It seems that I don’t usually get to posting on Thursday nights, but I’d like to get more regular with my blog. And no not to talk about increasing my fiber intake. I don’t have a video to share this week just some insights. (actually I just uploaded one for the edit!!) I have a client that I’ve been working with, who is a seventy-year-old avid tennis player. She is very open-minded to alternative treatments takes very good care of herself. And has recently been receiving physical therapy, stretch therapy, neuromuscular massage therapy, and seeing a chiropractor, for a shoulder injury. She had an MRI to quantify the damage to the shoulder and she’s laid off from tennis to let her shoulder heal. Actually she hasn’t laid off from playing tennis. She’s only playing left-handed now, and she’s the a right-handed player. Talk about dedication to tennis!
This woman has received acupuncture, used homeopathic remedies and mixed these approaches to health care with traditional medicine. Pretty much the perfect client. haven’t actually work with her for a few years but she’s back to see me to help with her shoulder. When I started to ask her about the treatment she’d been receiving, I was pretty happy. It sound like a good mix of therapies the compliment each other well. Once I performed some movement assessments, goniometry measurements, (specific joint range of motion assessments) and manual muscle testing, I found that there were several other areas throughout the kinetic chain contributing to her shoulder injury. I was a bit disappointed that none of the other practitioners that she was seeing were addressing these other areas. It sounded like the work they were doing was appropriate for shoulder, but the rest of the kinetic chain is not being considered. She had restrictions in dorsiflexion flexion, left sacroiliac joint dysfunction and other soft tissue restrictions. Just by releasing her left adductor magnus, left short head of the biceps femoris and encouraging some movement in her sacroiliac joint, she instantaneously stood taller and moved easier. She was excited and relieved that her whole body felt better. It always amazes me the, complexity yet simplicity of the kinetic chain principle. It’s true that sometimes we can’t see the forest through the trees, and I have made this mistake myself plenty of times. So the good news is is that this client will coming to see me for some soft tissue work and very specific corrective exercise programming to address her movement impairments and she will continue to see her other practitioners for localize work at the site of her injury. This is almost the best case scenario we have a specific diagnosis and qualified practitioners treating the diagnosis as well if someone else looking at the big picture. Now at 70 years of age playing as much tennis as this client is played, degradation of tissue is unavoidable. I’m not saying a the SI joint restriction caused her shoulder problem. It might even just be a response to the injury itself. I’m very clear however that does need to be addressed. And if we think about the fascial connections in the posterior chain of the body, the sacroiliac joint dysfunction and right shoulder dysfunction are not uncommon in this situation. We can extrapolate that further restrictions in dorsi flexion bilaterally as well as first MTP joint restriction bilaterally have contributed to her dysfunction as well.
I’m excited to get this client back on the court and playing tennis again…with the racket in her right hand. I’m not sure how long it’s going to take, but I know her love of the game will keep her moving consistently toward that court again.
I’m sure we’ve all experienced situations where other practitioners have get lost in the minutia of the condition. As corrective exercise specialists and personal trainers, we work with our strengths of just looking at human movement. We can’t diagnose, many of us can’t apply manual therapy techniques unless we are licensed to do so, but we can observe and identify movement impairments. We can restore muscular balance. We can activate inhibited muscles. We can teach quality movement patterns. We can make a huge difference. We can do so along with other practitioners who have the appropriate licensure and skill set to identify and treat specific injuries. or we can use this skill set skill set with someone who doesn’t have a diagnosed injury to enhance the quality of life, performance on the court or play time with their kids.
There are so many other people that we can learn from to get better at what we do. There are countless practitioners we can network with to learn more about the body. Just remember that human movement is human movement, and the kinetic chain is the kinetic chain. These basics will guide us in identification of dysfunction reeducation of the neuromuscular system, fitness programs and athletic performance enhancement programs.
That’s all for me tonight. Thanks for reading and here is to to a dry and sunny spring!
Was my last post during the Grammys? I guess while my wife is watching the show I get some time to blog away. The just announced the Oscar for best animated film, you know that Toy Story 3 was a slam dunk win there.
I have been busy with my day to day stuff and having fun with my family. I have a couple of You Tube videos to check out, one I uploaded last weekend on SMR pace and one this weekend on disassociating the spine and pelvis.
Self Myofascial Release Tempo: Most People Need to Slow Down!
Disassociate the Spine and the Pelvis (and spine and the shoulder)
On an unrelated topic, I got too skinny this fall and have been putting some weight back on over the last tow months and it feels good! Partly to have some more muscle on my frame and partly because I have had some fun getting sloppy with my diet! Enough is enough though, and it is time to curb the unnecessary caloric intake. I actually took my kids to the pool a couple of times over February vacation just to get them some exercise and have some fun and got a pretty good workout in a couple of time. Even though it was mostly just playing with them, it is easy to get the heart rate up in a couple of minutes in the pool.
This just in…Reese Witherspoon is presenting an award and her shoulders are jacked up! Here is a picture of her from another occasion, but you can see the same imbalances.
My wife gets so annoyed when I point this stuff out…but hey, there is a price for making my watch these awards shows…I get to analyze posture…So Reese has an elevated right shoulder and her left shoulder seems depressed…think she needs some corrective exercise! Imagine over time the headaches, neck tension and wear and tear on the shoulder joint over the years if things stay this way?
Alright, enough from me! I hope you are having an awesome life. The winter can’t go on forever:)
Rhianna, Eminem and Dr. Dre just blew it up at the Grammys.
After 2 straight hours of folding laundry while my wife was frosting cupcakes for the kids Valentines Day parties tomorrow I am sitting down and taking a “break”. My wife has had the Grammys on in the background the entire time. I paid attention to a few parts, like the Rhianna, Eminenem and Dre performance, Justin Bieber and Usher and when Lady Antebellum won a Grammy for the song “Need You Now”.
Did they win 3 Grammys?
What struck me was when Hillary Scott from Lady Antebellum was speaking after receiving the award. She said how her and the rest of the band’s life changed in the last year because of the success of this song. She broke into tears as the moment washed over her and she was wisked off stage. It reminds me of the power of a year. It has been said that most men overestimate what they can accomplish in a year but underestimate what they can do in a decade. I wonder what the last year of her life has been like? How hard has she worked? How many shows has she done? Interviews she has given? I can’t imagine.
What if we looked back even farther? Over the last 10 years of her life? How many bad songs has she sung? How many hours of practice has she put in? How many times has she wanted to quit? How many times has she sung to an unappreciative audience? During the last year of her life she has experienced exponential growth in terms of commercial success, but she has been laying the groundwork for much longer. They say it takes 10,000 hours to craft and develop a world class, elite athlete. That can represent a 10 year growth period. Most people only hear about the Olympic athlete during the Olympics, but they have built their opportunity to compete at the Olympics the decade prior. They not only train in four year cycles to peak for the Olympic Games, but some on eight year cycles to peak for two sets of games!
Not to mention a run at Dancing With the Stars!
So what does that have to do with us? Well, the old adage is true, you reap what you sew. The results that we have in our lives, with our clients, in our love life, in our bank accounts and with our health are mostly indicative of what we have done over the last number of years. Our ability to work with a varied and challenging client based is developed by researching issues that we are unfamiliar with and then actually using trial and error to figure out which approach is best for a certain individual. We read journals, watch webinars chat with other professionals to grow our knowledge base. It never ends. Think of the people who just “apply, apply, apply” what they have known for years and have never added to? I am sure there are some areas of our lives that we have either not added to or conversely added to but not applied what we have learned. That second part resonates with me. I have studied and researched information pertaining to several aspects of my life. It is always easier to learn about some aspects of life compared to to others and it is easier to apply information in some areas more easily compared to others as well. If you take a minute and think about it, what ares of your life have you neglected learning more about? If you think about work…for example…maybe you have studied plenty about corrective exercise but not much about supplements? Then on the other side of the coin, what ares of life or your practice have you neglected to apply this great information that you have spent time and money researching? I can think of a few for me:)
Anywhoo…here are a couple of videos that I have done over the last couple of weeks. One on basic TRX Row technique (dos and don’ts) and an SMR technique that can loosen up and mobilize your thoracic spine. Enjoy and Happy Valentines Day!!!
This is one of those times that people get sad when a great or significant person passes away when people seem sad and go into mourning. If this is a direct love one and you need to go through the grieving process, I understand, but when we are talking about health and fitness icon Jack LaLane who died peacefully in the presence of his family this past Sunday at the impressive age of 96, I think it is a time for a celebration of his life.
I am too young to have experienced most of Jack’s impact first hand. I merely get to enjoy the foundation he has laid and learn anecdotally about his life and accomplishments. Here are some of my favorite other Jacks are;
Captain Jack Sparrow in Fine Form
Jack Lambert was Vicious on the Gridiron
KRS One Raps about the Jack of Spades
Just Jack!
The Jack we need to celebrate now is this guy…
Jack LaLane now and then
Wish I Ever Looked This Good
Impressive...
To learn more about what he was really about, visit his site and watch the short video on the home page.
It was not just his amazing feats of fitness but his commitment to changing lives. He believed in helping people be the best they could through fitness. He achieved when he was told that he couldn’t. Success when so many thought he wouldn’t. He was called a quack and a nut job. He was doubted, challenged and disrespected. He rose above and lived his mission like no other. Thank you for the example Jack. You made the world a better place.
I enjoy being optimistic and catch myself operating from that frame of reference. I have spent a good amount of my life with a negative bias and still find things that leave a bad taste in my mouth from time to time now. More often than not however, I choose to look at the glass 1/2 full. The media’s attachment onto this story may just have been for ratings and the reporter that “broke” this story was doing his job and looking for something to get him attention, but I can’t help but feel good about it. It brought a smile to my heart and almost a tear to my eye.
We are all in the need for a second chance in life, most of us will need many more chances than that so it was nice to see this homeless man in Columbus Ohio get his. He has been no angel in his life with addictions to alcohol and drugs in his past but his persistence and twist of fate have provided him opportunities that he has probably never even dreamed of. Word has it that he will accept an offer to become the voice of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in addition to appearing on the Today shows and several other job offers.
Ted Williams and his Golden Voice on the Today Show
Who can you give a second chance to? Thanks for reading.
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Shoulder Dysfunction and Contra-Lateral Sacroiliac Joint Health in a Tennis Player
Happy Thursday night!
It seems that I don’t usually get to posting on Thursday nights, but I’d like to get more regular with my blog. And no not to talk about increasing my fiber intake. I don’t have a video to share this week just some insights. (actually I just uploaded one for the edit!!) I have a client that I’ve been working with, who is a seventy-year-old avid tennis player. She is very open-minded to alternative treatments takes very good care of herself. And has recently been receiving physical therapy, stretch therapy, neuromuscular massage therapy, and seeing a chiropractor, for a shoulder injury. She had an MRI to quantify the damage to the shoulder and she’s laid off from tennis to let her shoulder heal. Actually she hasn’t laid off from playing tennis. She’s only playing left-handed now, and she’s the a right-handed player. Talk about dedication to tennis!
This woman has received acupuncture, used homeopathic remedies and mixed these approaches to health care with traditional medicine. Pretty much the perfect client. haven’t actually work with her for a few years but she’s back to see me to help with her shoulder. When I started to ask her about the treatment she’d been receiving, I was pretty happy. It sound like a good mix of therapies the compliment each other well. Once I performed some movement assessments, goniometry measurements, (specific joint range of motion assessments) and manual muscle testing, I found that there were several other areas throughout the kinetic chain contributing to her shoulder injury. I was a bit disappointed that none of the other practitioners that she was seeing were addressing these other areas. It sounded like the work they were doing was appropriate for shoulder, but the rest of the kinetic chain is not being considered. She had restrictions in dorsiflexion flexion, left sacroiliac joint dysfunction and other soft tissue restrictions. Just by releasing her left adductor magnus, left short head of the biceps femoris and encouraging some movement in her sacroiliac joint, she instantaneously stood taller and moved easier. She was excited and relieved that her whole body felt better. It always amazes me the, complexity yet simplicity of the kinetic chain principle. It’s true that sometimes we can’t see the forest through the trees, and I have made this mistake myself plenty of times. So the good news is is that this client will coming to see me for some soft tissue work and very specific corrective exercise programming to address her movement impairments and she will continue to see her other practitioners for localize work at the site of her injury. This is almost the best case scenario we have a specific diagnosis and qualified practitioners treating the diagnosis as well if someone else looking at the big picture. Now at 70 years of age playing as much tennis as this client is played, degradation of tissue is unavoidable. I’m not saying a the SI joint restriction caused her shoulder problem. It might even just be a response to the injury itself. I’m very clear however that does need to be addressed. And if we think about the fascial connections in the posterior chain of the body, the sacroiliac joint dysfunction and right shoulder dysfunction are not uncommon in this situation. We can extrapolate that further restrictions in dorsi flexion bilaterally as well as first MTP joint restriction bilaterally have contributed to her dysfunction as well.
I’m excited to get this client back on the court and playing tennis again…with the racket in her right hand. I’m not sure how long it’s going to take, but I know her love of the game will keep her moving consistently toward that court again.
I’m sure we’ve all experienced situations where other practitioners have get lost in the minutia of the condition. As corrective exercise specialists and personal trainers, we work with our strengths of just looking at human movement. We can’t diagnose, many of us can’t apply manual therapy techniques unless we are licensed to do so, but we can observe and identify movement impairments. We can restore muscular balance. We can activate inhibited muscles. We can teach quality movement patterns. We can make a huge difference. We can do so along with other practitioners who have the appropriate licensure and skill set to identify and treat specific injuries. or we can use this skill set skill set with someone who doesn’t have a diagnosed injury to enhance the quality of life, performance on the court or play time with their kids.
There are so many other people that we can learn from to get better at what we do. There are countless practitioners we can network with to learn more about the body. Just remember that human movement is human movement, and the kinetic chain is the kinetic chain. These basics will guide us in identification of dysfunction reeducation of the neuromuscular system, fitness programs and athletic performance enhancement programs.
That’s all for me tonight. Thanks for reading and here is to to a dry and sunny spring!
Eric Beard
CEO A-Team
Corrective Exercise Specialist
AthleticShoulder.com
http://facebook.com/theericbeard
http://youtube.com/theericbeard