Resistance bands can be used to rehabilitate many conditions. Learn how to use resistance bands for rehab in this health video.
Pull up and out for rotator cuff rehab
Dynamic hugs stretch the scapula
High-repetition exercise
Russ Paine is a well-known physical therapist with the Roger Clemens Institute at Memorial Hospital. After getting his degree in physical therapy from Texas Women's University, he trained for several years under David Drez, MD, a renowned surgeon and sports medicine specialist. He has been a rehab consultant for the Houston Rockets, Houston Astros and NASA. He has given hundreds of presentations in his career in the US and abroad, and has published many chapters in text books and papers in peer review journals.
RUSS PAINE: So what I'd like to do now is talk a little bit about using elastic resistance as we do in rehab with different conditions. Elastic tubing is great because it's very portable. It doesn't cost very much. It's very lightweight, and it's really effective at certain things. The further you pull a Thera-Band out, the harder it is; and the shorter it is, the easier it is; so that's obvious. One thing we use is rotator cuff strengthening using the Thera-Band, and we do it in an angle like a 45-degree angle. We have the subject bring up and out in this direction, and that really exercises the rotator cuff muscles in the same line of action as the muscle belly. Okay, so this is a really important feature of doing a Thera-Band or elastic resistance with rotator cuff. Now, a more advanced exercise is a D2. What we call D2 or diagonal pattern where you stand on the Thera-Band and you will pull it up and out so that you come all--and reach all the way up to like a Statue of Liberty position and reach all the way out and come back down towards the opposite hip. So you're going to turn this from in and then bring it out in this position, so thumb inward here and thumb outward there. Again, this is really good for rotator cuff and deltoid strengthening. Now, another exercise we can do is called the dynamic hug, and that's really good for scapular strengthening. So you put this around your back, like this, okay? And you're going to reach out and touch your hands together in this position. So that gets the serratus anterior which is really an important scapular muscle. So this is sort of a general build up of Thera-Band for upper extremity exercise. You can also, if you want to, just step on the Thera-Band and do a bicep curl. So you stand on the Thera-Band and again you may have to do a lot of repetitions with Thera-Band. You may have to do three sets of 20 or three sets of 25 to get a good, effective fatigue with Thera-Band. And you can also do a tricep extension where you'll shut this on top of a door. Go ahead hold on to it, Orlando, and just push it straight down, because that gets the triceps. Now, one of the most--probably the two most important things we use Thera-Band for are rotator cuff strengthening and then the ankle strengthening also. So we'll have Orlando sit over the edge of the table here and you can wrap the Thera-Band around the ankles. You can do this in a seated position also which is almost even better with your heels on the ground. And again, if you have an ankle injury or an ankle sprain, you sprain the outside of the ankle. So this is a really good exercise you can do sitting at your desk to strengthen the muscles that help support the outside of the ankle. Again, Thera-Band elastic resistance is portable, very economical and a good thing to do to help rehabilitate or strengthen your problem.
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