joints Archives | Aspen Club

Mobility Matters

It is very important to move correctly when exercising. Everything we do in the gym, squats, lunges, pushing, pulling, and rotating should become a reflection of what we do in everyday life, including our recreational sports. Longevity of our bodies, especially our joints, is largely dependent upon good movement patterns that are reproducible. If you want to spare your low back and save your knees from debilitating arthritis, you must take the time to move with purpose.

So, what does this take and how do you begin? Although there are many facets involved that I will eventually cover, the first aspect of moving well is mobility. I like to think of mobility as the ability to move freely and easily into and out of positions that are essential for everyday life. If you can’t squat into a balanced position where your thighs are parallel with the floor while keeping your upper body upright and your feet facing forward, then you lack mobility. The lack of mobility may be in your ankles or your hips and combined with a variety of short and tight muscles such as your hamstrings. The key point is that you can’t squat correctly because you lack mobility, and that must be addressed. It makes no sense to overload your squat patterns with weights or to perform heavy leg presses until you establish a good squat pattern, otherwise you just wear your joints down.

So, the question is how do you improve mobility. The first point to consider is that mobility is much more than muscular flexibility. Mobility also involves range of motion of our joints, extensibility of elastic membranes that surround our muscles referred to as fascia, among many other tissues including the skin. The traditional approach of simply static stretching the tight muscles such as our hamstrings or quadriceps will do very little by itself to improve the way you move. Static stretching does have a place, but it’s not enough. To move better, we must also enhance joint mobility and put that mobility into motion. Hence, a dynamic approach! In a dynamic approach, one moves into and out of positions and with each repetition, the joint being addressed is stretched a little more, and the muscles being stretched are under tension. This results in greater range of motion that is both supportive and controllable by muscular contractions. This is the key to moving better. Don’t simply attempt to get greater range of motion, but rather, greater range of motion with control.

Here is a little insight for most of you. The areas of the body where most people begin to lose motion as they age is in the shoulders, the mid-back, the hips, and the ankle. Loss of motion in any of these areas will affect the overall quality of your movements in almost anything you do. If you need to lunge down to pick things off the floor, you need mobility in your ankles, hips, and mid-back. If you lack mobility in any of these areas, there will be compensation in the way you move and some type of abnormal stress on one or more of your joints. Often it is the knees, which is why so many aging people have knee pain. The best way to prevent knee problems is to make sure you have good ankle and hip mobility and the muscular control to support your knees as you move into and out of positions.

So where do we go from here? The best thing I can suggest is to direct you to an informative resource to learn how to address mobility. I don’t want to sound like an infomercial, but I created the DVDs “Thinner This Year Preparation for Movement” and “The Sacred 25 and Beyond” exactly for this purpose. These DVDs serve as a guide to teach you how to perform the exercises that are essential to move with greater motion and control. Both are available on youngernextyear.com/DVDs. Give them a try and start moving in the right direction.

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Getting (Way) More Out of Your Warmup

Note: Ideas in this blog are borrowed heavily with permission from the concepts laid out by Bill Fabrocini and Chris Crowley in the book “Thinner This Year,” the follow-up to the New York Times bestseller “Younger Next Year.”

A warmup is extremely important before beginning your workout, sport, or even just your day at the office. Most people’s warmup consists of a few minutes on a cardio machine and maybe some static stretching. I want you to change your way of thinking about the warmup. I want you to think of the warmup as one of the most important things you will do in a day for your body.

My good friend and master trainer/therapist Bill Fabrocini likes to call this idea “preparation for movement,” and I think that is a perfect way to think about it. Preparation for movement wakes up all the important muscle groups in your body and enhances and strengthens the connection from your brain to those muscle groups. These are the muscle groups that we deactivate or put to sleep every day via our modern lifestyle of sitting and inactivity. The routine that we use here at the Aspen Club is a very efficient, safe, and effective way to accomplish this goal in about 15 to 20 minutes. I do some variation of this myself every day and incorporate it into my patients’ daily training regimens. I highly recommend you do this before your workout or sport. I also recommend you do this if it is the only form of physical activity you do all day. When done properly, this routine will train your body to use the right muscles, improve mobility in the hips and shoulders, and avoid wear and tear on the joints.

As I have said before, the clear majority of conditions I see in our clinic are the result of thousands of cycles of bad movement, causing degenerative changes. Practicing these movement patterns every morning helps you avoid this process. This routine will also strengthen those important muscles in the glutes and core and make you more in tune with your body, enhancing performance.

The important thing here is to do these exercises and movements correctly. The overriding concept is to keep the back still and move from the hips and shoulders. This routine seeks to promote spinal stability, while achieving maximum mobility in the shoulders and hips. Think about each movement you are doing and try to engage the right muscles. The very first thing you do is engage your core by lightly tensing your abdominal muscles while maintaining normal respiration. Maintain a slightly stiff core throughout these movements, which will keep the spine still. You only need to do 4 to 6 repetitions of each movement. Just make sure they are good ones. I recommend doing this daily if possible.

For a more in-depth discussion, read the books “Younger Next Year” and “Thinner This Year.” They are both filled with life-changing, simple concepts that everyone should put into practice as they age. As always, feel free to write or call with questions. Good luck!

ACL Injury Prevention

Injury to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of the most common knee injuries sustained in sports. The anterior cruciate ligament attaches from the femur to the tibia and is one of the four primary ligaments that stabilizes the knee joint. The ACL prevents the tibia from translating forward excessively on the femur and gives rotational stability to the knee joint.

An increase in participation of youth in sports has led to a rise in ACL injuries in young athletes. Female athletes have a significantly greater risk of ACL injury than their male counterparts due to multiple anatomical and neuromuscular factors. Most ACL injuries occur during non-contact situations such as during landing and decelerating, cutting, or pivoting. Specifically, these injuries are most likely to occur when the knee is in a valgus position (inwards) or when the knee is straight or hyperextended upon landing. Recent evidence shows that targeted preventative programs can be effective in reducing risk of non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injury in young athletes.

There are multiple factors that contribute to an increased risk of ACL injury. Poor movement patterns during landing, cutting, and pivoting can cause excess stress to the knee. Other factors that may predispose an athlete to injury include muscle weakness or poor muscle balance, decreased joint range of motion, as well as decreased flexibility. ACL injury prevention programs should be unique to each athlete; however, they will generally focus on strengthening the core, gluteal, and hamstring muscles as well as optimizing muscle flexibility for that individual. Training athletes how to move effectively and safely through agility and plyometric training can decrease their risk of injury when placed in a competitive, dynamic situation.

An effective ACL prevention program typically consists of training a minimum of 2 times per week for 6-8 weeks prior to the competitive season. Ideally, exercises can be integrated into warmup and cool down by coaches during the sports season. Proper performance of exercises should continually be monitored.

All athletes, young and old, can benefit from targeted neuromuscular and strength training to reduce their risk of knee, and specifically, ACL injury in the future. By teaching movement strategies and proper biomechanics as well as targeted muscle strengthening, prevention programs can contribute to decreased risk of ACL injury.