There are exercises that a woman can perform, with a physicians consent, both during and after pregnancy that help protect you while still pregnant and speed up your recovery after giving birth. One of the most direct ways pregnancy impact's a woman's body is a weakening of her core, especially the lower abdominal muscles. These muscles automatically stretch to accommodate a growing uterus, and might be further impacted by changes in the posture as the belly grows. If you don

​There are over 200,000 new breast cancer patients in the U.S. each year, and many of these women will get some sort of treatment for the condition, from major surgery to chemotherapy. After the treatment has run its course, physical therapy and exercise are vital in regaining range of motion, strength and flexibility. Women who have surgery are likely to experience swelling, stiffness and limited mobility in the muscles and joints in the surrounding area, not just in the che

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

There are many benefits to exercising in the pool, some of which you might not be aware of. On the one hand buoyancy eliminates up to 90% of your body weight, making all water exercises low impact and safer on your joints, especially if you are coming off of an injury. On the other hand since water offers up a lot more resistance than air, simply moving around in a pool or lake, even if you are not moving fast, taxes your muscles in a good way. Whereas walking on land only re

Any bag carried regularly, be it a purse or a briefcase, will impact your posture and your physical health. Even if its not a heavy bag the constant pressure on your body probably impacts you in ways you didn't realize. This is especially true for women who carry heavy purses. Most tend to always carry their purse on the same side in the same position, putting an asymmetrical load on certain body parts. Take the woman in the picture above. Her right trap muscle is constantly

Pattern overload is the overuse of certain muscles by performing the same motion repetitively, usually in a manner that isolates some body parts while neglecting others. Its common among athletes who perform the same movements often (like a pitcher throwing a baseball) but also workers performing some sort of manual labor. Soft tissue like muscles and tendons that are overused begin to breakdown, causing inflammation and pain. To compensate your body starts recruiting other s

We've all had an event in our lives when we've suffered a physical injury but delayed getting treatment for it. We might have been too busy with work, or maybe hoped it would heal on its own. Waiting can be risky however, as the presence of one injury could lead to others. Let's say that you were playing basketball and twisted your ankle. Now you have a pain in your ankle every time you take a step. Such a pain is bound to change your gate, or how you walk, as your body autom

Do you have a literal pain in the butt? If so, you might be suffering from piriformis syndrome, a type of sciatic pain cause by when the piriformis muscle gets shortened or goes into spasm, putting pressure on the sciatic nerve. The piriformis is a muscle deep inside the group of muscles that make up your butt, one that helps lock down the hip joint for walking and mobilize it for virtually all lower body activities. If injured or overused it may tighten too much, putting pre

Many people that experience knee pain assume that they have some sort of problem with the bones or ligaments involved. Although this might very well be the case, you shouldn't also rule out the role muscle tightness plays. For example: if you experience an achy pain on the lateral (our outer) part of your patella (often referred to as the kneecap), your problem might be a tight IT band that is pulling on it. Think of the knee as a train that is meant to move only forwards or