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Physical Therapy Clinic Spokane Blog

How to Eliminate Recurrent Muscle Injuries (Sprains & Minor Tears)

Aug 3, 2018

Just the other day, a friend of mine called to ask me about some issues he was having with recurrent muscle issues.

Like me, Mark loves to play basketball…and now that he’s in his 40’s, some of his minor aches and pains are starting to catch up with him.

After injuring his calf muscle while playing basketball, he wanted to know what he could do to prevent these recurrent, annoying muscle sprains.

I’ll explain what I told Mark to do in today’s video. Enjoy!

IT Band Pain – What Causes It & How to Treat It

Jul 20, 2018

The IT Band (aka ITB) runs along the outside of your thigh, starting up near your pelvis and then winding up along the outside of your kneecap.

Irritation of the ITB, often called ITB Syndrome, is most common in runners and cyclists, although it can occur in just about anybody.

This is primarily due to it’s anatomy: as the knee bends and straightens, the ITB rubs back and forth over a small bone.

Overall, ITB pain is fairly easy to diagnose, since you can push along the tissue and determine if there’s any tenderness or pain. However, what’s more difficult is figuring out the true, underlying cause of pain.

Once you find the ROOT CAUSE of the pain and irritation, you can then proceed to treating it.

In today’s video, I’ll give you more information on how to tell if you have ITB pain, how to figure out the root cause, and ultimately how to eliminate the pain (so you can get on with life!).

Gastric Bypass Surgery – Is It Right for You?

Jun 1, 2018

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Will Losing Weight Help Your Back Pain?

Jun 1, 2018

Earlier this week, I was speaking to a gentleman on the phone who called me with questions about his neuropathy and his ability to improve his balance.

As we were talking, he mentioned that he enjoyed gardening, but he could only be on his feet for about 10 minutes because of pain in his lower back.

When I asked him what he was planning to do about his back pain, this is what he told me: “My doctor says that if I lose 35# it should take care of 90% of my back pain.”

This statement brings up a few interesting questions:

Does losing weight really help with back pain? Can it eliminate 90% of the pain?
Is your weight the ROOT CAUSE of your back pain?
The simple answer to these questions is: No, absolutely not. There’s no chance that losing 35# is going to help this gentleman eliminate 90% of his back pain.

The full answer is a bit more detailed in terms of weight loss, its effect on pain reduction, finding the ROOT CAUSE of the pain, etc. And I’ll explain everything in today’s video.

But there’s one more interesting topic I bring up at the end of the video, which is this: the methods used to lose weight can have a significant impact on pain relief.

Check out the video to find out what I mean!

Degenerative Back Pain – Stretching vs. Bending Forward

May 25, 2018

If you’ve seen my video about the “Top 3 Exercises for Degenerative Back Pain”, you might be familiar with the stretches that help decompress your spine.

In essence, these stretches have you bending forward to create space around your joints and nerves.

So if these stretches help decompress your spine, why does it hurt so much when you’re bending over and working with your arms? (Like when you’re washing dishes at the sink or cooking)

I’ll tell you the difference in the video!