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Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Dedication: Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant has been one of the most dominant players in the league up until this recently when injuries have plagued his career.  The article below outlines one Athletic Trainers experience with Kobe Bryant and his training and gives an example of what it takes to be the best.

I Knew Kobe Bryant was dedicated but This is Amazing







Kobe Byrant's Career Highlights

Monday, September 22, 2014

Reasons to Drink Coffee (if you needed one)

If the fantastic taste and energy boost aren't enough here are a couple other reasons coffee can be beneficial to you and your health and slo a tip on how to get more from the caffeine in coffee.

Note: Most of this positive effects are only truly found in black coffee that is not altered with excessive sugar, cream or sweeteners.

-Improves body composition: caffeine functions as a fat burner.
-Enhances blood flow: through vasodilation
-Increases oxygen delivery to the muscles
-Increases nutrient delivery to the muscles
-Decreases pain receptor sensitivity
-Speeds recovery
-Reduces muscle soreness
-Increases motivation: energy booster
-Decreases reaction time
-For the UW-La Crosse athletes: Because Coach Schultz told you too.

Adding fresh ground cinnamon to your morning coffee will increase the half life of the caffeine you're ingesting allowing it to continue to work in your body with it's fat burning capabilities.

DISCLAIMER: As are most things, coffee and caffeine is good in moderation.  DO NOT over do it and run the risk of health issues or if a student athlete a positive drug test.

Friday, September 12, 2014

Study Spotlight: Adjustments vs. Injection for Lumbar Disk Pain

This article looked that a comparison between spinal manipulative therapy and nerve root injections in the treatment in lumbar disc herniation injuries.  They found no significant difference in self-reported pain or improvement between each treatment (Relief at 76.5% and 62.7% respectively).


In a previous article we looked at, Chiropractic adjustment relieves pain in 90.5% of people.  While the numbers for this study are lower (76.5%) there is still good evidence that chiropractic adjustment would be a solid option of treatment to help with pain relief when it comes to lumbar disc herniations.

What I found most interesting in this is that the difference in pain levels were not significant between the two treatment options.  The article also looked at the cost of the two and they came out fairly similar with spinal manipulation being slightly cheaper.  Depending on insurance and preference these costs could change but I think it shows there are good options for lumbar disc herniation treatment if certain things don't work.

Spinal manipulation is becoming more commonly place across professions and isn't just reserved to chiropractors.  Along with adding adjustment to the list of things that can help doing your own soft tissue work through rolling and even possibly some basic "self-manipulations" using a double lacrosse ball, foam roller or other special mobilization tools.

Personally I have never had a lumbar nerve root injection but having worked with some athletes that have and hearing their stories of the intensity of the shot and the on again off again results I think spinal manipulation in addition to rehabilitative exercises and self soft tissue rolling is the way to go.

If there are any questions on what you can work on to help you low back pain please contact us at info@totatathletictherapy.com

Symptomatic Magnetic Resonance Imaging Confirmed Lumbar Disk Herniation Patients
A comparative effectiveness prospective observational study of 2 age and sex matched cohorts treated with either high velocity low amplitude spinal manipulative therapy or imaging guided lumbar nerve root injections
Cynthia Peterson

Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics Vol. 36, No. 4.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Over Half of Student-Athletes Have Brain Damage

In one of the largest concussion testing projects in history the University of New Mexico has been using MRI imaging to look at the effects of trauma to their student athletes.  What they found was that 56% of student athletes showed "notable" brain damage on the scans.

See the full article below:
Study: 56 Percent of UNM Athletes have Brain Damage

The basics of this study continue to add fuel to the fire of the health and safety of student athletes everywhere.  With a number as high as 56% of athletes having brain damage there is a challenge to
the notion if sports are safe.  There have been numerous people stating that football as we know it will change completely within our life times and the latest numbers and sensitivity to concussion only keep pushing that idea.

Are sports becoming more unsafe or are we looking for more because our education level has increased?

Friday, September 5, 2014

Recreating Your Arch

Flat feet causing you problems?  Spending a lot of money on specialized inserts (trust me sometimes you have to go this route)? Here are a couple short videos that show the very basics of looking at basic body position to help re-train your body to have an arch.  Even if you do use inserts these are great exercises to help strengthen your feet and just improve your overall body awareness.


Please message if you have any questions or want more ideas how to build your arch.

Second video below.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Anabolic Response and the Timing of Nutrition


            Go to any gym or training center and you will see everyone getting after it in one way or another and then the workout stops and everyone reaches for their nutrition.  Protein shakes for everyone and bro-tein shakes for the bro’s.  It is commonplace in sports and training that you much get your post workout nutrition to stimulate recovery and growth of your muscles and your entire
body.
            This study looks at ingesting an amino acid/carbohydrate drink prior to exercise and the effects that had on protein synthesis in the body (in the case of this study, they biopsied the legs).  What they found is that when a small amount of amino acids and carbs prior to workout increased protein synthesis in that group to a greater extent than the group who took the combination post workout.  They found that ~21% of the phenylalanine (an amino acid) was taken up in one leg (42% for both) in the PRE group compared to just~8% in one leg (16% for both) in the POST group.

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