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Muscle Epidemiology Essay

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2) All sports and activities can cause pain and eventually overwork a muscle. Many runners undergo and experience pain or some sort of problem in their lower extremities. For runners, the agonist muscles are the gastrocnemius, soleus, hamstrings, quadriceps, iliotibial band, and tibialis anterior muscles. Muscle tightness in these areas occur because of the following.
Tight
a) A lack of flexibility in general
b) Fatigued calf muscles
c) Inappropriate footwear
d) Wearing high heels daily
e) Running too much, too soon
f) Inadequate warm-up / cool-down
g) Muscle imbalances elsewhere
h) Running form
Overstretched
a) Hip flexors (Psoas major, rectus femoris, sartorius, tensor fasciae latae, pectineus, adductor longus, adductor brevis, gracilis) …show more content…

L or agonist v. antagonist)

3. Common lower extremity injuries for runners are iliotibial band syndrome, patellofemoral syndrome, patellar tendonitis, and plantar fasciitis. Iliotibial band syndrome occurs in runners who perform long distance training because of excessively bending and extending their knee (Grau, Maiwald, Krauss, Axmann, & Horstmann 2008). This will cause the distal iliotibial band to rub or brush against the lateral femoral condyle which will cause inflammation and swelling of the iliotibial band (Grau, et al., 2008). Patellofemoral pain syndrome or “runner’s knee” can cause excruciating anterior knee pain because of weak hip abductors, quadriceps, and external rotators (Petersen, Ellermann, Gösele-koppenburg, Best, Rembitzki, Brüggemann & Liebau, 2014). This will wear down, disrupt and ultimately damage the cartilage under the knee cap. Patellofemoral pain syndrome will cause imbalance and instability of the patella, hamstring …show more content…

Manual muscle testing will be tested to assess the strength in muscles used for running such as the prime/strong muscles which are the hamstrings, gastrocnemius, soleus, quadriceps, and tibialis anterior. This will also determine the weakness in muscles such as the plantarflexors, dorsiflexors, knee flexion, and knee extension. Also, range of motion will be tested on the tight muscles such as the hamstrings, gastrocnemius, quadriceps, and tibialis anterior. When the muscles are tight, the runner will increase the risk of injury (Schipper, 2009). Gait analysis will be used to examine deficits to body function, stability, and describe how the patient will be running. This will help determine the patient’s biomechanics and achieve adequate mobility. Lastly, we will perform a pain assessment to see what pain level the patient is at when running. This will help determine whether the patient is minimizing stress on the body to achieve no pain at all while running. To monitor progress of these assessments, we must know that if these “muscles are weak or become fatigued easily, there is less control of the leg and the risk of injury increases" (Schipper, 2009, paragraph

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