functional fitness Archives - Integrative Physiotherapy

2025-04-04T20:56:29+00:00

Running, much like any other skill, takes practice and fine-tuning to improve. Whether you’re lacing up for the first time or you’re a seasoned marathoner, leveling up your performance can be challenging. That’s where a Running Analysis can be a game-changer. Not only can it help increase your performance, it can also help reduce the risk of injury, eliminate pain while running, and optimize your stride!

What is a Running Analysis?
A Running Analysis + Assessment is a two-part approach designed to identify imbalances, weaknesses and areas you may be expending unnecessary energy. Using advanced video technology, we analyze your stride from head to toe, identifying potential issues such as over-striding, knee collapsing, and other imbalances.
So, what are we looking at? The analysis evaluates running mechanics such as:

Foot strike pattern: How and where your foot makes contact with the ground
Stride length: The distance covered with each step
Posture: head/thorax/hip alignment, shoulder symmetry, pelvic tilt, hip position, etc.
Cadence: The number of steps per minute

What is the Assessment?
Following the Running Analysis, we conduct the assessment, which goes through a series of tests to examine your strength, stability, and muscle symmetry. We then provide corrective exercises to help balance your strength and enhance your running mechanics.

Is a Running Analysis for me?
The goal of a running analysis is simple: to make you a more efficient, resilient runner. By cleaning up your form, you’ll find yourself feeling good running longer, faster, and stronger- all while reducing your risk of injury!

Your running form is unique to your body. What works for one runner may lead to injury for another. An personalized running analysis ensures that your technique is tailored to your body’s biomechanics, helping you reach optimal performance. By working with our IP therapist/Run Coach, you’ll receive tailored, evidence-based functional tools to mind your movement and a team to support you as you stride!

Taking a break from movement…what about sleep?

Jennifer Kummrow2022-06-22T22:35:50+00:00

Did you know that humans spend roughly a third of their lives sleeping? Even though we sleep to “rest”, your body and brain really need that down time to keep your body functioning optimally. In the U.S., 62% of our population experiences sleep problems several nights per week. We know there’s mounds of evidence that poor sleep can lead to a myriad of health issues such as diabetes, dementia, increased fall risks, to name a few. So how does your team at I.P. address your sleep health when typically, your sessions at the clinic are far from restful?!? Because an added bonus from your PT sessions and a question we are always interested in throughout your rehab process – are you sleeping better?

Sleep quality and pain perception are inversely related. The worse sleep you get, the higher sensitivity to pain you have. The more pain you have, the harder it is to get to sleep, stay asleep, and sleep efficiently. Poor sleep over the lifespan is closely related to cardiovascular issues, depression, anxiety, cognitive function and impairs motor skill learning. All of these contributing factors can make the rehab process slower than it should, or could be.

The therapists at I.P. care about how you’re sleeping – we ask questions about whether symptoms flare at night, how your symptoms vary before and after waking. The immune system works in synchrony with your body’s sleep-wake cycle. We have pro-inflammatory processes that enable our body’s immune response to be working overtime while we sleep. Additionally, our stress systems (like the sympathetic nervous system) downregulate during sleep, allowing us to fight off illness and promote tissue healing in the body.

The work we do at I.P. promotes a healthy sleep-wake cycle during your sessions, and our therapists are able to make specialized sleep hygiene recommendations to help your sleep cycle improve. Exercises or postural adjustments to your sleep habits can also help to reduce disturbances that are causing sleep disruption.

Check out this gentle exercise that’s simple to perform right before bed!

Run Smarter. Run Stronger.

Taking a break from movement…what about sleep?