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Dr. Jordan Pittman | Forged Physical Therapy and Performance

@forgedptperformance

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Helping athletes & active individuals resolve pain, move better, & train harder using integrated rehab & training plans
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Our mission is to restore, enhance, and protect the bodies of barbell athletes, hunters, and martial artists—so they can train harder, move better, and perform at their highest level without being limited by pain or injury. We deliver expert, cash-based physical therapy and rehab services that prioritizes strength, resilience, and long-term performance over shortcuts and temporary fixes.

Book an appointment to REBUILD TO BECOME UNBREAKABLE 🔥 taken in Bull & Bear Gym by @forgedptperformance

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9 months ago

Hot take: if your ankle (or any other lower extremity injury) rehab never included plyometrics, your return-to-running progression was probably incomplete.

A client came to me after being discharged from PT because his ankle pain kept coming back anytime he started running again. He had done all the mobility, strength, and stability work while staying pain-free.

But he had never been progressed to hopping, jumping, landing, or rebounding.

Here’s the problem: running is essentially a series of repetitive single-leg hops. Every stride places rapid, high forces through the foot, ankle, knee, and hip.

So if your rehab never prepares you for those loading rates and patterns, how could you expect it to suddenly tolerate hundreds (or thousands) of those forces when you start running again?

Contrary to common belief, plyometrics aren’t just for athletes trying to jump higher. They’re how we build your tissues’ ability to absorb and produce force, improve tendon stiffness, restore neuromuscular timing, and prepare your body for the actual demands of running and sport.

Mobility, strength, and stability are all important, and are your movement foundations.  
But if your goal is to run, cut, jump, or play sports, your rehab should eventually look like those activities.

Don’t create a loading-capacity mismatch by asking your body to tolerate forces it hasn’t been prepared for. taken in Bull & Bear Gym by @forgedptperformance

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2 months ago

My workouts look VERY different right now.

And honestly? That’s been the hardest part of this back injury.

The gym is a huge part of my life, not just physically, but mentally. So when my body can’t tolerate the things I love (and the things that help keep me sane), it has been really difficult to navigate.

But I’m learning to meet myself where I’m at RIGHT NOW, instead of constantly comparing myself to what I USED to be able to do.

Currently, the goal isn’t to force my body to do more than it’s ready for. It’s to work with what I have, respect it, and build from there.

So I’m modifying, a lot. I’m doing what I can and *trying* to let that be enough for the moment.

Because something is ALWAYS better than nothing.

Some days the win is doing a full workout. Some days the win is modifying everything. Some days the win is simply showing up and being present.

So for now, I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got, trusting the process, and reminding myself that this is a season, not forever 🫶🏼 taken in Bull & Bear Gym by @forgedptperformance

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2 months ago

Something that needs to be talked about more within the rehab space: injury affects more than just affect your body.

It can affect your confidence, your identity, your mental health, and your relationship with something you love.

Feelings of losing something that has become such a big part of your identity.

Frustration of watching your body struggle to do things that once felt effortless.

Mental exhaustion from constantly having to modify, scale back, or rethink something you used to do without a second thought.

Fighting back tears in a place that used to bring you peace.

Fear of losing progress you worked years for.

Guilt of feeling frustrated when you know you should be grateful you can still do something.

Feeling of stress building around something that used to be your escape from it.

And the challenge of learning to celebrate a version of progress that looks nothing like what you’re used to.

Through this injury, I’m learning that I can be grateful for what I can do and still grieve what I can’t do right now. Both feelings can exist at the same time, and they are both valid.

And I’m also learning that the hardest part of recovery isn’t just rebuilding your body. It’s learning how to navigate the mental side of it too. taken in Bull & Bear Gym by @forgedptperformance

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2 days ago

If your hamstrings always feel tight, constantly stretching them might not be the answer.

Flexibility is great and appropriate in some cases, but so is having the strength to control and use that range of motion.

Instead of endlessly chasing that feeling of looseness, try building your hamstrings’ strength and capacity to tolerate load.

Sometimes, the answer isn’t more stretching, but adding some resistance instead 🫶🏼 taken in Bull & Bear Gym by @forgedptperformance

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4 days ago

🦴SHE EARNED SOMETHING BETTER THAN A MILK BONE 🍖

It’s a little more challenging for her to balance then a milk bone…but the game we have has a simple rule…

You balance it…you own it…

She gets a piece of the animal she helped me find.

A nose built to follow a blood trail.
A mind built to work.
And a partnership built one recovery at a time.

So today, the milk bone got replaced with something a little more fitting.

She knows exactly what she’s balancing.

And she knows exactly what she earned. 🦌🐕 by @forgedptperformance

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11 days ago

You don’t have to compete in a sport to be considered an “athlete.”

If you’re active, you’re an athlete in my book 🤷‍♀️

Whether you’re training to be stronger, move better, lift heavier, play with your kids, run, or just keep doing the things you enjoy as you get older - you need more than just strength and muscle.

You also need the ability to use that strength quickly. That’s where explosive training comes in.

Training explosiveness can help improve: → rate of force development → reaction time + coordination → your ability to jump, sprint, change direction, or catch yourself → your ability to produce force when you don’t have the luxury of reacting slowly

Because real life doesn’t always give you 3 seconds to generate force.

You might have to catch yourself when you trip. Get up quickly. Change direction. Lift something unexpectedly. Or react to something before you’ve had time to think about it.

So no, you don’t need to be a high-level athlete to train explosively.

You just need to be someone who wants their body to be capable of more than lifting something heavy slowly.

Train strength. Build muscle. And don’t forget to teach your body how to use it at EVERY speed 🫱🏼‍🫲🏽 taken in Bull & Bear Gym by @forgedptperformance

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11 days ago

It’s *ruff* out here being the one with the magic hands 😅 taken in Bull & Bear Gym by @forgedptperformance

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16 days ago

Your shoulder might be taking the blame for a problem that starts a little farther down the chain 👇🏼

If bilateral overhead pressing is painful, but pressing one arm at a time feels noticeably better, I’m interested in what the thoracic spine is doing.

With a bilateral press, you need enough thoracic extension to get both arms overhead without finding that motion somewhere else.

With a unilateral press, you have a little more freedom to rotate and side-bend through the trunk, which can change the amount of thoracic extension you actually need.

So if bilateral overhead press is painful, but unilateral overhead press cause little or no pain - this gives us a useful clue that the way you’re distributing motion through the trunk that may be worth looking at.

Because sometimes the question isn’t just:
“Why does my shoulder hurt?”

It’s also:
“What is my shoulder being asked to compensate for?”

And yes, sometimes the answer is ACTUALLY the shoulder. But we don’t want to miss other possible contributors either by always assuming it’s just the shoulder.

That’s why testing different variations can be so useful 🫱🏼‍🫲🏽 taken in Bull & Bear Gym by @forgedptperformance

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17 days ago

Can’t feel your lower traps during Y raises? Or feel like your upper traps are doing ALL the work?

That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to just do more Y raises.

Traditional Y raises can be a pretty demanding starting point if you’re lacking the shoulder/thoracic mobility needed to get into the position, don’t yet have a good motor pattern for scapular movement, and/or have a tendency to let other muscles take over (aka the upper traps).

And if you can’t control the position or recruit the right muscles, adding more reps isn’t going to fix the problem.

Your lower traps play an important role in scapular upward rotation, depression, and posterior tilt. All of which contribute to efficient shoulder movement and the ability to produce force through your upper extremity.

The better starting point is finding an exercise that allows you to actually practice those functions without fighting the exercise itself.

So find a variation where you can actually control the movement and feel the right muscles working, build strength and coordination, and progressively increase the challenge in a way that resembles relevant activities you’re working to get back to.

And importantly, don’t focus only on isolated lower trap exercises forever.

Once you’ve addressed the deficit, the goal is to integrate that improved strength and control into more global pressing, pulling, carrying, and eventually the specific activities you actually want to do.

Because your lower traps don’t exist to get really good at Y raises.

They exist to help your shoulder function for life and sport 🫱🏼‍🫲🏽 taken in Bull & Bear Gym by @forgedptperformance

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22 days ago

“Physical therapy doesn’t work”

Okay… but did it not work, or did you not find the right fit for YOU?

The right rehab should actually prioritize what you want to get back to, and help you work back to it with a structured plan.

So if your last PT experience was a snooze fest, a sheet of 12 exercises, and “see you next week”…

Respectfully, try again 🫶🏼 taken in Bull & Bear Gym by @forgedptperformance

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a month ago

Not all isometrics are created equal 👀

An isometric exercise elicits a type of muscle contraction where the muscle produces force without a meaningful change in joint angle or visible movement of the body segment.

BUT not all isometrics challenge the body in the same way, and understanding the difference between overcoming and yielding isometrics can help you choose the right variation for your specific needs.

Overcoming isometrics:
You’re trying to move something that won’t move.
→ High force output
→ Short, high-intensity efforts

Yielding isometrics:
You’re resisting a load that could move you.
→ Maintain position under load
→ Longer efforts

Neither is inherently better. They’re simply different tools that create different demands.

And like any exercise, the goal isn’t just to pick an exercise that looks right.

It’s to match the type of contraction, position, intensity, and duration to what you’re actually trying to train.

Save this for the next time someone tells you to “just do some isometrics” taken in Bull & Bear Gym by @forgedptperformance

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a month ago