Can Kettle Bells save your shoulder?

Have you ever seen one of these?

In our clinic we heavily utilize kettle bells in the treatment/rehabilitation of shoulder pain.  We do this for several reasons:

1) It teaches your shoulder how to stabilize as a group.  You have 4 rotators cuff muscles.  When we need control in our shoulder, we need all 4 cuff muscles to work together.  So why have we grown up doing those tired old band exercises for our shoulders?

2) Working your grip helps rehab the shoulder.  A kettle bell naturally utilizes grip strength, otherwise you'd drop the weight.  In the medical field we measure grip strength as an indicator of overall neurological health of your shoulder and arm.  So working your grip is working your shoulders,  especially when you can't raise your arm overhead due to pain.

3)  Kettle bells teach you the best way to use your shoulder.  When you fall out of ideal alignment while holding a kettle bell, your arm automatically starts shaking.  So without thinking about it, it teaches you how to realign your shoulder and minimize the stress on your body.

QUICK TIP

Here's a quick trick I like using to warm up my shoulders before exercise (or as a rehab exercise on it's own).  Pick up the heaviest kettle bell (or dumbell if you don't have one) that you can handle.  Hold the kettle bell by your side (the way it naturally hangs) and rotate your arm left and right as far as it will go in either direction.  This utilizes all of the strategies above to help rehab your shoulder by improving alignment and control of the rotator cuff.  Hold for 30 seconds.

To have you shoulder checked out, please contact me at drscotthoar@gmail.com or dial 561.997.8898.  To check out more visit www.Mobility-4Life.com

The Best Exercise to take away your Neck, Back and Shoulder Pain

This is my favorite exercise to do on my own to keep my low back and shoulders feeling good.  I teach it to a bunch of my patients that are experiencing similar conditions.  It's fantastic for increasing the flexibility in the upper back to relieve stress on the neck, shoulders and low back. They're called:

Can Openers

To perform this:

• Lay in the side-lying position with your top knee bent and in front, with the knee higher than parallel to the hip
• Extend both arms in front of the body with the hands together, even with the shoulders.  
• Rotate the arm, head and eyes to look behind you as far as possible without the knee coming off the ground.  NOTE - keep your eyes fixed on your thumbnail as you reach behind you.
•  SECRET - Press into the ground with the top knee and stationary arm.  This will provide stability and allow for increased flexibility of the upper back without involving the hips or lower back.
• Once you've gone as far as you can go, return to the starting position.  That's one rep.  Perform 6-12 reps on each side.

This is a perfect warm-up before doing other more strenuous exercises.  This will result in decreased stress on the shoulders, neck, and low back.

For any questions or to schedule a personal appointment in Boca Raton please email me at drscotthoar@gmail.com or dial 561.997.8898.  Keep moving!!!!  To check out more visit www.Mobility-4Life.com

Iliotibial Band Syndrome

Notice the iliotibial band is not a muscle

A common complaint that presents in my office is pain on the outside portion of the knee.  Some people refer to this as ITB or Iliotibial band syndrome.  It's very common with runners, crossfitters and fitness enthusiasts of all kinds.

So here's what happens.  Typically you are someone who does a very high amount of repetitive exercise.  Historically this has mostly been present with runners.  However lately I've been seeing it with crossfitters, particularly those who practice a very high volume of olympic lifts with dysfunctional technique.  

One thing that runners and crossfitters have in common is a limited amount of single leg strengthening activities. (Pistols being the only exception regarding crossfit).  When you don't utilize single leg strengthening exercises you tend to have limited abilities to stabilize the hip.

With that lack of stability at the hip, there is increased shear motion at the hip joint.  So in an attempt to control the movement, the Tensor Fascia Lata and Gluteus Medius muscles (smaller hip stabilizers) get overpowered and the stress is carried down through the iliotibial band all the way down to the attachment just below the outside of the knee.  So that attachment has to work hard to try to stabilize the knee AND hip and it just gets overburdened and inflamed and bam! You've got ITB syndrome.

It's really a pretty unique syndrome seeing that the iliotibial band is not a muscle, it's just a dense collection of connective tissue.  That's why people that have tried to massage or stretch the IT band end up frustrated because it doesn't work.

Two things to watch out for with ITB syndrome:

1) When the knee travels excessively toward the mid line of the body during any weight bearing movements.  This includes Olympic lifts, running, jumping, squatting, etc.  In the clinical world we call this a 'Valgus Collapse'.  The example picture is a gross example.  It's very common to see a much more subtle inward 'bounce' of the knee especially while returning to the standing position during something like deep squats or Olympic lifts.



2) Exercise Programming that lacks single leg exercises.  Examples of exercises would be lunges, pistols (single leg squat) single leg deadlifts, single leg jumps, etc.

Single Leg Deadlifts

If you have any questions or are in the Boca Raton area and would like to schedule an appointment please dial 561.997.8898 or email me at drscotthoar@gmail.com.  To check out more visit www.Mobility-4Life.com