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Physical Therapy Clinic Spokane Blog

Top 3 Exercises for Degenerative Back Pain & Sciatica (Stenosis, DJD and DDD)

Sep 19, 2018

Degenerative changes in your back are one of the 2 most common causes of back pain and sciatica, especially in older adults.
This includes things like degenerative disc disease (DDD), degenerative joint disease (DJD) and other terms like “stenosis” that you might read on an x-ray or MRI report.

Top 3 Exercises for Sacro-Iliac Joint (SIJ) Pain (plus video)

Sep 19, 2018

This is the 3rd blog/video in this series about SIJ pain.

The first 2 videos included the self-test for SIJ pain (under the “Top 3 Causes of Back Pain & Sciatica” blog), and the 3-step treatment approach to SIJ Pain.

Taping: Is it Helpful, or Will You Become Dependent on It?

Sep 7, 2018

If you ask 10 physical therapists or chiropractors about taping, you’ll probably get 10 different opinions about it…

Some would tell you that taping is great, others might say it’s okay in certain situations, and a few might even tell you they don’t like it…

So which is it?

Is taping actually helping you with your recovery, or is it just a “crutch”?

As you can probably guess, I certainly have my own opinion on the topic (hence the blog post and video!).

And as you can imagine, I tend to think my opinions are correct (it’s human nature, right?!).

Here’s my opinion in a nutshell:

Repetitive Injuries: How to “Tip the Scales” in Your Favor (and make a full recovery!)

Aug 22, 2018

Repetitive injuries can be some of the most tricky types of pain to deal with.

This includes things like: tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis), golfer’s elbow (medial epicondylitis), rotator cuff injuries, ITB irritation and Achilles tendon issues.

Typically, these injuries happen slowly over time, as the amount of irritation and damage slowly outweighs the amount of overall healing.

You can think of these 2 opposing forces as 2 sides of the scale: irritation and damage vs. healing.

At some point, people with these injuries reach a certain threshold, and the pain becomes much more severe and/or frequent. This is when they typically start to seek treatment.

In today’s video, I’ll explain in detail how we help our patients “tip the scales” back in the other direction, and I’ll also tell you about the common mistakes our patients make when looking to fully eliminate the pain and damage.

Exercise is Boring! How to Maintain Strength After You Finish PT

Aug 22, 2018

Not too long ago, I came to a startling realization about how PT exercises were boring…
This realization came after I had attended the Parkinson’s HOPE Conference, where I heard all about fun types of exercise for people with PD, including things like boxing, dancing and cycling.