Health Talk: Deskbound by Kelly Starrett

This is an excellent talk. This is essentially a ton of information that I try to teach my patients. Shoulder/Hip mobility and strength. Ergonomics. Dehydration and water, one nifty trick to find out if you are dehydrated. How to take care of yourself. Highly recommended.

Midweek Post: Books, Iso's and Orthotics

If you're looking for a fun quick read for a few days, try out Dhani Jones new book.  I'm about all the way through it and it was a fun read.  I loved his show on TLC which was him traveling to other countries, spending a week there, learning there sport and culture, culminating in him competing in the sport against locals.  It is a cross between his thoughts, travel diary, sport/culture and different training styles for each and how they benefited his play in the NFL.  The Sportsman: Unexpected Lessons from an Around the World Sports Odyssey.

I've played around this week with Jay Schroeders Deadly Seven Iso's.  You hold a squat, push up, right and left lunge, chin up, good morning and finally inverted row for 5 minutes.  Obviously you're not going to be able to go 5 min.  You accumulate as much time as you can, rest and keep going.  I only did 3 min.  The only one I made it through without stopping was the squat.  The upper body stuff was extremely hard for me.  I was pretty surprised at how sore I was the next day.  I really liked the fact, that I could feel my weak spots being challenged.  An old shoulder dislocation from rugby has always made my left scapulae do funny things and feel weaker/less stable.  I think this will be a valuable tool in the toolbox to iron out some dysfunction.

I recommend the iso push up and inverted row for all chiropractors to help protect your shoulders.  Doing side postures on people day in and day out can lead to some shoulder problems down the line.  Protect yourself.  

I often hear people say they don't like orthotics and they use the analogy, if you had back pain would you put them in a brace and say don't move.  Well, obviously I wouldn't.  But a good orthotic, isn't about  stopping motion, it's about stopping excess motion.  If I had a shoulder dislocation and had a to play a contact sport, I would wear a brace that stops extreme end range motion for sure.  Same thing with a good orthotic.  Professional Golf, I was told by a biomechanist in Boston, doesn't allow the use of orthotics unless for a medical condition, because it's considered a performance enhancement.  Food for thought.

Dehydration and Positional Vertigo

I'm not sure why it seems to work this way, but when I see a certain condition, I start seeing a lot of it.  One patient will come in with plantar fascia, first one in months, then I will get quite a few more.

Lately, I have been seeing quite a few patients with positional vertigo.  Positional vertigo is the feeling of dizziness, sometimes nausea, coming from a certain position.  Could be laying down, could be sitting up, could be laying only on the right side.

 I started doing some research.  There are a few maneuvers that seem to help people.  Epley Maneuver being the most common.  The most interesting note, what I've seen help pretty quickly, is hydration.

Positional vertigo may be a result of being dehydrated.  I've seen it help a few right away.  If you have dizziness with positions or know of someone that does, tell them to drink up.  Hydrate.

On a side note, I always tell patients to drink a lot of water after getting treated.  I've now come to realize I have to give specific numbers after learning one patient thought 30 ounces was a lot of water.  For the record, 1/2 your bodyweight in ounces.

Monday Motivation: MMA, All I got

Random Thoughts, Tips and Ideas from Train Out Pain in Grand Rapids, MI

 This is just stuff I've read, am doing/observing or thinking about.

Weak VMO's contribute to calf problems.  Runners that continually have tight calves check the VMO for adhesion's and strength deficits.

Invest in a heart rate monitor if you're interested in your own fitness or conditioning levels.  I think knowing your resting heart and knowing if it's improving from your own training is vital.  I've been using the Polar RS100.  No complaints so for.

The name Joel Jamieson kept creeping up in my seminar in Boston when energy systems were mentioned.  I am reading through his book Ultimate MMA Conditioning.  Great book, I highly recommend it in terms of understanding the energy systems.  Don't let the title fool you, it can be applied to all sports. A more complete understanding of the energy systems is my goal for the last 6 months of this year.  He has an awesome video post on his blog 8weekout.com.  I was really impressed he put it up on his site.  Basically, you can watch him give a lecture on energy system development and philosophy from a seminar he did in Virginia.  Here is the link. ENERGY SYSTEM

With runners and sprinters, make sure the t9-t11 area is free to rotate, when this is fixated, they will get much more arm crossover trying to create the rotation.

Two other books I'm just starting are Special Strength Training For Coaches by Verkhoshansky. It's a long awaited item by many strength coaches as it was in Russian for a long time.
The other is Adaptation in Sports Training by Viru.  It's my goal like I stated early to really, really understand whats going on in terms of adaptation physiologically in the body with different training styles and how it can be manipulated.  Energy system for patients and athletes is vital for performance and health.

Here's a hint,what were taught in school about different times correlating with the creatine phosphate, anaerobic and aerobic system is quite wrong.  The aerobic system is more important then we ever thought.

Cal Dietz strength coach at University of Minnesota has started using time periods instead of Reps.  Cool concept.  You do as much work as you can in a time.  So each rep is fast.  He may use 3 seconds, 5 seconds, 20 or 40 sec.  It all makes sense in time under tension, speed of movement and intensity.

Rib Mobility and Movement Checks from Shirley Sahrmann

One of the big take aways I took from Shirley Sahrmanns lecture a few weeks ago in Boston was the importance of monitoring posture and movement.  For those of you that don't know, Shirley is one of the smartest manual therapist out there.  I own two of her textbooks, that I refer back to often.  Her first book, actually influence the way I treat and evaluate patients and athletes.

She must have stated 3-4 times over the course of her two hour talk about how she can't believe in today's society we don't have regular movement checks, but that we have twice yearly teeth check ups.  She extrapolated on what health benefits teeth bring, then extrapolated on what health benefits proper movement brings.  Hard to argue about some of that. 

Her lecture was titled "The Role of Hip Movement in Low Back Pain."  One of the key points I took away was measuring rib movement.  I really, really like this concept.  Like the quote says, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it."

She suggests that you breath all the way out, measure your rib circumference, then take a deep inhale.  Measure again.  Optimal rib movement is 3 inches.  I was at 1.5 inches then and 2 inches now. Lately,  I have had less midback tightness.  Circumstantially, I PR'd in inverted row reps recently.

 Improve joint function, improve movement quality, improve strength.  

Monday Motivation: Navy SEAL Motivation