Jan Active Therapy

01/11/2023

Teaching my clients the concept and position of neutrality from an asymmetric body is one of the most satisfying parts of my job. The right central incisor, lateral incisor and canine (underlined in yellow and green) went from a supinated or internally rotated position to a better state of neutrality because this patient was able to strengthen her left diagram by escaping her right hemisphere and that sides’ inherent bias. This allowed her left palate to pronate and expand her entire palate, giving her a more even bite between both sets of molars.

Before appliances or surgical interventions are applied to a mouth, we must first attempt to reach a state of neutrality in the rest of the body. This can allow the neck to have a chance at neutrality, which is why this patients’ teeth corrected on their own without any oral intervention.
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01/08/2023

How drastically can your posture change with physical therapy? This took only 3 months of postural training and breath work to reposition his diaphragm and pelvic floor. Instead of breathing in through only his stomach, he is now able to expand his entire rib cage during inhalation. This can only be accomplished when the diaphragm and pelvic floor are efficiently positioned and face one another (See the drawn in red U’s).

Do you want to correct your posture and breathing to reduce pain or prevent issues down the road? Click the link in the description to schedule an evaluation in the appointments tab!

01/07/2021

Why we do it 😭😭

09/05/2020

This all fours position is great for improving posterior mediastinum (mid/upper back rib cage expansion) as well as lumbar flexion. This in turn will give you more rotation and flexibility in your pelvis and trunk. Various factors such as increased sitting throughout a day can lead to lumbar extension through breathing because of poor diaphragm positioning.

A lot of my clients will actually present with a concave lumbar spine in this position, let alone neutral or convex, indicating an imbalance in their pelvis and rib cage musculature.

This position is much more than a Cat pose in Yoga as we're focusing on rib cage internal rotation bilaterally using internal oblique/transverse abdominis and posterior tilt of the pelvis using the hamstrings' attachment on the ischial tuberosity (sit bones). We're also aiding in ribcage internal rotation by taking a full exhalation, through the mouth, which will then prime your diaphragm to be used for inhalation, through your nose, instead of compensatory muscles like your neck, shoulders and low back.

**Dumbbells are a great modified version if your wrists hurt with full extension!

08/26/2020

What an amazing sport that challenges yourself mentally and physically. It can also be a frustrating and humbling sport for sure. Why aren't I getting the results I want? Is it my technique? Or are there any physical limitations in my body that prevent me from a mechanically sound swing that will allow me to enjoy this game to its fullest?

As a Titleist certified medical swing analyst, I can help you find the root cause for why you're not getting the results you want or why your swing is causing certain aches or pains that can take the fun out of the game.

CALL OR EMAIL TODAY to schedule your free medical swing analysis which can be performed in-house or VIRTUALLY. We are in-network with all major insurances including Care First, United Healthcare, Aetna, Cigna, Medicare and Medicaid.

04/13/2019

PRI at the Masters! Balloons are a powerful tool for rib and diaphragm positioning to set you up for success.

Any time you have to blow into balloons for 20-30 minutes to lower your ribcage so it aligns with your pelvic floor, well, that counts as crazy

10/31/2018

Happy Halloween!!
Always great practicing safe balance and transfer work with our seniors. Will come in handy when they're taking their decorated pumpkins home!
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Music: My Summer Love
Site: https://icons8.com/music/

10/20/2018

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to be represented at . The event was awesome and everyone did a great job! Happy to be a part of it 😀

09/22/2018

Let's go boys!

03/14/2018

SHOES DON'T LIE. Part 2 in our series on our body's asymmetries.
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No matter if you are left or right handed, people are inherently biased to their right side, which means more weight distribution to the right leg. If you refer to Part 2 of our series you may have noticed the blindfolded runners veering towards the right. There's nothing wrong with right bias because it gives us the ability to stand and accept weight properly on our right leg, which is half the gait cycle. But if we can't properly get out of our R stance, we end up with shoe wear patterns such as this.

▪️R shoe: Wear patterns along the heel and outer/lateral foot.

▪️L shoe: Wear patterns under the arch of the foot and inner/medial foot.
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This bias is the reason why people generally have "higher" arches or are more supinated on their right foot. This also explains why people sprain their right ankles more versus their left.

In order to properly and efficiently walk and run, we need to be able to accept weight in addition to pushing off on both legs equally and reciprocally, and not get stuck in a right biased pattern like the example presented here. Remember, shoes don't lie.

# @ Jan Active Therapy

03/13/2018

What exactly is our "core"?

When we think of our core, we usually think about ripped abdominals, 6-pack abs, a beach ready body. Sure, it looks great, but how useful is our re**us abdominus in our day to day activities like breathing and walking?
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1️⃣Rectus Abdominus: If you look at the fibers of this muscle, it runs up and down. That means that this muscle only moves in one plane of motion, allowing us to flex our trunk, perform sit-ups.. and that's pretty much it!
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2️⃣Internal Obliques: The muscle fibers here have more of an angle. This allows us to pull our left ribs towards our center during left stance and right ribs towards our center during right stance. This is gait!
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We're all humans and we all move should be moving 3 dimensions. If we focused only on our re**us abdominus for our core, we would end up walking like Lego characters (3️⃣), who's joints can only move in one direction.

Instead, I love muscles with angles or obliquity to them, like our internal obliques, which allows us to move forward and back, left and right, and rotate into each stance leg individually. This is true gait and prevents us from compensating and twisting and locking up joints that cause pain and dysfunction!

This isn't the entire story but I hope it gives a little more insight into what your true core is! @ Jan Active Therapy