The ankle bone’s connected to the shin bone, the shin bone’s connected to the……….
The average human can expect to find around 206 bones underneath all the skin and muscle that surrounds our skeleton; and whilst we often concern ourselves with injuries sustained to these superficial soft tissue layers, we should also remember that the bones and skeletal joints are equally capable of sustaining injury when repeated stresses are imposed upon them.
Whilst we all understand that some form of traumatic accident might cause a fracture or broken bone, and that the area might be immobilised using a sling, splint or cast until the bone itself has suitably healed, we don’t typically recognise that our day to activities might also be responsible for causing early wear and tear to the skeleton and the associated joints.
For example, we would not typically suspect that the previous day’s events alone are responsible for us waking up one morning and finding that we require a hip or knee replacement. More commonly, we might attribute this type of joint wear and tear to the ageing process or some form of arthritic symptoms.
This MRI is an example of how the cartilage in the hip joint can wear. The result of this can produce pain both locally and globally – radiating into the front of the hip, pelvis and knee.
What we might not appreciate is the long term impact that bad habits, poor posture and activities or exercises performed with poor biomechanic alignment could be having upon our skeleton and its varying joints; which in turn can then add stress to the soft tissues and muscles which are anchored to these points.
We also tend to forget that our skeleton also encases several of our major organs (ie: heart and lungs etc) and consequently, if postural alignment is poor, stress and or restrictions upon how well these organs can facilitate their normal daily activity could give rise to additional health issues.
Having a biomechanical assessment to analyse how well your body can perform, not just during sporting activities, but also your typical daily activities, might help to reduce the stresses to your body; which over time, could precipitate an injury to either our bones, joints or the muscles which attach to them.
For more information on this type of assessment, please call us 01628 639 532