Adapt Physical Therapy

Hey Fisher River and Peguis! Dustin Murdock will be in Fisher River this Thursday August 15th and will be setting up at Fisher River Fitness Center and providing in-community physiotherapy. There are a few appointment slots available in the afternoon. Send a message if Interested.

Re-introduction

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My Name is Dustin Murdock and I am a physical therapist at Adapt Physical Therapy. In general, I am the type of person who is curious about almost anything and have been told in the past that I have too many interests. I spend my free time reading, spending time outside and spend way too much time in the gym. For the past 15+ years, physical activity and training has been a big part of my life ranging from sport, running, powerlifting and now CrossFit with a bit of endurance training mixed in. This affinity for movement and physical activity has influenced my previous education in exercise science and has led to me to completing a master in physical therapy.

As a physiotherapist, I take a more movement based approach with a focus on providing information and advice on how to manage pain and injury. I believe that physical therapy and rehab is not easy and try my best to provide people the tools and information to navigate the complexities of pain and injury. I always tell people that physiotherapy is NOT about “fixing people”, telling people what they should not do or finding problems. I believe that physiotherapy should be helping people get back to the things they want to do and finding ways to manage pain/injury and lifestyle based on their goals inside and outside the gym. One of my goals as a physical therapist is to show people that their bodies have the capacity to grow and adapt no matter their age or previous life experiences. Rather than focusing on finding problems the aim is to empower people, keep people moving and encourage people to move more.

Adapt.
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Moving does the fixing (post)

You don’t need to fix things to start moving.
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People often think that they must fix things, be a bit stronger, more mobile and a lot of other things, before they start moving or trying a new activity.  The truth is you will probably never be “ready” or have perfect conditions.
 
Moving or starting to move is how you do the fixing
 
Adapt.
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Rehab should not be complicated
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Everyday movement is not complicated. For the most part, we push, pull, carry, hinge, bend and twist without thinking about it too much or worrying about how we are doing it.

Rehab should not be complicated or technical either. It should be based on principles that can be applied in a wide variety of applications. No secrets or complexity needed just the basics.

Pain and injury are complex problems that are usually best solved with the application of basic principles.

Adapt.
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Some thoughts on exercise...
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“Exercise is generally done against one’s wishes and is maintained because the alternative is worse” – Daniel E. Lieberman
 
Most people when they hear the word “exercise” or “fitness” it usually brings on a wide range of thoughts from excitement to dread depending on the person and their general proclivity to exercise and movement.
 
Exercise and movement exists on an infinite spectrum of activities and movements which is relative to the individual and only to them alone. Not liking or enjoying a particular form of exercise is totally fine but fortunately there are many other ways to experience exercise and movement.
 
I am a believer that exercise is the closest thing we have to a magic pill when it comes to psychological, physical and even spritual health. It is also one of the least natural things we can do in our society but has the potential to add so much value to a person’s life and people in their circle. Exercise can be uncomfortable and hard but everybody who exercises feels the same way from athletes to a person trying exercise for the first time. Choosing to exercise is rarely a regretful decision but choosing to not exercise is almost always regretful decision sooner or later.  
 
You should make exercise both necessary and fun whatever that looks like to you. You also do not have to do a lot to have benefits, but more is generally better. The most important thing is that you are moving your body regularly at any age. Find a form of exercise that challenges you and more importantly one you enjoy. Your body is a system that is adaptable, resilient and built to move.

Adapt.
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Why do injuries happen?
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First off, pain and injury are complicated and generally have a lot of factors that influence why you got injured and are experiencing pain.
 
There are physical reasons such as too much too soon, cumulative training load and excessive loading. Psychological reasons such as work and life stress that influence how you feel pain. General lifestyle factors that could influence injury and pain including sleep and nutrition. Sometimes, accidents and injuries just happen for no particular reason. These are only some of the possible reasons and there are many more that can be considered.
 
Blaming or making one movement, snapshot of time the sole reason for your injury is not inherently useful for rehab or determining what caused your injury and pain because there are usually many reasons.
 
Most of time, you can identify a few different things that are both actionable and modifiable which can influence healing and your current pain experience. Because of the many factors that influence pain and injury there are a lot of different paths to healing and resuming pain free movement.
 
If you are injured or next time it happens keep this concept in mind. Any single movement is not inherently bad for you just happened to be at the time you got injured.

Adapt.
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What should your rehab look like?
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For the majority of people rehab should look very similar to the activities you are involved in already. Rehab should be based on your current goals and preferences for activity.

Very very rarely is stopping or absolute rest ever the answer.

There might be some things that you can do outside your activity of choice but those are extras and often not absolutely necessary.

The goal with rehab should be to manage your injury/pain within the context of activities you are currently involved in not the other way around. You can modify your current factors by adjusting, load, volume, range of motion, tempo etc.

Keep moving.

Adapt.
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Adaptable and Resilient
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A common concept we hear about the human body is that it is mechanical in nature in that it is subject to “wear and tear” and the inevitable breakdown of the body and it’s “parts”.  It is also common to hear that we must protect it and do everything to optimize how we move and what stresses we expose it too.
 
A better way to think about the body is that rather than a purely mechanical object, is that it is an organism that adapts and adjusts to the various stresses imposed on it (or lack thereof). Our body builds the necessary structure and scaffolding to allow our body to thrive in whatever environment and stresses we expose ourselves too.
 
The human body’s adaptive potential is there no matter what age we are or physical ability we have. We can build our physical resilience to stresses we experience day to day through gradual and consistent exposure to these stresses.
 
Exercise and physical activity is one if not “the” best way to introduce these into our daily life. Which is why it is vital to us, people around us and society to move daily in order to build physical and psychological resilience to whatever we may experience in our lives daily
 
Adapt.
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Not a straight line.
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When we experience injuries or pain, ideally we would like a very straight line from initial injury to recovery.

However, in reality it is usually up and down with both good days and bad days. Although, it can be both frustrating and confusing. This is a relatively normal process for any injury.

Pain and injury are complicated and there is a lot that affects how you feel day to day. Symptoms, pain and mood will vary day to day and that is okay. Just keeping moving forward.

Adapt.
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More than just getting stronger.
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Often in rehab the main conversation is usually focused on getting stronger, more flexible and more stable. These are all great and have great benefits to a person’s life and can be helpful for their pain/injuries.

In general, their is less a focus on the more intangible benefits of exercise such as building self-efficacy, building physical and psychological resilience, gradual exposure to painful movements and challenging beliefs about a person’s body.

Both the physical and psychological benefits of exercise are important.

However, in a rehab context often the latter is more important than just the physical gains you get from exercise.

What do you think?

Adapt.
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Only exercises
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  We often classify certain exercises as “rehab exercises”. Or sometimes we are told that a specific exercise is the secret cure for a particular injury or pain.

The reality is that there are no single special, secret or magic rehab exercise that is going to be the answer to all your problems. There is really no such thing as a “rehab exercise”.

When doing an exercise in the context of pain or injury. You can change variables such as dosage, load, volume, range of motion, intensity or any variable that lets you to do the movement/exercise within your pain tolerance.

There is nothing saying deadlifts(or any exercise) can’t be a part of a rehab plan.

Adapt.
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do you agree?

Thoughts and beliefs
 
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         Injuries and pain are a part of life. When they do happen, they bring on a number of feelings and thoughts about our bodies. Everybody’s experience is a little different when compared to the next person. However, these thoughts are often more negative than positive. It is VERY easy to spotlight the negative things when things are painful, uncomfortable, and stopping you from doing what you want to do.
 
         It is important to be mindful of these thoughts and beliefs. In order to re-frame how you view your injuries and pain. You can’t always choose what happens to your body, but you can control your thoughts and actions when they do happen. However, taking this path usually takes EFFORT, WORK and probably won’t happen all that easily.
 
Which way are you going to go?
 
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Movement Solutions.
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When you have a movement problem due to pain, injury or just day to day training. Often these movement problems require a movement solution.

What does that look like?

Back pain? Start deadlifting.
Muscle strain? Load it.
Want a deeper squat? Squat.
Need to increase physical activity? Walk.

These are just a few examples of movement based solutions for movement problems. The solutions and combinations are endless. Start moving.
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Training with pain.

A lot of people like to train and exercise in and out of the gym. Pain and injury are sometimes part of the process. Being active and moving your body brings inherent increase risk of injury/pain compared to sitting on the couch. Even though there is always risk the benefits of staying active far outweigh the risk. The goal is always to stay active, keep training and moving towards those goals.

these recommendations are helpful for most pain(and injuries) you might experience during training or physical activity.

Questions? DM or comment below

Exercise and movement can have a different purpose in different contexts. In a non-rehab context, its purpose generally involves improving strength, endurance, mobility and other tangible aspects of the physical self.

In a rehab context does it serve the same purpose?

Occasionally yes but it is more likely less about the tangible aspects. And more about the intangible aspects of exercise such as improving confidence, self-efficacy, reducing stress and other benefits.

For the most part, with time your body heals and adapts to stresses imposed on it no matter what you do. Do you need to get stronger, fitter, improve your mobility to heal and get out of pain? To be honest, probably not. Is it beneficial for you to get those benefits, absolutely. Sometimes the intangible aspects of pain and injury are the hardest to tackle such as the reduced confidence in your body, fear, added stress and a whole lot of other factors. As In most contexts, the physical and psychological are intertwined.

Exercise and movement can be a powerful tool as you generally get both the tangible and intangible benefits. Sure you get stronger, fitter, more mobile but you also gain confidence, reassurance and build confidence which in a rehab context probably matters more.

Rehab is training in the presence of injury - Phil Glasgow
 
This quote sums up how I approach rehab with people who have pain with activity or movement. Most people experience pain with movement or pain during training at some point in their life. Experiencing pain does not automatically mean you have to stop training or stop doing that movement. Adjusting variables or scaling the movement can allow you to both continue to train and move toward your goals. Finding an entry point to that movement that is tolerable and doesn’t make things worse is probably the best “rehab” exercise you can do. It might take some time, experimenting and maybe even a bit of frustration to see and feel improvement but progress is progress whatever that looks like to you.

The direction of your rehab should be driven by your goals outside pain and injury.

You want to run. You should run.
You want to powerlift. You should powerlifting
You want to Crossfit. You should Crossfit.
What ever activity works for you. You should do that.

Don’t stop. Adjust and modify.
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Have questions send a message!
 
Link in bio to book at Adapt!
 

Introduction

I never introduced myself properly and figured that I should probably try to do so. I am Dustin Murdock a physical therapist and founder of Adapt physical Therapy. I am not a person who likes to be at the center of attention and would rather be locked in a gym with a stack of books by myself, so bear with me.

I came into the profession almost by accident. I never planned on applying to physical therapy school until I had an opportunity that gave me the option to pursue a new direction. Given my previous experience with sport, training and movement and previous education in exercise science It seemed like a logical next step. So here I am a few years after graduating with my own practice.

As someone who typically holds contrarian and skeptical views on most social and societal positions. It was not surprising that when I entered the physical therapy profession, I felt the same way. I didn’t feel like I wanted to work anywhere because I couldn’t see myself fitting into a traditional physiotherapy clinic. So, I did the next “logical” thing and decided to try creating a place that I wanted to work at. When approached me to play a part in their expansion plans I jumped on the opportunity.

So back to the topic, about me. I am the type of person who is curious about pretty much anything likes to read, train, and drink “good” coffee. I have 15 years of training experience myself and like sharing that with other people. Now would like to help people find ways to manage pain/injury and lifestyle.

My vision for Adapt Physical Therapy is to be the antithesis of a clinic with less focus on diagnosis and finding problems. But rather focusing on building and empowering people to find what they can do and recognizing the complexities and nuances of what it means to be a human.

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Have questions send a message.

Link in bio to book at Adapt.

Movement solutions.
 
When you encounter a movement problem in training or due to pain and injury. Often, movement problems require movement solutions.
 
What does a movement-based solution look like?
 
Tendon pain? Load it
Back Pain? Start deadlifting.
Want a deeper squat? Squat.
 
These are just a few examples of movement solutions for movement problems. The solutions are endless. Move.
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Have questions send a message!
 
Link in bio to book at Adapt!
 

Only exercises.
 
Often, we classify and see certain exercises as “rehab exercises”. Sometimes, we are told that a specific exercise is good for a specific pain or injury.
 
There are no magic or special “rehab exercises”.
 
The only thing that changes is the dosage, context and why we are doing a specific exercise or movement.  
 
We can change any exercise into a “rehab exercise” by adjusting load, volume, intensity, range or motion, tempo or any variable that lets you do the movement/exercise within your tolerance.
 
So, pick an exercise you like to do and modify where you can.
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Have questions send a message!
 
Link in bio to book at Adapt.
 

Progress is not a straight line.
 
In general, strength, rehab, movement, and life are non-linear. Meaning that there are periods of progress, plateaus and sometimes regress and this cycle is completely normal. In a perfect world, you can start somewhere and see the end goal straight ahead. In reality, you have an idea where you want to be but often can’t see where it is or know when you are going to get there.
 
In rehab (and training), starting with a goal but knowing that there is going to be a cycle of progress, plateau and even regress is important to develop to hold fast and stay the course.  
 
What do you think?

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Have questions send a message!
 
Link in bio to book at Adapt Physical Therapy!
 

September perfect time to book an appointment at Adapt Physical Therapy. All booking is done online through our scheduling platform. Click the link below to book an appointment!

Book Online at Adapt Physical Therapy Physical therapy is a primary health care profession with a focus on assessment, diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal conditions and a variety of diseases and conditions.

YOU DON’T NEED FIXING.

Often people think they must fix things before they start moving or an activity.
 
Starting and moving is how you do the fixing.
 
Do you agree?

…
 
Have questions send a message!
 
Link in bio to book at Adapt Physical Therapy!
 

Anti-fragile. 
 
When it comes to movement, exercise, pain, or injury there is a narrative that has been perpetuated for decades in both rehab and fitness spaces that the body is fragile and prone to break under the stressors of day-to-day life or in the gym if conditions are not perfect.
 
We also hear the term the body is a machine and that things breakdown in a mechanical sense. However, this is not a perfect metaphor as to how the body reacts to stressors and changes in its external/internal environment. The body is highly adaptable, and it changes and grows in proportion to the demands imposed on it. This does not sound like a mechanical machine, does it?
 
There is a bit of nuance to this topic, too much stress and change can result in negative outcomes such as burnout, fatigue, pain, and injury. For the most part, you can create the space in your day-to-day life that gives you the appropriate stressors so that your body can adapt in the necessary manner.
 
Ref:
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2012). Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
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Have questions send a message!
 
Link in bio to book at Adapt Physical Therapy!
 

The streetlight system
 
A tool you can use when experiencing pain with certain movements due to specific injury and/or training-related aches and pain.
 
Green light 🟢 = Go. The movement produced mild symptoms or did not produce any symptoms, during or after activity. Generally, movements that produce mild symptoms or are pain free are safe to perform as desired. However, it is important to be aware of training principles such as rest and recovery, so the movement stays green.
 
Yellow Light 🟡= Slow down. The movement produced moderate symptoms during activity or after activity but is tolerable. Yellow light movements are often the entry point into pain reduction and symptom improvement. You can perform the movement if the pain level is stable and does not increase during or after activity. Some pain is okay and should be expected.
 
Red light 🔴 = Stop. Movements that significantly increase pain and symptoms during and after activity. Activities or movements that cause symptoms to worsen are the movements that we want to avoid for a short amount of time. The goal is to return to these movements once symptoms improve not avoid them forever.
 
Major key 🔑= The most important thing is that you continue to train and move. Find what you can do and focus on that.
 
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Have questions send a message!
 
Link in bio to book at Adapt Physical Therapy!
 

What does rehab look like?
 
Step 1: Find your entry point
Find a movement or dose of exercise that either improves symptoms or stabilizes symptoms over a 24–48-hour period.  Takes a bit of experimenting and creativity.
 
Step 2: Manage expectations
Rehab is tough, complicated, and multi-factorial. Figure out where you are now not who you were before the injury/pain. The goal is not necessarily to get back to the old you but look forward to the new you. Rehab takes time and a little work.
 
Step 3: Embrace the process
Rehab is rarely linear and consists of ups and downs. Focus on the small wins build positive physical and psychological wins.
 
Step 4: Return to activity
When symptoms improve, gradually introduce movements and activities that you want to do. At this point, you can start increasing volume, load, and intensity to build capacity and fitness of your desired activity.
 
Need help with steps 1-4? Talk to a professional to help you find an entry point, manage symptoms, and eventually return to activity. 
 
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Link in bio to book at Adapt Physical Therapy!
 

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