Sunday, September 14, 2008

Why ask why?

These are two exercises I include in prevention/rehab for medial tibial stress syndrome. They are a RLB, LLE L lateral reach; & RLB, LLE L rotational reach- both c/ a BUE posterior overhead reach. OK, now put your thinking caps on, as Sister Vincent Marie, my first grade teacher told us.


Why these two exercises?
Why am I lifting my hands behind my head?

2 comments:

Kevin Moody said...

Joe,

Here are my thoughts:

Both exercises require quite a bit of single leg stabilization from the ground up through the core. The frontal plane & transverse plane positions of the non-weight bearing leg really challenge the stance leg vs. the saggital plane.

When the arms are overhead behind the head, this increases recruitment of the whole chain including the core.

I see quite a few high school runners with MTSS. When I ask them to squat they usually internally rotate at the hips, adduct at the knees and pronate at the foot/ankle. I have prescribed miniband walks, cone reaches, theraband kicks and squats with theraband around the thighs.

I would be interested in hearing what other people are using for a functional screen & exercise prescription.

Kevin Moody

JH said...

I'm gonna a guess and say that these 2 exercises are congruently teaching the body how to pronate and supinate the leg, conditioning the ankle, knee, hip to get in and out of that position well.

Why the OH hands?

It forces more dorsiflexion which forces more pronation which lengthens the ant tib and teaches it that it's ok, everything's gonna be alright (Bob Marley quote).

What I think hasn't been mentioned is why the left LE and the ankle weight. That is to assist in keeping the right hip "under" instead of having it fall out.