Looking for a good Physio in the Boston Area

[track_bites]

Hi,

I am looking for a physiotherapist who understanding rowing and has worked with rowers. I am suffering lower back pain and I suspect that there may be adjustments to my rowing form, technique, rigging needed that only a Physio who does a lot of work with rowers would have any clue about.

Any rowers in Boston or Worcester have a recommendation?

Thanks
Greg

[petermech]

Aaron Brooks (perfect Postures) has done some work with rowers and is in the Boston area. Another person is Coach Bob Kaehler however he is in the greater Philadelphia area. I think they have different approaches of how to help with back pain and how to solve.

Bob Kaehler knows rowing extremely well. He will do an assessment then tell and show you what stretches and exercises to do to get your body in alignment. You visit him once and go work on it. If your pain problem was caused by muscle imbalances and you follow the program your pain will better in about 7 weeks. If you have bulging disks, pars fracture....then it depends. Cost is not cheap but then again if your pain goes away....
Aaron Brooks does his assessments in a different manor then Kaehler and his approach to making body adjustments is a bit different then kaehler. He has worked on a couple of rowers that I know and helped them out however it was not back pain issues. So the issues that I know of that he worked on he was effective. I also heard him give at talk at CRI and was knowledgeable on using his methods to make body corrections. What I don't know is after 7 weeks will your back pain be better as with Kaehler if there is nothing systemic wrong with the back.

[newbie]

Pat Cordeiro, trainer at Tufts.
Best. Ever.

[Sculler22]

Denise Frost at Spaulding Rehab in Brighton is a rower and works with rowers. Lots of positive results per the local rowing community.

dafrost@partners.org

[teo]

Denise Frost at Spaulding Rehab in Brighton is a rower and works with rowers. Lots of positive results per the local rowing community.

dafrost@partners.org

+1

[track_bites]

Thanks for the help, everyone. So far, I've been diagnosed as having a SI joint problem and Im being sent for xrays and have been referred for PT.

I'm going to reach out to Denise.

Thanks!

[rowsandall]

With the many back issues I have seen, Especially in the Masters community, I am changing my opinion on rowing as a low injury risk sport. We should be open about the risk of back issues and share information on how to prevent, treat, etc.

Compared to what happens on soccer/football fields in our age category, rowing is still very low risk, but we have to be honest.

[sandor]

With the many back issues I have seen, Especially in the Masters community, I am changing my opinion on rowing as a low injury risk sport. We should be open about the risk of back issues and share information on how to prevent, treat, etc.

Compared to what happens on soccer/football fields in our age category, rowing is still very low risk, but we have to be honest.

correlation is not causation.

is risk of injury with increased activity just higher as the human ages?
is the risk of injury with sudden switch from sedentary to active lifestyle higher with age?


my guess would be that all around fitness of the population decreases dramatically with age, and increases the risk of injury with any activity.
so, basically, the unwritten but (should be understood) part of "rowing is a low-injury-risk sport" is "when compared to other similar energy-expensive activities at a given age"
a gentle walk on an empty flat trail is definitely lower injury risk, but lower fitness rewards, and there is still an increased risk of a walking injury @ 60 years old than at 20 years old.

[bloomp]

With the many back issues I have seen, Especially in the Masters community, I am changing my opinion on rowing as a low injury risk sport. We should be open about the risk of back issues and share information on how to prevent, treat, etc.

Compared to what happens on soccer/football fields in our age category, rowing is still very low risk, but we have to be honest.

correlation is not causation.

is risk of injury with increased activity just higher as the human ages?
is the risk of injury with sudden switch from sedentary to active lifestyle higher with age?


my guess would be that all around fitness of the population decreases dramatically with age, and increases the risk of injury with any activity.
so, basically, the unwritten but (should be understood) part of "rowing is a low-injury-risk sport" is "when compared to other similar energy-expensive activities at a given age"
a gentle walk on an empty flat trail is definitely lower injury risk, but lower fitness rewards, and there is still an increased risk of a walking injury @ 60 years old than at 20 years old.

+100

I would also add the following. Core strength is not what the world and many coaches preach. If your hamstrings and smaller hip muscles are weak, you cannot possibly support the leg drive for repeated strokes. Work on hamstring strength and you'll see a great improvement in how you handle the stroke. Hamstrings are generally unattended with respect to strength, so they will atrophy first with age.

Not only that, but many stretching exercises for the hamstrings and hips are done with the hip/knee flexors in an unactivated position. The leg drive is nearly all hamstring/hip activation with the knee and hips flexed (and those muscles activated). Any stretching done for the hips and hamstrings should mirror that.

[track_bites]

There is a very good presentation posted on world rowing about back pain and rowing

http://www.worldrowing.com/mm/Document/ ... eutral.pdf

In it, there is a brief review of the incidence of back pain amongst rowers.

Studies examining back pain in rowing
• Bahr et al6 - 55% of rowers report LBP in 12 months (cf 63% skiing, 49.8% orienteering). Rowers report most
missed training & hospitalisation
• Teitz et al7- 32% report LBP during college rowing
• Ng et al8 – point prevalence of 64.5% (males) and 52.8% (females) in adolescent rowers.
• Newlands et al9 – 53% report LBP in 12 months (1.67/1000 hrs) in the only prospective study

I think that every sport has it's unique set of injuries associated with the movement patterns required. Rowing puts more pressure on the back than other sports, but it's much less taxing on the joints than running and racquet sports.

I completely agree about core strength as being critical to minimizing back injury and I suspect that is a major part of my problem. I love to row. I hate doing core exercises. I need to get over that.

Another contributor to injury in (ahem) more mature athletes is dealing with erractic training schedules and the declining potential. I know that I tend to push too hard when I am coming back from a training gap caused by business travel or other professional commitments. At best this approach is discouraging, at worst, it's when I hurt myself.