Movement is at the core of human function, which is precisely why it is so important to screen and assess in order to to catch dysfunction, faults, and decrease the risk of injury before they happen. With proper biomechanics, an individual is successfully able to interact and experience environments in different ways whether that be playing sport, complete activities of daily living, or to perform work. Without proper mobility, individuals are unable to maximize their full potential to explore creativity, create memories, and experience life maximally. If left unchecked, aberrant movement can develop to a point at which they overload tissue and restrict activities of daily living leading to stiffness, pain, and injury for the individual.

Movement, however, is a complex construct that must be broken down into simpler components in order to fully understand. Some complex movement patterns that are performed during your daily activities may be a conventional deadlift (picking up a heavy box off the ground), squatting (safely lifting a heavy box into a car), or a overhead shoulder press (lifting something over your head and onto a top shelf) each one of these movements, if done improperly could cause an acute injury or if done repetitively over a long period of time, may cause overuse conditions such as tendinopathies and arthritis.

Often, patients of chiropractors and physiotherapists take a reactive approach to treatment - which is to only seek professional care once an injury has occurred and the pain and discomfort has become too much to rest away and shrug off. Although this is an extremely important component of injury care, the component of preventative care often goes missing. Your practitioner can create a strengthening program based on your daily activities to prevent tightness and dysfunctional movement from occurring.

Complex movements can be broken down into isolated motions of a single region to better understand. If we take a complex movement such as an overhead squat as an example and break them down into their respective motions, we can better understand what is needed to safely and comfortably perform the overhead squat when bending, lifting, and reaching for the top shelf. Let's take a look at what happens at this hips first.

During a conventional squat, the first movement that needs to occur besides the obvious flexion of the hip is external rotation which draws the knees outward until about roughly 90º thereafter, once you achieve anything beyond 90º of hip flexion, the femur and hip begin to internally rotate, drawing the knees towards the instep of the foot to maintain proper hip biomechanics. An inability to externally or internally rotate the hips will cause a decrease in hip flexion, which the body will compensate by extending that load into the low back to achieve the proper depth for the squat in turn leading to an injury of the low back. If either external or internal rotation is subpar, the mechanical load then shifts to the joints above and below the hip joint - the knees and lumbar spine, which are both built for stability rather than mobility.

Conversely, when we take a look at the upper torso and the shoulders, during the overhead squat both the thoracic spine and the shoulders must be able to move adequately in order to perform the task successfully. The thoracic spine must be able to extend properly to position the shoulders perpendicular to the ground whereas the shoulders must be able to flex and externally rotate enough to achieve the 180º of shoulder flexion to successfully perform the overhead squat - not doing so again increases the risk of injury and disability.

Our practitioners are trained to assess, prevent, treat and rehab injuries that may happen. Using a preventative strengthening program can help optimize your body, decrease injury and disability and ultimately improve your daily life.