Don’t Let Joint Pain Ruin Your Summer

Summertime! Beach! Barbecues! Surfing! WaveRunners! Are you physically prepared for all of that fun? Have you gotten rid of that nagging joint pain? Are you ready for full participation in all that summer on Seven Mile Beach has to offer?

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke says “80 percent of adults experience low-back pain at some point in their lifetimes. It is the most common cause of job-related disability and a leading contributor to missed work days,” and I assume (even worse) missed WaveRunning days. In a large survey, more than a quarter of adults reported experiencing low-back pain during the previous 3 months. It is highly doubtful you like being confined to the dock while everyone else is having fun on the WaveRunners, right? If you happen to have the misfortune of being included in this group, it’s a good thing you are at Seven Mile Beach for the summer. If you want to get out of that beach chair and on to that WaveRunner, we can help.

Ally Reardon, a certified personal trainer at Shape Fitness Stone Harbor, uses a combination of yoga and strength training to help keep joint pain away. “Yoga improves my flexibility, posture and balance,” she says, “which when combined with stability and strength gained from strength training helps prevent injury.”

It’s this combination of mobility and stability that is key.

Strength and conditioning coach Michael Boyle is credited with making popular the joint-by-joint approach to mobility/stability. This approach looks at the body as a stack of joints alternating in their function of mobility and stability. Going from the bottom up, the ankle needs increased mobility while the knee needs increased stability. The hip needs increased mobility while the lumbar spine (low back) needs increased stability. And so on.

Injury relates closely to joint dysfunction. There are exceptions, but the theory is simple: If you lose ankle mobility, you get knee pain. If you lose hip mobility, you get low-back pain. If your body is looking for mobility in the hips and doesn’t find it, your body will look to the next joint. In this case, your body will look to the lumbar spine, which is not built for mobility, and that is when injury can occur. So if you have low-back pain and want to get back to surfing this summer, the answer may be increasing your hip mobility.

As Reardon says, yoga is one of the things that helps maintain her flexibility. Says Rachel Scott, of Yoga International: “Yoga’s reputation as a flexibility practice is well earned: Most styles include poses that capitalize on the hip and shoulder joints’ full range of movement.”

Even in yoga, you must be careful not to push too far and do more damage. Again, if your body is looking for that hip mobility and you try to push your own limits in a forward bend, your body might end up trying to find the mobility in your lumbar spine. Don’t try to mimic the instructor in the front of the class with her nose touching her shins. Consistently practice within your limits, and the increased mobility will come.

If your issue isn’t a lack of mobility causing joint pain, a lack of stability can be the culprit. While this might make putting your foot behind your head easier, joints need to be stable in order to be functional. Don’t try to push into poses as far as you can go. Joints need strength and stability to back up that flexibility. Stronger muscles are capable of handling more tension. Weightlifting with full range of motion will strengthen muscles and promote greater flexibility. When your joint has strength, your body is not afraid to put it through its complete range of motion because it knows the joint has the stability to back it up.

There are many health professionals on our island. Make sure you find someone who is qualified and experienced to help you out of whatever joint pain you may be experiencing. A good yoga instructor will help you test your limits and not push past them into unsafe ranges. A good personal trainer can help you assess where you need to increase mobility and where stability is needed. A combination of mobility training (yoga) and stability (strength training) might be just what you need to get you out of that beach chair (unless you don’t want to, of course). Find someone who is able to assess whether it’s a lack of mobility that’s getting you down or a lack of stability keeping you from enjoying your summer.

Get rid of that joint pain and get back to all your favorite summertime activities. Don’t miss out on the fun! As comedian Daniel Tosh says, money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a Wave-Runner. Ever see someone frown on a WaveRunner? Didn’t think so.