The Diaphragm and Lower Back Pain?

lbp

Low back pain is a very common orthopedic condition that brings people to physical therapy. There are many factors that play into an individual’s back pain, making it one of the hardest areas of the body to treat. Recent literature has keyed in on breathing patterns and diaphragm dysfunction as a factor contributing to lower…

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Flexibility vs. Mobility: What’s the Difference?

mobility

Chances are you’ve seen an Instagram account or two (or ten) promoting mobility challenges.  These include exercises that require motion at many joints to perform correctly. So you’re probably thinking, I can stretch for 5 minutes and then try this exercise again with a better result. By doing this, you might not see the results…

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Benefits of Unilateral Exercise

  Unilateral means “one sided”; an exercise performed on one side of the body, or with one limb. Bilateral means “both sides”; an exercise performed with both sides of the body or with both limbs. For example, a piston would be considered a unilateral exercise, where a squat would be considered a bilateral exercise. Unilateral…

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The Strategies to Maintain Balance

What are strategies for balance? As humans, we have evolved methods to take in order to preserve our bodies to the best of our abilities. One of these remarkable mechanisms is how we maintain our balance as a bi-pedal (two-legged) species. It important that we have strategies for balance. It’s our bodies very own unconscious…

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Front Squat Vs. Back Squat: How do they differ?

squat, back squat, front squat, workout, exercise, muscles, anatomy

So many people at the gym are performing both front squats and back squats, without ever really understanding the difference. How are they different? What muscles do they elicit? While all squats generally elicit the same muscles, the different lies in which are fired more during which movement. The muscles of squat we will investigate…

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Why Should I Train in Quadruped?

WHAT IS QUADRUPED? Quadruped is the position where both hands and knees are on the ground. It is the starting position of crawling that all children do. When young babies are learning to walk, quadruped helps them develop curves in their spine and core strength. For adults, there are so many more reasons to add…

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The Difference between Exercise Variation and Movement Variation

This piece explains what exercise variation and movement variation are, and how they can help or hurt your training if not implemented appropriately. WHAT IS EXERCISE VARIATION? Exercise variation is exactly what it sounds like. It means you do a bunch of different kinds of exercises. Exercise variation can be in reference to one workout, or…

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Can Exercise cause Happiness?

What do I need to know about the brain? Before we tell you: does exercise cause happiness, Let’s learn a little about the brain. The brain has a bunch of nerves that “talk to each other”. Basically, these nerves communicate by passing notes. Notes, in the brain, are chemicals called neurotransmitters. So, these notes (or neurotransmitters)…

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Eccentrics for tendinopathy?

What is tendinopathy? “Tendinopathy” is an umbrella term for any painful condition going on within a tendon. And remember, tendons are what connect muscles to their origins and insertions on bones. These types of conditions come about from things like overuse injuries – like “runner’s knee”, which stems from overuse of the patellar tendon from…

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What’s the deal with foam rolling?

Perhaps one of the biggest buzzwords in the fitness and physical therapy communities is foam rolling. Isn’t that what everyone recommends doing these days? Walk into any gym and you’ll see foam rollers of all shapes and sizes. Chances are, you probably even have one tucked away in your closet or the corner of your…

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