Dr. Todd Plutchok, DC

If you're dealing with neck or shoulder pain, swipe through for some exercises that can help you! A common pattern we see are shoulders rolling forward. Some of the muscles involved can be an agonist and antagonist (i.e., one is shortened and overworking, the other is underworking and lengthened). With rolled shoulders, the pectoralis minor is shortened. That’s a pattern I typically see with clients who do front-facing actions like typing, driving, sleeping on their side. Fo...r athletes, it could be from tennis or golf. What we want to do is a synergistic intervention by relaxing the pectoralis minor by mobility and following up by activating our lower traps with strengthening. This strengthening can be done with a band or exercises such as wall angels or floor angels. SHOULDERS: Mobility first! The pain (if any) shouldn’t be higher than a 6 or 7 out of 10. Roll out the ball on the area for 90 seconds with your arm at the end range of motion (as shown in the video). LOWER TRAPS: To activate your lower traps, keep your arms straight--do not bend the elbows. Pull your shoulder blades back toward your lower back and into the middle, as if you're pinching a pencil in between your shoulders. (If you don’t have a band, do a floor angel. Lay on your back with knees bent. Slide your shoulder blades back down, pushing into the floor.

If you have had an injury -- or more importantly an ache or pain has developed "out of the blue" -- you should invest in some time to find your restrictions, instability, and weakness. Slow sustained movements reveal a lot, but speed tends to hide need. Our pain alters our experience, and our experience create the basis on how we make decisions. This holds true with movement as well. Tissue damage and pain are often temporary, however our reactions, behaviors, and patterns m...ay be lasting. It's like driving with your emergency brake on all the time or keeping crutches for too long. Find a practitioner that can help. Movement screens, biomechanic and range of motion assessments, muscle test, strength test are all great tools to help identify your unique patterns. Self-guided work in front of a mirror like yoga are great! Mobility sequences, or multiple-planed movements like a Turkish Get Up, Quadraped, Overhead Squat or Step Up are great starts to help identify compensations patterns and adaptations. Get to work!

Input through the foot plays a role in the whole body. One independent joint (i.e., ankle or big toe) can affect the body's interdependent system. Source: Yoon, Ki-Seok & Park, Seong-Doo. (2013). The effects of ankle mobilization and active stretching on the difference of weight-bearing distribution, low back pain and flexibility in pronated-foots subjects. Journal of exercise rehabilitation. 9. 292-297. 10.12965/jer.130013.

Take a breath. Take action or go with the flow. Do not dwell in the state of worry today. Let go and try not to obsess over that which is out of your control. If that is not congruent with your personality, then throw yourself into what you can influence and let go of what you cannot. You can't get time back, so use it wisely. And don't forget to vote.

Our body uses patterns to make sense of the world, and sensitization can affect the way we process pain. Let's talk about it #doctortoddp