Eric Medaglia-Kurtz, PT, DPT Eric is a therapist at our Newtown Square clinic location. Read his full profile here: FEATURED PT
4 Core Activation Tips
1. How did you decide to become a physical therapist and what motivates you to work with patients? Ultimately, it combines a lot of things that I enjoy: helping people, working in healthcare, working with my hands, solving puzzles,
adapting to challenging and different situations, to say a few.
1. Strengthening Perform specific strengthening exercises that engage all the layers of your abdominal wall, pelvic muscles and spinal muscles. Lying on your back, place your hands on your lower abdomen. Try to activate the transverse abdominis muscles beneath your hands drawing the muscles together towards your belly button. Keep breathing while you do this and hold for 10 second counts. Repeat 10 times and do 3-4 times a day, even while you stand! 2. Balance Stand close to a wall so you can keep your hands on it for this exercise. While standing, keep your abdomen tight and try to stand on one foot. Hold for 10 seconds each foot and repeat 5 times a day. Enhancing your balance engages the nerves that control the core muscles, helping everything work together. 3. Move Try to avoid sitting for prolonged periods, but if you must sit for work, try to break up the day with standing for 1-2 minute periods every 30 minutes. Keep working on tightening up your abdominal muscles while sitting, standing and lying down. Walk for 15-30 minutes a day, focusing on your posture and abdominal muscles. 4. After pregnancy Pregnancy severely stretches out the abdominal wall and many women can suffer from a condition called diastasis recti. Carefully strengthening your core muscles is essential for long term spinal rehabilitation after child birth. Talk to one of our physical therapists today about options to ensure a complete recovery, even years after your last pregnancy. If you are suffering with pain and want to improve your core strength, call us today to learn how we can help you!
2. In your words, what makes Excel Physical Therapy different from other physical therapy clinics? Our four tenants of practice: integrity, passion, excellence, and accountability. I see them time in and out, day after day. I’ve never known another company to have the employees all voluntarily stay late on a Friday for a few hours and just discuss how to better treat patients. 3. What was your most memorable patient experience? I’m currently treating a woman who has been dealing with some chronic pain issues for the last several years since being in a car accident. She has basically neglected using her left arm and has severely restricted her life activities to compensate. She was unable to hold a cup of coffee in her affected arm due to shooting pain. She has been concerned that when she has a child, she won’t be able to take care of her. She recently cried tears of joy due to regaining significant use of her arm, substantially decreased pain, and finally getting back to some exercise activities that she hasn’t done for years. These kinds of people are the reason I got into what I do.
4. If you could be any animal, what would it be and why? I would be an Elephant; they’re intelligent, strong, and overall really great animals!
5. If you could describe yourself in one word what would it be and why? Happy; I try and maintain a cheerful attitude and remain optimistic at all times, while still recognizing the realities of a situation.
6. What do you like to do in your off time, outside the clinic? I like to stay physically active with different types of exercise; I enjoy cooking and going out to try new restaurants.
www.excelphysicaltherapy.com
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