Welcome to Health and Fitness 101, a blog for people who enjoy the Montana lifestyle.
The aim of our blog is to interpret, distill, and then deliver to you the threads that bind physical medicine with applicable health and fitness ideas and principles.
It's all about helping to connect the dots that foster optimal human function and, ultimately, superior performance. Feel better. Perform better.
Thanks to Alpine’s running specialist, Kristi Moore, MSPT, for this informative article. Runner’s take note! Drills can take your running to new levels.
************
If you want to improve as a runner and prevent injury, you need to do more than just run. Running drills can be a great way to help you do both. Running drills provide dynamic flexibility, strength training specific to running, and will help to improve your running form. What does this mean? You become a more efficient runner with less risk of injury. As a Physical Therapist I use drills as a way to assess how a runner moves, to see imbalances within movement, and as a way to rehabilitate runners from injury.
Dynamic flexibility is moving joints and muscles to gain active mobility, which helps you to loosen up effectively before running. Drills often take you through a larger range of the motions you would normally do in running. Using bigger range of motion for repetitions warms up your muscles to get ready for running.
Drills work specific muscle groups utilized in running by exaggerating motions used in running. This leads to improved recruitment of these muscles when we need them during running. Drills are often quick and/or powerful movements, which will train muscles to respond quickly when running and may even help to push you quicker to a finish line.
Many of the drills highlight one or more aspect of proper running form and are accentuated through repetitive motions, thus helping you to insert it into your typical running mechanics. A runner needs to have proper form as well as the appropriate strength and flexibility to allow their body to run without risking injury. Each individual has specific areas to work on with strengthening and stretching exercises, but drills take it to the next level.
One example of how a drill can address these three areas is high knee skipping. This drill is a dynamic stretch for hip extensors, a strengthening exercise for calf muscles and quadriceps, and it improves your form by having you push off your foot closer to the mid/fore foot instead of striking with your heel. There are similar benefits to the majority of running drills.
To learn more about drills come to Alpine Physical Therapy’sFree Drills session on Saturday May 18th at 8:30 am at the dirt track off the Kim Williams trail. We will demonstrate correct form with drills, explain their purpose and have you go through some beneficial drills that will improve your running. The first 25 people to arrive will also get a free stainless steel water bottle. If you have any questions please call our north clinic at (406) 541-2606.
At least forty of you have walked a marathon. On Saturday mornings 40-60 full and half marathon walkers in training meet at Community Hospital as part of the training program provided by Run Wild Missoula. On April 27th Alpine Physical Therapist Angela Listug-Vap had the pleasure of meeting with them prior to their long walk to discuss Injury Prevention and Core Stability. Here is a taste of what was discussed.
In order to complete a task like walking our body has to accomplish several things. We can call these biomechanical requirements. If we are lacking some of these requirements, our amazing bodies can still get the job done and complete the task but with compensations. These compensations may lead to pain and injury.
One example of a biomechanical requirement for walking is thoracic rotation. The body needs to be able to rotate in the middle of the trunk in both directions to help drive the next step and the swing your arms. If you stand or sit and rotate your trunk you can self assess by asking: “Am I tighter in one direction?”. To practice and gain trunk rotation you can do some simple stretches, and you can play with not allowing trunk rotation while you swing your arms . . . and then allow yourself to rotate all the way and swing the arm all the way across your body slowly alternating directions. You can view more examples of what we discussed by clicking here to access the handout.
Alpine Physical Therapy offers free 10-minute injury consults to all RWM members and Marathon participants. So give us a call at 541-2606 if you have a question and would like a chance to bounce it off one of our knowledgable physical therapists.
Please join me in welcoming back to Missoula and to Alpine Physical Therapy, Matt Schweitzer, DPT, OCS, CSCS. Matt graduated from the U of M Physical Therapy program in 2009. He graciously provided summer fill in work at Alpine prior to moving to Bakersfield, California, where he accelerated his orthopedic an manual physical therapy skills and certifications. We’re excited that he’s joined our team of 14 physical therapists and will be practicing at Alpine Downtown. Here are highlights about Matt:
Education
Bachelors in Psychology University of Montana 2005
Doctorate of Physical Therapy University of Montana 2009
Evidence in Motion Orthopedic Residency 2011
State Licenses
Montana. California
Joined Alpine
2013
Clinical Interests
Manual therapy and integration into treating movement impairments and pain. General orthopedics.
Professional Certifications
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist 2007
Orthopedic Clinical Specialist 2012
Hobbies and Interests
Hiking, camping, fitness, food!
Philosophy of Care
“Treat others as you would like to be treated.”
To contact Matt at our Downtown location, please call 549-0064.
Thanks to Alpine’s running specialist, Kristi Moore, MSPT, for this informative article. Runner’s take note! Drills can take your running to new levels.
************
If you want to improve as a runner and prevent injury, you need to do more than just run. Running drills can be a great way to help you do both. Running drills provide dynamic flexibility, strength training specific to running, and will help to improve your running form. What does this mean? You become a more efficient runner with less risk of injury. As a Physical Therapist I use drills as a way to assess how a runner moves, to see imbalances within movement, and as a way to rehabilitate runners from injury.
Dynamic flexibility is moving joints and muscles to gain active mobility, which helps you to loosen up effectively before running. Drills often take you through a larger range of the motions you would normally do in running. Using bigger range of motion for repetitions warms up your muscles to get ready for running.
Drills work specific muscle groups utilized in running by exaggerating motions used in running. This leads to improved recruitment of these muscles when we need them during running. Drills are often quick and/or powerful movements, which will train muscles to respond quickly when running and may even help to push you quicker to a finish line.
Many of the drills highlight one or more aspect of proper running form and are accentuated through repetitive motions, thus helping you to insert it into your typical running mechanics. A runner needs to have proper form as well as the appropriate strength and flexibility to allow their body to run without risking injury. Each individual has specific areas to work on with strengthening and stretching exercises, but drills take it to the next level.
One example of how a drill can address these three areas is high knee skipping. This drill is a dynamic stretch for hip extensors, a strengthening exercise for calf muscles and quadriceps, and it improves your form by having you push off your foot closer to the mid/fore foot instead of striking with your heel. There are similar benefits to the majority of running drills.
To learn more about drills come to Alpine Physical Therapy’sFree Drills session on Saturday May 18th at 8:30 am at the dirt track off the Kim Williams trail. We will demonstrate correct form with drills, explain their purpose and have you go through some beneficial drills that will improve your running. The first 25 people to arrive will also get a free stainless steel water bottle. If you have any questions please call our north clinic at (406) 541-2606.
Please join me in welcoming back to Missoula and to Alpine Physical Therapy, Matt Schweitzer, DPT, OCS, CSCS. Matt graduated from the U of M Physical Therapy program in 2009. He graciously provided summer fill in work at Alpine prior to moving to Bakersfield, California, where he accelerated his orthopedic an manual physical therapy skills and certifications. We’re excited that he’s joined our team of 14 physical therapists and will be practicing at Alpine Downtown. Here are highlights about Matt:
Education
Bachelors in Psychology University of Montana 2005
Doctorate of Physical Therapy University of Montana 2009
Evidence in Motion Orthopedic Residency 2011
State Licenses
Montana. California
Joined Alpine
2013
Clinical Interests
Manual therapy and integration into treating movement impairments and pain. General orthopedics.
Professional Certifications
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist 2007
Orthopedic Clinical Specialist 2012
Hobbies and Interests
Hiking, camping, fitness, food!
Philosophy of Care
“Treat others as you would like to be treated.”
To contact Matt at our Downtown location, please call 549-0064.
Pilates Day is an annual, international, community event celebrated on the first Saturday of May every year. The Pilates Day mission is to foster the public’s appreciation and awareness of the Pilates Method through a network of varied, innovative, and high quality grassroots Pilates events accessible and affordable for all. Pilates Day is a program of the Pilates Method Alliance (PMA), and Pilates Day events are produced and hosted by PMA members.
Why Does Alpine Physical Therapy Participate?
Alpine Physical Therapy is sought after for its leadership in Pilates-based rehabilitation. Our treatment philosophy is reflected in our extensive certification and use of the Pilates Method. Both of our clinics are fully equipped with Balance Body reformers and accessories.
We work with area doctors and other referral sources in designing rehabilitation programs that successfully incorporate Pilates-based approaches. Our clients comment on how much they enjoy this form of care, particularly because they often find that they can get a good workout without flaring their symptoms.
Many of our patients have responded favorably to our interventions that include the use of clinical Pilates. It’s common for many patients who are completing their rehab with Pilates to go on to do this form of exercise on an ongoing basis. Learn more about Pilates-based exercise by visiting the website of our sister company, The Core Studio at Alpine, by clicking here.
Sure, but first you’ll need to lift either 75, 95, or 115 pounds as many times from the ground to full lockout overhead within a total of five minutes.
And that’s just the first of three work outs that were slated for the fundraiser for X-sports 4 Vets on behalf of Vets. The event, hosted by CrossFit Emergence and Tamarack Brewing Company took place Saturday, April 27th, at Caras Park. All proceeds of the $50 registration fee went to X-Sports. So with over 100 CrossFit athletes participating, there was a substantial amount of funds raised on behalf of our Vets.
The second workout was even harder. In 10 minutes, row 1,000 meters, then jump off the rower and in the remaining time, find and do your 5 rep max dead lift. Whew! Now if that’s not enough (and it was), you then reset your bar with 95 pounds and do as many rounds in 6 minutes of front rack lunges x 10 followed by 10 hand release pushups. Killer!
Brent Dodge, PT of Alpine Physical Therapy will testify in a heart beat that work out number two was indeed a killer. The picture below shows a smiling Brent . . . BEFORE said workout. We deleted all pictures of his facial grimace that he donned following the event!
His face was a bit brighter when after doing 76 reps in five minutes with 75 pounds (a total of 5,700 pounds), Brent discovered that he placed 11th in work out number one!
For participants who were still alive and kicking, the third work was a seven minute workout consisting of three movements. First, squat clean 155 pounds four times, then do six 24-inch box jumps, then do 15 jump rope double unders. The aim was to do as many rounds of these three movements in seven minutes. Killer. Double killer!
Upon completion of each of these three work outs, you can now guzzle a delicious brew available ring-side by Tamarack Brewing Company. Burp! Double burp!
Special thanks to Tamarack Brewing Company and to David Johns, owner of CrossFit Emergence in Missoula for the amazing work they did to make this meaningful fund raiser possible!
CrossFit Emergence and Tamarack Brewing Company have teamed together to host a CrossFit competition called the “Downtown Throwdown” to be held in downtown Missoula, under the Pavilion at Caras Park on April 27, 2013. All proceeds from the athlete entry-fee’s will be donated to X-Sports For Vets, a local non-profit in Missoula that uses extreme sports to help recent conflict veterans make a successful transition back to civilian life. Entry into the competition is $50.
There are three divisions: Experienced, Scaled, and Beginner, so that all levels can compete. Additionally, there will be three heats, all of which will tax our athletes to the hilt. Alpine will be onsite offering free pain and injury consultations to all CrossFit athletes. Over 100 athletes are slated to compete.
Alpine’s owner, Brent Dodge, will represent Alpine in the advanced division. Brutal is an understatement. Come and check out the “fun.” Did I say fun? Okay, maybe it won’t be fun, but what a fantastic opportunity to be a part of this meaningful event on behalf of our Vets. We proudly salute all of our Vets for all they’ve done on our behalf!
With the arrival of Spring in Missoula, the youth soccer season is now in full swing! As mentioned in earlier blogs, Alpine Physical Therapy has recently teamed up with the Missoula Strikers soccer club. Along with offering free 15 minute consultations to all Strikers players, Alpine personnel will also presenting a short “injury-prevention and proper warm-up technique” sessions to the Striker’s coaches.
One of our PT’s will attend each team’s practice and take the players through a 20-30 minute warm-up session while educating the coaches and players on proper jumping technique, running form and warm-up techniques that will help prevent ankle, knee, and other lower extremity injuries.
Additionally, Alpine is developing a training periodization model to guide coaches on the amount of volume and quality of the soccer workload the players are subject to through the course of a season. The soccer scene in Missoula is booming, and Alpine Physical Therapy is actively interested in helping with this growth!
For more information on the services we provide to area soccer players, please visit our sports webpage by clicking here.
Pilates Day is an annual, international, community event celebrated on the first Saturday of May every year. The Pilates Day mission is to foster the public’s appreciation and awareness of the Pilates Method through a network of varied, innovative, and high quality grassroots Pilates events accessible and affordable for all. Pilates Day is a program of the Pilates Method Alliance (PMA), and Pilates Day events are produced and hosted by PMA members.
Why Does Alpine Physical Therapy Participate?
Alpine Physical Therapy is sought after for its leadership in Pilates-based rehabilitation. Our treatment philosophy is reflected in our extensive certification and use of the Pilates Method. Both of our clinics are fully equipped with Balance Body reformers and accessories.
We work with area doctors and other referral sources in designing rehabilitation programs that successfully incorporate Pilates-based approaches. Our clients comment on how much they enjoy this form of care, particularly because they often find that they can get a good workout without flaring their symptoms.
Many of our patients have responded favorably to our interventions that include the use of clinical Pilates. It’s common for many patients who are completing their rehab with Pilates to go on to do this form of exercise on an ongoing basis. Learn more about Pilates-based exercise by visiting the website of our sister company, The Core Studio at Alpine, by clicking here.
Recent Comments