Physical Therapy Insights

A study by Lutz et al in 2022 sought to discover what treatment style made physical therapists “better,” as defined by better outcome measures, for managing lower back pain. As a result, they found that the outperforming physical therapists used more skilled interventions and even required fewer visits to get their patients better. Skilled intervention,…

Osteoarthritis, typically considered the “wear and tear” on joints, is the most common type of arthritis. It is estimated that around 80% of persons over the age of 65 in the United States show some type of arthritis on imaging, though only ~60% of these people actually have symptoms. Osteoarthritis may be due to a…

Lower back pain is the most common orthopedic problem affecting humans today. The lifetime prevalence of lower back pain is estimated to be between 60-80%. So, odds are, at some point, you will likely experience an episode of low back pain. The good news is that most episodes of pain tend to resolve within 1-2…

In honor of the Halloween season, we are talking this month about a mysterious type of pain, what’s called “referred pain”. Referred pain is when one structure of the body is causing you to feel pain in another part of the body. While our organs, such as our heart and kidneys, can be sources of…

“Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.”” – Eleanor Roosevelt  The longer I work with people, people of all ages, the more I see the truth in the former First Lady’s quote. However, when I think of beauty as we age, it is not just in the…

Iliotibial band syndrome, also known as IT band syndrome or ITBS, is a common condition responsible for lower body pain. Research has shown it can account for anywhere from 5% to 20% of lower extremity running injuries and is also commonly seen in cyclists. The iliotibial band is named as such because it connects to…

Tendon injuries are a very common problem in the general population, ranging from mild strains to complete tears. These injuries may be acute or chronic and can be significantly different in how painful they are or how much they impact someone’s life. Before discussing some of the common myths regarding management of tendon injuries, let’s…

The vast majority of the people we see in our clinics are coming in for pain, to develop a healthier, stronger body, or both. They may have had a recent, traumatic injury, or have been dealing with a longstanding problem without one obvious cause. While no two people are the same, and their path to…

Raise your hand if you have a problem with your shoulder. If it is too painful or stiff to raise your arm up, no matter how hard you try, there is a chance you may have frozen shoulder. Frozen shoulder, also known as adhesive capsulitis, is a condition characterized by pain and a loss of…