This replay has been taken down. Stay tuned for other events coming to Shallyn's Physical Therapy and Wellness Services. 

If you are a COVID-19 survivor and/or enjoy evidence based practice, this article may interest you.  Join Shallyn live stream every Thursday evening, 6:15 to 7:15 mountain time, for Tai Chi or follow on-demand from the virtual library:  http://www.perfectfitwc.com/on-line-classes.html. 

Stay well and active!

If you or someone you know falls into the high risk category of diabetes, chronic lung disease or cardiovascular disease for COVID-19, please watch the following presentation for potentially life saving information.

These are currently tough times with Coronavirus implications and life will present other trials along our lifes' journeys too.
Please watch a special free segment from Dr. Shallyn on "Battling for your Mind" at http://www.perfectfitwc.com/on-line-classes.html, library password "member", miscellaneous classes.  Posted below are close ups of the visuals I presented during this class. 

Shallyn's Physical Therapy and Wellness Services recently had a neck and shoulder workshop and we touched on rotator cuff management during this free 1 hour informational session for the community. 

With a known tear, it can be very beneficial to work the muscle in the opposite direction.  Since the rotator cuff functions to lift and rotate our arm, this weighted pulley exercise is one of Shallyn's favorite rehabilitative exercises for rotator cuff dysfunction; taking the work out of our rotator cuff and putting it into opposite stabilizers and allowing any adhesions within the rotator cuff tendons to stretch out without aggravating the tear(s).

Keys to performing this exercise correctly: rig a pulley from the top of a door directly behind the shoulder you want to work.  Add a 5# weight to one handle.  Your hand on the handle should always operate with your thumb facing the ceiling.  This allows space in your shoulder joint for the rotator cuff tendons to glide without pinching.  Your ARM (not just your elbow) should elevate at about a 45' angle with your body.  Find the angle of most comfort for you but never directly in front of your body or directly at the side of your body as these 2 positions encourage bony pinching on the rotator cuff tendons moving through your shoulder joint and can cause or worsen a tear.  I recommend doing this exercise for time vs repetition as it is really being used as a self-massage for your rotator cuff tendons.  If you have recently had rotator cuff repair surgery, please consult with your physician's post surgical protocol or your over-seeing physical therapist for when this exercise is appropriate to start.  This exercise can also be used for anyone having stiffness/pain with overhead lifting of their arm.  If it causes more pain, please stop and consult with a physical therapist.  You can reach Shallyn's at (719) 219-5865.

Shallyn's latest Tai Chi class is underway at Perfect Fit Wellness Center, focusing on Mindset and Neck and Shoulder Stability.  Click on the videos below to get a taste of what is happening in class right now.  Join us Thursday nights from 6 to 7 pm to enjoy Shallyn's Rehabilitative Tai Chi in a fun, relaxed group atmosphere.  Included in Perfect Fit Wellness Center membership or $10 a drop in class. 

Accordion Breathing                            Polishing the Table                         Turtle Retracts Head

Cloud Hands                                  Swimming Dragon                           Heart and Lung Opening

2 Hand Offering                                      Thumb Gazing                                   Tree Hugging

Owl Turns her Head                                                             Between Earth and Sky

The cool thing about being a Rehabilitative (Physical Therapist) Tai Chi instructor is all of these moves can be modified to meet you where you are physically at -- lying down, sitting, standing, stepping, walking.  Tai Chi is meant to be practiced in the "yellow-zone" -- challenging to you, but not eliciting pain.  It is meant to be relaxed and slow.  It transitions you from a sympathetic nervous system state (stressed out from work/day happenings) to a parasympathetic nervous system state (the only state our body can heal in).  Even just practicing proper postural alignment OR focused breathing OR mindful meditation during these guided moves can have major health benefits to lead you to a well and active life. 

Give Shallyn's a call at (719) 219-5865 with any questions about her Tai Chi practice or schedule an appointment for further personalized Tai Chi practice for your health needs/goals.  No appointment necessary for joining one or many of her community Tai Chi classes (at Perfect Fit Wellness Center, Peyton CO September through May and outdoors, at Shallyn's Physical Therapy and Wellness Services, Black Forest CO June to September).

Here's to better health to all of my neighbors!

Did you receive an exercise ball as a gift and are a little unsure of what to do with it?  Here are two handouts of some of Shallyn's favorite stretches and general strengthening exercises to get you started.

To see the strengthening exercises in motion, click on a video link below.

There are so many exercises that can be done with the ball.  I think the exercise ball is truly the best piece of exercise equipment "bang for your buck".  For specific programs for your needs/desires, contact Dr. Shallyn at (719) 219-5865.  Here's to a healthier YOU in 2020!

Compiled for one of Shallyn's New Year's Day Open House give-aways, here is a handout to help start you on the road to stabilizing/strengthening your ankle with some favorite hip strengthening ideas.

To see these exercises in motion, click on a video link below.

For comments or questions on these exercises or how to make them more specific to your needs, please call Dr. Shallyn at (719) 219-5865.  Here's to less pain with walking and better supported knees in 2020!

Yesterday afternoon Shallyn's was privileged to celebrate the beginning of a New Year and a New Decade with several of Shallyn's loyal patrons and their friends at her New Year's Day Open House.  One of the raffle give-aways was a neck strengthening kit.  See the handout below provided to our winner to gleam ways you may also be able to strengthen your neck in this New Year.

See these exercises in action by clicking on the video links below. 

Ways to progress these neck stabilizing exercises can be seen in the follow-up videos below.  Place your forehead on the ball with a gentle chin tuck.  You should feel the muscles around your vocal cords working hard while co-contracting with the rest of your neck muscles.

For questions or comments on these exercises call Shallyn's at (719) 219-5865.  Here's to better posture and less pain in 2020!  Happy New Year.

Happy Holy-days and Merry Christ-mass from Shallyn's Physical Therapy and Wellness Services.  At Shallyn's we are so grateful for Christ's death/sacrifice; the greatest gift we can have and give.  Without Christ, we would not be able to grow in the fruits of the Holy Spirit -- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23).  In the flesh we are powerless over naturally achieving these mindsets.

In Shallyn's Tai Chi winter series that kicked off tonight, we reviewed how our natural mindset comes to be, how it manifests into our body's expression, and results in our current circumstances/reality/environment.  We have a choice to break down negative subconscious beliefs, patterns, habits and values that prevent us from living our most healthy lives each and every day.  We can move from a place of judgement to a place of forgiveness (thank you Jesus for being the propitiation for our sins, 1 John 2:2); to cease to feel resentment and own our lives back.  We can move from being victim to accepted because despite our trials and tribulations in the world, He overcame the world (John 16:33).  We can move from a state of being needy to a place of inner strength because it is not I who live but Christ who lives in me (Gal 2:20).  We can stop our excuses and walk in His will because His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isa 55:9).  We can get out of a state of confusion and learn to trust again; trusting that He is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (even when we are faithless, 2 Tim 2:13), gentleness (His burden is light, Mat 11:28-30), and self-controlled (the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, Heb 13:8).  Our flesh may put us on the EVIL wheel of despair toward health but, with God all things are possible (Mat 19:26)!

In 2020, it is my challenge to you to take that nagging issue that YOU can't seem to rid and seek effectively your individual positive desire of optimal health; growth for all around you -- family, friends, co-workers.  Through prayer and being thankful for everything (opportunity for growth and  never forsaking all the blessings that come your way in life), your best health days are yet to come.

It is no coincidence what scripture God puts on my heart to share with my patients/clients each week on my scripture board.  As we wrestle through our winter series in Tai Chi, this is our meditative message to fully experience breakthrough in our resistant mindsets and stabilize our neck and shoulders (a common place of physically harbouring our stress).

Phillipians 4:6-7 NIV
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Join us Thursdays at Perfect Fit Wellness Center in Peyton, from 6-7pm to learn more about how you can also obtain breakthrough in resistive mindset and navigate your Spirit peaceably through the Holy-Days.  For more information or personal coaching on mindset, call Shallyn's at (719) 219-5865.

Merry Christmas to all!