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...

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...

If you’ve had an episode of intense low back pain, you know how scary dealing with that can be. Quite often, athletes are given poor advice when it comes to rehabbing their back. This leads to them feeling fragile and scared to return to the activities they love. The most frequent exercise I’m messaged about is the deadlift after low...

If you want to maximize your performance with handstand pushups, walking, and other variations, it is crucial that you have great handstand mobility to get into optimal positions. Many athletes lack the necessary mobility, and as a result, their performance is hindered. Here’s what you can do to get better…   View this post on Instagram   A post shared...

Before discussing hamstring flexibility, we need to talk about testing hamstring flexibility. Many athletes believe their hamstrings are tight. But, often they have all the hamstring flexibility they need to perform all of their sporting activities. If an athlete passes the following tests, they do NOT need to work on hamstring flexibility. Unless they participate in sports requiring extreme hamstring flexibility...

Want strong legs? A killer back? Improved sprint times and jumping height? Need to rehab lumbar spine pain? Then you need to be doing deadlifts! Want to do deadlifts for a long time? Then you need to avoid these common lifting mistakes and focus on dialing in proper deadlift form.   The Most Common Deadlift Mistakes #1: Squatting The Deadlift A...