Ball exercises

Physical therapists commonly prescribe ball exercises in their exercise prescription.  These ball exercises can stress the quads, hamstrings, glutes and can even promote knee stability.  These exercises offer increased challenges to balance, proprioceptive mechanisms and are essential in progressing any athletically inclined patient past static exercises.

Tension headaches

For headache sufferers, understanding the source of their problem is the initial step towards relief. A major cause of headaches is muscular tension in the upper back and neck(tension headache). This tension stems from a number of major sources: Lack of sleep, poor posture, internal and external stress, fatigue, and anxiety. Eliminating these triggers is a good foundation for eliminating your headaches. Physical therapy is another great way to eliminate or reduce symptoms. Your physical therapist may employ modalities like ultra sound, heat or ice, as well as hands on massage treatments. Trigger point needling also is a highly effective way to reduce muscular tension that can lead to tension headaches.

Squats

Squats are a very functional therapeutic exercise used by physical therapists.  The squat motion activiates primarily the glues and quads to not only push your body up from the down position, but to slowly lower your self in an eccentric fashion.  It is important to keep the knees and hip flexed throughout the exercise.  The motion should mimic sitting down onto a chair.

Office Ergonomics

Working in a white collar environment does not reduce your risk of bodily injury.  Sitting at a desk and working on a computer 8 hours a day can put stress through various parts of the spine and the muscles associated with posture.  A poor ergonomic set up at your desk can contribute to low back pain, neck pain and strained postural muscles.  Seeing a physical therapist for a full office ergonomic evaluation and assessment is the best way to avoid 6-8 hours per day of continuous stress on the body.  Postural exercises that focus on the shoulder blades and paraspinal muscles of the back are important in maintaining better posture while sitting for long periods of time.