Category: Physical Therapy

Periodization: Be at Your Peak When it Counts

Would you like to join the PSI Periodization Club?  Email ivanh@psipt.com for details.

Why is this important to you? Most Americans are dissatisfied with their current fitness status. Injury, fear of injury, fatigue, and the lack of a real plan commonly prevent many from reaching their athletic potential. Give yourself the best opportunity to diminish the risk of overuse injuries or repetitive strains so you can continue to train and compete at your full athletic potential.

There could be a host of reasons why you are considering periodization. Training for a race or simply to lose 20 pounds. Whatever the reason, the principles of periodization will be the same, the intensity and frequency of training will differ.

In order for periodization to work, you will need a strategy that is almost bipolar in nature in that it combines increasingly hard effort workouts— with rest days and rest weeks. Over the weeks and months, this hard/easy schedule is the paradigm shift that gives your body time to heal, recover, and build newer, bigger, stronger, faster muscles and connective tissue.

The Basic Laws of Periodization

1^st: Recovery

The most important thing to remember is that continuous training is futile if recovery is not provided. No one every became stronger during a workout, it’s only after, when time for recovery is provided that your fitness improves. Recovery is built in to all periodization training models. It is needed whether you feel like you need it or not, each week has hard and easy days of training. Every four weeks a lighter week is provided for recovery at the end of the training year you get to kick back a bit for 4-6 weeks.

2^nd: Train hard or Train long

In Periodization training the volume of training (weekly mileage) is always inversely related to the intensity of those workouts. In other words, The harder you work the less work is scheduled on your plan. So as the your training progresses towards your competition phase and the intensity of your workouts increases, your weekly volume of training must come down.

3^rd: Change it up

Central to Periodization Science — no one type of workout should be performed for more than 8 weeks at a time. The human body reacts to the stress of training with an increase in natural anabolic hormones that help you adapt to the stress. Usually after about 8 weeks, armed with these powerful hormones your body will adapt to any one type of stress and the hormones fade as the body no longer sees that particular type of training as stressful. Continuing to perform the same type of training will then create a state of overtraining.  That is when the training stimulus must be altered to create a different type of stress and trigger another hormonal upsurge. In this way, Periodization training has been called natural doping because it keeps your hormonal system peaked throughout the year.

To Go Faster You must Train Slower

Although it is counter intuitive, low-intensity exercise, in the beginning of your training, is the best way to run faster later.

Whether you compete in 5ks, marathons, or Ironman triathlons, you are best served by a developing a monster aerobic system. Building it requires extended periods of low intensity exercise to force these adaptations— and can be seriously sidetracked with even an occasional bout of higher intensity work.

The other key adaptation your body undergoes during Base Training is the development of a strong, resilient physical and mechanical infrastructure

We’ll be covering the the 6 Phases of Periodization in an upcoming post. If you are interested in more information about Periodization training or would like to join the PSI Periodization Club please email Dr. Ivan Huergo at ivanh@psipt.com

How to Choose the Right Physical Therapist

Most people live with pain because its part of getting older or not painful enough to see a physical therapist. The reality is that physical therapy can help you move through life with confidence, balance, and strength. Have you recently visited your physician who provided you with a prescription to see a physical therapist and recommended one for you?

Most patients don’t realize they don’t have to see the physical therapist their doctor recommends. You, as a consumer, have the power to choose your physical therapist. In fact, there are several things you should consider before choosing a physical therapist that go beyond simply making an appointment.

You Can Choose Your Therapist

Most states allow you to schedule a visit with a physical therapist without a physician referral while others don’t. In Illinois you can be evaluated by a physical therapist without a prescription from your physician but would need a prescription by the second visit regardless of your insurance.

While you’re welcome to visit the therapist your physician recommends, it’s best to do your own research before booking an appointment to make sure the therapist’s rehabilitation philosophy is aligned with yours.

What to Ask a Physical Therapist

1)      Visit facility / ask around  It is important to evaluate the facility where you will be receiving your physical therapy services. A good practice will even encourage you to stop by to visit the facility before your initial consultation visit to acclimate yourself to the set-up and the equipment. Check to make sure the facility is large enough to see patients in comfort and maintain modesty. Finally, ask around! Speak to your friends, personal trainer, physician and family, and the people you trust. If others are satisfied with their care, then you probably will be as well.

2)      Ask about their credentials Today, graduates receive either a Doctorate (DPT) or a Masters (MPT) in physical therapy, whereas therapists who graduated several years ago received a Bachelors (BSPT) or Masters (MPT) with a similar level of education. Many therapists pursue postgraduate credentials, which include earning certification in some 10 areas of specialization such as sports, orthopedics, and manual therapy.  Does this therapist specialize in any areas in which you need assistance such as spinal conditions, chronic pain, or sports enhancement?

3)      What is the therapist’s rehabilitation philosophy? At (PSI) Physical Sciences Institute Physical Therapy, our goal is to create a healthier and pain-free every day for you by making your body more efficient. We achieve this by blending multiple manual techniques to identify and treat the source of your problem. At PSI, we do not just treat symptoms. This will allow you to improve coordination, balance and strength. Ask your therapist what they are focused on. Is it improving alignment, pain management or building strength? It’s important that you and your therapist’s rehabilitation philosophies are aligned so you can maximize your healing time while addressing the root causes of your condition.

Don’t Delay An Appointment

Schedule an appointment immediately. Dr. Ivan Huergo, DPT, MATcs, founder and owner of Physical Sciences Institute Physical Therapy (PSIPT), recently spoke with Dr. Chad Garvey, DPT, OCS FAAOMPT, about ways in which people can treat low back pain using non-invasive techniques. Dr. Garvey suggests physical therapy as your first choice of treatment for lower back pain.

“Getting physical therapy early, delaying this treatment…for longer than four weeks dramatically changes the trajectory of the potential cost and disability associated with patients with low back pain,” says Garvey. “So the fact that conservative good treatment is denied for longer than four weeks pretty much puts you on a completely different path in managing lower back pain.”

Your first visit should include an evaluation by the physical therapist which includes discussing your current pains as well as your history. At PSI, we use a team approach to help you gain confidence, balance and strength in daily movement. It’s important to feel comfortable with your therapist so you can ask questions and work together so you can recover sooner and get stronger.

Take Back Your Back: How to Treat Low Back Pain

For more than 80 percent of us, low back pain (LBP) will be a reality at some point in our life. For 15-20 percent of us, that pain escalates and becomes chronic low back pain. Patients who choose physical therapy as their first choice for treatment are realizing better results than those who turn to traditional western medicine which often includes pain medication, imaging tests and specialists visits. So why aren’t more people getting the message? It’s all about education.

Dr. Chad Garvey, DPT, OCS FAAOMPT, recently spoke with Dr. Ivan Huergo, DPT, MATcs, founder and owner of Physical Sciences Institute Physical Therapy (PSIPT) about ways in which people can treat low back pain using non-invasive techniques. Dr. Garvey is board certified in Orthopedics and completed a certification in manual physical therapy and currently directs an outpatient orthopedic clinic in Louisville, Kentucky.

According to Garvey, evidence supports the fact that when it comes to low back pain and intervention, patients first seek treatment from their physician. “You’re more likely to get imaging, medication and likely a referral to a specialist of some sort like a spine or an orthopedic specialist,” says Garvey. “In other words, a surgical specialist. Those referrals deny potential treatment such as physical therapy that can start providing relief immediately.”

Delaying manual physical therapy treatment for longer than four weeks can dramatically change the trajectory of the potential costs and disability associated with patients experiencing low back pain, Garvey adds.

Why is low back pain so important to treat? In addition to the 80 percent of Americans who experience it in their lifetime, low back pain is also the second leading cause of lost work time after the common cold and the third most common reason to undergo a surgical procedure. Americans spend nearly $50 billion each year on low back pain.

Huergo has begun incorporating neuroscience education into his physical therapy practice as research suggests that just by listening to a neuro educational session, a patient can decrease their low back pain. This doesn’t surprise Huergo who is encouraged by results of the non-invasive approach.

“Psychosocial issues have been shown to be a strong predictor of long-term disability and chronic pain,” says Huergo. Huergo asks two very simply questions when he meets with patients to better understand the status of their psychosocial status: How are things at home and how are things at work?

“The answers to those questions could be a yellow flag or considered an increased risk for psychosocial issues or increased risk for developing chronic pain,” he adds.

Using neuroscience education has been shown to decrease fear, change patient’s perception of pain by improving the patient’s attitude about pain.

“Some proposed explanations of this is it re-conceptualizes their problem in such a way that it leads to increased confidence and activity levels,” Heurgo notes.

The results are so immediate, that it’s worth noting.

“After listening to one 1 hour educational session about pain and pain processing, neuroscience and psychosocial issues, the patient in this study improved her spinal movement and her perception of pain.”

There are several different approaches to treating low back pain and while pain medication and surgery are options, they aren’t the only options and, in fact, often not the best options. Incorporating physical therapy early on as part of a treatment method has shown to dramatically reduce low back pain.

Hear more from Drs. Garvey and Huergo about how physical therapy, including the use of neuroscience education, can help patients with low back pain find relief.

To schedule a consultation with Dr. Huergo, click here or call (630) 850-7901. PSI PT has offices in Westmont and Lincoln Park in Chicago with convenient hours.