Hi friends,

I’ve been pondering a quote recently by the trail-blazing orthopedic Physical Therapist, Shirley Sahrmann, “Usually the issue is that problematic motion occurs during all of your activities. The body follows the rules of physics. It takes the path of least resistance. So if it’s easy to move there, it keeps moving there, and that’s what you’re trying to change to make it easier to move at other places where you should be moving more.”

This, in essence, is what I’m looking for every day at my job as a Sports and Orthopedic Physical Therapist. Humans are master-compensators and we’re often moving incorrectly without even thinking about it.

You could be habitually standing or leaning on a particular leg, and if you repeatedly do this for years, you will have one leg that is stronger than the other and most likely have a movement dysfunction that could result in injury.

The path of least resistance may be the road to an overuse injury down the line. To offset this, try doing exercises that focus on one side at a time. It could be a single-arm bench press or row, or a single-leg squat or leg press.

Try to consciously think about where you are distributing your weight when you’re washing dishes or brushing your teeth. Odds are, you will lean toward and put more weight on your strong leg.

When you catch yourself leaning toward your stronger side, simply make yourself lean on the opposite side, or you can even stand on the opposite leg.

We need to pay attention to how we do the mundane daily activities. If we are compensating for areas that are weak or lack motion, it will likely lead to an overuse injury in the future.

Until next week,

Kevin