Tag: physical therapy

How to Fix Rounded Shoulders

Having rounded shoulders doesn’t occur for the reason you think it does Rounded shoulders are an often common complaint of folks who perceivably have poor posture. Conventional rehab makes us think that the simple solution to this problem entails stretching the pecs, strengthening the upper back, attaining a good head position, and sitting up straight. But what if conventional treatment for bad posture was all wrong? The problem with typical treatments is that we rarely look at the foundational influence—ribcage dynamics—that likely governs where your shoulders go. That changes today. In this video, we will outline postural factors that contribute to having rounded shoulders. The one’s your standard PTs gloss over.

Read More

Slouched vs Arched Posture – What’s the Difference?

Is your torso posture limiting your movement? Here’s what to do about it! If you have a tendency to be slouched, arched, or anything between, you might be wondering how you can improve the movements that are often lost with these presentations. The hard part is that the motions limited with these postures, as well as the “fixes” to improve these restrictions, are far from intuitive. Until today. It’ll all be cleaned up in Movement Debrie Episode 165.

Read More

The Best Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Exercises in 2021

If you have carpal tunnel syndrome, you may have to look beyond your wrist! With an increase in computer and remote work, we may see the incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome increase. The problem, however, is that most people only look at the wrist and the neural components in the arm. This approach may be missing some critical pieces that can influence the health of the median nerve, the nerve which is affected by carpal tunnel syndrome. What are those pieces? Don’t worry, fam, I’ll tell you in Movement Debrief 164!

Read More

Top 3 Questions to Ask During Your Physical Therapy School Interview

Questions to ask PT school that will actually impact your career When applying for anything, especially PT school, it’s common and expected to ask the school important questions. This shows that you are vested in the process. The problem is that most of the questions people on the internet tell you to ask are IRRELEVANT to moving forward in your career. Like how to pass the licensure, what separates you from other schools, etc. Although the PT school application process is nerve-wracking, never forget that YOU are also interviewing THEM. You have to make sure this school is the best fit for you and will set you up for success for the rest of your career. How will you know that? Check out today’s post below to learn more!

Read More

5 Mistakes I’ve Made as a Physical Therapist

Rarely do we discuss our mistakes. I’ll be the first We learn some of our best lessons from the mistakes that not only we’ve made, but those before us. Yet rarely does one discuss the times that they’ve failed. Instead, it’s all puppies and rainbows on your social network of choice. Everyone has their best life and best practice all up in there. But without that transparency, without sharing how we fail, we miss out on an incredible learning opportunity. We may fall victim to similar mistakes that can happen throughout both patient care and working with your supreme gym clientele. That ends today. I’m going to share with you 5 mistakes that I’ve made in my physical therapy career, what I’ve learned from those problems, and what I’m doing differently. Let ya boi screw up, so you don’t have to. Check out the video, podcast, and blog below to learn about it!

Read More

Hip Flexor Stretches Don’t Work – Try These 2 Exercises Instead

If hip flexor stretching is whack, what is better, Zac? It’s super common to feel hip flexor tightness from sitting or a bazillion other things. The problem is that your traditional hip flexor stretches don’t really work…At all. The reason why is NOT because your hip flexor muscles are this evil piece of your anatomy that hates you and cares little about your feeble attempts to stretch them. It’s because tight hip flexors are part of a bigger movement strategy that your body uses. And in order to get these muscles to let go, you have to teach your body a different movement behavior. One that takes into consideration ALL of the areas that influence hip flexor tension. What are they? Well fam watch the video below and read the blog to learn! What are the hip flexors? Are the hip flexors simply evil muscles that exist within your body to cause you all types of pain and problems? Uh, no fam. The hip flexors are several muscles that act to flex the hip (aka bring your thigh closer to your abdomen. If you’ve ever sprinted, walked, went upstairs, done marching exercises, or kneed someone in the gut (wild times in Vegas), then you can be thankful you have hip flexors big fam! For you anatomy nerds, some of the major players that complete this move include: Tensor fascia lata (TFL) Psoas major Iliacus Rectus femoris What other actions do the hip flexors perform? You’ll notice that the hip flexor

Read More

All About The Pelvic Floor

A deep dive into pelvic floor biomechanics Breathing is super important you know, but the base of breathing is the pelvic floor. Well fam, what if you don’t have the biomechanics on point down there? Then you’ll need some help! We will sift through it in this post. Check out Movement Debrief Episode 157 below to learn more.

Read More

Lateral Pelvic Tilt: Learn It All

If there is a frontal plane problem, you will want to check this out Are you someone who has a lateral pelvic tilt, a lateral spine shift, or Trendelenburg gait. If so, then this is the post for you, because we outline what is going on movement-wise, and what the heck you can do about it. Check out Movement Debrief Episode 156 below to learn more.

Read More

Help! I’m Not Sure What Infrasternal Angle I Have!

Those pesky people who have infrasternal angles right in the middle. What do you call him? Well in this case study, we talk about some tips and tricks for pinpointing the ISA that you are dealing. We also dive into the following topics: A couple quick tests to confirm the infrasternal angle Why the xiphoid process is an unreliable reference point How to prioritize treatments for someone who is compressed in all directions with asymmetries. How shifting at different degrees of flexion changes the pelvic mechanics

Read More

When Can I Run Again After an Ankle Sprain?

Ankle sprains are such a bugger and take some time to heal. But once you’ve let swelling and such run it’s course, when is it safe to run? We answer that in the video below. Here, you’ll learn my criteria and progression that I look for when having someone safely return to running. Watch and learn! Ankle sprain red flags The first thing you have to do after an ankle sprain is make sure you don’t have a fracture. There are these rules to follow called Ottawa Ankle Rules, which are a cluster of findings that would indicate getting some imaging done. These findings include: Inability to weight bear Pain within the viscinity of either malleolus If you have these findings, you most definitely need to get some imaging. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. But if you do not have these findings, move along to the next part 🙂 Returning back to running after an ankle sprain Running is merely a series of bounds (jumping from one leg to the other) for an extended period of time, so after an acute ankle sprain, we have to make sure components leading up to this go okay without any issues. To determine the course of action for this return, we can start from the most fundamental actions of the bound, then build our way up. The steps below are the progression that I use. You want to make sure that you have minimal increases in pain/swelling before moving onto

Read More

A Narrow Infrasternal Angle with Right Oblique Tilt – Case Report

What do you do if you have someone who is a narrow infrasternal angle, stiff as all hell, with some glaring asymmetries? Check out this video below, where a colleague and I walk through a case who presents in this manner. It in, you’ll hear about the following: How to test shoulder flexion more reliably How to build someone into half kneeling Moves to utilize for this type of individual Watch the video to learn what we did!

Read More

Bridging the Gap Between Table Testing and Training

Many of the moves we use to improve range of motion are a little weird. What if I have a client who wants to lift them heavy-ass weights? They want to feel like they did something. How can we bridge this gap? Watch this video to learn how. Applying the movement model to fitness Don’t underestimate the power of some of these simple breathing moves. When coached well, your clients will shake and get absolutely cooked. It’s a beautiful sight. Often, the key differentiator between feeling nothing and feeling a whole lot with some of the simple breathing moves is the stack. Make sure you have the stack. But remember folks, these moves are not something we just throw into the program willy nilly. These moves are merely regressions of the common moves that we perform in the gym. The Lewitt position is a regression of your midrange depth of the squat. If we understand the different positions we need to utilize to improve various ranges of motion, we can pick common gym moves to get range of motion changes. For example, if someone has a loss of external rotation, we might choose a 2 kettlebell front squat: If I need internal rotation in the arms and legs, pushups could be MONEY: Need to rotate like a boss? Well fam, a 1 arm press could change da game!

Read More