By: Chelsey Vasquez, PT, DPT, PRPC Many breast cancer survivors continue to experience shoulder pain, tightness, weakness, and limited mobility long after treatment ends. A new 2026 study published in the Journal of Cancer Survivorship found that a multimodal physical therapy approach may significantly improve pain, function, and quality of life for women dealing with...
Ehlers‑Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is a group of genetic connective tissue disorders that affect collagen formation—the protein that helps provide the structure to skin, joints, and organs. This condition can lead to joint hypermobility, frequent dislocations, and persistent pain. Because EDS affects the connective tissue throughout the body, it often requires a multidisciplinary management approach focused...
By: Chelsey Vasquez, PT, DPT, PRPC and Erica Tran, PT, DPT, OCS For many women, childbirth recovery includes more than just sleep deprivation and adjusting to life with a newborn. Perineal tearing during delivery is extremely common and can sometimes lead to lingering pelvic pain, scar sensitivity, or pain with intercourse months after giving birth....
Patients often receive exercise handouts from physicians when initially presenting with musculoskeletal pain. The idea behind the handout makes sense on the surface, a low cost treatment option which may help a patient’s symptoms. Unfortunately, these handouts (often photocopied to death) lack specificity including providing the right handout to the right patient, as well as,...
Tennis elbow or lateral epicondylalgia is a common overuse injury in the upper extremity. Initially believed to be an inflammatory process or tendinitis newer research has instead found a degenerative process consistent with cellular turnover (remodeling) in tendon where the muscles of the wrist and fingers attach into the arm. Current Physical Therapy best practice...
Physical Therapy strengthening exercises remain the first line treatment for patients with shoulder diagnoses including impingement and rotator cuff pain. While immediate gains in range of motion and pain can be found using spinal and extremity manual therapy interventions, long term outcomes are achieved through a focused strength training program. Exercises are prescribed to target...
Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is a common diagnosis given to those experiencing low back pain. The gold standard of diagnosing stenosis is using an MRI to determine closure of natural occurring spaces of the lumbar spine. At times the closures can contribute to impingement of nerves or spinal canal which can lead low back pain...
Photo Credit: phoenixmanualtherapy.com 1. What influenced your decision to start a private practice? The primary drive behind the decision to start a private practice for me was that I had invested completely in becoming skillful at what I did, I saw no plausible rationale for pursuing a profession at an average level. I found myself...
Isometrics, muscle contractions without movement of a joint, have been utilized for many decades as a form of strength training and performance, but have recently been highlighted as an effective treatment for tendon pain. In our Boulder Physical Therapy practice, isometrics are helpful to initially load a tissue after surgery or injury, as well as,...
Tennis elbow, also known as lateral epicondylalgia is the most common reason for elbow pain and 2nd most common overuse injury in the arm after the shoulder. Lateral elbow pain was previously described as an inflammatory condition, but we now know this condition affects the muscles’ common insertion point where the tendon meets the...
