Shoulder Aching Relief | Bend

Bend's lifestyle is all about outdoor recreation, and that's both good and bad for spinal health. People here are active and generally health-conscious, but they push way too hard and ignore warning signs until something actually breaks. There's this mentality that pain is just part of being active, which is partly true, but there's a difference between muscle soreness and structural damage. The seasonal activity pattern is real too—winter is skiing, spring and fall are biking and trail running, summer adds paddleboarding and climbing. A lot of our patients don't have an off-season, which means their bodies never get adequate recovery time.

Bend's athletic community is intense. If someone here says they're a runner, they mean they're training for ultra-marathons. If they bike, they're doing 30-mile gravel rides or hitting black diamond downhill trails. Mt. Bachelor brings in serious skiers and snowboarders from all over the region. The mountain biking scene is massive—Phil's Trail system alone has 40+ miles of singletrack. Trail running here is year-round, and the elevation gain on most trails means people are loading their spines under fatigue.