SPOONER BLOG
What Are Kinetic Chain Reactions?
By: Emily Stafford, PT, DPT, CAFS, FAFS
Think about a row of dominos. If you push one over, all of the others lined up behind it inevitably fall. This occurrence is similar to how our bodies work. One action, one movement, creates a ripple effect of other movements to help our body stand up against gravity, move forward,[…]
Running Warm-Up for Glute Activation
By: Michelle Reed, PT, DPT
Running is one of those sports where you can very easily lace up your shoes, maybe do a few stretches, and hit the road. You can try to say that the “slower” first mile is your warm-up, and that you’ll make it up in stretching after. I’ve been there. But these habits DO catch up with[…]
Small but Mighty Muscles
By: Dillon Moeller, PT, DPT, FAFS
When you think about overhead strength, you might first think about the bigger upper body muscles like deltoids and lats. However, it is your small but mighty muscles that allow you to perform at the highest level. We talked to Dillon Moeller, PT, DPT, FAFS, about what he teaches baseball, softball,[…]
How to Build Tendon Strength: Eccentric, Isometric, and Plyometric Training
Connective tissue health is not a common concern for fitness training goals, but it should be considered for longevity of training. Tendons, ligaments, and fascia are all connective tissues which are made of collagen, and collagen synthesis is the growth of those tissues. Connective tissue health, such as tendons, play a large role in injury prevention as well as performance.[…]
4 Benefits of Eccentric Exercise
By: Kimberly Wolf-King, PT, DPT
Think about the activities you do every day – getting up and out of bed, lowering yourself to sit, grabbing a dish from the cabinet and putting it gently down onto the counter. All of these tasks require you to work against gravity, meaning they are all eccentric.
What Is Eccentric Movement?
Eccentric movement is[…]
Strength for the Climbing Wall
By: Sam Gesicki, PT, DPT, and Carly Szemerey, PT, DPT
Every discipline of climbing requires strength.
Bouldering presents almost gymnastic difficulty depending on the setter of the problem. Balance, power, and athleticism is required for every moment on the wall. Sport climbing presents the longest time on the wall, so endurance is paramount. There is typically a bouldering section,[…]
Perform and Recover Better: Red Light Therapy
Professional athletic teams are beginning to dedicate full rooms to red light therapy. Progressive physicians are starting to tout its benefits. Countless studies have been conducted to measure its effectiveness in multiple realms of health. Red light therapy may be a relatively new topic in the medical field, but its benefits are hard to ignore.
NASA was the first to utilize[…]
Return to Sport: Finger Fractures
Written by: Holly Hussey, MOTR/L, CHT
The crowd roaring, the adrenaline pumping. You are so close to scoring your team a point, possibly securing the win. You’re on third, and your teammate is at bat. The crack of the ball rings through the stadium, and your legs sprint towards home. You slide hand first rather than feet first this time out[…]
Becoming a Leader: Meet K2
The Fukuoka Softbank Hawks want to be the number one baseball team in the world. Not just in their league, not even just in Japan- the world. To accomplish that, yes, they need fantastic players and coaches, but they also need a strong team of athletic trainers, strength coaches, and physical therapists to build up the team, to keep[…]
Can you exercise while pregnant?
There are many changes to a woman’s body during pregnancy. Ligaments begin to stretch to support the uterus, feet may or may not swell and ache, and, most notably, the bump grows throughout the term. However, the mother’s heart rate has some noticeable changes during pregnancy as well.
In a study monitoring resting heart rate (RHR) and heart[…]
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