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Physical Therapy Clinic Spokane Blog

How Poor Sleep Might be Aggravating your Back Pain

Apr 13, 2021

Back pain is an elusive beast… it can strike at any moment and can often leave us feeling debilitated for weeks, months, or even years if nothing is done about it. In fact, back pain is so widespread it’s now considered one of the most common issues around the globe. What’s truly interesting is that, while so many people suffer from back pain in one form or another, no pain is similar – how about that?

Rotator Cuff Strength Progression (for “Tendinosis” and Shoulder Pain)

Apr 2, 2021

In several previous blog posts and videos about shoulder pain and rotator cuff issues (especially rotator cuff “tendinosis”), I’ve talked about how to heal the rotator cuff with things like eccentric strengthening.

However, I’ve never explained how to progress to eccentric strengthening while dealing with shoulder pain, and I get a lot of questions on my YouTube videos about how to strengthen the rotator cuff without causing addition pain.

In this video, I’ll explain that strength progression, which I break down into 3 stages.

How to Diagnose & Treat Horizontal Canal Vertigo (BPPV)

Mar 5, 2021

Horizontal canal BPPV can be much more difficult to diagnose and treat than posterior canal BPPV, and it’s also much less common (which is great!).

If you think you have horizontal canal BPPV, which is characterized by horizontal “nystagmus”, your first step in getting rid of the vertigo is to figure out 2 things: what side is affected (left or right) and if you’re dealing with particles floating in the canal (canalithiasis) or particles stuck to the cupula (cupulolithiasis).

This sounds confusing, I know, but I’ll explain everything in the first video below!

In the second video, I’ll then explain how to treat horizontal canal BPPV using the Gufoni Maneuver.

Why Rest Won’t Help Heal Your Rotator Cuff Tear (or Tendinosis)

Feb 26, 2021

Small tears in the rotator cuff muscles is very common for people with shoulder pain.

On an MRI report, these small rotator cuff tears can be visualized, as can other common issues such as “supraspinatus tendinosis” and “infraspinatus tendinosis”.

For the most part, small rotator cuff tears (and tendinosis) don’t require surgery. Yet many people struggle to heal these issues, reduce their shoulder pain, and regain full use of their shoulder and arm

One of the most common questions I hear from people with shoulder pain and rotator cuff issues is how to heal tears in the rotator cuff.

Often times, these people have had shoulder pain for months (if not years), and at some point they’ve been told to rest to let the rotator cuff heal.

Unfortunately, resting the shoulder rarely helps improve healing and shoulder pain, and it often makes the pain worse.

Top 6 Exercises AFTER Total Knee Replacement (TKR) Surgery

Feb 19, 2021

If you’ve just had Total Knee Replacement (TKR) surgery, you’re now in what we call the “post-surgical” or “post-op” phase of your recovery.

This can be a busy time, between follow up appointments with your knee surgeon, physical therapy appointments, and trying to rest and recover.

With that in mind, there are 6 exercises you want to prioritize during this period (3 exercises for quad muscle activation and 3 exercises for knee range of motion).

I’ll demonstrate all 6 exercises in the video below, and I’ll give you some guidelines for how many sets and reps to perform each day.