Thanks to our running specialist, Kristi Moore, MSPT, for this informative post for runners.

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As we are getting closer to the Missoula Marathon and many other long distance races in Montana, there are likely to be an increase in aches and pains with the increase in mileage.  This can be especially true for beginning runners, but also for experienced runners after a long winter with decreased weekly mileage.

This month I felt it would be beneficial to talk about some ways to help decrease the aches and pains, as well as when you should seek professional advice.

It is normal to have soreness, usually in your legs or feet with longer runs.  This is true especially the first time you run a particular distance.  This is the result of your muscles tightening up after a longer fatiguing effort, but not related to a specific trauma or injury.  These aches and pains are often described as soreness, stiffness, or tightness.  This type of leg pain is usually felt in the quads, hamstrings, glutes (buttocks), or hip flexors (front of hip).

Why do we get this soreness?  It is a result of the repetition of running, and the less experience you have with longer distance running the more you may feel it.  Even with experience you may feel this type of soreness, but it will go away quicker.  For inexperienced runners it may take a few days to dissipate, for experienced runners it is usually gone in a day or so.

What can you do to help decrease this type of normal soreness?

1. Stretch well after your long run.  You need to stretch all major leg and hip muscles after a long run.  Make your stretches gentle but sustained for a full 30-60 seconds (quads, hamstrings, calf, hip flexors and glutes).
2. Ice sore muscles or take an ice bath if multiple areas are sore.  Icing should be for at least 10 minutes.
3. Drink plenty of water after running as well as during your long run.  It can be difficult to carry enough water while running, so plan ahead and stash water bottles along your route or bring money and know where you might be able to buy a bottle of water along the way.
4. Make sure you have a rest day the day after your long run.  This could mean easy cross training, but ideally not running (ie. swim, easy bike, walk).  It is important to incorporate rest days throughout your training to allow your body to take care of muscles that have been stressed.  This will allow you to build the strength you need to run your next long run, and eventually your race.

When should you be concerned about the aches and pains you feel with running longer distances?

• If the pain begins during your run and progressively gets worse during your run.
• Pain that you feel during run that goes away, but returns after the run and lasts for more than 2 hours after your run.
• Pain that causes you to limp during running or after running.
• Pain that comes on in the same place with every run, regardless of distance.

If you are experiencing this type of pain, it could be a sign you have an injury that needs specific attention.  If you aren’t sure what type of pain you are having, set up a consult with a Physical Therapist who will be able to help you determine if you need treatment or if there are things you can try on your own.  Remember, Run Wild Missoula members can schedule free 15 minute consultations at Alpine Physical Therapy, so let us help you keep running!
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For more information on our services at Alpine Physical Therapy for runners, visit our running webpage by clicking here, or call Kristi Moore at our north clinic at 406-541-2606.

For the 6th consecutive year,  Alpine Physical Therapy will be the exclusive physical therapy sponsor of the Missoula Marathon.  This prestigious sponsorship puts us face-to-face with runners of all skill levels, giving us opportunities to provide consultation to all participants and to present numerous training seminars for area marathoners.

Our team of 14 therapists provides both pre- and post-race massages for all Missoula Marathoners. In addition, we offer free injury consultations both before and after the race.

We offer a unique service for all runners called The Runner’s Clinic, which is overseen by expert physical therapist, Kristi Moore, MSPT. Kristi is our sport biomechanics expert associated with high-mileage running.

Participants entering The Runner’s Clinic undergo 2-D video analysis of their stride, along with a comprehensive body and movement examination.  Integrating the 2-D video analysis with the clinical exam provides an exacting assessment for identifying running faults that can contribute to injury and impact performance.  The results of the examination form the basis of specific corrective exercises that you’ll begin learning and doing on day one!  For more information on The Runner’s Clinic, be sure to visit our website by clicking here.

Gaining knowledge about your injury and what you can do to resolve it puts you ahead of the pack. We invite you to peruse The Runner’s Clinic section of our website for information on various injuries common to runners.  Gather additional information by clicking on the Patient Resources section of our website for news and information on these and other conditions runners face.

We have three locations in Missoula.

• Alpine Physical Therapy, North
  We are located at 2965 Stockyard Road in the North Reserve Business Center, just behind Carino’s.  406-541-2606.

• Alpine Physical Therapy, South
  We are located in the Peak Health & Wellness Center South on the corner of Highway 93 South and Blue Mountain Road.  406-251-2323.

• Alpine Physical Therapy, Downtown
  We are also located in the Peak Health & Wellness Center Downtown at 150 E. Spruce, Ste A.  406-549-0064.

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All participants of the Missoula Marathon are provided free injury consultations with one of our physical therapists. Call to schedule a free injury consultation or to schedule for The Runner’s Clinic.

​Please join me in welcoming back to Missoula and to Alpine Physical Therapy, Audrey Elias DPT, OCS. Audrey graduated from the University of Montana School of Physical Therapy in 2009. She completed a manual therapy residency through Therapeutic Associates, Inc., in which she accelerated her orthopedic and manual physical therapy skills and certifications. We’re excited that she’s joined our team of 14 physical therapists and will be practicing at Alpine South.

Here are highlights about Audrey:

Education

• BA in Biology and Anthropology, Dartmouth College, 2002
• Doctorate of Physical Therapy 2009, University of Montana
• APTA Credentialed Orthopedic Residency 2011, Therapeutic Associates, Inc.

State Licenses

• Montana

Joined Alpine

• 2013

Clinical Interests

• Orthopedic and manual therapy, clinical biomechanics, injury prevention, movement analysis, and motor learning problems; current research interests focus on exploring the adaptations in muscular control associated with skills retraining after knee ligament reconstruction.

Professional Memberships

• American Physical Therapy Association (APTA)
  • Orthopedics Section of the APTA
  • Research Section of the APTA
• American College of Sports Medicine

Professional Certifications

• Orthopedic Certified Specialist
• APTA Certified Clinical Instructor

Hobbies and Interests

• Skiing of all kinds, biking, trail running, gardening, cooking/baking, reading fiction both trashy and not, tap dancing, playing with our toddler

Philosophy of Care

• “I try to help people use all the tools at their disposal, most importantly the awesome adaptability of the human system, to effect lasting and active change.”

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To contact Audrey at our south location, please call 251-2323.

​Although strange in name, Fartlek training is a Swedish term meaning ‘speed play’! Typically integrated into running, Fartlek training consists of fast, medium, and slow running over a variety of distances. More recently, Fartlek training has been integrated into swimming, cycling, and hiking/walking. We also have a few creative twists to the traditional Fartlek workout to make it even more fun!

The basic Fartlek (Speed): After a steady warm-up, simply pick a landmark –for example a tree, lamp-post, or phone box — and run to it hard, then jog/peddle/speed-walk until you’ve recovered. Then pick another landmark, run hard to that, recover and so on.

Fartlek with a twist (Play): Instead of just changing speed, if you are running or hiking, change your footwork. For example, do a karaoke, side step, or run backwards to a landmark. You can try some high knees or some heel kicks, just get creative. If you are cycling, push with just one leg for a short time or hop off your bike and run it uphill for a stretch. Fartlek intervals can be even more fun with a partner as you take turns calling out the next task and endpoint.

By changing your pace, you change your stride and the muscles you use. You are able to get away from the monotony of a workout that can quickly cause overuse injuries. Varying footwork drills in the midst of your workout also helps add extra muscle activation to your workout, thus building more balanced strength which can help minimize injury.

The best part of a Fartlek is that you get to call the shots, and you don’t need any fancy equipment. There doesn’t need to be a set structure to the workout and it is entirely up to you how hard or easy you make the session. Unlike track intervals, Fartlek doesn’t require you to set a distance to run or a time to recover. A watch isn’t necessary. So get out there and have some Fartlek fun!
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For more information on Running and other sports tips, visit our sports performance section of our website by clicking here.

​Thanks to Alpine’s running specialist, Kristi Moore, MSPT, for this informative article. Runner’s take note! Drills can take your running to new levels.

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If you want to improve as a runner and prevent injury, you need to do more than just run.  Running drills can be a great way to help you do both.  Running drills provide dynamic flexibility, strength training specific to running, and will help to improve your running form.  What does this mean?  You become a more efficient runner with less risk of injury.  As a Physical Therapist I use drills as a way to assess how a runner moves, to see imbalances within movement, and as a way to rehabilitate runners from injury.

Dynamic flexibility is moving joints and muscles to gain active mobility, which helps you to loosen up effectively before running.  Drills often take you through a larger range of the motions you would normally do in running.  Using bigger range of motion for repetitions warms up your muscles to get ready for running.

Drills work specific muscle groups utilized in running by exaggerating motions used in running.  This leads to improved recruitment of these muscles when we need them during running.  Drills are often quick and/or powerful movements, which will train muscles to respond quickly when running and may even help to push you quicker to a finish line.

Many of the drills highlight one or more aspect of proper running form and are accentuated  through repetitive motions, thus helping you to insert it into your typical running mechanics.  A runner needs to have proper form as well as the appropriate strength and flexibility to allow their body to run without risking injury. Each individual has specific areas to work on with strengthening  and stretching exercises, but drills take it to the next level.

One example of how a drill can address these three areas is high knee skipping.  This drill is a dynamic stretch for hip extensors, a strengthening exercise for calf muscles and quadriceps, and it improves your form by having you push off your foot closer to the mid/fore foot instead of striking with your heel.  There are similar benefits to the majority of running drills.

To learn more about drills come to Alpine Physical Therapy’s Free Drills session on Saturday May 18th at 8:30 am at the dirt track off the Kim Williams trail.  We will demonstrate correct form with drills, explain their purpose and have you go through some beneficial drills that will improve your running. The first 25 people to arrive will also get a free stainless steel water bottle. 
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If you have any questions please call our north clinic at (406) 541-2606.

Alpine Physical Therapy has begun a partnership with Missoula Strikers FC for this spring season.  Two of our PTs at Alpine, Jess Kehoe and Leah Versteegen, have put together education materials on appropriate dynamic warm up, injury prevention, as well as fitness testing and training specific for youth soccer.

Our goal is to help this local youth program develop its players for maximum performance and decreased injury rates.   Jess is heading up the effort getting to practices to teach the coaches and the players how to properly warm up with dynamic stretching.  In addition, the players and coaches will learn how to perform strength and jump training with good mechanics to decrease risk of injury, most specifically rupture of the ACL, a common knee injury in soccer.

Leah has been spearheading the educational materials for the fitness testing and training schedules, which are integral to preventing overtraining and common overuse injuries.   John Prugh has also been helping us in all these areas.  We hope this partnership lasts for many years to benefit our local kids and help to continually improve the soccer program here in Missoula.
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For more information on Alpine’s sport outreach for soccer, visit our clinic web page on the topic by clicking here.

At least forty of you have walked a marathon. On Saturday mornings 40-60 full and half marathon walkers in training meet at Community Hospital as part of the training program provided by Run Wild Missoula. On April 27th Alpine Physical Therapist Angela Listug-Vap had the pleasure of meeting with them prior to their long walk to discuss Injury Prevention and Core Stability. Here is a taste of what was discussed.

In order to complete a task like walking our body has to accomplish several things. We can call these biomechanical requirements. If we are lacking some of these requirements, our amazing bodies can still get the job done and complete the task but with compensations. These compensations may lead to pain and injury.

One example of a biomechanical requirement for walking is thoracic rotation.  The body needs to be able to rotate in the middle of the trunk in both directions to help drive the next step and the swing your arms. If you stand or sit and rotate your trunk you can self assess by asking: “Am I tighter in one direction?”. To practice and gain trunk rotation you can do some simple stretches, and you  can play with not allowing trunk rotation while you swing your arms . . . and then allow yourself to rotate all the way and swing the arm all the way across your body slowly alternating directions. You can view more examples of what we discussed by clicking here to access the handout.

Alpine Physical Therapy offers free 10-minute injury consults to all RWM members and Marathon participants. So give us a call at 541-2606 if you have a question and would like a chance to bounce it off one of our knowledgable physical therapists.
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Happy Walking!

​Please join me in welcoming back to Missoula and to Alpine Physical Therapy, Matt Schweitzer, DPT, OCS, CSCS. Matt graduated from the U of M Physical Therapy program in 2009. He graciously provided summer fill in work at Alpine prior to moving to Bakersfield, California, where he accelerated his orthopedic an manual physical therapy skills and certifications. We’re excited that he’s joined our team of 14 physical therapists and will be practicing at Alpine Downtown. Here are highlights about Matt:

Education
Bachelors in Psychology University of Montana 2005
Doctorate of Physical Therapy University of Montana 2009
Evidence in Motion Orthopedic Residency 2011

State Licenses
Montana. California

Joined Alpine
2013

Clinical Interests
Manual therapy and integration into treating movement impairments and pain.  General orthopedics.

Professional Certifications
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist 2007
Orthopedic Clinical Specialist 2012

Hobbies and Interests
Hiking, camping, fitness, food!

Philosophy of Care
“Treat others as you would like to be treated.”

To contact Matt at our Downtown location, please call 549-0064.

What is Pilates Day?

Pilates Day is an annual, international, community event celebrated on the first Saturday of May every year. The Pilates Day mission is to foster the public’s appreciation and awareness of the Pilates Method through a network of varied, innovative, and high quality grassroots Pilates events accessible and affordable for all. Pilates Day is a program of the Pilates Method Alliance (PMA), and Pilates Day events are produced and hosted by PMA members.

Why Does Alpine Physical Therapy Participate?

Alpine Physical Therapy is sought after for its leadership in Pilates-based rehabilitation. Our treatment philosophy is reflected in our extensive certification and use of the Pilates Method. Both of our clinics are fully equipped with Balance Body reformers and accessories.

We work with area doctors and other referral sources in designing rehabilitation programs that successfully incorporate Pilates-based approaches. Our clients comment on how much they enjoy this form of care, particularly because they often find that they can get a good workout without flaring their symptoms.

Many of our patients have responded favorably to our interventions that include the use of clinical Pilates. It’s common for many patients who are completing their rehab with Pilates to go on to do this form of exercise on an ongoing basis. Learn more about Pilates-based exercise by visiting the website of our sister company, The Core Studio at Alpine, by clicking here.