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Exercises for Mobility and Functional Strength

Why You Should Stretch Your Hamstrings

Clearly, it's best to stretch all of your major muscles. Stretching promotes healthy blood flow and fluid exchange, which keep your muscles well nourished and relatively free of buildup of waste products, which lead to optimal function and lower risk of injury. Read more

 

Stretches to Keep Your Spine Healthy

To review, ligaments and muscles go from one bone to another. The main difference is that ligaments stabilize joints, while muscles allow you to move them.

Your spine is made up of 24 bones that together, form your vertebral column, the protective housing for your nervous system. Read more

 

Exercises to Keep Your Shoulders and Shoulder Blades Healthy - Part Two

Below the layers of skin, fascia, and muscle that surround your shoulders are a series of ligaments that meld together to form a capsule, one per shoulder; it's job is to prevent your shoulder from dislocating, while still providing enough give to allow a wide range of motion. Read more

 

How to Stretch Your Lumbar and Thoracic Spinal Regions

In case you haven't noticed, I'm a huge fan of foam rolling. Once you get the hang of it, foam rolling can be like getting deep tissue work from a skilled health practitioner, only you can experience it at anytime, and you can linger for as long as you want on areas that need extra attention. Read more

 

Simple Exercises to Keep Your Shoulders Healthy - Part One

Like your hip, your shoulder joint is a classic ball and socket joint that affords great flexibility. But with great range of motion comes greater potential for injury. Makes perfect sense, right? With a wide range of motion, the soft tissues that surround your shoulder joint are more likely to experience strains and even small tears than the ligaments and muscles that surround less mobile joints like those in your elbow and fingers. Read more

 

How to Foam Roll Your Iliotibial Band (IT Band)

One of the most important principles taught in chiropractic school is that every joint in the body is affected by the health of adjacent joints.

Put another way, when a patient presents with a knee problem, it's prudent to do a thorough evaluation of the knee, hip, and ankle regions, as sometimes, dysfunction in the ankle or hip can be a root cause of knee pain and dysfunction. Read more

 

How to Foam Roll Your Hip Abductors

Your hip abductors are muscles that lie on the upper and outer portion of your buttocks. These muscles - called your gluteus medius and minimus - allow you to move your lower extremities out and away from your midline. They also allow you to rotate your legs inward so that the toes of one leg face your opposite leg. Read more

 

Health Benefits of Foam Rolling

I'm not sure how long foam rollers have been around, but over the past several months, I've discovered how powerful a therapeutic tool they can be for promoting and maintaining optimal physical health.

The idea is simple enough: Using your own body weight and agility, you roll specific muscle groups against a firm foam roller to mimic a deep, gliding massage. Read more

 

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