Gardening Safety Tips

With the warmer weather coming in slowly but surely, flowers are blooming and it is time to start fixing up the garden! Before going headfirst into gardening this season, make sure you are prepared with proper tips and tricks to enhance your safety in the garden!

Working in your garden can be a great place to use your creativity while enjoying the outdoors and getting some physical activity. One of the first steps to safety in the garden is dressing to protect. Harmful sources such as lawn pests, harsh chemicals, sharp equipment, and too much sun can cause damage to your health and safety. To prevent damage, it is important to wear safety goggles, sturdy shoes, long pants, and gloves while gardening in harmful conditions.  Using insect repellent will also help in deterring any pests that can carry diseases, such as mosquitoes and ticks.

Working in the sun may also be dangerous for people that do not know their limits. Even being in the sun for short periods of time in high temperatures can cause serious issues in your health.  Make sure to drink plenty of fluids and avoid drinks that contain alcohol or large amounts of sugar as these will aid in dehydration.

Gardening can be tough on your body, so make sure to take frequent breaks to ensure you are not overworking yourself. Gardeners with arthritis should be using tools that are easier to grasp and match their ability. It has been shown that some physical activity by people with arthritis may increase energy and decrease pain and stiffness, so gardening may be the perfect start!

Be aware of heat-related illness signs, such as very high body temperature, headache, rapid pulse, nausea, confusion, or dizziness. If you experience any of these signs, immediately take a break in a shaded area and drink more water.

Remember to have fun in the garden this spring, but don’t forget to put your safety first!

Lake Country Physical Therapy & Sportscare PC offers the very best physical therapy in Ontario County. We treat all your wants and needs with our trusted and experienced Physical Therapists and staff. To begin to feel pain and stress free, start your Physical Therapy journey today and schedule your evaluation by calling (585) 396-1400.

Men’s Health

At Lake Country Physical Therapy & Sportscare, we aim to help men reach their maximum health for every stage of life. Our professionals specialize in the treatment of men’s health issues, and provide comfortable, one-on-one therapy to improve your health and overall wellness. We can provide either restorative or preventative services to treat a number of men’s health issues.

Incontinence is a common issue that is faced by men in any stage of life, often after surgery or trauma, and can have a number of causes. Incontinence is weakness in the pelvic floor which can cause leakage of urine or stool. The professionals at Lake Country Physical Therapy can work to rehabilitate the abdominal and pelvic floor muscles through different forms of therapy that may include electrical stimulation or biofeedback.

We can also work with men to provide pre-operative care and post-surgical rehabilitation treatments for many men’s health conditions. Surgery, such as a prostatectomy, can cause anxiety for men, but with muscle rehab and instruction on behavior modification, can greatly help manage the effects of this procedure. Post-operative care for this procedure focuses on strengthening the trunk, hips, abdomen and pelvic floor. We also provide similar treatments for those recovering from hernia repair surgery to prevent adhesion and formation of scar tissue.

The professionals at Lake Country Physical Therapy are also trained to help men dealing with fatigue from surgical procedures, chemotherapy, and radiation. We can provide different types of personalized energy management to help cope with fatigue and will help you progress in order to resume normal physical activity.

We provide services for sports specificity training and performance enhancement, such as golf and tennis, among others. To find out about all of the men’s health issues we treat and all the services we provide for specifically for men, please visit our website here. Through exercise, education, manual therapy and other treatments, we can help you reach your personal health goals and improve your well-being.

What Is the Difference Between Physical Therapy and Chiropractic Care?

Physical therapists and chiropractors are both medical professionals who provide treatment for pain and injury. If you are experiencing pain, you may be considering some kind of treatment to relieve your pain, but are not sure what type of professional care you need. Here are some differences between physical therapy and chiropractic care, so you can decide which is right for you.

A chiropractor is a medical professional who diagnoses and treats pain and injuries in the musculoskeletal system, which includes your bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments. A chiropractor focuses strictly on your bones and joints. A misalignment in your spine can cause tightened muscles, neck pain, back pain, headaches, and other symptoms. Chiropractors use joint manipulation/adjustments to loosen stiff muscles and correct misaligned vertebrae. Spinal adjustments chiropractors use are to help you reduce pain, regain movement, and achieve recovery.

A physical therapist is a medical professional who evaluates, diagnoses, and treats injuries and causes of pain and functional limitation. A treatment plan is developed for a person to regain and strengthen mobility, reduce pain, and prevent further injury and disability. A physical therapist works to treat pain caused by number of factors including injury, aging, and disease. Physical therapists are able to analyze issues with body movements such as coordination, flexibility, balance, range of motion and endurance. Services may include the following:

• Sports injuries and orthopedic injuries, including concussions, joint injuries, and post-surgical rehab.
• Workplace injuries such as repetitive stress injuries.
• Neurologic conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease, multiple sclerosis, and vascular disease.
• Balance and fall prevention programs.

The primary goal of physical therapy is to help people manage their condition through manual “hands on” therapy techniques, including manipulation or adjustments, postural correction, body mechanics, and exercise techniques. Physical therapists help people of all ages reach long-term goals and help prevent them from surgery and long-term need for prescription painkillers. A physical therapist offers a wide range of options to treat many issues throughout the body, while a chiropractor is more limited to manipulation/adjustments of the joints.  

At Lake Country Physical Therapy & Sportscare all the therapists have gone through extensive training and education. All of our therapists are trained to do adjustments, just as a chiropractor would, and some required complicated adjustments are referred to a local applied kinesiology group. Lake Country Physical Therapy & Sportscare mainstay services are:

• Orthopedic rehab: any muscle, bone, joint, ligament, fascial, or cartilage injury or after surgery. 
• Sports injury rehabilitation and prevention: for all ages, anyone who wants to improve their sport performance, or is just coming out of surgery.
• TMJ treatment: ranges depending on the patient’s specific circumstance. 
• Pelvic pain: pelvic floor (vaginal, anal, penile) and pelvic regions
• Urinary or bowel symptoms: treatments would include biofeedback, bowel and bladder behavioral modifications, abdominal and pelvic floor muscle rehab and depending on the case, pelvic floor electrical stimulation
• Pre-natal, pregnancy, and postpartum care
• Vertigo: treatments are beneficial to restoring equilibrium by challenging balance and head position
• Chronic pain: a plan of care incorporates Associated Awareness Techniques (AAT), and Pain Reflex Release Techniques (PPRT), hands-on bodywork, relaxation techniques, exercise, behavioral modifications, and meditation.

Lake Country Physical Therapy & Sportscare PC offers the very best physical therapy in Ontario County. We treat all your wants and needs with our trusted and experienced Physical Therapists and staff. To begin to feel pain and stress free, start your Physical Therapy journey today and schedule your evaluation by calling (585) 396-1400.

Women’s Health and Physical Therapy in Canandaigua, New York

Taking care of your body is very important and taking care of yourself after an injury or surgery is even more important if you want to get back into top physical condition. Lake Country Physical Therapy & Sportscare take women’s healthcare very seriously and their services are the best Canandaigua can offer!

One of the important things that women can be treated for at Lake Country Physical Therapy & Sportscare is incontinence, which is the loss of bladder or bowel control due to involuntary leakage of urine or stool. The physical therapists can help patients with this issue by retraining their bowel and bladder habits through pelvic floor and abdominal muscle rehab as well as electrical stimulation if needed. They also take care of women in surgical prevention and post surgery-rehabilitation for conditions such as hernias, which occur after childbirth, or diastasis recti, a condition which an abdominal muscle hernia. The treatments vary, but often exercise is key in repairing the body.
Lake Country Physical Therapy & Sportscare can treat other problems specifically facing women:

• dysmenorrhea (painful menstruation)
• fatigue post menopause (the ceasing of menstruation)
• osteopenia (precursor to osteoporosis)
• osteoporosis (bone condition where they lose mass and can broken more easily)
• painful sex
• vaginal and/or anal pain.

Although treatment for women is very important, it’s just as important to take care of women after they have become mothers by making sure they stay healthy and are capable of taking care of their new babies. Lake Country Physical Therapy & Sportscare  offers women prenatal education in which they offer consultations and treatment from a physical therapist specializing in women’s health. He or she will talk to you about how a women can learn how to exercise safely during the pregnancy, in which it is recommended a pregnant women exercise 3 to 4 times a week for 15 minutes at a time and a heartbeat of 140 beats per minute.

The physical therapist will also show women techniques on how to treat and avoid pain during the pregnancy, which is important in the developing health of the baby. He or she will also discuss body mechanics, the proper ways to move and position yourself and the baby, which a key technique to learn to remain pain free during pregnancy, and also with the child postpartum, after the pregnancy. In prenatal education, the women are also taught safe abdominal, hip and lower back exercises. These can be used as tools in preventing a hernia or belly bulge after labor and delivery of the baby.

Women’s health and physical therapy is taken very seriously at Lake Country Physical Therapy & Sportscare, especially when it comes to new women becoming mothers and maintaining their health and that of the newborn baby. Proper prenatal education can save your life or your child and it is not something you want to gloss over when preparing to become a parent. Just as new mothers are important, the older mothers and elderly need to stay healthy too! Lake Country Physical Therapy & Sportscare are dedicated to the improvement of women’s health during all phases of life.

Lake Country Physical Therapy & Sportscare PC offers the very best physical therapy in Ontario County. We treat all your wants and needs with our trusted and experienced Physical Therapists and staff. To begin to feel pain and stress free, start your Physical Therapy journey today and schedule your evaluation by calling (585) 396-1400.