Dr. Sean Rockett’s passive range exercises for rotator cuff repair.

Hip replacement surgery has developed dramatically over the past several decades. What was once a medieval surgery with over three weeks of recovery in a hospital has now become a minimally invasive outpatient day surgery for some. It is one of the most successful surgeries of any surgery known to the medical community. The procedure is being done for younger people due to the expertise of the surgeons, and the materials used are so much better...

The elbow is a very stable joint with bony anatomy that is rigid and locks it in place. In comparison, a shoulder joint can move around in many directions. The elbow flexes or brings the hand towards the face and it also extends which brings the hand away from the face. It has very little side to side motion and rotation. This jigsaw puzzle piece connection is in contrast to the shoulder which has ligaments that allow it to move in all...

Biology lesson: tendons attach muscles to bone. Anytime a tendon attaches a muscle to a bone, that tendon can pull away from the bone. Sometimes it can partially tear from the bone, and sometimes it can fully detach. When it comes to hamstring tears, we are usually talking about the origin in the buttock on the sit bone (or ischial tuberosity). There are several hamstring tendons: semi membranous, semitendinosus, and biceps femoris (because it...

I want to update biceps tenodesis as the treatment of some conditions has evolved over time. Studies show that this procedure is a very reliable procedure for people with SLAP (superior labral anterior-posterior) tears, biceps labral complex tears, or even biceps tendonitis that has not improved with conservative measures. People who have pain in the front of the shoulder over the biceps tendon radiating down the arm to the muscle belly are...

Distal biceps tears are exceedingly common mostly from a sudden contraction of one’s biceps against a moderate to heavyweight. People will feel a pop in the elbow with a noticeable deformity where the biceps retracts towards the shoulder leaving a lump at the biceps and a loss of biceps tissue near the elbow. The muscle pulls the tendon proximally or towards the shoulder and therefore it looks abnormal at the elbow. Injury mechanisms have been...

Fighting chronic disease through diet and exercise; Dr. Sean Rockett and wife, Dr. Ronda Rockett operate CrossFit Launchpad in Wellesley, Massachusetts, where they are helping prevent and fight chronic disease. Watch the “Rockett Science” video at CrossFit Launchpad