What Can We Help You Find?

One of my favorite parts about being runner is that you learn a lot about patience and discipline. I haven’t met many people who can just wake up and successfully run a marathon without training beforehand. It generally takes lots of preparation to get ready for an event of this magnitude. Those who are able to complete their marathon training all have unique stories behind what they had to overcome to prepare for this challenge.

A couple years ago, I was trying a new fitness workout that included quite a bit of one-legged jumping. I don’t really do a lot of jumping anymore, but it felt pretty good until I felt something shift in my back. I couldn’t stand up straight almost immediately, and gradually got more and more sore. Fortunately, I take care of issues like these every day at Freeman Rehabilitation & Sports Center. I knew I would be fine in a few days or weeks at most, and within three days my pain did go away.

Is it safe to exercise during pregnancy?

My hobby outside of work is triathlons. This July, I concluded my biggest triathlon adventure yet – I completed 140.6 miles in one day at my first Ironman Triathlon. I learned a lot about my body while training for this race. For instance, I learned just how much I could push the limits. More importantly, I learned the importance of rest and recovery. Even beyond the world of triathlons, the significance of rest and recovery often gets overlooked.

In school, I imagined that being a physical therapist would be similar to being an auto mechanic for the human body. “My body is pulling to the left; it must be out of balance.” I could see myself looking at the deep connections and finding the one part to correct, “Ah, yes, well… if you were to just stretch this and move that here while you walk it would fix your problem.” Some days and some problems are simple like that, but usually problems are much more complex.

What is one of the first things a runner does when he or she is injured? More often than not, the runner performs an online search before seeking care. This search is performed in hopes of learning what is wrong and what can be done to get rid of symptoms. The one thing that is missing from this approach is that the internet typically cannot tell someone why he or she was injured. Sometimes, similar injuries can be caused by very different factors, and seemingly different injuries can be caused by similar circumstances.

On the wall in my office, there is a photo of a woman running across the desert. The word DETERMINATION is written at the top, and the quote below reads: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” - Lao Tzu. Although these words shared by Lao Tzu, ancient Chinese philosopher and poet, were spoken many years ago, the message still rings true.

In the United States, approximately 6.5 million people are affected by chronic wounds (wounds that fail to heal) each year. As a wound healing expert I am often asked, “Why do some wounds heal without any trouble and others not heal?”

Several factors determine whether a wound will heal or not: