The Divergent Edge - October 2025
Pictures, Shoulder Health, and Cupping
Issue #10: October 1st, 2025
Thank you for subscribing to our monthly newsletter! 🎉 We’re thrilled to have you as part of our community, and even more excited to be a part of your unique health and wellness journey! Every month you can look forward to us sharing some information regarding the topics below!
🗒️ Business Updates: Stay informed about the latest news and announcements from our cash-based physical therapy clinic.
💪 Movement Health Tips: Get expert advice to improve your mobility, build strength, and elevate your quality of life.
📚 Pain Education: Gain simple, practical insights into understanding pain and strategies to address it effectively.
🙌 Community Highlights: Meet our trusted health and wellness partners and discover how they can support your goals.
📆 Workshops & Events: Be the first to know about our interactive workshops and learning opportunities to help you take charge of your health.
🏆 Our Recommendations: Explore products we trust for optimizing health, along with exclusive discounts and links.
NOW LET’S DIVE IN 🎉
Business Updates:
🤯 It’s about time…but we have updated team and space pictures (See a sneak peak below)! And as always…stay tuned for more exciting news ahead! 🔥
📞 317-350-4060 (Call or Text)
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The Team at Divergent Rehab
Dr. Tyler Holt, PT, DPT, CSCS
Upper extremity rehab, cycling specialist, and athletic performance coachDr. Alex Dunn, PT, DPT, CDNT
Lower extremity and weightlifting specialist with a focus on strength and athletic performanceDr. Julie Rudolph, PT, DPT, OCS, CMPT
Running specialist and women’s health provider, with advanced orthopedic credentialsDr. Michael Murphy, PT, DPT, COMT, CIDN, OCS
Founder and clinical director specializing in complex orthopedic conditions—especially for clients who haven’t found relief elsewhereHannah Johnson
Co-Owner, Wellness Specialist - Inbody Composition Analysis
Movement Health Tips
Rethinking the Rotator Cuff: Stability Through Motion, Not Just Rotation
Shoulder pain has become an increasing issue lately we’ve seen in the clinic - and much of it comes down to a misunderstanding of how the shoulder is supposed to function.
Most people think the rotator cuff’s job is to rotate the shoulder.
But in reality, its true purpose is to stabilize the shoulder - keeping the ball of the upper arm (humerus) centered in the socket (glenoid) while your arm moves through space.
The shoulder is built for incredible mobility —but that freedom only works when your stabilizers (the rotator cuff) can control it.
🧠 Understanding Shoulder Stability
Think of the shoulder like a golf ball resting on a tee.
Your larger muscles — deltoids, lats, pecs — move the ball.
Your rotator cuff muscles (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis) act like micro-adjusters, keeping the ball from sliding off the tee as you reach, lift, or push.
When these stabilizers fatigue, lose coordination, or can’t keep up with your activity level, the joint shifts slightly — creating friction, irritation, and the familiar “pinch” or dull ache many people feel in the front or top of the shoulder.
💪 3 Key Principles to Build a More Resilient Shoulder
Train Control Before Strength
Start with light resistance and focus on keeping the shoulder centered during motion. Quality of control > quantity of load.
Stabilize Through Range, Not at Rest
The cuff must stabilize while you move — not just when you’re still.
Integrate the Scapula
The shoulder blade is the cuff’s foundation. A mobile, well-positioned scapula allows the cuff to stabilize effectively.
🧩 Why This Matters
When the rotator cuff can stabilize efficiently, shoulder motion becomes strong, smooth, and pain-free.
You’ll notice easier lifting, less pinching overhead, and greater endurance in workouts and daily activity.
At Divergent Rehab & Wellness, we don’t just stretch or strengthen — we retrain your shoulder to move with stability and precision, the way it was designed to.
Pain Education
🧠 Cupping Therapy — More Than Just Marks
Cupping has made a comeback in both sports and rehabilitation settings — but at Divergent Rehab & Wellness, it’s not just about leaving circles on your skin.
It’s about restoring tissue mobility, circulation, and neurological awareness to help your body move and heal better.
What Is Cupping?
Cupping uses negative pressure (suction) instead of compression.
By gently lifting the skin and fascia, it helps decompress restricted tissues, improve blood flow, and stimulate the nervous system to reset movement patterns.
This makes it a great adjunct to physical therapy — especially when combined with corrective exercise and neuromuscular retraining.
💪 Benefits of Cupping for Movement Health:
Improves Tissue Mobility:
Frees up restricted fascia and muscle layers, helping you move with less tension and more freedom.
Enhances Recovery:
Boosts local circulation and lymphatic flow to clear out metabolic waste and accelerate tissue repair.
Reduces Pain & Muscle Guarding:
The decompression effect helps calm overactive muscles and nervous system sensitivity.
Restores Movement Awareness:
Improves proprioception (your body’s sense of position), allowing smoother, more coordinated motion.
Pairs Perfectly With Active Rehab:
When followed by targeted movement training, cupping helps your body own new mobility instead of losing it hours later.
🔥 Why It Works Best at Divergent
Cupping alone provides temporary relief — butcupping with movement creates lasting change.
Our PTs integrate it strategically during your session to unlock restricted areas, retrain proper muscle activation, and restore full functional movement patterns.
🗝️ The goal isn’t just to release tissue — it’s to restore control.
Disclaimer: There is ABSOLUTELY a time and a place for imaging, surgery, medication, etc…our goal is to help educate you to make the best decisions for yourself on your health journey. The information provided in this newsletter is for educational purposes only, and is not a substitute for individualized professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Please seek a qualified healthcare professional when it comes to your unique pains, case, findings, health, etc.
Community Highlights
We have some amazing people around us in the surrounding communities, and we love highlighting our partners! Check out our Partners Page to see who we collaborate with, and if you want to learn more about someone not sponsored in this month’s newsletter please reach out to us and we will connect you to more information…or to them!
Our October Spotlight!🎉
Carly is a vestibular physical therapist who founded Dizzy Free PT to help people overcome vertigo, dizziness, and balance challenges. She provides root-cause, one-on-one care to retrain the body’s balance systems — including the inner ear and eye reflexes — through specialized exercises and strategies. Carly works with people experiencing everything from positional dizziness, to sudden vertigo episodes, to feeling ‘floaty’ or 'off' in daily life. Her mission is to help each person feel heard, understand what’s happening in their body, and restore hope that recovery is possible.
Workshops and Events
We are excited to be offering virtual and on-site workshops! 🎉
If your community is looking for a specific topic to be covered, feel free to reach out! We would love to help you and your community get answers to your SPECIFIC questions!
WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU! WHAT TOPIC WOULD YOU LIKE US TO COVER???
JUST REPLY TO THIS EMAIL AND LET US KNOW!!!
Our Product Recommendations!
Correct Toes
Correct Toes® are the highest-rated toe spacers, endorsed by doctors and athletes. They're uniquely customizable to fit your feet perfectly and are designed by Dr. Ray McClanahan, DPM, to promote natural toe alignment, strength, and pain relief.
TFC SoleMate
Looking for a relationship that brings you balance, stability & strength?
Want a companion that stretches you, keeps you focused and aligned?
Meet your new SoleMate
Crossover Symmetry
One of my absolute favorite exercise tools to use for core strength, hip strength, shoulder strength…and most importantly train stability and control with movement!
Timbar Protein Bars
Our protein bars are made with plant based high powered protein, naturally sweetened with honey (no refined sugars) and are free from gluten, dairy, eggs, whey, preservatives and artificial ingredients. We are committed to creating products that most people can enjoy by using simple, clean, healthy ingredients that are non-GMO certified. Our protein bars are carefully crafted to be nutrient dense and are an excellent source of protein, healthy fats, dietary fiber and good carbohydrates to help you feel satisfied and provide you with energy. All of our products are made in dedicated gluten free facility and are certified gluten free.
Use the code DIVERGENT for $2 off your order!
Dr. Doug’s Balms
Dr. Doug originally created this company to help people that he's encountered throughout his OCR (Obstacle Course Racing) journey. As the idea blossomed into the Dr. Doug's Miracle Balms brand, Doug continued wanting to help people. Thus, he created different lines of balms with different ingredients to help achieve the three main goals of Dr. Doug's Balms: Protect, Heal, & Restore.
Use the code DIVERGENT for a 10% discount
Muscle & Motion Apps, Courses, and Education
“Muscle and Motion’s comprehensive apps and online courses are designed to empower a diverse range of individuals and professionals worldwide. By providing in-depth insights into the anatomy and mechanics of movement, we equip our users with the knowledge to excel and lead in the fitness and movement industry.”
ONE I USE TO EDUCATE AND VISUALIZE IN CLINC!
If you have topics you would like to learn more about, or have questions you want us to address in this newsletter/blog… LET US KNOW!
The more we can provide what you want, the better the experience will be for everyone!
Thank you for trusting us on your unique health journey!
To your health and success,
The Team at Divergent Rehab
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