Excel Physical Therapy and Fitness CEO Jeff Ostrowski along with Glen Mills Clinic Manager Greg Masiko, Senior Physical Therapist Cam McCormack, PT Aide Ryan McLean, former personal trainer Andy McCormack and former patient Brad Denning will be competing as a team in the Tough Mudder, on Saturday, November 20th at Raceway Park in Englishtown NJ.

The Tough Mudder is billed as the toughest one day endurance event on the planet. A 12.5 mile obstacle course race that is 3-4 times longer and much tougher than a typical mud run. An “Ironman meets Burning Man” competition, the obstacle course is designed by British Special Forces to test all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie. Forget finish times. Simply completing a Tough Mudder is a badge of honor.

This tri-state event is bigger than any other Tough Mudder event in the past. The course is longer, with more obstacles and nearly four times as many participants than usual. If you think you are tough enough to go through this challenge with the best of the best, you can register here.

* All Tough Mudder sponsorship proceeds go to the Wounded Warrior Project.

As trends emerge in the world of health and fitness, more people get involved in new methods of exercise. As we know, exercise participants can range from the highly trained athlete to the couch potato with a new year's resolution. No matter the participant's experience level, injury can occur during any part of an exercise routine, and can often occur while incorrectly performing strength or resistance training. Strength training is an important part of an exercise regimen; it promotes fat burning, improves core stability, and reduces bone loss and risk for osteoporosis. However, proper precautions must be taken and modifications must be made to reduce the chance of injury.

Villanova Staff Physical Therapist, Emily Baith, PT, DPT, ART was featured in PT Products Magazine for her article on Strength Training Injuries. They were so impressed, they  invited her to sit on the editorial board! Well done Emily!!! Read the rest of the article here: PT Products- Strength Training Injuries

Meredith Mayes

Staff Physical Therapist, Rothman Center City Clinic

Meredith Mayes, PT has done an awesome job during the first three months of her career at Excel. Meredith does a great job motivating her patients to get better. She truly puts the “fun” in functional treatment plan. Our clinic has achieved much success due to her hard work and dedication. Keep up the good work Meredith!

~ Submitted by: Greg Nolan, Clinic Manager

Meredith graduated from Albright College in Reading Pennsylvania in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology/Pre-medicine. Throughout her undergraduate career, Meredith worked as a student athletic trainer and volunteered at various physical therapy locations in her hometown in Northern New Jersey. While at Albright, Meredith was a member and co-captain of the Women039#s softball team. Upon graduation, she spent time in Europe with the Great Britain National softball team playing for a bid to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

Meredith graduated from Arcadia University with a Doctorate in Physical Therapy while continuing to fulfill her love of softball by serving as an assistant coach for the University softball team. She held the position of Secretary of the Student Physical Therapy Association. She also completed a research project entitled “Reliability of a new clinical measurement of scapular orientation and position.”

Professionally, Meredith has a special interest in treating sports-related and orthopedic injuries. Her goal is to treat each individual based on their functional limitations all while promoting an overall healthy well-being. Her goal is to ensure her patients undergo not only a one-on-one therapeutic experience, but also help them gain the knowledge to continue to apply that know-how in their everyday lives. Her future goals include attaining her certification as a strength and conditioning specialist and ultimately, a specialty certification in orthopedic physical therapy.

The theme of this year039#s National Physical Therapy Month, recognized by the American Physical Therapy Association, is “Smart Moves for Families” to prevent and combat obesity and its consequences.

“Obesity is a national epidemic, but studies have found that it is particularly a problem within the state of Pennsylvania as 30 percent of this state039#s children are considered overweight or obese,” says Jeff Ostrowski, PT, CEO of Excel Physical Therapy and Fitness. “Promoting health and fitness from an early age is one of the most powerful lessons we can pass on to the next generation because it lasts a lifetime and can often save a life. This month, Excel and the APTA are providing ideas and opportunities for families to become more active as a family and individuals.”

“Smart Moves for Families” offer family fun and easy suggestions of how they can grow to be an active family. Physical therapists can often develop activity and fitness plans for inactive individuals better than other fitness experts. Physical therapists understand individual needs, priorities and challenges, and are trained to closely support and monitor progress, which can be an important factor in helping an individual to achieve his or her goals.

Excel is hosting various activities in October in honor of National Physical Therapy Month such as educational seminars, open houses, free physical therapy screenings and other community events. A list of Excel events is below and for more information on local celebrations, please contact a local Excel clinic. Excel Physical Therapy and Fitness has locations in Center City Philadelphia, Northeast Philadelphia, Society Hill, Bensalem, Cherry Hill, Glen Mills, Jenkintown and Villanova.

October Events

• Glen Mills Patient Appreciation days 10/11, 10/12
• Villanova Patient Appreciation days 10/11, 10/12, 10/13
• Glen Mills Healthy Kids Running Series 10/1, 10/8, 10/15
• Senior Expo held at Garnet Valley High School 10/11
• In-service to wellness staff/personal trainers at Rocky Run YMCA 10/28
• Krewstown Open House/Patient Appreciation Week-Oct. 4 thru Oct. 8
• Krewstown-The Wonders Of Water Therapy: Oct. 5 at 6:30pm
• Bensalem Open House/Patient Appreciation Week-Oct. 11 thru Oct. 15
• Bensalem-Fall Into Wellness Talk- Oct. 13 at 6:30pm
• How to Keep Your Back Healthy Talk- Dan Alma at the Bristol Township Senior Center 10:30am
• Jenkintown Open House/Patient Appreciation Days: Oct 18 thru Oct. 20
• Jenkintown-Oct. 20th in the Pavilion-Meet Jane and Kay from Excel Physical Therapy and Fitness- FREE Physical Therapy screens. 10am-2pm
• Bensalem-Joe G. And Dan. Oct. 19 going to be at Northtec Safety Fair (for the employees there) 11:15-12:15 and 4:15-5:15
• Free PT check ups for Center City – Monday Oct 11th 8 am – 6 pm, Wednesday Oct 13th from 8 am – 6 pm, Fri Oct 15th 8 am – 6 pm
• Free PT check ups for Society Hill- Tuesday Oct 12th 8 am – 6 pm, Thursday Oct 14th 8 am – 6 pm
• All month Free PT check ups at the Cherry Hill location

For a complete list of our locations, addresses and phone numbers, click here.

Also, check out our Facebook page for event flyers!

As fall leaves come floating down, there039#s a good chance you039#ll have some raking to do. But bad form while raking—or during any repetitive motion, such as  lifting weights, using tools, painting,  working at a computer, and of course, swinging a tennis racket—can lead to a bad case of tennis elbow. This tenderness over the outside of the elbow can make your regular routine very painful.

Why does it happen? The combination of a powerful grip with excessive wrist extension (think revving a motorcycle) can put a strain on the tendon that attaches to the outside of the elbow.   Overuse of this tendon over time can cause small tears that then heal and lay scar tissue, limiting motion and causing pain each time you try to grasp and lift.

The best prevention for tennis elbow is taking breaks during your activity and stretching your forearm muscles after a warm-up.  This video demonstrates the proper way to stretch your forearm muscles.

Try to take breaks during your activity, allowing 15 minutes of rest time for every few hours worked. The combination of resting and stretching should allow you to avert this painful condition and allow you to enjoy your favorite activities and cross off those chores.

- Submitted by Sarah Walmsley on Philadelphia Magazine's BeWellPhilly Blog

Having just read this article Next Medicare “Doc Fix” May Be Punted to Early 2011, I got to thinking about how we got into this mess.

Let039#s say you could go back and hit the undo button on health care, what would you do?

For me, this first thing I039#d do is stop using the term “health care“.  Health care is a personal matter.  It includes such things as exercise, eating properly and avoiding known risky behaviors (smoking or driving without a seat belt for example) that could cause a medical problem.  Medical care is different.  It encompasses what is done when someone gets injured or sick.  There is a difference and the semantics matter.  Health care requires personal responsibility and knowledge.  Medical care requires someone else to help you.

The next thing I039#d do is require that we as patients or consumers have more skin in the game.  Here039#s why.  Our current system is fraught with twisted incentives.

The patient, who has been paying insurance premiums (or the employer has) for a long time expects to get Grade A medical care, regardless of cost.  Do your patients complain about high co-pays?  Of course they do.  It all used to be “free”!

The provider, whether hospital or physician or PT, doesn039#t have great concern for cost either.  They want to provide the best available service so the patient gets well.  If it means ordering one more test or procedure to be sure, then so be it.

The insurance company hopes the patient doesn039#t need care at all and tries to pay the provider as little as possible.

If there ever was a recipe for disaster, this is it!

Let039#s face it…changing the system now would be nearly impossible.  But maybe we could nudge it in a more beneficial direction.  Consider this option.  Require patients to pay cash for routine medical care like office visits, x-rays, certain classes of medications, physical therapy, chiropractic care, and other basic procedures.  Then, patients or employers would purchase insurance for catastrophic care, surgeries, hospitalizations and more complex procedures.

A system like what I039#ve described above would place more financial incentive on patients to practice good “health care”.  It would probably drive down the costs of some of the more routine services.  It would allow insurance to focus on the big ticket items.  The cost of insurance would do down if it didn039#t have to cover all the routine procedures.  More people would be able to afford it.  Think of your car insurance.  You don039#t use car insurance for an oil change, you use it for an accident.

Specifically regarding Medicare, those recipients would receive vouchers to purchase commercial insurance policies.  We would needs test those in Medicare and provide subsidies for those who could not afford the out of pocket costs described above.

That039#s my idea.  I039#d like to hear what you think.

- Contributed by: Jeff Ostrowski, PT- Owner/CEO