Weekly Recap Episode 2:
Case 1: Dis-Associating Hip and Lumbar Movement
Oftentimes I get patients in the clinic who have pain in the low back, especially when bending forward and lifting. When I observe their lifting pattern, they will bend at the hips and round out the lower back at the same time. We have all heard "lift with your legs and not your back" but this can be easier said than done. When we talk about dis-associating hip and lumbar movement, we mean that we have to learn how to move these two separate regions independently of each other. We have to be able to perform hip flexion without including the lumbar spine. In fact, when we lift weight in the gym or just around the house we need to keep the lumbar spine completely straight and stabilized while the hips perform the movement. Try the hip hinge drill in order to learn the proper motor pattern, and then translate that over to lifting weight. This will decrease strain on the low back and create more powerful lifting patterns.
Bad
Hip Hinge
Good
Case 2: Radiating Shoulder Pain
Shoulder pain that radiates through the arm or up into the neck is likely originating from the neck. This is especially true if the symptoms are numb and tingly, and if they travel below the elbow. Likely what is happening is that you have a nerve root in cervical spine (neck) that is ticked off at you, so we need to alleviate the irritation that the nerve is experiencing. Use this simple exercise which has the best chance at giving you relief the quickest way possible. Perform 10 of these cervical retraction exercises every 2 hours each day until the symptoms go away.
Case 3: Limited Shoulder Range of Motion
When someone is dealing with true shoulder joint pain, I like to start by looking at large movement patterns to get an idea of how the whole system is moving. If we are seeing things that look a little "off," we begin to break that pattern down into smaller parts to see specifically which things need to be addressed. In the case with my patient this week, they had limited motion reaching behind the back to the opposite shoulder blade. This movement is a combination of shoulder extension and internal rotation. If a limitation is present it can be one, or a combination, of 4 problems:
Limited extension range of motion
Limited internal rotation range of motion
Limited extension strength
Limited internal rotation strength
So the solution is fairly simple: Stretch the things that have limited motion. Strengthen the things that have limited strength.
See the video below for details on how to work through these things.
Watch the video below for the full scoop! Use the chapters to skip to points of interest.