QUARANTINE READS

Many of us find ourselves at home in efforts to flatten the curve and save lives. Instead of diving head first into the next binge-worthy streaming show, there are tons of amazing books waiting to be discovered. Here are a few of our favorite reads that you may find enjoyable as you stay at home.

IN CONVERSATION: BREATH & THE MIND BODY CONNECTION

We at Thrive are so fortune to collaborate with many types of rehabilitation, exercise, and movement specialists in the New York City area.  Pilates has long been one of our staff’s preferred exercise tools, and we dearly love and appreciate the expertise of the staff at Mongoose Bodyworks, a Pilates studio that is neighbor to our clinic here in Soho. Over the years we have found our mutual clients achieve more success in movement, return to activity, and engagement in life when we collaborate, and the conversation below is an edited version of a dialogue between Mongoose Bodyworks owner Halle Clarke and Thrive PT staffer Elizabeth D’Annunzio Shah.   Halle: Hi!  When we decided to have a conversation, we talked about many areas of professional overlap.  There’s lots of crossover between what you and I do! Elizabeth: That’s right.  Ultimately, both PTs and Pilates instructors spend a fair amount of time doing movement analysis.  We’re both trying to enable multi-dimensional, pain free movement. Halle: In the spirit of that crossover, I have some questions for you that I thought might relate to both of our client populations.   Specifically, let’s talk about breathing.  How do you think about breathing as it […]

PERSONALIZED BLOOD FLOW RESTRICTION REHABILITATION

Personalized Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) Rehabilitation is a type of Physical Therapy treatment that integrates the use of a personalized tourniquet system to restrict blood flow to an injured limb during active recovery training. Often, after an injury or surgery, a patient does not have the ability to lift heavy weights/loads thereby slowing down their overall recovery.  Studies find BFR rehabilitation allows the patient to begin strength training using lesser weights/loads that won’t stress their joints or soft tissues, while still being able to gain the muscle strength, hypertrophy and endurance comparable to that of a heavy load lifting program. (Slysz et al 2015) While initially used in the treatment and recovery of service members who were wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is now being used with the training and rehabilitation of elite athletes and in orthopedic clinical settings. Clinical trials have shown advancement in the rehabilitation of total knee replacements, wrist fractures, tendinopathies, cartilage injuries and chronic weakness after surgery. This technique is particularly successful in assisting injured and/or post-surgical patients who are struggling with muscle mass loss and weakness. When a limb is injured, it cannot tolerate the heavy lifting necessary to prevent and reverse the loss […]

Lower Back Pain and the Case for Early PT Intervention

Hello friends.  It’s that time again…a new year!  With it comes the promise of new commitments, resolutions made for health and fitness, and renewed zeal and engagement in activity .  We at Thrive want to be part of your move towards greater activity, and are here as your musculoskeletal experts to answer questions, prepare you for sport, and help you heal aches and pains.   That said, I must warn you of a lurking impediment to your wellness.  You’ve guessed it, the NEW DEDUCTIBLE.  Spending time and money on your care is less appealing when it’s an out of pocket cost, and we are intimately familiar with financial stressors and the challenge to access care when it’s at your own expense. So, without further ado, I am going to make the case for coming to physical therapy (PT) early, and argue why it might save you money, lost time, and pain (both literal and figurative) on the back end.  For the purposes of discussion, we’ll focus on low back pain management. Anecdotally and empirically, back pain is one of the leading reasons persons come in to PT.  In addition to being difficult physically, emotionally, and financially on the individual, it’s can […]