Your Heart Rate – A Wealth of Information at Your Fingertips!

What is Heart Rate?
Your heart rate is simply the number of times you heart beats per minute (also know as your pulse).  It is a very accurate measurement of how hard you are working.

Why Should I Bother Checking My Heart Rate?

Knowing your heart rate will help you exercise safely and efficiently by determining how close you are to your target heart rate. It helps you maintain proper workout intensity by accurately assessing whether you need to “pick-up-the-pace” in the exercise routine of “back-off” a little if you are working too hard.  Checking and recording your heart rate will also help you determine your current fitness level and measure progress.

Saluting Our Staff: Ed Martel, OMPT

Our Miracle Man:
You would think this essay says it all, but there is so much more to Ed Martel’s story. Ed’s spirit is best captured when you are able to just sit with him and chat. The following is the best we can do convey why we at HealthOuest are grateful for the ability to attract a person like Ed Martel as a cherished member of our family.

Ed summarizes his early days, “I went to DeLaSalle and was drafted out of high school to play professional athletics for the New York Yankees, to include a paid college education. I played baseball and went to school in the off-season. When I was put on the major league roster, I didn’t attend college for two years.” Ed’s professional pitching career was sidelined intermittently and eventually cut short due to shoulder surgeries, subsequent rehab and elbow injury. Ed recalls, “Day one (after surgery) they’re pushing me, they’re jamming my shoulder all the way up into full flexion and external rotation. It was killing me, but at the time, I figured this must be what’s supposed to happen. I know better now, but there was pressure on the physicians and therapists to get me back on the mound.”

Inspired Brothers Share Their Story

It’s not every day we meet someone who will one day be defined as our hero. For one eighth-grader and his brother, that day came when they met the man who would be their physical therapist, their trainer, their mentor, their friend.

This is not our typical patient success story. Yes, these two brothers, Conrad and Carter Kovalcik, received physical therapy treatment for medial epicondylitis (little leaguer’s elbow). Both were successfully rehabbed. Conrad returned to rehabilitate a strained shoulder and both work with their physical therapist to prevent future injuries.

While we don’t want to minimize the importance of their therapist’s skills or the boys’ compliance, we felt compelled to underscore how the brothers, particularly Conrad, were inspired by their encounters with one of our treasured HealthOuest co-owners. This can most effectively be accomplished by revealing portions of an essay, submitted by Conrad, describing his Michigan hero.