The Ask Mike Reinold Show

One of the areas that physical therapists often report feeling a lack of confidence is building a return to running program after an injury or surgery. There are a few things to consider, such as the type of athlete and what their goals are in the long run. But in general, a slow and gradual progression is often best. Here are the factors we consider and how we build our return to running programs...

Many people value getting back to the gym after surgery. They may be athletes needing to prepare for their sport or people who enjoy the gym recreationally. We’re big advocates for getting back into the gym as soon as possible, but after surgery, there are some things to consider. Here are our thoughts on how to best manage this. To see full show notes and more, head to: https://mikereinold.com/ w...

Cervical spine pain is pretty common. Most of the time, it seems like we only see these patients when their symptoms progress to the point where they are having radiculopathy and loss of strength or sensation down their arm. But what do you do with the younger person who seems to have the beginning of cervical issues? Here are our thoughts. To see full show notes and more, head to: https://mikerei...

Finding a good mentor is hard. Many people don’t have access to someone who wants to help them accelerate their career. We often start our careers and have so many questions. We’ve all been there. In this week’s podcast, we talk about what we recommend you do when you aren’t in a spot where you have a great mentor. This is also why we started our new Champion Sports PT Mentorship online program. W...

Loss of range of motion after elbow surgery is common. The elbow is a very congruent and unforgiving joint. It’s important to prevent loss of motion with early activities as much as possible. But what do you do when you have a loss of mobility in the elbow? Here are our treatment strategies. To see full show notes and more, head to: https://mikereinold.com/ how-to-deal-with-stubborn-elbow-loss-of-...

The riches are in the niches, or so they say. But in all seriousness, I agree. Most people I know who love their jobs specialize in a niche they enjoy. But how do you get started specializing in a niche? Here are some of our tips. To see full show notes and more, head to: https://mikereinold.com/ how-to-specialize-in-a-niche-population / Learn our proven system for sports PTs who want to master AC...

We’ve all seen it before. Someone comes in saying that their “back locked up” on them! They are in a lot of pain, guarded with their movement, and not sure what to do. Here’s how we approach this and some pearls to help them get out of pain and spasm and back into their activities without setbacks. To see full show notes and more, head to: https://mikereinold.com/ strategies-for-acute-low-back-pai...

One of the more common questions we get from students is knowing when to push someone or back off. As always, the answer will depend on the situation. But, there are some principles to guide you. We discuss what we do and how to avoid the ups and downs. To see full show notes and more, head to: https://mikereinold.com/ how-to-know-when-to-push-or-back-off / Learn our proven system for sports PTs w...

A common debate in physical therapy is whether we should cue people to “pinch their scapulas” together during exercises. I don’t really think there should be a debate… Here’s why we don’t use that cue and what we do instead. To see full show notes and more, head to: https://mikereinold.com/ should-you-cue-to-pinch-your-shoulder-blades-back / Learn our proven system for sports PTs who want to maste...

We all know that it’s super important to assess strength with our patients and clients. But is manual muscle testing enough? We don’t think so. Here’s why and what we use at Champion. To see full show notes and more, head to: https://mikereinold.com/ how-to-measure-strength-in-the-clinic / Learn our proven system for sports PTs who want to master ACL rehab, confidently progress patients, and guide...

Over the last several years, we have seen the growth of the new repair of the ulnar collateral ligament with an internal brace procedure. It’s been awesome to witness such great success with this new Tommy John procedure, and patients have been doing great. Here’s an update on our experience so far, some clinical pearls on rehabilitating these athletes, and the differences we sometimes see with tr...

Hamstring strains continue to be one of the most common injuries in sports. Returning these athletes to play can sometimes seem daunting. When is it safe to start running? Do you have to wait until they are pain-free? We answer these questions and more in this episode. To see full show notes and more, head to: https://mikereinold.com/ when-is-it-safe-to-start-running-after-a-hamstring-strain / Lea...

As you probably know, we have a lot of clinical physical therapy students and strength and conditioning interns at Champion. Over the years we have found success in integrating them into working with our patients and clients. Here are some tips on how to do this while still being able to provide a great learning experience for the student and a great experience as the patient. To see full show not...

Some of the most common questions we get in regard to rotator cuff repair rehabilitation are when can we start range of motion and strengthening exercises. It will depend on several factors, but there are ways to build an evidence-based rehabilitation progression. In this episode, we talk about how we progress rotator cuff repair patients and how we determine if an exercise is safe to perform. To...

Many students and early career professionals want to get into professional sports. Here’s some of our advice on how to stand out when applying and interviewing for these high level jobs. To see full show notes and more, head to: https://mikereinold.com/ interviewing-for-a-job-in-professional-sports Learn our proven system for sports PTs who want to master ACL rehab, confidently progress patients,...

Force plates can be very valuable in quantifying certain metrics that can monitor progress over time. We’re using these for both our performance and rehabilitation athletes. Here’s what we have seen so far. To see full show notes and more, head to: https://mikereinold.com/ using-force-plates-to-show-progress / Learn our proven system for sports PTs who want to master ACL rehab, confidently progres...

There are many options for graft sources when performing an ACL reconstruction. There are pros and cons to them all. One graft type, an allograft, probably deserves a different rehabilitation approach. We often go slower with this graft type. We talk about why in this episode. To see full show notes and more, head to: https://mikereinold.com/ should-acl-allografts-go-slower-with-their-rehabilitati...

Hamstring strains are one of the most common injuries in sports. And as many of us know, it often can be recurring. In this podcast episode, we discuss why this may be the case and what you can do to minimize recurrence.   To see full show notes and more, head to: https://mikereinold.com/ how-to-deal-with-recurring-hamstring-strains / Learn our proven system for sports PTs who want to master ACL r...

It is important as physical therapists that we are exposed to a diverse range of the profession during school. Many students that want to get into sports or orthopedics feel like they don’t get as much out of the PT clinical affiliations outside of those areas. But, we think there’s a ton to learn in every environment that will help you with your future career. To see full show notes and more, hea...

As physical therapists, we often do a great job with the early phases of rehabilitation and helping people restore motion and strength. But many people, especially athletes, also need to develop their loading capacity to get back to advanced activities like running, cutting, and jumping. In this episode, we talk about how we progress people and build their loading capacity. To see full show notes...

It’s unfortunate that many physical clinics have limits on the amount of time you can spend with a patient. We all want to spend a ton of time with our patients, especially in the later stages of rehab when there is so much to do. In this episode, we’re going to talk about some strategies on how to deal with these limitations. To see full show notes and more, head to: https://mikereinold.com/ fitt...

We treat a lot of baseball players at Champion. And one thing is certain, throwing a baseball sure does make a lot of people lose shoulder mobility! We often see this correlated with medial elbow pain, so when someone is rehabbing an elbow injury like Tommy John, we often focus as much on the shoulder as the elbow. We talk about this concept and more in this episode. To see full show notes and mor...

Any surgery that involves repairing a torn tendon will have the potential to have complications. Most commonly, this involves a loss of motion. Depending on the activity, some discomfort is expected. But you also don’t want to overload the healing tissue. To see full show notes and more, head to: https://mikereinold.com/ improving-range-of-motion-after-a-patellar-tendon-repair / Learn our proven s...

A lot of people assume that humans should be symmetrical. But I’m not sure that’s accurate, so I’m not a fan of blaming injuries on asymmetry. More importantly, many sports are unilateral in nature and require asymmetrical movements. In this episode, we talk about how we deal with asymmetry for both injury prevention and performance enhancement. To see full show notes and more, head to: https://mi...

Pickellball is exploding right now in popularity, and with it we are seeing an increase in injuries. In this week’s episode, we talk about some of the more common injuries and some things we can focus on to minimize them. To see full show notes and more, head to: https://mikereinold.com/ minimizing-pickleball-injuries / Learn our proven system for sports PTs who want to master ACL rehab, confident...