PROSPER Performance & Physical Therapy

  3 PLANES... WORKING IN HARMONY When you have problems with one, you'll compensate with the others. For example, if you are missing strength, stability, balance, mobility or coordination in your ability to shift weight side to side (Frontal Plane), you will call on your Extensors (Sagittal) and/or Rotators (Transverse) to "Pseudo Shift". 🤯 1) Sagittal Plane (Forward & Backward, i.e. Situps) 2) Frontal Plane (Side to Side/Abduction & Adduction, i.e. Jumping Jacks, Side Planks) 3) Transverse Plane (Rotation, i.e. Russian Twist) All natural human movements require at least 2 of these planes to work together. Not all movements are grand and obvious... often it's quite subtle and acts as stability ... but man, are they important and overlooked. When they all work in harmony, we are fine-tuned athletes. However, the Sagittal Plane is quite dominant. When we don't have good control of the other 2 planes, we use the Sagittal plane to compensate... mak...

  DON'T BE LIKE ME I felt amazing! I was excited to see what my new “post-40’s” PR would be. Then it happened. At mile 11 of the Half, I felt a tearing sensation in the bottom of my left foot. “Crap! I may have torn my plantar fascia,” I thought. (It ended up being my Peroneal Tendon I had torn). I remember thinking, “It may not be totally torn yet. Maybe you should walk it out to the finish.” But, I was so close! The rest of me felt so good! AND I knew walking would only prolong the time before I could stop & rest it. (No, totally bailing & calling a for help NEVER crossed my mind ) So, I limped to the finish. Switching weight from one part of my foot onto another every few minutes. After crossing the finish line, there was no weight it would accept. “ME?!” I thought, “I’m the one who knows better. I’m the one that preaches prevention & keeps Olympic runners in the race. How did I injure myself?!” So, what went wrong? I blame 3 things: ❌ The Obvious - ...

  TIP FOR RUNNERS (and Walkers) This one is MY quote to a client this week. He is starting to run again after some time and his body is showing me it's ready! We are working on the last things to clean-up and "re-learn" in his exercise program. And this is the advice I gave him to go along with this phase. We are working on disassociation of his lower half and upper half in the rotational plane. This tip to "notice" (not LOOK at) his Left hand in is peripheral vision as it swings forward will help him carry to concept through to his activity. This simple task helps: 1) Assist full, symmetrical arm swing 2) Assist in uncompensated weight acceptance onto his left leg 3) Unlock his tendency to lock his body with his visual habits. Pretty cool, right?! This tip and more are discussed in detail in my FREE Top 10 Tips for Runners! Good for Walkers, too! Get it Here: FREE Top 10 Tips for Runners    Take Your Musculoskeletal Health into Your Ow...

  SIDE STITCH WHEN YOU RUN? Once they start, they are hard to settle down! I had a Masters Triathlete come to me with one that had “plagued (her) for years” any time she would push her runs. She was training for the next World Triathlon when she came in to see me for help. What I found was that her breathing pattern was off. She wasn’t using her diaphragm equally on both sides, and it was keeping her R ribcage muscles in a near spasm. Whenever she ran, the breathing demands made the asymmetry even more evident. We not only worked on her breathing, but her muscle firing patterns that had become unbalanced, as well. In order to keep the diaphragm working more in unison, we had to address the full body alignment & coordination. There was nothing wrong with her running technique - she was just trying to perform on an asymmetrical body! Get this… we are ALL trying to function on an asymmetrical body. Some of us just ask more of it than others. She went on to WIN her age group in the...