Tuesday Tune-up: Non-weightbearing Gluteus Medius Conditioning superset

Really want to get your hips strong for walking, hiking, running and any sports that require you to be on one leg? These exercises are for you! Injured and limited in your running abilities? Do these to be ready to hit the ground running? Want to fatigue less easily and be less likely to get injured while running? This superset of gluteus medium non-weightbearing endurance and motor control exercises will get you well on your way. Bonus it will also work on your back stability, strength, conditioning, control, and endurance! Yes!

Be aware, this is not a beginner exercise, but helpful for those looking to take their health to the next level of endurance and more thorough strength. Reach out to Artisan PT for a remote wellness consultation via video or schedule a wellness or physical therapy visit at our Los Angeles office to see what exercises are best for you, at this moment of time.

We are currently doing Tuesday Tune-ups on our Instagram feed and IGTV. Follow us at @artisanphysical to make sure you don’t miss out. As appropriate, we will do our best to also upload to our Artisan Physical Therapy YouTube channel as well. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get notifications about new videos on how to live your healthiest life. Don’t miss out.

That’s our goal at Artisan PT: to partner with you to optimize your health for a lifetime.

Thank for reading and watching,

Elle

(owner, doctor of physical therapy, fellow in orthopedic manual PT)

(PS: These hip abduction/abductor exercises are helpful for preventing pain and improving tolerance to running, walking, hiking, skateboarding, soccer, ultimate frisbee, basketball, volleyball, triathlon, mountain biking, yoga, dancing, and anything else you spend time on one leg!)

6 Effective Tips to Less Back Pain with Sitting

Do you have difficulty completing work due to back pain with sitting?

Does your low back pain limit your social life with things like sitting at a restaurant, driving, and sitting through a movie.

Low back pain with sitting is common with disc and muscle injury.

To get yourself feeling better, try these 6 simple tips:

1. Use the back rest on your chair
   • Sitting up is hard! 
   • Give those muscles a rest by allowing your back to use the support of the backrest.
   • Don't sit at the front of your chair
   • Keep your chair close to what you are working on, so you can stay all the way back in the chair.
2. Use an extra and portable back support
   • Chairs are often not designed ergonomically for ideal posture.
   • Chairs are not one size fits all! Our bodies differ wildly in shapes and sizes from one person to the next.
   • You should maintain the same amount of curve in your back while sitting that you have while standing.
   • To assist with this, I recommend some thing like the Wonder Roll, which you can find online at www.wonderroll.com. It changes support quickly and easily while being portable, yet can stays in place on your chair with a simple strap.
3. Take frequent breaks
   • Let your body heal and get stronger, by planning and not sitting longer  that your back can tolerate. 
   • If it starts every 30 min, get up every 25 minute, etc.
4. Make sure your hips are flexible
   • Remember the song you sang about the human body? "The back bone's connected to the hip bone, the hip bone's connected to the thigh bone..." (You get the point).
   • Stretch the back side of your hips both the muscle and joint, so your back isn't being strained.
5. Increase the strength and endurance of your low back muscles
   • If your back muscles are tired, they will do one of two things.
     1. They will start to complain and be your source of pain.
     2. They will stop working and let you go into poor posture thus putting bad stress onto the passive structures in your back: discs, ligaments, and joints.
6. Watch your posture
   • If you saw your posture from an outside perspective, you might be horrified!
   • Set regular reminders in your calendar and alarms on computer and phone to remind you even when caught up in tasks and projects requiring your full mental attention.
   • Give permission to those around you to remind you when you are sitting with poor posture, so you spend less time there and thus strain your disc, ligaments, and muscles less.

Thanks for reading. If we get enough interest, we will make some videos about how to sit with less back pain. Leave a comment about how it works for you and what tips you use.

Let's Get To the Source, and TOGETHER, Let's Get Moving!