back pain Archives

10Feb 2023 by Patrick Donovan

3 Home Health Tests For Posture

Health content

Today, we're sharing 3 home tests you can do for to gague and improve your posture. Ultimate Spine and Shoulder Posture Test The Dowel Overhead Test measures an overlooked aspect of health - your posture. By taking this measurement, you can improve flexibility and reduce restrictions in your arms and spine for a lifetime of upright posture. Get started today with improving your posture, but measure your baseline first! The Easiest At-Home Posture Test This test is a part of every physical exam I do for osteoporosis. So why not get started with it at home? Measure the fingerbreadths to the closest whole value. It could kickstart your motivation to expand your chest muscles, improve lung capacity, and decrease your risk for vertebral compression fracture. Your goal is 4 fingerbreadths,…

31May 2022 by Patrick Donovan

Baseline Measures of Health | Heather Lane PT – Physical Therapist in Denver, CO

Health content

What's your baseline activity level? Are you getting 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week? How about the two days of multiple segment strength training? A quarter of adults and eight percent of older adults achieve the recommended dose of exercise per week. Well, if not, you're not alone. Only a quarter of adults and eight percent of older adults achieve the recommended dose of exercise per week. Today we are going to hone in not just on overall fitness or activity level, but the importance of baseline measures. We're going to look at one test: the 30-second sit-to-stand test. Sit to Stand Test This test captures important information on: Lower body strength, Static balance, Quad endurance, Spinal posture, Hip strength, And joint motion. This test is commonly used…

18May 2022 by Patrick Donovan

Building Physical Resilience Part 2

Health content

"Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb, but how well you bounce back." - Vivian Komori I've always referred to this when talking to our patients. We want to be able to bounce right back to where we started when we have a negative stressor. These negative events and setbacks in our life are inevitable, but we want to pop back up. I encourage you all to think differently ahead of your potential next setback. With aging, these setbacks get even harder to bounce back from. When people with less resiliency have a setback, they don't quite bounce back right to where they started. Whether they're in the hospital for a night, or something negative happened emotionally in their lives, it's hard to bounce back.…

18Apr 2022 by Patrick Donovan

Gait Speed as the Sixth Vital Sign

ankle, foot, Health content

Hello everyone Dr. Donovan here and today, we will be talking about travel speed as the sixth vital sign. The 5 commonly accepted vital signs are: Blood pressure, Heart rate, Oxygen saturation, Respiration, And temperature. One of the biggest things I have observed in my work is that any adult's walking or hiking behaviors are a marker of their health. You can also find greater control over your mental health and environmental control by improving your travel speed, and measuring the speed of movement according to the predicted health condition. There is something to be gained by improving your gait speed for everyone. For example, if you have a single gait speed, which is another name for walking speed, you can potentially increase it for an overall positive impact. There…

20Aug 2019 by Brigitte B

Trading Opioids for Physical Therapy: There’s A Medication-Free Solution For You

Health content, knowledge, Pain, Treatment

Aging bones and bodies bring on a fragility that makes the elderly more susceptible to breaks, fractures, and surgeries. Many are offered opioid drugs as the best solution to deal with the unbearable pain that results. But more than 130 people die every day from opioid-related drug overdoses, creating an epidemic that is currently a national crisis. Is risking your health and life the only way to find relief from pain? Thankfully, it's not. Trading habit-forming prescription drugs like opioids for physical therapy may be the best swap you'll ever make for three reasons: 1. PT is a true treatment for pain. Opioids make you feel better because they interrupt pain signals to your brain. But they do nothing to actually heal your body and keep you from suffering in…

23Jan 2018 by Patrick Donovan

From A Crick To Chronic: Low Back Pain

back, Health content, Pain

You’re not alone, low pack pain is incredibly common. 8 in 10 people experience low back pain that requires them to seek treatment. Although the pain may be severe, most low back pain is not due to a serious problem. Usually back pain is contained within the lower back and buttocks. Sometimes the nerves get irritated and cause numbness and tingling in the leg or even to the toes. Some common lifestyle factors are: Sitting or driving too much Being in poor physical condition Bending and lifting improperly As we get older, the most common culprits of back pain are weakened muscles and stiffening joints. Nutrition and sleep are also hallmarks of a therapy evaluation. Often times people overlook nutrition as it relates to pain. For instance, turmeric has proven…