FROM HEAD TO TOE, REALLY........

 Do you remember the nursery rhyme you learned in elementary school," The foot bone's  connected to the leg bone........? " Well, in the PRI world,we mean it, literally . A foot problem can lead to a problem somewhere higher up in the chain and viceversa. So, when we look at someone with say neck pain, we are interested in not only looking at how they move their neck, but just as interested in how they walk, what is happening at the foot, are they able to breathe properly , can they move air in and out of the chest wall effectively, is their bite even, and much more. Believe it or not, we also look at the eyes! Often, we can tell by just looking at the person walking, standing or sitting as to what could be causing the problem.  We will not give you a generic set of stretching exercises just for the neck to stretch and/or strengthen it, more than likely I can probably guarantee that we will never have you do those. Instead, we would make sure that  you can expand your mid back, relax your lower back,and  get air in and out of the chest wall without using the neck. We will make sure your pelvis is in the right position so you can do all of the above. You will more than likely blow up  a balloon to help chest wall mobility and get the diaphragm in the correct position, so you can get air in and out of the chest wall  without having to use your neck. You will be surprised at how at how being able to expand the mid back can help you turn your neck with increased ease and reduced pain.

Can I go back to the gym ?

  When can I go back to the gym ?  Is it OK to do bar squats or lift weights overhead ? Can I stretch my hamstrings ? These are questions I get from my patients that I generally dread and am a little hesitant to answer right away. Why ?  For one thing, I can almost always be certain that they would be doing this with their muscles in the wrong " Position". As a Postural Restoration trained  physical therapist, I focus on making sure that muscles are in the right position before progressing with a rehab program or any training program for that matter. If any muscle is not in the right position, it will never be able to be as strong and effective as when it would be if it was in the right position. ( Please refer to Torin's blog-"The importance of being in the right position" on hruskaclinic.com.). When this happens, other muscles will compensate to do the movement which puts you at risk for injury. Now don't get me wrong, that does not mean that you can never go back to a gym program; you can but only after you are in the right
"Position". How can you do that ? By going through a Repositioning program that your Postural restoration trained/certified physical therapist can show you. Once repositioned, and able to maintain that correct alignment with the proper muscles firing along with turning off certain muscles that have a tendency to be overused, you can go back to a gym or training program ( or for that matter, running or any sport) with  a few tips ( do's and dont's) from your therapist. We'll talk more in the next few blogs about some common exercises and training routines that can cause more harm than good in the wrong run. In the meantime, try to find help from a PRI therapist to get in the right "Position".
Sangini Rane , PT PRC
sangini@yahoo.com
Apex Physical Therapy & Wellness Center
Apex, NC