Running can be wonderfully simple: lace up your shoes, step outside, and go.

Becoming a stronger, faster, and more resilient runner, however, is anything but simple.

Whether you’re training for your first 5K, chasing a PR, or preparing for your next ultra, a performance-focused physical therapist can play an important role in helping you stay healthy, train consistently, and perform at your best.

But physical therapy for runners doesn’t have to start when something hurts. A running assessment can give you a better understanding of how your body moves, how it responds as training demands increase, and where there may be opportunities to improve.

How Can a Running Assessment Help?

A running assessment goes beyond simply watching you run. It combines an outside perspective with objective data and an understanding of your training history, goals, strength, mobility, and previous injuries.

Here’s what that can look like.

1. Get an Outside Perspective on Your Running

Runners spend countless hours thinking about their training, but surprisingly few spend time objectively evaluating how they actually run.

And that’s understandable. It’s incredibly difficult to accurately assess your own stride while you’re moving at speed.

You may think you’re overstriding when you’re not. You might believe you’re a heel or forefoot striker when the reality is the opposite—you’d be surprised how often this happens. Or you may not realize how significantly your mechanics change as you fatigue.

That’s where an outside perspective becomes valuable.

A physical therapist can observe your running mechanics and identify movement patterns that may be difficult to recognize on your own. More importantly, those observations can be considered alongside your training history, goals, strength, mobility, and injury history to create a more complete picture.

2. Use Objective Data to Understand Your Stride

A running assessment doesn’t have to rely solely on what the eye can see.

Using specialized technology, a physical therapist can collect objective data on factors such as:

• Hip, knee, and ankle joint angles
• Cadence
• Dynamic stability
• Impact magnitude
• Symmetry

These measurements can provide a more detailed look at what’s happening during your stride.

Assessments can also incorporate a progressive speed test. By gradually increasing your pace, we can see how your mechanics and running metrics change from an easy-run pace all the way through threshold effort.

And importantly, the goal isn’t to find a “perfect” running form.

The goal is to understand your running mechanics and determine whether there are opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce unnecessary stress, or build greater capacity for the demands you’re placing on your body.

3. Think Proactively—Not Just Reactively

One of the biggest misconceptions about running injuries is that they happen in a single moment.

Sometimes they do.

But many running injuries develop gradually as stress accumulates over time. Factors can include:

• Weeks or months of increasing mileage
• A sudden change in intensity
• Insufficient recovery
• Changes in fueling
• Strength deficits
• Repetitive movement patterns
• Simply asking your body to do more than it currently has the capacity to handle

The day you finally feel pain may be the day you notice the problem—not necessarily the day the problem started.

This is where physical therapy can shift from being purely reactive to being proactive.

Instead of waiting until something hurts enough to stop you from running, a physical therapist can help identify areas that may need attention and develop a plan to address them.

That could mean improving strength, modifying training load, addressing mobility limitations, refining mechanics, improving recovery strategies, or simply helping you better understand how your body is responding to training.

The Importance of Having a Physical Therapist in Your Corner

Running is inherently uncomfortable.

When you’re in the final 400 meters of a 5K, your quads are going to be screaming. When you’re 60 miles into an ultra, your legs are probably going to feel like bricks.

But there’s a difference between the discomfort of hard effort and the pain of an injury.

Knowing where that line is can be difficult.

You can try to figure it out on your own, or you can work with a performance-based physical therapist who understands runners and running-related injuries and can help you make more informed decisions about when to push, when to modify, and when something deserves a closer look.

That confidence matters because the goal isn’t simply to get through today’s workout.

The goal is to string together weeks and months of consistent training.

Train Consistently. Push Hard. Recover Smarter.

Running longevity isn’t about avoiding every uncomfortable feeling or eliminating every imperfection in your stride.

It’s about building a body that can handle the demands of running—and understanding how to respond when those demands change.

A physical therapist can be an important part of that process.

Through running assessments, objective data, strength and movement evaluations, injury prevention strategies, and individualized guidance, a PT can help you better understand your body and make smarter decisions throughout your training.

The result?

More confidence in your training. More consistency. Smarter recovery. And a better ability to push your limits when it matters most.

Because ultimately, running performance isn’t just about how fast you can run today.

It’s about how long you can keep running—and how much you can accomplish along the way.

Written by Dr. Drew Short PT, DPT, CMFA, Cert. DN | Physio Room

The post The Role of a Physical Therapist in Running Longevity and Performance appeared first on Physio Room.

Every gymnast knows the feeling: a wrist that starts aching after bars, a pull in the low back after beam, or a shoulder that just doesn’t feel right after a big tumbling day.

And every coach knows the harder question that follows:

Is this something we can safely work around—or something we need to take seriously?

From the gym floor, the answer isn’t always obvious.

That’s where performance-based physical therapy for gymnasts can help. Rather than replacing a coach’s expertise, physical therapy can give athletes and coaches more information about pain, movement, strength, mobility, and training tolerance so they can make better decisions about what comes next.

Common Questions Gymnasts Have About Pain and Injuries

When something starts hurting, gymnasts often have the same questions:

• Is my wrist pain normal, or could it be gymnast’s wrist?
• Could my back pain be related to a stress injury?
• Should I tell my coach that something hurts?
• How can I return to gymnastics after an injury without losing my skills?
• Why am I nervous to perform a skill again after getting hurt?

These questions matter because gymnastics places unique demands on the body. Athletes repeatedly load their wrists, shoulders, spine, knees, and ankles through ranges and forces that aren’t common in everyday activities.

Knowing when discomfort is something to monitor—and when it deserves an evaluation—can make a significant difference.

What Gymnastics Coaches Want to Know

Coaches often look at the issue from a different perspective. Instead of managing one painful joint, they’re thinking about the health and performance of an entire team.

Common questions include:

• How can I create a culture where athletes feel comfortable reporting pain early?
• What accessory or strength work may help athletes tolerate the demands of gymnastics?
• How can I recognize signs that an athlete may not be recovering adequately?
• When should training be modified versus stopped?
• What does a gradual return-to-skill progression look like after an injury?

Performance-based physical therapy can help bridge the gap between rehabilitation and gymnastics performance.

4 Common Areas of Injury in Gymnasts

Gymnastics can challenge nearly every part of the body, but several areas tend to experience particularly high demands.

1. Wrist Pain and “Gymnast’s Wrist”

Gymnasts load their wrists almost like other athletes load their feet.

Handstands, tumbling, vault, and other skills repeatedly place body weight through the hands while the wrist is extended.

For growing athletes, repetitive loading can sometimes irritate the growth plate near the wrist, a condition commonly referred to as gymnast’s wrist.

Symptoms may develop gradually rather than from one obvious injury. A gymnast might initially notice mild discomfort during weight-bearing skills that becomes more noticeable as training volume increases.

Persistent or worsening wrist pain—especially in a growing gymnast—is worth having evaluated rather than repeatedly training through it.

2. Low Back Pain and Spondylolysis

Gymnastics frequently requires repeated spinal extension, or arching, during skills such as walkovers, tumbling, and beam work.

Because of these repeated demands, low back pain in young gymnasts deserves attention. In adolescent athletes, repetitive loading of the spine can sometimes contribute to bone stress injuries such as spondylolysis.

That doesn’t mean every gymnast with back pain has a stress fracture.

However, persistent pain—particularly pain associated with repeated extension or gymnastics skills—shouldn’t automatically be dismissed as normal soreness.

3. Shoulder Pain and Instability

Bars, rings, handstands, and other gymnastics skills require an unusual combination of mobility, strength, and stabilityfrom the shoulder.

Athletes need enough mobility to achieve demanding overhead positions while also having enough muscular control to manage significant forces.

When strength, control, mobility, or training demands aren’t well matched, shoulder pain or feelings of instability can develop.

Performance-based PT can evaluate how the shoulder blade, rotator cuff, trunk, and surrounding musculature are working together during gymnastics-specific movements.

4. Ankle and Knee Injuries From Landing

Vault, floor routines, beam dismounts, and tumbling all require athletes to repeatedly absorb substantial landing forces.

How well an athlete controls those forces depends on more than the knees alone.

Hip strength, ankle mobility, balance, coordination, and landing mechanics all contribute to how force is absorbed.

Evaluating the entire movement pattern can help identify areas that may need additional strength, mobility, or control.

When Is Gymnastics Pain More Than Normal Soreness?

Soreness can be a normal part of training, particularly after a difficult practice, increased training volume, or learning new skills.

But pain deserves more attention when it:

• Continues to worsen with training
• Consistently returns during the same skill
• Changes the way the gymnast moves or lands
• Causes the athlete to avoid certain movements
• Persists despite rest or modifications
• Interferes with performance
• Makes an athlete hesitant or fearful during previously comfortable skills

The goal isn’t to make athletes afraid of every ache.

It’s to recognize when the body may be telling us that the current training demand is exceeding what it can tolerate.

What Is Performance-Based Physical Therapy?

Many people think of physical therapy as something that happens only after an injury.

Traditional rehabilitation is an important part of PT, but performance-based physical therapy goes further.

Instead of asking only:

“How do we get this athlete out of pain?”

We also ask:

“What does this athlete need to return to gymnastics—and perform at their previous level or better?”

That means evaluating the actual demands of the sport.

For a gymnast, performance-based PT might include:

• Assessing wrist and shoulder capacity for handstands, bars, and other upper-extremity loading
• Evaluating hip and ankle mobility for landing and tumbling
• Building trunk strength and control for gymnastics-specific positions
• Improving landing mechanics and force absorption
• Identifying meaningful strength or mobility differences
• Gradually rebuilding tolerance to gymnastics-specific skills
• Developing accessory strength work that complements practice

The goal is to build a body that can better tolerate the demands gymnastics places on it.

Physical Therapy Should Work With Gymnastics Coaching—Not Against It

One of the biggest advantages of performance-based physical therapy is the opportunity for collaboration.

Coaches understand the sport. They see the athlete train, know the skills they’re working toward, and understand the technical demands of gymnastics.

Physical therapists understand rehabilitation and movement. They can evaluate strength, mobility, tissue tolerance, pain, and physical capacity.

When those perspectives work together, athletes can receive a more complete plan.

Instead of simply being told to “rest until it feels better,” the athlete may be able to modify certain skills, continue appropriate training, work on specific deficits, and progressively rebuild toward full gymnastics participation.

Returning to Gymnastics After an Injury

Being pain-free is important, but it isn’t always the final step before returning to full gymnastics.

An athlete may feel fine during everyday activities and still not be ready for repeated tumbling, hard landings, handstands, or high-volume bar work.

A return-to-gymnastics plan should consider the specific demands the athlete needs to tolerate.

Depending on the injury and athlete, progression may involve:

Basic strength and mobility → controlled gymnastics movements → partial skills → increased repetitions → full skills → normal training volume

The exact progression should be individualized rather than based solely on the amount of time that has passed.

The Mental Side of Returning to Gymnastics Matters, Too

Physical readiness is only part of returning from an injury.

An athlete may regain their strength and mobility but still feel hesitant about a skill associated with their injury.

That hesitation shouldn’t automatically be viewed as weakness or something the gymnast needs to “push through.”

Gradual exposure, appropriate progressions, communication between the athlete and coach, and successful repetitions can all help rebuild confidence.

The goal is to restore both physical capacity and confidence in movement.

Why Early Communication Matters

Gymnasts are tough. That’s part of what makes them successful.

But toughness shouldn’t mean hiding pain until an athlete can no longer train.

Creating an environment where gymnasts can mention symptoms early gives coaches, parents, and healthcare providers more opportunities to modify training and address potential problems before they become more limiting.

An athlete saying “this hurts” doesn’t automatically mean they need to stop gymnastics.

Sometimes it simply means it’s time to gather more information.

Performance-Based Physical Therapy for Gymnasts

Whether you’re a gymnast wondering if that nagging ache deserves attention or a coach trying to help your athletes train hard while staying healthy, performance-based physical therapy can help bridge the gap between rehabilitation and performance.

At Physio Room, we look beyond the painful area to evaluate the strength, mobility, movement patterns, and sport-specific demands that may be contributing to the problem.

Because the goal isn’t simply to get a gymnast back into the gym.

It’s to help them return strong, confident, and prepared for the demands of their sport.

If pain is affecting training or performance, our physical therapy team can assess the problem and create an individualized plan built around the athlete’s gymnastics goals.

Written by Dr. Ally Nelson PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS, CIDN | Physio Room

The post Performance Physical Therapy for Gymnasts: What You Need to Know appeared first on Physio Room.

Pelvic floor discomfort, pressure, or urinary leakage during squatting is surprisingly common among strength athletes. When symptoms show up—especially as the barbell gets heavier—it’s easy to assume:

“I need to brace better.”
“My core isn’t strong enough.”
“I’m going too heavy.”

Sometimes those things matter. But sometimes, they aren’t the whole story.

For some athletes, the better questions are:

• Is your squat position allowing you to manage pressure effectively?
• Are your breathing and bracing strategies supporting the demands of the lift?
• Do you have the strength and power needed to move efficiently through the hardest part of the squat?

As a physical therapist who works with strength athletes, I often help athletes experiment with their squat position, bracing strategy, and training variables to find an approach that allows them to continue lifting while reducing pelvic floor symptoms.

Your Squat Position Can Influence How You Manage Pressure

There isn’t one “perfect” squat position for everyone.

Small changes in bar position, torso angle, and stance width can affect your mechanics and how you manage the load. What works well for one lifter may not work for another.

Your anatomy, mobility, strength, training history, and individual movement strategy all matter.

Bar Position Matters

A higher bar position places the bar closer to the neck and typically requires a more upright torso than a lower-bar squat.

For some lifters, maintaining that upright position may also be accompanied by greater lumbar extension during the descent.

But this isn’t universally true.

Every athlete has different proportions, mobility, strength, and movement strategies. If your current setup seems to contribute to pelvic floor symptoms, experimenting with a slightly lower or hybrid bar position may be worth considering.

A more posterior bar position can change the torso angle required to keep the bar balanced over the midfoot, potentially allowing you to find a position that feels stronger and more sustainable.

The goal isn’t to make everyone squat low bar.

It’s to find the bar position that works best for your body.

A Little Torso Angle Isn’t Necessarily a Bad Thing

One common misconception is that you need to stay as upright as possible during a squat.

You don’t.

Some forward torso inclination is a normal part of squatting, and the amount you need depends on your anatomy, bar position, stance, and goals.

Rather than forcing an artificially upright position, the goal is to find a torso angle that allows you to stay balanced, maintain control, and effectively manage the demands of the lift.

In other words, don’t chase the “perfect-looking” squat.

Find the squat position that allows your body to manage the load well.

Stance Width Can Matter, Too

Stance width is another variable worth exploring.

For some athletes, a slightly wider stance gives the hips more room to move and makes the bottom of the squat feel more comfortable and controlled.

Changing stance width also changes hip mechanics, which may influence how an athlete experiences and manages pressure during the lift.

Again, there’s no universal stance width that prevents pelvic floor symptoms.

The right stance is the one that works with your anatomy, mobility, strength, and symptoms.

Bracing for Heavy Squats: Think Pressure, Not “Push Down”

When pelvic floor symptoms occur during lifting, one of the first things athletes often hear is:

“Brace harder.”

But a stronger brace isn’t necessarily a better brace—especially if “bracing harder” feels like actively bearing down or pushing pressure toward the pelvic floor.

Instead, think about creating 360-degree pressure and tension throughout the trunk.

During heavy lifting, athletes often use a Valsalva maneuver to increase intra-abdominal pressure and create trunk stiffness. That pressure helps stabilize the body so it can efficiently transfer force during the lift.

The goal isn’t to intentionally force all that pressure downward.

It’s to create and maintain pressure throughout the trunk while coordinating your breathing, abdominal muscles, and pelvic floor with the demands of the movement.

For someone experiencing pelvic floor pain, heaviness, pressure, or leakage, learning how to coordinate breathing, bracing, and pelvic floor function under load can be an important part of physical therapy.

What If It’s a Strength and Power Problem—Not Just Pressure?

Sometimes pelvic floor symptoms aren’t simply a bracing problem.

Strength and power may be part of the picture, too.

Some athletes struggle to produce enough force to efficiently get out of the bottom of a heavy squat. As the load increases, that sticking point becomes even more obvious.

If you struggle to accelerate out of the bottom, you may spend more time grinding under a heavy load. For an athlete already experiencing pelvic floor symptoms, that may be another training variable worth evaluating.

This is one situation where accommodating resistance, such as bands or chains, can be useful.

How Banded Squats Can Help Build Strength and Power

With a banded squat, resistance changes throughout the movement.

At the bottom: Less external resistance from the bands
As you stand: Resistance progressively increases

This allows an athlete to work on producing force and maintaining good technique through the bottom of the squat while progressively increasing the challenge as they move into stronger portions of the range.

As you stand, the increasing resistance demands continued force production from the quads, glutes, and other supporting musculature.

Instead of simply grinding through your sticking point, you can practice accelerating out of the hole and continuing to produce force throughout the lift.

Banded squats aren’t a universal solution for pelvic floor symptoms. But for the right athlete, they may be a useful training modification while building the strength, power, and confidence needed for heavier squatting.

Pelvic Floor Symptoms Don’t Automatically Mean You Need to Stop Squatting

Experiencing leakage, pressure, heaviness, or pain during squatting doesn’t automatically mean you need to give up the barbell.

And the solution isn’t always as simple as “brace harder.”

Depending on the athlete, treatment and training modifications might include:

• Changing bar position
• Adjusting stance width
• Finding a more appropriate torso angle
• Improving breathing and pressure management
• Building strength through the bottom of the squat
• Developing power and rate of force production
• Using bands or chains to modify resistance
• Retraining trunk and pelvic floor coordination under load
• Temporarily adjusting training intensity or volume while symptoms improve

The right strategy depends on why you’re experiencing symptoms in the first place.

That’s why an individualized assessment matters.

Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy for Strength Athletes

The goal of physical therapy isn’t simply to make your symptoms disappear.

For strength athletes, it’s also about understanding why those symptoms are happening and developing strategies that allow you to continue training while building the capacity your body needs.

You shouldn’t automatically have to choose between your pelvic floor and your barbell.

If you’re experiencing pelvic floor pain, urinary leakage, heaviness, pressure, or discomfort during squatting or strength training, a pelvic floor physical therapist can assess your individual mechanics, breathing and pressure-management strategies, strength, and training demands.

At Physio Room, we work with strength athletes to address pelvic floor symptoms while keeping their goals—including squatting, strength training, powerlifting, and weightlifting—at the center of their physical therapy plan.

Ready to lift with more confidence? Schedule a pelvic floor physical therapy assessment and let’s find a strategy that works for your body and your training goals.

Written by Dr. Jessie Czarnecki PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS, Cert. DN | Physio Room

The post Pelvic Floor Pain When Squatting: How to Lift Without Pain, Pressure, or Leakage appeared first on Physio Room.

A Denver-area bike fitter’s guide to changing hamstring and spinal mobility and what to do when your old bike fit no longer works.

That aggressive race position that felt perfect in your 30s might not feel quite as comfortable in your 40s, 50s, and beyond.

If you’re suddenly experiencing lower back pain, hamstring discomfort, or hip tightness on the bike, your bike may not be the problem. Your body may have changed.

Over time, changes in flexibility, tissue tolerance, and spinal mobility can make it harder to comfortably maintain the same riding position you’ve used for years.

We call this the Aging Flex Curve.

The good news? You don’t necessarily have to accept the discomfort—or stop riding the way you love. Understanding how your body has changed can help you adjust your bike fit and training so you can continue riding comfortably and performing at a high level.

The Key Takeaways

• A bike position that once felt comfortable may begin causing back, hip, or hamstring discomfort as your mobility changes.
• Hamstring flexibility, spinal mobility, and connective tissue adaptability can change over time.
• An aggressive cycling position may eventually require more mobility than your body currently has available.
• A physical therapy–informed bike fit can assess both your body and your bike to determine where adjustments may help.
• Small changes to your position, combined with targeted mobility and strength work, can help you continue riding comfortably for years to come.

Why Your Bike Fit May Need to Change as You Age

We see this frequently among cyclists throughout the Denver metro area and at our Highlands Ranch clinic: riders who have trained and raced for years with a dialed-in bike fit, only to find that the same position gradually becomes uncomfortable.

The bike didn’t necessarily change.

The cyclist did.

Aging can bring gradual changes in tissue flexibility, mobility, recovery, and tolerance to sustained positions. Those changes may eventually turn a once-comfortable race position into one that requires your body to compensate.

Here are three areas that can play a role.

1. Hamstring Flexibility Can Decrease

Flexibility can gradually decline without consistent mobility and strength work.

For cyclists, changes in hamstring and posterior-chain mobility can be particularly important because an aggressive riding position requires adequate mobility through the hips and surrounding tissues.

When that mobility becomes limited, your body still has to find a way to reach the handlebars.

Instead of comfortably rotating through the pelvis and hips, you may begin compensating elsewhere—often through the lower back.

Over hundreds or thousands of pedal strokes, that compensation can contribute to discomfort.

2. Your Spine May Not Move the Way It Used To

Spinal mobility can also change over time.

Normal age-related changes to the discs, joints, and surrounding tissues can affect how comfortably your spine moves and tolerates prolonged positions.

That doesn’t mean cycling needs to become painful as you age.

It does mean that a highly aggressive position established 10 or 20 years ago may no longer match the mobility you have today.

When your body can’t comfortably achieve the position your bike requires, certain areas may take on more stress. For some cyclists, that can show up as persistent lower back pain during longer rides.

3. Connective Tissue Adaptability Can Change

It’s not just about muscles and joints.

The connective tissues surrounding the hamstrings, glutes, hips, and lower back also influence how your body transfers force and moves while cycling.

Changes in tissue mobility can affect the entire posterior chain. When one area becomes less adaptable, another area may compensate.

That’s one reason the location of your pain doesn’t always tell us the full story.

Why Does Cycling Pain Sometimes Feel Like It Started Suddenly?

Most cyclists don’t wake up one morning and suddenly lose their mobility.

The changes tend to happen gradually.

Pain, however, can feel much more sudden.

You might feel fine for months until something pushes your body past its current capacity, such as:

• A high-volume training block
• A particularly long ride
• Increased climbing
• A new race schedule
• More time spent in an aggressive position
• Changes in strength or mobility
• A period of reduced training followed by a rapid increase

The discomfort may seem new, but the underlying changes could have been developing for much longer.

Why “Just Get More Flexible” Isn’t the Whole Answer

Should you work on mobility? Absolutely.

Targeted mobility and strength training can help improve the way your body handles your riding position. But simply stretching your hamstrings isn’t always enough.

Mobility improvements require consistency, and your individual anatomy, training history, strength, and riding demands all matter.

More importantly, your bike fit should evolve alongside your body.

Rather than forcing yourself into a position chosen years ago, the goal should be finding the best position for the cyclist you are today.

What Makes a Physical Therapy–Based Bike Fit Different?

A traditional bike fit often focuses heavily on optimizing the relationship between the cyclist and the bike.

A physical therapy–based bike fit adds another layer by asking not only where your bike should be positioned, but also:

What position can your body comfortably, efficiently, and sustainably maintain?

At Physio Room, the bike fitting process can assess:

Posterior Chain & Pelvic Mobility

How much mobility do you currently have through your hips, hamstrings, and pelvis?

Spinal Mobility

How well can your spine move through the ranges necessary for your preferred cycling position?

Dynamic Movement on the Bike

What actually happens to your hips, pelvis, knees, and spine once you begin pedaling under load?

Your Performance Goals

Are you trying to maximize aerodynamics for racing, prepare for a century, or simply ride comfortably for several hours?

Your Current Physical Capacity

Does your body currently have the mobility, strength, and tolerance required to maintain your desired position?

From there, adjustments may be made to areas such as saddle position, handlebar height, reach, stack, and setback.

Sometimes a relatively small adjustment can significantly improve comfort.

Other times, the best approach combines bike-fit changes with targeted strength or mobility work.

The goal isn’t necessarily to make your position less performance-oriented. It’s to find the best balance between performance, efficiency, and what your body can sustainably tolerate.

Signs Your Old Bike Fit May No Longer Fit You

Consider having your bike fit and mobility assessed if you notice:

• Lower back pain that increases the longer you ride
• New or persistent hamstring tightness
• Hip or posterior thigh discomfort
• A riding position that suddenly feels like a constant stretch
• Difficulty staying in an aerodynamic position
• Needing to sit upright more frequently to relieve tension
• Pain that improves when you’re off the bike but consistently returns when you ride
• A previously comfortable bike position becoming progressively harder to maintain

These symptoms don’t automatically mean your bike fit is the cause. But they’re good reasons to look at your body and your bike together rather than treating them as separate problems.

You Don’t Have to Choose Between Performance and Comfort

Getting older doesn’t mean giving up performance.

It may simply mean your training and bike fit need to evolve with you.

A position that worked perfectly at 30 doesn’t necessarily need to remain unchanged at 45 or 55. Small adjustments can allow you to continue riding efficiently while respecting the mobility and capacity you have today.

When appropriate, targeted mobility and strength work may also help you regain some of the capacity needed for a more aggressive position.

Denver-Area & Colorado Springs Professional Bike Fitting

At Physio Room, we combine physical therapy assessment with professional bike fitting to look beyond the bike itself.

For cyclists throughout Denver, Highlands Ranch, the South Metro area, Colorado Springs, and the Front Range, this means you don’t have to choose between addressing pain and improving performance.

Whether you’re training for a Colorado gran fondo, preparing for a Front Range century, racing competitively, or simply hoping to keep riding comfortably into your 40s, 50s, and beyond, we can assess how your mobility, strength, and bike position are working together.

Because the goal isn’t simply to make your bike fit.

It’s to make sure your bike still fits you.

Ready to find out if your fit still fits? Contact our Highlands Ranch or Colorado Springs clinic to schedule a professional bike fit and movement assessment.

Written by Dr. Tim Tracy, PT, DPT, OCS, Cert. DN | Physio Room

The post The Aging Flex Curve: Why Your Once-Perfect Bike Fit May Now Cause Pain appeared first on Physio Room.

Returning to running after having a baby can be an exciting milestone—but it involves more than simply lacing up your shoes and hitting the pavement.

Pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum recovery can affect your core, pelvic floor, strength, coordination, and ability to manage pressure. A thoughtful return-to-running plan can help you rebuild strength and confidence while reducing the risk of symptoms and setbacks.

Why the Pelvic Floor Matters When Returning to Running

Your pelvic floor is a group of muscles that supports your bladder, uterus, and bowel. These muscles work closely with your deep abdominal muscles, diaphragm, and hips to stabilize your pelvis and manage pressure during movement.

Running is a high-impact activity. With every stride, your body must absorb and manage force efficiently. Your pelvic floor and core need to respond to these changes in pressure while coordinating with your feet, hips, and spine.

After pregnancy and childbirth, these systems may need time and intentional training to regain strength, endurance, and coordination—even if you otherwise feel like you have recovered.

Signs You May Benefit From Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy

You don’t need to be experiencing symptoms to benefit from a postpartum pelvic floor assessment. However, the following signs may indicate that your body needs additional support before or during your return to running:

• Urinary leakage during or after running
• Urinary urgency or frequent trips to the bathroom
• Heaviness, pressure, or a dragging sensation in the pelvis
• Pelvic, hip, or low back pain
• Abdominal weakness, coning, or difficulty coordinating your core
• Feeling unstable or weak while running, jumping, or changing direction
• Difficulty increasing your running distance without developing symptoms
• Uncertainty about whether your body is ready for impact

These symptoms may be common, but they are not something you simply have to live with after having a baby.

How Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Can Help

A postpartum pelvic floor physical therapist can assess how your body responds to the demands of running and create an individualized plan based on your symptoms, needs, and goals.

1. Assess Your Pelvic Floor

A pelvic floor assessment can evaluate muscle strength, endurance, coordination, relaxation, and your ability to respond appropriately to increases in pressure.

Importantly, pelvic floor rehabilitation isn’t always about making the muscles stronger. Some postpartum runners have weak pelvic floor muscles, while others have muscles that are overly tense or have difficulty relaxing.

Your treatment plan should be based on what your body needs.

2. Rebuild Core and Hip Strength

Your pelvic floor doesn’t work in isolation. Your diaphragm, deep core, hips, and pelvic floor work together to provide stability and manage the forces created during running.

Postpartum rehabilitation may include exercises that target:

• Deep abdominal strength
• Glute and lateral hip strength
• Adductor strength
• Pelvic floor strength and coordination
• Single-leg stability
• Trunk and pelvic control

The goal is to build a strong foundation that can handle the demands of running.

3. Improve Pressure Management

One of the most important parts of postpartum rehabilitation is learning how to coordinate your breathing, core, and pelvic floor during movement.

Rather than constantly bracing your core or squeezing your pelvic floor, you want these muscles to respond appropriately to the task. This coordination becomes especially important during higher-impact activities such as running, jumping, and sprinting.

4. Gradually Reintroduce Impact

Returning to running should be a progression—not a single event.

Before increasing your mileage, your body should have an opportunity to gradually build its tolerance to impact. Your progression may include:

• Walking
• Strength training
• Single-leg exercises
• Hopping and jumping
• Running-specific drills
• Walk-run intervals

A physical therapist at Physio Room can help determine the right progression based on your strength, symptoms, training history, and goals.

5. Return to the Running You Love

Your return to running should be centered around your goals.

You may want to run a few miles around the neighborhood, return to your favorite trail, train for a marathon, or simply feel confident chasing your kids. Whatever running looks like for you, postpartum rehabilitation can help you work toward it safely and confidently.

You don’t need to rush your recovery—and you don’t need to avoid running indefinitely.

You Deserve Support During Your Postpartum Recovery

Your postpartum body has been through a tremendous amount of change. Returning to running is an opportunity to rebuild strength, confidence, and connection with your body—not to “bounce back” to who you were before pregnancy.

If you’re experiencing leaking, pelvic pressure, pain, weakness, or uncertainty about returning to running, pelvic floor physical therapy can help identify what your body needs and create a plan to get you back to the activities you love.

At Physio Room, we specialize in helping women return to the activities they love feeling stronger, more confident, and more connected to their bodies.

Written by Dr. Brooke Malloy, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS, Cert. DN | Physio Room

The post Postpartum Return to Running: How Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Can Help appeared first on Physio Room.

Growing athletes are constantly asking more of their bodies.

Between practices, games, strength training, and tournaments, it’s normal for young athletes to experience occasional soreness. But when does soreness become something that deserves professional attention?

If your child says, “My knee hurts,” or “My shoulder has been bothering me,” it can be difficult to know whether it’s a normal part of sports or the beginning of an injury.

Knowing what to look for can help keep a small issue from becoming a much bigger one.

Is It Normal Soreness or Something More?

The first step is asking a few simple questions.

• Is the pain just general muscle soreness after a tough practice or game?
• Does it improve after a day or two of rest?
• Can your athlete still move normally without changing how they run, jump, or throw?

General muscle soreness is a normal part of an active lifestyle. It typically improves with rest and doesn’t limit performance.

Pain that keeps coming back is different.

If your athlete repeatedly mentions pain in the same area from practice to practice or game to game, it’s time to pay attention.

Watch How They Move

Young athletes don’t always tell you how much something hurts.

Sometimes their body tells the story first.

Watch for signs such as:

• Limping during or after activity
• Changing running or throwing mechanics
• Avoiding certain movements
• Playing more cautiously than usual
• Sitting out because of pain
• A noticeable drop in performance

These changes often indicate the body is trying to protect an injury.

Why Early Treatment Matters

One of the biggest mistakes young athletes make is trying to “play through it.”

While determination is admirable, continuing to practice or compete with pain can create compensations throughout the body.

Over time, those altered movement patterns can:

• Increase stress on other joints and muscles
• Decrease performance
• Lead to additional injuries
• Turn a minor issue into one that requires weeks—or even months—away from sports

Addressing pain early is almost always easier than treating an injury after it has progressed.

What a Sports Physical Therapist Looks For

At Physio Room, we don’t just focus on where the pain is.

We evaluate how the entire body moves.

A comprehensive movement assessment may include evaluating:

• Strength
• Mobility
• Balance
• Running or movement mechanics
• Joint mobility
• Sport-specific movement patterns

Often, the painful area isn’t the true source of the problem.

Identifying movement limitations early allows us to correct them before they lead to bigger setbacks.

The Goal Isn’t to Keep Athletes Out of Sports

Parents sometimes worry that bringing their child to physical therapy means they’ll immediately be told to stop playing.

That’s rarely the goal.

Instead, we want to understand why the pain is occurring, address contributing factors, and create a plan that helps young athletes continue participating as safely as possible.

The earlier we identify the problem, the sooner we can help athletes return to performing with confidence.

When Should You Schedule an Evaluation?

If you’re unsure whether your child’s pain is “normal,” trust what you’re seeing.

If the pain:

• Continues for more than a few days
• Returns repeatedly during sports
• Changes how they move or perform
• Causes them to avoid activity
• Prevents them from playing at their normal level

it’s a good time to have them evaluated by a sports physical therapist.

Early treatment can often prevent small problems from becoming season-ending injuries.

Help Your Athlete Stay Healthy and Performing Their Best

Pain shouldn’t be considered a normal part of youth sports.

By addressing issues early, improving movement quality, and building strength where it’s needed most, young athletes can continue doing what they love with greater confidence and fewer setbacks.

If your child has been dealing with persistent pain, the sports physical therapy team at Physio Room is here to help them move better, recover faster, and stay in the game.

Written by Dr. Ryan Satkowiak, PT, DPT, Cert. DN, XPS | Physio Room

The post When Should a Youth Athlete See a Sports Physical Therapist? appeared first on Physio Room.

A conversation with Matt Wilpers during a recent Peloton ride got me thinking about HYROX from a different perspective.

As a physical therapist assistant and strength coach, I spend a lot of time working with athletes who are highly specialized. Runners run. Cyclists ride. Swimmers swim. Sport-specific training is essential for performance, but I also see tremendous value in developing physical qualities that aren’t always addressed within an athlete’s primary sport.

That’s one of the reasons I’ve become so interested in HYROX.

As a HYROX Level 1 Coach, I’m currently training for my first HYROX race in Denver, where I’ll be competing in the Mixed Doubles division with a coworker. The more I train, the more I realize that HYROX offers benefits far beyond preparing for race day. In fact, many of its training principles could make endurance athletes stronger, more resilient, and better prepared for their own sports.

Why HYROX Is Different

HYROX combines running with functional strength stations, including:

• Sled pushes
• Sled pulls
• Farmer carries
• Walking lunges
• Rowing
• SkiErg
• Wall balls

The unique challenge isn’t just completing each movement—it’s performing them while already fatigued.

From a strength and conditioning perspective, that’s incredibly valuable.

What Runners Can Gain from HYROX

Many runners spend the majority of their training focused on accumulating mileage.

HYROX offers something different.

Instead of simply adding more running volume, it develops qualities that often improve running performance, including:

• Lower-body strength
• Force production
• Muscular endurance
• Work capacity
• Fatigue resistance

These are physical qualities that can carry over when it’s time to return to focused race training.

Why Cyclists Can Benefit Too

Cyclists are incredibly strong in the movements required to produce power on the bike—but many spend very little time training outside that pattern.

HYROX introduces movement variability through:

• Loaded carries
• Sled pushes and pulls
• Single-leg strength
• Upper-body endurance
• Rotational stability
• Full-body conditioning

These movements challenge the body in ways traditional cycling simply doesn’t.

The Value of Off-Season Variety

From both a rehabilitation and performance standpoint, I believe the off-season is one of the best times to expose athletes to new movement patterns and loading strategies.

Rather than continuing to perform the exact same sport-specific movements year-round, athletes can use this period to:

• Build strength
• Improve durability
• Address weaknesses
• Increase movement capacity
• Reduce repetitive loading

The result is often a more resilient athlete when training ramps back up.

What the Research Says

Research continues to show that combining strength training with endurance training can improve measures such as:

• Running economy
• Muscular strength
• Endurance performance
• Overall athletic capacity

HYROX itself is also incredibly demanding from both a cardiovascular and metabolic standpoint, making it an effective way to challenge multiple energy systems within a single training session.

HYROX Doesn’t Have to Be the Goal

I’m not suggesting every runner, cyclist, or endurance athlete needs to sign up for a HYROX race.

In fact, I think the bigger opportunity is incorporating HYROX-style training without making HYROX the primary goal.

Adding just one or two sessions per week during the off-season can provide a fresh training stimulus while building strength, endurance, and resilience.

As race season approaches, training can naturally shift back toward sport-specific preparation.

The Bottom Line

The goal isn’t to turn every endurance athlete into a HYROX athlete.

The goal is to help athletes become stronger, more adaptable, and more resilient when they return to the sports they love.

For many runners, cyclists, and other endurance athletes, HYROX-style training may be one of the most effective ways to accomplish exactly that.

Written by Coach Jack Butler, PTA, Strength Coach | Physio Room

The post HYROX for Endurance Athletes: The Perfect Off-Season Training Tool? appeared first on Physio Room.

Short answer: It depends on who is asking.

Longer answer: It depends on what you mean by strength and where you are in your fitness journey.

To answer that, we need to start with one important concept:

Your Body Only Changes When You Give It a Reason

Everything in training comes back to one principle: adaptation.

You ask your body to do something it isn’t quite ready for, and it adapts so it’s better prepared the next time. Push a little beyond what’s comfortable, recover, and return a little stronger, a little more capable.

Whether you’re flowing through a yoga class or standing under a barbell, that’s how progress happens.

So the real question isn’t whether yoga counts as exercise—it absolutely does.

The better question is: What kind of adaptation is yoga asking your body to make, and does that match your goals?

Your First Strength Gains Aren’t Mostly Muscle

Here’s something that surprises a lot of people.

When you begin any new type of training, the first several weeks of improvement come primarily from your nervous system, not from building new muscle tissue.

Your brain becomes better at sending the signal. More motor units fire, they fire more efficiently, and the muscles that should stay quiet learn to stay quiet. You simply become better at performing the movement.

That’s why a pose that felt impossible during your first class can feel comfortable six weeks later.

You probably haven’t built much new muscle during that time—you’ve simply become better at using what you already have.

That’s a real adaptation, and it deserves credit. It’s also why yoga can make people feel dramatically stronger in the beginning. For many people, that feeling is absolutely accurate.

Why Progress Eventually Plateaus

Muscle contraction happens on a spectrum.

Your body recruits muscle fibers in a predictable order. Smaller, more fatigue-resistant fibers are called upon first because they’re efficient and handle most everyday activities. The larger, more powerful fibers stay in reserve until the demand becomes high enough that your body has no other choice.

Those reserve fibers are where much of your true strength development occurs.

Now imagine you’ve been practicing yoga consistently for several months.

Your body weight hasn’t changed much, but your capacity has.

Twenty chaturangas that once left your arms shaking are now just part of the flow. Holding Chair Pose for a minute is uncomfortable, but manageable.

The load hasn’t increased—but you’ve adapted.

As a result, the challenge that once pushed your limits now falls comfortably below them.

At that point, you’re still improving, but the adaptation has shifted. Instead of building maximal strength, you’re developing muscular endurance, movement efficiency, and refined motor control.

Those are valuable qualities.

They’re just different from becoming significantly stronger.

What External Load Changes

Adding external resistance solves a simple problem:

It allows the demand to keep increasing as your body adapts.

Heavy squats, deadlifts, carries, presses, and other resistance exercises recruit those larger reserve muscle fibers that bodyweight movement alone eventually stops challenging.

Unlike bodyweight, external load can continue increasing for years, allowing your body to keep adapting.

This becomes even more important as we age.

Bone density responds to load.

Muscle mass—which naturally declines over time—responds to load.

Getting off the floor with ease, catching yourself when you trip, carrying groceries upstairs, or lifting a child are all expressions of strength that require more than simply holding a position.

Yoga contributes to these abilities, but progressive resistance training develops them more effectively.

This Isn’t an Argument Against Yoga

Far from it.

Yoga develops qualities that a barbell often doesn’t.

It reveals movement asymmetries you might otherwise compensate around. It builds body awareness, balance, coordination, and control in deep ranges of motion. It improves mobility while teaching you how to own that mobility.

Those qualities often make people better lifters, better runners, and better movers overall.

The best part?

No one is asking you to choose between yoga and strength training.

If strength is your goal, yoga provides an excellent foundation—and an even better complement.

At some point, though, if you want to continue getting stronger, the load has to come from outside your body.

So, Is Yoga Enough?

If you’re new to exercise or returning after time away, yoga may absolutely be enough to make you stronger—for a while.

Keep going.

You’re adapting, your body is responding, and there’s nothing to fix.

But if you’ve been practicing consistently and your strength has stopped improving, that isn’t a motivation problem or a discipline problem.

It simply means your body has adapted to the current challenge.

The stimulus no longer matches the goal.

The good news?

That’s a very solvable problem.

Building the Bridge

At Physio Room, we help people bridge the gap between mindful movement and progressive strength training.

We meet you where you are, evaluate what your body currently tolerates, and help you safely introduce the right amount of resistance to continue making progress.

You don’t have to give up yoga to get stronger.

You just have to give your body a new reason to adapt.

Written by Austyn Brown, Certified Personal Trainer | Physio Room

The post Is Yoga Enough to Build Strength? What the Science Says appeared first on Physio Room.

Dr. Andrew Fix pushed his body through a full HYROX simulation in the Colorado heat and walked away with a hard lesson about pacing that every first-timer needs to hear before race day.

What happens when a plan built on paper meets an actual clock, real heat, and eight stations back-to-back? Andrew found out firsthand at a HYROX simulation held with the team from CrossFit Falcon View. He went out too fast on the ski erg, a decision that cost him on the run that followed, and the pattern repeated throughout the event. Running makes up the majority of HYROX, and it rarely happens on fresh legs, so Andrew breaks down why compromised running deserves a real spot in training plans rather than an afterthought.

Fueling gets its own moment too. A single gel packet, taken with intention rather than panic, made a measurable difference in how he handled the back half of the event. Preparing for something he’d never done before came down to one move. Run the simulation, feel the heart rate spike, and test the fueling strategy before it counts on race day.

He also gets honest about the discomfort of pushing into unfamiliar territory and admits the experience left him humbled about what he thought he knew going in. HYROX rewards people who compete against their own benchmark rather than the person next to them. His finishing time now becomes a marker to measure against and learn from, not a number to chase blindly. For anyone eyeing a HYROX event this year, this episode offers a real look at what preparation actually demands.

Quotes

• “Make sure you do a simulation. Get yourself prepared for what the actual race environment is going to feel like rather than showing up on race day.” (13:25 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “You need to practice fueling on some of these longer runs because you’re going to have to fuel on these race days.” (14:07 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “You’re comparing yourself against your own thing. It doesn’t have to be you competing with other people. It’s you competing with you.” (16:18 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “No matter how fit you are, this can still make you feel extremely exhausted.” (16:51 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “It’s all part of the learning curve and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone and doing something that challenges you at the end of the day.” (17:10 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

Links

Mito Red Light

(5% off)

SideKick Tool

Movemate: Award-Winning Active Standing Board

15% off Promo Code: DRA15

RAD Roller

Revogreen

HYDRAGUN 

Athletic Brewing

20% off: ANDREWF20

Connect with Physio Room:

Visit the Physio Room Website

Follow Physio Room on Instagram

Follow Physio Room on Facebook

Andrew’s Personal Instagram

Andrew’s Personal Facebook

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

The post 236. My First HYROX Sim Experience appeared first on Physio Room.

Dr. Andrew Fix once called HYROX dumb, so why did he sign up for the hardest fitness competition of his life anyway?

Dr. Andrew Fix records this episode from the parking lot of REI’s Denver flagship, prepping for a Run Denver Day event, and uses the moment to talk through his decision to race HYROX this November. He breaks down what the competition actually involves: eight one-kilometer runs split by eight functional stations, sled pushes, wall balls, rowing, and more, all standardized across every city in the world. That global consistency is part of what has turned HYROX into one of the fastest-growing fitness competitions anywhere, but Andrew spends most of the episode on something bigger than the race itself.

What happens to your training when nothing is on the calendar? He argues that a real goal, with a real race date attached, changes the entire relationship between effort and motivation. He’s honest about the parts of HYROX that make him nervous, including how his legs will hold up during the final wall ball station, and he treats that uncertainty as useful rather than something to avoid. Stress and discomfort, he says, are the stimulus for growth.

So what’s your version of HYROX? Andrew makes the case that the specific challenge matters far less than the fact of having one. A half marathon, a 14er hike, a dance recital, a fitness show. The finish line matters less than the discipline required to get there and the person you become along the way.

Quotes

• “We all benefit from having some sort of a goal, some sort of a thing on the calendar.” (04:17 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “It doesn’t matter what the thing is. What matters is that when we have something that’s on the calendar, it gives us something to work towards. It gives us a light at the end of the tunnel and it gives us a why.” (05:07 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “When we can train with purpose or train on purpose for something, it keeps us motivated.” (05:24 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “Get out there and do the thing. Put yourself in a scenario that makes you a little bit uncomfortable because we know that stress and discomfort is the stimulus for growth.” (15:04 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “The real benefits can come from the journey of how you got there.” (15:36 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

Links

Mito Red Light

(5% off)

SideKick Tool

Movemate: Award-Winning Active Standing Board

15% off Promo Code: DRA15

RAD Roller

Revogreen

HYDRAGUN 

Athletic Brewing

20% off: ANDREWF20

Connect with Physio Room:

Visit the Physio Room Website

Follow Physio Room on Instagram

Follow Physio Room on Facebook

Andrew’s Personal Instagram

Andrew’s Personal Facebook

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

The post 235. What is HYROX and Why Did I Sign Up For It? appeared first on Physio Room.

Training only moves forward when you know how to pivot on the days your body feels off, and smart adjustments matter more than any single heavy lift.

Dr. Andrew Fix uses a real morning in the gym to unpack a familiar question for anyone who follows a training plan: what do you do when back pain or tightness shows up right as you’re trying to stay consistent with your fitness goals? He talks through judgment calls that keep progress intact without forcing painful reps or drifting into avoidance.

The message lands on a simple truth. Consistency wins. One perfect session never matches the value of showing up again tomorrow. So how do you decide when to scale or swap movements or shift the intention of the work you planned? How do you stay honest about discomfort without letting it take over the whole day?

Andrew brings a grounded mindset that supports long-term training and everyday life. The reminder sits at the core of his story. Movement still matters on the days that feel inconvenient, and the athletes who grow are the ones who adjust with purpose rather than force.

Quotes

• “I’m not going to avoid the movement, but I’m going to modify how I’m implementing it, and how I’m performing the workout.” (04:34 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “If you’re just haphazardly doing random workouts at random times on random days of the week, you’re likely going to get random results.” (06:30| Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “The most important lever we can pull when it comes to making progress is consistency.” (07:38 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “If something’s bothering you, don’t skip it, modify it. Listen to what your body’s telling you to do and adjust accordingly.” (07:58 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “Doing something is always better than doing nothing.” (10:24 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

Links

SideKick Tool

Movemate: Award-Winning Active Standing Board

15% off Promo Code: DRA15

RAD Roller

Revogreen

HYDRAGUN 

Athletic Brewing

20% off: ANDREWF20

Connect with Physio Room:

Visit the Physio Room Website

Follow Physio Room on Instagram

Follow Physio Room on Facebook

Andrew’s Personal Instagram

Andrew’s Personal Facebook

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

The post 202. Navigating Back Pain While Training appeared first on Physio Room.