We hear about it….we talk about it…we worry about it…can we do anything about it? Our fat!!!!!!!!
Swimsuit season is just around the corner, and we probably would like to be able to enjoy the freedom that goes with lying on the beach. Here is an article that just might help you get one step closer:
http://www.everydayhealth.com/weight-pictures/fascinating-facts-about-fat.aspx#/slide-1
A parent and a quick-thinking ATC helped save the life of a volunteer Schaumburg softball coach’s life. Details here.
See an ATC from a nearby Champion Fitness clinic to learn all of the ways a trainer can serve a community or school.
Here’s a link to an article that might prove beneficial to our patients with back pain.
Visit a Champion Fitness PT for ways to help with back pain.
Dr. Clint Witsman PT of the Champion Fitness Physical therpay group explains the benefits of trying the Triton DTS Traction Unit as a means of confronting low back or cervical pain. Much like a spinal decompression unit, this is a non-invasive technique that those patients with either low back or cervical pain might want to try. It’s simple and easy to use.
Once Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction has been diagnosed and stabilized, a key to recovery is a consistent, thorough exercise program that both the clinician and patient can understand and exceute. In the final installment of this series on S-I Joint Dysfunction, PT Tim Highland, assisted by former Champion Fitness patient Amy Eicher (www.mysijd.com), explains and demonstrates a very basic set of exercises that can be done at home. With proper guidance and a determined effort, following this plan will help alleviate the problems caused by the S-I Joint.
Once the problem area of the sacroiliac joint has been identified, measures have to be taken to stabilize the afflicted spots. In the second part of this series on S-I Joint Dysfunction, PT Tim Highland, assisted by former patient Amy Eicher (www.mysijd.com), demonstrates a couple of different taping techniques. This video will be helpful to not only patients with his condition, but also Pt’s, PTA’s, and ATC’s who might use these methods in their own dealings with patients.
Twenty years ago, Amy Eicher was a swimmer at Illinois State, fulfilling a life-long dream of performing at the college level. After a series of tough meets and overtraining leading to a sore back among other ailments, the squad was put through a hard practice. During sprints, she hit a turn, tried to push off the wall like she had done hundreds of times before, and SNAP!—she couldn’t finish the turn. She lay there in the water…in “blinding pain,” as she put it.
Trainers tried ice aand stretching…a sports orthopedist thought she had a bone broken in her spine…or some type of arthritis. X-rays, bone scans, and MRIs—all came back clean! Must be in her head…can’t find anything wrong!!! Despite treatments and massage, the spasms continue….and the pain!
That’s the beginning of Amy’s story in a nutshell. But it didn’t end there…lots more trials, tribulations, and pain. You can read the rest on her website and blog (www.mysijd.com/?page_id=395). Part of her story includes PT Tim Highland who felt others like her could benefit from a thorough discussion of sacroiliac joint dysfunction. Here is the first of a three-part series covering the S-I joint. In this segment, Tim explains the S-I joint and ways to assess this problem area.
ATC Danielle Edens explains the process of using Spinal Decompression as an alternative for patients with low back pain. This is a feature of the Champion Fitness Physical Therapy Clinic in Streator. For more information on other low back pain alternatives, call 877-348-8500.
Although many high school have at least one trainer on staff, there are still several across the country that cannot afford such a luxury. Also, many coaches are called upon to act as trainers and handle many of the preventive measures to help their athletes. For these reasons, Champion Fitness Physical Therapy ATC Kevin Casey, who serves as the head trainer at Pontiac (IL) High School, has produced a series of videos, highlighting some of the more prevalent areas that coaches will find useful.
Video 1—-Lower Extremity Taping techniques—Ankle sprains, Arch problems, and Two methods of handling turf toe
Video 2—-Knee Taping Techniques—Hyperextended Knee, MCL Sprains, Patellar Tendonitis
Video 3—-Elbow and Hand Taping Techniques—Hyperextended Elbow, Buddy Taping of Fingers
Here is a simple set of exercises that could reap huge benefits with the #1 problem out there for physical therapy. More than 80% of Americans suffer from some kind of back issues, and this short workout can definitely take steps in the right direction.
If you are someone with arthritis, fybromyalgia, a new hip or knee replacement, walking difficulties, pregnancy realted pain, or an injury to an extremity, then you might want to consider Aquatic Therapy. Champion Fitness Physical Therapy provides 1-on-1 personal aquatics for their patients in Pontiac, Bloomington, LeRoy, Morton, and Pekin. Watch this short video to learn how aquatic therapy can help you.
Do you know what the biggest mistake patients make when considering Physical Therapy?
It’s the idea that they have NO option when choosing a provider. It’s that they HAVE to go here or there, based on what someone else tells them.
NOT TRUE at all!!!
The fact of the matter is that the choice for physical therapy lies with YOU—– the individual who needs it. Naturally, you may get suggestions from doctors or clinicians to use one place or another because of an affiliation with a certain locale, but in no way are you required to follow their lead. The secret is for you to find the right place, the right atmosphere, the right therapist, the most convenient scheduling, and, most importantly, the best chance for you to make the type of recovery you feel you can make. Just like choosing a dentist or beautician or even a mechanic, the number one factor in making that decision involves TRUST. Right behind also has to be HONESTY and INTEGRITY.
Certainly, we are always pleased whenever someone chooses Champion Fitness Physical Therapy for his/her care. What makes more sense, though, is knowing that a correct decision in the quest to “Get Busy Living!” again is made by the patient. You, the patient, are the one who has to choose; we want you back doing things you were doing before you started with much more ease and comfort. That’s the result you want when choosing physical therapy.
At Champion Fitness Physical Therapy, the patient comes first—always! Whether it be Work, Play, or Everyday, we want to help you “Get Busy Living!”
We want to be your physical therapy provider for life.
But…the decision is entirely up to you!
PT Dawn Mueller of the Streator clinic explains some basic tests for vertigo and inner-ear balance problems, as well as a few basic exercises that can be done at home to combat this ever-growing serious condition.
In another in our series of teaching aids to help benefit high school coaches, ATC Eric Saxton demonstrates the proper principles for using ice…heat…and even both…when injuries occur. The series is hosted by Mick Peterson, Growth and Development Director for Champion and himself a former high school coach for over 30 years.
Each and every day it seems, the sports world has a story about concussions and the trauma involved for the person having one. Dealing with concussions at the high school level is one of the biggest “headaches” a coach or school has to face. It’s come a long way from “seeing stars” or “having the cobwebs shaken” when a blow to the head takes place, especially in football.
Champion Fitness Physical Therapy ATC Kevin Casey, a former student trainer for the Chicago Bears during their Super Bowl run a few years back, takes a detailed look at the signs, symptoms, prevention, and treatment of concussions to help high school coaches better understand this growing concern.
To access Kevin’s Power Point presentation, click here!
Give it a little time to warm up.
This is another in a series of presentations, which, hopefully, can provide the coach with the proper knowledge of some basic skills, the kind, if done properly, could keep the athlete competing and, hopefully, out of the training room. In this entry, Tera Moritz, currently a member of the Champion Fitness Physical Therapy staff and a former member of the ISU football squad’s athletic training staff in 2010, demonstrates the proper techniques for taping the wrist and the thumb, two often-injured areas affecting many athletes. Tera, who performed an internship at Champion Fitness Physical Therapy, is assisted by Champion Fitness ATC Luke Thompson. The series is hosted by Mick Peterson, Growth and Development Director for Champion and himself a former high school coach for over 30 years.
Most Americans know that low back pain is one of the most common ailments we suffer from. The list for solutions to the problem is seemingly endless. Dr. Clint Witsman, assisted by Tera Moritz, among others, offers a pretty simple solution….strengthening the core area of the body. He offers a series of stretches that, if done regularly, might just be the ticket to relief. It’s worth a try.
The ASTYM System is an advanced form of soft tissue mobilization, which enables clinicians to effectively initiate the healing process of dysfunctional tissue. Currently performed as part of our manual therapy at the Tuscola clinic, PT Jessica Ray, who is certified in ASTYM usage, explains the process.
If you are someone with arthritis, fybromyalgia, a new hip or knee replacement, walking difficulties, pregnancy realted pain, or an injury to an extremity, then you might want to consider Aquatic Therapy. Champion Fitness Physical Therapy provides 1-on-1 personal aquatics for their patients in Pontiac, Bloomington, LeRoy, Morton, and Pekin. Watch this short video to learn how aquatic therapy can help you.
Oftentimes, coaches at the high school level are asked to perform duties that go way beyond the basic X’s and O’s. Most of that “extra” deals with the health and well-being of their athletes, both on and off the court/field. With the help of various ATCs from the Champion Fitness Physcial Therapy staff, Growth and Develpoment Director Mick Peterson, himself a former coach for 33 years, introduces a new program designed to help coaches eliminate potential problems that could be avoided with the information available.
“Many times, the head coach assumes that his staff members know how to perform basic techniques like taping, hydrating, stretching, or handling various weather issues with their athletes, simply because of the nature of the profession,” Peterson explained. “However, that may or not be the case. Some schools have trainers who take care of this; others don’t. The head coach figures his coaches know what they’re doing when it comes to …taping, for example, but, in reality, we may not be that comfortable. Regardless, we coaches, both head coach and assistants, learn through experience that we could ALL use a little refresher course now and then, whether there’s a trainer on the school’s staff or not.”
This is the first of a series of presentations, which, hopefully, can provide the coach with the proper knowledge of some basic skills, the kind, if done properly, could keep the athlete competing and, hopefully, out of the training room. In this first entry, ATC Luke Thompson demonstrates the proper technique of taping an ankle, the most common ailment seemingly the coach has to face.