Welcome to Part 3 of my blog series on lower extremity tendinopathies. If you missed Parts 1 and 2 on assessment and treatment principles that set the foundation for these cases, check those out: Part 1: ASSESSMENT Part 2: EXERCISE PRESCRIPTION In this post, I want to discuss treatment progressions for two hypothetical patient cases…
Tips for Treating Lower Extremity Tendinopathies: Part 2: EXERCISE PRESCRIPTION
Welcome to Part 2: Exercise Prescription for Lower Extremity Tendinopathy. If you missed Part 1 on Assessment check that out! Also, Part 3 on Individualizing Treatment to Patient Cases Tendons, just like all the tissues in our body, feel different mechanical forces depending upon what movements we engage in (or not). In response to these…
Tips for Treating Lower Extremity Tendinopathies: Part 1: ASSESSMENT
Over the last year or so, I have really delved into the research literature on tendinopathy assessment and treatment. This was motivated in part thanks to an excellent continuing education course that I took from tendinopathy expert Dr. Peter Malliaras, PT, PhD called: “Mastering Lower Limb Tendinopathy 2nd Edition.”1 I have also been interested in…
Conversation with The Level UP Initiative: Emotional Components of Treating Pain
Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Zak Gabor, DPT, CSCS and founder of The Level UP Initiative regarding chronic pain and how to best serve this patient population. Give our conversation a listen and please feel free to share your thoughts/experiences/insights regarding working with those in pain and what you’ve found helpful…
The Art of Pain Science Education
If you are a physical therapist, doctor, nurse—really any healthcare professional, you will agree with me that pain is EVERYWHERE! It is part of the human experience to feel pain and pain is one of the main reasons that patients come to physical therapy1. If pain is so common and if pretty much all the…
Do The Thing You Are Asking Your Patients To Do
As a student physical therapist, I am tasked with learning many hands-on techniques for evaluating and treating future patients. Part of the learning process entails not only practicing these techniques (with the oversight of clinical and classroom instructors) on other students, but also having people perform these techniques on me as part of classroom “lab”…
Top 5 Things I Learned From Battling Chronic Pain
1- Everybody Needs Help at Some Time in Their Life Seek help early: lose the “get tough” mentality: It is okay to speak up about pain and hardship and will actually be more helpful than if you keep it to yourself. This also makes it more likely that you’ll get the help and support you…
Storytelling as Narrative Truth
In my own healing journey, I have found it helpful to both read stories from those with similar injuries and/or chronic pain as well as to write about and share my experiences during my own personal recovery. Stories and narrative accounts have the potential to foster connection with each other by increasing our ability to…
“Checklists” for PT Orthopedic Evaluations
Thanks to the physical therapists over at “The Student Physical Therapist” for featuring my guest post on: Performance Hacks for Physical Therapy Evaluations: The Power of The Checklist SEE BELOW FOR EXAMPLES OF MY ORTHOPEDIC PT EVALUATION CHECKLISTS: Upper Extremity Evaluation Checklists Lower Extremity Evaluation Checklists Spine & SI Joint Checklists Also, I would encourage…
Helping Patients in Pain: Creating Agency Without Blame
The best way to get someone to stop listening to you is to blame them for a problem. Anyone experiencing chronic pain has no doubt felt this sense of blame from healthcare providers as well as friends and family (not all, but most likely some of these individuals). As I’ve written about before, others’ reactions…
Lasting Effects of “Last Friday Night”
If you have ever had “one too many drinks” during a night out with friends, then you are pretty familiar with some of the immediate effects that alcohol can have on the body– impaired balance and coordination, decreased reaction time, slurred speech, etc. Alcohol intoxication can affect all body systems, but perhaps the most serious…
Guest Post on “Know Pain”
I am thrilled to have made the connection with UK Physiotherapist Mike Stewart, creator of the “Know Pain” website full of pain education resources, courses, and blog. He recently shared a guest blog post of mine about my perspective on chronic pain. You can find the post here: Know Pain: “Breaking The Silence About A…
