Contact

mail@gemini-theme.com
+ 001 0231 123 32

Follow

Info

All demo content is for sample purposes only, intended to represent a live site. Please use the RocketLauncher to install an equivalent of the demo, all images will be replaced with sample images.

Author: Leah

Three Tips to Relieve and Prevent Knee Pain

Published: 24 July 2012
Written by Leah
3 Comments
Categories: Blog

Try Other Avenues Before Going Under the Scalpel

A foam roller

As a massage therapist in Salt Lake City, I have seen runners, bikers, hikers, crossfit goers, and the average Joe come in with knee pain. Many get quite a surprise when a specialized massage relieves this pain.

Most of these clients have been told to take advil, rest, and if it doesn’t get better, they should talk to a surgeon. While some might need surgery because of major ligament and meniscus tears, the average person has knee pain from trigger points in the muscle or fascia. Tears in the ligaments can also be caused by movement imbalances; lengthening of short, tight fascia will help address these imbalances, even after surgery.                (photo by rachel)

3 Different Ways to Relieve Knee Pain

1. Pain on the Outside of the Patella (knee cap) is often attributed to Vastus Lateralis trigger points. This is one of the easiest places to do self massage with a foam roller. If you have knee pain, the first thing you should invest in is a foam roller. For this kind of knee pain, lay on the side of your thigh on the foam roller and roll from your hip to your knee. Check out youtube for helpful ways to use your foam roller. Tight inner thigh muscles can also contribute to pain outside the knee, so you can also carefully foam roll your inner thighs, to see if that helps.

The X marks the trigger point, the red shows the pain referral pattern

2. For Pain on The Patella : The main point referring to this area is hard to get to without help, but you can try sitting in a chair, putting a tennis ball where the x is indicated on Rectus Femoris and pressing gently down on the ball until you feel some tenderness. Hold for a few secs, and repeat until the tenderness subsides a bit. If you’re experiencing this pain, please call to see if I can help; it’s a difficult point to access on your own.

3. Inner Knee Pain is usually caused by a tight IT Band, running along the outside of your thigh and attaching into 2 important muscles at the hip- Gluteus Maximus & TFL. The IT Band is hard to change without relieving the tightness in the TFL, Glut Max, and surrounding fascia. Lengthening the TFL might require some assistance, and is difficult to attempt on your own, but using a racquet, tennis, or lacrosse ball on the top of your hip in the area of Gluteus Medius could do the trick. If anything, it might relieve some low back pain occurring on your sacrum.

You’d lay on the ground, knees up and place the small ball just below the top of one hip. You then roll on your side on the ball, and play around with moving the ball until you find  a tender spot (a trigger point) and hold there for a minute. Find another spot and repeat, and don’t forget the other side, even if it’s not bothering you. This should release some of the fascia connecting into your ITB, but it might not be enough if it’s your TFL that’s too short.

A number of factors contribute to knee pain, and it’s important to seek a skilled massage therapist or Structural Integrationist if you’ve stopped doing physical activities because of pain. Myofascial massage and trigger point therapy techniques are extremely helpful for relieving postural imbalances, so pain doesn’t reoccur, and the original movement pattern can be corrected. Sometimes all it takes is 1 or 2 specialized massage therapy sessions (including some personalized self care) to get you back up and running!

So don’t fret… Pain is just your body’s call to action. Do something about it, have hope, and try a few of these tips to get you on your way to healthy knees!

Simple Summer Sorbet

Published: 20 July 2012
Written by Leah
1 Comment
Categories: Blog, Tasty, Healthy Recipes

I love ice cream, but I only eat dairy on special occasions cause I know it contributes to allergies, acne, exzema, and colds. That’s not the case for everyone, but I happen to know what foods I’m sensitive to, so I choose to moderate them. Here’s a great sorbet recipe that’ll cure that ice cream craving.

Ingredients
A few frozen bananas
Squeeze of lime or lemon
Optional other frozen fruit (berries, peaches, apricots..)
Opt dash vanilla extract
Opt cold coconut milk (NOT lite canned coconut milk works best)

You could just throw in some frozen bananas into a food processor (or heavy duty blender) and you’d have banana sorbet. But I like to mix a few other things in… lime gives it a little umph, and vanilla extract makes it a little more like ice cream. Just throw your ingredients in the processor, blend until smooth and enjoy right away or store it in the freezer for later. I’d love to hear what combinations you tried, so post them below or on my facebook page!

(photo by jules:stonesoup)

Eating fat does not make you fat

Published: 28 June 2012
Written by Leah
6 Comments
Categories: Blog

Perhaps fat in food should have a different name because we so closely relate fat in our diet to fat build-up in our body. Surprisingly enough, good fat (yes, including animal fat) is not the suspect in gaining weight. In fact, fat in our diet helps satiate us and paired with low-carb intake, can actually help us loose weight.

More cholesterol in the diet can actually be good

This squirrel is eating more than nuts

That’s right, eating more cholesterol (found in animal fat) is not directly related to heart disease. It DOES NOT raise your cholesterol or contribute to atherosclerosis. Old studies were performed on rabbits, who are herbivores and not meant to eat meat. THEIR cholesterol rose. Except for a select few “hyper-responders,” the vast majority of people can eat cholesterol without it affecting their cholesterol levels. This is because we make most of the cholesterol in our blood in-house, and dietary cholesterol actually tends to suppress cholesterol synthesis. So guess what- when we eat cholesterol, our body makes less of it to keep the blood balanced.

The high-fat, low-carb talk It is difficult to gain weight on a high-fat, low-carb diet because fat is satiating. In fact, studies have shown that high-fat low-carb diets reduce weight, and particularly, they shed fat, leading to more of a lean body mass. Isn’t that what we’re after when we try to “lose weight”? On the other hand, dietary fat in the presence of large amounts of dietary carbs can make it difficult to access fat for energy, while dietary fat in the presence of low levels of dietary carbohydrates makes it easier to access fat for energy. So, lower your “bad” carb intake (sugars, refined grains like bread, pasta, crackers, cereal, white rice), enjoy the fat, and you could loose weight!

Cardiovascular studies for you science guys & gals A 2010 study in Japan showed fatty acid intake was “inversely associated with mortality from stroke”
A 2011 study shows that “reducing the intake of Carbohydrates with high glycaemic index is more effective in the prevention of Cardiovascular Disease than reducing Saturated Fatty Acids intake per se.”
A 2010 meta-analysis found “that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD (coronary heart disease) or CVD (cardiovascular disease).”
To read more, check out this blog from Marks Daily Apple.

The good fats to eat Animal fat – from grass-fed beef and animals raised without hormones, antibiotics, and fed a natural diet All oil you consume should be unrefined. If it doesn’t say it is, it probably isn’t. We refine oils to use them at high temps, but this turns some of the oil into trans fat. Clearly, if you are going to deep fry something, you’ll probably have to use a refined oil. To cook with: coconut oil, avocado oil, sesame oil, grass-fed butter or ghee, animal fat. To dress with: extra virgin olive oil (which is unrefined), sesame oil, peanut oil, any other oil that is unrefined. Stay away from palm oil (usually added to many peanut butters)- it is extremely bad for the environment. Good fatty snacks: raw nuts (try to avoid peanuts), avocados, boiled eggs I am not including dairy here because many people have a hard time with dairy; it’s homogenized and pasteurized which makes it harder for people to digest because it’s stripped of important enzymes. That said, I’m off to make some no-nitrate bacon! (on top of a huge salad of mixed greens, celery, avocado, and egg).

Enjoy your food!

photo by  ericgonzalez50