Importance of Anatomy

There are a few things that trancends language and culture. That everyone will understand. One of these is pain. A painful lower back or neck can be understood no matter what the language. Whether you are watching someone walk down the street in Ireland, Russia or New Zealand a painful lower back is just that, painful. This is where the importance of knowing your anatomy and biomechancics and neuromechanics of the body comes in handy. These things are important when you can take a detailed history and ask questions and have a correspondance with the patient or athlete being treated. But when you don't understand them, and they don't understand you, it becomes even more vital. So far this season I've had the privelege to get to not only work with the US team, but have worked on athletes and coaches from Monaco, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Swiss, Bulgaria, Australia, Korea and Austria. Sometimes we've understood each other and sometimes not. But biomechanics and anatomy are universal. Release what isn't moving and should be, strengthen what is moving and shouldn't be, activate the sleeping muscles, quite the hypertonic muscles and more often then not you'll get another universal sign, a smile.