Athletic Advantage Physiotherapy and Wellness

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Athletic Advantage Physiotherapy and Wellness Athletic Advantage is a boutique clinic helping people get out of pain and move better. Our team of

10/09/2026

Best knee rehab exercises for knee pain? Let’s rank them.

From S-tier to F-tier, I’m ranking popular knee strengthening and rehabilitation exercises based on my experience as a physiotherapist.

Some are great for building strength and improving knee function. Others? They might not be my first choice.

But here’s the thing: even an F-tier exercise isn’t necessarily a bad exercise. It depends on your injury, symptoms, and stage of rehab.

Which knee exercise deserves S-tier? Let me know if you agree with my rankings.

09/26/2026

Hip impingement rehab for runners shouldn’t stop when your hip feels better during everyday movement.

Running and especially sprinting requires the hip to produce and control force through large ranges of motion, at speed. That means later-stage rehab needs to prepare the hip for more than just being flexible.

A few things we’re looking to restore before returning to faster running:

→ Strength at end ranges of hip motion
→ Active control of internal and external rotation
→ Hip flexor strength in both shortened and lengthened positions
→ Adductor and glute strength
→ The ability to control rotation while the hip is loaded

That’s the difference between simply improving hip mobility and rebuilding the capacity needed for running.

If hip impingement symptoms keep returning when you increase your running speed or volume, the missing piece may not be another stretch…it may be strength and control in the positions your sport actually demands.

09/16/2026

Hip pain locations explained - Part 2📍

Where you feel hip pain can help narrow down what may be contributing to it. If your pain is in the back of the hip, buttock, outside of the hip or upper inner thigh, here are some common conditions associated with those pain locations:

1. Lumbar radiculopathy / sciatica: Buttock pain that may travel down the leg.

2. SI joint pain: Pain around the sacrum, upper buttock or dimple area, often on one side.

3. Piriformis syndrome: Pain felt deep in the buttock.

4. Deep gluteal syndrome: Deep buttock or posterior hip pain.

5. Gluteal tendinopathy / greater trochanteric pain syndrome: Pain on the outside of the hip around the bony prominence.

6. Proximal hamstring tendinopathy: Lower buttock pain around the sit bone.

7. Ischiofemoral impingement: Deep buttock or back-of-hip pain.

8. Adductor tendinopathy: Groin or upper inner-thigh pain.

Your hip pain location alone can’t diagnose the cause, but where it hurts along with what movements or activities aggravate it can narrow things down.

📌 Save this hip pain location guide for later, and check out Part 1 for pain at the front of the hip.

09/08/2026

Where is your hip pain? 📍

Hip pain location can sometimes give you clues about what structures may be involved. Pain at the front of the hip, groin, inner thigh or upper thigh can all present differently depending on the underlying injury or condition.

In this video, we break down the common pain locations associated with:

1. Hip osteoarthritis
2. Hip flexor tendinopathy
3. Hip impingement
4. Hip labral tear
5. Adductor tendinopathy
6. Inguinal hernia
7. Osteitis p***s
8. Quadriceps strain
9. Proximal re**us femoris strain
10. Meralgia paresthetica
11. Adductor strain

While where your hip hurts can be useful information, pain location alone can’t tell you exactly what’s causing your symptoms. Several hip and groin conditions can cause pain in similar or overlapping areas, and symptoms can vary from person to person.

Use this as a general guide to common hip pain locations, not as a way to self-diagnose. If you’re dealing with persistent hip or groin pain, getting properly assessed can help determine what’s actually contributing to your symptoms and what treatment or rehab makes sense for you.

Where do you feel your hip pain?

09/01/2026

Inner ankle pain? Try these 4 exercises 👇

Pain along the inside of the ankle can often involve the posterior tibialis tendon, an important structure that helps support the arch and control the foot and ankle during walking, running, jumping, and pushing off.

Rest alone isn’t always enough. We want to gradually rebuild strength through the calf, posterior tibialis, and the muscles that support the foot and arch.

Here are 4 exercises I like:

1️⃣ Single-Leg Calf Raise on Foam Roller — 2 x 12

The shape of the foam roller fits into the contour of the forefoot, allowing for optimal loading of the posterior chain (calf, hamstring and intrinsic muscles of the foot)

2️⃣ Floating Big Toe Calf Raise — 2 x 12

Removing the big toe from the surface changes how you load the foot and increases the demand through the muscles supporting the inside of the ankle, including tibialis posterior.

3️⃣ Banded Ankle Inversion — 2 x 15

Directly strengthens the muscles along the inside of the shin and ankle, with an emphasis on the tibialis posterior.

4️⃣ Bent-Knee Single-Leg Calf Raise — 2 x 8

The bent-knee position targets the soleus while building single-leg calf strength and integrating quad loading.

If you’re dealing with inner ankle pain, posterior tibial tendon pain, or weakness through the arch, progressive strengthening can be an important part of getting back to full function.

Save this for your next ankle rehab session!

08/27/2026

Golfer’s elbow pain that keeps coming back? 👇

Golfer’s elbow, also known as medial epicondylitis or medial epicondylalgia, is a common cause of pain on the inside of the elbow.

It affects the common flexor tendon, where several of your forearm and wrist flexor muscles attach. Repetitive gripping, lifting, pulling, wrist flexion, and forearm rotation can overload this area, whether you play golf or not.

Common golfer’s elbow symptoms include:

1️⃣ Pain or tenderness on the inside of the elbow
2️⃣ Pain with gripping or carrying
3️⃣ Pain with wrist or forearm movements
4️⃣ Reduced grip strength
5️⃣ Symptoms that flare with lifting or training

Rest may temporarily reduce golfer’s elbow pain, but rest alone doesn’t rebuild the strength or capacity of the tendon.

The goal isn’t to avoid using your elbow. It’s to gradually rebuild your forearm strength and increase the amount of load your elbow can tolerate.

Save this for your golfer’s elbow rehab and gradually progress the resistance as you get stronger.

08/22/2026

A meniscus tear doesn’t automatically mean surgery.

In fact, many meniscus tears respond extremely well to rehab, which is why conservative treatment is often the first option.

So what actually is your meniscus?

Think of it as a shock absorber between your thigh bone and shin bone. It helps:

👉 Distribute force through the knee
👉 Absorb load
👉 Improve joint stability
👉 Keep the knee moving smoothly

When it’s irritated or torn, you might notice joint-line pain, swelling, stiffness, clicking, or difficulty fully bending or straightening your knee.

But a tear on an MRI doesn’t always mean a knee that needs to be “fixed” surgically.

For many people, we want to start getting the knee moving and loading again as tolerated.

Early rehab usually focuses on:

✅ Restoring knee flexion + extension
✅ Reintroducing rotation
✅ Rebuilding quad + hamstring strength
✅ Gradually increasing weight-bearing and load
✅ Progressing back to running, jumping and sport

Does that mean surgery is never needed? Of course not.

Certain tears, a truly locked knee, associated injuries, or symptoms that aren’t improving with appropriate rehab may warrant a surgical opinion.

But for many meniscus injuries, rehab is a very reasonable place to start.

Your MRI is one piece of the puzzle…not your entire treatment plan.

05/28/2026

If you lift weights and deal with rotator cuff tendonitis, rest alone won’t fix the issue.

Our patient, , came in with shoulder pain while prepping for a bodybuilding show. For him, taking weeks off wasn’t an option. He needs to stay strong, keep training hard, and be in peak condition by show day.

After assessing him, we found rotator cuff tendonitis along with restrictions in specific shoulder ranges that were creating pain under load.

First, we opened up his restricted ranges using loaded mobility work through deep external rotation, shoulder flexion, and abducted positions.

These positions are critical for lifters because if they’re limited, you won’t be able to press as deep, load as heavy, or create as much tension through the muscle, all of which can impact hypertrophy and strength.

Once we improved mobility, we strengthened and loaded those new ranges to build control and stability.

Finally, we trained the tissues ballistically using deceleration and catching drills. This is a huge piece that gets missed in a lot of rehab programs.

It’s not enough to just have mobility and strength … the shoulder also needs to tolerate high-speed force and explosive loading.

For serious lifters, that final step is critical to getting back to training hard confidently and pain-free. 💪🏋️‍♂️

05/21/2026

The 2 biggest mistakes I see in ankle sprain rehab… 👇

1. Not restoring full ankle range of motion

2. Only doing double leg hopping drills

A lot of athletes go back to sports once they are pain free doing daily movements and tasks.

But being pain-free does not mean the ankle is fully ready for sport.

The first key is restoring full ankle range of motion.

A lot of people regain about 80% of their motion, and because that’s enough for daily activities, they stop there.

But sport requires the ankle to reach deep end ranges repeatedly under load.

If those ranges are never restored after injury, many athletes never truly get them back.

That’s why rehab should include loading the ankle through full dorsiflexion, plantar flexion, inversion, and eversion.

The second mistake is stopping at simple bilateral hopping drills.

Double leg hopping can hide deficits because the opposite leg helps absorb and create force.

Single leg hopping exposes whether the foot and ankle truly have the strength, spring, power, and landing control needed for sport.

If the ankle lacks mobility, the hops will look flat and stiff.

If strength hasn’t fully returned, push off power and hopping speed will still be reduced.

Don’t just rehab until the pain is gone.

Rehab until the ankle is fully prepared for the demands of sport.

04/30/2026

Stretching your hip pain might be the reason it’s not getting better.

This patient had:

• Deep glute pain
• Hamstring tightness
• Hip pinching

But the issue wasn’t tightness—it was too much mobility without control.

👉 Diagnosis: ischiofemoral impingement

So instead of stretching more… we focused on building stability in the ranges she already had.

Here’s the exact routine we used:

1️⃣ Hip airplanes × 8
2️⃣ Hip IR passive lift-offs (3s hold) × 10
3️⃣ Hip ER + flexion lift-offs × 8
4️⃣ Kneeling capsular rotations × 5
5️⃣ Partial range Copenhagen × 8
6️⃣ Partial range hip flexion × 8
7️⃣ Partial range bridge × 8

Each of these is designed to:

✔️ Build control
✔️ Strengthen end range
✔️ Train the hip to actually use its mobility

Because random exercises won’t fix a specific problem.

The wrong movement for the wrong condition can keep you stuck or make things worse.

Specific rehab → real results.

Address

10 Karachi Drive Unit 82
Markham, ON
L3S0B6

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 8pm
Tuesday 8am - 8pm
Wednesday 8am - 8pm
Thursday 8am - 8pm
Friday 8am - 8pm
Saturday 8am - 5pm
Sunday 8am - 2pm

Telephone

+19055548677

Website

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