 I'm Christine Linders, your host and physical therapy orthopedic clinical specialist. I'm happy to be broadcasting remotely today during this extremely difficult time as we all hunker down to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our community here in Hawaii and worldwide. Today we're continuing shoulder injury prevention and treatment month by talking about exercises to save your shoulder from injury during the taxing sports activities such as body surfing. Sam Lau, longtime competitive body surfing and I will be talking about how he managed to keep his shoulders healthy and be able to continue body surfing competitively for over 45 years. Last show we learned about the anatomy and biomechanics of the shoulder as well as stretches to perform to decrease strain on the shoulder and rotator cuff. And as promised from last episode, today you'll learn the top exercises being used by competitive body surfers to keep the shoulder healthy and game ready. Let me welcome Sam Lau, longtime competitive body surfer and inspiration for this talk. Aloha Sam and thank you for joining me on Movement Matters. Good to see you. Yes. I'm so happy to be here. It's a little different. We're doing things remotely. But how are you doing with the whole COVID-19 shutdown? Are you doing okay? Is everybody safe? Yeah, everybody's safe. You know, we have to acknowledge what's going out there and do our part to prevent it. And so I think that all is safe and well so far. Yeah. I think that's wonderful. So just so that the viewers can get a nice little sense of Sam's move to the sport of body surfing. Let's go to the first video and we'll get a little, ah, right now. Yeah, typically body surfers go in with fins. And this is what I chose not to. So these videos right here are going to be of Greg Henson. Let's see the second one. This was a couple of days ago, right, Sam? Yes, a couple of days ago. So tell us a little bit about the fins and why you're catching the wave. Okay, so body surfing, like all surfing sports, the initial goal is, of course, to line yourself up to catch a wave. And what what you're trying to do is you're trying to get your body or your board the speed of whatever you're riding up to the speed of the wave. And once you once you do that, you're on the wave, you're now riding the wave. So in body surfing, you'll have your work fins, two feet, two fins are preferable with most power, just balance. The day you I did shot the video, I went out with no fins in, it's a little trickier that way. But if you have that strength, you can. That's right. So you need, I mean, if you're not going to be kicking with fins on, you need to have extreme strength and power in your in your upper body to be able to get into that proper spot on the wave. Is that right? Right. And to get up to wave speed, but it's also timing, you know, where you how you position yourself in the wave and timing that that comes with experience. But yeah, you know, to float around, you know, to get off the sand and to be floating around, you know, there's, you know, there's, you know, some physical training that you have to, you know, undergo to do that. Even with it, you know, you'll be out there if you're, you know, you know, surfers will stay out there for hours on end and you know, body surfers, you know, we do almost the same thing, you know, we'll go out for a couple of two hours, you know, and you need the training, you need the physical ability to do so. I think that's great. So we had, we met in the gym and we met in the gym when I was on crutches, actually, and you shared your story about how I hurt my ankle and I was in the gym, I'm crutches in a boot doing the arms and you came out to me and you said, that's great. I love it. You're so going to stay moving and you, you hurt your arm as well. You told me the story. So tell us like what, what happened? When did it happen? You broke your clavicle, I think that was very, that's very funny. Because now that was one of the things that I, that was, you were there and you were just there, you know, grinding it out, which is, excuse me, excuse me, which was, you know, something I found out was a good thing, you know, from my own physical therapist because this happened, my shoulder break happened almost two years ago and I was just messing around at Sandy Beach and I was, I disregarded all the rules and I ended up landing on the stand on my shoulder and it broke. So, you know, a long story short, you know, my physical therapist friend was also my lifting partner was, he had, you know, said, yeah, you broke your clavicle and that evening we put it in the sling, tell me, you know, a couple of days you're going to have to rest and just keep everything stationary, which is what I did. I, you know, by the third or fourth day I was starting to get a little antsy and so I went back into the gym and on the affected side, of course you can't do anything, but I was doing minimal exercises just to keep blood flowing and I didn't know that that was what I was doing, but, you know, that's exactly what happened. I was doing minimal exercises just to keep the blood flowing and it actually helped the healing process, which was really good. That's fantastic. I love how you said keep the blood flowing because the blood is like food for our body. It's nutrition and that's what we need. And so for people that are injured and laid up, there's things you can do. If you break your ankle or you have ACL, you can be moving your arms, you can be squeezing your glutes, you can be moving the other leg and with a, with a shoulder injury, I know I've had so many of them and you as well with this broken clavicle, which is this bone right here. And so you need to keep moving it and using the other side is very helpful even if you're just doing exercise with the other side because the brain, I know this is a concept that even as 23 years of physical therapist, I still find it difficult to grasp, but the brain doesn't know right and left. And I remember we did it with stroke patients in my first physical therapy job in San Diego where we had them use the side that was not paralyzed and we watched the paralyzed side start to work because it was flaccid, it couldn't move at all. And so getting nutrition and moving, riding a bike, doing some arm curls on the other side, anything that you can do to keep the blood flowing. Sam, that's awesome. Can help to heal a bone, a ligament, a muscle, a tendon, everything. So I think that's fascinating. So I didn't have this last show, but for people that are watching, just so you get a little brief tidbit, this is looking, oops, this is looking from the front. So this is the underside of your shoulder blade where it sits on your rib cage. Here's your arm bone right here. And this is the joint capsule. This is where your chest bone and your sternum would come. And these bones right here on us, these bones come out and they attach to your shoulder blade out here. And this space right here is where a lot of people get shoulder impingement from this bone riding up. And a lot of that's poor posture from sitting at your laptop. And I know we're all going to be doing a little more sitting lately now that we're home and we're hunkering down to make sure we halt or slow this spread of this virus. So I just thought that was valuable. So now Sam, you have some exercises that you've been doing to keep your shoulders healthy, to be able to launch into those waves without fins, launch into those big waves with fins. How did you come up with that routine? OK, so a lot of it, you know, I give a lot of credit to my former listening partner. He was a physical therapist. In fact, a lot of the routines I do incorporate other movements, you know, not only in a shoulder but other parts that he has showed me that he's used, you know, with other patients. And, you know, you can modify it to be more than just a therapeutic exercise. So, you know, it came in real handy knowing these things ahead of time when it came to the healing process. You know, I think the ability and the willingness to do the work and to incorporate these things is really key, you know. And, you know, I really want to be able to do this. I really love to body suffer. And, you know, as a competitive body sufferer, you know, it's been a while since I've been in a contest. But, you know, on a daily basis, I'm competing for waves. I want the waves. And that's, you know, for me, a set that goes unwritten is wasted energy. I love the wave. It's just a big ball of energy. And I love being on it. I love being a part of it. And so that gives me a good driving force when it comes to overall health care because you want that. So, it all works, you know, because I'm really, I love it. I love body surfing. It's served me well. You know, other than this clavicle, I really haven't suffered any serious injuries, knock on wood. Knock on wood. Because the body's over, you know. So, the exercises were taught to me by the physical therapists. And fortunately, I was doing them, you know, before the injury. And even those days right after the injury, the affected side, in the sling, I was just, I was even just grabbing like a, like a tension ball. You know how you have those balls. I was just squeezing. And then after a while, I had like a two pound dumbbell and I was just doing small little wrist curls like this. You know, just to keep the blood flowing in my arm, bring it down. And it's like, yeah, that was a great thing to do. And, you know, as I went through the, as I was progressing through the injury, I was learning too because, you know, this is the first time I really had an injury like this and had an opportunity to approach it and remedy it from a comprehensive perspective, you know. So he was telling me all the things that I needed to do other than the exercises, you know, which is, you know, heat ice, Mickey shirts. You mirror my scar tissue build up. Yes. He was telling me a lot of different things that just really helped. I mean, I mean, I'm going to give a quick shout out. His name is Landon. Landon, thank you. Great job, Landon, way to represent physical therapists. So I think, I mean, you gave me goosebumps when you talked about how like, missing a wave is a waste of energy. It's so inspiring because it's great to watch someone talk about something that they love so much and they're so passionate about, which you love body surfing. And also I liked your point and how you said, the willingness, it gives me chills again, the willingness to put in the work because if you want something, I know that this coach at Seton Hall University, his name is Scott Mose, when I was a senior in high school or a junior in high school, he said, and he had the sign on his desk when I was recruiting, it said wanting it is so much more than just saying it when it comes to anything in life. And I think if you want to body surf, if you want to not have payment, you're playing with your grandkids, if you want to get to the next level of beach volleyball like in my case or get back after shoulder surgery, the wanting it is more than saying it. And you put the nail in the head, which is the willingness to put in the work and willingness to put in the work can mean so many different things for so many different people. It could be that someone's doing five minutes of something a day or you doing your wrist curls or me doing little finger things and my hand exercises when I was in my sling, I think that's, it's awesome. And so we're gonna go to a brief break, Sam. And for those that you are watching, I'm Christine Linders, I'm here with Sam Lau. We're talking about the shoulder exercises that you can do to keep your shoulders healthy in an activity such as body surfing, which is very taxing in the upper body. And when we come back, Sam's gonna show us all his secret exercises, stay tuned. Aloha, I'm John David and the host of History Lens on Think Tech Hawaii. History Lens deals with contemporary events and looks at them through a historical perspective or what we call a history lens. The show is streamed live on ThinkTechHawaii.com. Thanks so much for watching our show. We look forward to seeing you then. Mahalo and Aloha. Welcome back to ThinkTechHawaii.com. This is Movement Matters. I'm Christine Linders, your host and I'm talking with Sam Lau, competitive body surfer about the secrets to keeping your shoulders healthy while you do your sport that you love. So, Sam, you were just telling me something in the break that was so great about what inspires you to do these exercises for your body and for your health. Can you tell me that again? That, you know, it's basically twofold. One, I would love to elevate the sport of body surfing and that's why I like to train and to do the things I do in the water. But a real big component is just my overall health. You know, I want my body to afford as a whole being healthy and this is a huge part of the core nutrition it is and, you know, getting proper rest. But it's a health. It's a really important health component that I really believe in. That's needed. I think that's great. And I know that one of the best things that can bring us positive endorphins is health is doing something that we love. And I know that when I've been injured and away from volleyball, but I could work out in the gym and I could work on projects, when I first got to play volleyball again or pepper volleyball with one of my friends, I was elated and overjoyed and the healthy benefits that I felt in my mind, my body, my spirit were unbelievable when you're doing something that you love and I can relate to that. I can relate to that. So let's, you also mentioned something, the key to longevity. Tell me what the key to longevity is first. Cause I think everyone wants to know that right now. I think everything we've talked about, you know, the, you know, the, just the overall health. No, I, as far as the physical aspect, you know, the working out is good. Swimming is incredible. You know, it's a non-impact sport and the cardio is incredible. So that is a good part. Getting rest is, you know, getting good sleep. I like to get at least six or an hour today in sleep, which I do. And now if we're not working so crazy, right? We can really rest. And of course you're diet, you know, eating well, you know, and also enjoying foods that you really like. Let me see. Do you have something there that you can show us? Oh, here we go. Ta-da. Wait, we're moving all the way. Wait, other way. I know what's going on, right? That way. Oh man, so that's where we're gonna stop up and while we're hunkering that, I wish I could get some of the camera. Yeah, yeah, it's, you know, in moderation, you know, but you know, I'm not gonna deprive myself of all the fun things in life too, you know. I want to have fun. That's a good thing for me. And I think being healthy and enjoying the sport I like is fun, you know, it's really fun and being competitive at it, you know. So let's look at those exercises now. Your secret exercises of what you do, part of what you do in the gym. I know this is in everything, but I think the first video, if you want to talk us through what you do while the videos are getting played, please do Sam. Let's show the videos. Okay, cool. Okay, so the first exercises are also always rotator cuff exercises. This is the, this is the dumbbell. You know, I'll do this one arm on each side. You know, all 15 reps, just keep it light. You know, you know, I like to keep my arms as properly clear as I can. And then I do, I do a rotator cuff where you would raise this upward movement. Excellent. I do this one all the time, pre and post volleyball. So, so, so vital. You can see the form, you know, I had the camera person come to the side so you can see how I like to bring it up. You know, I like to keep my positions, which is important too. Yep, that's great. That's great form. And now you're going to use, you're going to do the next one, which is the, your power move, right? That's your pulling into the waves, where you use the pulling. This is again, another rotator cuff move. I do have, you know, I have specific exercises for body surfing that I do. I don't know if I, I don't think we took video of it, but I know, and actually I didn't want to because those are truly my secret exercises. Well, you know what you could do? Well, if you're not going to be working too much right now, you know what you could do is you could write a little booklet on it and we'd all be happy to purchase that. You could do a little e-book on Sam's secrets to a finless body survey. I'd tell you what, we've done it. Oh yeah, go ahead. Sorry. I'm sorry, my phone is just going to be jerky. Hold on. Turn it off. You know, they're, as much as they are, they are, we call them a secret. They're really not. I mean, you know, they're really common sense, you know, you just apply a little physics there you have it, you know, I do a lot of things that I do a lot, but I want it, that that's the big thing is that's what I want to do. If I'm going to do anything with the sport or elevated, this is how I want to do it. I get that, I can feel that. And so now you've done your rotator cuff warm up. What's the next exercise? I think you start doing some bigger muscle group presses. We can check out that video. So I do one arm shoulder presses so I can symmetry in my shoulders. So I'll do it right there. You see me doing the left arm and you saw my position on the side and from the front. So I'll dip it down to different areas, you know, I'll go down lower, I'll go up higher, but I want to get exercise in the whole shoulder. So that's a pushing and that's from shoulder up. It's good, you know, with body surfing, your arms are your fins, your surfboard, your guide arm and so all the power and the water that's on you as you angle yourself in the water, that's a huge amount of force on the shoulder joint, which is pretty much the most multi-axial joint that we have in the body. So you need the power from not only the smaller rotator cuff muscles, like you showed in the first three videos, but of the bigger muscle groups to be able to stabilize that joint while you have, I don't even know how many pounds of force and moving force acting on that joint while you plane yourself in the water, that's impressive. So yeah, and you know, when you talk about that, that just the, you know, the shoulders play, you know, like you're showing the model of the shoulder how it ties into the back and that's huge, you know, and I think that if you really want to excel that these are the things you do, you focus on the areas. You know, it's interesting, you know, swimming, swimming without fins is what 70, 75, 80%, I don't know, 85% upper body, but once you throw the fins on, it actually changes to more like almost for me at least my experience is almost a 60, 40 where 60% now is in your legs and 40% in your upper body. And that's how much power you get out of fins. So as a competitive body surfer, you know, the shoulder has to be in good shape. Oh man, I mean, that's the key. I, you know, if my shoulder goes down, I can't body surf, that's it. If one of my legs is sore, I can still play around with it, you know? But so it's, but I get, I get a lot of boost out of that gym, just taking care of the whole body and especially the shoulders, you know? Yeah, no, it's great. I think we have one or two more videos left of you doing, oh yeah, two more videos left of you now working some... Right, so this is just an upright rows with a curl bar. And this, as you noticed, the movement starts on the bottom and stops pretty much at shoulder, right? So I like to do a pull from that. As you first, as you notice the press, you will be pressing from shoulder up, this, you're from lower and you're bringing up this way. So I like to get to attack the shoulders from a different, different angle. No, very good. Very good. And so now the last video that you gave is a branch off of this. So now you're doing a more in a range. I'm sorry, go ahead. Oh, I was gonna say more in the range where the shoulder becomes more vulnerable, where you have to have that strength and stability. And I, you know, you're using dumbbells and, you know, this can be a dangerous range for a lot of people that don't have good posture and that don't have good form. So I love, that's a great face. I love watching how your, this is why your form and your meticulous about shoulder height and above and not coming down beyond or down here to shoulder height. You're focusing on your mechanics and your form, which is, and physics, like you said, it's all physics so that you don't hurt yourself, strengthening yourself so that you can brew the sport that you love so much. And that is awesome. And that, and that movement, if you notice the dumbbells are very small and you're absolutely right. It's a difficult movement. And I start off with really light dumbbells because you, you know, the shoulder can, like you were saying, the shoulder can so vulnerable with my injury. So I start off really light and I end up pretty light. I think that's great. So we have about two more minutes left. You wanna wrap it up and tell everybody one last little tidbit of how you've been successful all these years? Well, it's, you know, for me, it comes from just loving the sport. Now, fortunately, I was, you know, very active family and we were promoting, you know, sports. But as I go, as you get older, you know, you wanna be more than just being competitive in sport. You wanna be mindful of your health and your body because, you know, your body needs to serve you and you have to take care of it. So I think that for me, it's one way of taking care of it and saying, thank you, you just thank you, my body and by taking care of it, you know? And just with the work, I get to return. I get to enjoy something that I really love to do. I love to do other sports where the body surface is far more important and much more fun to me in my life. So it's well worth it. That's great. That's a great message for all of us, especially now. So we're out of time. Thank you so much, Sam and everyone for joining us today. And thank you, Tech Hawaii, our sponsors and our donors for allowing us to bring this to you. In light of this very difficult time due to the coronavirus, I urge you all to stay safe, wash your hands frequently, avoid contact outside of your family if possible, wipe down your groceries and your hands after pumping gas or opening mail, drink water to stay hydrated and do something enjoyable to keep your food hydrated during this stressful time. Let's put up that last image if we can of the beach. It's important, look at family or vacation photos, call an old friend or family member, watch something funny, being happy releases endorphins which improves our immune system function. And as always, life is better when you listen to your physical therapist. Stay safe and see you in two weeks. Aloha, everyone.