If you’ve ever been to physical therapy, then you might have noticed that posture is often a topic of conversation… and usually it’s more about your bad posture. Posture affects things from range of motion, strength potential, and even pain. Let me demonstrate how posture can be affected by something as simple as footwear, and […]
Sitting All Day & Experiencing Lower Back Pain?
Sitting at work every day and experiencing lower back pain? The following list outlines exactly what happens to your lower back with sitting, and what you can do about it. 1. During sitting, most people will eventually fall into a posterior pelvic tilt (as shown below). What to do? Take a look at how your […]
Can a “Sashay” Cause Lower Back Pain?
The short answer is yes. The word “sashay” by definition is “to walk in an ostentatious yet casual manner, typically with exaggerated movements of the hips and shoulders.” The sashay brings to mind images of models walking down runways, divas “strutting their stuff,” and the general positive connotation of female confidence. As empowering and popular […]
Using Your Natural Turnout: A Cry for Dance Injury Prevention
In the dance community, particularly the ballet community, turnout is such a coveted talent. It becomes ingrained from a very early age that this perfectly externally rotated foot position is necessary to be considered a good dancer or one that is better than the other dancers. The problem is that turnout is not just a […]
How Obesity Affects Your Joints
Most of us have heard the warning about obesity as it pertains to general health. Diabetes, coronary heart disease, gastrointestinal issues, and osteoarthritis are all common health concerns that are all associated with overweight patients. Here is one additional reason to lose weight that you may not have considered: Obesity, particularly as it pertains to […]
Staying Injury Free in Social Dance
When people think of dance injuries, the mind often automatically goes to a setting of a ballet barre or stage show. Sometimes dance injuries happen in the social dance arena as well. For the purposes of this article, the term social dance will be defined as a dance style that requires at least 2 people […]
Poor Posture at Work? Do Something About It!
Any patient with a repetitive overuse injury who walks into our clinic will be asked the following question upon evaluation, “What does your work desk set-up look like?” Countless bouts of thumb tendonitis, back pain, elbow epicondylitis, and other maladies could be avoided if employers only took the time to make basic modifications to computer […]
Getting en Pointe: For the Progressing Dancer
The art of dancing en pointe is something that many little girls in ballet class work towards. It is a typical sign that you are now one of the “big girls.” However, the excitement of getting to this milestone can sometimes cause premature entry into the world of pointe shoes. Pointe shoes are a much […]
The Dancer’s Warm Up: You’ve Been Doing It Wrong For So Long
Every time I walk into dance facilities, I see the same thing, and as a physical therapist, it makes me cringe. I see dance students waiting for their classes to start by surrounding their respective studios in splits or some variation of a split. Yes, flexibility in dance is so very important, but this bad […]
Aging, Falling, and Sensible Solutions
One in three people over the age of sixty-five are victims of a fall in the course of one year. A fall may not seem like a major deal to most of us, but to senior citizens, they can be devastating ordeals that cause permanent disability and in many cases cut lives short. A fractured […]
Neck Pain With Bicycling?
In terms of repetitive stress injuries involved with bicycling, one type of injury that we are encountering with increased frequency is the “neck strain.” Take a look at the relative positions of both the head and neck in the photo on the right. Note that this person’s neck has to extend quite a bit in […]
Thumb Tendonitis and your iPhone
iPhones and other handheld devices have “unlock” features that must be manually surpassed prior to usage. The iPhone in particular requires the sweeping motion of a finger across the bottom of the screen from left to right. Most people tend to hold the phone in the right hand and use the right thumb to make […]
Ten Common Ways To Strain Your Neck
1. Inadequate Lighting The neck has a tendency to crane forward while we are working at the computer, watching television, and performing various other activities when there is a lack of ambient light. 2. Bifocals For the younger generation who wear contact lenses, bifocals are glasses that are specially made to allow the user to […]
Allowing Tendonitis To Heal
I hate tendonitis and the misery that it brings. The loss of function, the psychological frustration that comes with having pain with motion, and visits to health professionals are annoyances that many of us who have tendonitis must endure. Tendonitis is inflammation of a tendon that usually stems from repetitive stress or overuse. We commonly […]
Tape on Athletes: New Fashion Trend or Therapeutic?
You may have noticed that many track athletes, volleyball players, and even platform divers at the London Olympics were competing with visible strips of tape on various parts of their bodies. What purpose does taping serve for athletes? To start with a simple example, traditional “athletic taping” is used to immobilize joints. The most typical […]