Q: I’ve recently hurt my left shoulder. My doctor said it was a rotator cuff injury. I went through physical therapy but my shoulder still hurts me. My doctor wants me to do some post-rehab exercise to continue to rebuild the muscles. What exercises can I do at home? And are there any exercises I should avoid?
A: Rotator cuff injuries can take a long time to heal. While your shoulder still hurts don’t do any movements with your arms higher than shoulder level.
Once you get clearance from your doctor, you can try this classic exercise to help strengthen that area. It’s called external rotation.
Q: I never had a great sense of balance but it seems to be getting worse as I get older. What exercises can I do to improve my balance.
A: Serious balance issues require medical attention. However some loss of balance is quite common as we age. Signals from vision, bones and joints, the vestibular system in the inner ear, and the nervous system, are sent to the brain which interprets them into an awareness of the position of the body. This is our proprioceptive sense and one of its functions is balance.
Trouble is, the systems collecting the information controlling balance begin to deteriorate with age, particularly if we’re inactive. And this process accelerates after 50.
