Injuries in Disguise:

How Injuries Can Be Connected to Another Part of the Body

By: Dr. Michelle Millner PT, DPT

Injuries to our muscles, tendons and ligaments come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, but did you know that sometimes an injury in one part of you body can lead to pain somewhere else?

A few months ago, a patient came in to our Madison office with Achilles tendonitis. This individual was a dancer and gymnast, seemingly flexible and fit, but she just could not shake the ache in her calf.
During my physical therapy examination, I noticed that while her calves seemed to be reasonably flexible, the back of her leg was not. After a bit more questioning, she admitted pulling her hamstring a few months ago, but it has been fine since.  I addressed the restriction in her hamstring with some manual therapy techniques and she immediately felt about 60% better. A miracle? No. The answer is fascial restriction.

What does this mean?

Surrounding each organ, tendon and muscle in our bodies is a connective tissue, called fascia, that helps hold us together. When there is an injury to part of the fascia your body will try to fix the injury by laying down more tissue that may actually adhere to the surrounding tissues.  If an adhesion occurs the fascia will be restricted in its ability to move and will restrict other structures like muscles and tendons from moving how they need to.  

In our example, the restriction in the patient’s hamstring decreased her ability to properly use her calf muscles, which created a tendonitis in her achilles.   What we can take from this example is that the pain in one part of our body can be related to the injury of other parts in the body.  In instances such as this we need to look outside the box to improve your chance for a full recovery.

Are you experiencing pain that seems like it came out of nowhere?  Call our office today and schedule an appointment with one of our therapists.  Our offices are conveniently located in the Madison & Summit Area YMCAs in New Jersey.

Our phone number: 973-270-7417