Understanding the causes of scapula winging is crucial to your shoulder health, both from a prevention and treatment perspective.
Causes of Scapula Winging
Scapula winging can be caused due to a long thoracic nerve injury, which typically is a result of blunt trauma to the neck and or shoulder area. A virus could also affect the long thoracic nerve causing scapula winging. I recommend having your doctor or an orthopedic specialist rule out nerve damage from blunt trauma or a virus which may be causing scapula winging before exploring corrective exercises.
If the factors in the above paragraph have been ruled out, the main cause of weakness in serratus anterior is when the rhomboid and levator scapulae muscles are shortened. This problem exists in those who often have poor posture when performing computer work; particularly those who carry stress in their neck. Often people subconsciously contract their shoulders in an upward fashion when stressed out. Additionally, poor form during weight training and improper exercise selection can contribute to anterior serratus weakening. [click to continue…]
EMG Studies (Electromyogram) in the squat pattern show optimal recruitment of the gluteus maximus at knee angles of ninety degrees or greater.
For many years there has been a big misnomer for performing deep squats. Many health care practitioners have told their patients or clients, “Never let the knees travel past the toe” or “Never squat lower than thighs parallel to the floor.” This information is simply bogus for a large number of people. Certainly, for some individuals with inadequate flexibility or a medical issues such as a herniated disc, knee injury or high blood pressure may not be qualified for a deep squat.
Activities of daily living require the knee to go out over the toe, as well as flex ninety degrees or greater to squat down low. Also, when bending to pick up light to moderate objects, flexion of lumbar spine is required. Since most of us are squatting low and bending daily, it makes sense to increase strength threshold in those exact patterns to avoid injury. However, care must be taken as to the amount of load in when squatting deep or flexing the lower back. Allowing the sacrum or but to tuck under during a deep squat should be slowly increased in load and only practiced with lighter loads at first. [click to continue…]
The standard American fast paced lifestyle tends to deplete gratitude for many of us. Reprogramming gratitude is essential whenever you feel your life is flooded with stimuli, both good and bad. There are many ways to take time out to become conscious of the things, events and people who influence our lives.
One of my favorite strategies for restoring lost gratitude or boosting it is through a seven day morning and evening ritual using an audio CD by Louise L Hay. For an easy download of her mp3, click here
Since the CD is not broken into two separate tracks, it is helpful to know that the morning ritual is comprised of the first 26 minutes and 15 seconds. And the evening ritual is the rest of the CD. Since most media players have a visual time function, it is helpful to know the time that marks the transition.
I have found Louise Hay’s voice in this audio piece to be both nurturing and technically effective. The cadence and quality of words delivered through her voice will take you into a meditative state quickly and easily. Through my experience, I have noticed that if I play the audio for a full seven days in a row it cements and reprograms me.
For those of you who are looking for a simple, quick and powerful method of increasing gratitude, this is it!
Thanks for reading,
Adin Smith
Premier Personal Training: Expert Personal Trainers serving Palo Alto,Los Altos, Mountain View, Menlo Park, Atherton & vicinity.
Weight Loss, Rehabilitation, Nutrition and Fitness Services.
“Clutter is anything in your life that no longer serves you”
-Brooks Palmer
One day it hit me while driving to work. At the intersection I took a right and simultaneously all of my coffee mugs rolled left, across the back seat floor making sounds of a porcelain wind chime. Real coffee mugs rolling around on every corner is really annoying! I was amazed I had let this coffee cup band play its tune for three weeks. After removing the situation, I realized two things; I was unconsciously leaving coffee mugs on the floor and ignoring the noise.
My newly acquired in vehicle porcelain wind chime not only didn’t serve a purpose, but took away my energy. Having a new start-up company requires a ton of energy and I didn’t want to have it drained by clutter. I needed to sweep everything I owned and identify the things no longer served a purpose in my life. The thought of analyzing my stuff became somewhat overwhelming. However, through my coffee mug awakening, I had decided to initiate a sweep that very weekend. The Thursday evening before the great sweep, I went to the bookstore to get a text book I needed for work. With ISBN number in hand I was walking briskly down the aisles when my neck snapped as my eyes coincidentally caught a bright red book with its title, “Clutter Busting”. This is exactly what I needed for the weekend, more clutter! Joking aside, this book helped me separate my junk from jewels. I have loaned Clutter Busting many times to my clients over the past year which has helped them become more organized, efficient and relaxed. [click to continue…]
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