We Answer Your Top Questions About Physical \ Therapy

Balance training has a lot of positive effects for athletes. After all, your sense of balance affects many interconnected things. You use it to maintain your posture and alignment, move efficiently, stay upright when you’re active, and adjust to changes around you so you don’t fall. It’s a complex process that involves many different muscle groups to maintain. Since balance is so crucial for your ability to move around and avoid falling, it’s vital for athletes to have it.

Balance training builds the muscles in your lower limbs and your core to improve your ability to stay upright in many different circumstances. Done correctly, it also helps you sense changes in the ground or other factors that might compromise you—which helps you accommodate to changes so you don’t fall. If you’re an athlete of any kind, balance training is more than just a good idea; it’s an important aspect of your performance and athleticism. If you’d like help improving your sense of balance, let us know at Castle Pines Physical Therapy or our associated location at Cherry Creek in Denver, CO. We’ll make a plan that fits your needs. Just call (303) 805-5156 to make an appointment.

Dynamic stretching is a series of controlled movements that warm up the muscles and prepare them for strenuous activity. These exercises are designed specifically to move a group of muscles or a joint through a challenging movement that repeats. This forces the body and the muscle tissue to activate and prepare for more difficult and strenuous activities. The stretching loosens up your muscles and increases their temperature, which helps them function better under stress. These exercises also can increase your joint range of motion. All of these effects reduce your risk for injury.

This is different than the better-known static stretches, which involve forcing the muscles to relax and lengthen by holding a single position for a period of time. While this is still popular for a warm-up and does have some merit for athletes, these stretches are not as beneficial before starting athletic activities as their dynamic counterparts. If you’d like to learn more about dynamic stretching, contact the Podiatry Associates, P.C. offices in Castle Pines, Cherry Creek, and Parker, CO. Just call (303) 805-5156 to make an appointment with us.

Whether or not you can prevent injuries with stretching really depends on what kinds of exercises you’re doing to stretch out. Traditional, static stretches that increase flexibility and range of motion are actually not very helpful for preventing injuries. While you don’t want muscles to grow too stiff or tight, forcibly loosening them before you’re active doesn’t stop you from getting hurt or overusing muscles.

Dynamic stretching performed as a part of your warm up, however, can definitely be helpful for preventing some types of injuries. This is because the best exercises target the muscles you’ll be using for your sport or other athletic activity. The continuous movements encourage a healthy range of motion while firing the muscle tissue and increasing its temperature, all of which prepares it to respond when you need it to. Our team at Podiatry Associates, P.C. in Castle Pines, Cherry Creek, and Parker, CO, can help you establish healthy warm-up routines and incorporate good dynamic stretches. Call us today at (303) 805-5156 to make an appointment.

Shin splints are a very common, fairly painful injury for athletes of all levels. While running with shin splints is certainly possible, especially in the early stages of the condition, it is not a good idea if you want to heal at all. This is an overuse injury, which means repetitive hard impacts have stressed your shins and the soft tissues beside them, causing inflammation and swelling. Continuing to run on them only adds to the painful stress and prevents the damage from healing. In some cases, the condition can actually contribute to stress fractures in your shin, which is a more serious condition that will definitely require you to stop running to avoid a full break.

To recover from your shin splints, it really is best to take a break from running—instead, put your energy toward cross-training with low impact activities that won’t add so much stress to your lower legs. If you’re struggling with pain while running, let our team at Podiatry Associates, P.C. in Castle Pines, Cherry Creek, and Parker, CO, help you. Use our website to make an appointment with us.

Physical therapy is a treatment option at pretty much any age—there is no minimum or maximum age limit. In fact, physical therapy for children is an important part of treatment and recovery for some childhood injuries and disabilities. The goal of this method is to help your child improve or regain movement and function in his or her body. This can be achieved multiple ways.

Typically stretching and strengthening exercises play a large role in physical therapy. Some exercises may be designed to help control pain. Others may be to condition your child’s body to handle hard impacts and return safely to sports. Exactly what therapy will do for your child will depend on what he or she needs.

The key is having your son or daughter evaluated by an expert like Dr. Jennifer Molner, DPT and our team at Castle Pines Physical Therapy or our associated location in Cherry Creek in Denver, CO. We will determine what therapies best meet your child’s needs, then help you establish a plan. Let us help keep your whole family moving. Call us at (303) 805-5156 to make an appointment or request more information.

Whether or not you can continue running with a hamstring injury will depend on your individual pain level and the severity of the injury. A mild issue with low-level pain might not keep you from running; however, it’s still a good idea to take it easy and reduce your normal intensity or distance. Your usual routine might make an injury worse—and then you will have to stop running so you can heal.

If the initial pain is significant, particularly when you’re active, you should pause your training so you can focus more on hamstring treatment. RICE therapy—rest, ice, compress, and elevate—works well as initial treatment for muscle strains. Our staff might also recommend anti-inflammatory pain killers.

Once the pain has resolved, you can begin therapy to return to running. You’ll need to carefully stretch your hamstring to restore flexibility and range of motion. You’ll also need to strengthen the muscle to help protect against other injuries in the future. Let the Castle Pines Physical Therapy team help you restore your legs for safe running. Call (303) 805-5156 to make an appointment at our Castle Pines, CO, or associated location in Cherry Creek. 

Balance training can actually help you improve your proprioception and overall balance, if done correctly. Proprioception is your body’s ability to recognize where you are in space so you can adjust and balance effectively. This means you know exactly where each limb is and can adjust their functions appropriately. After an injury like an ankle sprain, not only are your ligaments overstretched and painful, but they also lose some of their proprioception. This makes your joint both weaker and more unstable overall, increasing the likelihood that it will “give out” underneath you.

Balance training works to strengthen the tissues supporting a joint and re-train your body to adjust to sudden changes in the ground below you without you having to think about it consciously. This can help you balance better in your daily life as well as in sports. You don’t have to wait for an injury to start balance training, either. This therapy can be a preventative measure. Let Castle Pines Physical Therapy in Castle Pines or Cherry Creek CO, help you improve your balance. Make an appointment online or by calling (303) 805-5156.

Manual therapy is a specialized form of physical therapy that involves a highly-trained expert using his or her hands, instead of a machine, to treat a problem. Dr. Jennifer Molner carefully uses her hands to apply pressure to muscle tissue or joints. This manipulation or massage then helps relax soft tissues, increase circulation, and improve flexibility. It can also help your mobility. Careful, slow twists, pulls, and pushes maneuver bones and joints into their correct position and alignment. This improves your physical function and helps alleviate your pain.

This does have to be done very carefully. Not all physical therapists are trained to provide this kind of specialized care. Dr. Jennifer Molner at Castle Pines Physical Therapy is licensed to perform this type of conservative, non-invasive, effective therapy. If you’re struggling with pain or loss of mobility in your joints or your back, let our team help take care of it. Call our Castle Pines, CO, office or Cherry Creek location at (303) 805-5156 for an appointment.

Physical therapy is a broad field. Of the different types of physical therapy, Dr. Jennifer Molner and our team work with post-surgery rehabilitation, injury prevention, and one-on-one care to meet your individual recovery goals. Therapy can be used for sports injuries, diseases, disabilities, pain management, and improving your movement and independence. Generally this falls into the category of orthopedic therapy. However, this is by no means the only kind. Geriatric, which addresses common issues with aging; neurological, which benefits problems of the nervous system; and pediatric, which addresses childhood disorders, developmental issues, and congenital diseases, are all types of therapy.

What you need for your pain management and general recovery will depend on your specific condition and personal needs. Our team at Castle Pines Physical Therapy will do everything we can to help you meet your goals for healing. Stretches, exercises, modalities, tissue manipulations, and preventative care are all available to help you. Just contact our office in Castle Pines, CO or our asssociated location in Cherry Creek, for more information or an appointment to get started. You can reach us by calling (303) 805-5156, or through the web request form.

Physical therapy can meet your needs in many different ways. Stretches and exercises can help reduce pain in soft tissues and improve flexibility and range of motion. They can also build up your muscle strength and improve joint stability. If you’ve injured yourself, this process can help your tissues heal correctly and then re-condition them to handle your activities. In some cases, physical therapy can help prevent injuries as well. Sometimes chronic conditions can make daily life uncomfortable, but the right therapy can help you live more comfortably with them.

How your therapy helps you will depend entirely on your needs and your condition. Our team will work carefully with you to determine what is wrong and identify how to address it to meet the demands of your lifestyle. Don’t just accept pain or weakness—let us help you restore your strength and range of motion, as well as alleviate your discomfort. Contact Castle Pines or Cherry Creek Physical Therapy for an appointment to take care of your body. Use our online form or call (303) 805-5156 to reach us.