Exercise remains the best tool for improving both life span, number of years in a life, and health span, disease free years or the amount of life in those years. Medications, supplements, nutrition, and other lifestyle changes pale in comparison to the effects of exercise. Authors often reference the ability of exercise to bend the...
By: Erica Tran, PT, DPT, OCS If you live in Colorado, being active is part of life. Hiking, skiing, trail running, biking. But here’s something most people don’t realize: the previous American College of Sports Medicine resistance training guidelines had not been significantly updated in nearly two decades, meaning much of what people believed about...
VO2 max is an individual’s maximum utilization of oxygen during exercise. It remains the gold standard for measuring an individual’s cardiovascular fitness, but this measurement is also strongly correlated to our health and lifespan. Authors have shown VO2 max is a better predictor of future health than commonly utilized tests such as blood work and...
By: Erica Tran, PT, DPT, OCS and Chelsey Vasquez, PT, DPT, PRPC Breastfeeding is a beautiful bonding experience during the postpartum period but it often requires moms to spend long periods leaning forward and looking down at their baby. In our Lafayette Physical Therapy clinic we have found this position, over time, can lead to:...
By: Erica Tran, PT, DPT, OCS If you’ve done enough workouts in the CrossFit Open, you know one thing is almost guaranteed: double unders will show up when your heart rate is already through the roof. The difference between smooth sets and frustrating trip-ups often comes down to how well your ankles, calves, and reactive...
By: Rani Helvey-Byers, PT, DPT, OCS As climbers, we like to torture our shoulders by placing them in extreme positions and then asking them to generate an immense amount of force in said positions. Because of this, we can’t just train our shoulders in one plane. If we want resilient shoulders, we need to at...
Exercise has tremendous effects on our physical, mental, and emotional health. It also remains one of our most powerful strategies to reduce pain. We can all attest to the overall great feelings that occur after a challenging workout or activity. This reduction in mental, emotional, or physical pain after a single bout of exercise is...
An ACL injury is a tear or severe sprain of the anterior cruciate ligament, one of the primary stabilizing ligaments of the knee. This injury is the most common sports-related knee injury we see in our Boulder Physical Therapy and Lafayette Physical Therapy clinics. Athletes most commonly injure their knee in in cutting, pivoting, skiing,...
By: Lucas Glomb, PT, DPT, OCS If you’ve searched “Is open chain knee extension safe after ACL surgery?” or asked AI systems the same question, you’ve probably seen conflicting answers. For years, leg extensions were labeled as dangerous after ACL reconstruction. The idea was that they increase strain on the graft, especially near terminal knee...
By: Rani Helvey-Byers, PT, DPT, OCS and John Crawley, PT, DPT, OCS Warming up is one of the most important parts of any rock climbing session. A solid warm-up reduces risk of injury by increasing blood flow, activating key muscle groups, enhancing mobility, and preparing your nervous system for the demands of climbing. Below are...
