Expert Orthopedic Care, Exceptional Service
  • About
  • Blog
  • Info
  • Testimonials
  • FAQ

So You Can't Touch Your Toes?

6/24/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Many, many bodily joints and tissues need to function well to be able to fully bend forward. Poor hamstrings, though … they always get blamed!

To regain forward bending ability, I hardly ever loosen patients’ hamstrings. However, say a patient did simply need looser hamstrings - then clinical care is hardly needed. (Stretching is not rocket science!) With consistent home stretching, hamstring length better consistently improve.

In almost all cases, forward bending is limited because lumbar structures are moving improperly. Usually it’s that the joints themselves are misaligned. In other cases, compressed/adhered/trapped nerves create nerve tension that limits this movement (with or without contemporary joint malalignment).

Forward bending (lumbar flexion) is usually restored once we get the patients’ lumbar structures moving properly again. Importantly, using forward bending to achieve this is beneficial in only a small group of patients. More commonly I utilize lumbar extension or sidegliding.
​
So why do people say they “feel it” in their hamstrings? It’s either that they’re actually feeling the sciatic nerve(s) pull or that, in attempting to bend further, their body eeeks out more motion in the only structures it can – muscles and tendons – so they “feel it” there. Expert mechanical clinicians know better. --Laura
0 Comments

The Foundation for Athletic Performance Is Being Normal

6/14/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
When discussing athletic performance, we think of coaches, strength and conditioning specialists, trainers, and so on, but my role comprises the foundation. Power, balance, and mobility are certainly trainable, but if your body is not fully normal to begin with, training will only get you so far. If performance prowess is your goal, you need normal nerve conduction, nerve extensibility, strength, mobility, biomechanics, etc. first. (Having no symptoms doesn’t mean everything is functioning normally.)

Consider jumping. If there’s even a slight derangement (painful or not) in the lumbosacral spine, the electricity supplying necessary muscles can be impeded. Tiny malalignments in the foot, ankle, knee, hip, or spine joints can affect strength, mobility, balance, and movement patterns with jumping. Abnormalities with muscles or tendons themselves (rare) will also impact jumping.
​
My expertise is in ensuring people have normal physiology before they go train to make it exceptional. (There are, of course, some allowances.) Perhaps most importantly, I teach people how to self-assess and self-treat so they can always perform with optimized physiology. It takes only minutes. I believe that many “off” days are due to minor, transient joint malalignments - which can easily be self-detected and corrected if you learn how. --Laura
0 Comments

No Title Needed

6/10/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
I gravitated to the McKenzie method because it makes sense - and works. That is why most patients require many fewer visits than with other conservative care approaches, including "traditional" physical therapy. The McKenzie method is predicated on the simple fact that most orthopedic problems are mechanical and therefore can be resolved with a few specific movements (done repeatedly).  I cringe when I read most of the orthopedic information out there, including the academic information I learned during my physical therapy doctoral program.  It really is no wonder back pain is the number one disability worldwide and there are so many people in pain in the US (despite the wide variety of conservative and invasive treatments available). Plain and simple, I look at the body very differently than most clinicians - and treat differently, too. Nearly all of my patients come to me after having tried other interventions and with diagnoses that I frankly find incorrect. My passion for this extends beyond my office; my goal is to become a faculty member with the McKenzie Institute one day so that I may spread this reliable assessment and treatment approach to as many clinicians - and patients - as possible. --Laura
0 Comments

    Orthopedics Blog

    Learn more about the world of diagnosing and treating orthopedics here!
    McKenzie Method


    ​Categories

    All
    Abdomen
    Achilles
    Ankle
    Arthritis
    Assistive Device
    Athletes
    Bending
    Biking
    Car
    Centralization
    Chairs
    Core
    Degeneration
    Diagnosing
    Directional Preference
    Discs
    Ear
    Elbow
    Ergonomics
    Exercise
    Extremity
    FABER
    Foam Rolling
    Foot
    Glutes
    Hamstrings
    Hand
    Headache
    Hearing
    Hip
    Imaging
    Immobilization
    Impingement
    Inflammation
    IT Band
    Joints
    Knee
    Lumbar/Low Back
    McKenzie Method
    Medication
    Meniscus
    Mobilization
    Modalities
    Morton's Neuroma
    Muscles
    Neck
    Nerves
    Numbness
    Obesity
    OST
    Osteoarthritis
    Outcomes
    Pain
    Palpation
    Performance
    Piriformis
    Plantar Fasciitis
    Podcast
    Posture
    Prevention
    Prognosis
    Proprioception
    Quadriceps
    Range Of Motion
    Rehabilitation
    Repeated Movement
    Running
    Scar Tissue
    Shoulder
    Shoulder Blade
    Sinuses
    Sleeping
    Spine
    Spondylolisthesis
    Sports
    Stenosis
    Stiffness
    Strain
    Strength/Strengthening
    Stretching
    Surgery
    Swelling
    Tendon
    Thoracic
    Tightness
    Tingling
    Verbal History
    Video
    Volunteering
    Wrist

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016

    RSS Feed

  • About
  • Blog
  • Info
  • Testimonials
  • FAQ