We made some great additions to the website this week! We partnered with a new company that will allow us to better communicate with our email subscribers. We also added some additions to the website that make it way more user friendly. This will make it easier for you to easily access information for years to come!
This upcoming week is going to be crazy… I am headed out to Connecticut on Wednesday for my Uncle’s charity golf tournament that raises money for the Pan Mass Challenge. Then I will be riding in the Pan Mass Challenge with my Uncle and some friends this upcoming weekend. It is a fantastic event, and one of the largest contributors to cancer research and treatment through the Dana Farber Institute and The Jimmy Fund.
THE TOPICS THIS WEEK INCLUDED:
- How trigger points can be more than just a source of pain.
- How your shoulder pain and dysfunction can impact your golf swing and keep you out of the PGA (or above a 20 handicap). We can all dream.
- The importance of proprioception (awareness of body position) for reducing back pain. Why the CORE isn’t always the answer.
Trigger Points: MORE than just a source of PAIN.
- They can alter muscle timing
- Increase fatiguability of muscles
- Reduced Strength
- Increased workload of surrounding muscles (to pick up the slack)
All of these things can alter the way you move, causing pain or negatively impacting performance if you are an athlete or your job demands a lot from you. Even if your job doesn’t demand a lot, it could be the reason that your cubicle neighbor can sit on his throne longer than you.
You need to do some self soft tissue treatment to take care of trigger points. This does not mean that you can just rub random objects on your muscles all day.
1. because it’s weird
2. because you need to eliminate the cause (not just throw a band aid on it).
The cause could be static postures that you are hanging out in all day, overworking certain muscles groups due to your job, sport etc., or because you don’t do much movement at all.
Hope this helps. Comment with any questions or concerns, and please share if you know someone that would benefit!
Lucas KR, Polus BI, Rich PS. Latent myofascial trigger points: their effects on muscle activation and movement efficiency. J Bodyw Mov Ther. 2004;8:160-166
How your shoulder is throwing your swing out of whack!
Don’t overlook the importance of good shoulder motion in your golf swing. That old shoulder injury could come back to bite you in the butt if you didn’t get full motion.
In some cases, people will have good shoulder external rotation, but the strength and/or motor control (stability around the scapula) is not good… this doesn’t allow you to access that beautiful motion that you might have at the shoulder.
If it is TIGHT, stretch it and do some soft tissue work.
If it is WEAK or lacking some STABILITY, you need to get on the exercise train!
In this video I go over a quick exercise to start working on your capacity to hold the arm in a fully externally rotated position. This allows the club to get in the right position at the top of the back swing.
This video is more of a self diagnosis and realization video than a treatment video. If you want some more info on exercises please comment!
Can’t swing like Jack Nicklaus or Dustin Johnson if you can’t move like him.
If your old injury just won’t allow this position then feel free to work around it (a golf professional can be extremely helpful here).
If it is painful to do this go see your Physical Therapist.
Proprio…what?
Great video from clinic reinforcing the importance of PROPRIOCEPTION! This gentleman thinks his back is neutral after going through a quick cat/camel motion.
Proprio…what? Basically, proprioception an awareness of where your body is in space. This is one of the most common errors that I see in clinic, especially with chronic low back pain. Proprioception is a normal communication line between the brain and body.
When there is miscommunication we will see increased pain and poor stability at the spine. This is somewhat of a chicken or the egg situation. Did the back pain come first? Or the proprioception problem.
Studies show that people with back pain tend to have proprioceptive deficits. This includes a reduced ability to sense motion at the back, and a reduced ability to localize where you are specifically being touched on your back.
Core exercises are not the answer for all back pain, but if you plan on doing them make sure you get a better sense for where all your bits are in space!
Check out this blog post to learn more!
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