The following piece of advice is going to seem counterintuitive, but hear us out: you shouldn’t only rest when you injure yourself. When you injure a joint, loading it with weight can cause intolerable pain. However, joint injuries tend to not fully cripple us because they’re localized. Additionally, joint injuries don’t fully debilitate the joint either; they limit the joint’s range of motion.
Joints aren’t isolated from the rest of our body. Muscles support and attach to the joints, and the joints above and below a joint also provide support. So, continuing to work through injuries means you need to manage the muscles, tendons, and joints that support the injured joint. Here are some commonly injured joints and how to work through them.
Shoulder
The most common shoulder injuries are rotator cuff tears and shoulder impingements. Exercises that involve raising the affected shoulder’s arm above your head will worsen the impingement. So, you should avoid exercises like the military press and instead opt for something like decline or partial-ROM bench press.
Rotator cuff tears are more difficult to manage than impingements. The first step requires strengthening the rotator cuff with exercises like external band rotations. Besides that, it also involves stretching tight muscles (such as your pectoral muscles) that force the arm or shoulder into awkward positions.
Back
Lower back pain is the most common in the world. Working through and improving back pain involves cultivating proper movement and strengthening the stabilizer muscles. In particular, you need to strengthen your core muscles, such as the obliques and erector spinae. You should begin strengthening these with exercises like planks, side planks, and back extensions.
Common back injuries involve discs, such as herniated or bulging disc. Improving these conditions doesn’t necessarily require surgery. You can begin by strengthening your core. Additionally, you can begin healing the disk by first hanging on a bar to decompress your spine and then attempting to hold the sphinx pose.
Knee
Knee pain can stem from ankle or hip immobility. Restriction in either joint can force the knee into painful positions. Some injuries require rest, such as a meniscus tear. With some of these, it’s hard to exercise the knee. However, you can still keep the leg somewhat strong with unilateral exercise. These exercises also contract the muscles on the injured leg, thereby limiting atrophy. If those surrounding muscles remain strong, your knee will heal faster.
Other injuries, such as patellar tendonitis or knee bursitis, permit some exercise. For instance, limiting knee flexion while exercising will prevent pain. You could do exercises like stiff-leg deadlifts and reverse lunges.
If you’re looking for a physical therapy clinic to treat your injuries and pains in Augusta, CA, get in touch with us. At Healing Hands Physical Therapy Centers, Inc., we provide sports and auto injury rehab, physical therapy services for women, and more.