Ben Biskovich Nashua NH Physical Therapist

My name is Ben Biskovich (rhymes with “disco bitch”). I believe the two most fascinating things in the world are the human brain and the human body. I earned my BS in Psychology in 1996 and my Master’s in Physical Therapy in 2002, both from the University of Washington. I put myself through undergraduate at UW administering Superslow® high-intensity strength training programs in a Nautilus gym in North Seattle. The protocol genuinely produced maximum results in no more than 20 minutes twice/week. It’s a very uncomfortable 20 minutes, but that’s what works. I learned that the magic happens just outside your comfort zone. Under the mentorship of the great, and unfortunately late, Greg Anderson, I learned how to teach people how focus and “embrace the pain” and get more out of their bodies than they ever thought was possible.

I convinced dozens of soft, beer bellied office workers and post-menopausal women to get off the Stairmaster, start lifting weights, slow down and go to failure to raise their basal metabolic rates, lose fat and get healthy.

In early 1996 a client brought in their 90 year old Uncle Bob because he had fallen a few times in the last couple of months, even after taking anti-vertigo medicine.  She thought he was just weak.  He initially came in with a walker, looking like Tim Conway, slow.  He was so slow and unsteady, we only had time for three exercises, leg press, compound row and bench press.  He worked hard and his body responded.  Within 6 weeks, he came in with a quad cane.  Two weeks later a single point cane.  A couple of weeks later, no assistive device, a hop in his step, a sparkle in his eye and he was speaking better.  I filed that experience away for later.

In the late 90’s, between undergrad and grad school, I taught and monitored exercise programs at a busy out-patient Physical Therapy clinic in Vancouver, WA prior moving back up to Seattle in 2000 for PT school.  Intrigued by Bob’s results, in 2002, I wrote my master’s thesis on High Intensity Strength Training in the Elderly Population.

Conclusions:

  • Strength is the only factor proven to keep you independent in your 70’s and 80’s.
  • High intensity strengthening is more effective than moderate intensity.
  • Moderate intensity strengthening is more effective than low intensity.
  • Low intensity strengthening is more effective than walking programs.
  • Walking programs have an injury rate of 6-21%
  • Zero injuries reported in any of the high, moderate or low intensity strength programs

Over the last 20 years it has been proven that proper strength training:

  • Actually reduces your risk of future injuries.
  • Reduces risk for falls and fractures
  • Improves bone density.
  • Increases metabolism,
  • Improves insulin sensitivity,
  • Improves your overall quality of life.
Physical Therapy in Nashua NH

Research has also determined the most effective protocol, slow down to roughly six seconds up (concentric), six seconds down (eccentric), keeping constant tension on your muscles, using a weight to failure between 4 and 8 repetitions.  90% of the benefits of strength training are in the last 5-25 seconds that most people never tap into.

I met my wife from New Hampshire, in PT school at UW in 2000.  After we graduated, we compromised and moved to New Hampshire in January 2003, got jobs and started a family.  We have been Executive Directors in the largest outpatient orthopedic physical therapy practice in New Hampshire for almost 20 years now.  We partnered with the best group of orthopedic surgeons in the region and helped rehab their total knee and hip replacements, ACL’s, spinal fusions and rotator cuff surgeries.  Even better, we helped countless patients in our communities avoid surgeries altogether.

I became one of the first physical therapists in New England to get certified in Trigger Point Dry Needling in 2010.  It is objectively the most effective tool for reducing muscular spasms or trigger points (spasms around bundle of nerves, usually with referred symptoms).  If you have a tight muscle, a knot, a spasm that you can’t get into, that pushes back or “rebounds”, that seems to get worse the harder you try to massage it, dry needling is magic.

The most important thing I have learned in the last 20 years of putting my hands on approximately 60,000 bodies, is that muscle health is the key to pain free functional mobility.  Pliability is equally as important as strength.  As an aging athlete myself, having completed 15 marathons, I have felt the increased need and the benefits of soft tissue mobilization techniques such as dry needling, Graston®, Active Release, myofascial release, trigger guns, foam rollers, and massage.  As we age, our collagen tissue loses its’ elasticity.  We become more prone to tendon ruptures and muscular/fascia strains, “pulls”, trigger points and spasms.  We become more like an old work horse than a tender piece of veal.  While there’s still a place for traditional static and dynamic stretches, these soft tissue mobilization techniques are significantly more effective at improving pliability, restoring function, improving muscular performance and reducing risk for injuries.

With a literal lifetime of experience, I am uniquely qualified to teach you the safest, most effective way to add muscle, lose fat, improve pliability, reduce pain, improve function, and maintain independence.  The goal is to get your body as strong, light, healthy, pain free and mobile as possible so you can keep running, hiking, golfing, skiing and traveling.  At a certain point you just want to be able to get on the floor to play with your grandkids… and get back up… and maybe not groan while doing it.  You want to live independently in your own house as long as possible and then, in the end, not be a burden on your family.

That’s what Heal Strong for Life is all about, adding life to your years.

Let’s make the most of the rest of your life!

– Ben Biskovich Nashua NH Physical Therapist

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Physical Therapist in Nashua NH