Athletico Health Resources

Regardless of the time of year each season brings certain risk factors for injuring your back.  In the Spring and Summer many people get outside and become more active drastically increasing work or exercise intensity and frequency.  In a past post I discussed how physical therapists can help your back pain but today I thought we could focus more on prevention.  Below you will learn some common sense strategies, postures, and or body mechanics to help you minimize risk of back injury in the first place.

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Stretch of the week: Forward Fold IT Band Stretch. This stretch is simple but very effective. You won’t need anything for this stretch.

The only contradiction for this stretch would be if you have low back pain. Be conscious of how your body feels and please don’t overly push yourself in the stretch.

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Due to the repetitive nature of cycling, cyclists are at a higher risk for repetitive stress injuries. Some of these injuries may be caused by an improperly adjusted bicycle. When a bicycle is not ideally adjusted to fit you, you will experience higher levels of stress in certain areas of the body. This will eventually lead to tissue injury and pain. Think of it this way: if you were to use your finger to push on one small area of your skin 10 times, your body is able to adapt to that stress and there is no injury. If you were to push on that same area of your skin 1,000 times, you end up with a bruise, which indicates tissue injury. (more…)

A former patient recently approached me with questions about whether Athletico could help him overcome a challenge that had recently developed for him. We talked through some of the options and, with his permission, I wanted to share his story here in hopes it helps others. Physical therapy can help in more ways than just bumps and scrapes. (more…)

With the golf season now in full swing, many golfers may be experiencing some aches and pains from the first several rounds of the course. Low back pain is a specifically common aliment among golfers.  Low back pain can be caused by numerous factors, but two areas of deficit are common culprits to low back pain among golfers. (more…)

The final week of May is here! How are you doing? How is your back? Make sure you check in with yourself, it helps to create body awareness as you stretch. For the last week of May you will have three options for a psoas stretch. I will be giving beginner, intermediate, and advanced variations for this psoas stretch. If you have a history of low back problems stick with the beginner variation.  (more…)

A common question I receive in my travels as an Work Comp therapist is “What is Work Comp and who needs it?” Essentially Work Comp is an extension of physical and occupational therapy services for injuries that occurred while in a work setting or environment. (more…)

During the month of May we will be focusing on a crucial muscle involved in low back pain, our psoas muscle. Back in December we addressed our quads and hip flexors (please feel free to check back through our Stretch of the Week archive for those stretches!), which did get into the psoas a little, but this month we will try to isolate it. For the first week we will start with a gentle psoas opener, it’s a variation of what’s called a Bridge in the exercise world.  (more…)