Physical Therapy

Every Thursday I help lead a men's bible study.  This makes it difficult to get a training day in on Thursday because I work later than normal.  I will also be leaving work for a short period to go to the Physical Therapist.   I have been seeing my Physical Therapist since last April 2018.  It has been a game changer for me in terms of being able to train at a higher level.  I had an appointment scheduled for next Friday.   I decided to move it to today to tackle my hip sooner rather than later.  We determined that the muscle near my Erector Spinea was locked up and probably lead to a compensation pattern causing my Aductor Longus and Rectus Femoris (Part of the Quad attached at the hip)  to lock up.   I  have reoccurring issues with my Aductors and Rectus Femoris, so this was no surprise to me.  I will take today off from training,  and I will be sore but a new man tomorrow.   I use to get massages when I had some muscular issue, but now that I have experience with dry needling and its effectiveness, it will be my first line of attack as issues come up that I can not get under control with my own lacrosse ball, rumble roller, and dynamic mobility.  If you want a great source for doing your own mobility drills, I would recommend the book "Becoming a Supple Leopard" by Kelly Starrett and his website mobiliyWOD.    He is also a guest on this week's episode of one of my favorite fitness PODcast, The Barbell Life.  

Georgia Sports Physical Therapy is located one mile from my work office. This makes it super convenient to walk to my appointments.  Regularly visiting the physical therapist for my nagging aches and pain has been a game changer in my performance in the gym.  I would recommend Georgia Sports Physical Therapy to anyone looking to get over an injury and get back to taking things to the next level.   I actually first started going into the PT for a right shoulder issue. Over the last year we have started to work on many things to improve my performance. I was having continued pain in the my shoulder even after months of corrective exercises and lots of dry needling almost every two weeks.  I have reoccurring issues with my right supraspinatus, infraspinatus, pectorial, deltoid, and latissimus dorsi  all locking up, but with the magic of dry needling I would be pain free after seeing my PT, Dr. Lamar Frasier.  About a month ago my PT, recommended that I go to an orthopedic to get it checked out further because I was not able to keep the issue from reoccurring.  It took some time to get into the orthopedic, but this was because my insurance was a pain. I had to receive a referral from my primary care doctor, who had no idea I was even seeing a PT. Luckily, I had a physical scheduled, so I did not have to make an extra appointment.  I did have to make about 10 phones call after the  scheduled physical to get all referral information correctly sent over to Emory Sports Medicine Complex. 

I expected this experience to be very painful, but to my surprise it was exceptionally smooth.  I had my first appointment with the orthopedic on a Monday. It was recommended that I get an MRI on my shoulder, and the doc speculated a torn Labrum.   I was able to schedule an MRI on the Wednesday of the same week.   I received a  phone call for the doctor with the results of the MRI on Thursday.   The MRI did show a torn Labrum and I had a few options to move forward. 1) Shoulder Surgery to fix the Labrum, 2) Stem cell Injection ( Insurance doesn't cover this, but upon my further research this treatment can be very effective)  3) Get a Cortisone shot and see how my shoulder reacts. My doctor also referred me to another surgeon to discuss it further.   My next appointment was scheduled with the other surgeon by the following Monday.   I actually met with two surgeons that day, and they performed a bunch of physical tests, which resulted in no re-creation of pain signals.  The surgeon did not recommend surgery.    He thought my day to day pain level was not significant enough to constitute surgery, and I am at low risk of injuring my shoulder further.  He did give me a Cortisone shot, which has improved my shoulder by at least a factor of 10.  The first day I did experience what is called Cortisone flare about 2-5% of people get this reaction in which the cortisone crystallizes in the body and makes the pain like 10-20 times worse than before the shot.  Every day after it the pain starts to decrease and after about a week everything was great.   

 Now that I am aware of my injury, it has made me even more careful while training.   Between my awareness, my coach being informed, and a PT to see as issues arise, I plan to stay health enough to lift heavy for years to come.   It is all about body awareness, and staying on top of mobility issues before they get out of hand.

Leave comments and questions below and I will be sure to get back to you.