If you constantly need some sort of body adjustment you are not alone. Our office is often filled with people needing a leg pull or a joint mobilization, while others constantly visit chiropractors. Unlike a chiropractor who simply makes the adjustment and sends you on your way, physical therapists like us work on addressing the root causes of your problem. The first cause we investigate is your environment. We've written before on the importance of ergonomics, whether its th

Sometimes, we hear a story from a patient that goes something like this: "I was doing an exercise at the gym and I felt a sharp pain, but I kept going" Pain is your body's way of telling you something is wrong. Other than the usual muscle burn you feel while working out and mild soreness after, you should not be experiencing sharp pains during your workouts. If you are, you should stop and try to figure out what's wrong. Sometimes people mistake stopping an activity because o

Last week we discussed the importance of changing your routine to shock your body to get better cardio results. This week we want to extend the concept to strenght training. Many of us have at some point fallen into a routine where we go to the gym on a regular basis and do the same exercises, hitting the same body parts, all with the same number of sets and reps. The only thing that changed was the amount of weight we used, but even that probably plateued at some point. That

It's a story so common that it has become a cliche. A person decides that for the New Year they will take better care of their health, so they sign up for a gym, go on a diet or buy a treadmill. In the beginning they are motivated, but then they tail off, and a few months later are back to their old habits.The process is so predictable that a significant portion of the fitness industry is built on it, as you'll see from all the gym and diet advertisements in the next few week

Our clients are used to being guided through exercises that involve balancing on one leg. Respected New York Times reporter Katie Hafner was recently interviewed on NPR where she reported that doing that exercises "is harder than you think." Hafner was on air to discuss her recent two-part article for the Times on the dangers of falling for the elderly. She shares some startling statistics in her reporting, like how in 2012 alone more than 2.4 million Americans over the age o

As you've probably heard, body language is an important component of person to person communication. What you might not have heard is that your most important audience when it comes to body language might just be yourself. Yes its true, if you walk like a happy person, you might actually end up being happier. We've already discussed environmental causes of poor posture, and your mood plays a role as well. And although forcing yourself to fake a better posture has been shown

With the never-ending demands of modern life, many find it hard to allocate time to physical activity during the work day. But because they love a particular sport or are trying to stay in shape they try to make up for this deficiency on the weekends, going hard for hours at a time. The more you sit during the week, the longer you have to exercise on the weekends, or so the Weekend Warrior mentality goes. This approach is dangerous, as we are subjecting our body to 2 diffe

Last week we discussed the importance for marathoners to also do strength training for their legs. This advice applies to everyone, as our lower body, often neglected in the gym when we mistake looking strong for being strong, is an important source of strength in many activities. One of the most important lower body exercises you can do is your basic squat. Squats make up a key component of our Fitness For Life philosophy as they hit many major muscles and can be combined wi

A common question patients and clients ask us is what's the best order for working out: cardio first or weight training? and can one do both in the same session? A common myth that gets passed around gyms is that doing both at the same time interrupts your results. On that question, the research is consistent: You can do both cardio and strength training in the same session without any interference in the outcome of either or your recovery. Then there is the question of which

Have you ever noticed that many bars have a metal rail that runs along the bottom? You might have even caught yourself putting your foot up on one while standing and having a drink. The rail serves a functional purpose. When you put one foot up on it you change the weight distribution of your body, which if you have been standing for a long time, can bring great relief and allow you to stand comfortably longer. Somewhere along the way bar owners realized the combination of a