Extend Your Movement, Reclaim Your Life with David Jeter

When it's hard to get enough physical activity, often there might be a musculoskeletal issue that needs to be addressed.  David Jeter of Acceleration Physical Therapy works to address the movement problems that are causing pain and problems with mobility without jumping to medication or surgical solutions first.

David Jeter, MPT, COMT: Dave moved to Spokane in 1995 to study Biology at Eastern Washington University. He was accepted to the EWU Physical Therapy program, and graduated in 2001. Dave earned his COMT certification from the North American Institute of Manual Therapy. While Dave is a skilled manual therapist, he feels that some of his best work is performed at his barbecue in his backyard. He enjoys mountain biking, adventure racing, triathlons, fly-fishing, golfing, and most any other outdoor activity that can be done in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. His twin girls always keep him busy.

Learn more about Acceleration PT at https://accelerationphysicaltherapy.com/ and connect with David on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AccelerationPT

Transcript

Magic Barclay: 0:43

Welcome back to A Magical Life. I'm your host, Magic Barclay. And today, David Jeter joins me. And Dave is a partner at Acceleration Physical Therapy with four locations in the Greater Spokane area. He has over 20 years of experience in orthopedic physical therapy practice. And his philosophy for reducing musculoskeletal pain revolves around resolving the underlying movement dysfunction to decrease stress on irritable tissues. In Dave's words, movement is life. Welcome Dave.

David Jeter: 1:23

Well, thanks very much for having me.

Magic Barclay: 1:25

My absolute pleasure. I'm excited about this because so many people don't see how important movement is. We've become such a sedentary population worldwide.

David Jeter: 1:39

Yeah. I certainly like the new phrase that I hear going around that sitting is the new smoking.

Magic Barclay: 1:46

Totally. Now. We're going to get straight into this, Dave. I ask the same three questions of all of my guests and everyone gives me different answers and it's quite exciting. the differences that I hear And of course, yours will be all around how important movement is. So what can your expertise do to accelerate health, not just physical, but emotional and spiritual health as well?

David Jeter: 2:14

Well, I think that when people start a journey towards a healthier life, a lot of times they start doing different exercise, whether it is they start a walking program and they go to the gym or they just, they buy a Peloton and they get going on this new practice and a lot of it seems to go well. And then they run into these issues where. Boy, my low back doesn't really tolerate this exercise or my shoulder is really getting sore when I do, um, this farm girl fit, workout that I've been doing. And I think one of the ways that physical therapy can really benefit people is to support the process by getting. movement picture, improved. So for instance, if you have shoulder pain, a lot of times that has to do with a rotator cuff impingement or some other kind of pathology in the shoulder. But that painful tissue is not really the problem, but it is the result of the problem. And so if we kind of go back and look at what the shoulder is, it's a whole series of joints and regions that all have to work together. And if some of those Uh, joints and regions aren't moving properly. They can put extra stress on structures like the rotator cuff. So doing something to the rotator cuff isn't necessarily the right answer, but getting the whole system moving properly takes stress off of the rotator cuff such that they can start doing more loading and activity and resume, that healthy exercise and healthy habit without that painful, uh, stimulus to kind of really slow them down. Yeah, I mean, that's, one of the biggest things I hear is people start this journey and they hit this, this pain roadblock and instead of, working through it in a way where they can resolve the reasons for that, they, they end up not being able to continue on that, that journey.

Magic Barclay (2): 4:10

And that can cause some emotional dysfunction as well. Obviously, if you're not moving without pain, obviously, if you're, feeling held back by the pain, by the, the lack of ease of movement, you can kind of take that on as something you've created when really it's a structural issue that you need to address. Correct?

David Jeter: 4:34

Well, I would say this sort of kind of maybe even a, a chicken or the egg kind of question, uh, you know, which came first is the emotional and psychological, challenges. Is that, promoting a painful state, uh, in the sense that, you know, when we, when we look at, at different pain science models, thinking about stress and anxiety and, trauma and, you know, memories of movement that was, was painful. All of those things can contribute to the painful, experience. But then also, if you're able to move better and you're able to, work out, obviously, you're going to be feeling a lot better emotionally as well. So, I mean, there's not only benefits to movement in the, in the sense of decreasing that pain, but also obviously, uh, improvements to your mental health as well. And then similarly, improvements to mental health can. Decrease your pain experience as well.

Magic Barclay (2): 5:32

Now we talk about wealth here as well, and people think wealth is just the financial, but it's also the emotional and the personal wealth. So what are your top three tips to creating wealth?

David Jeter: 5:46

Well, I think, you know, when I think about. I think about, what am I able to do with my body when I'm not at work? and I think about my favorite things to do are go outside and do all of the fantastic things that the Pacific Northwest of the U S has to offer. So, I, Love skiing. I love mountain biking. I love backpacking all of those things. And to do those things properly, you need to be moving. Well, you need to be strong. You need to have good balance. You need to have good flexibility. And I think that you know, the concept of, you know, If you're putting money in your 401k every month, you're going to end up with a nice retirement, to live off when you're, you know, over 65, if you are working really hard at flexibility and balance and strength, you are putting that kind of movement in the bank for the future. So I like to think of it, if everyone started a Tai Chi and yoga program at the age of say 50, and they did that for 20 years, it would be amazing to see what those 70 year olds, were doing and were able to do. Versus what, you know, at least what we hear in the, in the States typically do, which is less and less and less. And we're kind of depleting that bank account of flexibility and strength and, balance.

Magic Barclay (2): 7:18

So putting a balance into that part of the account, the movement account, what else can they do? Like is stress something that they need to look at? Is there something else, maybe, you know, setting a routine or something, how can people get that exercise and that movement in every day?

David Jeter: 7:42

it seems like a lot of people, talk about, you know, commitment devices where, you commit to doing a thing that you're maybe less excited about doing and if you do that thing, then you, then you can do the thing that you want to do. That's a, that's a nice way to, to make sure you're getting your movement in. Again, for me, I think about doing exercise, uh, and going outside and riding my bike, or running or skiing or whatever, whatever the thing is that I'm doing outside. And whenever I can get. Outside into the fresh air and get my heart rate up and get my body moving, I always feel better, and especially when I can do that with my, my loved ones, with my, my wife and my daughters. that's, that's sort of like the pinnacle of that, all of it. Being able to enjoy my family. in an outdoor setting and get exercise all at the same time, there's, there's really nothing better than that for me.

Magic Barclay (2): 8:37

And our final standard question is around weight loss. Now, I know it's not something you've struggled with, but how can we link weight issues to Well,

David Jeter: 8:52

I certainly will say that I, struggle with some, uh, some weight issues, and making good choices in terms of food. but I think for me, You know, the weight loss portion, it comes back to making sure that your body is able to do the things that you want to do. I mean, I, I see so often people who are trying to lose weight and they're trying to do different exercise and they're trying to start new programs and they're unable to. Really push themselves in a way where they can, burn enough calories to actually see that weight loss because they, you know, their ankle hurts or their back hurts or their neck or their shoulder, whatever, whatever the painful thing is, because as they load it more and more, they feel more pain and then, they just can't do the activity to that point. So for, you know, from a physical therapy standpoint, resolving how the body is. lacking movement, especially hips, especially, mid back and shoulder region can dramatically improve the person's tolerance to exercise. And that's, uh, That can be really huge and, you know, subsequently, obviously, if you are, heavier, there's a lot of stress on things like knees. And if you can get to the point where you can tolerate more exercise, then you have less weight on those knees when you're doing all these other activities. So it's this feedback loop of, moving better, feeling better, losing Feeling better, moving better, and getting healthier.

Magic Barclay (2): 10:26

Great. Now, before we go on, we love freebies here. And I believe you have some terrific insights on Facebook where it says start with PT. Is that where people can find some, uh, great nuggets from you?

David Jeter: 10:43

Yeah, that's nice place where I started to put down some of my thought process about physical therapy, because I think, I think physical therapy has a little bit of a different model than the, the general medical model, you know, the general medical model is looking for what is the painful structure, you know, so for instance, someone might go to their physician and say, my knee is painful when I run and that position rightly, so might say, okay, it looks like you have some patellar tendonitis, you know, that big tendon below the kneecap is getting irritated and inflamed. Well, that's, that's somewhat interesting in the sense that yes, that is the painful structure, but that doesn't speak to anything about why is that structure painful? And so as a physical therapist, we look at everything. in the leg that is supposed to do certain movements or, low tolerance and see if it's doing its job. And inevitably we find, you know, somebody with patellar tendonitis that they have some stiffness and weakness in their hip or in their back. or in their ankle such that the knee is being placed in a position where it can't tolerate loads appropriately. So start with PT is, just a place where I started writing some of my ideas down about pain science, about physical therapy, about movement dysfunction. And yeah, that's it. It can maybe kind of get people to think about some of these aches and pains in a different way where, if you have that, that knee pain is a cortisone injection, the best way or, or, you know, multiple cortisone injections over years and years and years. Is that a great way to manage that? Um, That pain, or is it better to get the hip and back and ankle moving in a way where there's less stress on that knee in general?

Magic Barclay (2): 12:43

Great. Now we've covered a lot today, but now I'm opening the floor to you, Dave. What's a message that you think the listeners really need to hear? Like what stirs you up and you think, I need to tell everyone.

David Jeter: 12:59

The thing that I've been trying to, advocate for lately is almost always people should start with physical therapy and then move on from there. So, again, we'll take the person with knee pain. They go to their physician and they say, okay, I have this knee pain. And a lot of patients are looking at, A menu of options, you know, you can have an injection, you could go to physical therapy, you could have an MRI, you could go to the surgeon and maybe have a knee scope. But really, we should look at it less like a menu of options and more like a process or, a path that we're going to go down. And that path should almost always be start with a physical therapist, you know, what happens when we get the whole. System moving properly. What happens when we improve the loading tolerance and the strength tolerance to that, lower quarter, does that resolve the reason for the pain? And does that patellar tendon calm down? Or if we get everything moving, is that structure so irritated or so. torn that it still is creating a problem. Do we need to move towards, trying to, again, do a cortisone injection. Cortisone injection is totally fine as long as it's part of a process and not just this long term strategy. If a cortisone injection maybe improves the situation for a few months, but doesn't resolve the problem. the pain, long enough so that maybe a strengthening program can can resolve it. Maybe a surgical intervention is, is warranted. So my biggest advocacy for physical therapy is that Too many people are skipping steps in their musculoskeletal journey. Too many people are saying, okay, I've got this shoulder pain. I'm going to the surgeon and I'm going to get an MRI. And if something is torn in there, I'm going to have it quote unquote fixed. And the idea that having surgery done without resolving the movement dysfunction throughout that whole system is just, it blows my mind that people are doing that on a very regular basis. Again, at least here in the United States.

Magic Barclay (2): 15:11

And I think that's, uh, happening everywhere. Now we've covered so much and I really want to get people in touch with you. So your website is accelerationpt. com. What can they find there?

David Jeter: 15:27

Well, that's our, um, that's our clinic website, uh, talking about who we are and, uh, and what we do. You'll find some videos there that I've, I've made regarding why it's important to start with physical therapy and why it, and what, what is good physical therapy look like, you know, um, unfortunately, different practitioners do different things and there is. a lot of great practitioners out there and there, there are less good ones. So if you're, going to a physical therapist and, for instance, you're not doing exercise, that's probably not a very good place. And you should, you should really look into something else. And again, there, there's, there's a time and a place for not doing exercise, but if you have a lot of run of the mill, uh, physical therapists, musculoskeletal pain as, as we all do, a physical therapist should be giving you exercise. And I can't tell you how many times I have people come in my office and they say, Oh no, I've never done anything like this. I've never had, a physical therapist move my arm around like this, or I've never been shown exercises that, either get me moving this way or, strengthening my shoulder in this way or, or whatever. But, yeah, what is, what is good physical therapy look like and, you know, how should you start with your musculoskeletal pain and where's the, where's the starting point for you to resolve it?

Magic Barclay (2): 16:47

And we mentioned a Facebook page earlier, but you're also on Facebook with Acceleration PT and the Start with PT page. Dave, thank you so much for joining us. I've really enjoyed our chat.

David Jeter: 17:01

Yeah, thanks very much. You know, I, I always say that physical therapists are terrible at discussing what it is we do and why we do it. And so I'm just trying to get out and, um, and talk to people more about, why physical therapy should be, a part of their musculoskeletal health.

Magic Barclay (2): 17:18

And listeners, as you know, from me, from previous episodes, no system works alone. So if your musculoskeletal system isn't happy, some of the others won't be either. So definitely get on to Dave and, you know, check out what he has to offer to, Boost your movement and keep your health going. Listeners, thank you so much for your time. We really do appreciate it. Keep those great reviews coming in. We love to read them and for now, go forth and create your magical life.