Geaux to Physical Therapy℠

I recently coordinated continuing education on treatment of the shoulder for physical and occupational therapists at HealthReach Rehab.  My final contribution to the courses was evidence-based treatment of rotator cuff tears.  The rotator cuff is a group of four muscles at the shoulder, named supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis.  The most commonly torn muscle […]

Joints allow us freedom of movement; without them we lose our ability to stay active, mobile, and independent.  Walking, squatting, biking, reaching, hiking, stooping, lifting, sitting, running… all impossible without the ability for joints to move freely, stay stable, and work together.   As important as they are to living an active life, are we […]

Did you know that what you do when you aren’t moving will affect how you move later on?  Our body responds to the stresses placed on it everyday and adapts.  The sustained positions we put ourselves in may contribute to certain inflexibilities and a loss in joint range of motion.  Inflexibility and a loss of […]

We are almost through February, and I have to say, this Wisconsin winter hasn’t been that bad.  Anything compared to the snowmageddon of the northeast is better, and  I know I’ve been thankful that it hasn’t been as bad as the past two years.  Though I may be from Louisiana, this transplant knows we aren’t out of the woods […]

Whether ’tis nobler to suffer the strains and pains of prolonged stretching, or to take arms through dynamic warm ups and replace them.  This post will not end as a Shakespearean tragedy, for there is not a plague on either form (static or dynamic) of stretching.  Recently, a group of therapists at our clinic got […]

In physical therapy, I see a variety of patients with conditions that have associated swelling or edema.  Many patients post-operatively suffer from swelling that is very painful and restricts mobility.  Compression garments can be an extremely useful self management tool for many types of swelling.  The most common type of garments used are compression stockings […]

Bones are living tissue, constantly breaking down and rebuilding.  They respond to the stresses placed on them, building more bone when there is more demand and breaking down when there isn’t.  Weight-bearing exercise stimulates the bones to rebuild.   When we are sedentary there isn’t demand to build, thus the rate of breaking down bone can […]