Runners use different surfaces for different reasons.
Road running is often used to build speed, a hard surface to push from without a large loss of energy.
Grass is an excellent way to prevent injury and promote strength. Grass provides less pressure and impact going through your body. [Read more…]
Mobility or stability?
In the age of social media and “insta-physio”, you may have seen the terms mobility and/or stability thrown around quite a lot- everybody claims to have the “magic exercise”. But what do these terms really mean??
In order to move with optimal efficiency, our body requires a finely tuned balance between mobility and stability. In a nutshell we need joints to move well, whilst our muscular system works effectively to provide stability or efficiency through movement. When joints are stiff and don’t entirely do what they are required to do, they utilise another structure to compensate and make up the difference. The muscles working to move those joints have to work harder and less efficiently; this is how energy leaks occur from our musculoskeletal system, and overload occurs as a result.
Everybody is different, but a general rule of thumb on what to work on throughout the body is as follows:
Shoulders: Stability
Thoracic spine (upper back): Mobility
Lumbar spine (lower back): Stability
Hips: Mobility
Knees: Stability
Ankles: Mobility
Feet: Stability
Check out our social media for more ideas on how to implement these into your daily life.
#loveyourlife #stabilityvsmobility #physiocronulla #rehab
Heard the term “tennis elbow”? Did you know that there is a similar condition called “golfers elbow”?
It is so similar in fact that it is the same pathology as tennis elbow, however the pain sits on the inside/underside of your elbow opposed to the outside/top.
Why is it called golfers elbow? As we swing down to strike the ball, our wrist flexor muscles help to create club-head speed by adding extra whip before impact. These flexor muscles (which attach to the underside of our elbow) are working extremely hard to brace for impact as the club hits the ball (or turf!). This causes them to forcibly lengthen- an eccentric contraction.
Shout-out to all the golfers out there. Chances are like most who play this game, you’re probably more often than not frustrated after your round rather than ecstatic about the flawless golf you just played (hence the 19th hole.
What we hate to see is frustration after a game not because of the shots you left out there, but because of pain. Lower back, shoulders, elbow and/or neck pain can all contribute to a miserable round!
There are many reasons that we may experience pain during swing, but often there is a common culprit… a stiff thoracic spine (upper back). A golf swing is a combination of our knees, hips, spine, shoulders and wrist working together to create a coordinated torque (or rotation) to swing the club, and a big portion of this is through rotation of our thoracic spine.
Let’s use the chain of a swing as an analogy- every link on a swing chain has a portion of movement required of it to globally move the swing. Imagine that we shrink-wrap or stiffen a big portion of the middle of the chain. The swing chair will still move when pushed, but the movement will become a lot jerkier, and the links of chain directly above and below the shrink-wrap will end up contributing a lot more hinge than originally required.
Imagine the shrink-wrapped chain is our stiff thoracic spine, and the links above are our neck and shoulders- we still generally achieve a full swing, but what will the quality of movement be like? And where is the extra movement coming from?
Most likely the excessive movement will come from our shoulders, neck and potentially our lumbar spine (low-back). So, for pain experienced in any of these areas during a golf swing, it is imperative that we first look at thoracic spine mobility. It’s incredible the difference we can make with a few simple stretches and mobility drills!
If you are experiencing pain during your round of golf give us a call on 8544 8484 to book in for an assessment, maybe you’ll even find a few more metres on your drive!
In the meantime, have a look at these simple thoracic mobility exercises you can give a go at home…
http://www.lifestylephysiocronulla.com.au/2019/06/magic-thoracic-spine/#more-1893
The most commonly injured structures in the shoulder are the tendons, the ligaments followed by the bursa. What are these things and what do they do??
Tendon.
The tendons are what attach our muscles to our bones allowing movement. The shoulder is a highly mobile, flexible complicated joint. The tendons are loaded in extreme ranges of motion and due to the anatomy of the shoulder complex often run “through” boney tunnels and above/below other muscles. Imagine the tendon like a rope, imagine for whatever reason the boney complex changes shape (extreme ranges of motion, period of inactivity, loss of muscle mass…etc etc) the rope no longer “fits” through the tunnel without rubbing. Using the rope analogy, rubbing along a firm surface long enough will cause fraying… tearing.
Sounds very dramatic doesn’t it?
These injuries can occur over time, as a form of wear and tear or in response to a fall/awkward position.
What do we do about it?
