​The team’s mission is to encourage women to race and ride mountain bikes through special skills sessions and rides and junior development. They’ve already had a presence at almost every Montana Off-Road Series race, and they’ve traveled to two out-of-state races. You won’t be able to miss their brightly colored, animal print uniforms with the Alpine logo proudly printed on them.

Alpine didn’t want to miss the opportunity to support women who want to gain confidence, fitness, and personal challenge through mountain biking.

To learn what Montana Alpha is really all about, check out their website by clicking here.  Also, come by Marshall Mountain any Wednesday night starting tonight and through July to see them race!
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Go Team. We support you 110%!

Long summer days open up many opportunities for 9-5 workers to get out and enjoy the outdoors. This is easier said then done. For many people finding the energy to actually enjoy your evening activities is hard. After working all day and then getting the kids to activities and running errands, it’s easy to see why many people feel too burnt out to get outside to enjoy the weather or exercise.

Lucky enough, the solution might be easier then you think. No, you don’t have to load up on 5-hour energy drinks or coffee that will probably end up keeping you awake all night. Rather, you may just need to adjust your diet. The foundation of this nutritional secret is in your blood sugar. Glucose levels in your body are directly related to your brain and how it preserves exhaustion. This is what happens when people experience sugar highs and then crashes. So how do you fix this?

1. Eat breakfast! Why? It’s the most important meal of the day! Research shows that people who eat complex carbohydrates such as whole grain breads and high fiber cereals and protein for breakfast rated their energy for the day higher then those who ate high sugar yogurts, smoothies, or other simple carbohydrates. These folks also had a lower BMI (Body Mass Index).

2. Eat every three to four hours.  You’ll help to keep your blood sugars level by eating every three to four hours. You don’t have to eat a full meal. Instead, by eating a high fiber or high protein snack such as a protein shake or ½ a cup of Greek yogurt with granola, you’ll avoid the mid-morning and mid-afternoon crash. Eating every few hours also helps your body keep your metabolism elevated, which allows your body to constantly burn energy throughout the day.
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3. Make lunch or breakfast your largest meal of the day. This is the opposites of most households which generally eat their biggest meal at dinner. But think about it. You eat food to give you energy for the activities you have to do. So why would you eat so much between 6 and 8pm? For most of us, after dinner activities consist of things like getting homework done, working at the computer, and getting ready for the next day. By eating your largest meals earlier in the day, you allow your body a chance to burn off all this energy. Eating a larger lunch also gives you the energy you need to hit the gym after work or enjoy the beautiful summer weather with a walk or a hike. Think of it like this: eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.

As the summer solstice approaches, we move into a new season: the season of overtraining. The days get longer allowing for more outdoor training time, and the weather is nice which tempts us to cram in training sessions while we can. Add in the pressure that some of summer’s top events like the Missoula Marathon and the Missoula XC are just weeks away, and you have all of the right ingredients for overtraining and potential injury.

Any training will cause fatigue, but true overtraining requires going above and beyond tiredness caused by a few tough workouts. Overtraining is defined as chronic fatigue. This means listlessness and underperformance even after two weeks of rest are given and where no other medical condition such as anemia or mononucleosis can be identified as the cause. Other symptoms of overtraining include irritability, depression, and frustration with decreased performance. Unfortunately, this frustration will lead many to believe they need to train harder, worsening the problem. Other indicators of overtraining are loss of appetite, insomnia, loss of lean body mass, sluggishness, and frequent illness.

Highly motivated athletes may have a hard time avoiding overtraining especially because the optimal level of training stress will often take them right to the brink before crossing into overtraining. Elite-level coach and author of The Cyclist’s Training Bible, Joe Friel, calls this training load overreaching. This is an appropriate amount of fatigue that the body can then recover from with adequate rest. After many bouts of overreaching without rest, overtraining may be achieved. Friel places a huge emphasis on rest. He says that training doesn’t make you faster. Just training will make you tired; recovering from training is what gets results.

If you have been tempted into fatigue by the nice weather or a surplus of motivation, you can turn that around before you become overtrained. Don’t be afraid to rest until you feel energetic and ready to go again. Rest needs to include plenty of sleep, proper nutrition, and little to no exercise. Even active recovery or easy sessions may be too taxing on a body close to being overtrained. If caught at the right time, overtraining can be stopped, and your body will be rested and fast for the big races in July. Remember, in the words of Friel: “Train hard, rest harder.”
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For more on overtraining visit Joe Friel’s blog by clicking here.

Careful when you ask a woman who recently gave birth “How ya doing?” Most likely, they’ll answer with one of the following: trashed, demolished traumatized, destroyed.   These words were used by eight new mammas to describe what their bodies felt like one to five months post parturm.

Between the actual birthing process, learning and struggling with the painful breastfeeding process, and simply trying to get back into a normal routine that might allow them to do a walk or stretching session for 15-20 minutes, it was obvious these new mammas’ bodies needed some attention, recovery, focus, and guidance.

In response, The Core Studio at Alpine has launched its New Mammas Pilates Group.  For new moms, it is difficult to focus on your own body when it has been shared and nearly taken over by another small bundle of life, but with the guidance of the professionals at The Core Studio new moms get the help to get back their bodies faster and more effectively, with support of other new moms.  An hour once a week allows new moms to have time, space, and instruction on what muscles to fire, what muscles to relax, and the importance of breath, focus, and balance.  This class provides new moms the chance to reduce back and neck pain, manage incontinience, return to enjoyable sex, appreciate their new babies, and learn life long tips to keep healthy and strong while being a mom.

Last Wednesday, The Core Studio offered a free one hour session to introduce the foundations of Pilates to the New Mammas.  Sam Schmidt, MPT instructed proper pelvic recruitment, abdominal activation, correct breathing, and spine safety to the group.  This was an opportunity for the New Mammas to understand what the classes would focus on, gain the fundamentals of the Pilates method, and get a chance to meet other new moms with similar issues and goals.

The New Mammas commit to four classes during the month ($60 total) then have eight oppornities to use these.  Classes are held on Wednesday evenings and late Friday mornings.  If they want to do more than the four classes they can pay as they go.  All New Mamma’s Pilates Group have access for a free consultation with one of the Alpine Physical Therapy’s PTs.
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If you know a new mom who is needing some support, guidance, and space to focus on her body and get healthy for her baby, The Core Studio will be offering another FREE session on the fundamentals every last Wednesday of the month at 7:30pm at Alpine Physical Therapy North. Give us a call at 541-2606, or stop by our north clinic at 2965 Stockyard Road, just behind Carino’s.

"I just wanted to drop you a line with a sincere “Thank You”.  This past Saturday I played in a volleyball tourney and it went very well. It turned into a long day as we made it to the final, but things held up very well.  The shoulder in particular really felt strong with the serves and some hitting, In fact, I didn’t feel I was missing anything at all.

I wish the soccer match wasn’t 48 hours after the volleyball tourney, but nonetheless other than not having touched a soccer ball for eight months, and being out of soccer shape, the knee did very well.  I fell once or twice on the inside of it which stung just a little, but I had no lingering issues today.

Over the past seven months or so, I oversee the winter/spring volleyball league, and as I sat and watched I started to think that at 42 and coming off two surgeries, I might never play at the level I wanted to again.  I always knew I would do everything to get there, but maybe it would not be enough.  Just to go out and to be able to compete in a couple of sports I love over the past few days filled that competitive void I have been feeling for quite some time.

That said, now I know I will get back.  I am not quite there yet, but the road now involves strength and fitness.  I would not be where I am currently without your expertise, motivation, and assistance over the past seven months.  Many people have a career and are good at what they do.   It is rare these days (at least in my experience) to find people who are great at what they do for a live, people who goes the extra mile, and view a client in a personal light rather than just another appointment.  You guys are great at what you do and I thank you for that!

Thanks for getting me to within viewing distance of the top of the mountain.  I know now I can complete the rest of the journey after getting your help to climb so far.
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Thank you!"

As the Missoula Marathon and other summer races approach, more and more athletes will be battling injuries hoping to make it to the big event. Many will place ice on those injuries, a convenient and inexpensive way to cool painful tissue and reduce inflammation.

However, ice is not always the right answer. There is a time when it will hurt, not heal. That time is right before exercise, a time when a desperate runner may be most tempted to use it.

Studies have shown that applying ice directly before exercise significantly reduces the strength and power output of the underlying muscle for up to 15 minutes after the icing had ended. Also, ice can hinder fine motor control and impair position sense of your limb. Ice is proficient at numbing pain, so training immediately after application can encourage overuse and further injury as sensation of pain is markedly reduced. There will be no warning signal of pain to indicate when exercise should cease.
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After exercise, ice maintains its benefits to provide soothing relief. Just remember that ice doesn’t work around the clock. Muscles need to be warm before exercise so they can work properly and provide the right signals so you can train effectively and safely. A soak in a cold creek post-run is a different story . . . Yikes!

Alpine Physical Therapy was started with the intention of helping as many people with back and neck pain as possible. That was May of 2006. Since then, we’ve treated more than 2,500 Missoulians with back and neck pain.

There are several reason we’ve been able to work with so many people in such a short time. First, back and neck pain are common. Scientific studies indicate that 80% of people in industrialized nations will suffer significant back pain, the kind that keeps you from work or play, at some point in their lives. Fully 90%t of these folks will have recurrent episodes of pain.

Second, because Alpine’s physical therapists are on the front edge of spine treatment, we’ve built a reputation for helping people, including those who haven’t gotten results elsewhere. Our team of 11 therapists includes several highly certified professionals. In fact, Angela Listug-Vap, our Clinic Director at Alpine North, is Montana’s only Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapists. Simply put, she’s the state’s expert physical therapist when it comes to helping people with back and neck pain. In addition to Angela’s certification as a manual physical therapist, Alpine’s owner, Brent Dodge, is certified as a manual physical therapist through the prestigious North American Institute of Orthopedic Manual Therapy.

We also have among our staff two Board Certified Orthopedic Physical Therapists, Brent Dodge, and Brace Hayden. To receive this certification, Brent and Brace underwent a rigorous examination given by the National Board of Physical Therapists.

With a large professional staff, exceptional certifications, and an intense desire to help people, we’ve been able to help a lot of our fellow Missoulians. In fact, 2,500 is a number that can’t be matched by other free standing outpatient clinics in our city. We’re proud of our committment to provide Expert, Effective, and Caring help to people who seek help for neck and back pain.

For more information on Alpine’s work in the area of neck and back pain treatment, please visit our clinic website at www.AlpinePTmissoula.com.
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And for a list of reasons that answer the questions Why Us? Why Alpine? click here.