📚The rotator cuff is made up of four muscles that work together to help stabilize and control movement of the shoulder:

👉 Supraspinatus

👉 Infraspinatus

👉 Teres minor

👉 Subscapularis

🔎These muscles surround the shoulder joint and play an important role in maintaining the position of the humeral head while the arm moves. They also contribute to shoulder rotation and elevation.

💡Rotator cuff tendinopathy and tears are common sources of shoulder pain, but understanding the anatomy and function of these four muscles can help us better understand how the shoulder works and how it can be rehabilitated.

📖 Here in the app, you’ll find a three-phase rotator cuff rehabilitation program designed to progressively restore strength, mobility, and function. Here is a link for the program.

https://membership.rehabscience.com/programs/shoulder-pain?category_id=259882

🔎The lateral step down can be useful both as an assessment of lower quarter control and as a prehab/rehab exercise.

🧠In the traditional test, the individual places their hands on their hips and stands at the edge of a 20cm step. Then, they bend the affected knee until the heel on the other limb contacts the floor. Finally, they return to the start position and perform a total of five repetitions.

👉Whether you are performing this as a test or an exercise, here are the items that would indicate a potential control issue:

1️⃣Arm Strategy: removal of hand from waist

2️⃣Trunk Alignment: leaning in any direction

3️⃣Pelvis: loss of horizontal plane

4️⃣Knee: center of tibia medial to 2nd toe

5️⃣Stance: patient steps onto non-test limb

✅If you want to test your control, simply have someone record your movement and review the results using the criteria above. If an issue is detected, this test can then be used as an exercise on your leg training day.

📚Reference: Rabin A, et al. Factors Associated With Visually-Assessed Quality of Movement During a Lateral Step Down Test Among Individuals With Patellofemoral Pain. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy. 2014.

Hi everyone,

A new knee valgus exercise video is available in the app. Here is a link for the video!

https://membership.rehabscience.com/programs/dynamic-valgus?utm_source=product&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=content_share&utm_term=4316333&utm_content=mobile

📚The posterior compartment of the forearm contains the wrist and finger extensor muscles, which are responsible for extending the wrist and fingers and partially stabilizing the lateral elbow.

🧠Soft tissue mobilization (massage) of these muscles is often implemented in physical therapy and can help with conditions like tennis elbow (lateral epicondylalgia), radial nerve entrapment issues and some wrist pain issues.

🔎To mobilize these muscles, work from the distal forearm proximally toward the outside of the elbow (lateral epicondyle). Tenderness will usually be most severe as you get closer to the elbow where the tendons attach.

👉In addition to implementing soft tissue techniques like this, it’s also important to incorporate exercises that load and strengthen the extensor muscles and their tendons.

✅The tennis elbow program here in the app will teach you the best exercises and guide you through three phases of rehab. Click the link below to access this program.

https://membership.rehabscience.com/programs/tennis-elbow?category_id=260466

📚The rhomboid muscles (rhomboid major and minor) are located between the shoulder blades and the spine and work to retract, inferiorly rotate and elevate the scapulae.

🔎Rhomboid minor is located just above rhomboid major and runs from the spinous processes of C7-T1 to the medial end of the scapular spine. Rhomboid major runs from the spinous processes of T2-5 to the medial scapular border. Both muscles are innervated by the dorsal scapular nerve (C5).

👉The rhomboids are thought to be a common myofascial source of mid-back pain and/or tightness. As such, a bit of targeted soft tissue mobilization work in this area can often greatly help reduce symptoms.

🧠It is also important to note that rhomboid region pain is often related to thoracic spine and rib issues and can even be referred from the neck. So, if your pain continues to return and is only temporary reduced with soft tissue work, make sure to see a practitioner who can assess these other regions for a possible contribution.

📚The radial nerve is one of the three major peripheral nerves of the upper extremity and supplies the posterior arm and forearm.

🔎More specifically, the radial nerve provides motor innervation to the triceps and the wrist/finger extensor muscles. The nerve also relays sensory input from most of the back of the hand and fingers (except the pinky and medial half of the ring finger).

🧠The two mobilizations demonstrated in this post can be useful for individuals who are experiencing pain, numbness or tingling in the back of the hand, especially near the thumb, index and middle finger.

1️⃣Sliders involve placing one end of the nerve on tension while the other end is slack. In this example, when the wrist is flexed (nerve on tension at the wrist), the neck is laterally flexed toward the arm (nerve on slack at the neck). Then, the neck and wrist positions switch, which creates the sliding movement of the nerve. Try alternating back and forth 10-15 times and use the technique whenever you are experiencing nerve symptoms (pain, tingling, numbness).

2️⃣Next, we see a ‘tensioner’ position where the nerve is put on tension across its entire path. In this position, you will likely experience a neural ‘stretch’, which can feel slightly different than a muscle stretch. Tensioners can be held for several seconds and are usually implemented once the person’s symptoms are no longer acute.

✅A nerve pain program can be found here in the app in the head and neck section. Here is a link for that program.

https://membership.rehabscience.com/programs/neck-nerve-pain?category_id=260344