Adequate muscle on the body is essential to maintaining body structure and function. Practicing exercises is necessary to recover from injury and to restore proper alignment of joints as well as overall posture.

Restoration of function and elimination of pain relies on the normalization of joint motion to provide optimal friction of body fibers. Fibers of the body are our muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia and joint capsules.

Correct motion allows for optimal friction of these body fibers. Friction stimulates the fiber to release substances that will recreate the fiber in the presence of normal motion and in the absence of excess heat and inflammation.

Pelvic Tilt.

Watch the Anterior and Posterior Pelvic Tilt Videos to discover which kind you have and practice the one you need.  Practice daily until the pelvis sits in a neutral position following the excursion test mentioned in the posterior pelvic tilt video.

1. Anterior Pelvic Tilt Correction with AthleanX Physical Therapist

2. Posterior Pelvic Tilt

Shoulder.

1. Fix Shoulder Popping and Clicking.  Practice these when you have shoulder motion issues.

2. General maintenance shoulder exercise series.  Practice before and after physical activity if your shoulder is prone to dysfunction of any sort.

3. Winging scapula. This is where the lower points of the shoulder blade are poking out off of the upper back.

Legs.

1. Fix Valgus knees.  Knees caving in towards the mid line.  Also useful for a tight calf muscle. These are associated with weak glutes and motion dysfunction in the low back.

2. Squat correctly

 a. https://youtu.be/nEQQle9-0NA

b. https://youtu.be/SHgQeBk7zIs

c. https://youtu.be/q1fCgfieNEs

d. https://youtu.be/kBq6iynRUUE

Knee Circles.

Knee Rotations or knee circles.  The muscles of the legs are continuous with the structure inside the knees.  The meniscus is a fibrocartilage pad that sits between the bones of the knee joint.  To stimulate the meniscus fibers to regenerate then practice knee circles regularly.  Do less circles or make them smaller if there is pain.  Stop if you cannot do them without pain.  Keep the toes touching and heels touching and knees touching during the circles with knees together.  If when you come up from the squat and the knees come apart then do not come up so high that they come apart;  keep them touching.

This is the most important restorative exercise to practice for meniscus tears once the pain has resolved.  You will want to practice 10 in one direction, then 10 in the other direction 1x per hour all day long everyday for 6 – 9 months then you may gradually taper off to 3 sets of 10 in each direction per day for maintenance after that.  The theory behind it is that they balance the muscle tensions around the knee, pull the structures to their correct positions and then friction stimulates regrowth of structures with poor blood supply like the center portions of the meniscus.  I have not yet had the pleasure of performing an MRI on my knee patients with meniscus tears to see if this is the case for sure, but every patient whom I check in with years down the line who follows this recommendation tells me that they have not had a reoccurrence of their injury or a worsening of their symptoms.

Knee Circles Exercises

1. https://youtu.be/MXe0DS51MY8

2. https://youtu.be/c8tZUjAOUFM

Head.

Fix Forward Head Posture. Almost everyone has this. Practice it daily for best results until your ear is directly over your shoulder from side view.

Back.

1. Treat Disc Herniations. Only practice these once the most serious pain has subsided.  Understand that the torn disc needs to heal to stop fluids from inside from leaking out which causes the pain.  Too much bending or twisting too soon will reopen the internal wound on the disc and cause increased pain.  Stop or do less if there is pain.

a. https://youtu.be/9SKuFe2SERs

b. https://youtu.be/YnPxMUYkVdU

2. Sciatic Nerve Flossing. Do this for sciatic nerve pain. Pain, numbness and tingling that travels down the back of the upper leg and into the side of the lower leg and into the foot.

General Motion Maintenance.

1. General motion maintenance. Practice Upa Yoga daily for spine health.

2. Adam Ford Swiss Ball Abs and Core.  Practice 3x per week to maintain spine mobility and for the legs to be of equal length.

3. Foundation Training. The favorite of Lance Armstrong for core and posture reprogramming.  Check out his other videos as well.

4. Check out Circ du Soliel videos on core muscle reprogramming for additional and advanced synchronizing of core muscles. Watch as most of these exercises emphasize tiny back and forth motions to synchronize muscle movements on both sides of a joint and also to friction the fibers in order to maximize smooth, even joint motion and optimal muscle control.  This is one example. Find some others that work for you.