6:30pm @ Spire Climbing in Bozeman, Montana – sign up to attend at spireclimbing.com
May 4 – Elbow Injury Talk with Dr. Lisa Palomaki, DPT
Lisa’s talk is full already on the Spire Climbing website – Watch on @excelptmt’s IGTV page to see her talk streamed live!
June 1 – Injury Screening with Dr. Todd Bushman, DPT, CSCS
July 6 -Wrist Injury Talk with Dr. Todd Bushman, DPT, CSCS
Aug 3-Strength Assessments with Dr. AJ Sobrilsky, DPT, OCS
Here’s what happens for each session type:
Injury Talk – Want to learn more about common climbing injuries & actively manage the situation? Don’t miss out on these quarterly presentations from an Excel Physical Therapy Climbing Lab PT. We’ll tackle some of the more common climbing injuries while discussing rehab, injury mitigation, training considerations, & the most important question of all: “Can I keep climbing?”
Injury Screening – Free 15-minute injury consultations with a doctor of physical therapy from Excel Physical Therapy.
Strength Assessment – Free assessment of specific climbing strength performance metrics: max finger strength, finger contact strength, critical force, & finger strength endurance. See where you measure up, areas that might need attention, & assess your training. Stop guessing & start assessing.
Follow us on our @excelptmt IG page for the latest updates and event info.
Summertime: the birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming, and the mountains are calling. If you answer that call with vigorous running or biking, at some point you are probably going to fall or crash. Falls often result in injuries and, depending on the severity, can lead to time away from your chosen activity.
Before we talk about minimizing the severity of a fall, let’s first talk about reducing your risk of falling in the first place. There are two areas to focus on before hitting the trails at speed…
Q: I fell yesterday walking and I have fallen a lot. All I can think of is, I am not picking up my feet enough? When I hit a crack or something I hit my toe and fall forward.
A: Sometimes that can be a strength thing, maybe your body is not strong enough, not that you can’t do it, but as you fatigue when you’re walking, you’re not lifting your feet as high because you are getting tired. So, your endurance might not be there in the lower extremity. It can be a multitude of factors…it could be your proprioception in the bottom of your feet aren’t picking up the cracks. A physical therapy evaluation can assess exactly what is causing your balance issues. As we get older, we tend to have balance issues that happen a little easier. We definitely don’t want you falling, especially outside on the hard concrete, that’s not a great place to be falling. Definitely worth a mention to your doctor or physical therapist about what you are experiencing so a plan can be put into place to help address this issue for you.
Q: I am someone who is dealing with peripheral neuropathy in my legs and feet, what do I do? Also, I am not able to lift my feet high enough when walking due to peripheral neuropathy.
A: So what you will want to do is uptrain like we talked about in that pie chart. We talked about a third, a third, and a third for vision, vestibular and peripheral neuropathy. The pie chart section that focuses on peripheral neuropathy is closing because you don’t have the sensation in your feet anymore. So you have to uptrain those other systems in order to compensate for the proprioception loss. Yes, it’s absolutely trainable. Not being able to lift your feet high enough is a strength thing, with peripheral neuropathy, you’re not going to change the peripheral neuropathy, you’re going to uptrain those other systems. It’s like a muscle making those other systems stronger, so you aren’t worried about the peripheral neuropathy impact as much.
Q: Is there somewhere we can access the charts that you were talking about?
A: The whole presentation will be loaded onto the Facebook page and the Excel website with the slides. (coming soon)
Q: What would you recommend as a call assist company for around your neck so if you fall you can get assistance?
A: With a little research online or by talking with family or friends, you can find one that will work with you. Recommendation given about Apple watch that asks if you have fallen and sends GPS tracking on where you are at if you don’t answer.
Q: Is there a booklet or something we can get with a detail view of different exercises we can build on for helping with resistance to falling?
A: A physical therapist can help determine a customized exercise program to help you with this. Also, tai chi, like yoga, is a great program to help with significant help on falling, some research showing up to 3 times a week has helped. Talk to your physical therapist, because we can have different deficiencies because you may be deficient in your quads and hamstrings somebody else may be deficient in their glutes. You may struggle with lifting your feet up and somebody else will struggle when they start doing head turns so getting a really specific exercise program is probably the best advice, so you’re not wasting your time so you’re not working on exercises you don’t need to work on.
Q: Does Medicare cover balance training?
A: Yes, Medicare does cover balance training during a physical therapy appointment.
Q: Do you have suggestions on footwear?
A: Making sure you are in a footwear that you are comfortable walking in. Something that isn’t bulky or has a high heel on it or has a big thick sole on it where you can get it caught on cracks in sidewalks. Flip flops, sandals in the Summer time are going to be hard to justify because they can slip on feet and effect balance. Specific footwear would be something to talk to your physical therapist to get headed in the right direction.
Q: Height of chair seat for a sit to stand desk?
A: There is a standard height, generally the measurement is dependent on height of the person using the desk. A physical therapist can help you determine the ideal measurements best suited for your positioning needs.
Q: Balance with a new hearing aid?
A: Vestibular system is a big part of our balance system that contributes to balance and having a new hearing aid can throw of your balance because things are different for you.
Jackie Oliver, DPT, OCS completed her Doctorate in Physical Therapy at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, one of the top Physical Therapy schools in the nation. She was fortunate enough to complete her clinical rotations and begin her physical therapy career within the University of Utah system, which is consistently ranked near the top in healthcare. Exposed to a wide variety of orthopedic conditions, Jackie is confident when assessing and treating a broad range of orthopedic impairments. Jackie is a certified dry needling provider with advanced training from Evidence in Motion and KinetaCore. Jackie achieved the Orthopedic Clinical Specialist advanced certification after extensive advanced training coursework and a stringent examination process from the American Physical Therapy Association.
Jackie has an intense passion for helping and educating others as well as preventative medicine. Because of her college sports background, Jackie loves working with athletes and has experience with biomechanical training and injury prevention in sports. She is also trained as a Diabetes Lifestyle Coach and has worked for the University of Utah and CDC helping individuals decrease their risk of developing diabetes.
Prior to completing her Doctorate in Physical Therapy, Jackie played basketball for Carroll College in Helena, Montana, while also obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in Health Science. Jackie was Academic All-American her last two years at Carroll.
Complimentary injury consultation sessions will help determine the best injury treatment options & plan to help return the injured student athlete back to the game healthy & strong.
Includes:
Thorough history of athlete and review of injury
Injury screen looking at strength, mobility, stability and impairments
Education for athlete and parent/guardian on nature of symptoms and best course of treatment (PT, referral to MD, home rehabilitation program)
Call 406-284-4262 to schedule your complimentary student athlete injury consultation.
What Goes Up Must Come Down — Jason and AJ will be covering injuries in backcountry skiing & split boarding, how to minimize your risk of injury, and how to maximize your performance this winter.
Tune in this Thursday (10/22), 6pm as we broadcast live from Uphill Pursuit’s Instagram and Facebook pages – see you soon!
Bring your questions! Jason and AJ will be answering questions in the IGTV comments section under the broadcast.
Coming in November – Live on Zoom
In case you missed the live Uphill Pursuit collaborative broadcast – Simply click on the image above to watch Excel PT Climbing Lab’s awesome Transition to Climbing discussion. There’s a lot of very useful information to help you navigate the change of seasons as well as the change in loading and demand that shifting from outdoor to indoor climbing or rock to ice will introduce.
Excel Climbing Lab Doctors of Physical Therapy AJ Sobrilsky and Matt Heyliger offer insights on how to maximize training yields while minimizing injury risks.
The Excel Team extends support to you during this challenging season. Enduring together and drawing on resilience will help us get thru this COVID-19 time together. We are here for you in many ways –telehealth and in-clinic appointments, by phone or email–to help you anyway we can. #enduringtogether
Please enjoy Consilience with John Onate’sPart 2 podcast with Nikki Kimball: Maintaining A Love For Running through Injury and Adversity.
Nikki uses a combination of humor, friendship, medical advice and compassion to overcome injury, aging and now the pandemic. As John Onate says, there is a lot to learn from Nikki Kimball. The Excel PT Team completely agrees!
Nikki Kimball is one of the most competitive and successful Ultra-Endurance Athletes in the history of Road and Mountain-Trail-Ultramarathon racing:
2nd place, Hardrock 100, 2018
2nd place, HURT 100m, 2017
2nd place, Big Horn 100m, 2016
1st place, Marathon Des Sables, 2014
Western States 100 Champion 2004, 2006, 2007
Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc 108 Mile,Champion, 2007
Member of United States 100K Team 2001-2006; 8th overall and 1st American at World Cup 2003, Tainan, Taiwan; 7th at World Cup 2005; scoring member of gold medal 100K team at World Cup 2005
We are honoring National Suicide Prevention Week by sharing this podcast episode from Consilience with John Onate who features Nikki Kimball from the Excel PT Bozeman running clinic team. Nikki is one of the most competitive and successful Ultra-Endurance athletes in the history of Road and Mountain-Trail-Ultramarathon racing (and one of the kindest and smartest people we know).
In this episode from the keynote presentation to the Central California Psychiatric Society Annual Meeting in 2016, Nikki discusses how depression, medicine, doctors, running and physical therapy have impacted her life, career and advocacy mission. Mature themes discussed.
As John Onate says, We all can learn and be inspired by Nikki Kimball. We completely agree!
AJ Sobrilsky, DPT, OCS is a Physical Therapist and Orthopedic Clinical Specialist in our Bozeman clinic. AJ specializes in the rehabilitation and prevention of orthopedic sports related injuries with a specific interest in the management of those involving the upper and lower extremities. AJ received his Doctor of Physical Therapy Degree from Carroll University (Waukesha, WI). Following the completion of his DPT degree he participated in an Orthopedic Residency through Evidence in Motion at Bellin Health in Green Bay, WI providing him with advanced training in orthopedic manual therapy, clinical decision making, and patient centered treatment. Following completion of his residency AJ became an Orthopedic Clinical Specialist (OCS) through the American Physical Therapy Board Association and received advanced training in dry needling for spine and extremities.
AJ has been a lifelong athlete, competing in cross-country and track through college and then racing competitively post collegiately. As a result of his personal experiences and passions, AJ has focused his continued education and clinical development around the athletic individual with an emphasis in: running, skiing, and climbing related injuries. AJ has had the opportunity to provide care for an array of athletic populations including youth sports teams, high school and collegiate athletes, and those competing at professional and Olympic levels.
AJ’s treatment philosophy emphasizes a collaborative patient centered approach. Structured around the patient, supported by current best evidence, and coupled with specialized exercise/techniques, AJ hopes to educate the patient on their current issue and provide them with the best course of treatment to return to their previous/desired level of activity.
When AJ isn’t working he is usually pursuing his next adventure: rock climbing, skiing, mountain biking, or running.
"Excel's entire team helped me on my road to recovery after an auto accident. Scheduling, insurance details, individualized treatment, and at home exercise plans helped make a difficult time easier. Many thanks!"--K.C., Bozeman Patient
credit: Consilience_podcast Instagram
“Push & Pull…Essential ingredients for Running and Climbing” is AJ Sobrilsky’s latest article in the