Blog Entries by Jennifer Gloystein, DPT, ATC
Posted 08/31/2010
This may sound like a silly question, since we all started walking when we were toddlers, but I find that many of my patients do not know how to walk. Over the weekend, I took a course offered by Ron Hruska and he reminded me and several other therapists’ in the room that many people don’t know how to walk correctly. I see this everyday when I watch my patients walk up and down the hallway. Gait is a term for walking, and there are many phases in the gait cycle. The first phase of walking is heel strike, and many people have poor heel strike on one or both sides when they walk. If you avoid striking your heels while walking, you will alter the proper mechanics at your foot, ankle, hip, back, etc. Since heel strike is the first stage of the gait cycle, you have now altered the entire sequence of walking. Your body has to compensate for this, and will likely lead to pain or dysfunction.
I would recommend paying more attention to how you walk. When you take a step, do you hit your heels first? Your heel should hit the ground, and then you should feel the arch of your shoe, followed by pushing off your big toe. A simple exercise I would recommend to help you recognize heel strike is to first walk backwards, feeling your heels hit the ground first. This helps to stretch (or inhibit) your calf muscles. Walk up and down your hallway a couple times each morning backwards. Follow this up with walking forwards slowly and placing an emphasis on hitting your heels to the ground first.
If you don’t know how to walk, you will have difficulty running or doing other activities pain free. So, let’s go back to being a toddler and learn how to walk again!
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Posted 06/15/2010
I would like to take a brief moment to follow-up on Dave’s recent blog regarding bench press. Some of the muscles engaged in this weight lifting exercise are the pectoral (anterior chest) muscles. These muscles are often too tight and strong in many individuals for a variety of reasons (weight lifting, poor posture, poor breathing mechanics, or occupations that require a lot of computer or desk work). This can lead to rounded shoulders and pain in the neck, shoulders, or headaches.
Check out this stretch to help decrease the tightness in your pectoral muscles, while maintaining a good pelvic and neck position and most importantly breathing correctly. Performing this stretch can help prevent future occurrence of headaches, or neck and shoulder pain. Please remember, if you suffer from any pain or discomfort, you may benefit from seeing a postural restoration physical therapist for full evaluation before performing these suggested activities on the blog.
Posted 05/24/2010
Check out inline skating!
I am here today to discuss a cross training activity that takes me back to my youth (1990’s), to consider this summer to strengthen the muscles that help our body move in the side to side (frontal) plane. Inline skating, or more commonly known as rollerblading is a great activity to engage some muscles that we don’t often work called the hip adductors (inner thighs) and abductors (gluteus/buttock muscles). Snow skiing is another great activity, but unfortunately flat Nebraska isn’t ideal for that! : )
If you have viewed some of the previous running blogs posted by Lori Thomsen, then you have learned that our body has to function in three planes (sagittal, frontal and transverse). We do a lot of sagittal plane activities in life! Some examples include: walking, running, elliptical trainer, biking, squatting, etc. This list is nearly endless, as it involves anything that bends or straightens our body forwards and backwards. We often get too strong in the sagittal plane (especially runners), while the other two planes are not nearly as strong. Frontal plane activities require our body to move side to side, and transverse plane involves rotation of the body. Rollerblading addresses all three planes, and is a great cardiovascular activity to improve frontal plane strength.
Tips for Inline Skating/Rollerblading:
• Keep your back slightly rounded, not upright or else you will engage your back extensors rather than your gluteus (buttock) muscles.
• Rotate your trunk by pumping your arms, as seen in the first photo (left arm with right leg, and right arm with left leg).
• Learn how to stop! When you are first learning, please be sure to start out on flat surfaces so you do not have to stop on the bottom of a hill. Rolling to a stop is the best beginner recommendation, and as you get more comfortable you can use the brake on one of the skates. If you have ever snow skied before, you know that you control your speed by swerving side to side, this also helps while rollerblading.
• And of course….Skate at your own risk, falling can result in serious injuries! If you find this activity too challenging or dangerous, check out Lori’s previous video blog discussing other exercises to help strengthen your frontal plane.
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More blog entries can be found in the archives…
