If you’ve ever woken up with a sore jaw, noticed clicking or popping when you chew, or experienced headaches that seem to radiate from your temples, you may be dealing with a temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder, often referred to as TMD.

While it’s easy to brush these symptoms off at first, they can become a persistent source of pain that affects everyday activities like eating, talking, and even sleeping.

The good news? Physical therapy is often one of the most effective first-line treatments for TMJ disorders and can help many people avoid more invasive interventions.

What Is the TMJ?

The temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is the hinge that connects your lower jaw (mandible) to your skull. You have one joint on each side of your face, located just in front of your ears.

Every time you:

• Talk
• Chew
• Yawn
• Swallow

your TMJ is working.

Because the joint is closely connected to the muscles of your jaw, neck, and face, problems in one area often create pain somewhere else.

Common Signs and Symptoms of TMJ Disorders

TMJ disorders can present in many different ways. Common symptoms include:

• Jaw pain or tenderness, especially when chewing or talking
• Clicking, popping, or grinding when opening or closing your mouth
• Jaw locking or difficulty opening your mouth fully
• Headaches around the temples or behind the eyes
• Neck and shoulder tension without an obvious cause
• Ear pain, pressure, or a feeling of fullness (without an infection)
• Facial soreness or fatigue, especially in the morning (often from nighttime clenching or grinding)
• Difficulty finding a comfortable bite

If you’ve experienced these symptoms for more than a couple of weeks, it’s worth getting evaluated. TMJ disorders are highly treatable, and earlier intervention often leads to faster recovery.

Why Your Neck Matters Just as Much as Your Jaw

TMJ pain is rarely just a “jaw problem.”

The muscles of your jaw, neck, and upper back all work together to support your head and control movement. They also share nerve pathways, meaning dysfunction in one area can create pain in another.

For example:

• Poor posture from sitting at a desk
• Looking down at a phone for long periods
• Stiffness in the upper neck

can all increase stress on the jaw.

Likewise, jaw dysfunction can contribute to neck pain and headaches.

That’s why effective treatment focuses on the entire system—not just the jaw itself.

How Physical Therapy Can Help TMJ Pain

Every patient is different, so treatment always begins with a comprehensive evaluation.

From there, your plan may include several evidence-based treatment techniques.

Joint Mobilization

Gentle hands-on mobilizations help restore normal movement within the jaw joint, improving opening range while reducing pain, clicking, and stiffness.

Cervical (Neck) Manipulation

When neck stiffness is contributing to jaw pain—which is very common—improving mobility in the upper cervical spine can significantly reduce symptoms.

Research supports cervical treatment as part of a comprehensive TMJ program, particularly for:

• Reducing headaches
• Improving jaw opening
• Restoring normal movement

It works best when combined with manual therapy and exercise.

Dry Needling

Dry needling can reduce muscle tension and deactivate painful trigger points throughout the jaw, face, and neck.

Common treatment areas include:

• Masseter
• Temporalis
• Suboccipital muscles
• Upper trapezius

Many patients notice improved jaw movement and decreased tension within just one or two visits.

Exercises That Help TMJ Recovery

Hands-on treatment helps reduce pain, but exercise is what creates lasting results.

Depending on your evaluation, your therapist may prescribe exercises such as:

Chin Tucks

Improve head and neck posture while reducing strain on the jaw.

Jaw & Tongue Coordination Exercises

Retrain healthy jaw movement through controlled opening and proper tongue positioning.

Wall Angels

Strengthen the upper back, improve posture, and reduce tension throughout the neck and jaw.

The combination of manual therapy, dry needling, and progressive exercise helps reduce symptoms while preventing them from returning.

You Don’t Have to Live With TMJ Pain

Jaw pain shouldn’t become something you simply learn to live with.

Whether you’re experiencing headaches, clicking, jaw tightness, or neck pain, addressing the problem early can make recovery much easier.

At Physio Room, our team takes a whole-body approach to TMJ disorders by evaluating both the jaw and the surrounding structures that influence how it moves.

With personalized treatment focused on restoring movement, reducing pain, and improving function, our goal is to help you return to eating, talking, exercising, and living comfortably again.

If you’re experiencing TMJ symptoms, we’d love to help.

Schedule an evaluation at our Highlands Ranch or Colorado Springs clinic and let us help you get back to feeling your best.

Written by By Dr. Nate Henry, PT, DPT, DSc, Board Certified OCS & SCS, CSCS | Physio Room

The post TMJ Disorders: Symptoms, Causes, and How Physical Therapy Can Help appeared first on Physio Room.

Training for my first marathon was going better than I could have imagined—until it suddenly wasn’t.

The injury happened during a strength session while performing front-racked box squats. I had jumped ahead in my training cycle, progressed the weight too quickly, and was experimenting with a small mechanical change in my squat.

On the last rep of my final set, I stood up and immediately felt pain shoot down the front of my leg.

I was able to rack the bar and walk around, convincing myself it was probably nothing serious.

The next day, I headed out for my scheduled long run at Waterton Canyon. My final five miles were downhill, and with every step I could feel my quad and hip flexor becoming increasingly sore. Over the next few days, the pain continued to worsen. Simple movements—like stepping out of the driver’s seat of my car—became difficult.

Mentally, I felt defeated.

My immediate thought was that I wouldn’t be able to run the marathon I had spent months preparing for.

This training cycle had been different from any before. In previous marathon builds, I consistently struggled around mile 14 because I didn’t have a solid fueling strategy. But this time, working with my coach, Phil Buckley, everything had started to click. I had developed a much better nutrition plan, felt stronger during long runs, and even finished a recent 16-mile run feeling surprisingly fresh.

So when the injury happened, it was devastating.

It took me several weeks to reset mentally and develop a consistent recovery plan. Looking back, I wish I had stopped experimenting sooner and focused on the strategies that ultimately helped me recover.

Here are the three things that made the biggest difference.

1. Fuel and Hydrate for Recovery

One of the most important things I focused on was supporting my recovery through proper nutrition and hydration.

After hard workouts—especially strength training and long runs—your muscles are primed to absorb nutrients that help repair tissue and restore energy stores. If those resources aren’t replaced, recovery slows down and irritated tissues can remain sensitive for longer.

During my recovery, I made it a priority to:

• Eat carbohydrates after training to replenish glycogen stores.
• Consume enough protein to support muscle repair (around 1 gram per pound of body weight).
• Fuel within 20–30 minutes after workouts.
• Increase my daily water intake and supplement with electrolytes.

Hydration also plays a major role in tissue health. Muscles and connective tissues rely on adequate fluid for circulation, nutrient delivery, and elasticity. When you’re properly fueled and hydrated, your body is simply better equipped to recover.

2. Use Tools That Improve Circulation and Reduce Sensitivity

One of the most effective recovery tools I used was Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) training, recommended by Dr. Katie Sasser at Physio Room’s Highlands Ranch clinic.

BFR uses a specialized cuff placed high on the limb to partially restrict venous blood flow while still allowing arterial blood into the muscle. This creates a metabolic response similar to heavy strength training while using very light loads, allowing you to build strength and improve circulation without placing excessive stress on injured tissue.

My BFR program consisted entirely of bodyweight exercises, including:

• Straight leg raises
• Marching
• Step-ups
• Reverse lunges
• Copenhagen planks
• Side planks
• Side-lying leg raises

Despite using minimal resistance, these exercises were incredibly challenging and surprisingly effective.

I also used kinesiology tape and a compression sleeve when I returned to running.

While these tools don’t “hold muscles together,” they can improve circulation and reduce pressure on pain-sensitive receptors within the tissue. For me, they noticeably decreased the sensitivity around my hip flexor and allowed me to run more comfortably.

3. Keep Strength Training (and Cross-Training)

One of the best decisions I made during recovery was continuing to train instead of stopping altogether.

Rather than pushing through pain, I modified my strength program by focusing on:

• Isometric exercises (long holds against resistance)
• Strengthening the muscles surrounding my hip
• Working only within pain-free or minimally painful ranges of motion (no more than 3/10 pain)
• Gradually increasing my range of motion over time

Some of the exercises that helped me the most included:

• Split-stance overcoming isometrics
• Split squats using catch bars to control hip flexion
• Barbell hip thrusts
• Bulgarian split squats
• Barbell Romanian deadlifts
• Landmine single-leg Romanian deadlifts
• Stagger-stance box squats

These movements kept my glutes, hamstrings, and core strong, reducing the workload placed on my injured hip flexor.

I also incorporated stationary bike workouts to maintain my aerobic fitness while temporarily reducing my running volume.

Working closely with my coach to manage training allowed me to stay fit, continue making progress, and maintain confidence throughout the recovery process.

The Biggest Lesson

This injury reminded me that recovery isn’t just about waiting for pain to disappear.

It’s about actively creating an environment that allows your body to heal.

Fueling well, staying hydrated, improving circulation, and maintaining strength helped me continue moving forward—even when my training didn’t go according to plan.

In the end, recovery wasn’t about doing less.

It was about doing the right things consistently.

Written by By Cassie Santana, PTA, CSCS, NASM | Physio Room

The post Marathon Injury Recovery: 3 Strategies That Helped Me Keep Training appeared first on Physio Room.

Ben Braverman dropped from 240 pounds and a couple of prescriptions to a sub-3:40 marathon, and he says the real transformation happened somewhere between his ears.

Ben joins Dr. Andrew Fix to talk about what actually changes when someone moves from the far end of the wellness spectrum toward something closer to optimization. His story starts with running for beginners in its truest form: a guy on a treadmill who couldn’t run a mile, slowly building toward a marathon a few years later. The physical numbers are real: weight loss, a faster marathon, and blood pressure readings that finally started moving in the right direction. But Ben keeps circling back to something harder to quantify. He calls it mental clarity, the sense that decisions got easier, stress got more manageable, and his work and relationships improved almost as a side effect of taking care of his body.

What does it actually feel like to operate without a constant mental fog? And how much of that fog do most people simply accept as normal because they’ve never known anything else?

The two also dig into why personal growth rarely moves in a straight line. Ben’s second year of running was slower than his first, and a coach’s advice to celebrate small wins kept him moving forward when the personal records stopped coming. Andrew frames health less as a finish line and more as seasons of pushing and pulling back, a pattern borrowed from how elite athletes train and recover. Underneath all of it sits one quiet but stubborn idea: consistency, not intensity, is what actually moves people from the left side of the spectrum to the right. The conversation touches on nutrition, sleep, and the discomfort that seems to accompany any real change, landing on a simple idea: the gap between feeling okay and feeling genuinely well might be smaller than most people think.

Quotes

• “For someone that’s never really felt fit, you’re always a little tired because you’re eating poorly. You’re always a little fatigued.” (16:07 | Ben Braverman)
• “You don’t need to be running forty, fifty, sixty miles a week, lifting four to five times a week, cold plunging five times a week, hot yoga three times a week…If you get out there and you run for 30 minutes four times a week, and getting some resistance training two times a week, you probably will see changes if you’re on that left side of the spectrum.” (23:41 | Ben Braverman)
• “If you don’t have a coach, you should. I would give it a shot. If you’re trying to get faster or just trying to accomplish something, it’s helpful to have that expert.” (50:42 | Ben Braverman)
• “I feel like I process stress better. And I think that’s a byproduct of mental clarity. Being able to process the down days.” (43:41 | Ben Braverman)
• “If you know somebody that’s struggling with fitness, like I was on the left side of the spectrum, send them this pod, because you can transform even much later in life.” (53:55 | Ben Braverman)

Connect with Ben Braverman:

Connect with Ben on LinkedIn 

The In Good Order Podcast with Ben Braverman

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The post 232. The Ripple Effect of Fitness | Ben Braverman appeared first on Physio Room.

When the question every injured runner is afraid to ask, “Do I have to stop?”,  finally gets a straight answer, it turns out the real story has less to do with the pain itself and more to do with everything the runner wasn’t tracking.

Dr. Andrew Fix sits down with Dr. Vikash Sharma, DPT, founder of Perfect Stride Physical Therapy in New York, to talk through managing running injuries, avoiding stress fractures, and building a smart return to running after time off.

Stress fractures get missed more often than they should, and the clue is usually hiding in a two-minute conversation about nutrition and training load. Has your mileage gone up? Has your food intake kept pace? For a lot of runners, the answer to that second question is no.

For soft tissue injuries, Sharma’s approach is less about stopping and more about finding a sustainable baseline, trimming the run, filling the rest with cross-training, and using that window to build the strength and mobility that likely broke down first.

The conversation also covers training load management, deload weeks, why most runners’ strength work stopped producing results long ago, and what a real return-to-run progression actually looks like.

Find Dr. Vikash Sharma at @vikashsharma_dpt on Instagram or at perfectstridept.com. His clinical education platform for coaches and clinicians is at runningforlifeeducation.

Quotes

• “Runners run. That’s what they want to do, and they’ll keep running until the wheels fall off.” (09:48 | Dr. Vikash Sharma)
• “If two months ago you were running X amount of mileage and now you’re up 75% from that, but your nutrition hasn’t really changed at all, and now you’re starting to get signs and symptoms that make me think you have a bone stress injury, a hundred percent we’re shutting it down.” (10:39| Dr. Vikash Sharma)
• “Just like training their musculoskeletal system, just like training their nervous system and their brain — we got to train your gut as well.” (22:13 | Dr. Vikash Sharma)
• “Your low days need to be low so that your high days can truly be high days.” (32:53 | Dr. Vikash Sharma)
• “There’s always a story behind this human. There is a human in front of you. Just get back to that human element and dig — a lot of your questions will get answered the more they’re talking to you.” (54:23 | Dr. Vikash Sharma)

Connect with Dr. Vikash Sharma:

Perfect Stride Physical Therapy

Follow Perfect Stride Physical Therapy on Instagram

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Connect with Physio Room:

Visit the Physio Room Website

Follow Physio Room on Instagram

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Andrew’s Personal Instagram

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The post 227. Finding Your Perfect Stride | Dr. Vikash Sharma appeared first on Physio Room.

Key Takeaways

• Use the first half of a marathon as a warm up, race slower than your goal race pace

• Runners can use strength training to restore damaged body tissue and build a more robust body

• All 3 macronutrients are important for runners, but protein is actually the most important

“People talk about hitting a wall. To me the wall just means that you ran dumb. You’ve been too fast and you have nothing left,” explains Tristan Mitchell, owner, manager, and coach at Lions Den SMP. Tristan has completed 24 marathons and has learned a lot about training for running since his first attempt at age 20. Today, he joins host Dr. Andrew Fix to discuss strategies for smarter marathon training.

Running for extended periods of time is very rough on the body because it is incredibly repetitive. In order to master the marathon without harming your body, it is important to train strategically. This means not only learning how to pace yourself properly throughout the race depending on its length, but also knowing how to fuel your body efficiently beforehand. People are quick to think of carbohydrates for runners, but protein is even more important as a building block for your body to function at its best. Additionally, adding in strength training can help restore the body tissues that have been damaged by the repetitive motions of running.

If you start off a marathon running your hardest, you will likely hit a wall pretty quickly. That’s why it is imperative to pace yourself and purposefully run slower than your race pace goal for the first half of the marathon before kicking it into high gear for the second half. Be sure to fuel up on lots of protein beforehand and consider adding strength training to your regimen to help your body become more robust.

Quotes

• “Learning how to negative split races was huge, and ever since then it’s something I’ve really worked at in the marathon and prided myself on. (20:20-20:29 | Tristan)

• “The way I always like to think about it is having these things that I can draw upon to elicit an adrenaline response, something that just fires me up. And I save these things for the second half of a marathon.” (21:51-22:05 | Tristan)

• “If you go out too hard, you simply burn up too much of your stored carbohydrates.” (33:00-33:06 | Tristan)

• “People talk about hitting a wall. To me the wall just means that you ran dumb. You’ve been too fast and you have nothing left.” (33:11-33:19 | Tristan)

• “When it comes to running, strength training builds a more robust body. It builds a body that can tolerate the demands of running training more effectively.” (49:25-49:38 | Tristan)

• “All three of the macronutrients are highly important aspects of a runner’s diet, protein, fat and carbohydrates. But I think that we must get runners to think through the lens of protein first, because it is the building block.” (1:05:41-1:05:59 | Tristan)

Links

Connect with Tristan Mitchell:

Website | ​​https://www.lionsdensmp.com/

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/lionsdensmp/?hl=en

Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/LionsDenSMP

Connect with Physio Room: 

Website | ​​https://physioroomco.com/

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/physioroomco/

Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/physioroomco

Andrew’s Personal Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/dr.andrewfix/

Andrew’s Personal Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/andrew.fix.9/

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