PT Inquest

Running is bad for your knees. It will wear them down and lead to arthritis. We've all heard it and it makes sense, right? But does that really happen? And what does this have to do with Uranus?!

Can we predict injuries in athletes? Is it like screening for disease or is this kind of screening a different animal? Will this episode be the greatest thing since sliced bread?!

What is required for rotator cuff tendinopathy? Scapular stability? Manual therapy? What if you just gave exercises? How about just one exercise? In this episode we explore all of that as Erik explores living in an apartment again for the first time in 15 years.

When engaging in athletic activities, many physical therapists recommend bracing with the abdominals for stability as a better way to manage loads, but is it? Is it possible that bracing actually increases forces through the body? How might that be? Is Erik's singing in any way tolerable to our listeners?

If your patient has completely torn their supraspinatus, then their humeral head must translate superiorly during arm elevation. Or does it??? In this episode JW and Erik look at a novel kinematic study that found the exact opposite. Remember, there is always more to a hypothesis than, "It makes sense."

Some patients complain of severe pain after rotator cuff repair way more than others. Is this something that can be predicted? Does the extent of the injury have any correlation to postoperative pain? What about specifics of the surgery? Or is it something else? Find out all that and more by listening to "The Gold Episode"!

Erik and JW have a history of skepticism regarding the use of platelet rich plasm (PRP) injections for tendon injuries, but can it have an effect on osteoarthritis? What would they need to see in order to be convinced? Does this article provide that? Or do Erik and JW just hate every new thing no matter what?

Can hamstring injuries be predicted? Does sustaining an injury permanently change something about its function? Is it just a matter of strength or is there something else? How does strength training effect it? Or does it? Time to buy a mfMRI! (Does not stand for "motherf**king MRI" by the way.)

Is eating salt a good thing or a bad thing?! Why do we as physical therapists care? This study actually has to do more with the problem of opinion infiltrating the evidence in what appear to be unbiased studies. How common is this in physical therapy literature? How can we spot it? Is it more than financial bias? Is JW turning into Batman...again?!

Jill Cook and Karim Kahn gave a very interesting lecture on understanding tendinopathy at APTA's Combined Sections Meeting (CSM) in February 2016. PT Inquest decided to take a deeper look. Can disorganized tendon tissue change? If it can't does it matter? When we understand the true nature of tendinopathy, certain treatments become much more plausible and others appear almost silly. Also, Erik provides a poor man's homemade doughnut recipe. Or is it donut?