Dr David McGrath

Spine Physician

MB BS (Hons) FAFOM, RACP, FAFMM
Master of Pain Medicine

Finding Lazy Joints

We all have much more joint potential than we utilize. As we settle into life, some patterns of movement are lost while others are formed, consistent with our current lifestyle. This becomes becomes a problem when a joint is asked to perform beyond its means, through neglect, disease or injury.

The purpose of movement therapy is to re-engage lazy joints, thereby reducing the demands on joints which are no longer capable of delivering a pain free range.

The challenge for our minds is to

1. Discover by experiment which are the lazy joints and in which rotational dimension

2. Activate the movement in the deficient dimension

3. Rehearse the movement sufficiently to enable an integration

4. Avoid engaging any painful joint (a dimensional range) in the process

This can be a big ask, but nonetheless is the problem before us. Failure to recognize that such a reorganization is possible leads to inferior methodology, such as excessive component focus or "blame the victim" approach.