This time of year, many people are focused on fitness so it’s worth taking a look at what fitness really means. The dictionary defines fit as “sound physically and mentally, healthy.” Using that definition, many “fitness” routines fall short of the goal. If you don’t enjoy running and dread every workout, you’re probably falling short of the “sound mentally” portion. Exercise should be enjoyable, reduce stress, and leave you feeling better, not worse.

NO PAIN NO GAIN?

Exercise should also leave you feeling better physically. If you can run a good time in a 5k, but have aches and pains for days after, you’re not “sound physically.” If you are increasing your PR in the squat rack, but your joint pain is increasing right along with it, you’re not “sound physically” either. Sure, some muscle soreness and fatigue after a hard workout is normal. But if you’re having pain that doesn’t go away, sore joints, or trouble moving after exercise, you’re probably developing movement dysfunction along with your fitness.

MOVEMENT DYSFUNCTION

Go back to the dictionary and you’ll find that dysfunction is “impaired or abnormal functioning.” So movement dysfunction is impaired or abnormal movement. When someone has a movement problem like a sore joint, limited range of motion, or strength loss, the brain finds a way to get the body to do what it wants. That usually means moving in a way that is less than optimal. For a while, it works. But eventually, it leads to injury. As a concrete example, think of someone who has trouble bending one knee doing squats. When one knee bends further than the other, it will cause one side of the pelvis to drop lower than the other. Now that the pelvis isn’t level, the spine bends towards the high side to stay balanced. When that one side of the pelvis drops lower than the other one, it also usually rotates. Now the spine has to bend to the side and twist to keep you upright. This works for a while, but as weight gets added to the squat, and the repetitions add up so does the risk for a back injury.

PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE

Pain during workouts, or pain and soreness that don’t go away after can be warning signs of a movement dysfunction. If you’re experiencing any of these, your physical therapist is a movement expert who can help. PTs are trained to analyze movement, and figure out the root cause of problems. They can then design a program to treat the cause and correct the abnormal pattern. There is no need to wait until you’re injured to see your physical therapist. In fact, it’s preferable not to. Getting minor problems fixed early means fewer visits to the PT, less pain, and not having your workouts put on hold by injury.

You know that physical activity is good for you. The benefits are well researched and the list is impressive. Here’s just a sampling:

– Releases endorphins to make you feel good and fight depression

– Helps control weight

– Prevents diseases like stroke, diabetes, and some forms of cancer

– Improves sleep

– Helps you live longer

Recent studies even show that physical activity strengthens your immune system, with a protective effect against COVID, and that staying active through middle age protects your brain as you age.

Physical activity is a wonder drug. If it was a pill, you’d buy it and take it every day. But even though activity is free, less than 25% of Americans meet the CDC recommendations for activity. We clearly need help.

Physical Therapists Are The Experts in Human Movement

To be active, you need to be able to move. Physical Therapists do more than help you recover from surgeries or major injuries. They are the experts in human movement. Sure, you could see a strength coach to lift weights, hire a personal trainer, go to a yoga class to work on your flexibility and balance, and see a chiropractor for adjustments. But that seems like a lot of people when a PT can help you with all of these things and more. Nobody knows more about human movement or looks at your health the same way a PT does. Your PT can help you with every aspect of movement including strength, range of motion, flexibility, endurance, balance, and coordination.

As medical professionals, they can help you with injuries or other issues. Your PT can work with your doctor to help use activity to manage things like diabetes, cholesterol levels, or blood pressure instead of prescriptions. Your PT is also trained to work with people of all ages, so you can develop a long-term relationship and they can continue to adjust and modify your routine as you age or your goals change.

Stay Healthy For Life

Staying active has a long list of benefits both now and in the future. But chances are you’re not moving enough to make the most of those benefits. Most people need help. Physical therapists are the most qualified professional in existence to help keep you healthy now and in the future. So don’t think of your PT as someone you see when you need help with pain or an injury. Think of them as your partner and coach working to help you stay healthy for life.

Pelvic Physical Therapy covers a variety of dysfunctions from pain to incontinence. It has many possible causes and affects up to 20% of the population in the United States, including women and men.

Pelvic pain is quite often overlooked; 61% of women never have a diagnosis. 1 in 7 American women ages 15-80 experience some sort of pelvic pain and physical therapy can help.

Katie Reynolds and Kennan Wyne have specialized training in internal and external examinations of the pelvic floor muscles to determine the tone and strength of the muscles and malalignments of the pelvic girdle.

Physical therapy can help retrain these muscles through Kegel exercises and by keeping a bladder diary. Additional prescribed exercises will help improve/maintain bladder and bowel control, heighten sexual response, maintain strength, tone, and elasticity to support your organs against gravity.

With the help of our specialists, our patients will need a minimum of three to six visits. Usually, after therapy, you are able to sit pain-free, have intercourse without feeling pain, as well as regaining control of your bladder and bowel functions.

Be the Boss of Your Bladder and Bowel!

Urinary Incontinence (UI) is the weakening of the pelvic floor muscles due to trauma/injury, pain, or malalignment of the pelvic bones.

Physical Therapy can help decrease the frequency of having to go and accidental leakage. With the help of biofeedback, modalities (moist heat), and manual therapy (hands-on approaches), most patients will see results in as little as four to eight visits. Urinary Incontinence types are defined as:

Urge:  This is when urine loss may occur after a strong and sudden desire to urinate. This happens with only a few seconds or minutes of warning causing the bladder to contract when it is not time.

Stress: This is when a small amount of urine loss occurs with physical exertion. This could be with a cough, sneeze, lift or laugh.

In the past, everyone thought that Kegel exercises were the cure for UI and when leaking continued to occur, frustration forms into a “no hope” attitude. Katie and Kennan treat their patients beyond Kegels. As important as these exercises are it is more important when to perform Kegels in conjunction with exercises for maximum benefit.

Fecal Incontinence (FI) is the recurrent uncontrolled passage of fecal material and certainly can have its detrimental impact on lifestyle and functioning compared to urinary incontinence. FI is also attributed to conditions associated with pelvic floor weakness.

Constipation Blues?

Constipation can affect many individuals and cause increased pain in the abdomen as well as acid reflux. Physical therapy can be beneficial in helping you have a good bowel movement and decrease discomfort. Through education in how the bowels function and abdominal massage, along with other techniques, we can help you with this unpleasant experience.

What to Expect.

Katie or Kennan will create an individualized program that will help them identify what factors aggravate your symptoms based on your diagnosis.

They will incorporate the essential components mentioned previously by closely monitoring diet and fluid intake, bladder irritability, activities of daily living, stressors, and musculoskeletal components.

For patients that have difficulty identifying and isolating the muscles of the pelvic floor, the use of our Biofeedback machine can be used to pick up small electrical stimuli in the muscles and translate these signals into a visual bar graph. As the contraction increases, the visual bar graph gives our patients “feedback” contraction strength and if performed correctly.

Each of our patients are then instructed in a home exercise program designed specifically for their condition, giving them the power and knowledge to regain their quality of life!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Physical therapists aren’t just for people that are injured or have had surgery. Physical therapists can also help healthy people improve their fitness. Here are 5 reasons why you should consider seeing yours.

YOU WANT A BASELINE

When you see a physical therapist to improve your fitness, you’ll get an assessment of your strength, range of motion, posture and movement patterns. This not only helps your physical therapist design a customized program just for you, it gives them a baseline to compare things to in the future should you start having pain or suffer an injury.

YOU WANT EXPERT GUIDANCE

Sure, other professionals could help with your fitness routine, but the fitness industry is not well regulated. Some certifications just require an online course and paying a fee. There are no licenses or other requirements to use many titles. Becoming a physical therapist requires at least a bachelor’s degree and most PTs practicing today have a doctorate. Every PT has passed a national board exam and maintains a state license. That guarantees you that every physical therapist is a verified expert in human movement.

YOU WANT TO PREVENT INJURY

Physical therapists don’t just work to heal injuries, they are also experts in preventing them. After a thorough assessment, a PT can help you design a program that will not only help you reach your fitness goals, but that can address any issues that increase your risk for injury.

YOU WANT UNBIASED ADVICE

Yoga instructors will want you to do yoga. Personal trainers will want you to come to their gym. Pilates instructors will want you to do Pilates. Strength coaches will want you to strength train. A physical therapist doesn’t have a bias or vested interest as to what type of fitness regimen you choose. They are only interested in helping you reach your goals.

YOU HAVE A HISTORY

If you have some kind of history that affects your ability to exercise, a PT is the best person to help you design a fitness regimen. It doesn’t matter if it’s an old injury from athletics or work, back pain that comes up from time to time, COPD, arthritis or heart disease, a PT can help you safely work around it and meet your fitness goals.

COVID has certainly made the importance of health very clear and we have all seen how quickly things can change with an illness. While COVID is currently front and center in most people’s thoughts, it isn’t the only thing out there that can change your life. Heart disease, diabetes, strokes and cancer can all be devastating too.

Movement Offers a Defense

If you’re looking to be more resilient and defend against these things, physical activity can do it. The dangers of being sedentary are well known and documented in the research. Excessive sitting and sedentary time have even been called the new smoking. For many of us, sitting and being inactive is part of our jobs. However, research has shown that getting in enough movement can counteract the negative effects of being sedentary.

A large study done in the U.K. found no association between the amount of time people spent sedentary and their chances of illness. But the authors didn’t conclude that being sedentary is OK. Instead, they felt their findings were likely “attributable to a protective effect of the high volumes of daily walking.” The study was conducted in London, where people tend to spend much more time walking or standing than average. The people in the study had daily walking times that were over double the average amount reported in the U.K.

Physical Therapists Are Unequaled Experts in Human Movement

While walking was the activity in this particular study, other research has shown that all kinds of movement can help protect your health. If you’re looking to get those protective benefits for yourself you could choose to walk, bike, lift weights, dance, or garden. If you’re not moving as much or as well as you’d like, see our physical therapists.

PTs are the most qualified professionals on the planet to help you move better and allow you to stay healthy and enjoy life. From designing a program to get you started or moving more to help you recover from an injury, your PT is the right person to look to for help!

A mild to moderate bout with COVID-19 can leave you feeling weak, with a loss of balance and coordination, a lack of endurance, and sometimes problems with memory. Physical activity can help you recover.

Exercise may be the last thing on your mind, but it is key to regaining your fitness. Regular physical activity benefits your physical, mental, and social health. It’s important for COVID-19 survivors (after their initial recovery) to get moving. Physical activity helps to improve:

• Strength.
• Endurance.
• Breathing capacity.

According to an article in BMJ, it’s important to return to exercise after at least seven days free of COVID-19 symptoms and to begin with at least two weeks of minimal exertion.

Listen to your body (and your doctor or physical therapist) for when it’s safe to return to exercise. Then, take things slowly and follow this advice for returning to physical activity after a typical case of COVID-19.

1. Just Move, Even a Little

Your body has been through a lot. Take things slowly. For some, a trip from the bed or couch to the bathroom may be as much as you can handle in the early days. A flight of stairs may make you want to plop on the nearest easy chair. Get up and move as many times throughout the day as you can, even if it’s just to stand from sitting several times in a row. Stretch for the sky with both arms and take several deep breaths each time you rise. Doing this light movement several times a day will help you start to build back strength.

2. Take a Walk

If a little movement is not too challenging, try taking a brief walk. Begin at first by walking down the hall several times or around your house or apartment building. If that feels good, try a five-, 10-, or 15-minute walk around your neighborhood.

At this stage in your recovery, your intensity should be very light to light. At a light intensity, you should be able to easily carry on a conversation. If your intensity causes you to gasp for breath, you are pushing yourself too hard. The CDC provides a helpful description of Borg’s Rating of Perceived Exertion to help you measure your intensity.

If you’re a regular fitness fanatic and light intensity sounds too easy, be careful not to overdo it. It is important to allow your body time to get back to doing activities at your pre-COVID-19 pace. Gradually increase the intensity and length of your walks. With each day and each week, you’ll be preparing your body to return to the full demands of a vigorous workout.

3. Ready To Run

If you tolerate walking, you may be ready to begin jogging, swimming, biking, or other activities. First, start your chosen activity at a slow pace for 10 minutes. Then, increase your pace for one minute before returning to the slower pace for another five to 10 minutes. Then repeat. When you’re able to do these intervals for 30 minutes or more, you’re ready to progress. Safely ease back into physical activity by slowly increasing the amount of intense exercise each day or week.

At this phase of recovery, you may be ready for a higher intensity level. Aim for moderate-intensity in which the exercise is somewhat hard, but not too hard. You should be breathing faster and deeper, but still be able to speak a full sentence and not be gasping for breath.

Everyone, regardless of age, condition, or ability should try to get the amount of daily physical activity recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services. If you are struggling with lingering side effects from COVID-19 and have trouble doing physical activities, contact your doctor.  They can refer you to us and we can work with you to help you reach your goals.

Disclaimer: The above tips are designed to help people return to fitness after a typical case of COVID-19. Around 10% of people infected with COVID-19 will have problems that linger for months after the infection is gone. These individuals are called long-haulers, and the condition is known as “long-COVID-19” or PASC, which stands for Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2. If you have symptoms of long-COVID, contact your primary care doctor before starting an exercise program. Long-COVID could involve other health complications that require labs, tests, or imaging, before being referred to a physical therapist who will design an exercise treatment plan specific to your condition.

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for more on physical therapy for COVID visit:

https://www.choosept.com

 

April is the spotlight month for Parkinson’s Disease awareness. We are so happy to be able to provide therapy through our LSVT Big program for people in all stages of the Disease, witnessing successful outcomes to our patients living with PD or other neurological conditions, ie. multiple sclerosis.

So, what Parkinson’s disease (PD) topics were most popular in 2020? While the year was unprecedented, the Parkinson’s Foundation remained dedicated to covering the topics you found most critical in their Parkinson’s Today blog. Here is a sample of blogs including 7-Taboo-Topics:

Life with Parkinson’s After the COVID-19 Vaccine

7 Taboo Parkinson’s Topics and How to Address Them

10 Most Popular Parkinson’s Articles of 2020

As always the Parkinson’s foundation is just a click away to help you navigate through the things you can do to maintain and improve your quality of life and live well with Parkinson’s disease.

 

Most (70%) of the people with chronic pain who participated in a recent study have seen their condition worsen in terms of severity, frequency of episodes and interference in their daily activities during the pandemic, according to researchers.

The study, performed by the eHealth Lab, a research group affiliated with the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya’s eHealth Center, was published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine.

A total of 502 patients took part in the study; 88% were women aged between 30 and 59, with long-duration chronic pain (mean duration, 7 years). Most participants (87.6%) had pain in more than one point; the most frequent locations were the abdomen, lower back and neck.

The participants answered online surveys, designed in accordance with the IMMPACT (Initiative on Methods, Measurement, and Pain Assessment in Clinical Trials) methodology, and the CPGQ (Chronic Pain Grade Questionnaire) was used to compare changes in the pain perceived by the patients since lockdown began, a media release from Universitat Oberta de Catalunya explains.

How the Pandemic May Worsen Pain

The results suggest that job insecurity, worries about the future, the number of people living in the same dwelling, having someone close who has died of COVID-19, or fear of becoming infected with the virus may be related with a worsening of the pain.

The study also suggests that the pandemic has favored the emergence of new pain triggers. While stress and weather changes were the most frequently mentioned triggers before the pandemic, during lockdown a large number of participants have mentioned worrying about the future, sleep problems, insecurity, negative thoughts, sadness, loneliness, insufficient physical activity and fear of contagion as triggers.

Pain Management Changes

The pandemic has also changed how a significant proportion of patients manage their pain. More than half (54.5%) have changed how they cope with it, the researchers comment in the release.

“The study has shown that since the state of emergency began, more than half of the patients have used rest to manage their pain, and a similar percentage have increased the consumption of medication. Both could have counterproductive effects.”

— Rubén Nieto, professor and researcher at the UOC’s eHealth Lab

However, with the pandemic, people have also started turning to a new positive way to combat pain. Indeed, 48.2% have included stretching exercises as a new tool for dispelling pain, they add.

ICTs, a Way to Cope

“When there is a chronic pain problem, it is important that people be able to learn to live with it, focusing on achieving their life goals, with or without pain. It is difficult to eliminate the pain altogether, but it is possible to learn to cope with it and live with it. Biopsychosocial interventions may be useful, in which holistic approaches to pain management are used.”

— Rubén Nieto, a specialist in understanding, assessing and treating pain problems from a multidimensional viewpoint

Unfortunately, most people do not have access to these interventions, as few centers offer this type of treatment, and health professionals receive little specific training in pain management, according to Nieto, in the release.

However, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are emerging as a useful tool for taking this type of treatment to chronic pain patients, Nieto adds.

“ICTs provide an opportunity for combating pain and improving well-being, since they can facilitate access to evidence-based interventions at an affordable cost. And they can increase personal autonomy and empowerment.

“We need to learn from the experience gained from the pandemic in the use of ICTs in health. The possibilities are limitless, from the classic teleconsultation to solutions based on artificial intelligence. But first we must plan and test their use.”

Source(s):

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, EurekAlert

Rehab Management/Posted by Debbie Overman | Mar 3, 2021  https://rehabpub.com/pain-management/chronic/covid-19-had-this-impact-on-chronic-pain/

People usually see a physical therapist for pain or loss of function. Think of the person who has back pain, the injured athlete, or the person who’s had a stroke. They all want to improve how they move and complete tasks. Now, there is good reason to wonder if physical therapists will start seeing more people who are not in pain or having difficulty moving. Why would these people come to a PT? To improve their overall health and wellness.

There is strong evidence suggesting that movement is a valuable predictor of future health and resilience against disease. Physical therapists are movement specialists, so taking advantage of their expertise makes sense if your goal is to become healthier and live longer. Here are some examples of the power of movement when it comes to predicting future health:

Gait Velocity

Gait velocity is how fast you walk. Studies have shown that if your typical walking speed is over 1 m/s or 3.3 ft/s, you’re likely able to complete typical daily activities independently. You’re also less likely to be hospitalized and less likely to have adverse events like falls.

If you’d like to test yourself, measure out a straight, flat course to walk between 10′ and 30′ long. You’ll also need 5′ or so at the beginning and the end for acceleration and deceleration. Walk the course at your typical speed and divide the length of the course by how long it took you to walk it (distance/time). That’s your gait velocity.

Get On and Off the Floor

A series of studies suggest that if you can go from standing to sitting on the floor and back to standing without using your hands, you’re a lot less likely to die than someone who can’t. It’s called the sitting-rising test. Here’s how it works:

You start standing, and without support, you sit down on the floor, then stand back up. You start with a score of 10. Every time you put a hand, knee, forearm, or the side of your leg on the floor you lose 1 point. Putting a hand on your knee or thigh to help also costs a point. In a sample of over 2,000 people, they found that scoring less than 8 points made you twice as likely to die in the next 6 years when compared to people who scored higher. Score 3 or less and you’re 5 times more likely to die in the same period. Overall, each point in the test is worth a 21% decrease in mortality from all causes.

Notice that both gait velocity and the sitting-rising test aren’t specific to any one thing. The risk of hospitalization in the gait velocity studies was hospitalization for any reason. Death in the sitting-rising studies was death from anything.

So while we know that exercise and healthy lifestyle reduce your risk of specific diseases like heart disease or diabetes, it appears that being able to move may provide much more wide-ranging protection than we previously thought.

One year ago our lives changed. Time stood still as our world abruptly changed from our normal day-to-day routines to the Pandemic.

Throughout this pandemic, we have witnessed the resilience of our patient, medical, and scientific communities as they have come together in extraordinary ways. As we emerge from it, we are now in the wake of the aftermath of those who have had COVID -19; acute or asymptomatic.

In recent weeks there has been a flood of news reports and studies from collected data being released. We are hearing and reading testimonials from individuals having NON-hospitalized, or asymptomatic Long-haul COVID-19.

Long-haul COVID-19 is defined as symptoms persisting for more than 6-weeks, with the consensus that most patients fully recover from COVID-19 in 4 to 6 weeks. Specifically, the presence of persistent symptoms after the apparent resolution from COVID by individuals labeled as “long haulers.”

These symptoms can include:

• • • Cognitive dysfunction – brain fog
    • Headache
    • Numbness or tingling
    • Loss of taste
    • Loss of smell
    • Muscle pain
    • Dizziness
    • Pain
    • Blurred vision
    • Tinnitus (ringing in the ears)

In addition, many reported NON-NEUROLOGIC symptoms, including:

• • • Fatigue
    • Depression or anxiety
    • Shortness of breath
    • Chest pain
    • Insomnia
    • Variation of heart rate and blood pressure
    • Gastrointestinal complaints
    • Low back/joint pain

Since the body of evidence regarding long-haulers, particularly among the 99% on asymptomatic/non-hospitalized cases is just coming into existence, symptom validation should be honored especially symptoms at day 61+:

• • • Muscle, general, and mental fatigue
    • Muscle and joint pain
    • Muscle atrophy
    • Breathing problems

Physical Therapy treatment will be beneficial in translating effective self-management through education and lifestyle and behavioral changes for those living with Long COVID, or post-COVID or post-prolonged deconditioning as we navigate these boom-bust cycles for those likely living with an episodic and unpredictable disability.