The Hidden Benefits of Plyometrics Training We all know the benefits to staying healthy through exercise. However, knowing what specific exercises are needed to accomplish our goals is often challenging. A quick online search is overwhelming, with results varying from cardio to lifting weights to body weight and stretching exercises. It’s confusing to figure out…
How Can You Tell If Your Shoulder Pain is Serious? A shoulder quiz to get started: Are you experiencing discomfort when raising your arms? Can you easily perform tasks like reaching for pants or using the toilet? Do daily activities such as grooming or household chores cause pain? Does dressing yourself involve altering your movements…
7 Stretches and Exercises to Reduce Knee Pain Have you ever experienced knee pain? There are many different causes of knee pain – fractures, overuse injuries, arthritis, imbalances, instability, and more. The knee is a complex body part that works with muscles surrounding the knee in conjunction with the joints above and below the knee…
Poor Posture and Pain: What Comes First? Posture refers to your body as it aligns in space and how the alignment of each body part in relationship to one another and your environment is influenced by your joints. While your posture can be influenced by pain and poor posture can contribute to pain, posture is…
Who are Physical Therapists The American Physical Therapy Association defines a physical therapist as “a licensed doctor who works with multiple patient populations impacted by disease, injury, and movement dysfunction.” Clear-cut and forward, this definition does not fully explain how a physical therapist specifically can help you. To do this, we need to break it…
The Hidden Importance of Reps and Sets Patients often wonder why their AzOPT physical therapists will ask them to complete three rounds of 10 repetitions for a specific exercise instead of simply stating 30 reps. Despite what many people think, the numbers we give are not arbitrary! They play a crucial role tailored to your…
3 Must-Try Balance Boosters! Did you know that one of the number one predictors of falls is having a fear of falling? It may seem surprising, but it’s true! Many patients visit us feeling unsteady or imbalanced and afraid of falling. Some have even experience injuries due to falls, while others worry about the consequence…
Power is an important aspect of physical performance and is generally defined as performing work quickly, or generating force in a short period of time. Sometimes it is also referred to as “explosiveness”. However you want to describe it, power comes in handy when trying to do something quickly, like changing directions or jumping. This…
Mastering Foam Rolling Whether at the gym, CrossFit, or even AzOPT, you have seen someone laying and rolling around on a cylindrical shaped piece of foam. Foam rolling has become an extremely popular and effective self-massage technique. To understand why, let’s discuss the basic structure of our muscles and tissues. Our muscles are surrounded by…
What is Osteoarthritis? Your primary care physician diagnosed you with Osteoarthritis and now you’re wondering, “what is that?” More importantly, what are your options? Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common condition in adults that results from the progressive wearing down of your joint tissue. This process is not to be confused with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), which…
