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Sunday, March 30, 2014

Surprising Science of Happiness

Interesting video on the science behind our happiness.


Chiropractic Treatment for Herniated Discs

In this article on ChiroNexus they discuss the use of specific manipulations for patients with lumbar disc herniations and that after about 3 months of treatment they had improved the pain/symptoms of 90.5% of the patients.

Looking at all different professions opinions is this 90% success rate due primarily to the adjustments or is there complimentary treatment/rehab that reach this success rate.  Would a reduction in activity and removal of the pain causing activity also help with this substantial reduction in pain for most patients?

Please weigh in.

90% of Herniated Discs Improve with Chiropractic Care

Sunday, March 23, 2014

12 Rules of Big Eating

This was recently posted on Muscle & Fitness and offers up some great guidelines for eating to try and get big and gain quality mass.  

They start off by making a great point that you only lift/workout for 1-2 hours a day and then leave the remainder of the day for building mass and what mainly affects that through the day is your nutrition.  Nutrition is one of the most marginalized aspects of sports and performance and it often forgotten as one of the most important factors to performance and the utilization of it in those remaining 22 hours of the day.

1. Eat Real Food:  "Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food."
2. Rise & Done: Eat a lot of breakfast.  One right away for quick nutrition and another for longer digestion.
3. Track Your Intake
4. Get Your Game On:  Try Bison, elk, ostrich and venison.
5. Eat Why Protein Before and After Workouts: Using it before allows for digestion during and therefore having more readily available nutrition when you're done and then restock again post workout.
6. Don't Shun Carbs: Eat 2-3 Carbs per pound of body weight.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Review: The Hinge-Dr. Rob Bell

The Hinge is a book based on the concept of that it only takes one decision, one choice, one moment that can change everything.  Dr. Rob Bell uses examples from all over the world talking about how certain decisions changed history.  A gut decision was made by Aerosmith's management team to not buy a private plan because it just didn't feel right and another band purchased it and tragically lost several members, that band was Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Dr. Bell then talks about using the hinge in sports and how there are Five Maxims of The Hinge:


The Five Maxims of the Hinge…
1.     It only takes one…
2.     Things happen for a reason…
3.     Trust your gut…
4.     Tragedies are immediate…
5.     “What-if” moments never happened…

He writes that if we accept these and truly search for them we can often help yield the results we want when we come to a Hinge point. 

Below are a couple excerpts from the book I found interesting and see a link to the actual book on the right side of the page.  It's about 90 pages long and reads quick but has lots of good information.  Enjoy.

-Each of us is so much more than what we do.  If we accept the belief and have confidence that we are not only our performance, then we can learn to accept the outcomes of what happens.  We still strive to improve, but the motivation is different.  We operate from the belief that my sport or my job is something I do, not the full measure of who I am.  This belief grants us the freedom to pursue our goals from a place of trust, rather than fear.
-Arrogance, or hubris, puts the person, team, or group in a place of superiority.  When we feel superior, we feel    entitled, and we no longer listen to our coaches or people close to us






Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Inches

One of the best motivational speeches ever.  Don't ever give up, keep moving forward any progress is better than no progress.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Looking at Tight Ankles

Have an athlete that can't get down into a deep squat?  Heels come up? Knees move in? Or they just fall backwards because they do not have the ankle range of motion in order to keep stabilized?  Here is a good video from MobilityWOD on looking at different ankle range of motion techniques to help improve in the actual squat position.  Kelly Starrett makes some great points about how we look at ankle range of motion in a non-weight bearing position and how we rarely actually spend any time in positions like that (other than possibly swimming).  He talks about different techniques to work in a load bearing position and help restore motion in the ankle.  

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Every Athlete Deserves an Athletic Trainer

Good post off Athletic Business looking at the benefit and utilization of athletic trainers for all athletic settings.

Every Athlete Deserves a Certified Athletic Trainer

Basics On Concussion

A good video on concussions and how they can affect children and the dangers of repeated injury.


Thursday, March 6, 2014

Guest Post: External Rotation of the Shoulder

Written by: Ashley Luedke MS, ATC
 
            While working with a college baseball team, most players (pitchers especially) would come in to get their shoulders stretched. These stretches usually included internal rotation, external rotation, and biceps stretch. Fast forward two years later, I had a discussion with an ATC about the damage that could possibly be done when stretching any athlete in external rotation of the shoulder. As a student, I took this as an opportunity to learn.
            The thought is that external rotation of the shoulder will irritate the labrum, biceps tendon, or the undersurface of the rotator cuff. Also, if an athlete is being stretched into an extreme external rotation this could simulate a peel-back mechanism. This increases anterior capsular laxity and likely exacerbates the internal impingement mechanism over the long-term.
            An article done by Eric Creesey called Shoulder Mobility Drills: How to Improve External Rotation (if you even need it) agreed with the claims made about external rotation and the negative effects it could cause to an athlete’s shoulder. So, what can be done instead of external rotation? In Creesey’s article he gave a number of options:
1.     Soft tissue work on pec minor/major and subscapularis: this should be performed by a qualified manual therapist
2.     Exercises to improve scapular retraction/depression/posterior tilt: could be improved by horizontal pulling exercises or specific lower trap/serratus anterior exercises
3.     Incorporate specific thoracic spine mobility drills: this could include side-lying extension-rotation  

So for example, if a pitcher is concerned about lack of external rotation these options above could help improve it, but also according to an article written by Phil Rosengren called Should Pitchers Stretch to Increase External Rotation?, he claims that pitchers tend to gain external rotation throughout the course of a season. Improving the external rotation throughout the season occurs by just throwing and lots of it (within reason). Throughout the course of the season, it’s normal for pitchers to develop greater external rotation as a product of the repetitive throwing.
Rosengren’s thoughts are when actively stretching your arms where it’s already getting loose on its own doesn’t make much sense. You are creating and increase amount of instability in the joint and putting the athlete at greater risk of injury.

Rosengren states that increased flexibility and range of motion are good. But, only if accompanied by increased strength and stability, which is pretty agreeable. So, if you repetitively stretch out your arm and ignore working on strengthening the muscles around the joint, you’re asking for trouble. So in a pitchers throwing arm, greater range of motion in the shoulder is good, but this should be accompanied with stability in the scapular region.