Study Spotlight: Dry Needling vs. Sham on Performance of Vertical Jump

Dry needling is a very powerful soft tissue technique that goes directly to the spot of a myofascial trigger point.  While that can be helpful in a treatment and rehabilitation sense could it also be beneficial for performance?  We take a look at that question in this weeks Study Spotlight.

What They Did:

Researchers looked 35 healthy students (19m, 16f) who were divided into two groups, dry needling and sham.  The dry needling group received needling at four sites on bilateral gastroc muscles, two in the medial and lateral head.  The sham group had four areas pressed with the tube housing the needed but the need was never inserted into the skin. 

Two legged vertical testing was done by reaching up with a chalk mark at standing and then doing a countermovement jump and remarking with chalk on the jump and measuring the distance in between.  One jumped was performed prior to treatment and another after.

What They Found:

After analysis of the data it was found that the dry needling group significantly increased vertical jump height of 1.2 inches over the sham group.

What It All Means:

This study can give us ideas of how beneficial soft tissue work can be for your performance.  It doesn't always have to be something like dry needling in order to get the results of soft tissue work that could be beneficial to performance.  Give foam rolling and self myofascial release a try to help not only feel better but also get increased performance benefits.

Limitations:

Dry needling can be a hard treatment to recreate as a sham treatment due to the fact that no needle is inserted with the sham and therefore nothing remains in or on the skin like it would during an actual treatment.  There is also nothing to remove either in a sham treatment like there is with an actual treatment.

Testing vertical jump height can be tough and it can be hard to find the best testing set up to get maximum results.  There could be different results in the vertical jump test if the subject is given a goal in order to reach and this can result in increased performance.

Source: Brandy, W. Comparison of dry needling vs. sham on the performance of vertical jump. The International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy | Volume 12, Number 5 | October 2017

Mobility Monday: Recovery Workout

This isn't exactly mobility, it is recovery but the two go hand in hand.  In order to increase your mobility and allow your body to do the things you want it to you have to recover.  This is becoming more of an awareness across the world of elite sports and we hope that it trickles down to the other levels in order to help younger athletes get more out of their career.

Check out this recovery work out by Ryan Flaherty and how he utilizes it with the athletes he works with.

Things It Helps:
-Increased Mobility
-Enhanced Recovery
-Overall Better Performance

Getting Things Done...One Step at a Time

By: Joel Luedke

"Most people OVERestimate what they can get done in a week but UNDERestimate what they can get done in a year." -Tony Robbins

I've found myself quoting this line more and more lately as well as constantly reminding myself of the same words.  In this post we will talk about a couple different applications of this idea and why it's important to not just focus on the short term but also to look at the long game when it comes to things in your life.

Accomplishing Fitness & Nutrition Goals

If you try and change everything in your life in an attempt to eat better or get in shape you're almost doomed to fail.  It is almost impossible to maintain.  Find things you can change in your day that you can do one at a time.  (See more ideas from this CP Short, featuring Own the Day: Own Your Life by Aubrey Marcus). 

Instead of changing your entire diet and then missing certain things, find one main thing, adjust it, attack it, own it and then find the next one and repeat.  This is a much more sustainable way to progress and allows you to not have a guilt if you do slip up to an old favorite.

The same applies to fitness, you can't make up for weeks and weeks of bad diet and inactivity with one workout or week of workouts.  No amount of sweat or soreness is going to make up for that period of inactivity.  It is the accumulation of all those activities and workouts that will add up to the success that you are looking for.

Accomplishing Coaching & Career Goals

Ambitious people in the health, fitness and medical space want to know everything they can as soon as they can and it is almost impossible to accomplish.  When we try and consume all that information in a short period of time it is difficult to absorb it all and then apply it to your work.  This notoriously happens after a great weekend seminar but then there is not follow up on the application of the information in the following weeks.

Take a look at this way, instead of trying to cram all kinds of information in as fast as you can attack things one day at a time.  If you were to learn and own one thing every day for an entire year you are looking at picking up 365 really good bits of information that you can take and apply to your work and start making connections between all those things you learn.  This can make a huge impact when you are looking helping people because you can implement it as you go.  If you try and consume all that information one weekend...most of the time it just kind of fades away.

Don't get overly ambitious in a short amount of time, it's hard to sustain that and keep that information alive and in your mind.  Take it step by step, own what you learn and make a huge impact.

Mobility Monday: Scapular Mobility

The shoulder is a very complicated joint.  What it can do and how it can more in order to accomplish those specific tasks are quite impressive.  Often when we think of the shoulder we think the main glenohumeral joint and everything that occurs there.  Often the scapulo-thoracic movement is overlooked and this can be a huge mistake when it comes to looking to improve shoulder mobility.  Find some great ideas in this video.

Things It Helps:
-Generalized Shoulder Pain
-Upper Back Pain/Tightness
-Improved Mechanics

Mobility Monday: Chair of Death

We've long held the stand point that 'sitting is the new smoking'.  That might be a little extreme (but what isn't in health and fitness these days) but there are a lot of things that sitting for long periods of time can do to you body.  Now it is really hard to avoid sitting all day as our culture is set up around it.  You can do a lot of things though to help yourself out and make sure that it doesn't really mess with your hips and potentially lead to all kinds of problems.  Check some ideas out below.

Things It Helps:
-Problems Sitting in Chairs
-Low Back Pain
-Tight Hip Flexors

Mobility Monday: Fibular Head and Knee Pain

The knee doesn't seem like it would be that complex but there are a lot of moving pieces going on that could have an effect on why you might be having some knee pain.  One area that isn't so common (at least we haven't seen it that way) is how the fibular head plays a role in how the knee works.  This video gives you a little insight on to how that could play a factor and helps to make sure that you aren't overlooking it.

Things It Helps:
-Generalized Lateral Knee Pain
-Better Knee Mechanics

Reducing Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs) in Your Life: 3 Easy Ways

By: Joel Luedke

Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs) are around us everywhere but as with most things technology today you don't really see it or know its there, like the cloud ("no one understands the cloud").  The use of these EMFs to transmit information is nothing new but after listening to more information on the subject it can be surprisingly outdated.  The standards that were set on what levels are safe were created in the late 1990s and cell phones have changed quite a bit since then (think Zach Morris cell phone). 

While at this point we would be hard pressed to eliminate EMFs from our life we can do a lot of simple things to control them.  These ideas fall under the area of small changes in life that may not have an immediate and huge impact but in the long run could really benefit you and how your body responds to stresses. Check them out.

Headphones of Speaker Phone When you Talk

How a cell phone might effect your brain and the regulations on that information go way back, like 20 years back.  Not only that but the 'person' they used to gather this data was not a person but a mannequin that mimicked a 6'2" 250 person...not your typical average Joe.  Cell phones emit waves and wifi and bluetooth but what are you to do?.  You can purchase a case to help reduce the EMFs (see below).  Another simple idea is to hold the phone away from your head a little bit (they did in the testing) or try and get on speak or use a hard wired head set or ear buds for your conversation.

In the long run this can really add up to less direct and close access of the EMFs coming off your phone and going directly into your head.  Again, small changes that could have big benefit and we are pretty certain will not make matters worse.

LINK: SafeSleeve Phone Case

WIFI Off at Night

This is one we are definitely going to try along with getting our phone on 'airplane mode' throughout the evening.  The science is still young but there are a lot of thoughts that the WIFI signal can subtly but substantially mess with your sleep.  The easiest way to get around this is to get your WIFI router somewhere far away from your bed, ours is currently in the room underneath out bedroom (not exactly great placement).  The next best option and one that is easy is to put your router and modem on a timer.  By having it turn off right around when you go to bed and turn back on when you wake up you are able to limit your exposure during the night time and not affect your sleep.  Again, simple with the potential to have profound impacts.

LINK: Outlet Timer

Hardwired is the Way to Go

The last one is one that would seemingly set us back to the Stone Age, hardwire everything.  If you have the option at work get away from the WIFI and sitting at your computer and get it hardwired.  This can help again reduce your exposure throughout the day and how you are needing to deal with it constantly.  Another plus is you'll get dropped less and maybe even have a little extra speed.

This is also the case with cell phones and land lines.  If you are able to make sure you use something that is wired in as it again can help reduce your exposure during the day from all the signals that are running through the air.

Simple ideas that can have profound effects on the long term of your health and they don't require a lot of extra effort on your part.  Are they game changers?  It is hard to say but it won't hurt and why not hedge your bets.  We are looking forward to seeing how it helps us.

Human Optimization Hour w/ Kyle Kingsbury