Onward Physical Therapy Blog

Finding a good sports physical therapist is key to rehabbing an injury and getting back to the sport you love. With the right rehab team and plan in place, we can reduce the risk of re-injury. In addition, we can work on strength & mobility limitations, which can drastically improve performance specific to your individual sport. At Onward, we specialize...

Shoulder impingement (now more commonly called rotator cuff tendinopathy) is one of the most frequent conditions we treat at Onward in Charlotte, NC because of our highly active patient population. With highly active populations such as CrossFitters and weightlifters, there are a few key areas to address if we want to rapidly improve shoulder impingement pain. Treating Shoulder Impingement Step...

Huge shifts have happened in the running world in recent years. Contrary to traditional beliefs, we now know how important strength training is for running performance. The problem is that most runners don’t perform challenging enough strength work to get anything out of their cross-training. They do squats, lunges, etc., but never progress the weight with these exercises. Instead, they...

Femoroacetabular impingement is a common complaint that we see in competitive athletes due to the demands of their sport, which push the hip joint through full ranges of motion repeatedly. Even in the general population, postures and positions can irritate the front side of the hip.  But unfortunately, this is a condition that we commonly see being poorly managed in...

You get the notification for tomorrow’s WOD. Before you even look, your mind is already racing with thoughts like, “PLEASE, anything but thrusters!” or “Not pull-ups again!” Your shoulders are still begging for some relief after snatching popped up a few days ago. Essentially, you’re hoping for anything that will give them a break. CrossFit, in its constantly varied nature,...

When you’re pregnant, you get (often unsolicited) advice everywhere you go. When it comes to physical activity that advice variation can be insanely varied. On one hand, your in-laws are telling you to not pick up a laundry basket. On the contrary, your friend is PR’ing her snatch at 7 months pregnant. With so much advice out there, we hope...

One of the common things we treat here at Onward is overhead squat shoulder pain in functional fitness athletes. This is because the overhead squat position (really wide grip overhead) can be a stressful position on the shoulder. If you don’t have good strength and mobility around that area, this stress will increase. We’re going to go through three drills...

Suffering from femoracetabular impingement? Dr. Zach Long is a sports physical therapist in Charlotte, NC who specializes in helping individuals dealing with this painful condition. We’d love to help get you on the road for recovery. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: The Top 3 Stretches & Exercises for Hip Impingement What’s going on everybody? Zach Long here, doctor of physical therapy, to talk...

  Zach Long here, Doctor of Physical Therapy, talking about the best stretches for dealing with hip pain during your squats. This is often referred to as femoracetabular impingement or hip impingement. This is something that we very commonly treat, especially with CrossFitters, powerlifters and Olympic lifters. These two stretches outline below (and in the video above) will help you...