Got a short leg? is a post from: Physical Therapy Services in Arvada, Colorado ~ Accelerate Physical Therapy

The answer is dynamic stretches. Dynamic stretches Dynamic stretching is useful before competition and has been shown to reduce muscle tightness. Muscle tightness is one factor associated with an increase occurrence of musculotendinous tears. More recent scientific studies seem to suggest that dynamic stretches before competition are preferably to static stretches. This may be particularly true for strength and power athletes. 

All exercises should have 5 second holds and be done 5-10 times.
Standing Cat n Camel/ Pelvic Rotation
Begin in your address position, arms across chest. Tuck the pelvis under then arch the back, creating a rocking of the pelvis into anterior and posterior position and return to a neutral spine. 

Trunk Rotation/ Vertical and Horizontal Axis
Standing in your address position, bring the palms together. Inhale as you rotate from the core and bring the both arms back. Mimic backswing then follow through with a stop at the address position.

Try the same exercise at chest to shoulder height twisting trunk and keeping arms in the parallel to the ground.

Standing Hip Stretch
Use a golf club for assistance with balance. Place one ankle on the outside of the opposite knee. Inhale as you bend your stance knee, sitting back as if you are sitting on a chair. Bring the chest toward the shin, rolling the shoulder blades together.  Reverse legs.

Shoulder Rotation Stretch
Place the club or towel in your right hand, palm facing the ceiling. Bring the right arm over your head and the right palm behind your back. Bring your left arm behind your back and clasp the club or towel.  Move the club up and down your back stopping when you feel a stretch and squeezing the club together.

Upper Trapezius Stretch
Bring the right ear toward the right shoulder. Inhale as you press your left arm toward the floor, exhale and relax the left arm.

Standing Shoulder Blade Stretch
Bring the club to shoulder height, bend your knees and tuck your pelvis under. Inhale as you press your arms away from you, tucking your chin into your chest. Exhale, lift the head and squeeze the shoulder blades together.

1) National Strength & Conditioning Association. Essentials of strength training & conditioning. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. 2000
2) Yamaguchi, T., Ishii, K. Effects of static stretching for 30 seconds and dynamic stretching on leg extension power. J. Strength Cond. Res. Aug;19(3):677-83. 2005
3) Shrier, I. Stretching before exercise does not reduce the risk of local muscle injury: A critical review of the clinical and basic science literature. Clinical J. Sports Med. 9: 221-7. 1999

Golf: Dynamic Stretches is a post from: Physical Therapy Services in Arvada, Colorado ~ Accelerate Physical Therapy

Purpose: Shoulder and mid spine mobility.
Stand feet hip distance apart with ends of club in both hands resting in front of you on thighs.  Inhale, extending both arms straight overhead.   Bend both elbows bringing club directly behind head in line with ears.  Lower elbows as much as possible and try to straighten arms still holding club behind low back against buttocks.  Reverse, bending arms at elbows bringing club back overhead and return to front. 

Shoulder Extension with Trunk Rotation 

Purpose: Promotes range of motion through shoulders and thoracic spine.
Stand tall holding club behind you with palms facing backward.  Bend from the hips to a flat back like a bow with club aiming straight in the air.  Rotate so club moves from parallel to perpendicular to the ground. 

Lateral Trunk Flexibility

Purpose: rib cage mobility in side bend.
Stand tall holding club overhead with hands wide on grip and close to club head.  Slowly bend from side to side with intention of lengthening spine and adding space between each vertebrae. 

Lateral Flexibility with Rotation

Purpose:  rib cage mobility in rotation.
Stand tall holding club overhead with hands wide on grip and close to club head.  Slowly bend from to the side with intention of lengthening spine.   Then, without moving hips or center of gravity, rotate ribcage so club turns parallel with the ground. 

Trunk Rotation

Purpose: Prepare body for rotation
Stand with feet hip distance apart holding ends of club in both hands with arms straight in front of chest.  Rotate club and upper body to the right as far as possible. Lift up on left toe to allow further rotation.  Goal is to rotate club 180 degrees.  Inhale return back to start position.  Repeat other side. Focus on tall spine lifting away from hips.

Shoulder mobility                                                                                                      

Purpose:  spinal rotation.                                                                                               Stand in address position with same hip tilt and spine angle.  Hold onto ends of club allowing arms to fall in place in alignment with feet.  Inhale prepare.  Exhale rotate upper body as if in backswing trying to turn shoulders, arms, and club.  Pause.  Inhale repeat to start.  Repeat backswing 10x.  Then proceed to follow through on opposite side.  Focus on controlled movements.

Quadricep Stretch

Purpose: Prevent injury and promote range of motion by warming up before round.
Stand and kick right leg back bending at the knee and grasp ankle with right hand.  Gently pull foot back while pushing hip forward to feel stretch in muscle between knee and hip joints in front of leg.  Repeat with left leg.  Club may be used as prop for balance.

Hamstring Stretch

Purpose:  Lengthen spine; stretch shoulders, hamstrings, and calves.
Use club for support.  Press heel down with toes up with a straight leg as you push your hips back.  Feel the stretch on the back of the leg from the ankle to buttocks.  Keep your back straight and head up as you bend forward from your hips.

Shoulder Push-Pull

Purpose:  Prepare shoulder pain for fast action during swing.
Hold the hosel end of a golf club behind your neck with your right hand.  Align the club down the back vertically and hold the grip end with your left hand near your buttocks, palm facing out.  Pull the grip down to stretch triceps, and push elbows out to stretch chest and front of shoulders. Then pull the hosel up.  Switch sides.

Golf: Static Stretches is a post from: Physical Therapy Services in Arvada, Colorado ~ Accelerate Physical Therapy

Forever looking for that magical move that takes strokes off your score probably leads you straight to the driving range to hit a few hundred golf balls. Sure! Practice makes perfect, right?  Even simple pre-season training drills will improve your swing, game and help prevent mid-season injuries for years. Let’s go golfers, other sports have pre-seasons. Let’s catch on!

What’s the bottom line?

The goals of any golfer are:

Increase range of motion in the golf swing.  Improved flexibility allows a complete backswing and extended follow through.  Having this full ROM will decreased chance of injury.

Add control and power to the golf swing.  Well trained muscles increase control and ability to generate more club head speed.

Improve energy and endurance.   muscular control will improve function and muscles will tire less through each round.

Reduce chance of injuries on the golf course through stretching and identifying uncomfortable movements.

Analysis of “Your Swing”

Leg and hip is responsible for power production initiation of the golf swing.

Trunk muscles transfer power from the legs to the torso to accelerate the club head.

Chest and shoulder muscles produce the actual swing action and play critical role in club head speed.

Arms are responsible for club control and largely determine club head impact.

Off-Season:
Three strength training sessions per week for general base and core strengthening, as well as for muscle control is sufficient. During the off season months is the best time to focus on overall muscle strength and enhance golf driving power.

Examples of exercises include all on machines: leg press, squats, hip abduction and adduction, trunk rotations, push ups, planks, standing hip extension, abdominal crunches.

Pre-Season:
Once you have a strong base and balance of muscle, you can maintain by reducing your total body strength training sessions to twice per week. Now is the time to develop sport specific skills utilizing tiny, but key muscles such as low back and rotator cuff musculature.

This program might include progressing to free weight and cable or theraband as resistance.  Exercises would include leg press, squats, hip abduction and adduction stepping with theraband resistance, standing cable trunk rotations, push ups, planks, U stance training with theraband leg swings, hip extension, trunk rotation and abdominal crunches.

In-Season:
Practice and Play! To prevent injury after long activity days with multiple rounds, you must take care of the sport specific muscles. Stretching muscles used will aid in not only assist in a better golf swing with a larger range of motion, but injury prevention as well.

The basic flexibility exercises that are relevant to golfers are standing or seated hamstring, lower back, and upper back and shoulder stretches.

These stretches will allow for the ability to play and practice more golf with fewer aches and pains at the 19^th hole as well as on off days.

Preseason Golf Exercise is a post from: Physical Therapy Services in Arvada, Colorado ~ Accelerate Physical Therapy

There has-been much research into bodyweight supported treadmill walking as an treatment.  A reasonable and similar alternative is aquatic therapy. The buoyant nature of water is similar to bodyweight supported treadmill therapy in that it reduces the amount of force transmitted through the joints of the lower body. When a person is standing in water, which is neck deep, 90% of their body weight is eliminated and at waist deep, 50% is eliminated.

Aquatic therapy encompasses any therapeutic activities, which occur in a pool. Often times these activities will include walking, balance exercises, stepping, etc. Using exercises such as these it is possible to target the hip and knee muscles which are often weak and in need of strengthening.

It is also possible to break functional activities into smaller parts and practice these with proper form in a non-painful environment thereby increasing the patient’s ability to perform the selected activity on dry land. By targeting these exercises to a patient’s specific needs and deficits in an environment of decreased weight bearing, we can make an impact on a patient’s functional ability.

Osteoarthritis? Exercise in Water! is a post from: Physical Therapy Services in Arvada, Colorado ~ Accelerate Physical Therapy

With recent improvements in implant fixation and wear reduction, 95 percent of orthopaedic surgeons who responded to a survey say they place no limitations on swimming, golf, walking on even surfaces, bicycling on level surfaces, or climbing stairs when recommending activities for patients with a well-functioning total hip replacement (THR) or total knee replacement (TKR). Higher-impact activities are more commonly discouraged, and there is a trend towards more activity restrictions following successful TKR.

Nearly all respondents strongly encouraged low-impact activity, patients were discouraged from jogging, difficult skiing, and singles tennis. None of the respondents indicated that they had strong scientific evidence for their recommendations.

Dr. Swanson and his co-researchers, Frederick Dorey, PhD, and Thomas P. Schmalzried, MD, are with the department of orthopaedic surgery at the University of California Los Angeles.

In a different review “Athletic Activity after Total Joint Arthroplasty,” published in the October 2008 issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.  This study was conducted by William L. Healy, MD; Sanjeev Sharma, MD; Benjamin Schwartz, MD; and Richard Iorio, MD—documents a trend for hip and knee surgeons to allow more athletic activity after joint replacement, but notes that no good evidence exists to support this trend.

 “High levels of activity may compromise the durability of joint replacement and reduce implant survival,” says Dr. Healy, the lead researcher. “Implant wear has been shown to be related to how much the joint is used as opposed to the length of time the artificial joint has been in place.”

Innovations such as alternative bearing surfaces, large femoral heads, hip resurfacing, unicompartmental knee replacement, mobile-bearing knee replacement, and high-flexion knee replacement offer the potential for high-demand function with low rates of failure, but these potential benefits have not been proven, the study reports.

“We need to keep in mind that surgeons and patients often assess the success of joint replacement differently,” Dr. Healy says. “Surgeons look at pain, function, survivorship, and the need for revision surgery, while patients consider their pain and activity. If the joint allows them to play their favorite sport without pain, they may not be concerned about needing an additional surgery in the future.”

Unlimited low-impact activity ‘OK’ after Total Joint Replacement is a post from: Physical Therapy Services in Arvada, Colorado ~ Accelerate Physical Therapy

Mechanically adding height to the navicular bone at the medial arch changes the functional position of the foot, knee and hip, and dramatically prevents many common problems. Gradually, as the body adjusts to corrective changes, stresses change and any resultant pain subsides.  The problem will continue or return if left uncorrected.

Wear arch supports if you are standing, exercising, shopping, working and always at home.  A number of products are available in stores near you.  Go to our website for links to information about invaluable and inexpensive arch supports, which are available at a variety of stores near you.

Everyone should wear supplemental arch supports in their shoes, slippers, athletic footwear, training shoes and cleats.  Orthotics, or at least foam arch supports have been repeatedly effective in curing pain and dysfunction of foot, ankle, knee, hip and back.

Arch supports reduce the degree of:

• Flat feet or falling arches (pes planus)
• Foot pronation
• Ankle eversion
• Q angles at the knee (valgus)
• Uneven hips (pelvic obliquity)
• Lumbar scoliosis.

Mechanically adding height to the navicular bone at the medial arch changes the functional position of the foot, knee and hip, and dramatically reduces, and prevents most problems. Residual pain can take a few weeks to go away, but the problem will not get better if left uncorrected. Leg and back pain sufferers benefit from supplemental arch supports and orthotics. Even if you only stand all day, arch supports will control pain and manage many progressive problems that we commonly treat.

Wear Arch Supports! is a post from: Physical Therapy Services in Arvada, Colorado ~ Accelerate Physical Therapy

People are almost dumb-founded to hear the actual benefits of walking daily, for a short 40 minute period. We’ve all heard that time is money, but where does our own health factor into our busy lives and budgets?

-Walking is Exercise! Just Simple Exercise!
-Walking, a painless activity burns more calories than you think.
-Reduces Cholesterol! Walking can slowly reduce your cholesterol levels.
-Walking can lower your risk of high blood pressure and reduce your chance of a heart attack.
-While calories burn, your waist will begin to slim and your body muscles will gradually tone.
-Surprisingly, walking will relieve your appetite.
- A 40-minute morning walk, almost daily, can elevate your daily energy levels and stamina.
-For those who suffer from osteoporosis (a disease where bones lose density), walking can slow down the disease process.
-We all live stressful lives. Walking can help relieve mental stress and physical tension.
-Walking on dirt trails, school tracks, or asphalt is softer than concrete or sidewalks.
-Walking can be shared. Of course it is great to have your daily walk by yourself. It is gratifying and calming. However, taking your dog(s), spouse and kids on a walk through the neighborhood, or around a local lake can be as diverse as the direction, weather and season.

We never suggest walking in poor conditions, when the temperature is bitter cold, when pavement is icy, orwhen the sun beats down on you making it uncomfortable or unsafe for you to walk. The time that is spent walking provides time for thought, while exercising. In the end, it’s a win-win for all who develop the Art of Walking.

Stay tuned for the next article in a series on walking: The Arch Supports Epidemic

Mastering the Art of Walking is a post from: Physical Therapy Services in Arvada, Colorado ~ Accelerate Physical Therapy

In this issue we talk about…

The Art of Walking
Arch Support Epidemic
Tigers Rugby Football Club

Read more when you download our newsletter, “PHYSIOTHERAPY“. (PDF)

For more information on high school rugby visit the Tigers Rugby website.

For more information on arch supports and physical therapy see our blog post entitled: Wear Arch Supports.

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Twenty years of newsletters is a post from: Physical Therapy Services in Arvada, Colorado ~ Accelerate Physical Therapy

Call or stop by:

Accelerate Physical Therapy, P.C.
Friendly Square Shopping Center
11651 West 64th Avenue, Unit A-5
Phone: (303) 421-2210
Fax: (303) 421-2473

(click here for a map to the Arvada office)

Accelerate Physical Therapy On Facebook! is a post from: Physical Therapy Services in Arvada, Colorado ~ Accelerate Physical Therapy