Reducing The Risk for ACL Tears with Movement Quality Screening
Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tears are nothing short of soul-crushing. Athletes who suffer one are in for a long 9–12 month ride of surgery concerns, head-scratching post-op differences of opinion, and the potential for insurance companies to prematurely cut them off, resulting in high risk for a re-tear. It is extremely frustrating that we still lack common knowledge about this injury. Especially when we have been seeing such a huge spike in ACL tears in recent years. In America alone, over 200,000 ACL injuries occur each year and 70 percent
3 Reasons That Your Back Still Hurts
It’s one of the most common reasons that people go to Physical Therapy; back pain. Now you’ve completed physical therapy and your back feels better. You go back to life as it was, and because there’s no pain as a daily reminder you start forgetting to do your home exercises, and in a few months it’s back again. Back pain can be short lived or chronic, but generally speaking once you’ve experienced it, it’s always lurking in the shadows looking to come back. Why is that though? Why is back pain
Fighting Low Back Pain Through Exercise
Low back pain (LBP) is the single leading cause of disability worldwide, preventing many people from engaging in work as well as daily activities. While working out with back pain may seem undoable to many, neglecting it entirely can oftentimes do more harm than good. This misconception needs to be addressed because when prescribed appropriately, exercise decreases stiffness, facilitates fluid exchange between discs to reduce swelling, and repairs muscle fibers that help support the back. While it’s important to avoid certain movements that can stress the area, delicate programming with
Did The Pandemic Cause Us to Lose Sight on The Importance of Strength Training?
When closing mandates went into effect during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic we experienced life without gyms / fitness centers. At the time, most of us didn’t have a decent “home gym” so we needed to find ways to keep active with minimal to no equipment at our disposal. Over the past two years, I have met a handful of people who either lost motivation to work out or shared with me that they only do cardio. This cardio-only trend made me want to dive a little deeper
Overcoming “Gym Anxiety”
A recent study conducted by the Global Health & Fitness Association, showed that 50% of Americans are too intimidated to visit a gym and workout around other people. Signing up for a gym membership may be a breeze for some, but it is a gut-wrenching thought for many. Fear of being judged, fear of appearing confused, not knowing how to exercise with proper form, and fear of injury are just a few things that cause someone to experience “gym anxiety”. We need to be empathetic of gym anxiety because it
Eliminate Golfer’s Elbow So That It Never Comes Back
There’s no question that the golf swing is a full body movement, but your body only has one true connection with the golf club; your hands. Between playing rounds and getting out to the range to practice, the muscles in your forearms that control your grip can take a beating during golf season. Just like any other part of your body, it’s important to take care of those muscles to ensure that you don’t suffer a case of golf or tennis elbow. While these conditions have different names and occur
Six Nutrients for Better Recovery and Well-Being
When thinking about making changes to our diets, we often think about eating to gain muscle or to lose fat. However, there are many other reasons to alter our diets that don’t involve a change in weight at all. Current estimates state that about 70% of the standard American diet consists of processed foods (1). While frozen fruits and vegetables are included in this statistic, the majority of those foods are nutrient-poor choices that result in major vitamin and mineral deficiencies that can leave us with muscle cramps, fatigue, difficulty
4 At Home Hip Openers For Golfers
Having proper hip mobility is an important piece to any golfer’s game. A golfer who has tight hips can develop compensatory movements. If this happens, surrounding areas usually pick up the slack, resulting in injuries and increased pain. Establishing and maintaining hip mobility allows for golfers to have a smoother turn in their backswing and downswing. It also helps increase power by allowing for the optimal rotation needed during the golf swing. Heavy resistance band stretching is a great way to develop better hip mobility. This technique will stretch both the
The Fitness Puzzle – Which Piece Are You Missing?
When it comes to fitness goals, most people end up falling short of where they would like to be. Part of that is the lofty expectations that people have, and part of it is our “instant gratification” society where people want a quick fix. But take out the people who expect to lose 20 pounds in a month, and there are still plenty of others who make a commitment to diet or exercise and never see the results that they would like. It’s often something that the individual doesn’t realize
Get Stronger by Pushing Through the Wall
If you’ve tuned into any of the Olympic Trials recently, you have surely seen some of the incredible performances that athletes have left on the competitive stage. While these athletes have undergone thousands of hours of physical training, these phenomenal performances go deeper than just physical training. Athletes, like Sydney McLaughlin, the most recent 400m hurdles world record holder, are not impressing the world by staying within their comfort zones. When practicing to push their bodies to their limits, athletes must also practice pushing their minds to those same limits. The