Somerset Sports Therapy Fitness Clinic Wedmore

03/09/2026

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🦵 Anatomy of the Knee: The Joint That Keeps You Moving

🔹 1. 🦴 Knee Structure
This infographic shows the major structures of the knee, including the femur, tibia, fibula, patella, cartilage, menisci, tendons, and ligaments.

🔹 2. 🔗 Ligaments & Stability
The ACL, PCL, MCL, and LCL help stabilize the knee and control unwanted movement during walking, running, and other activities.

🔹 3. ⚙️ How the Knee Works
The knee allows bending, straightening, weight bearing, and shock absorption, helping you move comfortably throughout the day.

🔹 4. ⚠️ Common Knee Problems
The image highlights common conditions such as ACL tears, meniscus tears, arthritis, patellar tendinitis, and bursitis.

🔹 5. 💪 Keep Your Knees Healthy
Regular exercise, proper warm-ups, stretching, maintaining a healthy weight, and listening to your body can help support strong and healthy knees.

01/09/2026

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⚠️ GROIN PAIN OR A CLICK WHEN YOU LIFT YOUR KNEE?

If lifting your knee, climbing stairs, getting out of a car, standing up from a chair, kicking, running uphill, or bringing your leg forward creates pain or a deep click at the front of your hip, the iliopsoas may be one possible contributor.
The iliopsoas is your main hip-flexor complex. It is made of the psoas major and iliacus muscles, which join into a tendon beneath the inguinal ligament and attach to the lesser trochanter of the femur. The tendon passes directly across the front of the hip joint and close to the anterior labrum and hip capsule.
⚠️ Common Contributors
⚠️ Repeated high-knee movements, kicking, sprinting, climbing, running hills, or cycling.
⚠️ Rapid increases in hip-flexor training, core work, leg raises, or sport volume.
⚠️ Long periods of sitting followed by sudden activity.
⚠️ Deep hip-flexion positions, frequent getting in and out of low chairs or cars.
⚠️ Previous hip surgery, hip instability, hip morphology, or coexisting hip conditions.
🔥 Common Symptoms
🔥 Deep pain or pinching at the front of the hip or groin.
🔥 Pain when lifting the knee actively, climbing stairs, getting out of a chair, or performing a straight-leg raise.
🔥 A click, snap, clunk, or catching sensation deep in the front of the hip.
🔥 Symptoms during movement from a flexed hip position toward extension.
🔥 Tenderness around the front of the hip, often more noticeable with active hip flexion than passive movement.
Internal snapping hip commonly occurs when the iliopsoas tendon moves abruptly over a bony structure such as the iliopectineal eminence or the front of the femoral head. A painless click alone is often not a problem; pain, catching, weakness, or loss of function are the signs that make it worth assessing.
✅ What To Do First
✅ Temporarily reduce the specific high-knee, deep-flexion, or repeated hip-flexor activities that create sharp pain.
✅ Avoid repeatedly snapping the hip on purpose to “loosen it up.”
✅ Break up prolonged sitting and reintroduce hip-flexion loading gradually.
✅ Train in a comfortable range and reduce speed, depth, resistance, or volume when symptoms flare.
✅ Build hip, trunk, and lower-limb capacity progressively rather than resting completely.
🚨 Get Assessed Promptly If
🚨 You cannot bear weight after a fall or injury.
🚨 You have severe groin pain, a visible bulge, fever, swelling, or sudden major weakness.
🚨 The hip locks, gives way repeatedly, or cannot move normally.
🚨 You have persistent numbness, pain below the knee, or progressive leg weakness.
🚨 Symptoms continue despite several weeks of sensible load modification.
This post is educational—not a diagnosis. Hip-flexor pain can overlap with femoroacetabular impingement, labral issues, hip-joint arthritis, hernia, stress injury, lumbar referral, and other groin conditions.

31/08/2026

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PIRIFORMIS SYNDROME: Signs, Causes & Management.

▲ Deep Buttock Pain
Piriformis syndrome can cause a deep ache or pain in the buttock, often becoming worse after sitting for long periods.

Pain Down the Leg
Irritation of the sciatic nerve may cause pain that travels from the buttock down the back of the thigh or leg.

Tingling & Numbness
Some people may experience pins and needles, tingling or numbness in the leg or foot.

Pain With Sitting & Movement
Symptoms may become worse with prolonged sitting, climbing stairs, running or certain hip movements.

Management & When to Seek Care
Gentle stretching, activity modification, strengthening exercises and physiotherapy may help reduce pain and improve movement.

27/08/2026

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🧠 THE ROTATOR CUFF LOAD

Your shoulder can move through an enormous range of motion.

But that freedom comes with a mechanical price:

The shoulder needs constant stabilization.

Unlike the hip, the shoulder joint sacrifices a large amount of bony stability to give the arm exceptional mobility.

That is where the rotator cuff becomes important.

Four muscles work together around the shoulder:

🔹 Supraspinatus
🔹 Infraspinatus
🔹 Teres minor
🔹 Subscapularis

Their job isn't simply to “make the shoulder strong.”

They help control the position and movement of the humeral head relative to the glenoid while the arm moves.

Raise your arm.

Reach overhead.

Throw.

Press.

Pull.

The shoulder complex has to coordinate multiple structures simultaneously.

And when the amount of activity suddenly increases — or the tissues are exposed to repetitive loading they aren't accustomed to — symptoms can develop.

But here's the important distinction 👇

🛑 Shoulder pain does NOT automatically mean you have a torn rotator cuff.

Pain can involve tendons, muscles, joint structures, load tolerance, movement demands, previous injury, and individual sensitivity.

So the better question isn't:

❌ “Which muscle is broken?”

It's:

🧠 “What mechanical demand is my shoulder being asked to handle?”

Understanding the anatomy changes the way you understand the pain.

⚠️ Educational content only. Persistent, severe, or worsening shoulder symptoms should be assessed by an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.

Save this post and look at your shoulder differently next time you raise your arm.

20/08/2026

Dates for your diary!

19th September to 4th October

We are taking part in Somerset Art Works Somerset Art Weeks Festival again this year.

Find us at Venue 86 The Cabin Collective in Othery.

More details coming soon.

Please spread the word.

14/08/2026

Let’s talk about the spleen—a pretty underrated organ hanging out in your upper left belly. People rarely think about it unless something goes wrong, but honestly, it’s a key player connecting your blood, immune system, splenic vein, portal vein, and liver.

So, the main route to remember is:
Spleen → Splenic Vein → Portal Vein → Liver

That pathway’s part of the hepatic portal system—a sort of traffic highway that shuttles nutrients and blood from various abdominal organs straight to the liver for processing.

Ready for a deep dive? Here’s how it all fits together.

🩸 1. Where’s the Spleen?
You’ll find the spleen tucked under your left rib cage, just underneath the diaphragm. It’s close to your stomach, left kidney, pancreas, and the lower left ribs protect it pretty well. While everyone’s anatomy is a little different, those relationships—with the stomach, diaphragm, and kidney—are important for understanding how the abdomen works.

🫘 2. What Does it Look Like?
The spleen’s kind of oval-shaped or like a wedge. It’s got two distinct surfaces (diaphragmatic and visceral), front and back borders, superior and inferior poles, and a hilum. That hilum—think of it like the “gate”—is where blood vessels and other stuff come and go.

🔬 3. The Spleen’s Main Zones
If you peek under the microscope, the spleen breaks into two parts:

🔴 Red Pulp: This area filters blood. It pulls out old or wonky red blood cells and supports some immune functions.

⚪ White Pulp: Packed with lymphoid tissue, this part watches the blood for anything nasty—like foreign substances or pathogens.

With both regions working together, the spleen cleans up your blood and helps your body fight off threats.

🩸 4. Where Does its Blood Come From?
The splenic artery brings blood in. It’s a major branch off the celiac trunk, which comes from the abdominal aorta. So, the route is:
Abdominal Aorta → Celiac Trunk → Splenic Artery → Spleen

This artery snakes along the top edge of the pancreas and splits near the hilum to supply different parts of the spleen.

🔵 5. How Does Blood Leave the Spleen?
Blood exits via the splenic vein. This vein slips out through the hilum and heads toward the right side, running behind the pancreas. The splenic vein’s job is to carry blood away from the spleen and toward the liver’s portal system.

🩸 6. What’s the Portal Vein?
The portal vein heads toward the liver, shuttling blood from your digestive tract and spleen. It forms when the splenic vein joins up with the superior mesenteric vein—usually right behind the neck of the pancreas. So, it’s not a straight shot from the spleen; these two veins merge to create the portal vein.

🧠 7. The Spleen-to-Liver Route
Here’s the journey:

🩸 Spleen
⬇️
🔵 Splenic Vein
⬇️
🔵 Joins Superior Mesenteric Vein
⬇️
🩸 Portal Vein
⬇️
🫀 Liver

This route is a classic in abdominal anatomy.

🫀 8. Why Send Blood to the Liver?
The liver’s like your body’s processing center. Blood comes in carrying all kinds of stuff—nutrients, metabolic products, antigens, and even drugs. The liver stores, processes, detoxifies, and tweaks these substances before releasing them into the general circulation. The spleen’s blood joins this party even though it doesn’t digest food—it still contains plenty of useful (and sometimes dangerous) things that need the liver’s attention.

🩸 9. What’s the Hepatic Portal System?
This system is special. Instead of blood rushing straight back to the heart after visiting the abdominal organs, it passes through the liver first. The veins from the spleen, stomach, intestines, pancreas, and other digestive bits all feed into this system—letting the liver take a first look at everything you’ve absorbed or made.

🫀 10. Liver’s Two Blood Sources
The liver’s got a dual supply:

🔴 Hepatic Artery: Brings in oxygen-rich blood.
🔵 Portal Vein: Brings a flood of blood from abdominal organs.
Both sources pour into the liver’s microscopic channels—sinusoids—so liver cells can do their thing.

🧩 11. What Happens Inside the Liver?
Blood from both the artery and portal vein travels through those sinusoids. Hepatocytes—liver’s main workers—line these channels. They’re busy with metabolism, glucose regulation, drug processing, protein and lipid synthesis, handling waste, and making key plasma proteins. Basically, the liver’s your body’s factory and processing center.

🔬 12. The Splenic Vein’s Other Connections
The splenic vein doesn’t just drain the spleen. It collects blood from the pancreas, short gastric veins, and the left gastroepiploic vein, weaving together a network linking the spleen, stomach, pancreas, and portal system. Anatomy varies, but these connections all matter.

⚠️ 13. What’s Portal Hypertension?
If blood hits resistance in the liver or portal system, pressure spikes—this is portal hypertension. It’s often linked to chronic liver issues. When pressure gets too high, blood finds alternative routes (portosystemic collaterals), and that can trigger complications needing medical attention.

🩸 14. The Spleen’s Role in Portal Hypertension
Since the spleen drains straight into the portal system, rising pressure can back up—it ends up congested and sometimes enlarged (splenomegaly). An enlarged spleen affects blood cell counts since it can trap them. But keep in mind, splenomegaly has many causes, so don’t jump straight to liver disease without checking with a doctor.

🧠 15. Quick Memory Trick
Think:
“Spleen → Splenic → Portal → Liver”

🩸 Spleen
⬇️
🔵 Splenic vein
⬇️
🔵 Superior mesenteric vein joins
⬇️
🩸 Portal vein
⬇️
🫀 Liver

The portal vein is like a delivery truck—hauling blood from those organs to the liver before it circulates everywhere else.

🌟 The Big Picture
The spleen, splenic vein, portal vein, and liver form a beautifully coordinated vascular network. The spleen filters and supports immunity; the splenic vein drains it; the portal vein forms and carries blood to the liver; and the liver processes everything. Understanding this blood flow is just as vital as knowing where organs sit—because what’s happening inside matters just as much.

Keep this guide handy. Share it with anyone tackling human anatomy!



⚠️ Disclaimer
This guide is for educational purposes. For any health concerns, always check with a professional.

04/08/2026

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21/07/2026

Aging does not automatically mean becoming weak. Regular strength training helps preserve muscle, balance, metabolism, and everyday independence, so prioritize progressive squats, rows, presses, and carries as the years add up.

Follow for strength strategies that keep aging on your terms.

17/06/2026

Pain has a pattern. Your pain is not random—it’s your body’s way of telling you the REAL problem! 🎯💡
When dealing with shoulder or upper body discomfort, simply rubbing the sore spot isn't enough. Where you feel the pain, whether it feels deep or superficial, and how it spreads can reveal exactly which structure is compromised. Don't just treat the pain. Treat the cause!
🟡 A (Bursitis): Pain concentrated right on top of the shoulder.
🟢 B (SLAP Tear): Deep shoulder pain often accompanied by clicking.
🟣 C (Rotator Cuff Tear / Frozen Shoulder): Pain in the shoulder paired with weakness when lifting the arm.
🔴 D (Tendonitis / Impingement): Pain traveling down the upper arm.
🔵 E (Clavicle Injury): Pain localized over the collarbone area.
🔵 F (Brachial Neuritis / Nerve Pain): Radiating pain originating from the neck and shooting down the arm.
🟢 G (SC Joint Injury): Pain at the base of the neck and shoulder.
🟠 H (AC Joint Injury): Pain on the top front of the shoulder.
🟣 I (Supraspinatus Tendonitis): Pain specifically on the side of the shoulder.
🔴 J (Heart Attack): Critical medical warning—pain in the chest that may spread.
🟢 K (Mid-Shaft Fracture): Sharp pain at the middle of the upper arm.
Knowing the pattern helps you find the cause, so you can work with a physical therapist or medical professional to fix it for good. Move better. Hurt less. Live stronger! 🏋️‍♂️✨
👇 Drop a comment: Have you ever experienced shoulder pain that felt like one of these patterns? Let us know below!