FAQ Category: General

It’s well known that tapering back from intense training before a major competition can improve muscle strength and overall performance. This relates mainly to a particular muscle fiber, the Type IIa muscle fiber. This is the fiber that gives our muscles short bursts of power for activities like sprinting and lifting. This fiber gets larger and has more power and spring when it has been given a break after a long, intense period of exercise. Significantly, it becomes smaller and less effective after months of heavy and intense training. Your coach is on the right track by having you taper your training before going to the championships.

Using a walking aid is not always related to a person’s age. Most often, it has to do with the person’s general health, especially as it relates to strong muscles and good balance. The challenge occurs when people think they’re strong and that their balance is not a problem. They often resist using a walking aid and remain at risk of falling. If they do fall down, the results can be devastating

One recent study suggested that earlier use of canes and walkers could benefit elderly patients. In the study, patients who used walking aids fell down significantly less often than their stronger, more quick-moving counterparts who didn’t use walking aids. This led researchers to suggest that earlier use of walking aids might benefit the elderly. If you have questions or concerns about the use of a walking aid, talk with your doctor or physical therapist.

It is possible that some of your patients have old injuries that keep them from exercising. A recent study found that in a group of people over sixty, injury was a main barrier to exercise for nearly half of them. You may want to ask your patients what they see as a barrier to being more active, and then address each case individually. Also, work closely with other resources in your health care community so you know whom to send patients to for their specific needs. For example, find out which physical therapists will design structured exercise programs for patients who’ve had past injuries. Yoga and Tai Chi classes designed for the elderly can help improve flexibility, balance, and muscle strength if these are causing problems.

Perhaps you trained too hard right up to the time of the race. To improve performance, you should plan to taper off your workout seven to 21 days before the competition. This gives certain muscle fibers a chance to “spring back.” Working too hard up to the time of the race can actually cause important muscle fibers to shrink, leading to a drop in muscle strength and decreased overall performance in the race. Instead, plan to lower your total mileage and focus on interval training prior to the race to improve your “kick” on hills and to give you an edge when you near the finish line.

A recent study of swimmers who tapered down on their training intensity before a major competition did it this way: Twenty one days before the meet, they began to swim shorter overall distances during each session. They kept doing interval sets and pushed themselves to do each one at race speed. But again, their total distance was less during the 21-day period. If you are unclear about how to do these sets or need more help, you may want to talk with a swimming coach or a strength and conditioning specialist. Most pools have swim clubs and a trained coach whose expertise could be tapped for free or a nominal fee at most.

There are no home ultrasound units. There are two reasons for this. One reason is that only trained personnel should use ultrasound equipment. Used incorrectly, ultrasound could worsen symptoms or even damage the tissues of your body.

The second reason is that ultrasound is not meant to be a long-term fix for your symptoms. It is used early to improve circulation, ease muscle spasm, and speed healing. This helps as you start a therapy program to improve your strength, flexibility, and alignment. The exercises and pain management strategies you learn throughout therapy should be what helps you keep your condition under control.   

No. Ultrasound treatments “radiate” energy in the form of a wave. But these treatments do not create the ionizing radiation of X-rays, radiation treatments, and other sources. Waves that cause ionizing radiation have much, much higher frequencies than ultrasound.

That is highly unlikely. The ultrasound machine should only be transferring sound energy to your body. The machine itself runs on electricity. If the machine is in good working order, the electrical current shouldn’t be transferred to your body.

The goal of therapeutic ultrasound is often to create heat in the underlying tissue. This only requires rubbing the transducer over a small area. The size of the area depends on the size of the transducer. Most transducers in the U.S. come in two sizes. The 3/4-inch transducers should only be used in an area the size of a golf ball. The bigger 2.5-inch transducers should be used on an area about the size of a softball.

Ultrasound is really not appropriate for treating larger areas. You may want to ask your therapist about other treatments, including short-wave diathermy, moist heat, electrical stimulation, and ice.

Your husband’s doctor may be referring to a device called an inspiratory muscle trainer. This device creates resistance when you breathe in. You can control the amount of resistance. The device has been shown to help strengthen breathing muscles and improve exercise tolerance in people with and without emphysema. You only need to use it a few minutes a day to get benefits.

Breathing faster can be a sign of respiratory muscle fatigue. This type of fatigue means that you have to breathe faster to get the same amount of oxygen you got earlier in your run. Your regular runs may have honed your legs and hips, but not your breathing muscles. Breathing muscles, like any other muscles, can be strengthened. Using a device called an inspiratory muscle trainer for just a few minutes a day can help. You should be able to locate one through a local sports medicine clinic.

So far, studies have shown that caffeine improves performance in endurance sports like running. So there is no need to torture yourself further. However, make sure you get enough water.

For cross-country running, caffeine could actually help with your endurance. But for sprinters, the verdict is still out. And there’s some evidence that caffeine may lead to more fatigue when sprints are repeated in sequence. The effects vary from person to person. If you try caffeine before a race, pay attention to your individual response. You will be the best judge.

It is unlikely. The ultrasound machine produces sound waves, not heat. You should only feel the transducer head rubbing on your skin. If you felt the burning sensation as soon as the transducer head was put on your body, it is possible that it was already heated up from an earlier session on another patient.

It is common to feel warmth during therapeutic ultrasound. The sound waves can be turned into heat energy in the tissues of your body. The heat energy then travels to the skin surface, where the heat receptors are located. If the temperature in the tissues ever got too hot, you might feel a painful burning sensation. Your tissues are not actually being burned, but you still need to let your therapist know. This kind of pain isn’t appropriate for ultrasound therapy. That is why therapists don’t do ultrasound treatments in areas that have a loss of sensation for some reason.

Caffeine does not seem to help much for untrained swimmers. In trained swimmers, however, it appears to improve speed quite a bit. It might be worth a try.

Ultrasound can be used both for treatments and for imaging. Diagnostic ultrasound uses higher frequencies that bounce of the underlying structure and can be viewed as an image. Therapeutic ultrasound uses much lower frequencies.

There is. It is called an inspiratory muscle trainer. You should be able to find one through a local sports medicine clinic. The inspiratory muscle trainer creates resistance when you breathe in. You can control the amount of resistance. This device has been shown to improve athletic performance when people use it for a few minutes each day.

Ultrasound can be a good first step in calming muscle spasm. If you are suffering from tension headaches, ultrasound treatments on the back of your neck may help relieve muscle spasm and help alleviate your headaches. Some combination of massage, mobilization, exercise, and ice packs can also calm muscle spasms.

You need to look at possible causes of your tension headaches. You or your therapist should check your work station to see if your postures, lighting, or repetitive tasks could be to blame for your headaches. Stress management might also be in order.

Yes and no. Low-frequency ultrasound has been around for decades, so it’s not new. However, new evidence shows that treating a problem fracture like yours with ultrasound for 20 minutes a day can improve healing by up to 90%. Talk to your doctor to see whether ultrasound could be used to help your leg.

Ultrasound waves are high-frequency sound waves. These sound waves are too high for you to hear, and they are not hot in themselves. Your therapist can adjust the frequency and intensity of the ultrasound so that the sound waves create heat energy in your body. Ultrasound treatment can cause vibrations in the molecules of your tissues, which creates heat. You cannot feel these vibrations, however. Ultrasound also creates heat in tissues that absorb the sound waves, such as tendons, ligaments, and bone.

Not feeling any heat doesn’t mean that the ultrasound isn’t working. If the ultrasound is targeted to deep tissues, it could be creating heat that you can’t feel. There are no heat sensors below the surface of your skin. That means you only experience heat during an ultrasound if the warmth can travel back to the skin surface.

It is also possible that your therapist is setting the ultrasound so that it doesn’t cause a build-up of heat. Therapists usually try to avoid building up heat in tissues that are swollen or severely inflamed.