Keep your eyes peeled for our new website coming up soon! We will have our blog in the new website. 

Wear both straps
Use of one strap causes one side of the body to bear the weight of the backpack. By wearing two shoulder straps, the weight of the backpack is better distributed.

Wear the backpack over the strongest mid-back muscles
Pay close attention to the way the backpack is positioned on the back. It should rest evenly in the middle of the back. Shoulder straps should be adjusted to allow the child to put on and take off the backpack without difficulty and allow free movement of the arms. Straps should not be too loose, and the backpack should not extend below the low back.

Lighten the load
Keep the load at 10-15% or less of the child's body weight. Carry only those items that are required for the day. Organize the contents of the backpack by placing the heaviest items closest to the back. Some students have two sets of books so as not to have to carry the heavy books to and from school.


How a Physical Therapist Can Help
A physical therapist can help you choose a proper backpack and fit it specifically to your child. Children come in all shapes and sizes, and some have physical limitations that require special adaptations.

Additionally, a physical therapist can help improve posture problems, correct muscle imbalances, and treat pain that can result from improper backpack use. Physical therapists can also design individualized fitness programs to help children get strong and stay strong—and carry their own loads!

2013 American Physical Therapy Association

Sometimes we wonder what categorizes us as a "Weekend Warrior" and why? Look no further! I will explain it to you right here on our Sport and Spine Therapy of Marin Blog! According to the dictionary definition; A person who participates in a usually physically strenuous activity only on weekends or part-time. Now you ask yourself, how do I fit into that definition exactly??? If you're battling during the week behind a desk, piled in paperwork, too busy with the family, and not being active, then you go do a 5k run or do extreme Cross-fit on the weekend. Then you ARE that Weekend Warrior. You might laugh when you come across this but the impact of being a weekend warrior actually puts you at risk for more injury. 

The reason we exercise regularly and spread out the workout during the week allows us to build up endurance and allow recovery time. Most of the weekend warrior injuries ranges from strains, muscle soreness, and some other mild injuries. Because you are doing too much and too fast. Long term injuries could include chronic tendinitis from the abuse on our tendons when the exercises are not being done properly. This includes not warming up, which means a light bike warm up, brisk jog, walking, arm circles,  stretching before, during, and after the workout. The reason for this is to allow our muscles to adapt to the exercising environment since you have been inactive during the week. The consequences could end in severe, acute, and chronic injuries if not done appropriately. For example; Achilles tendon rupture - which means the Achilles tendon which attaches to your heel completely tears off. This would put you through enduring six months to a year of Physical Therapy. 

The best way to implement your exercises on the weekend is to spread out the sessions in smaller and more frequent increments and to avoid exercising too much, too soon. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention 100,000 Americans visit the emergency room for sport and exercise related injuries each day. 

You can achieve Athletic status and stop being the Weekend Warrior! Do your exercises three to four times a week is ideal. This will greatly reduce the risk of injury.   Not everyone needs to achieve Competitive Athletic status, however we can be healthy and well fit, without killing ourselves.

Some suggestions to help avoid injury;

• Get a workout partner - this would help pass time and motivate each other to exercise regularly (You can't let your friend down!) 
• Eat healthy 
• Make the time to exercise/workout - Could be as little as half hour. 
• If you feel a sharp or stabbing pain in your muscles during your workout, STOP what you are doing and ice the injury. (Ideal is to ice for 20 minutes every hour.) If the problem persists and does not go away in three to five days, go see your doctor. 
• Use the proper techniques for the exercise/work out. 
• Always do a cool down after your exercise/work out.
• Drink PLENTY of fluids!!! Staying well hydrated. (NO SODA!)  

Come into Sport and Spine Therapy of Marin and schedule a Wellness Session with one of the ATC's and we can go over your exercise regime and fine tune your exercises to prevent acute and chronic injuries. 


Lonnie Tanenberg, ATC, CGFI 
Certified Athletic Trainer and Certified Golf Fitness Instructor 
San Anselmo - 415-457-4454  

OR if you're closer to Novato - Schedule an appointment with one of our ATC's at 415-898-1311. 
 

Of course, Physical Therapists are in the business of helping people overcome injuries.  Injuries can cost us thousands of dollars each year, not to mention the lost time at work or having to sit out of a sporting season.  What if we could understand injuries better and prevent them?

Many sports injuries occur at the beginning of the season due to athletes going from a relatively dormant state of little to no activity specific to that sport, to a high volume of activity in the first few weeks of starting a season.  For example, we can always tell when baseball and softball practices and seasons have started because the number of shoulder injuries and referrals we get from doctors skyrockets.  Soccer and running sports usually create an spike in knee and ankle injuries in the first few weeks of starting a season.  Has this happened to you or someone you know?

The other factor that goes into the creation of an injury is how the body responds to physical stress.  What I mean here is the physical stress of starting to run in the Spring after a particularly long, inactive Winter.  The body is just not prepared to start running and the pounding that the hips, knees and ankles have to endure in those first few miles is the most common cause of lower body injuries.  Also, one of the greatest times of injuries is at the end of a game or the end of a run when the body is fatigued due to being out of shape or after a period of high activity on successive days.

In this day and age of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc, we are all so much more "connected" than ever before.  However, what I observe is that we are not really "connecting" with each other.  Instead, we are rapidly losing the ability to "communicate" effectively and with that, losing the ability to help people.  Our business is all about helping people so as I reflect on our recent blog and Facebook postings, I try to think about what we can do to help others, in fact, what can we do for our Facebook friends and family.  I want to share communication with you and 

At Sport and Spine Therapy of Marin, we strive to have happy, well-satisfied patients who know they have been helped and are willing to refer family and friends.  That is our goal and our purpose - to help as many people as possible.  My question to the public, and I welcome comments from not just our followers but to the friends of our followers, how can we help you?  I would love to know for those who have never visited us, what can we do for you to help you gain better health?  The intention of these posts and blogs is to provide valuable information to the public and our followers that can help you achieve better health and wellness.  Every one of our patients who has visited us knows this first hand.  I want to reach more people!!  

Take a moment and send us some comments on what type of information you want to learn about, what useful topics you want to hear about, and what is it that we can do for you?

We will be blogging and posting very often on our pages with useful information so to help me reach more people, I ask you to recommend us to your friends and reach out to others and let them know about us.  That way, everyone wins!!  i get to help more and more people, which makes me happy and I can contribute to a healthier community!  In the next few weeks, I plan on talking about topics like:

Neck and back pain
Shoulder pain and injuries
Body mechanics and back injury prevention
Sports injury prevention
Flexibility
and many more topics but you can contribute to the list!!

Thank you all for those who have viewed our pages as you are now on the inside track to some incredibly valuable information that will help you achieve the goals and desires in your life!  I can't wait to hear from you!  
Steve Thompson, MPT, OCS, Owner

Often, when I am out in the public living my life and people ask me what I do, I always respond honestly saying, "I am a Physical Therapist."  What a person's says next can often be frustrating, humorous, and puzzling at the same time.  I will get a variety of questions from people such as, "Oh, you crack backs?" or "So, you do massage?" or the best one is "Ah, your a personal trainer."  The answer is NO, NO, NO!

I think the public does not have a great grasp of what a physical therapist is, partly due to the poor marketing efforts of our professional society and that physical therapy is such a diverse field in the health care system that PT is sort of a mystery. Let me see if I can shed a little light on what we do.  I encourage you to go to our website or call us to find out more.  Our website is www.sstmarin.com and our phone numbers are 415-457-4454 in San Anselmo and 415-898-1311 for Novato.  If you want to come in and schedule a free 15 min consultation with us to find out what PT can do for your particular injury or problem, give us a call!!

What is Physical Therapy?  The simplest way to describe it is we restore function in people and get people back to their life activities.  What does that mean?  Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapists are the ONLY healthcare professional that is trained to assess and treat the movement dysfunctions of the musculoskeletal system that typically result in pain and disability and loss of the ability to do what we want to do.  We use detailed evaluation techniques to get at the ROOT OF A MUSCULOSKELETAL PROBLEM with the goals of getting people back in action.  We do not just treat pain but by using a variety of techniques, we can get a joint moving better and stronger than it is and help people get back to their sport, activity of life and just simply back to life!  Every person is different and needs to be evaluated individually.  Modern medicine likes to categorize injuries into groups.  We take those "groups" and find out what is really going on and fix it!

We do utilize soft tissue mobilization techniques, joint mobilization techniques and we do prescribe specific exercises to correct problems with movement.  By using a combination of these techniques, we have successfully helped over 94% of our patients get back to the life they want to live.  Do you have some issues that you know you have needed to address but have put them off, only to find that the problem does not go away?  We can help.  Go to our website to find out more or give us a call, we are here to help.  Call us, we want to help you!

Sleeping--
Get into a neutral position, either on your back (use one pillow) or side (use one pillow). Avoid lying on your stomach if you have neck pain. When lying on your side, make sure your head is positioned such that you are looking ahead, not down at your feet. Contour pillows are good to use (though they take some time to get used to), or you can use pillows that incorporate a cervical roll. 
Driving--
Stay upright with your head against the headrest and straighten arms out to keep shoulders back, Tilt rearview mirror a bit toward the roof so that the upright posture is necessary to maintain the total field of vision in the mirror. 
Using a computer--
Screen should be positioned at eye level, with head back and chin in. Sit back in chair and use a lumbar roll. Use attached arm on monitor or other device to hold documents at eye level. 
Reading--
Don't read in bed. Often, too much head flexion is created if pillows are bunched up behind the head. Instead, sit with your back against the headboard or in a chair next to the bed. 
Enjoying Hobbies--
For counter- or lap-based hobbies such as quilting, sewing, collecting items in albums, etc., don't continuously look down for long period of time without taking a break. Change your physical position and stretch in the opposite direction about every 20 minutes. 
Gardening--
Don't do marathon gardening sessions. Take frequent breaks. Half kneel or squat when working.
Cleaning--
When possible, half kneel or squat to keep spine in a neutral position. 
Watching television--
Sit up straight in the chair or on your couch. Don't slouch! Get up periodically and walk around. 

source: clevelandclinic.org 

The three natural curves of the spine plus the discs in the spine help absorb the "shock" or "forces" of everyday life. Jobs or tasks that require bending forward all day (in addition to the 3,000 and 5,000 times a day we ordinarily bend forward) decrease the natural curves of the spine, resulting in more stress being placed on the back side of ligament and joints of cervical and lumbar spine. 

• Overall bad posture results in more wear and tear of the spinal structures.
• After age 30, all the years of straining the normal tissue from slouching eventually decreases structural stability, allowing for greater wearing down of ligaments.
• Postural misalignment can cause radiating pain away from the back and spine due, for instance, to a pinched nerve; and muscle spasms can create headaches and neck/scapular pain. 
• Pain often begins as a soreness of stiffness in the neck and shoulder blades and can progress to headache pressure and band-like symptoms around head and/or back tightness that can progress to the hip, leg, and toes. 
• Many factors contribute to the onset of pain, including job duties, hobbies, household responsibilities, studying, and activities. 

info from clevelandclinic.org 

Hello to all!

This is our first blog and I wanted to thank you for checking in on Sport and Spine Therapy of Marin's new blog!  Our goal and intention for this blog is to share ideas, information, and to offer suggestions on how to live a healthier life!  Wouldn't it be great to be free of aches and pains!

I have been in practice now for 18 years so I have seen my fair share of patients with aches and pains and I feel that the majority of issues comes down to one basic idea - we have all stopped moving throughout our days!  Think about your day and what you do.  How much time do you spend on your rear-end, sitting in a car, or sitting at a desk?  The vast majority of lower back problems can be attributed to lumbar disc problems.  One of the worst positions we can assume in a day is the seated posture, especially the slouched posture.  Sure, it can be relaxing to recline and lounge in a comfy couch, but that slouched posture we all get at our desks and in school, places tremendous strain on the discs in our back.

Technology has made incredible advances in our lifetime to help us navigate the web, search for whatever is on your mind, and the possibilities are endless - you want to know about something, Google it!  The problem is that we spend too much time on the computer at work or at home and this lack of movement is contributing to our decline in health, especially low back health.  The minute we stop moving, our health can begin to decline!  Think back in evolution...back to the caveman days...if a caveman stopped moving, they either starved or were eaten by some predator.  A similar decline can happen when we stop moving at work and home - we get out of shape, gain weight, start to pile on the health issues such as cardiovascular disease, joint stiffness, and thus the aches and pains that we are now experiencing.  

What can you do about it?  Simple, get moving!!!  Set up your office so that you actually have to get up and out of your chair to go to the fax machine, stand up and take a phone call, set a timer to go off every 15 minutes to stand up and stretch, or go for a walk during lunch instead of sitting at your desk and eating.  A little can go a long way as far as improving your health.  For example, in our office, we have started a 30-day squat challenge and in just 6 days, I have started to feel better and stronger in my legs!  You can do it too.  Get up and get moving!!

If you have any questions on what to do or how to do it correctly, contact us at [email protected] or [email protected] and we will be happy to help you get moving and stay moving!  We look forward to hearing from you.  We have the solutions to get you in better health starting today! - Steve Thompson, MPT, OCS, CEO, Owner

Welcome to Sport and Spine Therapy of Marin's blog.  We have created this blog as a way to share information with our community regarding the latest medical information, weekly tips, events of note and topics for discussion.

Please feel free to join in on any of our discussion, ask questions, suggest topics and post comments. We look forward to hearing from you!