Leila Owen

Stability and mobility are needed for each joint. Each joint requires a different amount of each because of their functions and also because of their bone structure. For example the shoulder is more mobile than the hip joint because most of our body weight is supported by the hip. Your sport will focus on one of the components, which is why it is important to make sure you work on the other.

Muscles will make the biggest impact around each joint (if the joint itself is restricted you may require assistance from a healthcare professional). The next three posts will be related to the same topic.

The shoulder blade has about 16-18 muscles connecting to it (depending on the resource). That’s a lot of attachments. This means that more muscles can get involved with the injury. This is why so many shoulder injuries also lead to neck, spine, and arm issues.

An important question to ask with a tight muscle is “why are you tight?” Did something happen to that muscle that would make it tight? What I’ve often seen is another reason for a tight muscle. One reason could be weakness of the muscle itself or of the muscle working the opposite direction.

It amazes me how the body will adapt to be able to do what you need it to do. A muscle will take over for an injured muscle so that it can heal. It can be a muscle that plays a supporting role, or acts as a stabilizer etc. Is it the best way to continue long term? Absolutely not, but you’ll be able to continue your day while you heal and that’s important.

Are your neck muscles (upper traps) sore?

Try this exercise 10x 5 sec hold. Reach up to the ceiling and shrug your shoulders a bit. If it helps the soreness then your muscles could be weak.

Tight or Weak?
The feeling of tight muscles is often hard to tell apart from weak muscles. Stretching weak muscles feels good, but the tense feeling returns quickly. If the muscle was tight, stretching and massaging regularly would feel better for longer periods of time. If it’s not getting better, then the muscle may be weak causing that tight feeling.

Athletic Therapists are not just therapists to athletes, we can treat anyone that is active. That means if you enjoy walks, then we can help you.

All my clients need to have abdominal endurance. It is something we build from the beginning and is needed to perform complex exercises. If you’re having trouble contracting them, there is a trick to help wake them up. An elastic is all the equipment you need and a place to safely hold the elastic in place. Pull the elastic until you feel tension and perform either a hip bridge or the leg portion of the deadbug.

Many people compensate after an injury. The longer the injury has been around, the more compensations you’ll likely have. Compensations are anything that happens that makes movement less efficient, like a muscle taking over for an injured muscle. Rehab is not only about rehabbing the injured area, but also removing the compensations that happened from the injury.

Athletic Therapists can treat many types of muscular and joint injuries. It can be as recent as an ankle sprain or a shoulder injury that happened long ago. We also see many post-operative procedures such as ACL reconstructions.

If you’re interested in seeing an athletic therapist but aren’t sure if we can help, contact us and we’ll let you know.

Bear planks are a favorite. It is an abdominal endurance exercise with the ability to be progressed as they get easier. Adding an elastic band above the knees is one progression. I also use it as a rehab exercise for shoulder injuries.

It's been some time since I've posted. We were busy renovating and moving! Still some renos left but it's been a busy season for us.