Rehab Routines For Those Stuck At Home
While the month of March is National Athletic Training Month and we at PT360 planned on talking about who Athletic Trainers are, the valuable skills Athletic Trainers provide, and the services or settings one might find an Athletic Trainer working; something more pressing is on everyone’s mind.
While we practice social distancing during the COVID-19 global pandemic, we all have an opportunity to take a moment to check in with our bodies. Below I have designed mini-programs to address basic stabilization and strength needs the body often desires during functional and dynamic movement patterns.
1) The Runners Workout
During training the body moves forward, but how often does the body move side to side? Pending our heel strike pattern, we can exert 1.7 to 6.8x our total body weight. This means our leg muscles must absorb and counteract these forces to protect our joints. Often poor hip and foot mechanics will result in overuse injuries to the knee. While training for every race, I will often perform these exercises to decrease overuse injury.
2) The Pesky Shoulder Pain
Often poor posture, ergonomics, and faulty positioning at work, school, or at home will result in chronic shoulder pain. As therapists, we often see a pattern - tight anterior chain muscles (pectoralis) and weak posterior chain muscles (rotator cuff and shoulder blade muscles). Often when working with patients in the clinic, we need to lay a foundation down to build strength, endurance, or stability. Below are some of the exercises we start with.
3) Exercises To Beat Your Low Back Pain
80% of adults will experience low back pain, but only 5% respond to medications. Over the years, there have been a variety of theories used to treat low back pain. As a result, there can be a lot of confusion for patients regarding what is the proper management strategy. Often when working with patients, I find myself combining many of the theories, as what works for one person may not work for another. I find it’s all about a neutral spine that is stable and when therapists talk about core, it’s not the same as crunches or sit-ups. Below are two routines - start with the beginner routine and work into the more advanced intermediate routine.
Back Pain Workout - Intermediate
4) Posture While Working From Home
Many will start to work from home as clusters of COVID-19 pop up in our area. Often this means sitting on our laptops at home with poor ergonomics, posture, and positioning. I wanted to include a video that will provide basic strategies on how to address the postural dilemma we all face.
Lastly, I want to recognize and thank all allied health care professionals in this stressful time for their continued hard work and dedication to ensure our safety!
