IOL Strength and Conditioning

Do you think I could talk you into starting the year off with a near-daily joint mobility program if I made it really simple? Just one or two easy movements per major joint will take you about five minutes; do it in the mornings and your joints will be oiled up and ready to take on the day. What a great way to start off the New Year, a resolution that’s really easy to keep and comes with a major big payoff.

As we age, our joints lose their ranges of motion, limiting our ability to move well in addition to causing other problems or pain in nearby muscles and the joints above or below. Working the joints—not the muscles, the joints—reminds the brain how to access the full range of motion while at the same time circulating the synovial fluid, removing waste products and breaking down calcium deposits. The result: confident, smooth movement in the joints, a reduction of pain and an increase in injury prevention. It’s golden, and worth the five precious minutes.

The main thing to remember is we’re working the joints. Pay attention to joint motion, keeping other areas of the body as still as possible so the joint alone can move forward and back, side to side or rotational. Whenever possible, close your eyes and get an image of the actual joint in action. Slow the action down and make the movement smaller rather than as pushing far as you can go; you’re looking for smooth, easy action, not big jerky movements.

Here we go, real simple, no frills, just do it. Five reps per move, per side — as you get comfortable with the routine, you may feel like doing a little more in areas where you feel less confident. Some people do dozens of reps with great results, but this is a beginner’s set-up where time and interest will run out fast; you’ll see a difference with only  a few reps if you perform them regularly.
Toes:
Standing tall, move one foot behind, heel raised with the pads of the toes flat on the floor. Move your heel toward the floor, and back up, keeping the toes pressed into the floor. Do this five times; now, with the heel high, put more weight on the pad of the big toe, then move the weight outward toe by toe until the weight is more heavily on the little toe. Reverse and take the weight back to the big toe. Change feet and repeat.

Ankles:
Still standing, most of your weight on one foot, roll the un-weighted foot to the inside and outside, paying attention to side-to-side movement in the ankle joint, repeating on both feet. Then, standing near a wall or countertop, put your weight evenly on both feet, feet flat on the floor, and bend toward the nearby surface, making sure the movement takes place in the ankles. You’ll be moving your ankles forward and back; your knees are slightly bent, holding that position (not increasing the bend), and there’s no movement in the hips. Your entire body moves forward and back, with the action taking place in the ankles.

Hips:
Warm up the hips from a standing position, weight equally on both feet, moving forward and back in a small hip thrust, back and forth with the movement taking place almost entirely at the hips where the top of the quads attach. Then, rest your weight on one foot, pull the other foot off the ground to the front, then cross over the front of the stance leg so your foot is turned, inside facing behind you. Begin to circle your foot, again with the circling taking place at the hip joint; your ankle is not circling or bending, nor is your knee. Circle five times and reverse directions for five more circles. Move your foot to the front of your body and repeat; move it to the outside to repeat in both directions; move it to the rear and circle it, again in both directions. You may feel pretty sloppy at this one at first—stick with it, it comes fast and is a real doozy for good hip mobility.

Thoracic spine:
Still standing, weight evenly balanced, extend your arms to the front, palms down. With your hips stable and unmoving, extend and contract your arms by moving at the mid-back. Your chest will be caving in and moving out in opposition to your thoracic spine activity. Now move your hands to your sides to perform a slight side bend. This isn’t the side bend you remember from gym class; instead you’ll be moving at the upper back, your lumbar spine and hips are immobile, with the only movement taking place between the neck and bottom of the rib cage above the low back.

Shoulder joints:
Keep standing for a few more minutes while we finish this up. Skipping over the scapulae, we’re going to target the ball-and-socket part of the shoulder joint, starting with forward to overhead raises. Next up, small circles beginning with the hands to the sides and low, moving forward and at shoulder height, then in an extended Y position, palms facing out. Do five circles in each position, reverse direction and repeat. Remember to picture the joint in action, and make the circles as small as necessary to keep the action smooth.

Wrists:
As long as you’re standing there and your arms are handy, hold them outstretched at shoulder height, palms facing down. Move your fingers toward the floor, then back up toward the ceiling with the action entirely at the wrist. Then circle the hands in both directions, again with no action at the elbows or shoulders.

Neck:
Finally, still standing, move your head back and forth with your body stable and the movement happening in the neck. Circle your head from side to side (the universal “no”), with no activity from the shoulders down. Now move your head up and down, as if indicating “yes.” As you practice this over a few days, the range of motion will increase and the crackling sounds will decrease as the small bits of calcium deposits are broken loose and dispersed.

That’s it. Print this out. Run through it a few times this week and after you get the hang of it, it should take you about five minutes, maybe seven if it starts feeling good and you get carried away. And it’ll only take a couple times for you to realize all this typing was simply to describe ways to move your joints forward and back, side to side and in circles… nothing to it, no special exercise names, just rediscovering the ranges of motion of your mobile joints.

Once you have a taste of how powerful this stuff is, you can expand on the areas that have previously given you the most trouble. There are a variety of incredibly powerful joint exercises that will literally reverse the chronic pain of a middle-age life. I’m serious, you truly can feel like a kid again, and it doesn’t take a whole lot of time, either. Persistence, maybe, but other than that, it’s not hard at all.