Physical Therapy

When tailoring Pilates exercises to accommodate for physical limitations or injuries, it starts with an assessment of the client's posture and movement. Then, depending on their needs, we can adjust the spring tension and use bands, balls, and other small equipment to modify the exercises.
 
Transcript: "How do you tailor Pilates exercises to accommodate for any physical limitations or injuries a client may have? Well, it first starts by doing an assessment. So I usually do a postural analysis and different movement tests to see how people are moving, where their body's at. And then really any Pilates exercise can be modified or changed to adapt to where that person is. So we have a lot of types of small equipment. We use bands and balls a lot, small barrels like the arc barrel, the stability barrel for support. We can increase or decrease the spring tension depending upon what the body needs at that particular time. But it definitely starts with doing that initial assessment to just figure out where that person's body is, how they're moving, and then how we can progress from there."

Warning signs that indicate you need to prioritize rest and recovery over training are getting sick frequently, feeling fatigued and tired all the time, feeling burnt out, and developing an injury.
 
Transcript: "Yes, there are definitely warning signs that will help indicate whether or not you need to prioritize rest and recovery over training. Some of those warning signs would be if you're getting sick frequently, if you're constantly and always just fatigued and tired, if you feel burnt out, if you're starting to develop some sort of injury, you're likely going to have to prioritize rest and recovery over training."

I'm excited to learn more about Blood Flow Restriction, Barbell Rehabilitation and other continuing education topics this year in order to continue to grow my physical therapy practice.
 
Transcript: "Okay, what's a topic in your field right now that you're excited about? I think one of the things that I love so much about physical therapy is that it's ever evolving and you're constantly learning and growing as you kind of grow your own practice as a clinician and for me as my business. So the best way for me to answer these questions are by telling you what I have lined up as far as continuing education coming up this year. So I have a mastermind event coming up in the beginning of March and then shortly thereafter I am headed to Chicago for a BFR or blood flow restriction course to see how I might be able to utilize that kind of research in helping to rehab my clients post-operatively or with other kind of injuries and pathologies to get back to sport faster. And then the other thing that I'm looking at are a series of barbell rehab classes. I think it's become sort of the norm for athletes to get put in a situation where they're told to rest after you know any kind of an injury and full rest as we now know is not necessarily helpful. So I'm interested and excited about learning how to better modify and find corrections in some of my barbell athletes to better serve them in addition to all my other athletes because everybody should be lifting."

When I need to be inspired I like to go outside, particularly in the sun. I'll take hikes or trips to places with beaches and open water, where I can sit and meditate on what I'm grateful for.
 
Transcript: "Where do you go for inspiration? So I'm sure that I am parroting several people's opinions here. But when I go outside, particularly when it's sunny, that is when I feel most revived and inspired and ready to kind of get my mind right. So right now it's, we're in Wisconsin, it's cold out, but it is finally sunny. We've been in the stretch of like several kind of cold, dreary days. And it's beautiful right now. The sun is out, so I'll be spending a big part of my afternoon today outside walking with my dogs. We like to do some hikes. I'll go up to Devil's Lake State Park and hike, but anywhere where there is sun and outside, if I am really feeling feisty, I'll book a trip to someplace that has a beach and really just zone out in front of open water. And that is where I like to be. In a pinch, being at Ridgid Pool, which is my home neighborhood pool that I've been coaching at for 20 years, when there's nobody else there, and just kind of sitting by the pool there outside and again in the sunshine is absolutely my go-to place to clear my head, get my head right, and really sort of meditate on what I love and what I'm grateful for."

The Regional Interdependence Principle states that changes in one area of the body can affect another area. When you changed shoes, it could have caused your gluteal stability to switch as it may have impacted how your feet were working and this information was then sent to your hip, either decreasing or increasing muscle activation. You should check your shoes to see if they are providing enough support for your hips.
 
Transcript: "Why does gluteal stability seem to switch after I've changed shoes? It's called regional interdependence. Principle of one area of the body can affect another area of the body. So basically your shoes or how your foot is working in the shoes can translate information to your hip in a positive or a negative way. So this is why looking at your shoe can does that actually help your stability or your control. So a lot of time when I work with athletes, I will get them to stand in their shoes on one leg and look at how much movement or how much effort is required to just stand without moving. And then get them to turn and twist and see if there's a difference between different shoes and how that either translates to decreased pain or increased activation in the muscles. So you shouldn't really have to work hard in your shoe. And hopefully that answers your question. By changing your shoe, it's probably deactivating or turning off some of your muscles in your hip. So you may want to look at your shoes before you're going out and running. Thanks for the question."

My drive to learn more and understand the human body deeper keeps me passionate in physical therapy.
 
Transcript: "In the healthcare profession and learning about the human body, the deeper that you get into subjects, the more that you realize that we don't know about what we don't know about different things. And with physical therapy, I am constantly asking questions and never really settling for the answers that I'm getting. And that drive stimulates this deeper learning and wanting to know how to get people better faster, how to understand different connections in the body. And so that's what keeps me going more and more is that drive to learn more, to understand things deeper, to maybe hopefully help change the field one day in how we view things. That's really what drives me and keeps me passionate."