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Mend Physical Therapy Blog and Injury Information
How to Best Improve Thoracic Spine Mobility for Rock Climbers

Joint stiffness in the thoracic spine can be a significant contributor to neck, upper back, and shoulder pain in rock climbers. The high muscle demands and repetitive pulling down movement of climbing often leads to excessive thoracic kyphosis, internally rotated shoulders, and a forward head position. If left untreated this can lead to long term...

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...

Shoulder pain is the 2nd most common orthopedic reason patients seek out medical care behind low back pain.  Shoulder pain has many causes including lack of mobility, shoulder blade and rotator cuff weakness, but posture is often criticized as a risk factor for shoulder pain.  Clinicians and patients believe a poor posture places structures such...