Cramps – Causes and Prevention: Do you ever get a stitch in your side, or a pain in your leg that awakens you at night or during a workout? What are cramps and why do you get them? What are Cramps? Cramps are a sudden tightening of a muscle, which can be caused by several factors such as musculoskeletal, neurological, or…
PT: Corner: Sprained Ankle? Exercises To Help You Bounce Back: Growing up I participated in both Irish Dancing and Soccer. Each requires a good deal of ankle strength and stability, neither of which I possessed. The result was chronic ankle sprains, which eventually landed me in surgery to stabilize them.…
Using The Total Gym To Help Joint Pain: Do you ever hear yourself or others say, “I used to run/hike/jog/walk, but my knees (or hips) are too bad?” Why can some individuals continue to exercise in high-impact activities like running and hiking, while others can’t? Joint health is multifactorial. It is dependent on, but not limited to the following factors: The activities an…
PT Corner - Stand Up Straight! Total Gym Exercises To Improve Your Posture: Didn’t your mother always tell you to “Sit Up!” and “Stand Straight!”? She was right. Posture during sitting, standing, and moving can place the body in an ideal alignment for the joint shock absorption,efficient muscular activity, and…
Exercises to Strengthen Hand Muscles & Coordination: Have you ever hurt your hand and had the realization of how much you use it in your everyday activities? We should, because we take our hands for granted. This past year, I had the unfortunate experience of losing function of my hand after accidentally lacerating it when…
Have you ever had someone massage your shoulder and neck and thought to yourself, “Wow I didn’t know I was THAT sore“? Have you held yourself back from strengthening because it previously bothered your neck? Do you suffer from headaches? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then keep reading. The neck has the major job of supporting our head,…
Follow These Easy Tips and Exercises To Avoid Injury And Stay Well: Make Your Sleep Regular and Routine: The key to strengthening is a good recovery, thus sleeping is key. Ideally be in bed by 9:30 with sleeping occurring between 10 and 10:30 pm. Stay Hydrated: In the winter, we can underestimate how…
Using Your Total Gym To Ease A Sore Back As a therapist and trainer, I am amazed about how many individuals have low back pain. Even when the diagnosis is another body part or a person comes to work out and I ask about previous or current injuries, the response…
Depending on the extent of the tear to one or more of the tendons in your shoulder, surgery may be required. Rehabbing your shoulder typically takes multiple steps before recovery is complete.
The initial phase is centered on protecting the shoulder joint and rotator cuff, while the later phases address strengthening, functional activities, and prevention. The timeline of each phase is dependent on the tear and/or surgical repair, however the more progressive strengthening will typically occur 3 to 5 months post-injury or surgery.
The rotator cuff is comprised of four muscles termed the SITS muscles: supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis. These muscles assist in controlling how the shoulder blade moves on the rib cage, and how the shoulder blade moves with arm movements. Injury to the rotator cuff can often be a result of poor posture, biomechanics overuse, or trauma.
One way to increase strength is to maintain or lower the intensity but increase the lever. We will follow this philosophy and capture Total Gym’s ease of flowing through movements, and set the stage for incorporating more functional and preventative exercises.
Perform the following exercises for 30-60 seconds completing at least 8-15 reps/set. Start on a lower incline level and focus on keeping the shoulders the away from the ear. Remember all motions should be pain free. Initially start with completing less range of motion and increase as able.
While Lying On Your Back Facing Away From Tower Holding Handles:
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Want a leaner and stronger body? You can transform your Pilates workout into cardio, strength, or combination workouts, by changing the pace (tempo), incline level (intensity) and repetitions. These alterations can provide enough tweaks to change the body without having to learn a large repertoire of exercises. Increasing your pace and adding explosive Plyometric moves will help to raise the heart rate, while slowing down the movements and adding increased resistance will focus more on muscular development.