Around Hardcore I am known as T-Rod but many others
know me as Dr. Todd Rodman, Sports Medicine Chiropractor. I am the director of athlete services for the
CrossFit SouthEast Regionals, Team Chiropractor for FAU Athletics and have been
on the medical staff at Ironman competitions, the past two CrossFit Games and
many other sporting events. As well as
being a Sports Chiro I am a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
(CSCS), Level 1 CrossFit Trainer and Certified CrossFit Mobility Specialist. I love the sport of CrossFit and learned a
lot by training with Hardcore for the past 3+ years as well as providing
therapy for hundreds of CrossFit athletes.
I have a deep knowledge of injuries and injury prevention and am here to
help you in any way possible. I am going
to open up this forum as a way to communicate, host discussions and write about
topics that may help your health and athletic performance. If you have any topics that you would like me
to cover please email me at DrToddRodman@aim.com
to let me know your ideas.
The first and most important topic that I could
cover is movement. Poor movement
patterns combined with high intensity exercise provides a great risk for injury.
Improper movement otherwise known as
poor biomechanics will be present before symptoms of pain occur. The best way to avoid injuries at CrossFit or
anywhere in life is to understand your movement patterns and work to correct
the bad ones. The first series of posts
will cover different movement tests for you to try on your own. I call this series of movement tests
KinetiFix. I created and trademarked the
KinetiFix examination to help people identify their poor movement patterns and
give them corrective strategies on how to fix them. Kinetics is the branch of science dedicated
to the study of movement. The KinetiFix
analysis is dedicated to assessing and correcting movement dysfunction.
The first test in this series is super important
because shoulder range of motion is key for all overhead movements. I am not just talking about the more complex Olympic
lifting movements but even bar work such as pull-ups rely on a good range of
shoulder external rotation or movement compensations will occur. You can think of movement compensations as
our musculoskeletal systems way to complete a movement by using a suboptimal
movement pathway to complete the desired task.
For example, I once closed my car door by the inside door lock. When I did this my door lock wobbled and my
inner biomechanical nerd came out to talk to me. He said that is a classic movement
compensation and by using the door lock to close the door I was able to achieve
the desired task of closing the door.
However, if I was to do that a dozen more times that door lock would
probably rip off because it is being used improperly. This is similar to a muscle or joint that is
being used improperly and eventually experiencing symptoms of pain after it
cannot tolerate the excessive stress that is being placed on it
First
movement test: Supine shoulder internal and external rotation
·
Lay yourself face up on a bench, bed or
table with your arm hanging off and bent 90 degrees at the elbow.
·
Externally rotate your arm and you should get
90 degrees of motion (use your best judgment when measuring).
·
Next internally rotate your arm with the
elbow bent at 90 degrees and you should get 70 degrees range of motion. To do it best have someone place a light pressure
on your glenohumeral joint (ball and socket of the shoulder) so that your
shoulder doesn’t cheat and slide anterior giving a false range of motion.
·
If you do not get these full ranges of
motion you may be at risk of injury.
Email me with your findings and I can send you some strategies on how to
improve this biomechanical deficiency.
Let’s keep it at this for now. My next post will cover some more movement
tests and what you can do to fix them if they are suboptimal.
Dr. T-Rod
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