Shoulder Rehab Made Easy
Shoulder rehab is hard right? There are so many things that can go wrong in there- subacromial bursitis, supraspinatus impingement, biceps impingement, rotator cuff weakness, frozen shoulders. The list goes on and on. How do we know what is what? And what do we do specifically if we don’t know what is specifically wrong? And maybe worse, what do we do when we do know what the problem actually is? Looking through a well-regarded text like Kendall’s ‘Muscles; Testing and function’, with its 100+ pages of muscle tests for the upper extremity alone can tempt even the most stoic of anatomy nerds to place shoulders into the ‘too hard basket’. It needn’t be this hard.
Suddenly our ideal ’corrective’ exercises are suddenly not only useless, they may be reinforcing dysfunctional patterns already present!
Let me give you two pieces of information that may ease your frazzled mind.
1) As an Exercise Professional, it is not your job to diagnose. In fact, as a Personal Trainer or Exercise Physiologist diagnosis exists outside of your scope of practice.
2) Regardless, diagnosis of the specific injury is superfluous to what you actually need to do for effective shoulder rehab.
For a shoulder to be happy, healthy and functioning beautifully you really only need to tick three boxes. Continue reading
TAFE SA say no to crunches!
It is with much excitement that I can share with you that today I had a meeting with the lecturers from TAFE SA’s Fitness program. The meeting occurred at their request, as thy wanted a review of the evidence of the risks and benefits of different forms of core/abdominal/trunk training.
After viewing the evidence, and much discussion about practical delivery of this information, a consensus was reached that the material delivered to Cert 3 and 4 students would need to change to take into account the large body of evidence pointing to crunches and sit-ups as exercises that fail the risk-to-benefit test.
We discussed practical, useful, and functional ways to challenge the core/abs, and even to achieve that desired six-pack!!
I’m very excited, and feel privileged to have been able to be a part of such a meeting, and to be able to facilitate the technical discussions that were had. I think this is a huge step forward for our Industry. I also really appreciate the open and flexible attitude of the TAFE lecturers who are obviously very interested in providing the best possible information to their students!
YOU are your body and mind
I just wanted to point you towards a brilliant post by in-house nerd, Scott Wood, on how we deal with our pain.
This post is a great little insight into some of our typical reactions, and could apply to how we respond to so many areas of our life! Understanding that ‘pain’ is the way our brain interprets a multitude of factors is a key step to start dealing with each of those factors to change the way we feel and hence what we experience. Obviously this will give you some very useful tools to be able to coach your clients through their rehab process.
I definitely recommend a read of it! – it was posted in our iNform blog and facebook page, so click on the links to read it!
Enjoy!
Max
The Swinging of the Pendulum – Filex2011 update1
True to form Filex2011 offered us a delicious smorgasbord of presenters and sessions, from yoga to plyommetrics, marketing to corrective exercise, from pre-choreographed group exercise to award winning researchers and professors, and everything in between to suit the fussiest of delegates. As I expected it brought the latest and greatest information in fitness and exercise, but I question if it was all delivered in a context that makes it useful for actual application.
its easy to get a crush on sexy new information
We need to be aware that its easy to get a crush on sexy new information that may make a lot of sense when presented by a dynamic, convincing and well meaning educator (or two). The question I always ask myself is: would I be comfortable to introduce this sexy young thing to my friends (colleagues) and family (business and clients). Continue reading
Putting The ‘Allied’ into Allied Health
The term ‘Allied’ infers that an alliance is present. Alliance according to the dictionary basically means a close association of groups or individuals is formed to advance a common interest or cause. Allied Health therefore means that close associations between various practitioners from varying professions are formed in a collaborative effort to maximise client outcomes. Allied Health, by this definition, rarely exists.
He does not like his clients seeing practitioners from other professions as it makes it hard for him to gauge how successful his part of the treatment has been. Are you serious buddy? Continue reading
Flexibility – achieving great movement
Sunday February 26, 2012 – Sunday February 26, 2012
9 Kensington Rd
Description:
Workshop from 9:30 am – 4pm (please arrive at 9:15am for registration)
Registrations close on Wednesday February 22nd, 2011.
Crunches: An aptly named exercise
I don’t like abdominal crunches. I don’t prescribe them, and don’t like the fact they are still widely prescribed. I think they are, for most people, a bad exercise. There are three major reasons why. Continue reading
Tight hamstrings in horse-riding client!
Ok, so you you might not have a lot of horse-riding clients perhaps, but I was asked by a PT what I would do with such a client with chronically tight hamstrings. The answer actually fits for tight hamstrings in general, so I thought it would be worth while posting. hope it helps!
“Now in regards to your horse riding client (I’ve had a couple of these too!), as a general rule of thumb, a tightness is a compensation/protection due to a weakness somewhere else, and we find that in hamstrings this is related to glut (max and med) weakness > which is often due to poor core function. Especially in a horse riding position, where they are often holding a half squat position, where the core and hips have to absorb a lot of forces. So if they are weak in this chain/pattern, then the hamstrings tend to overwork and end up getting tight as a result. So I would ensure good core and glut function, and then progress adequately into positions that create a similar demand (eg. Bent over cable rows, deadlifts, etc) – but ensure you have good function first, otherwise you risk feeding the problem!”
