Shoulder pain remains one of the most common reasons patients seek out the care of both their primary care physician and Physical Therapist. The most common cause of shoulder pain remains subacromial impingement or the compression of soft tissues including the rotator cuff tendons within the shoulder joint. Physical Therapy including joint manipulation and mobilization,...
Many athletes enjoy a cold beer or drink after a long workout or on the weekend after a long work/training week. The acute, short term effects of these alcoholic drinks are well established, but new research is looking into the impact of alcohol on hydration levels, future athletic performance, and recovery. Alcohol effects all of...
Photo Credit: Ramser1Photo.com 1. How did you initially get involved in triathlon as a competitor? I was a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin, and I had been uninvolved in competitive team sports for the first time in my whole life. I was doing some running, a bit of weight lifting and generally...
Knee osteoarthritis is a common condition leading to pain and disability among many middle and older aged adults. While Physical Therapy remains a hallmark of conservative care, knee arthroscopic surgery continues to be one of the most common orthopedic surgeries. We have previously written about the inability of arthroscopic surgery to be shown more effective...
The role of ankle mobility on injury risk and performance has been previously described in our prior blog posts. These posts have described the correlation between a lack of mobility at the ankle and knee injuries including patellofemoral knee pain and ACL injury, as well as, ankle sprains and achilles tendonitis. A lack of ankle...
PHOTO CREDIT: Alan Torres @ATV Photography 1. Can you tell us a little bit about what got you into triathlon? I grew up as a swimmer and then switched to cross country running in high school and college. At the time, I had friends who were doing triathlons and always thought that if I could...
Patellofemoral pain, commonly referred to as runner’s knee, is one of the most common reasons patients seek care in Physical Therapy clinics. In short, the symptoms are caused by abnormal forces between the knee cap and thigh bone. The condition is effectively treated by Physical Therapy interventions including manual therapy, exercise, and gait retraining. The...
After any knee surgery, the quadricep muscle group becomes difficult to contract and recruit. These inhibition or impairment is usually secondary to both knee pain and knee swelling. Weakness in the quadriceps can lead to pain, impaired leg function, and prevent a full return to life or sport after knee surgery. Physical Therapists often...
Low back pain continues to be a common source of pain, loss of function, and in some cases disability. A portion of this weight on our society and medical system is the over emphasis on imaging findings including disc injury or degenerative disc disease as the source of a patient’s symptoms. Unfortunately, there is an...
The functional movement screen was designed to screen athletes and individuals on both upper and lower body movement tasks in order to identify those at risk for future injury. As participants move through the 7 movement tasks, Physical Therapists are able to identify areas of weakness, tightness, or decreased coordination. Based on these results exercises...