Evaluation Services & Treatment Options
Physical Therapy Evaluations
Have a referral from another health care provider recommending evaluation by a physical therapist? Anthrokinetics’ sole practitioner is a CA licensed doctor of physical therapy prepared to provide PT evaluations and communicate with or refer to other health care professionals as needed. Are you seeking physical therapy evaluation without referral from a physician? PTs are available as a direct-access option in CA, without the need for a referral. This practice also provides second opinion or supplementary evaluations and consultations as needed.
Dynamic Task / Kinematic Assessment
Having pain on your third mile of a run? Concerned about returning to your sport after surgery even if you’ve been “cleared”. Anthrokinetics has an advanced motion capture system which can measure almost every dynamic motion possible. Properly diagnosing and managing musculoskeletal problems that are only present either during or just after an aggravating activity can be challenging or impossible in a more traditional clinic. Capturing and properly evaluating high speed dynamic movement tasks requires special equipment and expertise for actionable results. A portable motion lab allows a particular aggravating or suspect activity to be measured and evaluated in real time while the task is being performed, in the environment you intend to perform it. This allows data-driven, informed clinical decision making — whether this involves managing the volume of overall load or deciding if an athlete is safe to return to sport. Kinematic assessments can also be applied in a performance context with customized, objective benchmarks to help achieve optimal movement patterns.
Therapeutic Exercise
Feeling like you could be stronger? Functional weakness can lead to both movement problems and pain. Specific movements can be measured for objective force production. If an imbalance or weakness is measured and diagnosed, targeted exercise regimens will likely be part of your treatment plan. Not all exercises are treated equally and it is important to take your goals, impairments, and symptoms into consideration. The wrong exercises or improper technique can make problems worse. It is important you have a qualified professional guiding you through a personalized program based on your goals and diagnosis for success. The purpose for most therapeutic exercise programs is to supplement other treatments like neuromuscular re-education and manual therapy techniques until you can become independent and perform them without guidance once healthy. Customized therapeutic exercise programs based on objective movement and force-producing measurements can also greatly improve task-related performance and potentially defend against future injury.
Posture & Ergonomics Assessments
Are you a business asking your employees to work remotely and want to provide the benefit of a home office ergonomics consult? Are you an individual who is concerned your current work-from-home solution is causing neck, back ,or shoulder pain as a result of poor posture or ergonomics? With remote work becoming popular at an accelerated rate, people are finding themselves working from home offices more and more. Many are finding themselves working from a less optimal setup compared to the office, and as a result incidence of neck, back, and shoulder pain is rising. If you are thinking about investing in a more robust home office setup, or are simply looking to optimize your current station, Anthrokinetics provides objective, data-driven ergonomics assessments. Muscle use and static joint position data can be assessed in real time by deploying advanced motion capture and electromyography technology to measure the cause and effect of making adjustments to posture or a home workstation. Ergonomics also extend beyond static workstations and can be assessed during dynamic household tasks, such as gardening, housecleaning, and more.
Neuromuscular Re-education Techniques
Do particular movements or tasks cause pain? Having trouble doing something you could do previously? If so, it’s possible you’ve developed a compensatory movement pattern. If a movement dysfunction is measured and diagnosed, it is very likely neuromuscular re-education techniques are required to correct the problem. Movement re-training is an important part of achieving and sustaining healthy motion. A neuromuscular strategy analysis can help diagnose improper, overactive, or absent activity of particular muscles, and can in turn be used to train proper activation patterns. Treatments involve the use of evidence-based visualized, verbalized, and tactile biofeedback to create associations with new movement behaviors. Think of this like “overwriting” suboptimal movement habits and learning novel ones. Training an optimal movement pattern is often the key to fixing or avoiding long-term problems.
Telehealth COnsults
Wish you had more convenient access to your healthcare professional? Anthrokinetics aims to make communication and contact easier for clients. In addition to direct messaging for questions, some services can be offered in a telehealth format:
Education related to condition
Consultation on activity participation decisions
Certain therapeutic exercise programs
Discussing post-hoc reports and data following a kinematic assessment
Determining appropriateness for care
Wellness & Performance Evaluations
Not injured but interested in avoiding one? Thinking about starting a new exercise regimen but concerned about the risk of injury? Not sure where to get started to prepare for increased activity? Everything from starting new exercise classes, signing up for a 5K, or simply increasing your daily movement habits can have a positive impact on your overall health. Proper preparation should not be overlooked to mitigate risk of injury. A wellness and performance movement exam can help establish a baseline for your current movement health and guide a plan to achieve (or maintain) your desired goals.
Manual Therapy
If manual therapy techniques are determined to be indicated after your initial evaluation, many options may be deployed to assist with a range of impairments. Primary examples include (but are not limited to) improving joint or soft tissue mobility, and symptom/pain mitigation. Often, manual therapy techniques need to be used in combination with other forms of active treatment to achieve the best (and longer lasting) results.
Some examples include:
Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization (IASTM)
Negative Pressure Myofascial Decompression (“Cupping”)
Mulligan Mobilization with Movement Techniques
Maitland Manual Therapy Techniques
Passive Accessory Movements
Joint Mobilizations
Team or Whole Office Services
Seeking an injury mitigation solution for your team of athletes? Anthrokinetics can temporarily make your existing facility a class-leading portable motion capture and synchronized sEMG lab to assess sport-specific dynamic movements. This can lead to data driven training choices to drive improved performance, or screen for troublesome movement patterns that could lead to various injuries. Get athlete-specific programming based on their individual movement profile to improve performance or mitigate injury.
Looking to adjust or overhaul your office workstations to improve posture and ergonomics? Want to adjust the workflow of your employees to carry out physical tasks more efficiently? Using a portable motion lab, both static posture and dynamic movement can be assessed to determine the best setup for your organization.