Last Post of 2014

I think I did it.  Did one post a day for a full year.  Some sucked.  Some were pretty good.  Some were just videos.  Some took me hours to write.  Hopefully if you checked in once a week you learned something and better yet, you were moved to go look up something from a video or concept.  I love that.  Finding a name of someone or a concept and running down the rabbit hole with it.  Finding the tangents that intertwine and weave together with it.

One of the things I'm going to do this year is each month pick one concept mentally, physically and emotionally and devote the month to that.  I'm starting to think no progress is made with moderation. You can't do something occasionally and get better at it.  Moderation is an excuse at times.

Maybe one month my mental goal is to delve as deep into the lumbar spine as I can.  Maybe, physically it's an L-sit to press.  Over and Over.  I haven't ironed out all the rules or concepts, except I want to take a month and just attack and get deep into one thing at a time.  Maybe I will only deadlift or something.  I'm not sure.  Can I take a cold shower only for a month?

I'm still playing around with the concept in my head.  But, I want to narrow my focus in on a few subjects and movements and physical goals and attack them instead of diversifying my interests.  If you want a learn a language move to the country.  That kind of concept!

I won't be posting everyday, but I plan on posting on more days then not!  I'll give updates on my "Non Moderation" and hopefully you can join if you would like with your own.

I had a great year in 2014.  Looking forward to 2015.  Everyday, feel gratitude.  It's a universal concept and principal that will change your life.

Be Grateful.

How the Tongue Influences Growth

Over this past weekend I listened to a great podcast about how the tongue influences the upper pallet.   The consequences of what happens when this doesn't happen and a few things to do and thing about.  Really pretty informative, especially if you have a baby or young kid.

Podcast with Dr. Kevin Boyd

Great Article: Natural Born Heroes

My post didn't post yesterday...so that is why 2 blogs showed up today.

This was a really fun read from Outside Magazine.  Can't wait for the new book from Christopher McDougall.   Natural Born Heroes.

What Nature Says About Sleep Positions

This is a pretty interesting article about how native people adapt sleep positions.  These sleep positions allow the natural correction of musculoskeletal issues.  At one point in my life I slept on the floor with one pillow for 6 years.  During this time period I had much less joint pain and problems.  I was also much younger and many less sports injuries.  

With all the hype on minimalist shoes and paleo/caveman eating, 3rd world pooping squat, I'm surprised sleeping on the floor hasn't had more of a following. 

I think there is some validity to the very interesting article posted at the bottom.  Should you ditch the bed?

Try it and see if you wake with less body pain!  The truth lies in your experience and the consistency of your finding.

Just remember that guys that grow up running barefoot, choose shoes when they are offered.  Just because someone goes without, doesn't mean that they choose that way, they are making the best of their situation.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119282/#!po=75.0000

DRIFTA LIFTA: Extended training with Diane FU

Always fun to watch a great coach and a great athlete working on technique and skills.

Merry Christmas Pre Feast Workout

Merry Christmas!  Hope you all are enjoying the holidays!  A pre feast workout to get the metabolism primed for calories.

100 kettlebell swings
50 yards of bear crawl.
10 goblet squats
80 kb swings
40 yards of bear crawls
10 goblet squats
60 kb swings
30 yards of bear crawls
10 goblet squats
40 kb swings
20 yards of bear crawls
10 goblet squat
30 kb swings
10 yards of bear crawls
10 goblet squats

Can You Control Your Joints

Around 6 weeks ago I crashed my cyclocross bike dismounting and hitting a barrier in a glorious nonathletic move.  I went one direction while my bike flew in the opposite direction.  Somewhere in the chaos I had a shearing shot of pain in my lower back.  Luckily I could pedal mostly pain free, running was not great, but doable.  I knew I could finish the race, but that the next week was going to suck.

The following week did suck.

The 2nd week sucked a little less.

A month later, you could pretty much say I was pain free, moving, lifting traveling without any difficulty.  I was 100% correct?

This is where we stop in our rehabilitation process for most of us.  Including myself.  Once we are pain free and back to our daily activities we are good to go.  In the immortal words of Lee Corso, "Not so fast my friend."

I decided to film myself and see how my intersegmental cat/camel was doing.  It's something I learned in Functional Range Conditioning.  It's a way to evaluate if you have motor control of your spine.  Your spine should move!  I was shocked at how bad I was.  Granted I hadn't been training it well for awhile, but this was pretty bad.  (You can see the video over on my Instagram page.  DRjasonross.)

I had no motor control.  Almost a guarantee that I am just waiting on my next lower back moment even though I feel great.

It is an interesting thought process to wonder how my intersegmental motor control was pre accident.  Would I have been able to crash without creating a lower back trauma if my motor control had been better?

There really is no way to prevent injury.  But, perhaps we can definitely create a more resilient body that is more resistant to injury.

Embrace Failure in 2015

I watched my 3 month old struggle to turn over from her stomach to her back for a good 15 minutes last night.  The whole time she is doing this she is smiling.  She was enjoying the process.

How often do we go into something and expect to be "pretty good" at a new movement and skill and when it doesn't come as easy as we think, we get frustrated and quit.  Embrace failure.  You will never improve at anything if all you do is things you are good at.

Why do we lose the enjoyment?

Why do we expect to be good at something we have never tried or is outside the comfort zone of our daily life.

New goal for 2015, starting now, enjoy the process of learning new movement skills and new skills in general.

EMBRACE FAILURE

How to Build PVC Parallettes - PVC Parallel Bars

I made a set a few years ago and they have held up well to abuse/use.  I am going to make a new set and probably use 10" instead of 8" for height.  Improving L-sit to a Frog position is one of the aspects I'm going to be working on this winter.

Some Articles to Finish the Weekend and Start the Week

Have a good understanding of what manual therapy can do and the why of the mechanism?  This paper tries to identify the potential mechanisms.  Mechanisms of Manual therapy. 

What happens to the fat that you burn when you exercise?  Where Does the Fat Go? 

We are in control of more then what we have been given credit for.  How Exercise Changes Our DNA.

Quality Information on Muscle Cramping

Came across this nice paper on cramping.  As a life long cramper, I have a deep interest in learning more about why we cramp.  Science is conflicted.  The author does a nice 4 minute video summary as well.  Cramping in Sport. 

Video:

http://download.lww.com/wolterskluwer_vitalstream_com/PermaLink/SCJ/A/SCJ_2014_08_06_BUSKARD_SCJ-D-13-00125R1_SDC1.m4v

Random Thoughts from the Clinic/Life

Detox juices and highly restricted calories should not be combined with exercise.

Working all the patellar ligaments around the knee produces a unique feeling of lightness in the leg and is often overlooked in knee problems.

The VMO has a direct fascial connection to the psoas muscle.  (learned this...not in clinic)  Treating the VMO with the Psoas has produced (acutely) better results.

All my Crossfit athletes I take care of have one sided bracialis issues.  I believe it's from all the gymnastic ring work.  When this muscle gets tight, the anterior delt isn't to far behind in becoming sore/painful.  I used to think this was biceps irritation.  (Thanks functional range seminars for showing me this is anterior delt)

I'm done buying those online ebook/videos that are 37 dollars in the first week and after this week it jumps to 47 dollars.  You click on the link and it sends you to a page where it's a million people giving great reviews and they want you to buy the gold package.  I'm done I tell you.  I won't tell you which one I bought yesterday, not a fan of bad mouthing someones work, but I feel like I threw money away and I even found the book to be solid.

Speaking of good, Tom Furman has a great Ebook.  Bamboo Gods, Iron Men and Rubber Bands.  Great info and highly practical.  Learned a few things and had some creative insights in the mobility game.  All for 9.99.  Not that rip off 47 dollars.

Fruits and Vegetables just need to be available.  People (myself and family) eat them way more when they are just laying around.  Someone brought in a fruit basket the other day and my weekly consumption has jumped.  To bad junk food never goes bad and the healthy stuff does.

My patients that have undergone some sort of cancer treatment in their life have a different quality to their tissue.  It always feels like there is more of plastic quality if that makes sense.  It's much harder for me to grab a spot to hold onto.  I've been thinking way more on the nutritional aspects of healthy connective tissue lately.

People feel tremendously better when you get them breathing better.  For older populations, opening up the pectoral girdle seems to really give them a turbo boost of energy.

The quicker you can start some rehab/movement post injury the quicker results you can achieve.  The old adage of rest is pretty much dead.  This was a big reminder this week after a grade 2 hamstring came in 6 weeks after it happened.  Find what you can do pain free and start from there.

Johnny's Recovery - NO KNIFE

 There is a tremendous amount of work that can be done to regain movement and strength if you have an injury.  Deciding surgery is always a personal matter, and one must realize that if you choose surgery, the road ahead is just as hard to rehab.  But, you should know, surgery is not the only option.  More and more coming out these days about the potential with diligent practice, movement and precise loading of the tissue that healing can occur.

Rise and Swim (Welcome to the Grind)

Finish the week strong!

The Pressure is Building

Traveling on the plane a few weeks ago I had the miserable experience of my ears not popping.  It was painful.   Gum chewing, forced yawning, blowing my nose, nothing really worked.   It took at least three or four days for the pressure to finally relax and it to feel normal.

Just a few days ago, in the shower, my ear popped loudly, (in my head at least)  my hearing felt better and instantly my head felt lighter.  My body had grown accustomed to the less then optimal experience.  Was I in pain?  No.  If someone had asked how my ear pressure was I would have said that everything was fine.  

Subtle pressure is impossible to feel.  It comes on slowly.  

How do you boil a frog?  SLOWLY

How often in life do we grow accustomed to abnormal pressure.  Whether it's mental or physical.  Have something that may be weighing on your mind.  Don't think it's that big of deal.  When you finally deal with it you find yourself sleeping better.  Mental pressure is for real.

A lot of the treatment and therapy will result in the joint feeling lighter.  I tell every patient that is what the joint is supposed to feel like.  Over time you have become accustomed to the pressure.  Your abnormal is normal.  You aren't moving or feeling optimal, because you lost optimal long ago.   You are comfortably uncomfortable.  

Something to be said for wellness visits.  

Dianne Andreotti: Motor Control of the Hamstrings

Another nice video.  I am interested in learning more about the primitive reflexes that don't always go away as we age.

Shirley A Sahrmann

Excellent video from one of the leaders in changing movement deficiencies.  Great videos on lumbopelvic and hip problems at the end.  One of the principles of correction would be to follow Functional Range Conditioning mantra, Create the joint, move the joint, strengthen the joint.

Carla Stecco: Fascia and Proprioception

Fixing Low Back Pain With Bands

I had the pleasure of training with Dick Hartzell in 1999 when he just had a small "band gym" in Youngstown, OH.  He was an amazing guy and I don't think he has ever received the recognition he deserves for being such an innovator.  I still use bands quite a bit today in practice/training.

World Athletic Center Performance Therapy Course Summary

This past week I had the opportunity to take part in the first Performance Therapy Course offered from the World Athletic Center (WAC) in Phoenix AZ.  The WAC is an integrated performance center that offers top flight coaching and therapy to Professional Track And Field athletes and up and coming track athletes.

Dan Pfaff, Stu McMillan, Andreas Behm, Nick Scheuerman and John Godina are just some of the names involved in the coaching aspect.  There is an unbelievable amount of wisdom, knowledge and experience in this crew.

To lead the first Performance Therapy section was Dr. Gerry Ramogida DC.  He is the Seattle Seahawks Chiropractor since 2002 and lead therapist for Fortius a large Performance center in Vancouver.  He was the lead therapist for the UK up till the 2012 London Olympics.  Gerry was a wealth of information.  He has accumulated a very large knowledge base from which to add nuggets of insight into many different situations.

The idea behind the course is to integrate coach, therapist and athlete into a triangle of communication.  Coach should be able to look at an athlete warming up and provide a manual correction to improve the warm up or workout.  A therapist should know what a coach is looking for in an athlete warming up and working out.

Seems pretty common sense, until you realize, most people don't know this!

The course is split up into a nice trident of education.  Lecture, Practical and Discussion over a four day stretch.  Each was solid in application. For many people it was there first time hearing about mechanotransduction, fascial health, sprint mechanics, ElDOA, and more.  The practical section involved learning about warm ups and the why of progression.  Evaluating athletes on the move, essentially a movement based movement screen!  Can you watch an athlete warm up, make an intervention when needed, and create better movement?  Gait analysis on the fly!  Discussion was gold.  It's not often you get some heavy hitters asking questions and having open discourse on therapy and training.  Very cool.

If you are a coach or therapist this is great course to help you take your professional development to the next level.  It really brought out some areas of learning I need to improve on (foot mechanics) and  pointed me in direction of potential other learning opportunities.  I learned just as much from the quality of attendees and have noticed that is a trend.  Great courses bring out great attendees.  I noticed this with attending the Functional Range Release seminars last year.  Quality teaching, brings quality people.  Wins all around.

The coaches, therapists and athletes that are associated with the WAC are all tremendous.  It was an awesome 5 days I was down there.  There is an incredible vibe that is in the atmosphere around the WAC.  I learned a lot, improved my skills and enjoyed some nice Phoenix weather.

Guy Voyer explains the meaning and history of ELDOA

One of the cutting edge ways athletes are warming up down at the World Athletic Center is with specific ELDOA stretches.  Here is the founder, Guy Voyer, expelling the concepts.

A Few Good Reads

I have been enjoying Matt Vincents stuff lately.  His latest article is entitled "The Art of Strength Training."

This article is about the importance of the warm up.  Something I highly believe in.  Something I strive to work at getting better at.  Ten Commandments of Warm Up.

I was out in Phoenix taking a seminar and working with some sprinters out of World Athletic Center this past week.  Some warm ups they do are over an hour long, to get them ready for intense sprint sessions.  I'll write more of this experience hopefully this week and summarize my experience.  But, I'm off to play with my kid now.

Quality Improvement in Healthcare

I always enjoy his presentations.  Something to strive for.

Good Reads

Steve Magness writes a great blog called Science of Running.  This post talks about how he tracks data with his runners.  You get to see how important sleep really is to performance.  Tracking Collegiate Runners.

If you have ever wondered about how much steroids may help, this article give a small insight into the world of powerlifting and steroids.  What Powerlifting Tells Us.  We are now starting to see that even taking steroids for a little while can translate to gains years down the road.

I just like reading studies like this.  Keeping Older Muscles "Young" through Protein and Exercise.

Drifta Lifta -Part one- Kelly Starrett, San Francisco Crossfit, Pleasant...

Thought this was a well done video.  I got to meet Kelly Starrett the other day at the World Athletic Center Performance Therapy seminar I'm taking.

Sports, Performance, and Mindfulness: Michael Gervais, Soren Gordhamer

Pretty interesting.  Seahawks seem to be ahead of the curve in several fields.

Lactate as Brain Fuel

Lactate As Brain Fuel with Dr. George Brooks: http://youtu.be/lThFQM503EU

BioLayne Video Log: Dealing with Disappointment and Failure

Thought this was worth sharing.

Random and Interesting

The Gait Guys are always putting out solid material for manual therapists.  I'm always interested in reflex's and this article is pretty interesting.  We know eyes drive extension when you look up and drive flexion when you look down.  I'd never been aware of how neck motions can also drive this.
More on Stretching.

Joel Jamieson owner of 8weeksout.com gives a great introduction video for Breaking Muscle.  Solid information.  Always good to review the basics.
Energy Systems 101.