The Body Blog
The Power of Dynamic Warmups: Strengthening Your Muscles and Enhancing Performance
As physical therapists in Reno, we've seen many fitness enthusiasts and athletes make the same mistake time and time again: they stretch rigorously before their workouts. It's a common belief that static stretching is the ideal way to prepare the body for physical activity. However, recent research and clinical experience have demonstrated that dynamic warmups are not only more effective but can also make your muscles stronger. In this blog, we’ll explain why dynamic warmups are superior to static stretching and provide examples of dynamic warmup exercises that will help you elevate your performance. The Downside of Static Stretching [...]
Delicious and Whole Health Soups for Fall
As a Functional Medicine health coaching practice, we use principles and recipes from the GAPS diet, which is an elimination diet that involves cutting out grains, pasteurized dairy, starchy vegetables and refined carbohydrates. But that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice flavor or satiation! Here are three recipes for delicious, whole health soups perfect for fall that will make you feel full and nourish your gut and body. Tomato Soup One of our favorite recipes from the Heal Your Gut Cookbook is this recipe for tomato soup. It is quick and delicious! And I like to add a can [...]
The Foundation of Foot Health: Core Stability and Plantar Fasciitis
Plantar fasciitis is a painful foot condition that can be debilitating and impact your daily life. Whether you're an athlete striving for peak performance, a busy professional on your feet all day, or simply someone who enjoys an active lifestyle, plantar fasciitis is a condition that can really slow you down. Fortunately, there is something you can do to avoid getting the condition or alleviate symptoms: work on your core stability. What is Plantar Fasciitis? Before diving into the importance of core stability, let's take a moment to understand what plantar fasciitis is. It's a common condition characterized by [...]
Dry Needling and How it is Incorporated into Physical Therapy
As a physical therapy practice in Reno, we use many therapies to help patients recover from injury, increase mobility, and relieve pain. One of our more effective techniques is dry needling. And while it has gained popularity in the past several years, it is important to note that it is not a silver bullet and is still most effective when coupled with other therapies, such as retraining movement. It is also very different from acupuncture, even though they often get grouped or misunderstood since both therapies use needles. However, these two therapies are distinct in their application and underlying [...]
What Causes Piriformis Pain and How to Treat It
By: Dr. Sarah Martinez, DPT With the approach of summer and promises of warmer weather, I am seeing more patients come in with hip and glute pain that are a result of piriformis muscle overuse. This happens when we start to overuse muscles we haven’t really worked all winter. For example, patients get overactive too soon - hiking and biking long distances or challenging routes without building back up to those activity levels. In this article, we will be exploring: What the piriformis muscle is How it gets overused The symptoms of piriformis strain Some exercises you can do [...]
Exercises for Rotational Sports Training
Our goal at Battle Born Health is to always help you be stronger than yesterday, and a big part of that is working with patients to train in advance of going out and playing their favorite sport. Training before playing helps you build strength and stability so that you are much less likely to be injured. What is a Rotational Sport? Spring and summer bring a whole host of rotational sports out to play. A rotational sport is any sport where you are rotating your body to swing or hit. Think tennis, baseball and softball, golf, and pickleball. You [...]
The Importance of Recharge Time for Women
What does “me time” mean? What does it mean to take time for yourself as a mom; as a woman? Every person reading this will have a different answer. As a physical therapist and functional medicine specialist, I can tell you that taking time for yourself goes way beyond a bubble bath, or meditation, or a long walk. All of those things are good if they work for you, but to truly feel the benefits of “me time” and making time for yourself, you have to find what recharges you and make it a consistent part of your routine. [...]
Three Recipes for Gut Health and to Relieve IBS
Recipes that Help Heal Your Gut April is National IBS Awareness Month and anyone who has suffered with this condition can tell you it really impacts your quality of life. Many symptoms of IBS are controlled by what you eat and how your body is processing, or not processing those foods. For our functional medicine patients, we use principles and recipes from the GAPS diet, which is an elimination diet that involves cutting out grains, pasteurized dairy, starchy vegetables and refined carbohydrates. It is our mission to help make you stronger than yesterday and these recipes for gut health [...]
GAPS Diet for Gut Health and to Relieve IBS
The Importance of Gut Health Almost every functional medicine patient who works with Dr. Danielle Litoff, DPT struggles with some type of gut health issues that are making them sick. Many women suffer from excess gas and IBS because of what they are eating and how their body is processing, or not processing, those foods. April is National IBS Awareness Month and we want to take this opportunity to talk about IBS and your health and provide some information on the GAPS diet and corresponding tips and recipes. What is the GAPS Diet? The GAPS diet is an elimination [...]
Spring Cleaning Dos and Don’ts for Cleaning Out Your Closets
Spring is the perfect time to do some deep cleaning or organizing you may have avoided over the long winter months. So throw open those closet doors and let’s get things refreshed! When organizing or cleaning out your closets, there is usually lifting and bending involved. Having proper technique is critical to not injuring yourself during this process. Dos and Don’ts of High Shelves High shelves are usually where we put things we don’t need very often. Using proper technique when getting things off of or on to a high shelf is especially important to avoid injury. This is [...]
