We touched on my issue with PT’s telling people that they shouldn’t do things last week and I left you on a cliffhanger.

You can find it here.

Let’s say that you have some knee pain when you squat. What can you do to keep doing some form of squats?

We look at a bunch of different things in order to keep you going:

• Is it load related (what happens if we take the weight down)
• Is it form related (what happens when we move your stance in or out)
• Is it depth related (what happens if we decrease your range of motion)
• Is it a glute issue or an ankle issue (are your knees tracking in line with your toes or are your feet collapsing in)

In almost all cases, one of these things will work to decrease knee pain right away and gives us information on what we need to work on and strengthen to help support the things around it. Knee pain is very rarely actually caused by the knee joint, it’s more commonly a glute or ankle issue.

The same thing goes for if your back is hurting during deadlifts. We look at:

• Is it load related (what happens if we take the weight down)
• Is it range of motion related (what happens if we move the barbell off the ground)
• Is it a bracing issue (most common)
• Is it a technique issue (are you bracing, using your glutes and your lats and getting the slack out of the bar)

In all of this, our question is how can we keep someone moving and strengthening the things that are causing issues to happen.

And if none of these things work, we will refer out to a PT. We have specific ones that we like to work with. Ones that we’ve chatted with about their training philosophies and also that they workout themselves and are educated around exercising outside of using bodyweight and bands.

If you’re in Seattle, check out Elevate Chiropractic and Rehab (takes insurance) in Queen Anne, Empower Physiotherapy (no insurance but will send superbills) in Madrona, and Vida Integrated Health (takes insurance) in Capitol Hill.

If you’re not in Seattle and working with us, here is a directory of coaches and PT’s who have gone through a cert surrounding pain and lifting. May you find someone who works for you.

I’m obviously super passionate about this. I’ve been to so many doctors and PT’s in my life that have told me that I can’t do things and it is so disheartening to hear. So many of our clients have been told they have to stop doing the things that they love. There is a better way y’all.