Modifying Lunging exercises

Lunging is a functional exercise as it is a vital action for properly retrieving items off of the floor and for people themselves, being able to get up off of the floor after a fall.

I confess that I do not prescribe this exercise to patient's and I didn't know why until I visited a hotel gym the other day and was watching someone perform lunging exercises.

The way a traditional lunge is taught places excessive pressure on their lower back.

This occurs due to the relationship between the hips, pelvis, sacrum and lumbar spine.

When a human extends their hip past 30 degrees of extension, they should begin to have movement into extension at their lumbar spine. The majority of people, however begin to extend their lumbar spine well before (I have tested people who begin to extend their spines at as little as 2 degrees of hip extension).

A traditional lunge requires about 60 degrees of hip extension thus mandating the lumbar spine to move into extension.

The goal of patients with lower back pathology and those who are at risk for lower back pathology (everyone) is to stabilize their spine's and increase motion in the lower quadrant rather than feed into a pathological motion of premature extension of the lumbar spine.

In my experience Lumbar extension is the most common overused compensation for a lack of hip extension and pelvic motion in younger people.

I would suggest rather that keeping the shoulders back and trunk upright during a lunge, that a person hinge at their their hips forward at least 30 degrees and keep the spine in neutral alignment during both the forward and backward lunge. (As shown in the picture above)

Additionally I suggest that a person bring their opposite arm (with respect to the leg) forward and backward. (Not shown in the picture above)

Why Novak Djokovic is Falling All Over the Court

If you follow Men's tennis you are aware that Novak Djokovic falls more than any other player on tour.


At this year's Wimbledon he tried to overcome this by adding treads to the sides of his sneakers. As a result, the All England Club asked Djokovic to change his Adidas shoes after his quarterfinal win over Tomas Berdych because the nubs on his shoes gave him an unfair advantage. The Grand Slam Handbook states that grass court shoes “with pimples or studs around the outside of the toes shall not be permitted.”

From that point forward he was slipping and sliding and hitting the turf with more frequency than his previous matches and this may have cost him the title.

When you look at Djokovic's impressive record you will note that he has far greater success on hard court (4 Grand Slams) versus Grass or Clay (1 Grand Slam against an injured Rafa Nadal) where there is less traction. 

Falling occurs when a person's center of gravity (located at sacral level 2) moves beyond their base of support (the feet). This occurs in In Djokovic's case when his looses base of support a portion of his foot comes off of the ground. 

From what I could see in pictures, it looks like Djokovic's left foot is the one with greater dysfunction and will present with a premature loss in base of support.

To test this on Djokovic's foot I would perform an evaluation that I call foot clocks.

Foot Clocks can be tested in multiple directions, in Novak's case I would test the 6 o'clock motion as he often falls when he is in a anterior/posterior position of the feet. The 6 o'clock position tests plantar flexion in the closed chain. People who lack range in this direction will often fall when they slip.

Click the following link for a video demonstration of this evaluation showing dysfunction.

This is easily treated with mobilization once it is determined where in the range of motion base of support is lost. It would behoove Djokovic's team to evaluate and likely treat the mechanical dysfunctions of his foot so he won't have to compensate with illegal footwear and can spend more time hitting the ball and less time hitting the ground.

In any sport including tennis, a fraction more balance and speed on one movement could be enough to make the difference between victory and defeat.

If anyone out there has the opportunity to evaluate Mr. Djokovic, throw me an email and let me know if I was right, physicaltherapy@hotmail.com

Why I think Pilates is effective

I had mentioned in my last entry about my lower back patient finding benefit with Pilates exercise (please note that this patient was performing supervised exercise using Pilates equipment).

 As a result a question was raised:

"What is it about the Pilates method that makes it beneficial for some Orthopedic patients?"

My theory is that the springs and the command/manual contact provided by the instructor provide both traction and approximation. Traction and approximation are theorized to provide irradiation into the core.

Traction decreases pain and elicits proximal stability

Approximation increases muscle recruitment and proprioception into the joint.

Many of the Pilates exercise incorporate rotation, particularly of hips. When you look at the kinesiology of muscles that are know to be core muscles, their action is rotation.

Lastly Plilates classes are one hour in length and in my experience the number of patient's that spend a dedicated hour on stability exercises are few.

Similar to any other profession there are excellent instructors and not so excellent instructors, it is vital that any person particularly a patient find a qualified instructor.








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Difference between Stability and Muscle Guarding

 

A colleague recently stated that when people are in pain there is muscle guarding and hypertonicity of muscles and would this not make a patient stable? I do not feel that this guarding stabilizes an individual's joint effectively as the muscles that are guarding are not the muscle that are designed for stabilization.

I believe that this guarding is a result of a compensation for a lack of stabilization.

It is from the principle of Stability/Mobility that I developed the ARMS (Active Release with Manual Stability) release technique. The success that I have achieved using this technique in my practice, reinforces my belief that hypertonic, guarding muscles are compensating for a lack of stability elsewhere.

I was trying to mobilize the connective tissue around a sacrum so that it could move in the direction of nutation. I had tried all of the techniques that I had learned for release without success.

The words of my Orthopedics teacher in PT school "you need to have stability in order to have mobility" entered in my mind. I then provided a prolonged hold type of stabilization to the patient's abdomen and the hypertonic tissue immediately released.

Yesterday I attended a private Pilates session with a patient who I referred there. He expressed that when he was performing a certain exercise, he felt that the spasms an tightness in his back release.

To answer my colleagues question, I think that a person with muscle guarding does not gain adequate stabilization from this guarding, and teaching them stabilization exercises and techniques may in fact help to decrease their painful muscle guarding.