Thank your for joining me again this evening for our nightly podcasts. I do these podcasts in the hopes that you can better educate yourself so that you can make a better more informed decision in regards to your health moving forward. I am doctor Harrison Campbell of Restoration Health a premier sugar land chiropractors office. Last time we discussed the benefits of home exercises and even broke down some generic home exercises Restoration Health provides. Tonight we will be discussing some specific exercises for the other body areas which we did not cover previously.
We previously covered the cervical spine stretches for the trapezius and the levator scapulae. For the core we covered the dead bug exercise to strengthen the core and help improve the lower back. For the lower back we also covered stretches for the hamstring to help prevent future back problems.
Tonight we will cover the shoulder and hip primarily as these are often common areas in which sugar land chiropractor see problems. In addition the shoulder and the hip are the same joint classification but differ greatly in terms of mobility and stability.
Let us start with the shoulder and hip as joints. These two joints fall under a classification know as ball and socket joint to sugar land chiropractors due to the anatomy forming the joint. The shoulder is extremely mobile meaning we have a great range of motion in this joint. This increase in mobility is attained through a decrease in stability. The hip on the other hand is a very stable joint. Since it connects the lower limbs to the torso and supports our body weight it needs to be. Now this stability comes with the trade off of decrease mobility.
This is due to what sugar land chiropractors call an inverse relationship between mobility and stability. You can picture those two on a sliding scale. As you get closer to one side of the scale you have less of the other side of the scale.
Now let us move specifically to shoulder exercises. One of the most common areas to injure in the shoulder is the rotator cuff. This group of four muscles is responsible for proving not only motions to the shoulder but also stability and remember the shoulder due to the increased mobility has very little stability so we need all we can get. The supraspinatus is the most common muscle of the rotator cuff to be injured. Usually when people talk of a blown rotator cuff they are talking about the supraspinatus. Therefore the exercises for the shoulder often focus on this particular muscle. The primary exercise performed is a double exercise known as the seatbelts and sword draws. This exercise will target the rotator cuff as a whole.
To start we have a resistance band up near our head in the position a seatbelt would be when we are getting in a car. The motion of this exercise follows the motion of us pulling a seatbelt at latching it bear our hip. This will target the sub scapular is muscle.
The sword draw is this motion in reverse. We start near our hip and come forward out and up like we are drawing a sword from a. Scabbard. These two exercises combined will target all four rotator cuff muscles. This is important because as sugar land chiropractor know the shoulder is only as strong as the rotator cuff.
For the hip we have several stretches to perform in order to provide as much mobility as possible to this joint. Because again, the hip joint is very stable but to attain this stability is sacrifices range of motion.
The two common muscles which are overly tight in the hip are the piriformis muscle and the tensor fascia latea or TFL. The TFL is the muscle which provides tension on the iliotibial band or IT band as most people know it. The IT band itself can be foam rolled out to break up adhesion but it is important to note the IT band is extremely tough fibrous material which is not very elastic meaning stretchable. Therefore to make progress on this IT band sugar land chiropractors know we have to work on the muscle which controls it meaning the TFL.
The best way to stretch the TFL is going to be with the patient on their back. Using a belt or a rope at the bottom of the foot rotation your foot to pointing towards your other foot then using the belt pull your leg across your other leg keeping the hip on the ground. You will feel a stretch in the side of your hip if this is done correctly.
The best way to stretch the piriformis is also going to be on your back with the belt or rope around the foot. Again rotate the foot to point towards the other foot then using the belt pull the leg to the opposite sides shoulder. This will create a stretch deep in the glute.
These two stretches for the hip will proper range of motion for the hip and considering we sacrifice range of motion for stability we need all the range of motion we can get. The piriformis is especially important due to the condition known to sugar land chiropractors as piriformis syndrome. Since the sciatic nerve run through the piriformis and muscle spasm or tightness is this muscle can trigger the condition. We have covered piriformis syndrome in depth in a prior podcast so I will not I will briefly describe the symptoms here and more information can be gained from the prior podcast. Symptoms of piriformis syndrome include burning or shooting pain down the leg to the knee, difficulty with a holding a prolonged position, and other neurological signs.
Thank you for joining us again this evening. I hope you found these additional exercises informative and educational. Should you have additional questions or be looking for the services of sugar land chiropractors please call Restoration Health today in order to schedule an appointment. Thank you once again for joining us. I hope to see you tomorrow for another great podcast. Have a good night.