In talks around sleep hygiene, exercise can be a tough one to pin down. Most voices in our tribe fall in the "train hard, sleep hard" camp, but that's tough to reconcile with the well known fact that exercise gives you an energy boost. How can that possibly be helpful for sleep?
This open access paper in Nature brings a bit of an evidence based perspective via analysis of nearly 15,000 folks across a one year time span. From the publication: "Our results suggest evening exercise—particularly involving high exercise strain—may disrupt subsequent sleep and nocturnal autonomic function. Individuals aiming to improve sleep health may benefit from concluding exercise at least 4 hours before sleep onset or electing lighter strain exercises within this window.".
The paper further discusses how high intensity exercise might disrupt quality and timing of sleep. 
So, get it in, but get it in early!

Join us on September 6th for a chance to win a FREE mini session of cupping/blading, dry needling, or stretching. We will also be giving out shaker bottles and lacrosse balls. 

​As the Wellness Festival of the season, F5 is the place to be to discover the wealth of wellness at your fingertips. This is a perfect opportunity to treat yourself and connect with your community. We will be providing FREE services and Information. We will also have a giveaway for a FREE mini cupping/blading, dry needling, or stretch wellness visit session in the clinic. Mark your calendars and invite your friends! We can't wait to see you there. #DryNeedling #Health #fleetfeethuntsvillemadison #HuntsvilleAlabama #Wellness #5K 
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We are excited to announce that we are partnering with Huntsville City Football Club to provide physical therapy and wellness services to Huntsville's MLS Next Pro team this year! HCFC competes as Nashville Soccer Club’s affiliate in the MLS NEXT Pro league. MLS NEXT Pro is a new professional men’s soccer league committed to driving a new era of North American soccer. Launched in 2022 by Major League Soccer, MLS NEXT Pro is a professional men’s soccer league in the United States and Canada. MLS NEXT Pro matches are broadcast on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. We will be helping to keep them at their peak "ProFormance". Join the players on the field as their season is just getting started.

We are excited to be a part of Stretch Zone Athens's Wellness Fair! We will be providing FREE services and information. We will also have a giveaway for a free cupping/blading, needling, or stretch session in the clinic. Do not miss out! Stop by & say hello!

Injuries aren’t just painful and overwhelming. 
They can be debilitating, especially when they mean eliminating your participation in sports, crossfit, lifting, running, etc. 

The good news: 
Not only does physical therapy help you return to activities you enjoy, but it can also help prevent the loss of strength gains or aerobic fitness you’ve worked so hard for. 

MYTH: it only takes 3 days to lose all your running fitness
ANSWER: FALSE. 
In general, significant conditioning is lost after 2-6weeks of insufficient training. (grivas)
 
Deeper Dive:
Detraining, [is] defined as a partial or complete loss of training-related adaptations as a consequence of training load reduction or training cessation (berryman)
 
As this applies specifically to aerobic or metabolic endurance training:
 "Coyle et al. observed that seven endurance-trained subjects stopped training for 84 days, and their VΟ2max declined by 7 and 16% in 21 and 56 days, respectively, it then stabilized at that level, which was still 17.3% higher than that of sedentary control subjects. " (grivas)
 
A couple very key facts?
These endurance athletes stopped training for 84 DAYS. 
And despite that, their VO2max was still 17.3% higher than their sedentary counterpart!
 
The hope for you: 
Without the stimuli of normal training there will be some regression in VO2max, but this is entirely normal. This demonstrates how flexible and strong your body can be and how, with the right training (aka stimuli), your body can bounce right back.

Physical therapy can help provide that stimuli in a skilled, specific, and unique way, meeting  your needs as an individual and athlete. ​

Here are some tips from the Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy about how to address Achilles pain. If self management is not cutting it reach out and let us help! We believe in staying active while rehabbing and getting your back to what you love as quickly as possible. 

Ever had ANY of these injuries before?

• ITB issues 
• Knee pain
• Achilles tendonitis
• Shin splints

ALL of these issues stem from one cause: poor glute activation, stability, strength….general difficulty "turning the glute muscle on".​

ase in point:
"Electromyography research has shown that the single-leg squat and clam shells activate the gluteal musculature. A variety of hip extensibility exercises have been proven in the literature to increase hip range of motion in runners. No research measured the effects of a combined hip strengthening protocol with a hip stretching protocol on the presence of lower crossed syndrome in high school runners and the effect on running economy and performance."​

The most common self-treat method: ​try a whole bunch of different exercises 

• Spend hours deciphering whether the glute exercises are “working or not”.

While the “do it yourself” method is possible, it:

• Takes a lot of time 
• Results in frustration
• Leads to a lot of “Wrong exercises” first​

Or.…steal exercises directly from physical therapy clinicians, especially the ones used in the clinic on a regular basis.

After finding the correct glutes exercises (with the help of physical therapy clinician), it becomes easier to feel glutes firing and activating,

Benefits of strong glutes: 

• Decreased hip pain
• Eliminated hip flexors tightness
• Knee pain gone 
• Achilles tendonitis solved 
• ITB syndrome disappeared

Marie Whitt, PT, DPT