LIFESTYLE NEWS - Exercise is one of the ways to improve your physical wellbeing and it aids in great measure to get rid of ailments, aches and pains. 

Follow the exercise programme provided by the biokineticists at Anine van der Westhuizen Biokineticist in George and feel the difference. Biokineticist Lana Laubscher gives more information on knee injuries.

Fractures
The most common bone broken around the knee is the patella. The ends of the femur and tibia where they meet to form the knee joint can also be fractured. 

Many fractures around the knee are caused by high energy trauma, such as falls from significant heights and motor vehicle collisions.

Why do I point out this injury? Because there are many people who have sustained fractures in serious accidents and ended up with muscle atrophy and lots of pain.

Atrophy
Aaaah... pain and muscle atrophy - the two things we biokineticists hate the most.

I'm sure you've seen the leg of someone who has suffered a fractured or broken leg. It's relatively small in comparison to the other one. Well, that is what we call muscle atrophy. 

If you don't use it, you lose it.

Why don't we like muscle atrophy? Because if one leg has less muscle mass, it effectively works at a smaller percentage of its potential, meaning the other leg has to do a lot more. 

This usually leads to people not only having a fracture, but later developing some sort of a compensatory pain (usually hip or back pain). In some cases, it doesn't occur to people that the fracture from a few years ago could actually be responsible for their back or hip pain - until they consult with a biokineticist.

Pain
Then there is the matter of pain. It is actually supposed to be a natural protecting mechanism of the body, and yet we don't like it.

So why is pain such a big frustration? Aren't you supposed to be in pain because of the fracture?

Yes, obviously you're supposed to experience some sort of pain, but that pain causes not only your inability to use the involved joint / limb (causing muscle atrophy), it also deactivates / inhibits your stabilising muscles in and around the involved area.

Now what in the world does that mean? Let's start with the definition of a stabilising muscle: It is a muscle that assists another muscle to accomplish a movement, a muscle that contracts with no significant movement, to maintain a posture throughout a movement. 

These are, for instance, the muscles that hold your arm in its shoulder socket while you do a movement with your arm.

Can you perform a movement without the stabilising effect of these muscles? In some cases, yes, because your big global moving muscles can act as stabilising muscles in times of need. 

And that is where the problem starts: an overworked moving muscle.

To be continued . . .

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