Don Kelly physical therapy and Acupuncture clinic

Don Kelly physical therapy and Acupuncture clinic Feel better and move better with solid recovery. Our patients get better results.
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RANK # 1 in LIMERICK & CHARLEVILLE

We are confident that anyone who walks through our doors can be helped with our care and commitment to your recovery. Physicall Therapy is a hands-on healthcare, providing a client-centered approach in the field of musculoskeletal health in Ireland. It is concerned with identifying the underlying factors causing pain and affecting movement and function within the body's musculoskeletal system and it intervenes to achieve agreed goals and objectives in maximizing function and alleviating pain. i also specialise in Advanced methods of Acupuncture which have proven to alievate most cases of internal and external disease from back pain to sinus infection,eczema, and migranes

The end-of-year rush often means our usual routines get disrupted. Between shopping, travel, family events and festive m...
22/12/2025

The end-of-year rush often means our usual routines get disrupted. Between shopping, travel, family events and festive meals, it is easy to let movement slide. But even during the busiest time of year, short and simple exercises can keep your body moving well and help you avoid the common stiffness, aches and niggles that pop up with inactivity.

Why Movement Matters Over the Holidays
The body thrives on consistency. Long periods of sitting, standing or doing unfamiliar tasks like lifting boxes or extended food prep can take a toll. When you stay active, even with small movements, you maintain joint mobility, improve circulation, and reduce pain.

You do not need to do a full workout every day. Just 5 to 10 minutes of purposeful movement can help reduce tension, maintain strength and protect your joints.

22/12/2025

Prone scapula retraction with UL "L"

Lie on your front with your forehead rested on a small towel.
Keeping them straight, move your arms out to your sides then bend each elbow to a right angle.
Your arms should each make an "L" shape.
Your palms should face in towards one another.
Keeping your chest and head in contact with the floor throughout, squeeze your shoulder blades together, and then lift your arms off the floor.
Hold this position.
Relax and repeat.

Key Benefits
Targets the "Deep" Rotator Cuff: The "L" position (elbows bent at 90°) places the shoulders in a position that requires the infraspinatus and teres minor to work harder. This makes it an excellent "prehab" move for shoulder health.

Corrects "Forward Head" & Rounded Shoulders: This move directly strengthens the rhomboids and middle trapezius, which are responsible for pulling the shoulder blades back and down—counteracting the "slumped" posture caused by screen time.

Improves Scapulohumeral Rhythm: It teaches the shoulder blade (scapula) and the arm bone (humerus) to move in coordination. This is vital for pain-free overhead reaching and lifting.

Mid-Back Endurance: Unlike heavy rows, this bodyweight movement emphasizes muscular endurance in the small stabilizing muscles of the thoracic spine, helping you maintain better posture for longer periods throughout the day.

Decompresses the Anterior Shoulder: By strengthening the back of the shoulder, you reduce the "crowding" in the front of the joint (subacromial space), which can help prevent shoulder impingement.

22/12/2025

Bridge single leg on step

Lie flat on your back, with your heels elevated on a step.
Keep your affected heel on the step, lift the other leg up.
Press your heel into the box and lift your hips up, so that your weight is on your shoulders.
Control the movement back to the start position.
Notice how your hips stay level throughout this movement.

Key Benefits
Increased Range of Motion (ROM): Elevating the foot allows your hips to drop lower than they could on the floor. This deeper "stretch" at the bottom leads to a more powerful contraction at the top, which is superior for muscle hypertrophy (growth).

Greater Hamstring Recruitment: While a floor bridge is glute-dominant, elevating the foot shifts a significant amount of the load onto the hamstrings. It is an excellent "prehab" exercise for runners and athletes to prevent hamstring strains.

Fixes Strength Asymmetries: Since you are working one leg at a time, your dominant side cannot compensate for a weaker side. This helps balance the pelvis and can reduce "compensatory" lower back pain.

Intense Core Stability: To keep your hips from dipping or rotating while elevated on one leg, your obliques and deep core (transverse abdominis) must fire intensely to stabilize your torso.

21/12/2025

Split squat - with dumbbells

Stand with your feet hip-width apart holding a dumbbell in each hand with your arms straight and by your side.
Take a long step forward into a staggered stance.
Squat down until your front thigh is parallel to the ground.
Keep your trunk upright throughout the movement with the head up and your gaze forward.
Keep your knees inline with your toes, toes pointing straight forward.
Then push back up and straighten your knees.

Key Benefits
Corrects Muscle Imbalances: Because you work one leg at a time, your dominant leg cannot "help" the weaker one. This is essential for preventing injuries and ensuring symmetrical muscle growth.

Reduced Spinal Loading: Unlike a back squat where the weight sits on your neck/shoulders, holding dumbbells by your sides allows you to load your legs heavily with significantly less vertical pressure on your spine.

Enhanced Stability and Core Strength: The staggered stance creates a narrow base of support. Your core and the smaller stabilizing muscles around your ankles and hips must work overtime to keep you upright.

Functional Carryover: The split stance mimics the way we move in real life—climbing stairs, running, or lunging to pick something up.

21/12/2025

Seated trunk flexion stretch

Sit on a chair and slowly bend forward to glide your arms in between your knees under the chair.
Control the pace of the forward bend by gently pressing your arms against your inner thighs.
Reach under the chair with both arms and allow your lower back to stretch.
Breathe in and out during the stretch.
To come back up, bring one hand on your foot and use this as a support to bring your other hand just above your knee.
Use the hand on your knee to push yourself back into a seated position.

Key Benefits
Relieves Lower Back Tightness: By gently rounding the spine, this stretch creates space between the vertebrae, helping to decompress the lumbar discs and stretch the erector spinae muscles.

Improves Functional Mobility: It maintains the flexibility needed for daily tasks like bending over to tie your shoes or picking up objects from the floor.

Stretches the Posterior Chain: In addition to the back, it provides a mild stretch to the glutes and, depending on your leg position, the upper hamstrings.

Promotes Relaxation: The forward-folding motion combined with deep breathing can help calm the nervous system and release built-up physical tension.

20/12/2025

4 point kneeling – resisted hip extension to abduction

Tie a resistance band around your legs, just above your knees.
Start on your hands and knees with your hands under your shoulders and knees under your hips.
Begin arching your back by pushing your tail bone out, making a dish with your spine.
Then, round your back by tucking your tail bone in.
Find the mid-position then keep your back straight by gently tightening your pelvic floor and deep abdominal muscles, pulling your belly button in towards your spine.
Leading with your heel, lift one leg up behind you, keeping your knee at 90 degrees.
Think about pushing the sole of your elevated foot up towards the ceiling.
Extend as far as able, ensuring you do not arch your back or twist your hips as you do this.
Next, bring your knee to the outside, ensuring your foot stays aligned with your hip.
Maintain tension in the band and hold this position.
Control the movement as you bring your knee back down towards the floor, then repeat

While a standard kickback is linear (front-to-back), adding abduction (moving the leg away from the midline) forces the muscles to handle complex, real-world forces.

1. 360-Degree Glute Engagement
This movement hits the three major gluteal muscles in a single rep:

Gluteus Maximus: Drives the initial extension (the kick back).

Gluteus Medius & Minimus: These "side glutes" fire intensely as you move the leg outward. They are responsible for stabilizing your pelvis and preventing your knees from caving in during squats or running.

2. Multi-Planar Stability
In daily life, your hips rarely move in just one direction.

The Benefit: By combining extension and abduction, you train the hip to remain stable while moving through a diagonal arc. This is highly functional for "cutting" movements in sports, stepping out of a car, or regaining your balance after a trip.

3. Anti-Rotational Core Strength
Moving your leg back and to the side creates a "torque" that tries to pull your opposite hip down or twist your spine.

20/12/2025

Sitting active hip flexion

Start in a seated position in a chair.
Place your hands on the sides of the chair for support and slowly raise one hip off the chair.
Hold as directed and return to the starting position.
Repeat with the opposite hip.

Key Benefits of Sitting Active Hip Flexion
Psoas & Iliacus Strengthening: Most exercises only hit the hip flexors in their mid-range. Lifting your knee while already seated (starting at 90°) forces the Psoas to work in its "shortened" range (above 90°), which is vital for deep squat mobility and lifting the legs during running.

Decompressing the Lower Back: Weak hip flexors often force the lower back to overcompensate during daily movements. Strengthening them provides better "front-side" stability for the spine, which can reduce chronic lower back stiffness.

Improved Pelvic Control: This exercise teaches the brain to move the leg independently of the pelvis. This "dissociation" is key to fixing an Anterior Pelvic Tilt and improving posture.

Lower Core Activation: Because the psoas attaches directly to the lumbar spine, lifting the leg in a seated position requires the Transverse Abdominis (deep core) to fire to keep your torso upright.

Functional Independence: For daily life, this specific strength is what allows you to climb stairs, step over obstacles, or get in and out of a car with ease

20/12/2025

Hamstrings - all 4’s hip extension + resistance band (hip 90 degrees to hip extension)

Kneel on all fours with a resistance band around the heel of one foot and hold onto the other end with one hand.
Straighten the leg with the resistance band out behind you, aiming to get your back, hip and leg in a straight line parallel to the ground.
Now that your bottom muscles are strong we will add training of the hamstrings particularly in a stretching position.
This is vital for many sports and physical activities such as running.
To increase the challenge begin to move faster remembering to keep control of your low back and pelvis.

Primary Benefits for the Hamstrings
While this exercise is famous for "glute pumping," the hamstrings play a critical role as primary synergists.

Active Insufficiency Management: By keeping the knee bent at 90°, you slightly "shorten" the hamstrings. This forces the Gluteus Maximus to take over more of the heavy lifting, but the hamstrings remain under constant tension to stabilize the knee and assist the "kick" toward the ceiling.

Isometric Knee Stability: The hamstrings must work isometrically (holding the 90° bend) throughout the entire range of motion. This builds endurance in the muscle fibers responsible for protecting the knee joint.

Eccentric Control: Returning the leg from full extension back to the 90° starting position requires the hamstrings to control the "snap back" of the resistance band, which is excellent for tendon health.

19/12/2025

Happy Christmas everyone

Dry needling is something you need to explore. The holiday season is full of cheer, but it can also be a stressful time ...
19/12/2025

Dry needling is something you need to explore. The holiday season is full of cheer, but it can also be a stressful time for your body. Between the last-minute shopping, cooking, and hosting, you might find yourself feeling tense, worn-out, or even in pain. If you’re looking for an effective way to unwind and release that holiday tension, it might be the answer.🎅

Dry needling is a treatment that involves inserting thin needles into specific muscle trigger points. These points are areas of tightness that can cause pain and discomfort throughout your body. The goal of it is to release these trigger points and alleviate muscle tension. Here’s how it can help you relax and recover during the holiday season.

How Dry Needling Works
Dry needling targets myofascial trigger points, those tight, knot-like areas within muscles that can cause pain and stiffness. When a needle is inserted into the trigger point, it causes the muscle to contract and then relax. This process can help relieve pain, improve blood flow, and promote healing.

Benefits of Dry Needling During the Holidays
Relieve Muscle Tension

Holiday activities; whether you’re standing in line at the store, lifting heavy packages, or decorating the house, can lead to muscle tightness, particularly in areas like your shoulders, neck, and lower back. It helps relieve this tension by targeting the knots in your muscles, reducing pain and improving mobility.

Reduce Stress
The stress of the holiday season can show up in your body, especially in the form of muscle tightness and discomfort. It helps reduce the physical effects of stress, helping you feel more relaxed and at ease. By releasing the trigger points associated with stress, you can enjoy a more comfortable and peaceful holiday season.

Speed Up Recovery
If you’ve overdone it with holiday activities and find yourself dealing with muscle soreness, it can help speed up your recovery. The treatment improves blood circulation, reduces inflammation, and accelerates tissue healing, helping you bounce back quicker from any physical strain.

19/12/2025

Bridge on floor

Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
Maintain a hips width distance between your knees and feet.
Tighten your buttock muscles and lift your hips towards the ceiling until you have a straight line from your shoulders to your knees.
Hold this position.
Control the movement as you lower back down to the floor and repeat.

Here are the primary benefits of the floor bridge:

1. Targeted Glute Activation
The bridge is the gold standard for isolating the gluteus maximus, the largest muscle in your body.

Counteracts "Office Chair Hips": Sitting all day causes glutes to become "sleepy" (lower-cross syndrome). The bridge forces these muscles to wake up and fire, which improves your ability to walk, run, and jump.

Aesthetic Tone: It builds and firms the glutes without requiring heavy gym equipment.

2. Significant Lower Back Relief
Weak glutes often force the lower back to overwork, leading to chronic aches. By strengthening the gluteal muscles and the erector spinae (the muscles supporting your spine), the bridge:

Reduces the load on your lumbar spine.

Improves spinal stability, making daily tasks like picking up groceries much safer.

3. Core & Pelvic Floor Strength
While your glutes do the lifting, your transverse abdominis (deep core) must stay braced to keep your back flat.

Pelvic Stability: It strengthens the muscles that support your bladder and internal organs, often recommended in postpartum or pelvic health routines.

Postural Alignment: It helps pull your pelvis into a neutral position, correcting "anterior pelvic tilt" (where the lower back arches excessively).

19/12/2025

Bunny jump - around the grid - clockwise

Stand up straight with a four square grid on the floor.
Start in the back left square of the grid
Jump forwards over the line in front of you landing lightly on your feet and then immediately hop over the line to your right, followed by hopping backwards over the line and finally to your left to the start position.
Repeat.

The bunny jump around the grid (clockwise) is a multi-planar plyometric exercise often used in physical therapy, athletic agility training, and youth development. By moving in a specific directional pattern, you transform a simple jump into a sophisticated coordination drill.

Here are the primary benefits of performing this movement clockwise around a 4-square grid:

1. Multi-Directional Agility
Most exercises move only forward and backward. Moving clockwise around a grid forces the body to master three distinct movement patterns in a single set:

Linear (Forward): Jumping from the back square to the front.

Lateral (Side-to-Side): Jumping from left to right.

Decelerative (Backward): Jumping from front to back, which is critical for preventing ACL injuries.

2. Cognitive Processing & Motor Planning
This is more than just a leg workout; it is a brain workout. Jumping in a specific clockwise sequence requires "motor planning"—the ability to conceive, plan, and carry out a multi-step sequence of movements.

Clockwise Focus: Following a specific path improves spatial awareness and mental focus under physical fatigue.

Proprioception: It trains your brain to know exactly where your feet are in relation to the lines without having to look down constantly.

Address

8 The Stables, Huntsfield, Dooradoyle
Limerick
V94A5X6

Telephone

+353863239194

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Physical Therapy is a hands-on healthcare, providing a client-centered approach in the field of musculoskeletal health in Ireland.

It is concerned with identifying the underlying factors causing pain and affecting movement and function within the body's musculoskeletal system and it intervenes to achieve agreed goals and objectives in maximizing function and alleviating pain.

I also specialize in Advanced methods of Acupuncture which have proven to alievate most cases of internal and external disease from back pain to sinus infection,eczema, and migraines with over 85% success rate to our treatment modalaties using different styles of Acupuncture, osteopathic and physiotherapy techniques you will receive the most up to date techniques any clinic has to offer

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