By Alex Parker, Physiotherapist | Edited by the BVP Team Shoulder cortisone injections are often recommended to relieve pain from conditions like rotator cuff injuries or subacromial impingement. But how effective are they really, and what are the risks of repeated use? In this article, we break down what the latest research says about the…
You’ve probably seen people doing external rotation exercises as part of their warm up before sports, activities or heavy exercises that involve the shoulder. They are often used as a treatment to shoulder impingement and generally prescribed by a Physiotherapist or other health professional. Being scared to re-injure the shoulder, most people utilize them in their warm…
What is external and internal hip rotation? You’ve probably heard that your glutes (aka ass) are important muscles. They directly influence hip rotation & position and when activated correctly they can help your body move in an ideal way for specific tasks. The glutes are one of the muscle groups responsible for external (outward) rotation…
Arm day at the gym usually means incorporating a tricep exercise variation. However, the triceps brachii muscle group consists of three separate heads. This begs the question, which exercises do we need to ensure that we stimulate sufficent hypertrophy for all three? Is there one exercise for all of them, or do we need to…
An Intro to the Butt Wink Lumbar positions, particularly around the butt wink, is an extremely complex and controversial topic where many people fall on either side of the fence. The term ‘butt winking’ is frequently used to describe the ‘dip’ movement of lumbar flexion in the bottom of a squat. Over the past decade,…
Believe it or not stretching doesn’t often get a good rep in the rehab world. When it comes to management of injuries and dysfunctions it is regularly overlooked by strengthening and ‘functional’ or stability drills. Heck even when discussing exercises for flexibility the current trend is to recommend strengthening over stretching. I personally find that…
How often do you mix up your gym program? People often speak of muscle confusion, they change up their programs frequently in order to ‘confuse’ the body so it will adapt to the changed stimuli. However, frequent change to programs without giving the body time to adapt to them can be harmful for a number…
Over the years we’ve become accustomed to hearing ‘put ice on it’ anytime we injure ourselves. After someone suffers an injury I often hear “should I use ice or heat?”. Unfortunately the answer is, it depends and the rationale is complex. R.I.C.E For as long as I can remember the household acronym for acute injury…
This is not a discussion about the benefits of CrossFit. In fact you would be hard pressed to call me a CrossFitter. I have only participated in a small handful of classes since its mainstream introduction. This sport is not something that I regularly participate in or is it something I generally advocate to others….
Well, I’m a little bit late to the party but, better late than never right? Last month in April it was Ankylosing Spondylitis Awareness Month. For those of you who do not know, Ankylosing Spondylitis is a form of spinal arthritis that predominantly affects young males and carries on into adulthood. Although it is predominantly…