Pass the Soup, Please!

[Guest]

by Mike Napierala, PT, SCS, CSCS, FAFS

Pass the soup. What's YOUR favorite brand? Favorite flavor? Now, imagine that your dinner host tells you that's exactly what they made as an appetizer for tonight's special dinner. Awesome, right?

Did you ever think of asking what store they bought your favorite flavored, favorite brand soup from?  Of course not!  

Why not?  

Well, of course, it's because it's all the same wherever you buy it. Right? You could buy Brand X's Chicken Noodle soup at Wegmans or Tops or Rite Aid or the corner store, IT'S ALL THE SAME. The price might be different but the label, the can it comes in, and the soup inside, all the same.

Some doctors and patients think that all Physical Therapy is made the same. It's a "thing,” just like that can of soup. I had an experience like that recently.

I just recently had the privilege of sharing some of our functional approaches to training at the High Peaks Elite Distance Camp at the US Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid.  This is an awesome camp put on by Rick Guido from Fairport High School and Nate Huckle from Canisius College. I taught the high school runners there and the coaches about some principles and techniques for dynamic warm up, functional ways to stretch that actually make sense to your body, and some unique ways to do bodyweight training for runners.

While there, a few athletes with injury issues came up to discuss their problems. One of them, we'll call him Jim, had a history of posterior tibial tendonitis in his lower legs and had missed some significant time from both Cross Country and Indoor Track due to the pain.  

Jim said, "Oh I tried Physical Therapy before and it didn't really help." I thought to myself, "Pass the soup!" I've heard it so many times before. It's as if Physical Therapy were a thing that just exists. An entity that each and every PT has and uses. Nothing unique. Not personal or customized. All the same.  

I shared with Jim some different ways that his problems needed to be looked at and found some characteristic biomechanical factors that were likely underlying his problem.

You see, his lower leg pains were actually due to problems going on at his feet/ankles and his hips. He showed me his home exercises from the Physical Therapy he had before.  Yeah, he was doing some generic balance challenge exercises but they weren't stimulating the deceleration qualities he needed in the right direction.

He was doing a hip strengthening drill but it was essentially reinforcing his hip muscle as "in the air" workers and not their critical "on ground" performance needs. The critical hip rotators he so desperately needed working better weren't being addressed at all.

For Jim it became pretty apparent that it wasn't as simple as, "Pass the soup" when it comes to Physical Therapy. He thought he'd given PT a try and was now moving on to just accepting that his problem couldn't be fixed and to just keep having massages to deal with the recurrent pain. 

At PEAK PERFORMANCE, we love using functional biomechanics to search for those critical underlying causes that are behind so many pains and aches that come on gradually. We're just weird like that.

Sort of like biomechanical, problem-solving geeks, minus the taped glasses, pocket protectors and pants that are 3" too short. (Although our team would suggest I'm holding on to old school geekness with my handy-dandy fanny pack carrying my tools of the trade.)

If you or someone you care about is still suffering from pains and aches or can't do the things you'd like to do because some sort of orthopedic injury just won't resolve or you've "tried Physical Therapy before," then give PEAK PERFORMANCE a call. We'd be honored to become your trusted partner in getting you back to the things you need and love to do!