Working Out of Joint

Working out of Joint

A common habit I see in clients at the Pilates studio is working out of their joints. To define this more clearly, working out of a joint is when the arm or leg structure would be moving or working without maintaining a healthy relationship to the shoulder or hip.

 This is common with people who are hyper mobile in their joints or have loose ligaments but can be a habit for anyone. When the smaller supporting muscles around a joint are not well balanced for stability, strength and flexibility, the result is additional strain to the structure.

Many sports injuries occur when people are moving out of joint as those connective structures are over challenged. Try this. Lift your arm in front of your shoulder. Lower you arm. Now draw your arm into the shoulder socket and repeat the lifting action. Feel the difference between the two actions. The second uses a different set of muscles and activates more supportive muscles to your core and shoulder. Our legs work with the same principle into our pelvis. One factor to bring up here as you explore the concept is that this action can be overdone and cause too much tension around the joint also. This would bring the opposite result of what we are striving for. If overdone, movement at the joint would be limited and we are striving for freedom of movement!

(We will leave that topic for another time- how to lengthen out of joints is necessary also!)

If you can feel the difference of the above example, awesome. If not give it a try by lifting small weighted objects, such as a can of food or grocery item. The plugged in joint example should feel easier to lift weight. Imagine the strain and stress on your body if you are always moving out of joint. This is a simple concept that will help you work more safely with your joints as well as move from a place of strength.