Beating Bursitis

There are times when a client may come to you complaining of pain in a joint or around a joint and you need to assess to know if it is muscle pain or joint pain like bursitis. An easy way to do this to to check passive and active range of motion. You can also do resisted range of motion to really activate the muscle, and if the pain gets worse, you may be dealing with a muscle or muscle tendon issue. So, I've been working with Tito who beats on Kimbo (names have been changed to protect the identity of individuals). Tito came to me complaining of pain right on top of his knee cap. It did not hurt on active range of motion and didn't really hurt on passive range of motion. It hurt when his patella was palpated right on the most anterior portion of his knee. After assessing a little more and researching some to dig deeper, it seemed it may have been a bursa that was inflamed. (We have MANY bursa for our knee joint). Tito is a fighter, he does a lot of sparring with Kimbo and does A LOT of knee flexion and extension with force. (like when kicking a bag or a person.) Sounds like overuse that irritated the bursa. So, ice massage was the rehab massage technique of choice. I took a plastic bag, filled it with ice, applied some lotion to the quadriceps and over the knee and began doing the ice massage. I also instructed Tito to ice it a few a times a day on this own with a bag of ice right over the knee cap. Within one day he was feeling much better and within a few days had no problems. In a lot of cases we tell our clients, "Stop doing whatever it is your doing that is aggravating your joint and causing the pain." I know there is NO WAY Tito will stop. So, more than likely he is going to be a longtime client. POST YOUR COMMENTS AND STORIES HERE!