OPAL Movement Therapy

09/10/2026

"I saw Dr. Morgan for hip/knee pain and then an ankle injury. After the ankle injury I was able to return to hiking training (for a Grand Canyon trip) after a month of PT.

Dr. Morgan has the heart of a teaching and focuses not only on showing you the proper form of the exercises used in therapy but also on explaining why you are doing them and how they improve your situation.

She gets my highest recommendation!"

Want to work with us?💙
Schedule your FREE Discovery Call and work with us anywhere in the world by clicking the link in our bio or visiting OPALMovementTherapy.com/contact-us 📱 ✨

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09/10/2026

"Is 10 lbs per hand a good starting weight for RDLs?"

If you're not familiar with doing RDLs, we actually recommend holding 1 weight to start like 1 kettlebell or 1 dumbbell. It's less to manage and think about while you're still mastering form.

We can always progress to 2 weights when you're more confident. If you can do 10-20 pounds with both hands, then you're ready to progress to 2 x 10 lb weights and so on.

When are you ready to go from dumbbells to the barbell?🤔

Standard barbells are 45 lbs., so once you feel confident with 20 lb. dumbbells in each hand, then you're ready to start doing RDLs with an empty barbell.

Once you feel confident with your form using a barbell, you can gradually add 5-10 lbs. on either side of the bar.

Got more questions about increasing weight or specific equipment? Drop them in the comments!👇

Need more help? 💙
Book your FREE Discovery Call through the link in our bio or by going to OPALMovementTherapy.com/contact-us 📲💻✨

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09/09/2026

At OPAL, we're pretty picky when it comes to assessing and prescribing calf strengthening exercises!

We love to assess calf strength at some point with all of our clients because it's usually a huge opportunity to address strength or an imbalance between sides. Most of the time, we find an opportunity for our clients to improve their calf strength or their mechanics when performing calf raises.

Here is a progression from double leg calf raises to staggered to single leg to single leg calf raises with added weight for you to work toward on your own.

▪️Start at the level where you can stack stacked with your hip over your knee and ankle.

▪️Push through the ball of the foot, make sure you aren't flaring your ankles out and pushing more through the pinky toe.

▪️Keep your knee straight the whole time, and push through the floor instead of lifting up with your back.

▪️Start with 3-4 sets of 6-10 reps 1-3x/week and work your way through the progression as form allows.

The goal is to eventually be able to do 25 single leg calf raises with exceptional form!

Need more help?💙
Schedule your FREE Discovery Call today! Tap the link in our bio or go to OPALMovementTherapy.com/contact-us📱💻✨

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09/09/2026

Dealing with sciatica or nerve pain down your leg?

In our new YouTube video, Dr. Morgan walks through 5 gentle mobility exercises to help with sciatica. Whether you’re experiencing pain, numbness, tingling, or burning - these drills can be done throughout the day to help keep things moving within a comfortable range!

Give it a watch, try the routine, and let us know which drill felt the best for you! 💙💪

If you’re dealing with sciatic symptoms like pain, numbness, tingli...

09/09/2026

If you saw our video on everyone's least favorite test at OPAL (the 25 Single Leg Calf Raise assessment) then you probably saw this coming too.

If you know Dr. Morgan, then you know she has a lot of pet peeves and sloppy calf work is the top of the list this week.

You don't know what you don't know, so if you've been doing sloppy calf work in your workouts it's okay...until today. Now that you've seen this video you should have an idea of how to refine your calf raises in the gym.

Will they be harder? Yes. Will you have to do less weight? Yes. Will you have to drop down to a staggered stance or double leg for a bit? Yes. Is it annoying? Yes.

But so is doing calf raises and never reaping the benefit of strengthening the one muscle you're trying to target.

Go get those calf gains, team!!

Need more help? 💙
Book your FREE Discovery Call through the link in our bio or by going to OPALMovementTherapy.com/contact-us 📲💻✨

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09/08/2026

Happy World Physical Therapy Day!! 🌎

We’re so grateful for Dr. Morgan, Dr. Magda, and Dr. Evan and the knowledge, care and energy they bring to the clinic every day!

The work that PTs do to keep people moving better, stronger, and doing what they love is so important so if you see your PT today, give them a little extra love and let them know how much you appreciate what they do! 💙

09/08/2026

The Single Leg Calf Raise assessment is everyone's least favorite test at OPAL... It's time consuming and humbling, but we have to do it!

This is a functional calf strength assessment where we see if you can get 25 quality single leg calf raises. Emphasis on the quality. If we ask everyone to do 25 single leg calf raises, we know you'll rep them out no problem, but this test is a little different.

Here are the rules:
▪️2 fingers on either side of the wall for balance
▪️Push through the ball of the foot for each rep. Rolling ankles out and pushing through the pinky toe= no rep
▪️Knee is locked in extension. If you bend the knee to do the calf raise = no rep
▪️ If the height of the calf raise decreases over reps, the test is over

We also watch to see if your hip, knee, and ankle stay stacked, or if your whole leg wants to rotate in.

What's the worst part about this test? It turns into treatment.

Dr. Magda tested Dr. Morgan the other day and Dr. Morgan got 24 on her left leg and 19 on her right leg. She now has homework to do.

And why do we need to do it? Whether you're running marathons, trying to prevent falls, or growing a human, we need strong calves.

Need more help? 💙
Book your FREE Discovery Call through the link in our bio or by going to OPALMovementTherapy.com/contact-us 📲💻✨

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09/07/2026

If you asked us what are the best exercises to do as you age, here's what we would say: deadlift variation, lunge variation, overhead press, carry, and interval training!

There are so many amazing movements out there, but if we could only pick 5 movements to help you stay independent as you age, these would be our top choices.

Deadlift variation: This is a compound movement, aka it works the whole body, and targets a ton of muscles. You can also load it heavy because it's a compound movement and spreads the work out over lots of joints and muscles, meaning this is a great movement to stimulate muscle growth, strength, and bone density.

Lunge variation: We chose lunges because they are a single leg strength exercise and when we work one leg at a time, we can address muscle imbalances and challenges with coordination and balance that can often get masked with double leg movements like squats.

Overhead press: Lack of overhead mobility and strength is common as we age and if we want to stay independent we need to have strength reserves to put our luggage in the overhead compartment, reach overhead, and put stuff in our kitchen cabinets.

Carry: a farmer's carry or farmer's walk is essential to challenge our grip strength (which is a predictor of fall risk and mortality) and keep our upper body and core strength. It's also super functional like carrying groceries or bags into your home as you age.

Interval training: We like bike sprints because they are low impact and many of us have access to a bike as we age, but interval training on the treadmill, rower, elliptical, HIIT exercises, or in the pool works too. Short spurts of exercise at higher levels of intensity challenge our cardiovascular system and metabolic system in ways that are critical to help us age with good cardiorespiratory fitness.

Have you thought about how your exercise program supports you as you age?

Need more help?💙
Schedule your FREE Discovery Call today! Tap the link in our bio or go to OPALMovementTherapy.com/contact-us📱💻✨
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09/07/2026

Is weightlifting safe in older age? 🤔

Absolutely - It's safe and we should be encouraging it!

As we age, we lose muscle mass and muscle strength. We need to incorporate weightlifting so we can boost our muscle mass and strength reserves, prevent falls, and reduce our mortality risk.

Truthfully, weightlifting is safe for everybody but it has to be relative to you and where you are at. If you're not exercising at all right now then we're not going to start with weights--we're going to start with a mobility routine and bodyweight movements. Then we're going to start incorporating resistance training.

Ultimately, exercise and weightlifting is not the problem. Rather it's how people transition to weightlifting and how much load, volume, frequency, intensity the weightlifting entails.

We have so many clients we have met who are going through menopause or getting older or they're watching their parents age and they want to get stronger, so they jump into a weightlifting routine on their own and sometimes things pop up like back pain or knee pain and they have to stop. That's where we come in.

We love helping you prepare your body for strength training and progress through a program that meets you where you are currently at.

It's not a matter of if weightlifting is safe in older age, but rather how can we help you prepare for weightlifting in older age...

Need more help? 💙
Book your FREE Discovery Call through the link in our bio or by going to OPALMovementTherapy.com/contact-us 📲💻✨

⌨️ Drop a comment or question
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09/07/2026

Virtual friends - you asked, we answered!🎉

How to Move Your Hip Without Moving Your Low Back: Free WEBINAR ✨

🗓️ Thursday, September 17th
🕕 6:00PM-7:00PM CT
💻 Online on YouTube Live

In this webinar, Dr. Morgan Rodriguez, PT, DPT, FAAOMPT, will break down one of the foundational movement skills we use every day: the ability to move your hips independently from your low back.

We’ll explore why this separation matters, common compensations that can occur when the hip and low back move together, and how improving this skill can help you move with greater control and efficiency. Dr. Morgan will walk you through foundational exercises and progressions, including bird dogs, hip extension with a stick, bent-knee fallouts, ab marches, glute bridges, band walks, and lunges.

Whether you’re managing hip or low back pain, strength training, running, walking, or simply want to move better, this webinar will give you practical tools to understand and improve your movement.

You won't want to miss this!!!🔥

Register today by clicking the link in our bio or by going to OPALMovementTherapy.com/events 📲✨