscle fibers. Sudden sprints or other fast or twisting motions with your legs (e.g. soccer, running, jumping, basketball) are the major causes of hamstring injuries.
The primary risk factors for injury include:
If you’ve ever pulled your hamstrings, prevention will clearly be your goal, repeating that injury not only interferes with your everyday activities but puts you at risk for a repeat injury. To prevent future pulls, and for tips on preventing pain before it begins visit Medi-Dyne’s Pain Solution Center.
Chain Reaction Injuries – They’re Not What You Think They Are
You’ve probably heard it all your life…the toe bone connected to the foot bone, and the foot bone connected to the ankle bone, and the ankle bone connected to the leg bone… So it’s really no great leap of faith to think of your ligaments, muscles, bones, and tendons as an interconnected chain that work together to ensure your ability to stand, sit, walk or run.
So why is it that we so often try to treat the symptoms of our pain rather than look at the chain as a whole?
Case in point: We recently read an article about TCU athlete Clint Renfro. This young man is an outstanding athlete. But Renfro’s first years at TCU were plagued by one minor injury after another. Note the word “minor”. No one injury, in and of itself, seemed to be enough to force him to the sidelines. Yet that’s where he remained – on the sideline or more appropriately, with the athletic trainers.
Although he initially suffered from hamstring pulls and lower back pain. Then he began to experience increasing foot pain (which was later diagnosed as Achilles tendonitis). When we think back to the interconnective chain we really shouldn’t be surprised by this domino effect.
When one of the links in your body’s interconnective chain is broken (pulled, sprained, inflamed) other areas in your body suffer. In an attempt to maintain your performance levels, other parts of your body compensate for the ‘kink or break’ in your chain. What may have started out as a simple muscle imbalance or slight injury can ultimately lead to increased injury, pain, and potentially a significant breakdown of your body’s interconnective chain.
A breakdown within your interconnective chain can cause you to alter your focus. Instead of solving the actual problem, you are drawn towards the area surrounding it; those muscles forced to bear the burden of compensating for the weakness of the real problem.
Whether you are a weekend warrior, a competitive athlete, athletic trainer, physical therapist or just someone who’d like to live without pain, we challenge you to do a true evaluation of muscle strength and compensation. Look for the real problem. See which muscles are compensating for others. Realize that next time you suffer an injury the breakdown in your chain is not always what it seems, start from the bottom (your feet) and move towards finding a solution that ensures long-term healing.
So, what happened to Renfro? When his injuries continued and his healing did not, Renfro sought the specialists. After dozens of consultations and increasing personal frustration, Renfro was finally diagnosed with the real problem. A previously undetected dislocation in his right foot was determined to be the spark that lit the fuse leading to four years of fire to Renfro’s health. Renfro suffered a simple ankle sprain, but the damage caused a chain reaction that manifested into years of injury and frustration.
You can read more on Renfro at the link below (originally printed in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram): http://texasjournalofchiropractic.eznuz.com/printFriendly.cfm?articleID=23079
Your body’s only as strong as your weakest link? What’s yours?
A misalignment of your body no matter how small, can wreak havoc from your head to your toes. Because the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints in your body act as links in an interconnective chain it takes these links working together to allow you to accomplish basic motions like sitting, walking, and running. If any one of these links is injured or not functioning properly the entire chain suffers. For millions of people each year that breakdown occurs first in their legs and feet.
The Weak Recruit the Strong
Lower body muscle imbalances put the back and lower extremities at high risk of injury. Weak muscles cause tighter, stronger muscles to be recruited by the central nervous system in order to perform the same movement, doing jobs they were never intended to do. Often time weak legs or misaligned lower body extremities cause tighter core muscles to be recruited in order to support the back. Over time this can cause pain in the joints, muscle strains, and/or injuries. Most people don’t realize they have these imbalances until it’s too late.
Make Your Legs Work for You
You can realize both short-term relief and long-term healing by making sure your feet and legs are doing their jobs properly. Building stability, flexibility, and strength in your lower body, helps ensure the lower body is functionally supporting your back.
A simple step that leads to short-term relief is promoting stability and proper alignment. Walking, training or stretching with your legs and feet parallel, hip-distance-apart, with your toes pointed forward and your hips balanced over your knees will promote basic alignment. Also using supportive foot care products, such as Tuli’s reinforcing insoles or heel cups, will help to prevent misalignment caused by the feet or ankles. Maintaining correct structure is only possible if the muscles and fascia are balanced and operating correctly.
The next steps that will help to heal and alleviate pain from your back include stretching and strengthening your lower body muscles. Although the skeletal system aligns our body, it is our soft tissues (muscles) that pull our alignment out of place. Focus on stretching your hamstrings to recover correct posture, your piriforms which run from your thigh bone to the base of the spine, and your gluteus muscles for hip flexibility and pelvis support. The CoreStretch helps to provide an extended stretch for your hamstrings, hips and back. Squats, lunges, or even lateral leg lifts will also increase strength and flexibility of tight, lower-body muscles. Such self-care solutions can help take you toward reducing and preventing back pain.
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