Hello! Today, I’d like to discuss something that my beautiful wife Kristi suggested. Most of the time when someone thinks of exercise they think about losing weight or something like that. What I want to discuss is how exercise can help get over pain and injuries.
In today’s sedentary society the problems I usually see are tight shoulders and hips. These issues can lead directly to achy backs and knees. How? Well, you’ve got to understand that the body is an incredible thing, and one thing it does amazingly well is compensate. What that means is when a part of our body can’t move well, another part must take up the slack. Of course, we usually don’t realize this is happening and we all have compensations that can range from “not a big deal” to “if you don’t take care of that, you’ll soon be in a wheelchair”. As far as shoulders and backs go, our shoulders are one of the most mobile joints in our body, but sitting hunched at a computer all day can shorten the muscles around the joint. So, what happens when we move our arm to grab something? Instead of our arm being able to move freely it can’t, so our lower back has to move to let us do what we’re trying to do. Our lumbar spine is NOT meant to move very much so when it’s forced to, what happens? Pain.
Our body is so good at compensating that most of the time we have joint pain, the cause isn’t that joint at all, but rather the joint either above or below it. Many times, special exercises can be used to strengthen or loosen areas, or correct compensating movement patterns.
Here are a couple of moves that I use with my clients to loosen up some of those trouble spots. To see demonstrations of these and a few more helpful exercises go to my video blog at MitchRothbardtTraining.blogspot.com.
Hips – Overhead Lunge Stretch: Get into a lunge position with one knee on the floor behind you and the other leg out in front of you with your knee bent at about a 90 degree angle. Reach for the ceiling and bring your hips forward. Be careful that you don’t just lean back. Squeeze your glutes to enhance the stretch. You should NOT feel this in your back!
Overhead Lunge Stretch
Shoulders – Wall Slide: Stand with your butt and head against a wall. Bring your arms back so that your elbows and hands touch the wall and simply move them up and down keeping contact with the wall.
These are only two of many different exercises to help you get over joint pain. Go to my video blog at MitchRothbardtTraining.blogspot.com to see more and feel free to call me with any questions. Lastly, don’t forget to see a doctor before beginning any exercise routine.
Mitchell Rothbardt, CPT ACE
Mitch Rothbardt Fitness
510-754-7113
MitchRothbardtTraining@yahoo.com Discover Your Strength!
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