Air Fried Steaks

You read that title correctly. Don’t knock it till you try it. I have been air frying my steaks for the past year and half. Now is this ideal? No. I air fry my steaks because cooking them in my apartment kitchen gets the whole place smoky. Luckily, I have a strong air fryer. If I am being honest, I was skeptical the first time I tried it, but it came out better than I could have ever expected.

You might be wondering why a physical therapy practice is writing about air fried steaks at this point. Stick with me here. The other day, I wanted to test out my steak skills on another air fryer (my parents’), so I took a couple of New York Strips over to their house.

They have a much bigger air fryer than I do. Anyway, I seasoned the steaks as usual and threw them in there for the usual time and heat I prefer (400 deg for 5-6 minutes/side for those wondering). When the timer was done I went to check on the steaks. They did not look cooked…

I proceeded to go through a process of putting them back in and taking them out, until I got to the desired state (medium rare). It was not as easy as my usual process at home, but I stuck with it until I achieved the desired result.

This is strangely very similar to how I approach rehab and movement. We constantly Test and Retest.

Limited shoulder mobility? Lacking hip strength? Low back pain?

Measure it (joint range of motion, mobility assessment, strength capacity)
*Insert Intervention* (breathing drill, exercise, stretch, etc.)
Re-measure

EXAMPLE:

Limited Forward Bend

Measure distance of fingertips to floor
Intervention: All 4’s exhale for rib cage depression/retraction (this helps with improving low back mobility)
Re-measure forward bend.

Rehab needs to be measured to ensure progress is being made. As Peter Drucker said - “What gets measured, gets managed.”

We need to make sure that we are measuring the correct qualities, and the way to do that is to retest and see if our interventions are useful. I prefer medium rare steaks, so it is important to monitor the internal temperature so I don’t overcook them. In that same regard, we don’t want to overdose movements and cause further pain. Conversely, we don’t want to underdose and not allow for adaptation to occur.

At Revenant Physical Therapy we pride ourselves in managing rehab correctly. We provide solutions to the outcome you are looking for. We deal with small aches and pains to chronic nagging injuries. We have the skills and assessments needed to capture the correct information to ensure proper healing and return to activity.