Miscellaneous
- “The patient’s nervous system can sense both a lack of practitioner confidence, as well as a lack of control.” -Dr. Andrei Spina (via Shante)
1. “Evidence has shown that performance and variability have an inverse curve relation (too little variability, performance suffers and with too much variability, performance also suffers). Current evidence shows that an optimum balance of variability seems to be the key to maximize performance of an individual and achieving this balance is key in recovery.” –Adriaan Louw
2. Assessing gait is a skill we should always continue to develop. Even on the blink level it provides useful information. “Walk speed = “vital sign”. Connects to fall risk, dependency, & hospital. Community design & PA programs matter”
3. This might explain why marathon runners often stumble into our clinic a month before their race. “Overtrained athletes have abnormal inflammatory and anabolic responses to exercise, indicating that their body is not responding to exercise the way that it should.”
4. The Well provides some concise practitioner-based tools for better examinations (low back, neck, obesity, poverty, preconceptions, etc.).
5. As a clinician I sometimes underestimate the ability of my hands to assess and cue movement. Feeling it may be best for both the practitioner and the patient.
6. Some thoughts on cupping from Marc Wahl: consider that it may alter their kinesthetic awareness, are we making their movements harder or easier by reducing fascial tension (pull up vs push up), we need to do our own research
7. You should follow Andrew Rothschild on twitter.
8. Tell your addicted endurance athletes to take a break! “Following high-intensity endurance exercise, recovery may require 48-72 hours for cortisol and testosterone to return back to resting levels.”
9. Noah Harrison with another monster article. This time on Cultivation and Kinesthetic Intelligence, “kinesthetic intelligence is not the appearance of an athletic body, but the ability for the body to be athletic and capable”
10. Don’t just rely on neurodynamic testing, “the small fibers (A delta) of the peripheral nerve innervate the epineurium. One of the features of neurodynamic testing is mechanosensitivty, theorized to come from these fibers. If they are compromised, a pain response may not be possible. Therefore, it may be possible that a negative ULTT in the presence of other factors indicating nerve entrapment may indicate a positive for small fiber compromise.”
11. I didn’t know there was evidence supporting the use of herbal medicine (devil’s claw, white widdow, capiscum) for low back pain.
12. Exercise is medicine. “The results revealed that a 20-minute session of moderate exercise can have anti-inflammatory effects.”
13. “When a muscle is strained, the first thing to do is look for a weak or underactive synergistic.” -Shirley Sahrmann
14. The answer to our handedness lies in our ancestors teeth.
“In an earlier study, researchers noted striations on the front side of teeth belonging to European Neanderthals. They hypothesised that these marks were made when material was held in one hand and gripped between the front teeth and worked by the other hand with a stone tool, with the stone tool occasionally striking these teeth.”
15. No one has ever had a decrease in their quality of life or function because they didn’t get enough manual therapy. #exercise #movement #lifestyle
16. It’s not all in the brain. It’s not all in the body either. We’re not psychologists. We’re not mechanics. #BeAPhysicalTherapist
17. Have you heard of this thing called breathing?
“In this study, we collected intracranial EEG data from rare patients with medically intractable epilepsy, and found evidence for respiratory entrainment of local field potential activity in human piriform cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus. These effects diminished when breathing was diverted to the mouth, highlighting the importance of nasal airflow for generating respiratory oscillations. Finally, behavioral data in healthy subjects suggest that breathing phase systematically influences cognitive tasks related to amygdala and hippocampal functions.”
18. You remember more during the inhale.
“our body’s innate response to fear with faster breathing could have a positive impact on brain function and result in faster response times to dangerous stimuli in the environment.” Another potential insight of the research is on the basic mechanisms of meditation or focused breathing. “When you inhale, you are in a sense synchronizing brain oscillations across the limbic network”
19. NOI shares 3 questions to improve clinical reasoning skills
1. Based on a careful examination, what likely processes are suggested?
2. What changes need to occur to those processes to safely bring about positive change?
3. How do the patient and I bring about those changes?
20. Mike Reinhold put together a great compilation of what movement professionals are doing differently this year. Here’s some snippets:
Greg Robinson – adding more work capacity and play to the youth population
Dean Somerset – doing more group training
Erson – more isometrics and blood flow restriction training
Erwin Valencia – adding spirituality and zen to his practice
Peter Dupuis – “fitness tourism” – exploring other places
Ken Crenshaw – cultivating leadership
Dave Tilly – focusing more on advanced rehab and energy systems
Dan Lorenz – increasing his network, stop wasting time arguing on social media
Mike Boyle – delegating responsibility, developing his staff, and napping
Wil Fleming – focusing less on the gurus and the popular social media people, finding the true experts that actually practice
Patrick Ward – integrating math and statistics to assess results better
Charlie Weingroff – trying to understand motivation, reverse engineering successful individuals, “continuing to find common targets of physiology and neurology that link the methods that are typically classified as training and/or rehabilitation”
21. I found the ear muscle study fascinating (video below). It shows how different sensory inputs can have an effect on our bodies without us even being aware of it.
The main reason I do this blog is to share knowledge and to help people become better clinicians/coaches. I want our profession to grow and for our patients to have better outcomes. Regardless of your specific title (PT, Chiro, Trainer, Coach, etc.), we all have the same goal of trying to empower people to fix their problems through movement. I hope the content of this website helps you in doing so.
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