Introduction:
The classic doorway stretch for the pecs can be seen in almost every physical therapy clinic across the country. Unfortunately, it's usually part of the randomly prescribed exercises to address a cluster of problems. Consider getting specific with these three strategies to take...
Introduction:
When you think of exercise, you always think of its health benefits. Well, what if I told you that exercise is terrible for you? Additionally, what if I told you that when you understand this concept, you'll be able to coach your patient's how to live a healthier lifestyle...
Introduction:
Be honest... are your standards as high as you'd like them to be? What if I told you that raising your standards can instantly change your life, does that sound too good to be true? Ultimately, it is too good to be true when we focus on external measures to create higher standards....
Introduction:
The side plank is an exercise that's often only thought of as an "abdominal exercise." Although that's not necessarily wrong, this abdominal exercise tends to come with poor movement execution, suboptimal respiration patterns, and random exercise prescription. The fact is that...
Introduction:
Piriformis syndrome, otherwise known as sciatica, is a prevalent dysfunction in physical therapy. As a result, the piriformis tends to be the go-to muscle to blame when we experience common symptoms of lower extremity numbness, tingling, pain, and weakness. The typical...
Introduction:
Band walks are a classic exercise in physical therapy and strength and conditioning. It's prescribed most frequently as a strategy to improve hip abduction strength for functional activities such as gait or generalized weakness. But, believe it or not, the band walk can be a...
Introduction:
The initial goal of prescribing lunges in your rehab program should be to educate your patient on proper mechanics and techniques. The next goal is to make any necessary modifications to address their specific needs. However, you can beneficially integrate the arms to...
Introduction:
When you're teaching the fundamental mechanics of a lunge, where do you start? Have you ever asked yourself that question? With the multitude of lunging variations, it can be challenging to determine the best starting point. However, the optimal choice is the one that...
Introduction:
No matter the variation, rows tend to be a difficult exercise for patients to perform and coaches to teach. One reason for this struggle is the lack of visual feedback. For example, when performing exercises for your legs, chest, or biceps you receive constant visual feedback...
Introduction:
Have you ever noticed how common knee valgus is around 90 degrees of hip flexion during a squat? If so, have you ever wondered why it occurs? We tend to be quick to blame weak muscles such as the glute max, glute med, and glute min as the main contributors...
Introduction:
It seems like the first modification that's made for someone with a limited squat is to elevate the heels. While this does improve range of motion, have you ever stopped to wonder why? Most people's go-to answer is that "it improves ankle dorsiflexion." Although this is...
Introduction:
You know those patients and clients that always have "tight" ankles?
Ever notice how they constantly stretch them, but it produces little to no improvements?
Well, chronic ankle tightness should signal alarms in your head that you're probably not dealing with an ankle...
