what do I tell this medical professional...?

After rupturing my quad tendon in a freak accident last April, I started physical therapy. Mostly, the rehab for my knee has progressed smoothly (from 7 degrees of bend to roughly 140 degrees). As I neared the end of my scheduled PT sessions, the sessions moved away from "let's make sure you can walk normally the rest of your life" to "what are your athletic goals?".  I also asked for an evaluation of my lower back because of some history there (I use all 3 stretch series, but I'm worried about a possible long-ago injury that might not be fixed by careful stretching). 

So in the course of the last couple sessions, I was told the following by the young therapist with whom I've mostly been working these last several weeks:

1. "being too flexible is a problem" -- i was showing her what a Jefferson curl is. She didn't like it one bit. 

2.  "You should never squat below parallel" -- we were discussing the single leg squat progressions. 

3. "People have knee problems as they get older because their joints wear out". 

I disagreed strongly with her on all these points, but all I have on my side is personal experience (despite last spring's freak injury, my knee health has improved since I started squatting about 7 years ago) and some readings (here and other reputable sources) that were meant for the layman. 

So 2 questions:

1. What are the readings/sources I could give to this medical professional -- in as tactful a way as I can manage -- to refute her claims?

2. Should I flee this establishment and never return?

thanks for any help you can give, and happy new year everybody. 

Sounds like you need a new physical therapist.  I know a lot of them and they would be appalled at those statements. Trying to convince them that they are wrong by supplying evidence may only be an exercise in frustration.  Find a PT who works primarily with athletes.

Doctors tend to be a stubborn bunch even in the face of other medical professionals. I'd find another PT who aligns with that your looking for rather than trying to change the mind of the one you have.

I agree completely with those who posted above-- find a new PT. Getting the right one makes all the difference. 

In the beginning of my carreer as a physiotherapist i used to think almost the same way, that must be because you learn to stay on the safe side with your patients.

Nontheless i saw athletes and also "normal" people who had ranges of motion outside of the norm, "used" or dysformed joints which worked perfectly well. (Look at the hands of a manual workman, even compare his right to the left hand: not pathological - that is what we call functional adaptation! In Polyarthritis these thickened knuckles would be morbid...)

So today i'm sometimes facing the opposite problem: People often believe that their posture/pathology is unchangeable, and i have to convince patients that FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION! The human body is extremly adaptable, if you give enough time and accurate inputs to all of your tissues!

Unfortunately as a therapist you will see most cases only for the first few weeks of healing phase, until they are fit for activities of daily use... but connective tissue healing goes on for 500+ days!

Personnally i've learned a lot from my own accidents, and other persons who want to pursue their passions and are willing to train for that, never accepting the phrase "you will never be able to do ________ again"

10 hours ago, Julia Quigley said:

I agree completely with those who posted above-- find a new PT. Getting the right one makes all the difference. 

When I found two good chiropractors (brothers who opened practice together) they changed my life without me having to open their minds. 

My opinion is that you shouldn t say anything to her. That she thinks so does not mean she can t help you. It s very difficult to find a physio who really understand about movement. So keep doing the things that you know are right but always out of pain.

Also, if you didn't see me post this elsewhere in the forum...here's some guidance I followed that helped me a find my PT.

http://www.cirquephysio.com/finding-a-physio.html

Thanks for all the replies and insights.  Thank you, Julia, for the link. 

@Craig Copeland, I'd love to get an update. What path did you choose? How's your recovery going?

Thanks for inquiring.  I basically "graduated" from PT;  I would not have returned to that establishment if I'd needed more PT.  They were great for helping me return to everyday kinds of activities, but not for what all of us are aspiring to.  My knee is about 92% recovered (I'm making up that number) -- that last 8% is going to take a while to recover, I think.  As it turns out, the change in the Single Leg Squat progressions came at the perfect time for me:  the assisted squats, the partial squat, the full squat, and now (relearning) the deck squat have been very useful in my recovery.  Pre-injury, I had been working on the side-to-side/inside squat combo (the old PE3/iM3 pairing I think).  It will be quite a while before I get back there.  

What I finally decided -- based on the advice I found here -- was "It's not my job to make her better at her job;  my job is to find someone who can help me."  I'm still looking.  Thanks again to everyone who took their time to give me some thoughts.  I appreciate the care.

Glad you're back to training! I hope you find a professional to help you get to where you want to be with your knee.5

thanks for the update!

Do you guys have any ways you test a potential new physical therapist to see if they're on the same wavelength as you?  Do you just need to bust out a Jefferson curl and see how they react? 

3 hours ago, Chad Moffitt said:

Do you just need to bust out a Jefferson curl and see how they react? 

That's certainly a very quick way to find out where they stand on the neutral vs moving spine subject.