Keith Physical Therapy

Fixing You Before You Break cont.

So where did our motivation go wrong?  We might be motivated to be great at our job, great as parents, or excel in a hobby.  But what ever happened to being motivated to taking care of ourselves?  Maybe because we blanket our lives with the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” saying.  Well that just doesn’t work well when it comes to the human body.

Take the tires on your car as an example.  If you keep 10 pounds of pressure in a tire that is supposed to hold 34, over time, that tire is going to wear out.  Now, after one summer of driving on it, the tire wear may not be that bad, though on the inside, fiber separation may be occurring.  Usually, you don’t know there is a problem until some diagnostician at the auto mechanic either points out the signs of wear and the lack of air, or you’re sitting on the side of the road at 11pm in the rain with a blow-out. 

The body talks to us in similar ways.  Nine out of ten people admit to having back pain at some point in their lives, many who can’t tell you why it hurt in the first place.  This is your body communicating with you.  It’s saying “If you put me in those silly postures, I’ll get stuck that way.”  Most episodes of back pain start off minor, and few and far in between.  Then, as years go on, they become more frequent, and they last longer.  The same goes for any major body part on you.

This is called insidious onset pain, and I have the answer.  Fix it before it’s broke!  How?

You can’t know what to fix unless you know what’s wrong.  That’s why I developed a comprehensive musculoskeletal exam, the MSE for short.  It’s a 160 point exam of your joints, muscles, strength, flexibility, balance, spinal alignment, posture, movement patterns, how you walk, and what sort of shoes you wear.  I have incorporated a “leave no rock unturned” principle.  Every major muscle and joint is placed under considerable scrutiny to determine whether it is at risk for developing pain in the future. 

Future pain?  Yes, I can predict where you are at risk to develop pain from the things your body tells me during the exam.  I combine several tests at every major area of your body in order to build evidence for the risk you have.  This risk is based on your daily activities, your job and your musculoskeletal viability.

The information I gather goes directly into your hands with graphs and written explanation of your findings.  Your results are compared with normative ranges for people your age, and the graphs don’t lie.  Someone once told me they weren’t too sure they wanted to know how bad of shape they were in.  Believe me, you want to know, and you want to know it before your missing work, or not able to take that trip to the Caribbean because you’re pent up in bed because of pain.

The end result is a personal deeper understanding of your muscles and joints, motivation to intervene where you pose high risk to develop pain, and education on efficient exercises that target the major areas at risk.

Candidates for the exam are: those who want to know more about their bodies and track their progress over time, athletes with chronic pain or who have failed a sports physical, pregnant women in the 1^st or 2^nd trimester, those starting up with a personal trainer or in a new gym, those in a new job placement, people diagnosed with hypermobility (“double jointed”), people who are planning or are trying to lose weight.

I work with personal trainers who love this examination because it shows objective improvement in strength and flexibility in their clients over time, which adds to their credibility.  I also screen for non-musculoskeletal problems and am qualified to refer you to a physician or specialist as needed.

My goal is prevention, but I can help identify the where and why of your chronic pain too.  Most of all, knowledge is power, and the more you know, the more you can help yourself.

For more information, you can find us at www.keithpt.com or call us at (405) 843-5710.  The cost of the examination is $120.  If you obtain a doctor’s referral, your insurance may cover this procedure.