Why Posture Alone Isn’t Fixing Your Neck Pain You’re halfway through your workday when you notice it again. Your neck feels stiff, the muscles across the tops of your shoulders are tightening, and perhaps you feel that familiar ache near your shoulder blade or at the base of your skull. What do you do? You naturally sit up straighter, pull your shoulders back, tuck your chin, and try...
Why an MRI Diagnosis Doesn’t Always Mean Surgery Is Next You finally get an MRI for that shoulder that’s been bothering you for months. Maybe it hurts when you reach into the back seat of the car, pull off a sweatshirt, grab a gallon of milk, or roll onto that side at night. Then you get the result: rotator cuff tear. Suddenly, everything makes sense. There’s a tear....
One of the fastest ways to become old and fragile is to start acting like you are. And unfortunately, that’s exactly what happens to many people after they’re told they have arthritis. They hear words like “degeneration,” “wear and tear,” or worse – “bone-on-bone” – and suddenly they become afraid of their own body. They stop hiking, start avoiding stairs, give up getting on and off the floor,...
If you’ve ever suffered from a “frozen shoulder,” you know firsthand how debilitating it can be. Frozen shoulder, also known as adhesive capsulitis, affects roughly 2 to 5 percent of the population, with women between the ages of 40 and 60 being the most likely to develop it. It happens when the capsule surrounding your shoulder joint becomes inflamed, thickened, and stiff, making everyday tasks like reaching overhead,...
Before You Say Yes to Back Surgery, Ask Yourself These Three Questions If you’ve been living with back pain or sciatica for any length of time, there’s often a moment when it feels like you’ve reached the end of the road with conservative treatment. You’ve tried medications. Maybe you’ve had injections. You went to physical therapy. Chiropractors helped, but only temporarily. You’ve stretched, rested, modified your activities. It...
Why Your Back Pain Keeps Coming Back – And the Daily Habits That Cause It Most people don’t wake up one morning with back pain for no reason – even if it seems that way. Back problems tend to creep in gradually, under the radar, until one day they suddenly get your attention. Maybe you notice you’re stiffer getting out of the car after your morning commute. Your...
Why Your Back Pain Keeps Coming Back: The Real Reason Treatments Don’t Last When back pain keeps returning – most people assume they simply haven’t found the right treatment yet. So they try another stretch, another adjustment, another round of physical therapy, or perhaps a cortisone injection. Each new approach brings hope – but when the relief doesn’t last – frustration quickly follows. Eventually, many people begin to...
When it comes to pain and physical therapy, ironically, one of the most common things I hear from patients is, “I’m just going to wait until the pain and inflammation calm down before I come back.” On the surface, that might sound perfectly reasonable. If something hurts, resting it seems like the smartest thing to do, right? And sometimes… it is. But many people are surprised to learn...
At CJ Physical Therapy and Pilates in Portsmouth, NH, our goal is to help you live a pain-free life without pain pills or invasive procedures. Release the muscle tension and trigger points that are keeping your pain cycle going, without pain pills or invasive procedures. Talk to a Specialist For Free UNDERSTANDING DRY NEEDLING What Is Dry Needling? Trigger Point Dry Needling is one of several strategies we...
If you’ve ever told someone you’re dealing with tight hips, tight hamstrings, tight calves, or a tight neck, chances are the next thought was: “I just need to stretch more.” As a physical therapist, this is one of the most common assumptions I hear — and one of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to muscle tightness. Stretching is not always the solution.And in many cases, it’s not...
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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.
