Message from the CEO

  

Forster Physical Therapy client, Dawn Harper-Nelson, won her third national title in the 100m hurdles this weekend.

Forster PT Client Wins Gold

Long-time Forster Physical Therapy client, Dawn Harper-Nelson, has won the 2014 USA Track and Field Championship in the 100m hurdles. Harper-Nelson, the 2008 Olympic gold medalist and runner-up in 2012, edged Queen Harrison with a well-timed lean at the finish by a margin of 12.55 to 12.56 to win her third national title. Lolo Jones was third in 12.65, and defending champion, Brianna Rollins placed fifth in 12.81. Read about this amazing athlete and her quest for more Olympic Gold in today's feature article.

Are we asking our athletic heroes to perform like superheroes?

 

World Cup: Every four years, the World Cup allows casual US soccer fans to see these amazing athletes perform at the highest level. Their athleticism and extremely advanced levels of fitness make this one of the most highly contested competitions in any sport.

The ability to run continuously for two, 45-minute halves and in extended play time is evidence that these athletes possess some of the highest fitness levels in all of sport. Players have been tracked running up to 23 miles in one game, and to come back fresh and able to perform acrobatic plays in a fatigued state speaks to their well-honed skills and training discipline. I may be jaded, but these extreme fitness levels and their ability to recover so quickly and run the equivalent of a marathon every few days makes me wonder if the World Cup anti-doping efforts are for real.

Tour de France: This year's Tour de France - the fourth in the post-Lance Armstrong era - is under way and the riders are expected to be drug-free in what is another impossibly grueling event. Running from Saturday, July 5th to Sunday, July 27th, the 101st Tour de France will be made up of 21 stages contested over 23 days and will cover a total distance of 3,664 kilometers. That's 2,276 miles, or an average of 108 miles each day, including nine flat stages; five undulating, hilly stages; six mountain stages with five mountain top finishes at altitude; one individual time trial stage; and two rest days. Will we see the decrease in average speed that one would expect in the post-Armstrong era, now that race officials have gone to such lengths to ensure that the race is drug-free?

 

 

>> Read each week's CEO Message here 

Special Offer: Pre-Order your copy of Robert Forster's new book, Healthy Running Step by Step, due out this Summer by Fairwinds Press, and receive a free signed copy of the best seller, The Complete Water Power Workout Book by Robert Forster, PT and Lynda Huey. Bring in your online pre-order receipt to Forster Physical Therapy or Phase IV and receive a free, signed copy of the water book, a must-read for runners and anyone who wants a great workout that's easy on your joints! 

Dawn Harper-Nelson: Not Done Winning Yet

 

Dawn Harper-Nelson took gold in the 100m hurdles in Beijing, but she's not done yet: if all goes her way, she'll repeat in Rio.

   

Dawn Harper-Nelson, already an Olympic track and field gold and silver medalist, is having a fabulous year. Not only did she recently win the 100 meter hurdles at the USA Track and Field National Championships for the third time, but she is the overall leader in the Diamond League track and field competitions in Europe, which could net her the $40,000 bonus awarded to the leader of each event.

  

Dawn is coached by Bob Kersee, whose athletes have won at least one gold medal in each of the last eight Olympic Games and a total of over 50 Olympic medals in all, is a hurdle expert. His athletes have a long history of leading the world in the woman's 100m hurdles. He coached his wife, Jackie Joyner Kersee, and Gail Devers to world-leading hurdle times, but Dawn's 2008 Olympic Championship was a bittersweet win.

 

The backdrop of that historic win starts way back in 1992, at the Games in Barcelona. Gail Devers was heavily favored and the top-ranked 100m hurdler going into the Games with 3 World Championship to her credit. She qualified for the finals with little problem, and in the Olympic final she was on the way to an impressive win, far ahead of the other competitors over the first seven hurdles when her run came, quite literally, crashing down.

 

 

Read More . . .

 

>> Pre-order Healthy Running Step by Step here

Special Offer: Bring in your online pre-order receipt to Forster Physical Therapy and receive a free, signed copy of my first book, The Complete Waterpower Workout Book. 

Illiotibial Band (IT Band) Syndrome

Lateral knee pain is one of the most common complaints from marathon runners as they build up the mileage in training to above 12-15 miles in preparation for the race on March 9th. In most cases, the pain is in one knee and not the other, and this begs the question: why would only one knee hurt if both legs ran the same mileage? The answer, as in all asymmetric overuse injuries, is a mechanical deviation in one or more of the joints of the lower extremity or pelvis on one side or the other.

Joint mechanics can be corrupted by an old injury such as an ankle sprain or hamstring strain, or by a pelvic mal-alignment causing a leg-length discrepancy. When the pelvis, which is comprised of two independent large bones call the ilium, is out of line, the joints of the "short" or "long" leg will make adjustments to compensate. The most common compensation is that the foot on the long side will over-pronate as a strategy to flatten the arch and functionally shorten that leg, while the foot on the short side will typically supinate in an attempt to hold that arch up and functionally elongate that leg. These subtle but significant compensations alter joint mechanics and cause aberrant forces to bear down on vulnerable tissues including tendons, ligaments, fascia, and bursa. An effective rehabilitation program must not only treat the painful area but also address the cause of injury by exposing and correcting the mechanical imbalance creating the excessive forces to bear down on the inured structure.

Physial Therapists to Gold Medalists >> NBC4 Los Angeles

NBC4's Dr. Bruce Hensel discusses the training and rehabilitation of Olympians and London 2012 gold medalists Allyson Felix and Kim Rhode at Forster Physical Therapy.

Dawn Harper-Nelson isn't the only Olympian to come through and benefit from Forster Physical Therapy. Olympic skeet shooter and London gold medalist Kim Rhode, and 200 meter sprinter and fellow London gold medallist Allyson Felix, have both conquered their own injuries and setbacks through Forster PT.

 

NBC4 Los Angeles' Dr. Bruce Hensel delves into the training and rehabilitation of these two Olympians -- just a small sample of the more than 40 whom Forster has treated -- at Forster Physical Therapy and Phase IV Health and Performance Center.

 

>> Watch the video here

Pre-Order Healthy Running Step by Step

Pre-order Healthy Running Step by Step before its arrival in stores and online in August.

Click here to pre-order Healthy Running Step by Step, the new book by Robert Forster, PT, and Roy M. Wallack, due out this August from Fairwinds Press, and gain automatic entry into a raffle for a free VO2 test!

 

(Click here for more information on VO2 testing.)

 

Don't let an old injury keep you from enjoying races, morning runs, or attaining fitness goals. In the first part of Healthy Running Step by Step, authors Robert Forster, PT and Roy M. Wallack recommend the best training based on your fitness goals, including strength training, cross training, sprints, yoga, and plenty of rest. Part two goes a step further from other books by addressing the most modern methods of treatment -- including current studies on the amount of rest required, new and controversial surgical operations and injections, the newest and most effective gear, and barefoot/minimalist running as a form of healing. If you are recovering from an injury or want to prevent becoming injured in the first place, Healthy Running Step by Step is a must-have guide.

 

Available in stores and at Phase IV and Forster Physical Therapy this Fall!

 

• Format: Paperback
• Publication: August 2014
• Pre-Order Price: $24.99

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