Do you know why you want to eat that?

December 11th, 2008

There is no denying the role exercise plays in good health. One of the benefits of exercise includes avoiding the negative health effects associated with excess weight and higher percentages of body fat. Equally important is the role proper nutrition and eating habits play toward the same,overall good health. Research has shown that to lose weight AND maintain the desired weight loss, eat right and exercise. New research is even telling us about the differences in the way many of us metabolize food.

But our choices of food and how much we eat can be related to many factors. Research done in France and published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders (2001; 29, 195-204) concluded the foods you crave may say a lot about the state of your mind and body.
Researchers analyzed the eating habits and cravings of more than a thousand men and women and came to the following conclusions:

*Women crave food more often than men do, with cravings peaking during times of sadness or anxiety.
*Men are more likely to eat when they’re feeling happy.
*Chocolate cravings may signal that you are tired.
*An urge for salty foods or dairy products may be your body’s way of telling you it wants a real meal.
*Those who had the most frequent cravings were more likely to be on a diet or actively trying to lose weight.

Researchers theorize that women may experience more cravings because of the increased social pressure to be thin, which also leads them to diet more frequently than men. The researchers were also sure to point out that relationship between mood and food are complex and are based both on psychological and biological factors.

Do you enjoy watching TV, listening to music or reading while you eat? Or do you like to have the company of friends or family around for good conversation when you break bread? The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study involving 41 “healthy weight” women, ages 26 to 55. The women ate lunch once a week under four different conditions in a laboratory setting.

They were alone without distraction, alone while listening to recorded instruction on how to focus on the taste of their food, and alone while listening to a tape of a detective story. And they ate lunch with three other women who were also participating in the study.

Despite reporting equal levels of hunger under all four conditions, they ate considerably more calories while listening to the detective story.
Researchers recommend that people who wish to maintain or lose weight avoid eating while watching TV, talking on the phone or listening to music, all activities capable of distracting you from your dietary plan.

It can be helpful when we know where some of the speed bumps are on the road to healthy eating habits. Consider your moods and your environment when you are eating. Recognize your motivations for what you are eating during any times you might get off track.

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Pain in the wallet=Pain in the body

October 24th, 2008

With the doom and gloom of the financial meltdown, gas prices, housing and the overall economy, you may be experiencing aches and pains throughout your body. Now, add a serving of the upcoming holiday chaos, and you may have a recipe for a great deal of discomfort. You see, the body can not experience psychological stress without experiencing physical stress. Unfortunately, they go hand in hand.

Stress from the economy or anything else will manifest itself into ongoing muscle tension, elevated stress hormones in the bloodstream and shallower breathing. These physical responses to stress can trigger old aches and pains and even create new ones.

Stress occurs as a result of disruption of our normal state of psychological or physical well-being. And lack of control of that disruption adds to its effects. You will experience an accumulation of stress over weeks and even months, gradually and unknowingly tolerating more and more stress.

You are unaware of this accumulation of stress until the body begins to experience physical symptoms. These might include lower back pain, upper back and neck pain, headaches, lack of restorative sleep and digestive problems.

You have to understand that your symptom is just that; a symptom. If you can identify and address the physiological triggers, you can regain control and eliminate symptoms. This is a major part of how the Function First corrective exercise program works. The right corrective exercise program will give your body the tools to restore musculoskeletal balance, relieving physiological stress and its associated pain.
The appropriate corrective exercises allow the pain sufferer to actively participate in life. The life you want. Take control of your pain without the use of drugs, surgery or dependency on an outside provider. Make an appointment with Function First today.

Call us for an appointment at 619.285.9218 or email education@functionfirst.com for programs available for those outside of Southern California.

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More Neutral Pelvis for you

September 29th, 2008

A follow up to the last commentary on the “myth” of the neutral pelvis:

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The Neutral Pelvis Myth Got Your Attention

September 16th, 2008

Wow! The video clip on the neutral pelvis generated more feedback to me personally then any other email I’ve ever sent. And not one of the emails disagreed with what I said.

I realize the video clip was short, so it certainly didn’t cover everything that could be covered on the neutral pelvis theory. In defense of the neutral pelvis concept, I would like to add that it can be used as both an evaluation tool and an exercise.

It is still a static event and it almost exclusively refers to pelvic rotation in the sagittal plane. But if we want someone to “find” a neutral pelvis that must mean that there pelvis is currently not neutral. Therefore, for them to move their pelvis into a neutral position they must have the appropriate lumbo-pelvic awareness. Moving into the neutral position will now give them a reference point from which to understand what their norm is.

Asking your client/athlete to find the neutral pelvis is in of itself a valuable learning tool. The ability to actually find this position by rotating from a previous position may be of more value than the neutral position itself. This is because even in a static position, the neutral pelvis or any static position is not meant to me held for extended periods of time. Could you imagine someone with a posterior rotation of their pelvis trying to actively hold a neutral pelvis for 15:00 while sitting at a desk? The work load of the spinal extensors would far exceed what this person was capable of. Without the contracting and relaxing of the spinal muscles from varying the positions, the tissue would become ischemic and metabolic byproducts would accumulate locally in the tissue resulting in noticeable discomfort for this person.

I’ll expand more about the artificial nature of holding a neutral pelvis during movement in my next video clip.

Keep the comments coming!

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The “Myth” of the Neutral Pelvis

September 9th, 2008

This short video clip helps debunk the myth of the neutral pelvis.

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The BIG LIE about functional training

June 16th, 2008

Function First was incorporated in 1994.  I like to tell people that because the word “function” was not being used as every third word in a sentence in 1994 the way it is today.  As important as this topic is to human performance and rehabilitation, we should be treating it with a little more respect.

One positive note is that we are moving away from the notion that squatting on a physio-ball is the pinnacle of function.  So as an industry, we are heading back toward solid ground (pun intended).

Let’s start with semantics.  Very important semantics.  “Functional training” implies a mode of exercise, like resistance training or cardiovascular training.  Training for function implies an objective.  This is extremely important since function is ultimately determined by the individual, not the mode of exercise.

Those that believe that any exercise in and of itself can always be “functional” just by the nature of the movement are living the big lie.  They are relying on generalized movement patterns and/or props that have been used to train for function for specific individuals, but are not by default “functional”.

You could ask 50 trainers in a room to name just one functional exercise.  And inevitably you would get responses of lunges, squats, step ups, balance boards, etc.   And these all could be functional exercises, but are not by default functional exercises.  These trainers unknowing have bought into the big lie or are choosing to perpetuate it.

Before any answer to the question was given, every one of those 50 trainers should have responded with their own series of questions regarding a functional exercise:

Who?
What?
Where?

Who is this exercise for?  Is this a functional exercise for my 48 year old obese client with osteoarthritis of the knees?  Or is this functional exercise for my 13 year old female with idiopathic scoliosis?  Or is this functional exercise for my 28 year old NFL linebacker?  The answer should be different for each one.

What is the functional goal?  Is it to avoid surgery?  Is it to better prepare them for surgery?  Is it to improve their competitive performance?  Is it to avoid boredom in their workout?  Is it so they can mow their own lawn?

Where are they in their progression with you?  Is their body demonstrating the necessary movement prerequisites for this exercise?  Are they compensating to get it done versus getting it done right?  Are they exhibiting any apprehension toward the movement?

The next consideration must then be can a “functional” exercise ever be dysfunctional?  Absolutely.  A lunge for example, can produce compensation, reinforce existing dysfunction and produce undesirable mechanical stress as much as any machine based exercise.

We must first understand our client.  Then we must understand functional anatomy.  And then we can understand what function for that client really is.

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The 3 Pitfalls that Lead to Chronic Pain

May 29th, 2008

It is the time of year many people ramp up their activity levels. The warm weather is upon us and longer days have will have people outside taking on all kinds of physical challenges they have no business doing. 

As their body exits from its winter hibernation, I sometimes think they left the mind sleeping.  What makes a person think that riding for 20:00 a day, three times a week on a stationary bike prepares them for getting yanked out of the water by a speed boat while holding onto a tow rope?  Or that playing 18 holes twice a month gets them ready for 72 holes over 3 days while on vacation?

If you’re currently suffering from an injury that is keeping you from exercising or requiring you to modify what you do for exercise, chances are that you didn’t get to this point overnight.  Overuse injuries and injuries that end with “itis” (meaning inflammation) are often chronic issues that have become acute.  These injuries are usually tied to a number of small incidents that have occurred over a period of weeks, months and even years.

Most people don’t stop and think about their bodies when they sustain a mild to moderate injury.  Minor injuries especially, are rarely given the time and consideration that they deserve.  It’s often the minor injuries that turn into major problems down the road.

After working with people with musculoskeletal pain for more than 17 years, I’ve identified three steps that lead to long-term musculoskeletal issues:

Denial

Most people deny the seriousness of their injury, especially when it’s something like a sore elbow from a couple of sets of tennis.  If it’s not broken or gushing blood, then it’s nothing to worry about, right?  Wrong.  Thinking that your sore elbow is no big deal or that it will clear up on its own is a mistake.  Denying that there is anything seriously wrong enables you to miss a very important window at the onset- the very beginning is when you can do so much to avoid compounding the injury.

Pain avoidance. 

We all know that the body doesn’t like pain, so when we experience pain we begin to change our habits and mannerisms in order to avoid it.  People who have chronic lower back pain are prime examples of this.  When they stand for a certain period of time, or garden, or walk, it hurts their back.  What do they do?  They start to avoid activities that are going to hurt them.  Eventually, any movement or activity that is similar to those that initially caused the discomfort will cause pain as well.  It’s a snowball effect that gradually gets worse.

If the stairs hurt your knee, you stop doing step aerobics.  The next sacrifice is to cut out squats and lunges.  At a time like this is where many folks reach their threshold.  It is here where they will seek therapy, surgery or medications for relief.

Shortsightedness. 

When people finally do take action against their pain, it is often only enough to mitigate the current symptom.  Just enough therapy to calm things down.  Or a surgery to repair the damaged part or pills to mask the pain for now….. Unfortunately, this does nothing for all the factors from the previous incidents leading to the major pain.   

Don’t blame your aches and pains on the easy cop out, “I’m getting older”.  I tell my clients, “it’s not that you’re getting older, it’s that you’ve been doing things WRONG longer”. And pain is the price that is paid.

The cumulative mechanical stress that the body has experienced demands cumulative action to first slow, then stop and finally reverse the damage.  Equally important is to recognize that it is never too late to change and it is never too late to recognize what is happening today and keep it from haunting you tomorrow. 

A corrective exercise program designed around your specific needs can literally teach your body to move and function differently.  Bad old habits can be replaced with good new habits.  This gives the body a chance to restore itself instead of breaking down more over time.

The body has a tremendous capacity for healing when given the right environment and provided the right tools.  The right exercise, proper nutrition and a healthy mind can work miracles.

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Working with Post Rehab Clients

May 28th, 2008

As a health and fitness professional, you work closely with people on a daily basis.

 

Knowing and understanding your clients is key to establishing long-term relationships with them, as well as enabling you to get more referrals down the road.

People coming out of rehabilitation make up a large part of many health and fitness professional’s client base, and fully understanding their needs and tendencies can only benefit you and your practice.

Post-rehab clients fall into two main groups

Those who exercised before their medical treatment and those who did not.  Both offer a unique set of challenges that, as a health and fitness professional, you’d do well to expect and understand.

The post-rehab client that did exercise before their procedure can be a firecracker to handle.

 

This type of client realizes the value of exercise (and, just as important, the value you bring to their exercise) and will probably want to jump right in where they left off before their procedure.

 

Their mindset is …”Well, my physical therapy is done so I must be healed!”

The reality is that their insurance will only cover so many sessions, and it’s rarely enough to ensure adequate recovery.

Because of their past history with exercise they’re very likely to find post-rehab boring and tedious.

 

Your job is to make sure they don’t go too far too fast.

 

Many of these clients will religiously follow instructions until they are 80-90 percent healed, but then feel they are good enough to quit following instructions and they jump back on the horse.

 

It’s usually this last 10 percent that leads to chronic problems down the road.

Clients who have never exercised present an entirely different set of challenges for you.

 

Chances are high that you’ll be working around a host of physical problems. They might be referred to you because their doctor sees them as a high risk of heart attack due to a poor lifestyle.

 

But, that isn’t their only problem. If they’re overweight, they probably have problems with their knees, or their hips.

 

They might be seeing multiple doctors for all of their different conditions, which may lead to conflicting instructions for their exercise regime.

 

For example, an overweight cardio patient may need 30 minutes of walking per day to reduce her risk, but the doctor she is seeing for her degenerative hips may only recommend 15 minutes per day.

 

This can be challenging for you, but it can lead to some great opportunities if you know how to take advantage of them.

By acting as a “go between” between all of your client’s doctors, they’re in perfect position to see what a great job you’re doing with their patient.

 

This could lead to many more referrals down the road for you. Spending some time dropping off brochures and business cards would make it even easier for these doctors to pass your name along to their patients in the future!

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The Core-Tex buzz continues…..

May 24th, 2008

This past week I was invited by one of the top orthopedic groups in San Diego to give a demonstration of the Core-Tex for their physical therapists. As mentioned in a previous post, the fitness industry is chomping at the bit for the Core-Tex to be available. And it will be soon.

But this was the first demo for physical therapists only. What was supposed to be a 15:00 introduction and demonstration for 6 therapists, turned into an hour and half with about 20 more therapists, assistants and several patients getting in on the act.

The Core-Tex is one of those pieces of equipment that you just can’t ignore. If you see it, first you see the fun. But then through exploration and a little instruction, the incredible therapeutic value becomes apparent.

This group liked it so much they are interested in doing a study using a population with a specific lower extremity injury and comparing the benefits of the Core-Tex to an existing protocol. Obviously, it is very rewarding when others see the value.

We believe the Core-Tex has as much value to the rehabilitation field as it does to the fitness and sports performance fields. If you have any questions on the Core-Tex or would like to be on the Core-Tex interest list, email: education@functionfirst.com

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Anthony Carey’s Top 10 List for Getting Medical Referrals

May 10th, 2008

In my book, Relationships and Referrals: A Personal Trainer’s Guide to Doing Business with the Medical Community I write extensively about working with the medical community. I thought I would share my top 10 list of things to keep in mind when seeking to work with the medical community. Each of the top 10 are covered extensively in my book.

10. Be persistent

We’d love to believe that we are the most important person on the mind of your targeted referrals. The reality is that the “sales” cycle for getting medical referrals is often months. Sometimes many, many months. Plant the seeds consistently and when that first referral arrives, you’ll need to shine.

9. Nurture the best and forget the rest.

You will quickly realize that some doctors are advocates of exercise and understand your value. Others just don’t “get it” for a number of reasons. Nurture those that can help you help more people. Even get to know their practice and types of patients so you can have confidence providing reciprocal referrals.

8. Understand your certification doesn’t mean sh*t to a doctor.

Few if any medical doctors will know what the letters after your name mean. That doesn’t mean they are not of value (some of them anyway). Just don’t expect that to open doors for you. Use your education to help validate your work.

7. Don’t market to medical providers the way you would market to clients

Understand that medical professionals refer to whom they know and trust because you will be an extension of their care. They will not refer because of a brochure, web site, business card or ad. These collateral marketing materials are only supplementary to the person or business.

6. Provide them with documentation whether they ask for it or not.

Gather your client’s medical provider’s contact information. Get permission from your client to share your exercise plan with their doctor and send the doctor your assessment and plan. Send an accompanying cover letter and that exercise plan should end up in your client’s file with their provider. Your paperwork will be part your client’s discussion with their doctor at their next visit.

5. Let your reputation precede you.

Use your clients to open doors for you. If you are doing a great job with them, have them make introductions for you to their doctors. Your client should be your biggest advocate with their medical provider which can ultimately lead to more referrals once a relationship is established with that provider.

4. Don’t overstep your professional boundaries.

Most of us are in this business to help people and this may cloud our judgment when a client presents a physical complaint or limitation. Our relationships with our clients are often stronger than the client’s relationship with their doctor. Don’t attempt to diagnosis or “fix” your client because they trust you. Refer them to the appropriate medical provider.

3. Speak the language

Never communicate with a medical professional (oral or written) using terminology that you would use with your clients. An understanding of the terminology is a reflection of your level of expertise as well as being the form of communication they are accustomed to. Medical providers have professional standards they must uphold with their documentation. Providing correspondence to them in this manner also implies that you will comprehend any documentation received from them.

2. Find your niche

Working with medical referrals means working with special populations. Special populations have special needs and special risks. Know a lot about a little versus knowing a little about a lot. Do not attempt to be all things to all people.

1. Know your subject matter.

It’s not a good idea to promote to medical professionals that you do “post rehab” when you don’t know what occurs during rehab. This means from the therapeutic procedures, structures involved and contraindications. Please remember, POST REHAB IS NOT A FORM OF TRAINING. IT IS AN OBJECTIVE.

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