Disclaimer: consent was obtained to shoot and post this video. Do you wear high…
Tags: FFF;
Disclaimer: consent was obtained to shoot and post this video.
Do you wear high heeled shoes day in and day out? This one is for you.
Knowing what I know now is not from training regular people or gym goers, not even from college. I am forged by dysfunctions, imbalances and impairments, shared by my patients who I see as teachers more than anything else. Every case is unique and I see and treat them all special. Patients may benefit from the routine but I say it’s the opposite, I am growing/learning more from the experience.
This is a CVA case, known as stroke for most. My patient presents with abnormal tone on one side of his body. Muscle imbalances impairs his ability to walk the same, pre stroke among others. I observed that he is showing genu recurvatum or hyperextension on his affected knee upon weight bearing, statically or dynamically. Strength assessment showed weakness of the hamstrings giving his quads all the opportunity to contract to stabilize his leg. This unfortunately is not ideal because both should co-contract to hold the position, otherwise, activity of the quads alone will pull the lower leg forward, pushing on the knee back for a bony lock resulting to hyperextension. Hyperextension of the knee also affects the hip (hyperextension) and ankle (plantar flexion). Imagine the typical leg posture of people in heels day in and day out. At the end of the day, they usually complain of lower back and feet pain as soon as those heels are off. If you have the same issue, you may want to add this simple maintenance exercise to your routine. Here, we are working on single leg squats, focusing on keeping the knee in proper anatomical position to avoid bias in strengthening or under-training inappropriate muscles. I requested the patient to not go too deep since we are not working on his quads alone. We did not go too high up as well to allow the hamstrings to co-contract with the quads. I also cued the patient to push back a little with some tactile assistance, this is to transfer the tension from the front but more towards the hamstrings and the glutes. The exercise also allowed the calves to stretch that is usually tight in this case,…….
