Have you ever decreased your water intake to avoid having to use the bathroom throughout the day? Especially with the upcoming warm weather, it is important for both your pelvic floor and your body on the whole to stay well hydrated. Many people come to physical therapy with complaints of urgency (suddenly having a strong urge to urinate) or urinary leaking with sneezing, coughing, etc. They often tell me that, even though they try to drink less water, the leaking and urgency

Every day our body goes through the motion of a squat. Even if you don’t go to the gym and practice squats, you perform the same motion every time you get up from a chair, out of bed, off a toilet, or in and out of a car. It is worth learning how to do this motion efficiently to reduce unnecessary stress to the knees and back. A proper squat uses the following principals: Keep the knees behind the toes. If you can’t see your toes when squatting down, your knees are too far fo

Many people come to physical therapy with back pain that seems to bother them while working at their desks. They often ask, "should I be using a standing or sitting desk?" The real answer to this question is that there are advantages and disadvantages to both. The human spine is comprised of vertebrae, ligaments, and intervertebral discs. The vertebrae are the bones that make up the spine, while the ligaments connect the bones and the intervertebral discs cushion between the

A very common complaint I hear from people who I see is: "My knee pops or cracks when I squat. Is that normal?" The short answer is yes, it is normal, as long as it is not associated with any pain. The simplest explanation for this is that as we get older, our joints simply do not move like they did when we were 15. Muscles get tight, joints get stiff, we have past injuries that have changed the way our body moves. However, if every time you hear a "pop" and it is accompanied

We have all seen them on TV: the rock-hard abs that everyone wants. So, what do we do to get them? Sit-ups and crunches. What if I were to tell you that, although those abdominals might look impressive, it is actually the worst abdominal exercise you could possibly do? For starters, the abdominal muscle that is getting worked during a crunch is called our rectus abdominis (AKA the “6-pack muscle”). If you were to look at an anatomy book , you will see that the rectus abdomini