The debate over whether weight machines or free weights better help a person achieve fitness is not new. Recently, the trend has been away from weight machines and toward free weights, so it is worth revisiting the benefits and drawbacks of both. Weight machines have several advantages. For one thing, they are easy for theContinue Reading »
If you are about to have your hip replaced, you will need to begin a rehabilitation program very soon after the procedure is completed. The type of rehabilitation will vary with the surgical technique used to attach the metal prosthesis to the femur. This artificial ball and stem can be affixed either with bony cementContinue Reading »
My friend told me about his new car and how he had a great lumbar support that can be adjusted to fit his back. Many vehicles offer this feature but they are often used incorrectly, whether incorporated into the seat or a portable. Tips for fitting your lumbar roll: Make sure it feels good and does not increase lowContinue Reading »
Osteoporosis and Osteopenia Osteoporosis is a disease that will affect 1 in 5 women over age 50, often with no symptoms until a fracture occurs, giving it the name “The Silent Thief”. Osteopenia is a lesser degree of bone loss than osteoporosis. The greatest loss of bone mass, which can be as much as 20%,Continue Reading »
More than 580,000 knee replacement surgeries—the vast majority of them successful—are performed in the United States each year. In this procedure, special acrylic bone cement is often employed to adhere the new artificial knee parts to your leg bones. Its technical name is polymethylmethacrylate, or PMMA. What is PMMA? In some situations, the surgeon canContinue Reading »
Just as you can feel pain in your bottom teeth when you have a cavity in a top molar, a feeling of “pins and needles” and numbness in your hand may result from a problem in your wrist or shoulder. Both are common symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, a condition caused by compression of nervesContinue Reading »
Swimmer’s shoulder is very common in young competitive swimmers. In this condition, several soft structures in the shoulder—the bicep tendon, the rotator cuff and the bursa—are impinged, or compressed, by the bony parts of the joint and become inflamed and painful. The condition can affect any swimmer, but those who specialize in freestyle or butterflyContinue Reading »
How Safe is Yoga? This is a great article from the New York Times that talks about the potential dangers of Yoga. When choosing ways to exercise Yoga is perceived as a relatively safe alternative to other forms of exercise (ie running, kick boxing, boot camp classes, etc). This misconception can lead many to letContinue Reading »
A highly flexible exercise is the push-up. Push-ups build core strength and help you get a total body workout. When correctly performed, push-ups use muscles in the shoulders, chest, back, abdomen and legs. If you perform push-ups incorrectly, however, you risk injury and may not get results from the time and effort you expended doingContinue Reading »
Many people who are bow-legged (a condition called varus) or knock-kneed (a condition called valgus) do not realize how much extra stress they are putting on their knees. A normally aligned knee is designed to distribute weight equally to the inner and outer part of the joint. This uneven distribution of stress increases the wearContinue Reading »