Glenoid labral tear continued
Exercise is one of the ways to improve your physical wellbeing and it aids in great measure to get rid of ailments, aches and pains. Follow the exercise programme provided by the biokineticists at Anine van der Westhuizen Biokineticist in George and feel the difference. This week biokineticist Lana Laubscher continues her lessons on glenoid labral tears. Last week I explained what glenoid labral tears are. This week I will discuss a rather interesting topic that follows on the previous article.
What can be done with this type of injury?
The first thing you have to know is that the shoulder joint is a very dynamic joint and it has various influencing factors upon the joint itself. In order for effective and purposeful rehabilitation through exercise to be done, you first need to know how to get your shoulder in "neutral" position.
A "neutral" position is the point where there is the least amount of support from the ligaments and other non-muscular tissues around the joint. In this position, the small, deep muscles around the joint are in the best position to control the movement. Why is this important? Because in neutral position, stress to the joint is minimised.
To fully explain how neutral joint position works and why it's important, we need to delve deeper into a related topic: the types of muscles that support our musculoskeletal system. In our body, we have three types of muscles: local stabiliser muscles, global stabiliser muscles and global mobiliser muscles.
The local stabilisers are deep. They keep our bones in the right place at the right time. These deep muscles work to keep our joints aligned so that the bigger muscles don't take over and pull our joints out of position.
Global stabilisers are bigger, stronger muscles that cross multiple joints. These muscles are responsible for moving our limbs. Global stabilisers act as both stabilisers (the muscles that stabilise one joint so that movement may be performed in another joint) and mobilisers (the muscles responsible for the movement itself).
Stabilisers help to support our joints and work best when the joint is in a neutral position. When stabilisers are working correctly, they contract at only 25% of their maximum contraction.
We will look deeper into how to place your shoulder in its neutral position next week.