How to use a lacrosse ball for self therapy

This may not be good for business but yes some of the best therapies only cost a buck.  Example is the lacrosse ball - great for throwing around to the dog but also great for busting out deep tissue muscle knots.  Check out this short video on how to use the lacrosse ball for self therapy.  Even better...stop by our office to pick one up for free!!  Just 10 minutes a day can make a huge difference in reducing pain and improving mobility.

Is Ice Right? Let's kick the ice bucket.

Just about everyone knows the acronym RICE (Rest Ice Compress Elevate).  This protocol has been used for many years to treat acute injuries.  Well now it is time to look at the physiology and realize we were wrong.  Recently an interview from Dr. Kelly Starrett (mobilitywod.com) and Gary Reinl made me look differently at using ice.  Don’t get me wrong if your goal is to numb an area, ice is great.  As Mr. Reinl points out, “Yes, making something numb is good if the short-term goal is pain control and the prevention of the body’s normal cellular and vascular response to injury.” 
In his recent article titled “People, We’ve Got to Stop Icing.  We Were Wrong, Sooo Wrong” Dr. Starrett quotes Dr. Nick DiNubile, Editor in Chief of The Physician and Sports Medicine Journal “Seriously, do you honestly believe that your body’s natural inflammatory response is a mistake?”  Our bodies are extremely intelligent, they know what they are doing.  Inflammation in response to an acute injury is not a mistake. Inflammation provides the tools necessary to remodel an injured area and rebuild the tissue as strong and functional as possible.  When inflammation is hindered pain may diminish but we shut down our natural healing process causing the area to heal with a thick nonfunctional tissue commonly called “scar tissue”. 
Scar tissue is similar to a scar on the skin but it is on a muscle or tendon.  Scar tissue is thick, adhesive and does not stretch well.  Scar tissue can adhere to nearby nerves causing peripheral neuropathies (pinched nerves).  It can limit your range of motion making you feel stiff and increasing your risk of future injury due to lack of tissue flexibility.  Once scar tissue has settled in it can be a tough challenge to reverse.  There are advanced non-surgical therapies such as Active Release Technique (A.R.T.), Graston Technique and Shock Wave Therapy which break up scar tissue by triggering the healing response in an effort to reverse the scar tissue that has formed. 
Well what does the research and literature say?
“When ice is applied to a body part for a prolonged period, nearby lymphatic vessels begin to dramatically increase their permeability (lymphatic vessels are ‘dead-end’ tubes which ordinarily help carry excess tissue fluids back into the cardiovascular system). As lymphatic permeability is enhanced, large amounts of fluid begin to pour from the lymphatics ‘in the wrong direction’ (into the injured area), increasing the amount of local swelling and pressure and potentially contributing to greater pain.” The use of Cryotherapy in Sports Injuries,’ Sports Medicine, Vol. 3. pp. 398-414, 1986
“Is Ice Right? Does Cryotherapy Improve Outcome for Acute Soft Tissue Injury?” JEM, 2008; Feb. 25; 65–68. 
Conclusion: There is insufficient evidence to suggest that cryotherapy improves clinical outcome in the management of soft tissue injuries.
According to Dr. Starrett the new acronym should be MCE:
    •    M - Movement
Our lymphatic system relies on muscle contraction to push the swelling into our cardiovascular system. If movement is not advised Electronic Muscle Stimulation (EMS) can push out swelling without you having to move the area.  Prolonged rest leads to muscle atrophy and scar tissue formation.
    •    C- Compression
Compressing the injured site improves circulation and clears congestion.  Compression reduces swelling, helps with pain control and facilitates the healing process.  Be careful not to compress to tight.
    •    E – Elevation
Elevation uses gravity to drain swelling out of the area.  Elevation and compression are the two parts of the acronym RICE still advised.
Just to be clear, I am not saying that ice has no purpose.  Ice is great if your goal is to numb an area and get rid of pain.  For example, if I ruptured a muscle, dislocated a shoulder or fractured a rib ice would help minimize my pain.  However, if the pain is livable think MCE before RICE because ice stops inflammation which leads to poor healing.  The problem is not inflammation, it is the pain of swelling that we need to minimize. 

Active Rest - "Can I Play?"

Where do you sit on your Sits?

  
Many people have heard of the sits bones which are the bony projections of the pelvis that we sit on.  Properly named the ischial tuberosity this area serves as the attachment site of the hamstrings and many other soft tissue structures.  Alot can be learned about your posture by the way that you sit on your sits bones.  First, make sure that you can locate these bones (you should be sitting on them!).  Hopefully you have found them.  Now, where do you sit on them?  Do you sit on the front/anterior aspect?  Do you sit on the the back/posterior aspect?  How about favoring one side over the other?  Do you sit more on the left or the right or maybe symmetrically?  Let's break down what happens when you sit on each aspect.

First of all why is this important?  Since most humans average at least 4 hours of sitting per day this is a posture you are in for most of your day.  Wolff's law states that your bones develop according to the demands placed on them so the way that you position yourself becomes the actual structure of your skeleton.

Sitting on the anterior aspect - This seating alignment causes an anterior shift in your pelvis and an increase of the lower back curvature (lordosis).  This way of sitting is most often the best and helps to maintain normal anatomic structure.  This will help people with disc injuries and a lumbar support will help you to hold this posture while seated.  Try to sit on the front of these bones and see how it changes your posture from head to toe.  This even helps your neck to be more upright and your mid back less forward preventing neck pain, mid back pain and possible headaches.

Sitting on the posterior aspect - This is what I call the tired posture.  After many hours of sitting it can be tiresome to sit upright on the anterior sits bones.  Sitting on the posterior sits bones is what I believe causes many of today's chronic back pain, neck pain and headaches.  It flattens out the lower back curve and rounds the mid back which leads to forward head posture and tightening of the trapezius and suboccipital muscles.  A good lumbar support can help you to avoid this posture.

Sitting on the left or right ischial tuberosity -  You may notice that you shift your weight to one of the sits bones more than the other.  This can be a good indicator that your pelvis is out of alignment and you may need a chiropractic adjustment.  Even if you have no symptoms of lower back pain this imbalance should be addressed so that you do not become a lower back pain sufferer.  This position can lead to a shearing stress on the intervertebral discs as well as place excessive loading on the pain sensitive facet joints of the spine.  Not to mention lead to muscle imbalances which will translate up and down your entire body influencing the position of many joints. 

Alot can be learned about our sits bones and the way that we sit on them.  Use them as a good indicator of how to fix your posture and decrease your chances of pain.  Check this video our for a good visual...

The Importance of a Functional Movement Analysis

Pain is inconvenient and enables us from doing what we love to do but it has a value and serves as a warning sign that something is wrong within our body.  Most people use pain as the only indicator of when something needs to be evaluated by a specialist.  Waiting for pain to happen is not the best indicator because it is often the last symptom to show up and the first to leave when something has gone wrong.  The intent of this article is to make you aware that a movement analysis by a trained professional can identify problems within the musculoskeletal system before symptoms of pain occur. 

Professional athletic teams have been using functional movement testing to discover if their athletes have any biomechanical imbalances or potential for injury even in the absence of pain.  Because pain is subjective (different to each person) it cannot be measured very accurately and is not the best indicator that something is wrong.  A thorough movement examination is objective and can be measured which makes it one of the best ways to predict and prevent injuries.  The goal of a good movement examination is to discover asymmetrical movement patterns and the lack of a tissues ability to stretch (tissue extensibility).    

With the knowledge of an athlete’s movement imbalances the athletic training staff will develop a fitness program and a therapeutic plan with the goal of improving that athlete’s weaknesses.  By acknowledging weaknesses and working to improve them you can reduce the risk of injury and enhance your athletic performance in any sport.  Non athletes can also benefit from a movement examination and a specific fitness and therapeutic plan because it will preserve the musculoskeletal system and slow the process of degeneration.  Not knowing your movement imbalances and setting up a training program is like going into a battle without any plan of how you are going to succeed. 

Most non traumatic athletic injuries are due to the repetitive overuse and strain of synergistic muscles asked to perform a task they cannot tolerate for prolonged periods of time. 

If muscles are not able to lengthen properly than synergistic muscles will strongly assist the desired movement.  This assistance is known as synergistic dominance or compensating movement patterns.  Movement compensations increase the risk of injury to synergistic muscles because they become overused and strained.  Movement compensations decrease athletic performance as well as place athletes at a higher risk of injury.  Functional movement testing identifies movement compensations so a plan can be developed to correct them and avoid musculoskeletal injuries.  If you have a functional movement analysis and implement the information into your fitness and therapy plan you can improve your athletic performance and avoid injuries before they happen.  It is important to find a therapist in your area who specializes in functional movement analysis and effective musculoskeletal therapies.  With their help you can avoid injuries and move as effortless and efficient as possible.

Dr. Todd Rodman, DC CSCS

How To Get Rid of Body Stiffness – “The Fuzz”

Can we truly blame all of our body stiffness on getting old?  It is true that as we age our growth hormone levels decline which slows healing time however there are ways to preserve and slow down our loss of mobility.  The answer is to break up the fuzz!  What is the fuzz?  Watch this video:

If you are still with us and didn’t get grossed out by the cadaver congratulations.  The fuzz that you were looking at is called fascia.  The thicker the fascia becomes the more it creates adhesions to other muscles making us stiff.  These muscular adhesions restrict our muscles ability to slide over each other.  Adhesions are responsible for stiffness and are made worse with time and lack of movement in the area.  At SCNHS we break up muscular adhesions with techniques like Active Release Technique (ART) and Graston Technique.  These techniques help to remodel the soft tissue and lead to great improvement in mobility.  Not only do we treat adhesions in the office, but we show you mobility exercises and stretches to keep the fuzz out of your life!

Non Surgical Sports Medicine

At SCNHS we offer such a wide variety of techniques that we cannot define our therapy only as Chiropractic care. Chiropractic has profound effects on enhancing nervous system function and is great for injuries and injury prevention however it is just one of our “tools in the toolbox” so to speak. In order to help athletes optimize performance, help people overcome a wide variety of injuries and improve overall health we have created our own effective approach that more appropriately should be called “Non Surgical Sports Medicine”. Many therapies that we practice were not taught in Chiropractic College and are not common to most Chiropractors. Here is a list of the therapies and post graduate education that has helped us create our own effective approach to helping people improve their health through our Non Surgical Sports Medicine approach:

Chiropractic Physician

Active Release Technique (ART) Full Body Certified

Active Release Technique (ART) Ironman Provider

Slow Motion Running and Biomechanical Analysis

Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA)

Graston Technique (GT)

Certified Kinesiotape Practitioner (CKTP)

Muscle Activation Technique (MAT)

Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS)

CrossFit level 1 Certified Trainer

Loomis Institute Digestive Health Specialist

Ideal Protein Weight Loss Provider

At SCNHS we are extremely dedicated to continuously improving our knowledge of the most effective non surgical techniques and nutritional programs available. We take great pride in our services and getting the opportunity to help people live healthy lifestyles with less limitations.

Thank you for your continued confidence in our office,

Dr. Todd Rodman, DC CSCS