– May Hits –
1) Do you know about the anti-icing movement? Many are advocating against cryotherapy post injury. Some blindly jump on the bandwagon, some feel threatened and become defensive, and most of us just want to know why. I’ve recently come across a couple great articles on the theory and evidence that explains why we should not ice injuries. Even if you continue to ice, you should at least know what it really does (e.g. numbing effect, descending modulation, body temp regulation, placebo).
• Dr. Minkin, Josh Stone, Kelly Starrett, Jeff Cubos, SportsPhysio, Aaron Hutchins, Poor Rats
• To sum it up “Groceries In, Garbage Out”
• Groceries In – inflammation brings in tissue healing cells, ice prevents the flow of these important cells
• Garbage Out – icing actually constricts the lymphatic vessels, pushing the inflammatory proteins out from the lymphatic vessels and back into the interstitial space – the muscle pump is best for reducing swelling/inflammation
2) Here’s a nice site for reviewing medical examination/screens.
3) David Epstein: Are athletes really getting faster, better, stronger?
4) GMB shares their 5 Essential Movement Skills. Some very interesting and useful stuff. I frequently squat and bear crawl, but I rarely perform the other 3 movement skills. So I tried them out while no one else was looking. I found out that I have difficulty rolling backwards, the crab walk takes more effort than it should, and I cannot cartwheel to my left. I haven’t felt this awkward from movement in a while. Thanks GMB!
5) “A Reset is an intervention that will heighten sensory awareness so that the patient moves and feels better (quantity, quality, or both)”.
6) Dean Somerset has a nice review of Speed Ladder Drills and what they really do.
7) Eric Cressey always has the best shoulder advice.
8) Many know about the patients that cannot extend their thoracic spine, but what about the ones stuck in thoracic extension. Quinn Henoch goes over what this postural/movement dysfunction looks like and how to address it. Some great PRI stuff with a weight lifting lens.
9) A nice review of nutrition for exercise.
10) Optical illusions are a great way to explain outputs. We know pain is an output from the brain. Inputs are processed in the CNS and the result (output) can be pain. This is hard for patients to understand. Optical illusions can show patients that the “illusion” is an output from the brain.
11) One of the best things I’ve read this month from Andreo Spina – “It is the principles utilized during the selection of exercises, not the exercises themselves that determines the extent of functionality”. Couldn’t agree more, read the full post here.
12) “Neural signals are related less to a stimulus per se than to its congruence with internal goals and predictions, calculated on the basis of previous input to the system.” -Karsten Rauss
13) This is a fun frontal plane stability exercise to play around with.
14) “Is the T6 area a place that is perhaps biomechanically more at risk than other parts of the nervous system especially when you consider what humans do with their bodies these days?”
15) Molly Galbraith goes over the 5 Biggest Mistakes Women Make with Their Training Programs
16) “From a motor learning perspective, our brains are designed to move us through, and interact with, the surrounding environment. Using our body helps us learn more quickly. The more sensory inputs that children experience through free-play, the better they understand this interaction” Seth Oberst goes over why we need to stop sport specialization and promote free-play.
17) Eric Cressey has a similar article here. “Very few American kids are exposed to the rich proprioceptive environments that not only makes them good athletes, but also sets them up for a lifetime of good movement.”
18) Erson’s 5’s – 5 Things to Look for in an Evaluation: Symmetry, Motor Control, Breathing, Thoracic Mobility, Directional Preference
19) Adam Meakins has a nice post on his 10 Commandments of Physical Therapy. I agree with all of these.
20) Mike Robertson has 2 great posts on Energy System Training (EST). He goes over what it is, the science behind it, and why it’s applicable to our species (performance & recovery). Check it out here & here.
21) “The enteric nervous system (ENS) is one of the main divisions of the autonomic nervous system and consists of a mesh-like system of neurons that governs the function of the gastrointestinal system. It comprises an estimated 500 million neurons and is so complex it has been dubbed the second brain.”
22) 4 Biggest Mistakes People Make with the Functional Movement Systems (FMS/SFMA)
23) Squats vs. Hip Thrusts: What You Need to Know
24) Explain Pain 3 (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 3-Part 2). Good review of the conference. Here are some gems.
“explaining and reconceptualising pain is the best approach we have to treating chronic pain. However one of the barriers to doing this is health literacy.”
“we treat processes, not anatomy”
“Conceptual change, while a type of learning, can be differentiated from other types of learning as it requires a fundamental change in the content and organisation of existing knowledge as well as the development of new learning strategies.”
“Pain = (credible evidence for danger) – (credible evidence for safety)”
“central sensitisation patients are not heat sensitive (unlike in peripheral sensitisation – think sunburn and a hot shower) but can be cold sensitive.”
“pain is always equally real, regardless of any process of peripheral or central sensitisation”
“neurons that fire at a theta rate are inhibitory “
“Pain is a multiple system output constructed by an individual pain neurotag. This signature is activated whenever the human concludes that body tissues are in danger and action is required and pain is allocated an anatomical reference in the virtual body”
“In chronic pain, thoughts alone can be enough to fire a disinhibited neurotag and elicit pain.”
“Increased activity in the SNS can add to the “inflammatory soup” in an unhealthy tissues, can activate Abnormal Impulse Generating Sites (AIGS) and can dribble out adrenaline into the dorsal root ganglion leading to upregulation of adrenoreceptors.”
“in chronic pain, neurotags can become both sensitised – easier to fire off with a wider variety of ignition cues at lower intensities, and disinhibited – imprecise and less refined.”
“Explaining pain is not ‘advice to be active’, but rather explaining the benefits of activity. Explaining pain is not advice that ‘hurt doesn’t equal harm’, but rather explaining why hurt does not equal harm.”
Use Hypnotic Language
“The extent to which a person can recall precisely what occurred during the event, even down to the angle of their feet, the extent to which their knees were flexed etc, may provide a clue as to how precise the protective encoding is within their brain.”
25) People You Should Know – Shirley Sahrmann created the Movement System Impairment Syndromes – a big influence on many of today’s physical therapists (whether they know it or not). Path of Instantaneous Center of Rotation and Relative Flexibility/Stiffness are some great concepts that can be used with every patient.
26) Top 3 Tweets
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Mark Reid, MD @medicalaxioms – For two large industries in America, a human being is a place to deposit 1) Calories and 2) Pharmaceuticals. Both sold at a profit.
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Neil deGrasse Tyson @neiltyson – The limits on your enlightenment come not from the age you stopped going to school but from the age you stopped being curious
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Chris Thomas @ChrisThomas7 – Mastering simple skills frees up the mind to perfect complex skills. Gradually bring the mind & body together without conscious thought
27) This is what a 0 on the FMS Hurdle Step Looks Like
A Group of Zero’s on the Hurdle Step
