Ascension Physical Therapy and Performance

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White Bear Lake, MN
Ascension Physical Therapy and Performance

Helping active adults stay pain-free, perform better & live strong — with PT + Chiro + 1:1 care.

03/09/2026

There's an instinct most of us share — when something hurts, we protect it. When a scan looks rough, we pull back.

When an injury happens, we search for the one broken thing and try to fix it in isolation. It feels logical. It feels safe.

But the research keeps pointing in a completely different direction.

A recent study on elite soccer players found that higher preseason running workloads were actually protective against hamstring injuries during the season. Not more stretching. Not activation drills.

Running — the very thing that causes the injury — was what prevented it when it was introduced progressively over time. The body didn't need to be shielded from the demand. It needed to be prepared for it.

Another study looked at adults with or at risk for knee osteoarthritis and found that knee extensor power — how quickly your quads can produce force — was one of the strongest predictors of less knee pain. Not cartilage thickness. Not what the MRI showed. Power. The capacity to move with force and confidence mattered more than the structural picture.

These aren't isolated findings. They're part of a growing body of evidence that says the same thing over and over again: your body is not fragile. It is adaptive. And the most protective thing you can do for it is build its capacity — progressively, consistently, and with respect for its complexity.

Swipe through for the research, the mindset shift, and 3 things you can start doing today. Save this and share it with someone who's been told to just rest.

03/06/2026

Leveraging technology to improve the efficacy and efficiency of your rehab experience!

03/04/2026

Don't for the simple "root cause" explanations

02/26/2026

This client started off with extreme irritability of their knee - unable to really produce any force in their quadriceps without excruciating pain, resulting in an inablity to even do an air squat.

After two months of working together, we are seeing some serious gains in strength and activity tolerance. Onward we go! 💪

02/24/2026

Research shows that up to 85% of lower back pain is not caused by abnormal findings on an MRI.

So why do you hurt?

Are you making it up?

No.

Pain is much more than a signal of tissue damage. It’s a signal of threat—or perceived threat.

This signal can change over time. It can become more sensitive. During times of tissue damage, that increased sensitivity is actually helpful—it creates the pain experience to protect you and prevent further injury.

However, that sensitivity can remain elevated even after the damaged tissues have healed. In some cases, the nervous system stays on high alert, continuing to interpret normal movement or everyday activities as threatening.

If this heightened sensitivity isn’t addressed, it can persist for months or even years, making it easier and easier for small activities to trigger pain.

These changes are neurobiological—real, physical changes in the nerves and pathways that make up your nervous system.

The good news is that this system is adaptable. It can change back. But we need to be intentional about helping it do so.

02/19/2026

When you’ve been dealing with pain, even after starting the appropriate program, it can feel like nothing is changing. Pain may seem stagnant—unresponsive to treatment.

At that point, it’s tempting to think: It’s not working. Let’s change the plan.

But is it truly not working?

This is where taking a zoomed-out view of pain—and having the right tools to assess it—becomes essential.

Pain is an emergent phenomenon influenced by many independent variables interacting with one another. Improvements in pain often lag behind improvements in these other variables.

In this case, the client felt like they were getting better and were able to do more activities without their pain worsening, yet their day-to-day pain levels remained about the same.

However, their activity tolerance was improving. Their confidence in participating in activities was increasing—both important variables in the pain experience.

When we assessed range of motion and strength, we also found significant objective improvements—two additional factors that can influence pain.

So, is the plan working?

There’s good reason to believe it is.

02/16/2026

Sometimes, to understand how to get to where we want to go, we first need to understand how to avoid going where we do not want to go.

02/12/2026

Pain, tissue damage, strength, motor control, and biomechanics are all connected — but they are not the same thing. Pain is an experience shaped by the nervous system. Tissue damage is a biological process. Strength is capacity. Motor control is coordination. Biomechanics describes mechanical forces. They influence one another, but none fully explains the others. When we separate these variables clearly, we make better training and rehab decisions instead of oversimplifying complex problems

01/21/2026

One of my passions is studying pain — and what pain actually is.

What does it mean?
How does it manifest?
And what actions should we take in response?

What makes pain so frustrating is how often it’s been turned into an industry. A complex human experience gets reduced into a simple, easily “fixable” problem… usually tied to something being sold.

“It’s inflammation.”
“Your core is weak.”
“Your alignment is off.”
“You’ve got knots.”
“It’s arthritis.”

If you’ve been in pain long enough, you’ve heard all of it — and the hard part is: each explanation can sound logical on its own.

But many are contradictory. Many aren’t supported by good evidence. And most don’t actually explain your experience.

Noise. Lots of noise.

Truth is: pain is complex. It can be influenced by tissue health, the peripheral nervous system, the central nervous system, and psychosocial factors — all independently and interdependently shaping what you feel.

That complexity is WHY there are so many “causes”… and why simple answers often fail.

So when things feel chaotic, I encourage clients to lean on principles — things we know consistently increase the odds of long-term improvement:

✅ Build strength (not just muscles — confidence + capacity)
✅ Improve mobility (access to movement without fear)
✅ Surround yourself with positive people (your environment matters)
✅ Play the long game (look for trends, not daily fluctuations)
✅ Get uncomfortable on purpose (don’t let your world shrink)
✅ Prioritize tools you can sustain after you stop paying
✅ Talk with trusted professionals who aren’t selling certainty

When it feels chaotic: simplify, lean on principles amid the noise.

01/15/2026

PT for you, designed for you and your lifestyle

01/13/2026

6 months of consistent strength work, and this 70 year old male is seeing significant changes in the metrics AND, more importantly, he is noticing that he is better able to play with his granddaughter, participate in his church activities, and is simply feeling younger day-to-day.

Address

1873 Buerkle Road
White Bear Lake, MN
55110

Website

http://www.ascensionphysicaltherapyandperformance.com/

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