Length Over Strength

I was approached the other day and asked “What do you do?”, in which, I replied: I help people correct their movement dysfunction. When thinking about movement dysfunction, it’s useful to classify pain and injury in 3 categories; which I have arranged in most commonly seen in the clinic: [...]

Connective tissue imbalances (fascial tensional torsions creating massive compressive forces on the human frame), these account for 98 % of all dysfunction we see in the outpatient clinical setting:

I regularly see patients who lack significant range of mobility. However, it’s not just that they are stiff, it HURTS, and it HURTS in several places. In fact, when we start the evaluation and assessment portion of the treatment, we always find areas of restriction that the patient didn’t even mention in their subjective portion, but somehow it has severe tenderness and poor tolerance to touch, mobility and high irritability. These patients have had diagnostic images and structural integrity is seen, but their pain and sensitivity is that of something that is really wrong. We look at posture (in standing and in supine), we put hands on them and feel the tensional loads that are unsymmetrical. We find, shoulder levels that are not even at rest, a forward head posture, unbalanced pelvis, leg length difference, etc… and even though they have structural integrity, they are internally dealing with a ‘roto scoliosis’ that is twisting them from unbalance connective tissue forces.

This is by far, the most overwhelming impairment in the clinical setting I have observed over the last 11 years of PT practice. It is not particular to gender, age, socio-economic status, education, activity level or fitness, I have treated 6 years to 90 years old that show the same dysfunctions, and we have corrected those dysfunctions with specialized manual interventions identified as Myofascial Release.

Pathology (something anatomically, cellular, endocrine, or neural has gone serious wrong in your human frame); these account for 2 % of movement dysfunction in the outpatient clinical setting:

This category is in the realm of traditional medicine, and any good clinician is thinking on this level during the assessment and evaluation: “by what your saying your symptoms are, it sounds like the back pain you’re experiencing has characteristic of a kidney infection” OR; “I don’t think you are working to much or pushing it to hard. By the sight of the of that bright red ring of of that suspicious bite on your arm, you may need to get check out for Lyme disease”. This is why Differential Diagnosis is a CRITICAL portion of any skilled clinician (I am currently an associate professor at Loma Linda University school of PT, where I give a lecture and lab on Differential Diagnosis) will ask about changes in bowl and bladder function, unaccounted for weight loss or gain, night sweats, dizziness, fever, nausea, or vomiting—just to make sure that “low back pain” isn’t “colon cancer”. Pathology is dealt with through traditional medicine and honestly accounts for a big ol 1 % or less of the total outpatient clinical visits.

Catastrophic injury (Great force was transmitted into your human frame by accident and caused structural failure)

This category includes getting hit by a car, falling off a bike, stepping into a manhole, having a 300 lb lineman role into your knee, or slipping on slippery surface backwards. This is where modern sports medicine excels. Bad things are going to happen to good people every day. Reconstruction and injury management capabilities are at an all-time high. Fortunately, this category also falls into the 1 percent bucket.

Could your “length” problem be coming from somewhere else in your body?
If you’ve been struggling with hip or low back problems for longer than a month, and you want to learn more about what these ‘root causes’ could be….

At Rendon Physical Therapy, we offer FREE mobility screens at our ‘Discovery Visits’
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You will have a private session with a mobility specialist here at Rendon Physical Therapy, where you’ll get the chance to:
Share your concerns, problems and frustrations you may be having
Meet us in person, to see if we’re a good fit before you ever decide to work with us
A glimpse into your own ‘mobility profile’ to help you see exactly what could be causing your injury, and tell you the ‘root cause’ of WHY you may be hurting.

Visit us at RendonPT.org, or call us at 909-796-4342 and tell us a bit more about what’s going on, and we’ll have a conversation about how we may be able to help.