Welcome to the Perfect Stride Blog! We are excited to begin another track in our never-ending endeavor to provide superior, patient-focused quality care. Throughout the next year (and beyond), our aim is to bring you original ideas, have fun, facilitate “thinking outside the box,” and provide a forum of learning and empowerment for both rehabilitation specialists and patients alike.
As we begin this journey, we felt it was important to look back at where we’ve been, what we’ve learned, and where we’re going.
Recapping 2014
2014 was a paradigm shift here at Perfect Stride. As social media continued to grow and more and more “experts” were coming out with their own philosophies, it was hard to figure out what to believe and who to follow. While we recommend the likes of Mark Cheng, Andreo Spina, Chris Johnson, Gray Cook, Mike Reinold and Erson Religioso, to name a few, it’s important to challenge yourself each and every day and try to learn at least one new thing you didn’t know or hadn’t thought about before.
Reading a blog post (or two or three) each day significantly improved our patient education and helped us muddle through the empirical and theoretical philosophies that are out there, allowing us to focus together as a team. And one thing we learned at Perfect Stride was the power of utilizing a systems approach to assessment, treatment and discharge with each and every patient.
Enter the SFMA/FMS. Through these courses, we learned the importance of hierarchical frameworks toward treatment, pairing the right exercise with the right dysfunction, and – perhaps most important – reducing re-injury risk. Through this system we also saw how we can make an impact on Day 1 with every patient. We learned that rehab did not have to stop at the “discharge” day and can now offer one-of-a-kind training, utilizing the concepts of Mike Boyle and his Functional Strength and Conditioning program.
With our passion for treating runners and their injuries, we also began to utilize Running Analysis through specialized video software and the most current concepts presented at the Running Medicine Symposium in Virginia.
Mark Cheng furthered our understanding of the power of movement and motor control, while Erson Religioso enhanced our manual techniques and patient empowerment skills through both simple and advanced assessments and treatments.
Through DNS we were able to incorporate specific phases of development into our exercise progressions and regressions while Butler furthered our understanding of pain and our ability to treat and explain it while reducing patient fear and apprehension.
We saw our staff grow, and another PT become OCS-certified. All in all, 2014 was a great year!
Coming Up in 2015
As we continue to read, teach, learn and challenge ourselves, the best self-assessment tool we can offer is that of self-reflection. If, every year, you stop and think, “Wow – I knew nothing last year,” you’re on the right track. I’ve said this 5 years in a row, and I hope to be able to do so for another 35. The greatest obstacle to learning is complacency – always challenge yourself to find, think or do something better, and if you don’t find it, keep looking.
In 2015, we are excited to begin our understanding of Functional Range Release and Conditioning with Andreo Spina, who will be presenting courses on Upper Limb and Spine treatment. We welcome back both Erson Religioso – for a specialized course aimed at treatment of the cervical spine and TMJ dysfunction – and Mark Cheng, who will further our thoughts around control of movement. We hope you find this blog helpful and thought-provoking and have as much fun reading it as we do writing it!
Of course, information and ideas are only as good as the concepts and thoughts that we share with one another. What are some of PT and rehab concepts you’d like to understand better in 2015? Leave a comment and let us know, or feel free to respond to whatever anyone else has said. Let’s start sharing!
