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TELEHEALTH for You!

Let’s get right to the point. The world is changing. Our health and the people around us are the most important thing. Even with social distancing and shelter in place or even quarantining if you are having mild COVID-19 symptoms, you can advance your health.

At Artisan Physical Therapy & Wellness, we offer both physical therapy and injury prevention programs. For physical therapy we help athletes and regular folks get back to their favorite sports and fitness routines, but can also help you if your goal is to get through the day sitting with back pain or you want to get rid of that heel and arch pain during those first few steps of the day or that shoulder pain in those certain positions reaching overhead and behind you. We have the expertise for all this and can work on multiple areas within one session.

While our physical therapy is limited to California and Oregon residents only, we offer wellness and injury prevention education and services for folks throughout the US and even globally.

Yes, we can help you live a healthier life even if you live in the Midwest, Pacific Northwest, New Zealand, Brazil, or Ireland. We offer wellness consultation worldwide! We do this specifically for rockclimbers and runners, but we can make sure you are healthy to get in a lifetime’s worth of laps at the pool, chasing your kids or grandkids, hiking the El Camino, or playing competitive ultimate frisbee. We are movement analysis experts and exercise prescription and can do this over video remotely. A good portion of the injuries we see come from good intentions, but lack of knowledge. We can give you the knowledge to prevent injuries before they even occur! Healthy for a lifetime. As our seasons of life change and physical goals and demands change, our self-care and fitness routines need to change too in order to optimize our health. Bring us your questions and let us help you answer them!

Honored to partner with you to keep you healthy for a lifetime.

Elle

Daily Dose of PT (#dailydoseofpt)

Yep, I made a hashtag #dailydoseofpt. Why? Because everyday for 2019 I’ve committed to myself, for my own personal health to do at least one physical therapy exercise. I’m not going to limit myself to one, but I will do at least one.

After some thought, I thought": “why not bring others along?” 365 exercises is a lot and sharing them is a lot, so the daily dose of PT will be shared just on one platform. For ease of use, I’ve chosen Instagram and the live story. It’s not that you won’t find any excerpts or references anywhere else - blog, Facebook, Youtube, Google+, or newsletter, but the journey will be unfolding and evolving on Instagram live and then kept up on the story for 24 hours.

Daily dose of PT - climbing gym edition

Daily dose of PT - climbing gym edition

My hope is that my quest for personal health and well-being will be educational and motivational for you and those that stumble across it. At the time of the writing of this blogpost, I am 9 days into the challenge, with 356 to go. There are lots of opportunities to participate. To not miss out, make sure you follow @artisanpt on Instagram and even allow notifications for live posts from me.

The focus to-date of the #dailydoseofpt has been primarily shoulder, neck, shoulder blades (scapula), and postural stability. Over the course of the year, the whole body will get covered, as needed by my own personal PT intervention needs. If there are regions or parts of the body, that you would like me to focus on, let me know and I’ll do my best to incorporate them sooner rather than later.

Thanks for joining on this journey to optimize health and wellness.

Together, let’s get moving!

Liz

Arm Strengthening for Climbers: Hand Sloper Strengthening with Rotator Cuff and Scapular Stability

Are you a long-time rock climber who wants to climb for a lifetime? Do you want to train right and train smart to prevent injury? Do you wish your hand strength was better for slopers and other open-handed grips while rock climbing?
In this video, Dr. Bottrell introduces a quick series of exercises that strengthens your hand and forearm in open hand positioning for slopers while simultaneously strengthening and increasing the stability of the rotator cuff and scapular (shoulder blade) muscles and joints. Incorporating exercises such as these present the opportunity for better performance & longevity of climbing of a lifetime, decreased likelihood of injury.


Bear in mind these are general recommendations, and a certain amount of strength and fitness are needed.
Interested in what weighted ball uses in this video? It's the Gymnic Heavymed 2 kg weighted ball for resistance.

Preventing Rock Climbing Hand & Tendon Injuries: Part 2 - Techniques For Open Grip Strengthening

People are often injured by trying to progress too quickly and this is very prevalent in rock climbing. People fall hard for the sport and enjoy the challenge of pushing their limits, but lack the knowledge needed to stay healthy, prevent injury, and thus climb for a lifetime and not have to take months and month off due to tendon or pulley injuries in their hands or forearms.

In this video you'll learn the how-to principles of hand strengthening to cross train to improve open grip strength and reduce hand pulley and tendon injuries for rock climbers. Climb better, climb harder, climb longer. Climb for a lifetime.

For a personalized assessment, contact us at our Portland office.

If you have injured this area, make sure to give sufficient rest and see your local PT who specializes in manual therapy & treating climbers to learn how to get back to your prior level and incorporate this open hand strengthening to improve your grip and reduce compensatory strategies that overload your pulleys. Also find out how shoulder weakness, for example, can influence which grip you choose. 

This is Part 2 of a 2 Part series, with the possibility of a Part 3 adapted to interest, questions, and feedback from the first 2 Parts. Watch Part 1 to learn why hand strengthening matters to prevent injury and the important of incorporating into your climbing routine. Questions? Should we do a Part 3?

Let's Get to the Source, and TOGETHER, Let's Get Moving!