Years ago, an Angel baseball player walked into our office, in terrible pain due to a right shoulder rotator cuff tendonitis. He appeared fit and healthy and had the muscle bulk to prove his time in the gym. Needless to say he was frustrated. It had been going on for months and the season was getting close to starting and he was worried he might have to be sidelined due to his condition. Of course for him this meant a loss of playing time in the game he loved and a possible loss of his position as a second baseman. My therapists, who are always intrigued by overuse syndromes such as a tendonitis, thought how could he be that bad. We proceeded with all of our typical tests for shoulder range of motion and strength and he did well on most of them. In fact all of his tests looked pretty good for his age and health status, except when we decided to really get down to business with his core strength tests.

Core strength is one of the most important things for all of us physically. A lot of people think that if you just have washboard abdominal muscles than that is all you need. But the core is more than just your abdominal muscles. Your core and your Abs workout are not the same thing. Your core is a whole group of muscles in your trunk that work in symphony with each other so that the rest of your body can move with ease and escape injury. The abdominal muscles are only one group of the muscles. The Abs have four layers of muscles. Then there are the spine extensors, the hip flexors, the hip abductors, hip adductors and the hip extensors. And then don't forget the pelvic floor with its intricate structure of muscles. As you can see the core is very muscularly complex, and when it is not working as it should a lot of other issues can arise.

Needless to say when we put our baseball player in the all four position (he couldn't even get into the plank position) and asked him to stabilize with his trunk, he couldn't do it. He fatigued so fast his body shook and he couldn't even complete the test. We were amazed. It was just another example of how important the core is to even the fittest of athletes. His shoulder tendonitis had occurred due to his weak core. We had found our answer. We then proceeded to train him in the clinic for his core and his shoulder tendonitis resolved easily. He was thrilled and so were we. So here's another reason to see your physical therapist so you never let your core limit your life.

Sheree DiBiase, PT, is the owner of Lake City Physical Therapy and she and her staff will keep training the core so our patients can live life with no limits. Please call us at (208) 667-1988 if we can help you train your core.