7 Signs Your Heel Pain Is Not Coming From Your Plantar Fascia

Craig Smith January 31, 2022

Seven Signs the Flexor Digitorum Brevis is causing your heel pain NOT the Plantar Fascia You wake up, swing your legs to the edge of the bed, and…hesitate. You know this is going to hurt. The good foot moves to the ground first – you learned from that mistake over a month ago. You brace and put down the other foot, the ungrateful one that will not get better despite the trip to the podiatrist, the injection, physical therapy, the shoe inserts, the ice bottle massage, and the stretching exercises. The foot touches down. It’s not so bad, you think ‘those stretches and night socks are helping!’ Then you step and the sharp pain feels as if the tissue from the back of the heel is ripping apart. You think to yourself, this plantar fasciitis won’t go away, as you force your leg forward and take the next step and the next

5 Steps To Develop A Diagnosis In Physical Therapy

Craig Smith September 2, 2020

“My butt hurts.” A significant proportion of my conversations start with this statement. She continued, “ I have regular active release along with dry needling. I stretch my hamstring ALL THE TIME and I still have pain.” Her frustration was palpable. “I know I have a tight hamstring and there is scar tissue. But it’s been 8 months.” She assumes the pain must be the hamstring; we call this the pain generator. The hamstring tendon attaches right where her pain starts. The tightness is over the hamstring muscle belly. She describes the pain in a clear way that implicates the hamstring. She made a convincing argument that the hamstring is the issue and the diagnosis has been repeated by multiple medical providers including a physician and two physical therapists. The location matched. Running increased the pain. Another match. Stretching and manual therapy provided temporary relief. But 8 months into the

Posterior Tibialis Exercise

Craig Smith August 30, 2020

Trigger Management Plan in Physical Therapy

Trigger Management: Why physical therapy exercises are not enough to get you better?

Craig Smith August 6, 2019

What is a Trigger? We use the term trigger as a catch-all term for the activities and movements during the day that makes symptoms worse. Trigger investigation is critical because they are the bane of feeling better. The term, trigger, is an event that causes something else to happen. You trigger the headache when you look over your shoulder. You trigger back pain when you move from sitting to standing. You trigger the shoulder pain when you reach for the shelf. Sounds simple? Unfortunately, determining all of the triggers to your symptoms is as difficult as it is important. We obsess about triggers and draw boxes and lines going all over! Why do we obsess on trigger management instead of building a huge list of physical therapy exercises? Imagine this scenario. I am hitting a nail into the wall. Instead of hitting the nail, I manage

Why Do Athletes Cramp?

Craig Smith June 23, 2018

Cramping is at the top of the list of common problems that we think are misdiagnosed and mismanaged. Watch the following video to learn more!

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SPC Archives

Category: Diagnosis and Home Plan Development

7 Signs Your Heel Pain Is Not Coming From Your Plantar Fascia

5 Steps To Develop A Diagnosis In Physical Therapy

Posterior Tibialis Exercise

Trigger Management: Why physical therapy exercises are not enough to get you better?

Why Do Athletes Cramp?

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Updates from Smith Performance Center

Why Your Hamstrings Always Feel Tight (and Why Stretching Isn’t Solving It)

How to Find the Real Cause of Pain: Our 4-Pillar Diagnosis Process

Understanding and Managing Flare-Ups During Rehabilitation