As a physical therapist dedicated to the world of professional golf, I’ve had the unique opportunity to be part of the sports medicine staff covering the west-coast swing of the PGA Tour. This journey took me through the prestigious California tournaments, The AMEX Open in La Quinta, The Farmers Insurance Open in Torrey Pines, and the AT&T Pro-Am at Pebble Beach. Each of these tournaments presented its own set of challenges and experiences, but also a shared routine that’s quite unique to the west-coast swing.

 

The West-Coast Swing: A Routine Unlike Any Other

One of the most distinctive aspects of the west-coast swing is the scheduling. All players tee off between roughly 8 am to 11:30 am, a pattern that not only benefits the players and fans but also allows us, the sports medicine staff, to manage our time effectively. This schedule provides us with the rare opportunity to catch up on notes, engage in personal exercise, and even enjoy the game by walking a few holes to follow the players of our choice.

A Typical Day on the Tour

Our days typically start at 7 am during practice rounds and two hours before the first tee time on tournament days. This early start is crucial for preparing the players, ensuring they’re in peak condition to face the challenges of the day. Whether it’s addressing last-minute injuries, conducting warm-up routines, or implementing preventive measures, our mornings are dedicated to setting up each player for success.

As the day progresses, the focus shifts slightly. With all players having teed off by mid-morning, the afternoon is often reserved for recovery and addressing minor injuries that may have occurred during the day’s play. This is a critical time for us to ensure that players are not only recovering from the day’s exertions but also preparing for the next day’s challenges. Our days wrap up at around 6 pm, marking the end of a long but fulfilling day’s work. We easily see between 30-50 athletes between our sports medicine staff in the therapy trailers; this does not include what our athletic trainers see in our fitness trailer and recovery tent. It has been years of refining the process of helping PGA professionals swing stronger with more consistency and less pain. 

Looking Ahead: The Next Chapter

As we move on from the west-coast swing, I’m gearing up to cover the Mexico Open, Cognizant Classic at PGA National, and Puerto Rico Open starting next week. The upcoming tournaments promise longer days and tee times spread out in waves, adjusting our routines slightly but maintaining the core of our mission: to support the players in achieving their best performance.

 

An Invitation to Golfers

For golfers out there looking to elevate their game and receive the same level of treatment as the pros, I extend an invitation to work with me. The journey of a professional golfer is filled with physical demands, and having the right support system in place is crucial for longevity and success in the sport. Whether you’re looking to improve your physical conditioning, recover from an injury, or prevent future issues, my experience on the PGA Tour has equipped me with the insights and techniques to help you achieve your goals.

 

Being a physical therapist on the PGA Tour is more than just a job; it’s a passion for the sport and a commitment to the athletes who play it. Starting the 2024 season with the west-coast swing has been an incredible experience, filled with challenges, learning opportunities, and the satisfaction of seeing players perform at their best. As I look forward to the next set of tournaments, I’m excited to bring my expertise and dedication to more players, helping them achieve the pinnacle of success in golf.

Dr. Chris O’Neal, PT, DPT

Physio Room and PGA Tour Physical Therapist

Chrisoneal@physioroom.com

In an age where personal health and wellness are paramount, technology has stepped in to provide insightful data to help us understand our bodies better. The Oura Ring is one such innovation, offering a discreet yet powerful tool to track numerous health metrics. While its sleek design and minimalistic appearance might seem simple, the data it provides is anything but. Here are the top benefits of wearing an Oura Ring.

 

• • • Deep Insights: Oura Ring provides an in-depth analysis of your sleep, breaking it down into different stages – light sleep, deep sleep, REM, and wakefulness. By understanding your sleep patterns, you can make necessary adjustments to improve your sleep quality.
    • Readiness Score: After analyzing your sleep data and other metrics, the Oura Ring offers a ‘Readiness Score.’ This gives you an indication of how well-rested and prepared you are for the day ahead.

• • • Adaptive: Unlike many fitness trackers that set a general target for everyone, the Oura Ring tailors daily activity goals based on your personal health data.
    • Versatility: It tracks daily movement and workouts, helping you understand if you’re getting enough physical activity or if you’re overexerting.

 

The Oura Ring is more than just a stylish piece of jewelry. It’s a potent health and wellness tool that offers deep insights into your personal health metrics. By understanding your body better, you can make informed decisions to improve your overall well-being and live a healthier, more balanced life. Whether you’re a biohacker aiming for peak performance or someone just starting on their health journey, the Oura Ring has something to offer.

Wearable technology has rapidly evolved over the last decade, providing individuals with more detailed insights into their health, fitness, and overall well-being. One standout device in this domain is the Whoop strap. Unlike traditional fitness trackers or smartwatches, the Whoop focuses primarily on recovery, strain, and sleep to provide users with actionable feedback on their daily activities and overall wellness. Here are some key benefits of wearing a Whoop:

 

1. Deep Dive into Recovery: One of Whoop’s standout features is its recovery score. This score, updated daily, provides insights into how ready your body is to face strain or exercise. It combines data related to heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate, and sleep performance. This means you can tailor your workouts based on how well you’ve recovered, minimizing the risk of overtraining and injury.
2. Strain Monitoring: The Whoop strap assesses your strain throughout the day. Strain is a measure of cardiovascular load. By understanding daily strain, users can make informed decisions on how hard to push themselves, be it in workouts, during work, or other activities.
3. Sleep Tracking and Insights: Sleep is pivotal for recovery and overall health. Whoop offers detailed sleep tracking capabilities, analyzing your sleep stages, disturbances, and efficiency. The device also gives recommendations on how much sleep you should be getting based on your daily activities and recovery status.
4. Customized Training Intensity: Given its focus on recovery and strain, Whoop helps athletes and fitness enthusiasts find the optimal training intensity. This ensures that workouts are effective without pushing oneself to the brink of exhaustion or injury.
5. Long Battery Life: While many wearables need daily charging, Whoop boasts a battery life of up to five days. This extended life ensures consistent data tracking, especially when considering multi-day activities or if you’re simply not in the mood to charge your device every day.
6. Seamless Design: Whoop’s minimalistic design is non-intrusive. It can be easily worn throughout the day and night, providing continuous data without being a distraction.
7. Community and Competitiveness: The Whoop community is growing, and with it comes the ability to join teams, participate in challenges, and compare strain and recovery scores with friends or teammates. This can add a fun, competitive edge to your fitness journey.
8. Continuous Updates & Research: Whoop is known for its consistent software updates and involvement in research. This means users often receive new features and insights based on the latest scientific findings related to health and fitness.
9. Reduction in Injuries: By providing data on optimal training zones, ensuring that one gets enough rest, and focusing on recovery, Whoop can help reduce the risk of injuries that might come from overtraining or not listening to one’s body.
10. Journaling and Lifestyle Analysis: Whoop offers a feature that allows users to keep a daily journal about behaviors such as alcohol consumption, caffeine intake, and more. Over time, you can see how these behaviors affect sleep, recovery, and strain, helping you make more informed lifestyle decisions.

 

In conclusion, the Whoop strap goes beyond mere step counting or calorie tracking. It offers a holistic view of one’s health by emphasizing recovery, strain, and sleep. For those looking to optimize their training, reduce the risk of injuries, or simply gain a deeper understanding of their body’s needs, the Whoop is a worthy investment.

Hey there, folks! Dr. Chris, the shoulder superhero, reporting for duty with Physio Room! Today, we’re embarking on a wild adventure into the mysterious world of shoulder anatomy. Get ready to unravel the secrets behind those pesky shoulder and neck issues that have been bugging you. We’ll uncover the hidden villains causing trouble in your upper body and learn how to give them a proper beatdown. So, tighten your capes and fasten your seatbelts because we’re about to take an informative joyride through the wacky world of shoulders. Let’s dive in and save the day!

First, let’s focus on your shoulder, we can identify three things that occur when irritation sets in. As humans, we naturally guard ourselves against pain, leading to certain reactions. Firstly, the pectoral muscles tighten, causing the shoulder to be pulled forward. On the flip side, the upper trapezius muscles come into play, elevating the shoulder. This can result in walking around with an elevated upper trap. Lastly, the deltoid muscle, located here, contributes to the pain felt in the side of the shoulder. It often feels like someone is punching you in the shoulder. This pain arises because the deltoid is in a guarded state, similar to when you make a tight fist and your knuckles turn white due to restricted blood supply. Consequently, the deep ache is caused by limited blood supply. Our goal is to reset this muscle and help it calm down and feel better.

To alleviate these symptoms and improve your posture and overall functionality throughout the day, we need to pay attention to the lower trapezius muscle. Take a look at these fibers pulling the shoulder blade down, while these fibers pull it inward. It’s crucial to engage the lower trapezius muscle more often. Additionally, these fibers create tension that may lead to headaches starting from the base of the skull, wrapping around to the front, and even causing pain behind the eyes. This is why shoulder issues can often be associated with neck problems. It’s not uncommon for people to seek help for shoulder issues, only to discover that the root cause lies in a shoulder dysfunction or vice versa. Working with us one-on-one allows us to provide specific answers tailored to your situation, as there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

By addressing the upper trapezius, we can shift our focus to the rotator cuff. The rotator cuff comprises four muscles. The supraspinatus, located on top, extends from here and attaches to the outside of the bone. Then we have the infraspinatus right below, followed by the teres minor. Both of these muscles pull the arm outward. Notice the slight downward motion with the attachments. When someone has rotator cuff issues, the space between these two bones becomes narrower, resulting in compression of the muscles. This can lead to conditions like impingement syndrome, where the rope in a movie theater analogy can be used. Just like a rope rubbing against itself, the rotator cuff can experience friction and eventually tear. Surgeons often resort to shaving off the area underneath to create more space. However, one of the most effective approaches is strengthening the rotator cuff, combined with engaging the lower trapezius to pull the shoulder blade down and inward. This helps reduce tightness in the upper trapezius and minimizes neck irritation and dysfunction.  Avoid that sharp stabbing pain by improving your posture, you can achieve better results without resorting to unnecessary surgeries, medications, or injections.

If you have any questions or would like to explore this topic further, feel free to reach out to us and we can assist you on your journey. Our goal is to serve as your guide and help you navigate through shoulder and neck pain. Remember, with proactive rather than reactive care, you can prevent many issues and avoid surgeries altogether. We look forward to hearing from you. Have a great day!

 

3 Step Process:

Reset Phase

In the reset phase, we help you get rid of your pain and calm things down. We’re going to desensitize and down regulate the system so you can start to tolerate more movement and have less pain with your movement. We have many tools in the toolbox to accomplish this. Dry needling, cupping, adjustments, massage, and laser are great tools for you to help decrease your pain. However, at the end of the day, these treatments provide very short-term relief… and our goal is to get you long-term results that last.  

Restore Phase

Once you get the pain to decrease, we need to restore proper movement patterns. We need to get the right muscles firing at the right times. We will also be focusing on your mobility and and flexibility and going to increase your range of motion. We restore the range of motion and get the right muscle firing at the right time in a way that become habit and you no longer have to think about them.  It takes time to retrain the brain and develop new “muscle memory”.

Reload Phase

In this phase, we will focus on those proper movement patterns and challenge those patterns with load specific to your goals. You will become more tolerant, more resilient, and you will be able to do what you love to do without pain.

We know that healthcare is broken and we are trying to challenge the status quo. Most PT clinics do not operate in a way that allows them to provide all three phases to best of their ability.  We are able to give you something that nobody else in town can give you…time with an expert in your sport or activity.  When you work with someone that specializes in your sport and understands the demands required, then you can start to form a very specific plan to get you back to what you love to do.  In order to do that, you need time and that is not what the traditional healthcare model can provide.  At Physio Room, you will have the time to calm your pain down, start to get the right muscles firing at the right time, and load those patterns up so that you can do what you love to do without pain.  If you are not able to get all three of those phases in a single session, then your ability to get the long terms results goes down significantly.

 

Why do other providers fail to get results?

Too many times, we see disappointed clients that have gone to other providers for the “quick fix”.  Often,  they have been getting “passive” treatments such as needling, massage, and adjustments and they are not getting the results they are looking for.

These treatments are a very good approach in the “reset” phase, but alone they will NOT achieve long-term results.  For example, if someone comes in with shoulder pain and we use cupping, needling, and massage to calm the pain down and we do not address the thoracic mobility in the mid back or the rotator cuff strength and stability, then that pain will most likely come back.

We need to “restore” the range of motion and get the hip to fire at the right time in order to take the stress off of the neck and shoulder joints.  The shoulder will start to feel better, and that is when the real work and the long-term results can begin!  If you do not get those tissue stronger and able to maintain the demands requested, then your pain is going to come back.

We need to “reload” those tissues in order to lift up your kids or complete the “Murph” is a faster time that last year!  You need to program movements specific to what you want to get back to doing and that is why we pair you up with the expert in your sport and interests.

We have to treat movement as medicine and learn to dose the medicine appropriately.  Don’t take have a pill and don’t take the whole bottle. Gradually exposing those tissues to the load and demand you need will slowly increase your tolerance to the activities you want to get back to.  Again, if you do not have the time with your current provider to address each of these phases, then you will inevitably become disappointed.   Our model gives you the opportunity to address each phase and that allows us to get you better, faster and save you time and money! 

 

“Great providers are going to look at the root cause of your issues and provide you with the tools necessary to fix the problem.”

 

If you’re interested in learning more about what your journey might look like, please give us a call today or book an appointment online. I look forward to working with you on your journey!

Most folks come to Physio Room with and injury but over 200 people have stayed on our membership program to optimize their health and human performance.

A majority of people start their care when they have pain, they’re fearful of movement, and they’re avoiding movements that they want to do. This is where we come in to help you calm that pain down. We’re going to get you back to feeling better, moving better, and enjoying the activities you like to do!  In order to do that, we have a three-step process.  

3 Step Process:

Reset Phase

In the reset phase, we help you get rid of your pain and calm things down. We’re going to desensitize and down regulate the system so you can start to tolerate more movement and have less pain with your movement. We have many tools in the toolbox to accomplish this. Dry needling, cupping, adjustments, massage, and laser are great tools for you to help decrease your pain. However, at the end of the day, these treatments provide very short-term relief… and our goal is to get you long-term results that last.  

Restore Phase

Once you get the pain to decrease, we need to restore proper movement patterns. We need to get the right muscles firing at the right times. We will also be focusing on your mobility and and flexibility and going to increase your range of motion. We restore the range of motion and get the right muscle firing at the right time in a way that become habit and you no longer have to think about them.  It takes time to retrain the brain and develop new “muscle memory”.

Reload Phase

In this phase, we will focus on those proper movement patterns and challenge those patterns with load specific to your goals. You will become more tolerant, more resilient, and you will be able to do what you love to do without pain.

We know that healthcare is broken and we are trying to challenge the status quo. Most PT clinics do not operate in a way that allows them to provide all three phases to best of their ability.  We are able to give you something that nobody else in town can give you…time with an expert in your sport or activity.  When you work with someone that specializes in your sport and understands the demands required, then you can start to form a very specific plan to get you back to what you love to do.  In order to do that, you need time and that is not what the traditional healthcare model can provide.  At Physio Room, you will have the time to calm your pain down, start to get the right muscles firing at the right time, and load those patterns up so that you can do what you love to do without pain.  If you are not able to get all three of those phases in a single session, then your ability to get the long terms results goes down significantly.  

Why do other providers fail to get results?

Too many times, we see disappointed clients that have gone to other providers for the “quick fix”.  Often,  they have been getting “passive” treatments such as needling, massage, and adjustments and they are not getting the results they are looking for. These treatments are a very good approach in the “reset” phase, but alone they will NOT achieve long-term results.  For example, if someone comes in with knee pain and we use cupping, needling, and massage to calm the pain down and we do not address the ankle mobility or the hip strength and stability, then that pain will most likely come back. We need to “restore” the range of motion and get the hip to fire at the right time in order to take the stress off of the knee.   So now that knee feels better, but that is finally when the real work and the long-term results can begin!  If you do not get those tissue stronger and able to maintain the demands requested, then your pain is going to come back. We need to “reload” those tissues in order to hike or go up and down the stairs for that matter.  You need to be able to get you “knees over your toes” and their are still providers out there saying that you should avoid that movement, but they are wrong!  We have to treat movement as medicine and learn to dose the medicine appropriately.  Don’t take have a pill and don’t take the whole bottle. Gradually exposing those tissues to the load and demand you need will slowly increase your tolerance to the activities you want to get back to. Again, if you do not have the time with your current provider to address each of these phases, then you will inevitably become disappointed.   Our model gives you the opportunity to address each phase and that allows us to get you better, faster and save you time and money! 

  “Great providers are going to look at the root cause of your issues and provide you with the tools necessary to fix the problem.”

  If you’re interested in learning more about what your journey might look like, please give us a call today or book an appointment online. I look forward to working with you on your journey!