This is one of the most frequent questions I get asked as a physical therapist. The short answer is: a little bit of everything. But let’s talk more about this concept. As we all know, a healthy and active lifestyle is important for both our physical and mental well being. Intentional movement of any type is a great way to maintain that lifestyle. 

Dry needling is different from acupuncture, although they both involve the insertion of needles into the skin. Acupuncture is based on the principles of traditional Chinese medicine and involves the insertion of needles into specific meridians throughout the body to balance the flow of energy. Whereas dry needling is based on modern western medical principles and is used to treat specific muscular trigger points.

Instant gratification is all around us every single day. We get our news immediately from our phones. Our meals come prepared and ready to heat up and eat in several minutes. And we get anything we want from Amazon with literally the click of a button. Our world is moving so fast compared to years ago. So why would recovering from a lower back injury be any different?

As a physical therapist and certified TPI practitioner, I have treated countless golfers with low back pain. When I look at their ability to perform a golf swing, there are many mobility and stability demands on the body necessary to reduce swing faults or compensatory strategies. Given the unilateral (one sided) repetitive nature of a golf swing, it's not surprising that these compensations can eventually result in low back pain.

To be honest, when I talk about the myofascial chains located on the front of the body, I seem to mostly refer to the Deep Front Line and the Front Functional Line. That's because I often find "weak links" along these chains upon testing them, especially in the hip adductors or inner thigh muscles.‍The Superficial Front Line is more of an afterthought, if everything else tests normal.

In this blog series, I am breaking down the myofascial chains (chains of muscles that work together to perform movements) into the ones in the front of the body, back of the body, and sides of the body. I highlighted the Deep Front Line in my last post. Today I'm going to talk about the second of three myofascial chains located in the front of the body: the Front Functional Line.

In my last two blogs, I explained how our muscles (and hence our bones and joints) are connected to each other through a series of myofascial chains. I also explained how we have inner muscles that stabilize our joints versus outer muscles that move our joints. ‍In the spirit of keeping things simple with regards to explaining the myofascial chains, I am going to break them down from the front of the body, back of the body, and sides of the body.

In my last blog post I talked about how to simplify explaining anatomy to clients by way of the myofascial system. Before we dig into each myofascial chain, I would like to discuss another simple concept that has also dramatically improved the way I treat and educate my clients.‍ The concept of inner muscles versus outer muscles was introduced by Anders Bergmark in 1989.

If you know me, you know that I love to simplify things especially when it comes to physical therapy. That’s why I love Redcord. It is a simple yet effective tool. Now don’t get me wrong, it looks intimidating with all of those ropes, slings and bungee cords. But once you learn how to use the equipment and understand the testing and clinical reasoning process (known as Redcord NEURAC), it makes treating people so much easier.

I would like to discuss something that takes suspension based physical therapy to the next level. It’s called the Redcord Stimula. Developed by physiotherapists in Norway, the Stimula is a vibrating mechanical unit that attaches to the suspension ropes in order to provide extra vibration that manual “perturbation” simply cannot match.