Biomechanics never get old. This is one of the exercises from my very first Corrective Exercise for Powerful Change DVD’s. The content is still very relevant and part of our Pain-Free Movement Specialist curriculum.
The ability to take a step back to stimulate the hip motion without the hips being loaded in a comfortable and safe position can be very valuable for the client/patient with lower back pain.
No comments on my boyish looks then versus now please!
If you are like me and always striving to be better today than you were yesterday, you’ll want to take 6:00 and watch this clip.
I get to sit down with one of the greatest coaching minds in fitness who also happens to be one of the most engaging speakers you will ever see present at a conference…fitness or otherwise.
Bobby shares his insights on what keeps many fitness professionals from leaving what’s familiar and moving to what is possible.
We are incredibly grateful that Bobby has added more original content to our new PFMS curriculum. But this video is yours just for being part of the Function First family. But this video is yours for being part of the Function First family.
Follow and learn more from Bobby at www.robertcappuccio.com
Saturday, November 11th at 10:30 am Brainstorm Fitness opens its doors for the workshop: The Importance of Training for the Life You Want to Live: the tools, the why & how.
Learn about the state of the art equipment at Brainstorm Fitness that helps individuals like you move better during their sessions and in everyday life. Hear about the specific physical benefits of moving certain ways and be able to ask questions of fitness professionals that understand the scientific reasoning behind them.
Understand how these different ways of exercising translate to improving the way you enjoy your life and how exercise makes you stronger and more efficient when going about your everyday activities that you have to do.
This will be an interactive workshop where you will be able to grasp more than the “exercise is good for you” idea but instead, understand why moving better is so important to maintaining your health and well being.
The speakers will be Anthony Carey and Damien A. Joyner
Anthony holds a Master’s degree in biomechanics and athletic training and is the inventor of the Core-Tex™. Anthony is recognized internationally as a leading expert in biomechanics, corrective exercise, functional anatomy, and motor control.
Damien is a Functional Aging Specialist that works with individuals 40 years and up so they can continue to do what they like and want to do in life easier and with less discomfort.
We love to see our clients transition from corrective exercise to full fitness activities without limitations or hesitations. We are so happy to have Eric Brittain as part of the Function First family!
Thank you for your dedication to your health, your consistency with your efforts and the amazing attitude you bring to every class. You uplift all those around you!
Written By
Kevin Murray, M.A. (pending)
Movement Masterminds – CEO
Function First – Director of Education
2012 CSEP CPT of the Year
THE SIZING APPEAL
The Small, Medium, Large concept to clothing that all department stores embody seems like a straightforward, pragmatic approach to sizing. If the article of clothing fits, you’re golden; If not, you’re either going up a size, or down. But what about those that fall between the cracks? Or above, or below those labels?
I constantly run into this predicament. Sometimes a small is too tight. Other times a medium drapes off my shoulders, which was a good look for me in the 90’s with skateboard in hand – not so cool anymore. I often wish there was a size “smedium”, right in between at that “sweet spot.”
Perhaps you can relate… maybe your frame deserves a “marge”, right in between medium and large.
ATTENTION ALL “SHOPPERS”:
DUALISTIC THINKING IS OUT-OF-DATE & NO LONGER IN STOCK!
Am I really posting up an article about clothing? As much as I dig fashion, the department store approach is actually a metaphor for the movement industry in many respects, and its modus operandi to complex pain problems.
For example, you may be familiar with conceptualized strategies such as:
• Tight hips = stretch em’
• Weak glutes = strengthen em’
• Noticeable swelling = ice that sh#t
• IT Band irritation = foam roll those puppies
A dualistic, department store approach emphasizes that although all individual’s move differently and come from different backgrounds and cultures, there are essentially only 3-types of people – small, medium and large. Chronic pain on the other hand is complex, embodying dynamic dimensions that encompass myriad variables expanding beyond the optics of biomechanical and connective tissue principles alone. A diverse approach to sizing is needed.
GEORGE ENGEL’s BPS APPROACH:
TAILORED FOR ALL SHAPES AND SIZES – SINCE 1977
Progressing beyond (but not excluding) biomechanics and connective tissue, a 3-dimensional approach to working with clients’ in pain include a vast variety of biopsychosocial ingredients and considerations:
• Systems theories
• Empathetic listening
• Uncovering client’s’ values and beliefs systems
• Establishing client trust
• Providing educational dividends around the context of pain
• Explaining the protective purpose that pain serves
are all in play when considering the Neuromatrix and its influence on how we collaborate with, and coach our clients’ in pain.
SUIT YOU, SIR
Working with the chronic pain demographic is much like being a tailor. Each individual comes in with unique dimensions and constraints; different outcomes and desires. A tailor is seeking to understand where specific attention needs to be placed. A tailor asks questions like:
Why doesn’t their clothing fit?
Have they ever been to a tailor before? If so, what was their experience?
How will we know when a successful amendment has taken effect?
What is their specific outcome?
A tailor considers multiple dimensions into his/her analysis and thought process, outside the shackles of unidimensional constraints. Instead, diversification is personified, driven by the uniqueness of each individual and their articles of clothing.
Individuals’ in pain each have their own unique articles of clothing (yes, we’re still talking metaphorically here) that need specific attention and consideration. If you can meet your clients’ unique needs, much like a tailor does, than you’ll have accomplished something truly special in your clients’ eyes.
Amidst the waves of uncertainty that accompany working with individuals’ experiencing chronic pain and relinquishing a dualistic/department store thought-process, above all remember you’re interacting with another individual – and not a mechanistic instrument. Be kind, be empathetic, and as often as possible seek to understand rather than judge.
“The quality of the therapeutic relationship appears to be more predictive of success than any theoretical approach of the helper.” John Nuttall
I started with function First in April of 2012. My wife was already attending and encouraged me to give the program a chance. My experience with ‘gyms’ had been less than productive, so my first response wasn’t exactly positive, but I decided to give it a chance. As it ends up, this was a totally different experience for me. Instead of a dry, boring routine, I was immediately part of an enthusiastic and friendly group of people. I was totally pleased with the guidance and direction of the instructors. The routines were creative and always changing. Nothing boring about it!
Being age 64, I was beginning to feel less energetic with less mobility and more discomfort. I knew I needed to add some exercise to my daily routine. But, not the typical lift some weights and run a while on the treadmill. The Function First instructors solved that problem with what seems to be an endless supply of varying exercises. I also soon discovered the ability of the staff to be able to modify the group routines to fit my personal needs.
Private Sessions were invaluable in starting me in the correct direction for better physical health. Issues my physician was trying to mask were alleviated with the appropriate exercise problems. I’ve found the instructors to be incredibly knowledgeable, concerned, and capable.
Function First has allowed me to continue with an active lifestyle of hiking, back packing water-skiing and boating.
Dave Snodgrass
Happy David
Once you take the time to think about it, it is easy to make the connection to how better health and fitness increases productivity and happiness at work. According to Chron.com stress impacts everything in your life, including memory and processing new information towards analytical situations. These stressors not only impact concentration, but can also result in costly mistakes in any career field. Furthermore, energy around an office is contagious and employees with low energy and high stress will negatively impact the office atmosphere as a whole.
In addition, when we don’t feel well we are more likely to call in sick, thus getting further behind on our work and, in turn, creating more stress. It is a vicious cycle. Encouraging employees to work out with specific goals of increased functionality and mobility will help them to alleviate stress and increase focus and productivity at work.
This is just one example of how working out with Function First changed a life.
Before I found Function First, I was working out on a regular basis. However, I wasn’t seeing the results I was expecting. I still struggled with movements like squats and deadlifts. Lifting and running were painful so even when I attempted a solid workout, I often felt discouraged or unmotivated. I felt upset and annoyed with myself. I began to believe that working out was always going to be painful and started to wonder why I even bothered. Instead of the sense of happiness and stress relief that I wanted to get from working out, I was feeling more and more stress and fatigue after each session.
This frustration and stress combined with the pressures I was already experiencing at work. I was losing ground and I knew something had to change; not just for my own self-image, but also for my ability to grow my company and support my employees.
Enter Function First
After my first session I saw improvement and was already feeling like working out was something I wanted to do again. I was quickly shown how important it was to have specific, mindful goals during each workout. I gained an understanding that when a movement was painful, there was a reason and a solution. Staying focused on the proper movements quickly increased my mobility.
Soon the pain I had felt while running, lifting, and squatting began to disappear. I began to believe in myself again and began to believe that I was capable of working out in meaningful and productive ways. I was finally seeing the results I was after.
This energy carried over into my professional life as owner of SD Equity Partners. I was surprised to find that I was not only feeling less pain when working out, but was also feeling great throughout my day. The stress relief that workouts once provided me had returned. Currently, I find that I am better able to focus on my work to become a positive influence on those around me. I am able to find joy in my tasks and pride in my own creativity. This energy has also seemed to increase the enjoyment of the people that I work with. My positivity is contagious.
Looking back on my progress I cannot believe how much time I spent agonizing and putting myself through stressful workouts. The problem was that I was not working out with a clear goal in mind. My efforts were unfocused and the pain I felt just increased my stress and lessened my abilities to focus during my work day.
Thanks to the unique guidance of Function First I am not only stronger and feeling less pain, I am now more focused and productive in the office and growing my business more than ever before.
Written by:
Evan Harris
SD Equity Partners – Founder and Owner
Function First owner Anthony Carey shares a few quick highlights on the Power Plate and why you will want to incorporate into your training. Whole Body Vibration (WBV) is a heavily researched topic with many scientifically based benefits. We are fortunate to have the “Cadillac” of vibration plates at Function First. The Power Plate Pro 7 is the most advanced system on the market.
Call 619.285.9218 or schedule HERE for your personal training appointment and use the Power Plate to maximize your results!
You can learn more about the Power Plate and the research studies on WBV at www.powerplate.com
When an individual’s identity and belief about who they are is based around their capacity to be active and athletic, we can predict his or her fears. So what happens when chronic pain no longer permits an active lifestyle?
What happens next is an internal dialog of perception and meaning begin to take root… and how well one can direct their own thoughts, beliefs, emotions and assumptions becomes significant.
Compartmentalization is an unconscious psychological defense mechanism used to avoid cognitive dissonance.
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The question then becomes “what is Cognitive Dissonance ?”and how does chronic pain fit into the equation?
Cognitive Dissonance “is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values.”
For example, no matter how much an individual may believe… if they’re heading east looking for a sunset, that idea and belief will inevitably run up against irrefutable evidence. This naturally will manifest an internal conflict.
In the context of chronic pain, wanting to go to the mountains for an afternoon of skiing with friends & family may be high on an individuals values list. But a belief that skiing will lead to further knee damage or an increase in pain will surely create a conflict. These psychological inconsistencies (dissonance) and the inherent uncertainty they bring can become difficult to manage – overwhelming for many.
Conflicting beliefs and values evenutally feed into an individuals psyche’, establishing negative neuro-associations based around the context of pain that can contribute to the overall pain experience.
What’s more, physical and emotional pain can negatively influence an individuals’ thoughts, feelings and beliefs regarding movement and exercise, inhibiting one’s capacity to remain consistent with how they define themselves – known as their identity.
Our role as movement professionals and coaches is NOT to change an individuals identity or belief structure, but rather create an environment to EXPAND their capacity to understand what pain is and what purpose it serves.
Arming each client with insight and knowledge into the latest in pain science can help them consciously direct their own thoughts, emotions, assumptions and beliefs regarding chronic pain, which can establish constructive psychological associations and increase their ability to effectively compartmentalize chronic pain.
Written by:
Kevin Murray
Movement Masterminds – CEO
Function First – Director of Education
Chronic pain is complex, resulting from many inputs processed through the nervous system and the brain. As humans, we rely heavily on our vision to assess and navigate our environment and maintain balance.
Visual references are also one type of input the brain relies on to determine a potential threat to the organism. For example, have you ever found a bruise on your body that did not hurt until you noticed it there?
For those suffering from chronic neck pain, vision provides a great deal of feedback about cervical range of motion along with the mechano-receptors in the joints and soft tissue. The endpoint a person sees when turning his or her head and experiencing pain combines with a cluster of other information occurring at the same time to form the neuro-representation of the pain experience in the brain, or what Melzack (2001) calls a “neuro-signature.”
Harvie et al. (2015) investigated the role of visual feedback on neck pain. The researchers used a virtual-reality apparatus to alter the visual proprioceptive feedback that subjects received during cervical rotation. Subjects were seated with their torsos fixed to avoid contributing motion from the thoracic spine during cervical rotation. Twenty-four subjects with chronic neck pain were assessed for the onset of pain during cervical rotation to the left and right. They were asked to stop when they felt pain and to rate it on a scale of 0-10 at the point in the rotation where pain occurred. Each subject was then fitted with a virtual-reality headset that provided six different visual scenes for six trials. The image below is taken directly from the study by Harvie et al. (2015) and shows an illustration of the set up.
Researchers manipulated the virtual-reality scenes so that the visual cues did not match the actual cervical-rotation distance that subjects achieved on all trials. The virtual rotation provided by the headsets was either:
• 20% more than the actual rotation
• the same as the actual rotation
• 20% less than the actual rotation
This bogus visual feedback of plus or minus 20% made the subjects perceive that they were rotating their cervical spines 20% more or less than they actually were.
The results showed that when rotation was understated (subjects perceived their rotation was less than it actually was), pain-free range of motion increased by 6%. When rotation was overstated (subjects perceived their rotation was more than it actually was), pain-free range of motion decreased by 7%.
This study provides additional evidence to support the findings that pain is not generated solely from tissue damage. The bio-pyscho-social model acknowledges multiple inputs contributing to the pain experience.
Vision is one of many contributing inputs that the brain processes when assessing a threat to the body and therefore produces pain. The association of a specific neck range of motion identified visually, coupled with information from the motor system and proprioceptive system, creates a confirmed reference for past pain experiences. In other words, we’ve always had pain with this set of circumstances (neuro signature of matched proprioception, motor function, vision, vestibular), so we are supposed to have now. Hello pain.
It is plausible that visual input can also influence pain in other areas. For example, if a client has lower-back pain, forward flexion of the spine will bring her eyes closer to the floor, possibly presenting a painful or pain-free experience, depending on the client.
When designing a corrective program for clients where you believe the visual field is a factor, you could vary the visual field to minimize the visual association related to painful movements. Or you could keep the head still and create the motion you want from the bottom up-creating relative movement of the cervical spine in relation to the thoracic spine.
Interested in learning more about how we, at Function First and the Pain-Free Movement Specialists work with the chronic pain population? Enrollment is available only until April 29th here.
Melzack, R. 2001. Pain and the neuromatrix in the brain. Journal of Dental Education 65(12), 1378-82.
Harvie, D.S., et al. 2015. Bogus visual feedback alters onset of movement-evoked pain in people with neck pain. Psychological Science. doi:10.1177/0956797614563339.