If you haven’t heard of pickleball yet, odds are good you will very soon. Pickleball is quickly becoming one of the most popular recreational sports in the US, especially in the over 50 crowd, and especially in Portsmouth and all around the Seacoast of New Hampshire. It’s essentially a cross between tennis, racket ball, and ping pong. The court is smaller than in tennis and the net is...
Gardening has so many health benefits and it’s an activity many people fall in love with. It gets you outdoors in the fresh air, exposes you to vitamin D, it’s meditative, helps to improve hand-eye coordination, and it’s great exercise. But one thing it’s not always great for is your back. If you love gardening – but cringing about what it might do to your back this Spring...
Abdominal crunches are one of the most popular “ab exercises” around. It’s a move that emphasizes your upper abdominal strength more so than your lower. You start by lying on your back – typically hands behind your head and knees bent – then lift your head and chest off the floor – “crunching” your upper body into a C-shaped curve. Over the years, many healthcare and fitness professionals...
A strong, healthy core is important for our health and posture. When your core is strong and working properly, you will have less back pain, better posture, and will move with more ease and endurance. But how do you know if your core strength is where it needs to be? Here are five signs that might indicate your core is weak and what you can do about it:...
Why Pilates? If you’ve ever experienced muscle and/or skeletal pain, it was probably the result of one or more mechanical stressors occurring in joints or muscles. When I treat a patient, I am often working to help them change the mechanics of their movement and therefore decrease or eliminate those stressors. It’s one of the main reasons why I incorporate Pilates into my treatments. It’s also why most...
5 Reasons Exercise is Hurting Your Back The research continues to show that the best “treatment” for back pain is exercise. But what do you do when exercising hurts your back instead of helps? This is one of the most common frustrations I hear from my clients. The doctor looks at their back and takes an X-ray. He or she only sees something like arthritis or degenerative disc...
5 Benefits of Adding Pilates to Your Fitness Routine Pilates has been around for about 100 years, and it still amazes me how many people have NOT heard of this incredible exercise method. If you didn’t already know – it was first created by Joseph Pilates and initially gained popularity among the dance community as a way to recover from and prevent injuries. But you don’t have to...
Is Your Knee Problem Really a Problem? How to tell. Knee pain is the second most common musculoskeletal complaint after back pain. Studies say that 1 in 4 adults now suffer from chronic knee pain, and the number of swollen and stiff knees has risen 65 percent in the past four decades. But just because you have knee pain – doesn’t mean you have a knee “problem”. Knee pain...
Total knee replacement (TKR) surgery has been around for decades, and generally speaking, results are very good. 90% of folks can expect up to a 20 year success rate. The most common reason for a knee replacement is to resolve advanced arthritis. But what if advanced arthritis isn’t the true cause of your knee problem? Do you really need a knee replacement? Only 15% of patients with evidence...
3 Tips to Protect Your Knees as you Age Knee pain is the second most common musculoskeletal complaint behind back pain. It impacts one-third of all Americans at one time or another – and its prevalence has increased substantially over the last 20 years. These statistics indicate that it’s more important than ever to find ways to protect your knees as you age – so you can continue...
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Portsmouth, NH’s people-first physical therapy studio. We help active adults 40+ find the root cause of their pain and build a long-term plan to fix it, so they can get back to doing what they love most.
