Here at Cohen Health and Performance, we often work on nasal breathing with our clients. Why in the world would be doing that? After all, we are physical therapists. Aren’t we just supposed to be strengthening, stretching, and doing things like that?

Feeling better and performing at your best extends far beyond these classic approaches to rehab.

The body will do whatever it can to maintain the ability to breath. It will increase stress on other areas, even when painful, if it helps to breath more effectively. Maintaining the ability to breath ensures that you are surviving; your body cares much more about that then the pain you may be experiencing or your health/fitness goals.

One simple way to improve the body’s ability to breath effectively is to optimize nasal breathing.

Nasal breathing (breathing through the nose) is the body’s optimal breathing strategy when at rest, and during gentle or moderate intensity exercise. Breathing through your nose properly filters, humidifies, and warms or cools (depending on the outside temperature) the air you are breathing. Furthermore, nasal breathing allows for more oxygen to be extracted, because it takes longer when compared to mouth breathing.

Breathing through the nose has many other benefits including regulating stress, blood pressure, and the immune system.

Begin by practicing relaxed breathing for 5 minutes per day. Attempt to breath in and out through the nose with 5 second pauses after each exhalation. The exhalation should be twice as long as the inhalation.

For the superstars out there, attempt this with a meditation app such as calm or headspace.

**Talk to your physician if you have anything that affects your ability to breath such as asthma, allergies, or a deviated septum. Issues such as these can force you to mouth breath and interrupt your best efforts.

Even the world’s most competitive runners need help building better training habits.

Six years ago, I was working as a performance physical therapist at a sports performance facility in Dallas, Texas called EXOS. One of my first patients was a 27-year-old woman training to qualify for the Olympic trials in the marathon event.

She had a history of shin splints and various lower body injuries that were constantly interrupting her training and standing in the way of her dreams. Admittedly, I was nervous because she was turning to me to help with something so important to her.

During her initial evaluation we began discussing her training routine. She described all her runs, which consisted of various distances and paces, however it quickly became apparent that she was missing one crucial component.

She was not performing any cross-training. More specifically, she was not performing any training in the weight room!

When running she was  repetitively performing thousands of running strides every week consisting of similar ranges of motion and stresses to the body. Therefore, her body had adapted and stiffened into the ranges of motion that she used when running. After all, if her training routine did not require more motion, why would her body give that to her?

Weight training was essential to providing her body with a different movement experience. We used her weight training sessions to practice moving through a greater arc of motion that were vastly different than what she experienced on her runs.

Weight training also taught her lower body to better absorb the impact of running and handle the various stresses that occur over the course of a marathon.

Cross-training such as this is necessary for runners of all levels. If you are a runner and would like help designing your cross-training routine, we would love to help you!

“This is a functional exercise.”……“This is functional training.”

How many times have you heard this? Have you ever wondered what is meant by “functional”? What does “functional” even mean for you?

There is not a single exercise that is universally functional for every person.

A back squat is functional for a powerlifter because he/she performs this activity as part of his/her sport. This same activity is not as functional for a runner due to the different demands of the sport.

Your training should be functional for YOU.

This is something that is paramount in the rehab process. Dr. Immermann and I keep this in mind with every physical therapy or training client that we work with.

Let’s take our previous example of a powerlifter versus a runner. If each person is experiencing knee pain, then the goals of the rehab process will be different. The powerlifter needs to be able to squat and deadlift without pain, while the runner needs to be able to perform single leg activities and run without pain.

Regardless of the differing goals, each person must learn to perform activities to keep themselves healthy throughout their training careers and life.

Therefore, the question you must ask yourself is…what is functional for you?

Physical therapy clinics throughout Bethesda and other areas like this are now crowded with people that have injured themselves shoveling snow.

Back injuries are the most commonly injured area when shoveling however many other areas can become irritated as well.

Why does this so commonly occur?

These injuries are often due to the approach that people take to shoveling snow. Most do not think of this as a workout however our body’s experience many of the same stressors as when weight training.

Do you warm up to shovel the driveway as you would to train? Do you think about your lifting technique when shoveling snow as you would when in the gym?

If the answer is no to either of these questions then it may be time to change your approach the next time there is a heavy snowfall.

Furthermore, are you trained to perform outdoors in cold weather?

If you are constantly training in a warm gym then you likely are not. Your body functions differently in the cold. It likely is prioritizing staying warm over performing optimally. The body does not need to worry about this when training in the gym.

This does not mean that you have to begin working out in the freezing cold like Rocky in Rocky IV.  However, it does increase the need for a comprehensive warmup.   Furthermore, a well-trained body with a solid baseline level of strength will make you more resilient to injuries in higher risk situations such as these.

Therefore, do not ignore the basics of good strength training in your exercise regimen!

If you are reading this, you likely are already aware of some of your shoulder mobility limitations. These limitations may affect your ability to overhead press in the weight room, serve on the tennis court, or swim.

Perhaps you have been working on these limitations but have seen little improvement.

A joint’s mobility will be limited for a reason and in physical therapy it is our job to figure out why this is occuring.

The body will create stiffness in a joint and limit its ability to move through a particular range of motion when it does not feel safe there.

If your overhead mobility is limited, it is likely because you lack control of this joint when your arm is overhead. Therefore, your efforts to stretch the shoulder with the goal of gaining better overhead mobility is futile.

This is until you learn to generate the muscular forces necessary to control the shoulder in these positions. Once you can do this, the body will then reward you with more mobility as it now feels safe doing so.

The video below is a great example of how to utilize these principles to work on your shoulder flexion limitations. Give it a shot!

Shoulder Flexion PAILs/RAILs