Willow: Effective Hip & Knee Pain Relief

Willow: Effective Hip & Knee Pain Relief

Can You Guess When THE ICE WILL BREAK? NEWSLETTER Health &Wellness

The Nenana Ice Classic is a non-profit corporation formed by the residents of Nenana, Alaska, for the purpose of conducting an annual ice pool contest under special statutory authority enacted by the first state legislature in 1960.

Participants buy tickets to guess when the ice will break up and the winners get a lot of money! People from all over the world participate in the Nenana Ice Classic!

Payoff for winners will be made June 1st! Check for updates at: www.nenanaakiceclassic.com

NEWSLETTER Health &Wellness

EFFECTIVE HIP & KNEE PAIN RELIEF “Take Off On A Pain Free Journey!”

INSIDE: Find Out If You Are Moving Like You Should Healthy Recipe Relieve Hip Pain In Minutes Patient Success Spotlight

Put the Spring Back in Your Step Do you find it harder to walk, run or exercise? Is hip, knee or leg pain keeping you from being active? If so, understanding how your body walks and moves can be the key to putting the spring back in your step. Think of your body as a big spring that stores and releases energy with every step. The efficiency of your walk comes from the effectiveness of your flexibility, strength and balance. When any one of these is off, it affects your ability to walk efficiently and takes a lot of energy. This results in strain to different joints and makes muscles work much harder than they need to. This leads to possible pain in the back, hips and knees. It also causes fatigue after walking, even for a little while.

If you are experiencing pain again after therapy, it might be because muscles or joints have tightened or become weak again. The Remedy The simple solution is to put the spring back in your step. This is accomplished by first analyzing how you walk.There are slight changes in the way that you walk and move, that our trained medical experts can pick up on. This analysis tells us just what joints or muscles are stiff, stuck or weak. By pinpointing the exact areas of your body that are not moving as they should, we can make a plan to increase motion, strength and improve coordination.

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FIND OUT IF YOU ARE MOVING LIKE YOU SHOULD

Can you do these simple tests to see if your hips and legs are as flexible and strong as they should be? Try them for yourself and let us know how you did. Use caution and common sense when attempting these tests; do not continue if they cause pain or discomfort.  Do not attempt if you have had a hip replacement. • From standing, can you touch your toes? This indicates hip and low back flexibility. • While sitting can you comfortably cross your legs so that your ankle is resting on the other knee? Does one knee go further down than the other? This indicates hip flexibility. If one hip is tighter than the other, it can wreak havoc with your walking and even cause knee pain. • Keeping your feet flat on the floor and holding onto something solid, how far can you squat down? You should be able to squat all the way down so your buttocks almost touch your heels. Don’t let your heels pop up! If you favor movement to one side, you probably have hip weakness on that side or limited motion in the hip joint. • Standing near a countertop put one foot in front of the other so that you are touching heel to toe. Without putting your hands down, see if you can balance for 10 seconds, keeping yourself steady. If you cannot, then you have trouble with the coordination of your balance from the nerve endings in your hip, knees, ankles and feet. Restoring Normal Pain-Free Motion. Restoring normal motion is key to alleviating pain and allowing you to do the activities you love to do safely. Physical therapy is the key to restoring normal joint and muscle motion. Our medical experts pinpoint the key problem areas that you may not even

be aware of and focus on a custom treatment plan that will restore your normal pain-free motion. Performing at Your Best. Whether you are just out for a walk or an avid athlete, we can help you walk, run and play better. With our motion analysis, strength testing, coordination testing and more, we can spot your muscles and joints thatneedflexibility,strengthorcoordination.Aspecific trainingand treatment plan is then put together to help you reach your peak movement with the least effort. Discover how our Joint Program transforms your hip and knee pain from a pressing problem, to a distant memory, allowing you to live a happy, active and pain-free life.

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HEALTHY RECIPE Honey Garlic Shrimp INGREDIENTS • 1/3 cup honey • 1/4 cup soy sauce (reduced sodium) • 1 Tablespoon minced garlic • optional: 1 teaspoon minced ginger

• 1 lb medium uncooked shrimp, peeled & deveined • 2 teaspoons olive oil • optional: chopped green onion garnish

DIRECTIONS 1. Whisk the honey, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger (if using) together in a medium bowl. 2. Place shrimp in a large zipped-top bag or tupperware. Pour 1/2 of the marinade mixture on top, give it all a shake or stir, then allow shrimp to marinate in the refrigerator for 15 minutes or up to 8-12 hours. Cover and refrigerate the rest of the marinade for step 3. (Time-saving tip: while the shrimp is marinating, I steamed broccoli and microwaved some quick brown rice). 3. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Place shrimp in the skillet. Discard used marinade. Cook shrimp on one side until pink--about 45 seconds--then flip shrimp over. Pour in remaining marinade and cook it all until shrimp is cooked through, about 1 minute more. 4. Serve shrimp with cooked marinade sauce and a garnish of green onion. The sauce is excellent on brown rice and steamed veggies on the side.

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Patient Success Spotlight

“Willow Physical Therapy and Courtney have helped me in regaining my range of motion and strength back after knee surgery.” - J. Wiebe Helped me in regaining my range of motion and strength!

Relieve Hip Pain In Minutes Try this movement if you are experiencing hip pain.

HIP ADDUCTION - SIDELYING While lying on your side, slowly raise up the top leg towards the ceiling. Keep your other knee straight the entire time. The top leg should be bent at the knee and your other foot planted on the ground supporting your body. Strengthens Hip Muscles www.simpleset.net

Doyou or someoneyou know have hip, knee or leg pain? As a current or past patient, you have access to this valuable information, at your fingertips. Start feeling better today in the privacy of your home. Go to www.willowpt.com, and scroll down to the middle of the page for your free download. This is the easiest way to get this information to our patients. Download and share with friends and family today! You can find the FREE Hip, Knee & Leg Pain ebook download on our homepage at: www.willowpt.com