Can hamstring injuries be predicted? Does sustaining an injury permanently change something about its function? Is it just a matter of strength or is there something else? How does strength training effect it? Or does it? Time to buy a mfMRI! (Does not stand for "motherf**king MRI" by the way.)

Is eating salt a good thing or a bad thing?! Why do we as physical therapists care? This study actually has to do more with the problem of opinion infiltrating the evidence in what appear to be unbiased studies. How common is this in physical therapy literature? How can we spot it? Is it more than financial bias? Is JW turning into Batman...again?!

Jill Cook and Karim Kahn gave a very interesting lecture on understanding tendinopathy at APTA's Combined Sections Meeting (CSM) in February 2016. PT Inquest decided to take a deeper look. Can disorganized tendon tissue change? If it can't does it matter? When we understand the true nature of tendinopathy, certain treatments become much more plausible and others appear almost silly. Also, Erik provides a poor man's homemade doughnut recipe. Or is it donut?

Uncertainty is not just a reality in life it is a reality of professional practice. The ability to embrace uncertainty is known to have a positive effect on critical thinking and avoiding errors in judgement. That's all great, but do medical professionals acknowledge uncertainty in their practice? Is this harmful to patients? Does it raise healthcare costs? What about informed consent? As William Osler once said, "The greater the ignorance, the greater the dogmatism."

A couple years ago, Alessandro Lelli described his new test for ACL insufficiency via YouTube. Originally known as "Lelli's Test", he first published it in the literature as the "Lever Sign" in late 2014 reporting 100% accuracy. Ok - seemed a little TOO perfect. Now the literature has its first independent study on the Lever Sign so let's take a closer look at this test.

Sure, we know that ACLs get torn and the vast majority of those mechanisms are non-contact. So what EXACTLY happens in those knees? We have some plausible ideas like dynamic valgus, but how does that tear the ACL without any injury to the MCL? How would we answer such a question? Will JW survive the current heatwave in Minnesota?

When dealing with a high ankle sprain (syndesmosis injury) Grade I never requires surgery whereas Grade III always requires surgery. But what about Grade II? In this episode we explore predictors of syndesmotic instability when assessing a Grade II sprain and the return to sport prognoses. All this while JW approaches absolute zero!

Sports-related concussions have been getting more and more attention over the past decade. The growing understanding of the potential for developing chronic brain disease is creating a cause for concern. Are sports medicine professionals managing concussions differently today? How well do we understand this process? Has Erik had too many concussions over the years to form a complete sentence?

Here is a link to the NATA Position Statement on Management of Sport Concussion.

It's that time of year again and the PT Podcast Network crew are in the holiday spirit! The gang got together, as best they can scattered across the world, to share a little eggnog and make fun of each other. So pour yourself a drink, sit by the fire (or pool in the Southern Hemisphere), and enjoy a little holiday cheer.

It is well known that quadriceps strength asymmetries are commonly seen in subjects who have difficulty returning to sport after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR), but does that asymmetry correlate to a specific presentation on landing mechanics? What do we know about second injury in these subjects? Can we do anything about it? We ask these and many other questions when we chat with lead author from The Ohio State University, Laura Schmitt, PhD, PT!

Also, this is the last podcast of the current 12 episode season before we go on our usual 3 month hiatus. While we're gone, catch up on previous episodes or check out some of the other shows on the network!