Bruk Ballenger

Bruk has worked in numerous physical therapy settings, including brain/spinal cord rehab, acute hospital care, with children in the school district, and in outpatient orthopedics. His passion is in orthopedic outpatient care where he can combine his manual therapy skills, unique exercise techniques, and desire to help others in a way that empowers clients to become more adept at improving their physical function.

Some of Bruk’s additional education includes specialty certification in Sports Medicine and Human Performance from the University of Washington, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) from the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and certification as a level I coach for USA Triathlon. Bruk has also made a personal study of running performance and injury.

Bruk attended the Hawaii Ironman Sports Medicine Conference in 2004 and worked with the medical team during the World Ironman Championships in Kona, Hawaii. As a triathlete himself, Bruk found the Kona experience very powerful and is now on a quest to qualify to race in the world championships himself. Update: The addition of two baby boys in Bruk’s life over the past two years have put the Kona goal on hold, for now. Meanwhile Bruk has found ways to utilize a baby bike trailer and jogging stroller for unique training and skill-drill opportunities. “My training isn’t what it used to be, but I have some great new training partners!”

Bruk experienced firsthand the trials of rehabilitation after undergoing both a knee and a shoulder surgery in 2007, not to mention a collection of other old injuries from a lifetime of activity. “My goal is to stay as active as possible for as long as possible. I want to maintain the best quality of life that I can, for myself and my family. The older I get the more difficult activity gets, but it inspires me to continually think about how to work with my aging forty-three year old body to keep it going.”

Bruk is one of the founders of Real Rehab, and is proud of the reputation that the clinic has garnered. “We truly care about helping our clients, which is one of the first things new clients notice here. Running our own show here, spending an hour with each client every visit, and not using aides or assistants affords us the opportunity to really investigate the cause of our clients’ problems. It also gives us the time as therapists to more fully utilize the techniques that we learn.”

2009 marked Bruk’s twentieth year in the field of Physical Therapy. “I feel that even though I’ve learned an immense amount over the past twenty years, there is still so much more to learn. There have been some great paradigm shifts in how we think about the function of the human body, which continually opens new doors to evalutation and treatment.”

Bruk considers himself a good “generalist” as a physical therapist but does have areas of specialty. “I get on these kicks where I want to learn as much as I can about something specific in physical therapy, which is usually inspired by an interesting or complicated case that I’m working on, or by my own personal experience. I get a little obsessive about it sometimes; my nightstand and floor are covered with research articles and books, it drives my wife a bit crazy.” Bruk’s special interests include;

Running/walking biomechanical analysis and treatment utilizing a unique, solution-oriented approach using video analysis, training correction, neuromuscular retraining, corrective drills and electromyography.
Shoulder injuries and post-operative care.
Lumbar spine injuries.
Lower extremitiy (hip, knee, ankle and foot) injuries and post-operative care.
Custom foot orthoses. “I take an eclectic approach, integrating standard measurements, extensive video analysis, and take into consideration how orthotics will affect everything from the big toe to the neck. Then I develop a footwear strategey and/or orthotic device to help solve the relevant issues.”
Surface Electromyography (sEMG). “I’m a self-admitted data geek, but I don’t know of anyone else using this technology around here for this purpose. It really provides a goldmine of information about muscle recruitment, imbalance, timing patterns, pre/post treatment differences, training, etc”. See Bruk’s blog about sEMG here.

Bruk Climbing