Posts Tagged ‘physical therapy’
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…
Read MoreHow to Challenge your Balance to Train it
How the Body’s Balance System works: Balance relies on three distinct systems to come together: your eyes for sight, your inner ear for vestibular input, and then the bottom of your feet for proprioception. Your brain takes all the sensory input from these three areas of the body, and with that information tells your muscles…
Read MoreThe 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…
Read MoreWhy is Hip Mobility so important?
Why is Hip Mobility Important? Hip mobility is essential to the proper full functioning of the hip joint. While the hip joint is meant to be more stable and less mobile than the shoulder joint, it can still be extremely limiting and even harmful if the hip joint lacks its full mobility. There are many…
Read More3 Reasons Strong Glutes are Important
What do your glutes do? There are different glutes; three to be exact: gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus. Together, these muscles are responsible for hip extension, internal rotation, and abduction of the hip. The glute medius and minimus work together to promote hip abduction and prevent hip adduction. These muscle come in most handy when…
Read MoreWhat is Contract-Relax Stretching?
What is Contract-Relax Stretching? Contract-relax stretching is a form of PNF stretching. PNF stands for proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation. What does that mean? It means that it uses natural reflexes to further the stretching response. In contract-relax stretching, you must first isometrically contract the opposite muscle. Then after contracting, try to further stretch the intended target. For…
Read More3 Causes of Hamstring Tightness
Before we can dive into what may cause hamstring tightness, it is important to understand exactly what the hamstring muscle group does for the body. HAMSTRING ANATOMY: The “Hamstring” is actually a group of three muscles on the back of the leg. These hamstring muscles work together to collectively perform hip extension (lifting your leg…
Read MoreEccentrics 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…
Read MoreWhat’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…
Read MoreCryotherapy: The ‘Cool’ New Way to Recover
The team at Symmetry takes pride in having a strong local community presence. The Symmetry Physical Therapy Team took a trip to CryoXtreme in Brickell to give whole body cryotherapy a shot. First, cryotherapy is actually used to boost recovery and help with a ton of diseases* that we see a lot in the physical therapy…
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