Knee arthritis is a common condition affecting many middle to older aged adults. Its’ prevalence makes it one of the leading causes of disability in our country preventing these individuals from participating in their life, work, and recreational activities. Physical therapy including patient education, manual therapy, and exercise remains a first line treatment for this...
How can you give me a proper diagnosis without feeling my muscles or joints? Most physical therapists will tell you: “I am highly confident of my diagnosis after the question and answer portion of the visit.” And it’s not just blind confidence. Research studies have examined this concept and found that 83% of diagnoses are...
What you can expect during your Physical Therapy telehealth visit For many of us, telehealth is a whole new world with lots of unknowns. We want to make the process as easy and effective as possible to make sure you get the most out of your appointment. Here are the most frequent questions we get...
The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent quarantine is changing the way healthcare is delivered. Most healthcare companies, including physical therapists, have moved online in an effort to maintain social distancing guidelines. But with change comes the fear of the unknown. How will physical therapy work if not done in person? Is it as effective? Is it...
Rolling is a popular soft tissue intervention for range of motion, performance, and pain relief. Participants have a wide variety of tools to choose from including foam rollers, lacrosse balls, and sticks. Each tool is designed to target an individual sore or painful spot (trigger point) in a given muscle or a tight long muscle...
There are few clinical examples that remind me of how far we have come in orthopedic Physical Therapy practice than assessing bony SI landmarks. As the popular clinical pendulum swung these landmarks were assessed in patients presenting with low back pain to hip pain and even to distant regions such as ankle and neck. Thankfully,...
Running related injuries are very common with studies reporting up to 90% of athletes reporting an injury preventing them from training or competition. Many groups including Physical Therapists are interested in reducing this injury risk through training volume modifications, shoe selection, strength training, and gait retraining. Despite popular internet opinions, research has not concluded on...
Researchers continue to explore the health benefits of resistance or strength training. One area which has expanded in recent years is the impact of resistance training on early deaths associated with diseases including cancer and heart disease. In comparison, aerobic exercise has been shown to reduce the risk of early death associated with these diseases,...
Blood pressure is an established vital sign given its’ ability to inform clinicians on the status of multiple organ systems in the body. Most commonly, blood pressure is utilized to assess the workload on the cardiovascular system as it maintains circulation to the body under different levels of stress and disease states. Importantly, blood pressure...
In the mid 1960s a Japanese electronics manufacturer being to produce one of the first commercial pedometers measuring an individual’s steps over a given period. This business also provided us with a marketing slogan designed to increase our steps per day to 10,000 or roughly 5 miles per day. Certainly we will not argue with...