About Endurance Athlete Consulting & Physical Therapy

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Brad Senska

My mojo is that I am a Doctor of Physical Therapy and an Applied Exercise Kinesiologist/Physiologist.  I specialize in sports and orthopedic physical therapy.  My claim to a specialty in physical therapy is treating plantar fasciitis, tibialis posterior tendonitis, and shoulder injuries which range from less involved tendonitis to recovering from shoulder replacement surgery.  

I perform gait analysis for runners and customized bike fits for cyclists and multi-sport endurance athletes.  You may know these latter people as, those duathlon, biathlon, and/or triathlon people.  Triathletes are often referred to as Tri-Geeks. I can say this as I have been the Amateur Triathlon Long Course National Champion.  My passion is helping others through teaching the use of proper biomechanics and training techniques with special interest in multi-sport endurance events and adventure racing.

I have been involved in endurance sports, strength training, and acrobatics since the early '80's. I began volunteering in the physical therapy department at Tempe Community Hospital (Now Tempe St. Luke's Hospital) in Tempe, AZ. when I was in the sixth grade. I continue to love my profession and passing on knowledge to help others!  It’s very important to me that everyone has the appropriate and accurate knowledge to pursue your sport in an uninjured, pain free, and enjoyable manner.

The Plantar Fasciitis Cure is my second authored book.  I'm currently working on a new publication titled Endurance Athlete's Bible. This book will be a second and improved version of Hey, How Long Is Your Next Marathon?!?.

The Genesis of "Endurance Athlete Consulting"

The following story is my first hand experience with how fragile but also how extremely tough and durable our bodies are.  The following experience added to an already accumulated knowledge base from my academic study, research participation with National Institute of Health, research participation with Arizona State University, and what seems to be an infinite amount of peer reviewed literature for my own publications, my own situation, and my patients, enable me to provide unparalleled services!

Having been an elite national class athlete, competing at a international level to losing this ability, and then having to find my legs again and fight to regain enough ability to go back to work, drive, and perform short workouts at my gym, has given me an unmatched ability to observe in myself and others, evaluate, assess, diagnose, and then relay this information to clients in a manner that can be easily understood.

Because of the neural involvement, I was able to feel each stage of healing, experiment with each stage, and then utilize this information to better relate to my patients.  With the amount of insight gained from being what I refer to as a temporary partial paraplegic, I was able to feel the nerve re-innervation of specific muscles in my thighs, calves, foot, and torso. My passion in life has always been about human performance.  So, in order to stay active in physical therapy, I created Endurance Athlete Consulting.  My practice focus has  changed due to the limited mobility at the time.  And to this point, all of my services have been pro-bono.  This focus has been on authoring self help books, authoring my blog, and creating and designing equipment for use in physical therapy clinics.

My motivation to tell my story comes from a man named Bill Harris.  I too believe that each of us are here to experience an object lesson(s) in life, learn from these lessons, and  in return help others.  All I can do now is continue to help and be of service to others and to keep looking for more object lessons. 

This Is My Story:

Endurance Athlete Consulting came about following a need to continue working in my profession after a series of spine surgeries.  The most recent surgery was in March 2013.  No, my spine pathology is not a product of training and competing.  It is rather a hereditary and degenerative process as well as from cycling accidents.  In 2005, I underwent my first lumbar spine fusion.  I was losing feeling and strength in my left leg.  This surgery was at first successful.  One year later, I had the hardware removed from my spine.  This hardware can be seen on the May 2, 2013 post titled "Cycling Following a Spine Fusion".  Following a course of inpatient rehab and detox from absolutely insane narcotics (oxycontin and oxycodone), I resumed cycling and running.  In 2008, I won two Arizona State Championships in Road Cycling.  I raced in Cat. 3 and won the Individual 40km Time Trial. Nearly one month later, I won the Arizona State Road Race Hill Climb Championship in Cat. 3.

This was the last time I successfully raced either running or in cycling in spite of very diligently and earnestly attempting do so.  In late 2008, I was having symptoms arising from several segments in my spine.  I underwent a 3rd spine fusion in November of 2008.  This fusion failed entirely.  In two of my vertebrae, the "end plates" or the surfaces that make contact with the disc in between the vertebrae had collapsed.  In September of 2009, I underwent two surgeries to repair 3 levels of my lumbar spine.  At the time of this surgery, I had significant weakness in my left lower extremity, weakness in my right lower extremity, a significant amount of back pain, leg pain, groin pain, and loss of feeling in areas of my legs.  I was unable to stand for more than several minutes and required assistance with walking at times due to poor balance and pain arising in my legs and back just from weight bearing. 

At the time of my surgery in September of 2009, I had a great outpatient clinic in Cottonwood, AZ. at the base of Mingus Mt.  Mingus Mt. separates the Verde Valley on the east from Prescott Valley on the west.  This mountain was one of my favorite training rides.  For 13 miles it maintained a 6% grade.  At times, the grade would hit 20% while cycling through Jerome.  The front of my clinic had a great view of the red rock mountains in Sedona.  The entire front of the clinic was very large picture windows. I had a full gym and an Endless pool for aquatic therapy.  I lost this clinic due to my spine pathology.  I had to file bankruptcy on my business.  This also put 3 people out of work along with losing their benefits.

Prior to and after the 2009 surgery, my EMG results showed permanent L3 and L4 nerve damage.  The 1st surgery in 2009 lasted 6 hours.  Four days later, I developed a hematoma or blood clot.  This hematoma began pushing against my spinal cord.  I began to experience severe leg pain and decreased motor control.  So, I went in for a second surgery to remove the hematoma.  

Nine days after the initial surgery, I was discharged from the hospital.  I again was on narcotics and would have to face the withdrawals and the normalization of dopamine levels.  For 5 months I was performing the appropriate rehab at the appropriate time frames.  Initially, I was wearing a thoracolumbar sacral brace.  Also known as a "TLSO".  I used a walker for ambulation.  I eventually weaned off the walker and began using a cane.  I was eventually able to take the TLSO off while at home but was still required to wear this when out of the house as well as use the cane when out of the house.  

At the 5 month mark, I no longer required the TLSO or the walking aide.  I had reduced my narcotic intake from Percocet (oxycodone) to Norco (hydrocodone but with less acetaminophen).  So, on my birthday and without telling anyone including my doctors, I stopped my narcotics cold turkey.  After the 16th hour of being off the narcotics, I wound up in the first of two emergency departments.  While suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms, I went to the ED at Verde Valley Medical Center in Cottonwood, AZ.  Not much help there.  Several hours later, I was taken to Flagstaff Medical Center and was admitted to the psychiatric ward after declaring to the ED doctor the state of mind that I was in.

Being admitted in the psychiatric ward was the best thing ever!  It was a place where I felt safe and was given support from the staff and hospital personnel. The withdrawal symptoms were eased with a medication called Suboxone and clonidine as well as others as needed for my wrenching gut and stomach pain.  I spent 4 days inpatient with instruction to follow up with my doctor for continued assistance with detoxing.

After this experience, I was getting extremely anxious to begin cycling again and get back to work in a clinic.  I attempted to go back to clinic work 3 times.  I stopped working for the third time in late 2012 following 18 months of working full time at a very nice clinic in Carefree, AZ.  The 2 remaining lumbar spine levels above the fused segments and 3 levels in my cervical spine were becoming quite problematic.  I was losing sensation on the bottom of my feet, groin pain was returning, I was experiencing frequent and very strong headaches, my vision was becoming quite blurry, and I was experiencing weakness in my left shoulder, pain in my left biceps, and pain in my right biceps.  My left triceps strength had reduced to being unable to push up out of a chair or unable to stabilize myself while leaning on a counter with my left arm.

Currently, and following a successful anterior cervical spine fusion of C5, C6, and T1, my left arm strength returned, headaches are absent, my vision has improved, and the referred pain in my left and right shoulders and arms has resolved.  You can't ask for more!  

To my higher power, thank you!  

Prior to my spine surgeries, I also use information from personal injuries directly related to sports that I have participated in recreationally.  These sports have been mostly water skiing, snow skiing, and off-roading. I have undergone right arthroscopic knee surgery 3 times, open surgery on my right elbow to re-attach a tendon, open external fixation on my right thumb, open surgery on my right wrist, and an appendectomy during my graduate program at Northern Arizona University.