- Mobility=ability for a joint to move unhindered through it's natural range of motion
- Stability=how stable a joint is and how well it balances against loads such as gravity
I've written about posture
in previous emails (see archive link below) so I won't go too much into detail here, although it is important to mention in the context of how a poor alignment of a joint or your spine can add stress to neighbouring joints.
Looking at the diagram above, think what happens if you have an injury such as 'going over' on your ankle.
The resulting lack of mobility as it heals means that we carry ourselves differently so the resulting stress of this
difference transfers up to the knees or further down into the joints of our feet.
This doesn't have to be a trauma type injury (falling over etc)...it can be a chronic injury. This is an imbalance in strength or movement which over time causes an RSI type effect in a joint as it is moving wrong....these are sometimes the hardest type of injury to recover from.
Often we have knee pain and go after the site of the pain with gels, heat
pads, cold pads and massage. This can work for a time but the real question is what, and where, is causing it?
This is where the 'joint by joint' approach comes in.
Making sure we have MOBILE ankle, hip, thoracic spine and shoulder (Gleno-humeral) joints means no stress is caused during movement (or the position we are in) and passed to joints above or
below:
Some examples of how we do this (some of this repeated from previous email.but listed below in case you missed it):
- letting our feet be free as much as possible...kick off those shoes!
- do 'ankle alphabets' every eve. 'Spell' the lower case and upper case alphabet with each foot, accentuating each movement.
- massage feet with a golf ball by standing or sitting and rolling foot about on them...err
ouch!
- do hip flexor stretches for the hips
- foam roll the upper back, TWICE a day (if this is all you do this can positively enhance your back health considerably)
- perform arm circles and hang from stuff at every opportunity
- perform shoulder circles at every opportunity
Making sure we have STABLE knee, lumbar spine (lower back) and shoulder blades (scapulae) means that during loading, movement and under
stresses it ensures we have a strong foundation to create force from:
- learn how to squat, lunge and hinge to build up muscle and tension in the knees and hips
- practice a good core strengthening program such as planks, hip raises, Pilates, yoga or cable work to create a 'stiff' torso
- work hard to keep those shoulder blades down and back all day long
- strengthen muscles around your shoulder blades and back with push ups, chin ups and row type
exercises
If you have a niggle appearing then bear this in mind...could it be the joint above or below that really needs the attention?
J
