Life long learning

Congratulations to Eden Prairie Physical Therapist, Meredith Butulis, on completing her MBA this weekend. This life-long learner also holds a Doctorate and Master's in Physical Therapy, Bachelor's in Pre-Med Health Studies, and several Personal Training and Pilates certifications. 

Hip post op labral tear

After surgery, people typically ask how long it will take to get back to various activities. Today, we will focus on post-op hip labral repairs with bony resections.

A labral tear means that the cartilage rim that helps support your hip stability has been injured. Not all labral tears require surgery. Surgical procedures and post-op protocols are also highly variable. The ideas presented here relate to one of our more common protocols, but again, it does vary by surgeon and exact procedure.




Here are the typical time frames for common activities:

1 week: Driving (for left hip surgeries)
3 weeks: Walking without crutches, Driving for right hip surgeries
6 weeks: Elliptical trainer
10 weeks: Some jogging and sport training
12-16 weeks: Modified return to sport
6 months-1 year: High level competitive sport without restriction

We hope this provides you an overview of activities. You should always check with your surgeon on his/her specific time frames for your specific surgery. Have a question or idea to share? Leave us a post!

Patellofemoral syndrome

What is patellofemoral syndrome? This is a question that we hear quite often at OSR Physical Therapy!

Patellofemoral syndrome means that your kneecap is not staying in line with thigh when you perform activities like walking, stair climbing, running, squatting, lunging, and jumping.

Think of your kneecap (aka patella) like a train. Think of your thigh (aka femur) like a set of railroad tracks. The train needs to stay centered on the tracks while you perform activities.

While traditional physical therapy focuses on strengthening your VMO (aka vastus medialis) and providing orthotics (shoe inserts), we use a more comprehensive sports medicine approach at OSR.

As suggested at the annual Cincinnati Sport Medicine Conference, the focus needs to be on the hip, not so much at the knee cap. Therefore, we assess the hip, knee, ankle, foot, and even core for muscle imbalances. Once we find those imbalances, we create a comprehensive custom treatment plan to resolve the muscle imbalances and retrain how you are performing the activities that were provoking the pain.

Most of the time, we find that we focus much more on how the "train track" works, and then the "train" just needs a little fine tuning so you can enjoy activities again!

Here is a video of one "train track alignment" exercise that we find almost everyone benefits from at some point in time:


Have questions or comments? Leave us a post!

This article was written by Meredith Butulis, DPT, who works at our Eden Prairie office.

Anterior oblique system

Last week, we discussed the posterior oblique muscle system. This week, let's move on to the anterior oblique system. When your external obliques and opposite side adductor work together, you can create power. This is especially beneficial in throwing sports.

After you've activated any under-active muscles or reach the final stages of your rehab program, here are some conditioning exercises you may wish to consider to build the strength of your anterior oblique system:

Posterior Oblique Muscles and Exercises

Have you ever rehabbed a back, hip, knee, or ankle injury? If you rehabbed with a Physical Therapist at OSR, you likely incorporated some exercises for your glutes. Numerous Physical Therapy and Athletic Training research articles guide us in ensuring that we assess and treat hip weaknesses with any lower body injury.

At some point you will be ready to move beyond basic exercises. At this point, you might wonder, what comes after the basics like clams and bridges? Transitioning from the basics of Physical Therapy back into fitness and total body training in a logical progression is advised to achieve optimal performance.

Muscles not only work in isolation, but also in groups. These groups are referred to as muscle systems (aka subsystems or slings). This article will focus on the posterior oblique system. This refers to how your lats and gluteus maximus work together during every day motion and sports motion.

Here are three exercises that can be used to target how these muscle groups work together:

Squat to row: This can be done with a TRX, cable, or band. It can be progressed to standing on one foot instead of two.

Bridge lat pull: This is traditionally a Pilates exercise, but can be done with a band anchored to a fixed object.

Single leg RDL: This can be performed without weight, and then progressed to using dumbbells or kettlebells.

This article was written by Meredith Butulis, DPT, ACSM HFS, NASM CPT. Meredith is a Physical Therapist at our Eden Prairie location. OSR Physical Therapy does run an Aftercare program to transition from Physical Therapy back to sport. 

Physical Therapy Month

October is Physical Therapy month. Have you ever wondered what kind of educational background Physical Therapists have? Check out this article on the basics of Physical Therapists.

Have a question about becoming a Physical Therapist, or about the background or specialties of your specific Physical Therapist? Leave us a post!

Introducing Minnetonka Athletic Trainer Kristin Kutch

I’m new to the Twin Cities and am very glad to have found a home with OSR Physical Therapy. I moved to Twin Cities in July from Kansas City due to a work move for my husband. 

Back in Kansas City I worked two years as the Head Athletic Trainer for a high school in Independence, Missouri. I was solely responsible for care of all athletes involved with the school’s 13 different sports. In addition to working at the high school I also worked as an Athletic Trainer with a youth hockey league, summer soccer league, and was part of the medical staff for the 2013 NAIA Division I Basketball Tournament. I was also fortunate enough to work as part of the stretcher crew for several professional soccer games at Sporting Kansas City Stadium.

I look forward to learning a lot in my new position at OSR as well as offering my knowledge and experience of sport performance enhancement. It is very rewarding as a clinician to see your patients return to their sport or activity at their full capacity, something I look forward to working towards every day at OSR. 

Kristin is located at our Minnetonka office and works as a team with Physical Therapist, Matt Gannott.