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Welcome to The Dr. JJ Thomas Podcast! Here I'll be talking all things physical therapy, raw and unplugged, giving you the unfiltered insights you've been searching for in your cash-based physical therapy business. If you're caught in the grind of the traditional model, swamped with paperwork, or feeling like you're not reaching your full potential as a physical therapist, this podcast was created just for you.
So the clinical corners are kinda short, brief exercise tips and tricks that we like to give for patients and other clinicians that might benefit from it. Eric gave this Bucknell athlete be a particular exercise, the DNS, star plank, just because it's gonna help with his glute activation issues and and hip issues that became became evident through his gait analysis and his pre gait work. A lot of limitations in jumping and running inefficiencies that manifest into problems musculoskeletally in the musculoskeletal system come from poor hip hinging patterns. Eric, you know, gracefully recognized that there's a learning curve there, and he's gonna get all we're looking for is, like, to move the needle a little bit with these athletes at first. And then eventually, as he gets better with it, as he gets his own input and feedback from it, he'll he'll grow that success with it.
Dr. JJ Thomas:But I think if you watch that episode, you'll see he struggled with it, and here he is. He's this phenomenal athlete. And so by improving his ability to access that hip joint, he's gonna both limit potential for injury and improve his performance overall in general.
Dr. Eric Abramowitz:On the way down, what we're gonna end up doing is take that top leg. We're gonna extend the hip and reach back while sitting into that bottom hip, and that top side shoulder is gonna start reaching out overhead and in front of us. So we're adding rotation. Go ahead. Come back up, Jay.
Dr. Eric Abramowitz:Awesome. Welcome to the doctor Joj Thomas podcast.
Dr. JJ Thomas:Hey, everybody. Welcome to the doctor JJ Thomas podcast. We're actually gonna do a clinical corner today. So the clinical corners are kinda short, brief, exercise, tips and tricks that we like to give for patients and other clinicians that might benefit from it. I have Eric here today because, this clinical corner was prompted after Eric and I just recorded one of the podcast episodes on gait analysis.
Dr. JJ Thomas:Eric uses the 3 d Helix system, which is awesome. So if you haven't seen that episode yet, go over to it, check it out. And we did that with a Bucknell athlete of ours who, is a lot of fun to just watch and learn from. So so check that out. But what prompted this, as I said, was Eric gave this Bucknell athlete a particular exercise, the DNS star plank, because it's gonna help with his glute activation issues and hip issues that became evident through his gait analysis and his pre gait work, pre gait assessment, essentially.
Dr. JJ Thomas:So, yeah, when Eric was showing this, I was like, oh, man. This is you guys ever go through exercises where you, like, use them and you get out of the habit of using them, and then you see them again, and you're like, oh, man. That one's so good. And that's that's how I felt. Eric gave this one today, and I was like, oh, this is definitely gonna be a new favorite.
Dr. JJ Thomas:So I thought I might as well just go ahead and just share it with you guys right away. So, I have Eric here to help me with my form. In fact, I'll just have you talk me through it if that's cool. Yeah.
Dr. Eric Abramowitz:Yeah. So in this side plank, we're we're gonna be anchoring from 2 main points. The the first point is gonna be the bottom knee. Right? The foot's gonna make contact with the ground, but we're really not trying to drive a ton of force through that foot quite yet.
Dr. Eric Abramowitz:And the other anchor point is gonna be the the bottom forearm. Okay. The the key parts here, we have a little bit of hip flexion, knees start together, and the elbow has to be directly under the shoulder. We don't wanna create shoulder issues by having that arm out of position like that. Thanks, Jay.
Dr. Eric Abramowitz:Mhmm. So, at the bottom of the side plank is where we're gonna start to expand and spread out. So, at the top, I want you to get into what traditionally looks like the top of the side plank, and that's great. So knees aren't touching, which is totally fine, and we have a straight line from knee hip to shoulder. On the way down, what we're gonna end up doing is take that top leg, we're gonna extend the hip and reach back while sitting into that bottom hip, and that top side shoulder is gonna start reaching out overhead and in front of us.
Dr. Eric Abramowitz:So we're adding rotation. Go ahead, come back up, Jay. Awesome. And the bottom, it might be hard to see, but the bottom of that side plank, her hip is not on the ground. So we're gonna hover at the bottom.
Dr. Eric Abramowitz:And one cue I make sure I give people is when you're at the bottom, I want you to feel like you're sitting that that hip into the backside of your glute. So there's some hinging and rotation coming along. Great job right there at the bottom, Jay. And on the way up, what she's doing really nicely, what you'll see here, she's gonna drive her hips back forward towards the camera. Right?
Dr. Eric Abramowitz:So we're establishing that straight line. We're gonna reach and extend and lower, drive back up to the hip, and uncoil. Coil, drive up through that hip, come back.
Dr. JJ Thomas:I'm gonna get a side view. Like our back view. Is this cool? Yeah. Awesome.
Dr. Eric Abramowitz:So here we're gonna be able to see that that hip isn't gonna it's gonna float. Good. She's gonna extend, come back up, hip extend. Perfect. Reach and rotate, really elongate that top side, come back up, compact, and straight.
Dr. Eric Abramowitz:Perfect. Reach and extend, float that hip, drive up. Excellent.
Dr. JJ Thomas:Thank you. You got it. And one of the reasons I really like I'm a little out of breath. One of the reasons I got so excited to share this with you guys is because I'm always looking for exercises to tap into that hip hinging pattern. And not only the hip hinging pattern, but the hip hinging pattern combined with a rotational, control, is what I wanna say.
Dr. JJ Thomas:Because we've seen through a lot of, both research and clinical work that a lot of limitations in jumping and running inefficiencies that manifest into problems musculoskeletally in the musculoskeletal system come from poor hip hinging patterns. So the inability to get so with, you know, like the knee over toes guy, credit to you, man. You got the world so aware of the need to get that knee over the toe. And a component of that, when we get the knee over the toe, is also getting the hip hinge. Right?
Dr. JJ Thomas:And that's what allows people to get the femoral angle, the femoral control they need in single leg stance to run or to get power through a jump. Right? All of those things have to come from that hip hinge. And this exercise, this D and S star plank, it it really does such a beautiful job when done correctly. It's it's hard to cue.
Dr. JJ Thomas:Right?
Dr. Eric Abramowitz:It is.
Dr. JJ Thomas:Especially for an athlete that's limited in it. Like, if you guys watch the episode with Chris, who's an amazing athlete, you'll see he had a hard time getting into that hip hinge on on the exercise when Eric was showing him. And, Eric, you know, gracefully recognized that there's a there's a learning curve there, and he's gonna get all we're looking for is, like, to move the needle a little bit with these athletes at first. And then eventually, as he gets better with it, as he gets his own input and feedback from it, he'll he'll grow that success with it. So, but I think if you watch that episode, you'll see he struggled with it, and here he is.
Dr. JJ Thomas:He's a he's a phenomenal athlete, and so by improving his ability to access that hip joint functionally, he's gonna both limit injury, potential for injury and improve his performance overall in general. So, yeah. Thanks, Eric. This is awesome. Absolutely.
Dr. JJ Thomas:If you guys have any questions on the exercise itself or on any other topics, please drop a comment in in the notes below, and, reach out, DM us anytime. Hope this helps.