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…
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!
You know the feeling. You can see the finish line but you can’t get there because of a sudden onset of a muscle cramp in your calf that is demanding you stop. Dehydration and electrolyte imbalance were originally thought to be the cause of muscle cramping; the current theory is one of central regulation. In other words, muscle fatigue or stress create an imbalance in signals from the muscle to the central nervous system. As a result, the central nervous system alters motor neuron control and signals the muscle to continue to contract resulting in a cramp. Factors thought to be related to exercise induced muscle cramps include prolonged activity, muscle fatigue, increased exercise intensity, high levels of static stretching prior to exercise, and multiple high intensity workout days prior to competition. Muscle cramps often resolve as spontaneously as they occur, and usually within a few seconds to a couple of minutes. Suggested treatment of a muscle cramp includes rest, prolonged stretching with the muscle at full length, and pickle juice! You might think that pickle juice is related to electrolyte imbalance, but a new theory suggests that certain molecules in pickle juice (or other pungent foods) attach to receptors in the mouth and upper GI tract that are directly connected with the central nervous system. These receptors help the central nervous system to reduce the signal to the cramping muscle, therefore diminishing the cramp and your discomfort. So the next time the end is in sight but a muscle cramp is holding you back, grab your pickle juice. Because finishing a race is an accomplishment – it’s kind of a big dill.
Murray B. How curiosity killed the cramp: emerging science on the cause and prevention of exercise-associated muscle cramps. AMAA Journal 2016; Fall/Winter: 5-7.
Megan Peach, DPT, OCS, CSCS specializes in manual treatment of spinal dysfunction, as well as knee and shoulder pain and is a member of the Excel Physical Therapy running specialist PT team. Megan’s philosophy for physical therapy treatment embraces educating patients about the tools they need for enhancement of proper body movements during work and play to promote a pain and injury free active lifestyle.
“Physical therapist Matt Heyliger merges his passions for outdoor athletics and body mechanics to deliver fine-tuned, effective treatment. His interview offers tips for climbers on how to maintain stability and mobility on and off the rock.”
–Kelsey K. Sather
Kelsey K. Sather is a local Bozeman writer whose fiction and essays aim to promote humans’ connection to nature. As an avid climber and health enthusiast, she also writes about fitness, food, and outdoor play. Kelsey is passionate about using storytelling to advocate for gender equality and ecossytem preservation. She creates articles for her online journal, These Words Like Rocks, and curates The Work Behind the Bodyseries at her website kelseyksather.com.
As Part II in The Work Behind the Body series, the Worker’s Wo/Manual offers interviews with health and fitness professionals about bolstering athletic performance and overall wellness. Though most of the questions will relate to athletes of all genders, there will always be questions specific to the female body. The hope is to empower women and men through knowledge as they pursue their best selves in sport and life.
“Hip to be Cool – Preventing Running Injuries” article from Outside Bozeman Magazine
by Jason Lunden, DPT, SCS
Join Jason Lunden, DPT, SCS and Megan Peach, DPT, OCS, CSCS at our Running Experts Forum event on 3/29/2017, 6:30pm at the Bozeman Library for a lively discussion of ALL things running. Our Physical Therapists who specialize in Running Injury Treatment and Running Evaluations along with several Bozeman running expert special guests will discuss various running related topics and answer audience questions. Bring your questions or email them in advance to megan@excelptmt.com!
Check out the latest issue of Outside Bozeman for Jason Lunden, DPT, SCS’ article, “Hip to Be Cool” to review the principles of running injury prevention to keep your running season injury-free.