My Orthotic History and Experience

In 1996 I had been a physical therapist for 2 years and I left my assignment at Ft. Campbell, KY to attend a 2 week continuing education course at Ft Sam Houston, TX. During the course a man named Michael Cane taught 8 hours on gait, biomechanics and orthotics. It was completely over my head. I was so angry that Physical Therapy school had completely failed to teach anything useful on the subject, that I was on a mission to remedy the situation. I took a Michael Cane’s 3 day course, another 3 day course taught by a Podiatrist and another by an Orthotist. I took another 3 courses and dove into the research…in 1998 I re-wrote the curriculum of lower extremity biomechanics, gait and orthotic treatment for Baylor University. By 2001 I had become the Military’s gait and biomechanics expert (across all services) and was a guest instructor in 2 different Graduate PT programs and 2 different clinical residencies. I developed my own 3 day continuing education course and I have taught it all over the country.

Bosnia, Camp Eagle, 2000

God provided a perfect environment for me to become the expert described above… I grew up working for my dad as a machinist, so I had a comfort level with building and machine work. The Army provided me with an endless supply of Soldiers not biomechanically designed to run or march. I had access to some of the best orthotic labs in the nation, mentoring by orthotists with decades of experience and plenty of supplies. My skills were honed and I still learn from every patient I evaluate and treat. Every patient is so very unique. I’ve made over 5000 pair of orthotics. I’ve made orthotics for patients as young as 6 and as old as 96, patients who are Olympic track and field athletes, recreational and high school athletes and patients just struggling to walk without a cane or crutches.

Do you have pain in your back, hips, knees, shins, ankles or feet? Have you a bag full of orthotics that didn’t help your pain in the past? If I evaluate you, you will see my evaluation will be comprehensive, I will explain to you what is working and not working throughout your stride and if an orthotic can help you. I will provide a comfortable and affordable device and you will have the chance to finally turn that page in the chapter of your life.

Want more information?
See my Fallacy of Arch Supports article

LTC Tony Bare (ret) DPT, ATC, OCS
Physical Therapist
Colorado Springs, CO

Custom Orthotics By Providing Video Gait Analysis

June 1, 2015August 31, 2017 Bare Physical Therapy achilles tendonitis, Arch Support, bunion, foot pain, knee pain, metatarsalgia, Orthotics achillis tendonitis, arch support, arch supports colorado springs, custom orthotics colorado springs, foot pain, hip pain, hip pain colorado springs, iliotibial band syndrome, knee pain, knee pain colorado springs, laramie arch supports, laramie cranial therapy, laramie foot pain, laramie knee pain, laramie manual physical therapy, laramie myofascial release, laramie myofascial therapy, laramie orthotics, laramie physical therapist, laramie physical therapy, laramie podiatrist, matatarsalgia, orthotics colorado springs, physical therapist tony bare, physical therapy colorado springs, shin splints

I’ve had a lot of interest in my Bare Necessities Custom Orthotics (arch supports or shoe inserts) from people across the country and I’ve had good success making them based off the information below. If you’ve read my post on the Fallacy of Arch Supports, you know that one of the components of my exam that makes the orthotic successful is the dynamic gait analysis, so if I’m provided the video footage I’ll have great insight into your biomechanics and if they need any help or correction.

The good news is that I’ll assess your videos FREE!! All I need is 10 second clips of you walking barefoot on the treadmill from behind and from each side. Just do your best to walk on the treadmill at your comfortable walking pace. Take video footage of the following angle/level (including both sides/foot):

I’ll need a tracing of your foot next to a ruler. See picture below (it doesn’t have a ruler but you’ll need a ruler next to your tracing). The tracing will let me know what size of orthotic to make and I’ll have an idea what adaptations your biomechanics have forced your foot to make and that will be even more information helping to guide my orthotic prescription.

The orthotics themselves are only an average cost of $85 plus $10 shipping and handling, so send me your videos and get on the road to pain free walking or running.

Now that we are relocating to Laramie, WY please refer your Colorado Springs friends to this post.

Please email me your video and foot tracing to tony@barept.com

LTC Tony Bare (ret), DPT, ATC, OCS
Physical Therapist
Laramie, WY

Knee Pain

May 13, 2015May 28, 2015 Bare Physical Therapy knee pain, Orthotics custom orthotics colorado springs, iliotibial band syndrome, knee pain, knee pain colorado springs, orthotics, orthotics colorado springs, patella femoral pain, patellartendonitis, physical therapist tony bare, physical therapy colorado springs

Anyone remotely athletic usually has some degree of knee pain…why? Well, putting aside traumatic injuries, there are a couple of reasons the knee is so susceptible to general non-traumatic or over-use pathologies.

The knee is a the largest moving joint (surface area) in the body and
It is located between the two longest levers in the body (femur and tibia)…the combination creates a great deal of potential torque through the knee-joint and caught in the middle of it is the knee cap (patella).
The knee is really well designed to move forward and backward, but rotation and sideward motions create a real issue for your knee due to the leverage and torque noted above.

Now you are probably thinking…”That makes sense for basketball players who are pivoting and changing direction all the time…but I just walk for exercise…or jog…I’m just moving straight ahead…why do I have knee pain if the knee is designed to move straight ahead?”

The answer is all about biomechanics…my field of expertise. Even though you are moving forward there are subtle sideward and rotational movements that occur in your knee…this puts a lot of stress on the structures designed to control, decelerate and limit those motions (plica, pes anserine, IT band, the patellar tendon and the entire patella femoral joint).

You’ve probably heard the term pronation; well pronation doesn’t stop at your feet. Pronation in the foot is translated into rotation of the tibia and to make matters worse the femur starts rotating the opposite direction during the stance phase of gait. Now picture all those structures I listed above being pulled in both directions and you can understand why your knee hurts when all you do is walk for exercise.

Common Treatment of Knee pain:

Self-treatment: anti-inflammatory medications, ice, rest, knee sleeves, sports creams…these will all help your knee “feel” better…but will not treat the cause of your knee pain… so often times your symptoms will recur. There are a couple of things you can do to address the cause of your knee pain all yourself!! First of all, improve your walking/running surface. The more flat and level the less of those pesky accessory motions affecting your knee. Secondly, better shoes. Some biomechanical issues can be addressed with shoes alone; not a specific brand but a general type of shoe. How can you know what kind of shoe you should wear? You should receive a biomechanical evaluation…and I do that for only $20!!

Physician treatments: stronger anti-inflammatory medications, injections, more expensive braces and hopefully a physical therapy consult.

Physical therapy treatments: Modalities (ultrasound, ice, heat, LASER, electric stimulation), exercises and manual therapy (massage, myofascial release, trigger point needling, etc). You already know the modalities by themselves won’t do much better than what you could do for yourself. Please don’t ask me why every physical therapy student is taught to treat knee pain with exercises…mainly quadriceps strengthening and hamstring stretching…both those muscle groups work largely in the forward plane of movement. The knee ALREADY moves really well in that plane. The bottom line is that the body doesn’t have very many muscles that are even well designed to control lower extremity movement in sideward or rotational plane of motion and believe it or not, you probably don’t need any more strengthening of those muscles…you know why? Because they are really strong already!!! You know why? Because your biomechanics make them work extra ALL THE TIME (every single step). Because they work more than they should…and probably have for years…the muscle itself may be short circuited a bit and have fibrotic knots and ropes running throughout it. If that’s the case…those muscles would benefit from manual therapy (myofascial release) and combined with modalities and exercise you can have your dynamic pronation stabilizing muscles firing on all cylinders before you know it!! Once you combine that with a better walking surface and shoe…you may actually have resolved your knee pain!!

However, often times a shoe is not a great enough correction…or maybe you don’t want to spend the rest of your life confined to walking and running on a treadmill. In either case, please contact me…read my testimonials!! For only $20 I will do a biomechanical assessment on you and let you know if your mechanics can be improved with shoes alone…and what type of shoes you should wear. I’ll also let you know if I feel a custom orthotic would help your mechanics (please read why my orthotics are unique)…and the average cost of the custom orthotics I hand make is typically only another $80!!!

LTC Tony Bare (ret), DPT, ATC, OCS
Physical Therapist/Owner
Colorado Springs, CO

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