Keep Coming Back!

"I don't know what to do about my shoulder, it hurts."

"Go to a chiropractor."

"No way.  My cousin told me once you go to a chiropractor, you'll never stop."

Has anyone had this conversation?  I hear this one all the time.  People bring it up to me wanting me to tell them that I'm not like that or that that it's a wives tale.  The weird thing is....it's kinda true.

The purpose of the sports chiropractic that I practice is to rid people of pain in a non-surgical, non-pharmaceutical manner while promoting a lifelong ability to maintain a limber, youthful body that isn't prone to as many of the common ailments you'll see in your average senior citizen.  Typically I see my new patients 2-3x/wk for 3-4 weeks then we move on.

Here's the issue: that job is never done!

Would you ever question your dentist when he asked you to come back in 3 months for another cleaning?

Would you ever contemplate that your personal trainer had an alternative motive when he recommended you workout 3x per week on an ongoing basis?

This guy's a complete badass.  I think he believes in regular maintenance care!

Of course not!

Now I understand the concern.  Your orthopedic doctor doesn't ask you to have 'maintenance' treatments.  Once you fix your shoulder, it's done.  We'd like to be able to turn the page on whatever issues we have and not have to deal with it anymore.  When you get a sinus infection, it's not like you have to go back to your general practitioner on a regular basis forever because you once had a sinus infection.

In my opinion the reason people have issues with a chiropractor recommending maintenance treatment is that people are not used to having to be concerned with their musculoskeletal health.  Unless you're in active pain, why would you see a chiro?  

What chiropractic maintenance care (ongoing regular care, sometimes 1-2x/mo) provides is being proactive with your body so that it doesn't break down.  Proactive the way changing your oil every 3,000 miles extends the life of your vehicle.  

how can you change your body's oil?

I really do get the concern with having to continually deal with an issue, and the annoyance that it is.  Having said that, you know you always have to to eat healthy, you know you have to exercise;  I invite you to consider that you have to continually address the health and integrity of your musculoskeletal system through an intervention such as chiropractic.  That way it's less likely that you'll be in a wheel chair at age 70, or have to stop your favorite hobbies because your knees can't take it at age 50.  

To schedule your own 'maintenance' session or to get your musculoskeletal system assessed in the Boca Raton or Miami areas, visit me at www.Mobility-4Life.com

The Functional Movement Screen

This week the doctors of Health-Fit Chiropractic and Sports Medicine have started treating former college players as they prepare for the NFL Combine and 'Pro Days'.  These are the times when college football players look to improve their stock in an attempt to get drafted high and make a NFL roster next summer.  Our job is to rehab any of their injuries and improve their performance as they get closer to draft time.

Now at the NFL combine, all the players are run through a million tests; one of them is call the Functional Movement Screen(FMS).  The FMS is a series of 7 movements that have been proven to actually predict future injuries based on the quality of one's movement.  At the various Combine prep camps that we work for, we use these tests as a road map of what needs to be addressed on these players before their 'judgement day'.

The movements are basic; like the squat, the lunge, the pushup, etc...  Whenever the quality of one's movement is poor enough that it registers a 'red flag' in the test, we know that as therapists we need to address the flexibility(mobility) or the control(stability) of the movement.

For example, one of the tests we use is called 'The Hurdle Step'.  This looks at the flexibility of ones hips, and the stability of your core.  If you can step over the hurdle and come back without compensating in any way (twisting the knee or bending the back) then you pass the test.

A perfect hurdle step

  VS.

See how he compensates by rotating his foot inward?  Otherwise he can't get his foot over the hurdle. That's a lack of left hip flexibility.

But how does that predict future injury?

Well......

When someone has a lack of hip flexibility, they need to compensate during their movement.  Since they don't have the flexibility in their hip, they steal motion (and add stress) to areas like the lower back, or the knees.  Eventually, over time, these areas are more apt to be injured in some way.

So for the football players we look at what needs to be addressed as far as this man's left hip flexibility. We might do some muscle therapies, we might do some joint manipulations, or we might use some corrective exercises.  

It's great because we really use the FMS as a roadmap of what these guys need to decrease their risk of injury and improve performance.  

Personal trainers can always look into getting certified in the FMS so they can better serve their training clients at www.functionalmovementsystems.com.  

If you would like to have the Functional Movement Screen on you to predict your future injuries (so you can avoid them!) you can set up your own personalized test at www.Mobility-4Life.com or dial us at 561.997.8898

Movement Compensation

This blog is all about life long, pain free activity. I'd have to say that the number one enemy to that is compensation. For the purposes of this post, the definition of compensation is:  A movement in which you change where the stress of the body is because of an inadequacy in another area.  It's literally the "silent killer" to your body. Why? Compensating adds overall stress to the body which leads to injury and early degeneration. 

Now here's the bad news....we all do it and we don't even know it!   Whether it's while sitting at your desk at work or during deep overhead squats, you compensate in some fashion. However, the secret to life long health and well-being is addressing your mobility and stability shortcomings to minimize the stress on your body.

Example.

A crossfitter comes down with lower back pain after a few months of training; he doesn't know one specific moment that lead to his injury but he feels the pain days after he deadlifts.  He also wonders why he can't squat below parallel like the other people at his gym and can't seem to have very good deadlifting technique.  He enters my office and we clean up his lower back with muscle and joint techniques like active release technique (ART), graston technique and chiropractic joint manipulations. He's feeling better after 5 treatments but "it's still in there", aka it still hurts a bit. So we perform a full body functional compensation assessment (we call this the selective functional movement assessment or SFMA).

We find that his hips and upper back are pretty inflexible. This would be an example of a compensation. Any time he tries to squat low, he doesn't have the hip flexibility to do so.  And anytime he tries dead lifting, he doesn't have the hip flexibility to keep his back upright.  Therefore the stress of the movement goes to the low back and the darn thing won't feel better until we get the hips and upper back moving better. Every time this guy works out, his low/mid back receives twice the load that a similar person with flexible hips and upper back.

If he had better hip flexibility, he could keep his back more straight!

 So we addressed the hips and upper back with corrective exercises and manual therapy, and after 4 more visits the low back is pain free, and suddenly the man is able to sit lower in his squats and have a personal record in his Squat snatches and isn't worn down after dead lifting anymore!

notice the angle of spine is a nice 45 degrees!

 The way to break your own compensation patterns is to have your own compensation assessment, then address them through manual therapy and corrective exercises like we outlined above.

 To have your own personal 'compensation assessment' to identify any possible future injuries visit us at www.Mobility-4Life.com