How to spot the difference between Stability and Mobility-related Injuries and How to heal both injuries by getting to the source of the problem itself
How to spot the difference between Stability and Mobility-related Injuries
| Stability-Related Injuries (e.g. ligamentous tears, herniated discs) | Mobility-Related Injuries: (e.g. arthritis, frozen shoulder) |
| Feels too loose Pops or comes out of joint Pain typically gets worse as you continue an activity or shortly afterwards | Tightness, stiffness Pain increases in the morning Pain as you begin a movement, may improve as movement continues |
Stability Problems: Treat this injury by seeking to strengthen the accessory muscles around the affected joint.
What does this mean? First some definitions.
- Accessory Muscles: These are the muscles around that joint that seek to prevent injury from occurring. They are usually small, postural muscles around joints that seek to protect the joint during overuse activities or big movements
- Joints: connections between bones
- Muscles: connecting one bone to another to perform an action (e.g. a hamstring connects from your sit/hip bones to the back of your tibia-your shin in order to bend the knee)
- Ligaments: connective tissue that runs form one bone to another (e.g. your ACL in the knee connects the femur to the tibia)
Now, the information: if the accessory muscles around the affected joints are weak, injuries may result. For example, ligaments that are working overtime and will tear as a result (sprain). Or muscles may break under the load applied to them (strain). Or the bone itself will break or fracture (bone fracture, break, stress fracture etc,). Finally the nerve may have increased pressure (e.g. herniated disc or nerve impingement). Strengthening the accessory muscles will help protect the joint and therefore heal present injury or prevent further injury
Common Stability Injuries and solutions
- Neck pain: strengthen deep neck flexors by performing chin tucks and retractions
- Shoulder and Upper Back pain: Row’s, I’s, Y’s, and T’s, IR/ER movements
- Lower back pain: Core exercises: plank and dead bug variations, standing core and full body movements, activate core with everyday tasks
- Hip and Knee pain: Hip strengthening, glute strengthening, hip stability and balance
- Ankle and Foot pain: strengthening of hip and ankle muscles in single leg stance
Mobility problems: seek to increase the mobility of Muscles and Joints:
As we age muscles and bones respond to the load and range that has been placed upon them. This can be both good and bad. Muscles and bones that are loaded progressively often respond well to load, building back stronger than they were before. But when a novel force is placed on a muscle or bone, the muscle or bone sometimes breaks down under the pressure.
Conversely, muscles and bones that do not receive sufficient load to be challenged tighten and refuse to move to their previous extent (are you as flexible as your toddler? I know I’m certainly not!). Therefore, when these muscles are asked to move they might be stiff initially, causing pain or discomfort. Mobility-focused Physical Therapy seeks to improve the motion of bones, muscles, and even nerves in order to in order to prepare your body to move in response to your needed stimulus.
- Stretching muscles:
- Dynamic: moving through the range of motion of a joint repeatedly to prepare a joint for movement and a muscle for use, best done before exercise (e.g. arm circles, lunge stretches, leg swings)
- Static: holding a position for 30-60s in order to lengthen the muscle
- Mobilization of the joint: performing repeated, small movements on a specific joint in order to increase elasticity: very specific to each joint depending on the shape of the bone but can either be done with a practitioner or mimicked by a client with a band or rope.
- Nerve glides or flossing: stretches nerve to end range and loosens at either end in order to prevent tingling or pins and needles sensation from impingement
Leave a Reply