Erik Torchia, PT
3713 Kensington Ave V5B 0A7 Burnaby, BC, Canada

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT: AMANDA TOBIN - Senior Women’s Solo Representing Ontario - Returning to sport during a pandemic is no easy feat! Training regimes can ramp up aggressively and bring about injury or nagging training pains. Amanda’s jump counts have been high and had been managing some symptoms of mechanical back pain. Figure skating is an incredibly expressive sport something that moves your body to extremes for aesthetics particularly spinal extension. Laybacks, Beillm...an’s, landing positions many coached with ‘lift your chest!’. Find how to create the expression with abdominal pressure and tensegrity is integral. - Amanda and I spent some time rediscovering the ability to generate stiffness with breath and torso pressurization, proximal leading movements into her jumps, and spinal extension expression in the context of maintaining tensegrity. This combined with monitoring her jump loading made the difference in her return to skating. - Now before you start getting all huffy about extension is not pathological I completely agree. When it is the sole strategy for creating torso stiffness, that’s a different story - #TORCHYOURREHAB #TORCHYOURPERFORMANCE #TORCHYOURPHYSIO #physiotherapy #sportphysio #sportmedicine #rehab #onicetherapy #onicerehab #performance #athletic #stronger #faster #resilient #injury #sport #oniceclinic #figureskating #skating #covidcare #TEAMTOBIN #skatecanada #skateontario #beillman #layback See more

SHIN ANGLE + CUEING - Motor imagery is constantly used in my practice finding ways of using metaphors that are well known or highly relatable, to then associate this with the movement of the body. One strategy that I tend to cue is a POSITIVE SHIN ANGLE. This is where there is ALWAYS a forward lean to the shin, with an active foot below. Shout out to @franklinmethod for the concepts! - As an athlete’s body transitions over the foot in an acceleration movement, there can be ...a tendency to have the knee moving relatively posterior to its initial plant angle. This can be associated with a knee extensor pattern dominance vs a hip extension pattern dominance, also occurring in those who have difficulty generating stiffness of the foot and ankle complex. - The imagery is: vision your shin as the bow of a ship riding in the high seas. You have a destination planned and want to be prompt with your execution. In the seas, there are known waves (internal perturbations) and rogue waves (external perturbations) both of which your ship will respond to by cutting through them always moving forward. - This cue can be used as A CANOE PADDLING IN CALM WATER probably better for those looking to attain a forward tibial translation with WALKING in those with stiff foot/ankle (sprains/fractures/etc.) or those with a hypermobility into knee extension. - Other applications: getting into athletic stance positions - especially those who tend to be heel dominant. - NOTE: This is certainly not a true ‘ALWAYS’ statement (as if there are any, otherwise they would be ‘LAWS’ but applied to so many scenarios, that I will coach the reclining shin angle in another way when needed for that scenario. - Try this out next time you have one of these clients! Might just be what works! - #physiotherapy #exercise #sportphysio #sportmedicine #sport #athletic #soccer #football #sprinter #sprint #trackandfield #acceleration #fieldrehab #onfieldclinic #onfieldrehab #motorimagery #imagery #coaching #cueing @ Vancouver, British Columbia See more

CLAMSHELLS OF THE SHOULDER - At one moment, this seemed like an appropriate shoulder exercise. EVERYONE was doing it and so why make a change?? This movement was even structured into rehab protocol everywhere. EMG studies seemed to initially support this exercise.. high MVIC% seemed to be a great idea!! Oh but MVIC% doesn’t indicate force production? Oh.. and we don’t always want to have high MVIC% as this would mean the muscle may be functioning in an inefficient way - W...ant a great way of promoting a movement that doesn’t relate to sport patterning at all? Don’t like the concept of kinetic chain, sequential patterning, or proximal stability? Perfect. Keep it up big guy! - With all those million other ways of loading the shoulder, can we move away from this?? ** HOW DO YOU LOAD THE SHOULDER? ** HOW DO YOU INCORPORATE THE CHAIN? ** WHAT DOES YOUR PROGRESSION LOOK LIKE? - In coming posts, I will be revealing some of the ways that I look to load the shoulder. Acute -> Advanced. - #shoulderrehab #rotatorcuffrehab #cuffrepair #shoulderphysio #shoulder #shoulderexercise #cuffexercise #sportphysio #sportmedicine #exercise #sport #athletic #thrower #baseball #football #cricket #swimming #tennis #badminton

BANDED DECELERATION DRILLS - WHY: Decelerations are not only highly frequent in sport, but this is surely a moment where injuries do happen. Building capacity in exposures to these movements and finding our optimal position to transition is our goal! Limit excessive buffering with potentially ‘pathomechanical’ patterns of movement/deformation. - WHAT YOU NEED: x1 carabiner + 1x strength band - .75 to a 1 band is usually enough!... - WHEN: Progressive from speedy transitional movements (past post), and from unloaded basic deceleration drills. Love the reverse decel for my Achilles tendinopathies - CUES: COIL THE SPRING, GET LOW FIND YOUR ANGLES, QUICK STOP - (1) BANDED FWD DECEL - (2) BANDED LAT DECEL - (3) BANDED FWD DECEL TO LAT DECEL - (4) BANDED REVERSE DECEL one of those that I love particularly for those who have difficulty creating tension down into the foot/ankle complex, or those who tend to excessively use the rear ‘jab’ leg to push off of. This leg is in the terminal phase of a push, the front leg. At this moment, I DO NOT COACH A REAR JAB-STEP DRILL. The drill is often done poorly, and often you see people lose sagittal plane control of their torso when completed. Ok well I went off on that one! - (5) BANDED SHUFFLE TO IL 90 COD - (6) BANDED SHUFFLE TO OL 90 COD - @fortiuscentre - #aclrehab #soccer drills #fielddrills #returntosport #returntoplay #returntotrain #fieldbasedtherapy #athleticmovement #acceleration #deceleration #speed #progression #strong #foundation #athletic #physiotherapy #sportphysiotherapy #sportphysio #sportmedicine #sportmed See more

We made it!!! - Hard work really pays off.. even if YEARS later ! - Make sure you take a read and send me your critical analysis! Love to talk shop on this one!!... - #jospt @fortiuscentre #fortiusSTRONG @westernuniversity @mskptwesternu See more