My Best Content
There’s a lot on this site. I’ve been writing and recording for over 15 years, and if you tried to read everything from the beginning, you’d be at it for a while.
So let me save you some time.
This page is how I’d walk a colleague through the site if I had 20 minutes with them. The articles that have held up the longest, the free resources worth grabbing, and the podcast episodes that give you the clearest picture of how I think.
Start anywhere. Come back when you’re looking for something specific.
FREE RESOURCES WORTH GRABBING
Before you dig into articles, these are worth your time. Each one is a free course or presentation I put together on topics I get asked about constantly.
Intro to Performance Therapy and Training
This is probably the best introduction to how we actually work at Champion. It covers the 4-step system I use to help people restore, optimize, and enhance performance — and why I think the line between rehab and performance training shouldn’t exist. Free, self-paced, and about an hour of your time.
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5 Keys to the Evaluation and Treatment of the Shoulder
The shoulder trips up a lot of clinicians because it’s complicated in a way that feels overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be. This presentation is the framework I use every time I evaluate a shoulder patient. If you work with shoulders at all, start here.
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Keys to Postoperative Treatment of the Knee
Loss of motion and strength after knee surgery is one of the most common reasons patients plateau. This presentation covers the principles I’ve built into our knee protocols over 20+ years. Practical and immediately applicable.
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The 3 Biggest Mistakes PTs Make in ACL Rehab
Let’s be honest. Outcomes after ACL reconstruction surgery are not as good as we would like. Athletes are being cleared to return to sport before they are ready and often struggle. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In this presentation, we cover the 3 biggest mistakes we see physical therapists make in ACL rehabilitation and how we avoid them.
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The Science of Blood Flow Restriction Training (Free Course)
BFR gets a lot of hype and a lot of skepticism. The reality is somewhere in between. This free course covers the science and shows you how to actually apply it in a rehab or performance setting without guessing.
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BEST ARTICLES TO START WITH
These are the articles I’d recommend to someone new to the site. Some have been around for years and still come up in conversations at conferences. Others are more recent but cover things I think about constantly.
Shoulder
- Subacromial Pain: Keys to the Evaluation and Treatment – This is my full clinical framework for subacromial pain, which is often a very polarizing topic! It’s detailed, but that’s the point. If you treat shoulders, this is one of the most useful things I’ve written.
- Special Tests for Rotator Cuff Tears – Which tests actually hold up? I go through the evidence and tell you what I use and why. Short and practical.
- Keys to Shoulder Instability Rehabilitation – Shoulder instability is one of those areas where many clinicians wing it. This gives you a real framework.
- Clinical Exam of SLAP Tears – SLAP tears are notoriously hard to diagnose clinically. This walks through what the exam actually looks like and where it falls short.
Knee and ACL
- Keys to ACL Rehabilitation – One of my most-read articles, and one I still stand behind. Criteria-based progression, not time-based. If ACL rehab is part of your caseload, this is your starting point.
- Assessing and Treating a Loss of Knee Extension ROM – Extension loss after knee surgery is underappreciated and undertreated. This is how I approach it.
Performance and Training
- Blood Flow Restriction Training: Everything You Need to Know – The full evidence review. If you want to understand BFR before using it, this is the article.
- Guide to the Best BFR Cuffs and Tools – There are so many different options when it comes to BFR cuffs. Here’s my practical guide to choosing, including my recommendations and discounts on many of the best products on the market.
- Simple Thoracic Mobility Drills – I recommend these constantly. Quick to read, immediately useful.
- Ankle Mobility Drills to Improve Dorsiflexion – Same deal. This is the stuff that actually shows up in clinical practice every day.
- Should We Still Be Using Rehabilitation Protocols? – One of the more opinionated things I’ve written, and I mean every word of it.
- The Corrective Exercise Bell Curve – This changed how a lot of people think about corrective exercise, including me. Worth a read even if you think you already know where you stand on it.
Baseball
- The Science Behind Baseball Interval Throwing Programs – A data-driven look at how we structure throwing progressions and why. If you work with baseball players, this one matters.
- Are Baseball Velocity Programs to Blame for the Rise in Pitching Injuries? – A question I get asked constantly. I give you a real answer here, not a hedge.
- What You Need to Know About GIRD: What It Is and What it Isn’t – Wow, we have really gotten carried away with GIRD. If you work with baseball players, you NEED to read this.
WHERE TO START WITH PODCASTS
This one is a little tricky, but it should help you get started. We have hundreds of episodes over a 10-year period! I host two shows, and they cover different ground.
The Ask Mike Reinold Show is a Q&A podcast. Listeners submit questions, and my team answers them — clinical, programming, career, business. We’ve done over 400 episodes, so there’s a good chance something you’re thinking about has come up. The best way to use it is to search for a topic you’re working through right now and listen to that episode. Check out the podcast page to search the archives.
Browse the Archive
The Sports Physical Therapy Podcast is a longer-format conversation-style podcast with clinicians, researchers, and coaches. Less Q&A, more context. Good for when you want to think through a topic at a higher level.
Browse the Archive
If you want one place to start, search the Ask Mike archive for something clinical you’re dealing with right now. That’s the fastest way to get value out of it.
READY TO GO DEEPER?
The free resources on this page are a real introduction to how I think and what I’ve built at Champion. But if you want the full system on any of these topics, that’s what my online courses are for.
I have courses on shoulder rehabilitation, knee and ACL rehabilitation, baseball injuries, blood flow restriction training, and building a performance therapy program from the ground up and so much more. They’re built for working clinicians who want a complete approach, not just a collection of techniques.