If you’ve trained hard and worked to push your performance to the next level for any extended period of time you know that the occasional tweak of a muscle or joint is inevitable. But when it comes to a tweak in your back many athletes tend to become more concerned than other areas. Continuing to remain highly active as your...

BUTTERFLY PULL-UPS WHY WE DO THEM, WHO SHOULD NOT BE DOING THEM & HOW TO DEVELOP THE BUTTERFLY PULL-UP. By Pamela Gagnon Let’s begin with the elephant in the room. Usually, we see a post of an athlete performing Butterfly Pull-ups and we see 100s of comments that say “not one pull-up done.” Ok. Let’s be real. First, if you...

Working on improving squat depth can be a long and frustrating journey. And while there are lots of available information on different mobility drills, it can be difficult to determine where to start. Often, I see athletes working a variety of random movements with no laid out plan for improving squat depth. For example, they are stretching their hips because...

The term squat butt wink refers to an athlete’s low back rounding as they reach the bottom position of their squat. Often, this is considered a movement fault as some low back injuries can occur when the low back rounds under heavy loads. If you are dealing with squat butt wink issues, then there few treatment strategies that can help improve your...

There are several fantastic fitness apps for your phone or tablet that can make your fitness journey (or that of your athletes) better. Over the past few years, I’ve used the following apps and highly recommend each of them. Important note: I’m a Mac user and haven’t verified these for their work with Android phones. The Best Fitness Apps On...

Hip impingement can be a problematic condition for individuals. It often limits their ability to participate in their sports and get activities of daily living done. At Onward Charlotte physical therapy, we treat a lot of individuals dealing with hip impingement pain. Also known as femoroacetabular impingement (with or without labrum tears), we use these three hip impingement stretches to...

If you lack a solid kipping foundation it will affect the efficiency of all skills that use the kip, such as pull-ups and toes to bar. The kip requires a combination of strength, coordination, and mobility. Lacking in any one of these areas makes kipping frustrating and halts progress in the skills that use the kip. THE TOP REASONS YOU...

In the musculoskeletal rehab, we’ve made huge strides understanding the importance of improving the strength of patients returning from an injury. But often we’re faced with the challenge of getting the right strength equipment in place. I’d love for every physical therapy, chiropractic, and athletic training facility to have barbells and kettlebells. But, I understand space and issues convincing management...

You walk into your gym and on the white board there it is…the overhead squat. While a few athletes will be thrilled to see this movement most of us won’t. The combination of mobility, strength, control, and coordination needed for this exercise makes it one of the most difficult for many CrossFit athletes.  But there is hope. With the assessments...