Therapeutic Stretches
(Stretches to Solve
Joint Problems)
The vast majority of aches and pains around joints are
simply caused by tight muscles. There
are a multitude of therapies and methods of solving these problems but I have found
that simply stretching the relevant muscle is very effective and this is the
method that I'm concentrating on here.
Of course, it is possible to have real damage in a
muscle, particularly if you are a trained sportsman using the muscle to its
maximum. Then there is damage, which
does not come into this category and needs more specialist attention. However, for most of us these therapeutic
stretches will be very effective in solving joint problems.
It is usually only a fairly small part of one muscle,
which is causing the problem. If we can
find a position for the joint that causes pain in the muscle, then we are
probably stretching the right part. This
is an important principle and guide, which will help enormously in using these
therapeutic stretches. (The tight bit of
the muscle will be sensitive because its tightness has restricted its blood
supply and caused painful points in the muscle.
These can be treated by massage and other methods but this is not the
treatment I am suggesting here. If we
can stretch this muscle and thereby loosen it then the circulation will improve
and the problem will go away.)
Shoulder
Problems
By this I mean cases where the mobility and use of the
shoulder is reduced particularly in trying to put objects above head
height. Such shoulder problems can be
very persistent and painful and most therapists find them very difficult to
solve. This stretching method is far
more successful than anything else I have tried as a therapist.
Lie on your back on the floor with your hands by your
side. Keeping your arms straight, slide
your hands out along the floor till the arms are above your head with your
shoulders alongside your ears. If you
have the sort of shoulder problem I am talking about then you will not be able
to do this with the bad shoulder and will have to take the arm off the floor to
get it above your head.
Now move the painful arm backwards and forwards in the
arc of movement when the arm is off the ground.
Choose the point in this arc of movement, which causes maximum pain in
the shoulder. (This shows that we are
stretching the right part of the problem muscle!) Now let the arm sink back to
the floor for five minutes. You can
start with 20 or 30 seconds but the real benefit will come when you can really
let it sink back to the floor for a full five minutes. This will be painful in the shoulder and you
will have difficulty in getting the arm down by your side again afterwards but
persist with this exercise a couple of times a day and you will solve most
shoulder problems in a couple of weeks.
This can be used with a frozen shoulder, which is
simply an extreme form of multiple muscle tightness around the shoulder, but
the pain level may make this impossible.
It should anyway be a useful technique to use in order to get back to
full mobility when the real frozen phase has been solved.
Obviously anyone with a shoulder problem should be
doing all the upper body daily stretches.
Tennis Elbow.
The corrective stretch here is exactly the same as the
daily stretch for the wrist extensors.
Tennis elbow is a sensitivity where the extensor tendon connects to the
bone on the bump on the outside of the elbow.
The problem however is the tightness of the muscle and this is why
stretching the muscle solves the problem so easily. (There is another general principle here that
the symptom of the tight muscle will frequently be pain where the relevant
tendon inserts.)
Obviously anyone with this problem should be doing all
of the daily stretches particularly the wrist extensor and flexor stretches.
Knees.
The general principle that I apply to knees is very
similar to the general principle I apply to shoulder problems. Most shoulder problems are caused by tightness
in the pectoral muscles. Most knee
problems are caused by tightness in the quadriceps or other components in the
front of the knee. The knee is designed
to spend significant time bent through 180° when squatting with heels on the
ground. Most of us never squat and
probably never bend the knee this much.
However there are differences. You can be very firm with the shoulder to
restore the mobility. The knee is far
more likely to have real damage. There
may be cartilage or ligament damage and even if there isn't, knees have a great
tendency to swell up for no apparent reason.
If the knee is swollen then obviously extra care is necessary.
I have had a great interest in knees, because of my
skiing, even before I became a therapist and good success recently in treating
knees with these stretches.
I have two main stretches for the knee. The quadriceps stretch is the normal one
pulling the ankle up towards the buttock.
This is best done lying on your tummy because you can't cheat by bending
the hip and you can hold the stretch for far longer in this position. I believe you should be able to get heel to
buttock fairly easily. Most people
can't. If you can't reach the ankle then
you wouldn't be able do so in the standing position either so use a bit of
string or cord around the ankle.
Second stretch
This is simply to bend the knee through 180° when the
hip joint is flexed so that the quadriceps are loose. This could be done by squatting, which is the
natural way that this mobility would be maintained or by sitting on the heels
as children do.
If the front of the knee is tight you won't be able to
do this and the stretch has to be done from the standing position with the bad
knee bent on a chair. In this way you
can control the amount of bend and pressure put on the knee. Try to get to
being able to sit on the bent leg.