Dancing ballet is as physically demanding as it is beautiful. Limited mobility can not only hinder an ensemble, where uniformity is key, but also lead to pain or injury. While foot and ankle injuries may be among the most common in dancers (Trentacosta et al. 2017), hip and back problems are more common than you think (Khan et al, 1995), specifically due to the extreme range of motion required in the artistic sport. Ballet training puts an emphasis on hip abduction and external rotation, therefore creating a distinctive myriad of hip issues (Curley et al. 2022).
A lover of dance, Jillian came in at 17, with hip mobility issues of her own. She’d been experiencing popping, low back pain, and mobility limitations, making leg extensions in adagio (développé), balances, jumps and leaps, difficult for her.
“I’ve never been the most flexible dancer in my group, but as a team, we needed to look uniform so only being able to have my leg at 90 degrees, felt like I was letting my team down. I had also not been able to improve my flexibility in years, and not seeing progress was frustrating.”
She had tried at-home remedies like a massage gun, and stretching with a foam roller, but neither really helped. She thought everything she was experiencing was normal, and wouldn’t have even come in if it weren’t for Kim offering assessments at the dance studio. Kim showed her that what she was experiencing was fixable but definitely not normal and could lead to further problems if left unchecked.
Upon assessment, our Stretch Mobility Coach (SMC) Jordan discovered joint restriction in Jillian’s hips and low back, causing compensation and overuse of her pelvis and lumbar region.
Jillian received TSM hands-on low back and hip protocol that included TSM manual therapy techniques, and stabilization techniques. After treatment, she was able to lift her leg above 90 degrees without compensation! Giving her the ability to keep up with her team by leaps and bounds (literally)! To prevent the problem from coming back, we continued with hands-on treatment to fix her joint restrictions while strengthening and stabilizing the surrounding muscles.
Then, to maintain her progress, she worked with Jordan in one-on-one functional training before joining our TSM maintenance member program, which she’s continued with for the last 2 years. “I now know that my body had been using the wrong muscles to produce certain movements, and that was due to improper training. I’ve learned that flexibility and strength are correlated more than most people think, and the proper form on common exercises that will decrease the risk of injury.“
“The best part about working with the coaches is that they are knowledgeable and able to explain what should be happening in each exercise in a way that makes sense… I am also able to go to them with injuries/pain that may not be related to my original injury and they always treated that. They also make an effort to get to know me as a person and my goals, and know how to get me there.”
She loved how much we were able to help her that she’s now pursuing in pre-physical therapy program at UC, and obtained her personal training certification.
Getting older should not mean you have to give up doing the things you love, like playing your favorite sport, or even just walking or running around your neighborhood. Take Dan for example: he refused to let his mobility issues and pain prevent him from setting goals of running and playing softball.
Dan came in with limited mobility in his right shoulder and pain in his left knee with goals of running and playing senior softball. “I realized that my shoulder would not allow me to throw and my left knee was too painful to be able to run.”
Upon assessment, we discovered Dan had 30% limited mobility in his right shoulder, preventing him from throwing a softball, and he was unable to fully extend his knee, due to degeneration over time. “I was hoping to avoid any surgery on the knee and shoulder. I had considered knee replacement surgery for the past few years.” He also realized he has arthritis in his left knee but that he wanted “to increase both strength and flexibility to be more active in the future.”
In order to help Dan achieve his goals, and prevent issues from recurring, he received The Stretch Method treatment to regain lost mobility and stabilize deep muscles. Additionally, he received Deep Thermal Laser therapy to heal his knee and shoulder from the cellular level.
Dan is now running and playing softball (and has lost 15 lbs!) since Kim helped him to “increase [his] strength and flexibility to allow [him] to be more active in the future.” It’s amazing what you can do when you regain mobility and strength.
As we age, we’re told it’s normal to feel tighter, more rigid in our movements, and maybe a little slower. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Dan certainly didn’t let tightness and pain stay in his way.
Seven years after bilateral total hip replacement, Dan was struggling with hamstring tightness, knee pain, and limited back mobility, but he wanted to stay active and flexible. He wasn’t going to let this keep him down!
When Dan first came into Stretch, his hip mobility limitations were so severe, he couldn’t extend either of his knees fully, and bending them was painful. He noticed his knee pain gradually getting worse, to the point where it limited his workouts at the gym, and even started affecting his ability to walk and stand for periods of time. After a while, he began to have trouble sleeping with all the discomfort. “By Christmas, I was hobbling so badly my adult children noticed and encouraged me to see a [doctor].”
But first, he wanted to try more holistic methods before going to see a physician. So, “I asked my wife for a gift certificate from Stretch as a Christmas present. I figured if nothing else, I could learn some new techniques so if I needed surgery, I would be stronger if I had some PT prior to…As of now, I am not sure I will seek a medical opinion.”
Dan came in for his mobility consultation with knee, ankle and lumbar restrictions, causing both tightness and pain. “The consultation with Jordan was spot on and she pinpointed the area & issues to target. I felt better after the first visit, exponentially better after the first 2 weeks, and now back at the gym doing all the exercises I was doing 3 months ago…you need to be disciplined on the routine Jordan recommended and it has paid off.”
Dan was able to get back to being active and doing the things he loves, without having to resort to surgery. “I was skeptical but had nothing to lose and no where else to turn. In 3 weeks, Stretch gave me back my normal routine, with no pain or any invasive procedures! Sounds corny, how something as simple as 20 minutes a day stretching can make such a big difference…I can’t wait to learn more.”
As if turning 30 at the height of a global pandemic wasn’t enough, Oliver threw out his back and herniated discs L4 and L5, in the summer of 2020. While not quite the birthday he had in mind, he was fortunate to have Kim as his mother-in-law and Stretch as his go-to for pain relief.
Oliver came into Stretch a few months prior, with back tightness, “tight hips and really tight left hamstring. To the point where stretching, or rolling it out wouldn’t work”. Physical therapy, dry needling, and personal training were helping some, and he was making progress, but he still didn’t have much mobility in his hips, which left him at risk for injury, especially when lifting his wife or pushing her wheelchair.
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“I think over time my back just weakened due to my scoliosis, bad posture, and lifting [my wife] with poor body mechanics. So there wasn’t a one time where I was like my back hurt. It always kind of hurt a little bit with my scoliosis when it would become tight, then over time, I noticed it hurting more and more. I could tell my muscles were tight, and my hips were out of line causing the left leg and hip to flare up. I was getting some PT and personal training for a few months to try and strengthen everything, which was helping but I was still not moving correctly outside of the clinic. On the day before my birthday, I went in for personal training and could tell my back was more locked up than normal but I thought if I pushed through the workout that I would feel better after. Then on the night of my 30th, we were having people over, and I was bent over cooking on a small fire for a few hours and then I tried to lift some heavy tables and coolers to get them out from a rain storm that popped up quickly. Then I was laying on the floor watching a game and went to stand and had the worst sciatic pain I’ve ever experienced that almost knocked me over. My back was entirely locked up and I couldn’t put any weight on my left leg, nor could I stand up straight.”
After his injury, he could barely function, and ended up at urgent care, where they discovered his disc herniation. They referred him to his doctor, who performed an adjustment on his back, prescribed him steroid injections and muscle relaxers, and told him to continue therapy at Stretch. He was looking at the possibility of having surgery to correct his injury, but first wanted to try as many conservative options possible. So, he switched from traditional PT to working with our head Mobility Coach, Jordan. That’s when things really started changing for him.
“The PT was great at recognizing my issue and treating that issue. But the mobility coaches were great at taking that a step further. Jordan was really able to look at my back, the way I walked and lifted objects, and created a treatment plan to not only improve my back injury but also do what she could to prevent it from happening again. Jordan and the other Stretch Mobility Coaches that I worked with really spent the time to teach my body how to move correctly to help me prevent injuries in the future.”
Low back pain, sciatica and hip pain are the most common cases we see, here at Stretch. Oliver’s case was one of our most complex. He worked with our coaches twice a week for over a year, then came in on an as-needed basis for another year, to maintain his progress and prevent any issues from coming back. He now has a newfound understanding of “how everything is connected. My tight back, will pull on my hips, which then causes my hamstrings and legs to tighten up. I never really understood all of that until working with them so intimately.”
He’s now pain-free and doing so well he’s joined a CrossFit gym and is looking to compete soon! “The hands on work that Jordan and Kim did [helped] get me back on my feet, literally. They are kind and patient, and they want you to feel better. Their goal is for you to never have to come back to them if you are healed. Kim’s dedication to her business and her patients really shows. She is always looking for the newest techniques or procedures to help her patients. For example, the laser and the red light therapies. No one else that I saw would even think to have something like that for their patients to get better.”
We couldn’t be more proud of the progress Oliver has made, and are so thankful he trusted us to help him heal.
