Blog

200 years from now, people are going to look back and say; “Can you believe what people used to do when computers first came out? They’d sit hunched forward over their desks for 8-10 hours a day! Didn’t they realize what they were doing to their bodies?” They’ll probably even comment about how people used to text on their phones and iPads too.

Did you know that just fifteen minutes reading or typing when using the wrong positions exhausts the muscles of your neck, shoulders and upper back? Often, poor posture develops because of accidents or falls. But bad posture can also develop from environmental factors or bad habits.

In fact, most people have no idea what they are doing to their bodies. We are the computer user “guinea pigs”. We are the first generation of people to use these types of technology. Research is showing an entirely new type of damage to muscles, tendons, and joints from prolonged micro-movements inherent in computer and electronic device use. These issues were unheard of 50 years ago.

What is even scarier is that it’s profound negative health effects are showing up in young children. I’m seeing younger and younger kids in my practice that have neck and back pain.  If you think I’m exagerating, just take a look around you next time you are at the mall, restaurant or picking your children up from school and you’ll see them anchored to their electronic devices.  Good posture is more important to health than most of us realize.

7 Easy Tips on how you can improve posture at work …

1. Sit Properly. When you do, it recreates the natural curve on your lower back.
2. Bring arms back into alignment. Don’t’ reach forward!
3. Set-up your work station properly. Drop your shoulders!
4. Move Your Body and walk around every hour. If you don’t use it, you lose it!
5. Give your your eyes a break. Focus on a distant object & don’t forget to blink,
6. Hydrate. If you’re thirsty…guess what? You’re already dehydrated!
7. Spend time outdoors. Minimum of 3 hours per week.

Our environments have changed, but we as human beings have not. Today’s office and home surroundings continuously “bath” us in un-natural energetic environments. Many people today spend most of their lives indoors, surrounded by electric and magnetic signals-barely setting foot on the earth. We still need nature to function optimally.

There is NO replacement for time spent outdoors. Almost everyone has a place where they can go to absorb nature’s energy. It’s might be a walk around the block or maybe you have to make an effort to get there. Either way, it’s worth it! Experience the earth, walk on the ground and feel the diverse terrain under your feet, breathe in the fresh air and hopefully feel the wind or sun on your face.

Muscles need “force” to stay healthy. Even NASA did a study on how our bodies adapt to the environment around us. Little over a year ago, NASA embarked on experiment and discovered that their astronauts lose on average 1.5 percent of their bone mass per month in space.  An identical twin (Scott Kelly) spent a year there and upon his return, Scott had to be carried off via a stretcher because his muscles could handle the weight of his body. Click here for the article:

Which inspires me for another blog…Do you think NASA told Scott Kelly to “Suck it up buttercup and go take lap around the building” when he got back from space to get his muscles stronger? I doubt it.

…I think I’m getting up from my desk now and going to go outside and enjoy a little sunshine!

Cheers, D-Rock

Want to learn more about improving your functional movement and sports performance? Then follow Dianne’s blog: https://dtasmblog.wordpress.com

Dianne Rockefeller is a Licensed Massage Therapist, National Academy of Sports Medicine – Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist, Certified Myoskeletal Therapist, Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner, Certified Cupping Therapist, and Muscle Activation Techniques Practioner (MAT). She has treated athletes of all levels, from youth to professional, from all sports. She brings a very unique perspective to manual therapy utilizing her experience with motion analysis and sport. Her blend of advanced integrated skills along with practical and rehabilitation experience deliver exceptional results. Dianne is a self-proclaimed scholar of “Applied Performance Manual Therapies”. Contact Dianne at drock@dtasm.com or 210-973-4848.

Many  injuries occur in our bodies because of muscle imbalances, weakness or instability in other areas of the body. For instance, if your glutes lack strength, then your knee is  more susceptible to collapsing inward, which in turn then puts stress on your ACL. If you lack ankle stability, then this lack of strength can cause instability and migrates up the chain as pain in your knee.

In short, there are two types of knee injuries can occur.   Contact and non-contact injuries. Contact injuries for the most part can’t be avoided. There’s nothing you can do if someone happens to roll into the side of your leg during a game. However, many knee injuries occur from simply landing from a jump, decelerating or changing direction. These types of injuries CAN be prevented.

I wrote a previous Blog Entry on our body’s healing cycles (if you haven’t read it, its worth scrolling back on my blog to read).  It helps you understand why some injuries can take up to 9 months to recover from because they need time to heal.  The reason this is so complex is that you need to restore mobility, stability, function, rebuild muscle tissue and restore coordination. Sometimes the process can be long and hard. Even worse, returning to play can take even longer mentally because you might not have confidence  in that joint that you did before the injury.

Its not all bad though. There are a lot of great injury prevention exercises you can do that don’t require a gym and can be done easily at home.  The following four great exercises are frequently used in rehab, but they can also be used post-rehab to continue improving your strength, stability and mobility. The key  to these is to do each exercise slowly, so that you really isolate the muscles and really make them work.  Speed capitalizes on the tendency of a weight in motion to stay in motion.

As anyone in  involved physical activity or sport  knows, you can’t expect your body to operate in tip-top shape without a little preparation. There are a lot of wonderful stretches and exercises to help you pre-hab before catastrophe happens. My advice?  Pick a few from each common injury group (back, hip, knee, foot, etc.) to help stay out of the doctor’s office and “get a leg up on” staying healthy, strong, fit…and injury free!

Cheers, Drock

Glute Bridges

Seriously. Take a moment and humor me by doing this little exercise. Sit up straight, yet relaxed. Take a deep breath expanding your midsection (belly), pause, and then exhale slowly.   Do this again. Good.  Guess what?  You’ve just calmed your nervous system.

No kidding. When you’re feeling stressed, overwhelmed or in need of an energy boost this simple thing can do the trick. It’s easy to ignore how we are breathing in our lives with all life’s deadlines and demands on us. However, it can be a powerful tool to combat the stresses that break down your body tissue. And, you can do it anywhere, anyplace and don’t have to be in workout clothes to do it.

I have become more and more aware of my breathing since starting the app called “Headspace”. Most of us breathe in a way that leaves a lot of room for improvement. Some examples would be over-breathing, holding our breath and/or shallow breathing. These breathing patterns are very stressful for the body and lead to a shortage of oxygen and energy.

Since my discovery of “Headspace,” I try to take 10 minutes in my mornings to meditate and get ready for my busy day. Taking this time has made me more aware of just how important breath is to overall health. I’m not the only one doing this either. When I was having lunch with a good friend of mine, Michael Brungardt (Former strength coach San Antonio Spurs 17 years. 4 Rings, 2011 NBA Strength Coach of the Year, USA Strength Coaches Hall of Fame), he mentioned how many professional sports teams are now discovering these benefits.

Bad breathing can give rise to a lot of unexpected negative effects on our health:

• Loss of Energy: Less oxygen in, less oxygen to your body’s cells and your body has to work harder.
• Breakdown of Tissue: With less oxygen to cells, your cells get stressed and tissue starts to breaks down. Then your brain begins to prioritize survival vs. development.
• Blood Vessel Constriction: Which can lead to high blood pressure, and then turns into making your heart work harder.
• Airways Get Tighter: Which makes it harder for you to get air into your lungs, and then you compensate by working harder and breath faster to get the same amount of work done.
• Nervous System Imbalance: Breath is an key component in maintaining a balanced body. Each breath has an immediate effect on our nervous system. Imagine inhaling being the gas and exhaling the breaks. A dysfunctional breathing habit, like a short and forced one, results in a tense body and much higher levels of stress.

It’s kind of like having loose battery cables in your car (I know, ANOTHER car analogy!). Will your car start? Yes, you turn the key and it will start. Can you drive to the grocery store? Yes, my car can drive me from Point A to Point B.  However, over time if these cables are left loose you will eventually experience problems in your car.

Think about it for a moment…Each and every single one of the processes in our body is dependent on oxygen. Some of our most work intensive organs are our brains, heart and muscles. All of which are crucial.

Wow! That’s a ton of crappy aversive side effects you might think. And you’d be absolutely correct. Now, there are plenty more ways that bad breathing can negatively effect our bodies…like fatigue, headaches, muscle pains, craniofacial abnormalities…but I’ll stop here and let you get the gist of my blog.

Thanks for reading this – you take my breath away.  😉

Cheers,  Drock

Want to learn more about improving your functional movement and sports performance? Follow Dianne’s blog: https://dtasmblog.wordpress.com

Dianne Rockefeller is a Licensed Massage Therapist, National Academy of Sports Medicine – Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist, Certified Myoskeletal Therapist, Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner, Certified Cupping Therapist, and Muscle Activation Techniques Practioner (MAT). She has treated athletes of all levels, from youth to professional, from all sports. She brings a very unique perspective to manual therapy utilizing her experience with motion analysis and sport. Her blend of advanced integrated skills along with practical and rehabilitation experience deliver exceptional results.  Dianne is a self-proclaimed scholar of “Applied Performance Manual Therapies”. Contact Dianne at drock@dtasm.com or 210-973-4848.

All machinery is designed to work with a specific alignment.  When a machine’s design parameters are compromised or it’s parts become mis-aligned, then things within the machine do not work as they should.  Parts begin to grind and accelerated wear and tear  occurs as the result.

The same goes for our human bodies.  Our spines and the major weight bearing joints are designed to work within a specific design and alignment too.  If your posture is compromised, then things within your body will not work they way they should.  This translates into muscle weakness/tightness, pain and loss of movement.

It’s a concept called “Tensegrity” and it is derived from the two words “tension” and “integrity”.  All structures are supported by a balance between tension and compression…including our bodies.  We carry on a constant battle with gravity .  As Ida Rolf so eloquently said,”When the human energy field and gravity are at war, needless to say gravity wins every time.”

According to Buckminster Fuller, who first introduced this concept, the skin, muscles, and connective tissues are the tensional elements which are separated by the hard elements of the body – bones.  The tensional elements serve as “spacers” that sustain proper tension within our body structure.  They also distribute stress throughout the entire body.  In the case of poor posture, this tensegrity turns into a compressional structure that causes uneven wear and tear in our body structure.

It’s not uncommon for me to observe 2″ of anterior forward head posture in new clients. Would you be surprised that your neck and shoulders hurt if you had a 20-pound watermelon hanging around your neck?

Although it may have annoyed you to hear your parents say “stand up straight,” it was very good advice. Good posture when sitting or standing puts your spine in alignment so that stress is properly distributed to the intended muscles and ligaments. With good posture, your muscles work properly causing less wear and tear in your body.

Think about that one next time you are texting or working at your computer.  I think it’s time for me to get up and take a short walk in my building now!

Cheers, Drock

Want to learn more about improving your functional movement and sports performance? Follow Dianne’s blog: https://dtasmblog.wordpress.com

Dianne Rockefeller is a Licensed Massage Therapist, National Academy of Sports Medicine – Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist, Certified Myoskeletal Therapist, Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner, Certified Cupping Therapist, and Muscle Activation Techniques Practioner (MAT). She has treated athletes of all levels, from youth to professional, from all sports. She brings a very unique perspective to manual therapy utilizing her experience with motion analysis and sport. Her blend of advanced integrated skills along with practical and rehabilitation experience deliver exceptional results. Additionally, Dianne is a self-proclaimed scholar of “Applied Performance Manual Therapies“. Contact Dianne at drock@dtasm.com or 210-973-4848.

You might understand that body movement is pretty complicated, almost a lucky accident happening beyond your control. Each of our movements is a brain and Central Nervous System (CNS) solution to a complex problem. The “rules” of the problem are called constraints. Typically, they fall into three categories:

1. Task           2. Environment           3. Organism

Task constraints involve exactly what you might imagine. Pick up an object of “X” pounds. Carry it “Y” distance. So, if the task at hand is picking up a bowling ball, then picking up a pebble doesn’t follow the same rules. Environmental constraints are equally intuitive. What sort of environment are you performing this task in? This involves varied textures and terrain, or social factors like peer pressure or support.

OK, now note how you can’t do a whole lot about those first two constraint types. This is where the organismic constraints come into play. These involve things like strength, mood, fatigue, and similar items. When you combine all these constraints, you get something like this happening (Image A) , and all of your movements emerge out of this complex Plinko board-like interaction that your brain and Central Nervous System controls.

Mobility plays a huge role here. Just think of mobility as “movement potential.” It’s a key constraint on what muscle options your brain has access to. Improve control and coordination of your muscles and you increase ranges of motion in joints. When this happens, you radically expand what you’re capable of in sport as well as in day to day life. Body mobility widens in your body “Plinko” box and your brain has access to more efficient options. More options make you a more resilient, adaptable, and decrease injuries.

Cardio doesn’t do that. Strength training doesn’t (always) do that. Mobility and stability is like compound interest in the body movement world. If you consistently put a little bit in, then you can expect improvement in all other areas across the board. Which means less wear and tear on body parts due to less compensation by your brain.

Here’s the thing: It takes a heck of a lot more than just stretching, foam rolling and exercise to improve your mobility and stability. Those might slightly improve your flexibility, but they don’t do much to teach your body how to put that range of motion to use or provide you with joint stability. They have nothing to do with improving coordination and muscle control either. Training on a Bosu ball for stability when muscles are already unstable just results in more instability or injury.

Constant training and exercise can’t control muscle contraction timing because the harder you train and push your body, the faster your body’s stress threshold is going to be reached.

Put more simply: To increase your range of motion, you have to be able to train muscles through their FULL Range of Motion.  No foam rollers, tape, forearm strap or other toys necessary. 

.Cheers….DRock

Want to learn more about improving your functional movement and sports performance? Follow Dianne’s blog: https://dtasmblog.wordpress.com

Dianne Rockefeller is a Licensed Massage Therapist, National Academy of Sports Medicine – Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist, Certified Myoskeletal Therapist, Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner, Certified Cupping Therapist, and Muscle Activation Techniques Practioner (MAT). She has treated athletes of all levels, from youth to professional, from all sports. She brings a very unique perspective to manual therapy utilizing her experience with motion analysis and sport. Her blend of advanced integrated skills along with practical and rehabilitation experience deliver exceptional results. Additionally, Dianne is a self-proclaimed scholar of “Applied Performance Manual Therapies“.  Contact Dianne at drock@dtasm.com or 210-973-4848.

As my clients know,  I am always striving to improve upon the therapy I provide them.  What I do now in a typical session is very different from what I was doing 6 months ago.  Mainly because I have advanced my techniques and body therapy I.Q.  I am constantly educating myself by keeping up on medical research, seeking out experts in their fields as well as taking classes from those same experts.

I refuse to accept that much of the loss of function as we age is “normal” aging.  What I have discovered is that although it might be common, it is NOT “normal” aging.  More importantly, it doesn’t have to be this way either.

So, what the heck is “normal aging” anyway?  I do not have the answer and I will tell you that I’m not sure anyone else does either. Yes, tissues in our body do lose water and become stiffer as we get older, but a big part of looking younger is based upon what we do and don’t do with and for our bodies.  Not what you inject in your face!

I can’t tell how many people I know (men and women) who will spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars every year on hair, skin products, facials, manicures, pedicures and appointments with their “cosmetic  dermatologist” on things like Botox, wrinkle fillers, and countless other procedures their doctors tell them will make them “look younger and feel better.”

For example, I took a call from someone complaining about their foot pain, how they now limped when they walked and how it’s been limiting their life for months.  The person went on to say how they had received my name from someone else who said I had helped them, “get back to tennis.”  Next thing I know, I sensed an attitude change on the phone when I told this person that I do not take insurance.  Seriously?  Are you kidding me here?  When was the last time your Botox or wrinkle filler was covered by your insurance???

Newsflash…Looking old (whatever age you pick for that) is in great part related to how we move or DO NOT move.  Ever think about what your face looks like when you are trying to reach under the table to pick up something that you’ve dropped?  What about what you look like when you get up from sitting?  All the Botox and filler in the world isn’t going to hide what you look like when you move.  Poor body movement can actually make you look OLDER than you are!

Your body is only as good as the movements it can control.  It will get from Point A to Point B using what it has available most efficiently with what it has to work with at that particular time.  In other words, an integrated system such as our bodies is only as good as its individual parts.

Constant exercise when you are restricted doesn’t make you better either.  If you’re training on a Bosu Ball when you are already unstable, then this results in more instability in your body or worse… injury.  When you are weak, tight and unstable then the harder you train or push yourself, the faster your body will break down.  If you want to move better, you gotta make your health a priority and make a commitment (whatever the cost).

Part of what we fear most about getting old is not being able not to do the things we used to do (restriction of movement).  Studies actually show that what people fear most is not dying, but being disabled.  Well, loss of function is a gradual form of disability.  Just remember that whatever musculoskeletal function you lose or give up now will remain lost — AND THEN you will lose more on top of that.  If your knee hurts and you give up running, there’s a real possibility that you will never take this up again.  The same goes for simple things in life.  If you have trouble getting on the floor, then that will become something you avoid or don’t do.  Soon, another layer of limitation will be added on top of that.  And it goes on and on… year after year…

My conclusion? Try taking this 2 minute quiz  (link below) and let me know how old you REALLY are. Be honest!

http://www.biological-age.com/index.html#

OK, there are different of types of prolotherapy injections. To date, I’ve have had the Dextrose (sugar water) in a couple of areas (with great success after a few injections) and am now getting PRP for a tear in my Glute Medius that never healed properly.

PRP, otherwise know as Platelet-Rich Plasma, has been written about as many famous athletes such as Tiger Woods, Rafael Nadal, Steph Curry and several others have received PRP for various problems such as sprained ankles and chronic tendon injuries. These types of conditions had previously been treated with medication, physical therapy or even surgery. Many athletes credit PRP with their being able to return to competition much sooner.

You ask why? It’s because platelet activation plays a key role in the process of wound and soft tissue healing. The use of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a portion of the patient’s own blood having a platelet concentration above baseline. It can be 5 to 10 times greater or even richer.  Since platelets contain hundreds of proteins called “growth factors” the concept is that PRP promotes faster healing of injured tendons, ligaments, muscles, and joints as well as can be applied to various musculoskeletal problems.

PRP injections are prepared from one to a few tubes of the patient’s own blood with strict aseptic technique. After being centrifuged, the activated platelets are injected into the abnormal tissue, releasing growth factors that recruit and increase the proliferation of reparative cells. Ultrasound imaging may or may not be used to guide the injection. Dr. Fullerton used a sonogram on me for mine (which you’ll see soon).

Several clinical studies have demonstrated that PRP injections have improved function and decreased pain to various maladies, including – but not limited to – elbow, wrist, shoulder, hip, knee, and ankle tendonosis. Early work is also showing promise for osteoarthritis.

Side effects of PRP injections are very limited as the patient is utilizing their own blood, which they should have no reaction to. Some relative rest is needed immediately following the procedure, then usually followed by a progressive stretching and strengthening program.

As you witnessed in my first blog entry, I video documented my blood draw. They ended up taking 120cc’s of my blood this day to net 10cc’s of PRP for my Prolotherapy. The platelets are separated from other blood cells and their concentration is increased during a process called centrifugation. Then the increased concentration of platelets is combined with the remaining plasma.

My blood was separated twice. First time is to separate the red blood cells from the plasma. Second time, the plasma is put in the centrifuge to get a higher concentration of platelets. Below is a video of my blood draw going into the Centrifuge…very cool!  

Please excuse my video editing here…I’m bound to get the hang of this iMovie thing soon!

[wpvideo qZNEIDc4]

I bet you’ve wondered why you just can’t get out there and start jogging, lifting weights, or take a boxing fitness class without it producing some sort of discomfort in your body soon after you start. Just Do IT…isn’t that all we need to do? Just get out there and get moving?

Well, not exactly…

The reason why your knee starts to swell when you go jogging or your elbow hurts when you start playing tennis is because random exercise doesn’t correct body misalignments. AND, with continued random exercise and repetitive sports you actually risk making yourself worse. Your strong parts keep getting stronger while your weak parts get weaker, hence perpetuating any malalignment in your body. And well…you could be exercising for weeks, months and years and actually be putting yourself farther down the road to dysfunction.

It always amazes me how long someone will keep doing things and ignoring pain.

For example, if your upper back is hunched over all day working at a computer and you take a spinning class…you will tend to do this class in the same hunched over position. This reinforces the position of your muscles that keep you hunched over your desk. If your body is out of alignment, then starting that 8-week boot camp or spin class isn’t going to magically correct it.

If you ask me, I think all weight machines, free weights, stationary bikes, golf clubs , tennis racquets, and reformers (and even yoga mats need to be on this list too!) should have “Warning Labels” on them.

You ask why???

Because of things like age, previous injuries and gravity, our alignment gets off, as we move, it hurts, so we move less, as we move less and less, our range of motion becomes less and less. What used to be enjoyable to do in sport or recreation (or even turning our head to check the blind spot in our rearview mirror), has now become uncomfortable or harder to do.

Face it. The body doesn’t like pain. No exception.

In any physical activity, we naturally favor using our strong muscles. Same thing goes for that exercise class you signed up for last week. In an attempt to keep up with your instructor, you’ll end up using whatever muscles necessary to get the job done. Hence, we move within our own set Range of Motion boxes. Stiffness and inflexibility prevent us from accessing and using the very muscles we need to use.

Even if you do all your exercises with meticulous correct alignment…feet shoulder width apart, eyes looking forward, etc. Its not going to get you back into proper alignment (though it does help). Your stronger muscles will end up doing the work and the disparity between the two just keeps getting bigger.

BEFORE your weaker muscles can become stronger and alignment corrected, space must be created for this change to happen. This means stretching and opening things up in your body and taking away the restrictions. I’m not talking about a few brief attempts at touching your toes or a few cat-camel back stretches. I’m talking about REAL tissue stretching that genuinely opens up tight areas and creates space for your weaker muscles to get stronger.

Most of the time, attaining REAL space can only be accomplished through one-on-one help. I spend an enormous amount of time during therapy sessions properly stretching, creating space for alignment corrections, and then teaching my clients how to maintain this at home in between our sessions. My custom integrated therapy programs are based upon this concept. I spend time listening to my clients, assessing their movement with motion analysis, testing muscles, correcting imbalances with various techniques, doing corrective exercises, and then assessing and testing them again. I stress that getter better aligned is a process and this process takes time and effort. In other words, time isn’t spent chasing pain and rubbing on what’s hurt in my therapy sessions.

Just as we become more fixed in our ways as we grow older, so do our bodies. What was once a slightly forward head posture has become more forward. All the gyrating and twisting you do in your attempts to enlist the weaker muscles in the pilates class ends up relenting to your stronger muscles…and to another compensation in your body movements.

The way I see it…you have 3 choices:

1. Keep doing what you’re doing and see minimal improvement (if any at all). Keep paying for your stubbornness the next day with unnecessary soreness.
2. Keep on pushing your body relying on what you know and at the risk of hurting yourself or doing serious damage that will eventually require having some part of your anatomy cut on or shaved off (do you even know that part of your scapula is shaved off in most rotator cuff surgeries?).
3. Get HELP. Approach your training from a different perspective and truly improve your performance. With One-on One expert guidance, you will get your body back to moving the way it was designed to move.

Why One-on-One? Let’s face it, fitness classes and clubs are a business. Their goal is to make money. That’s why they have these attractive 20 somethings’ with abs and butts of steal in their ads.   It’s impossible for group instructors to monitor and personally coach individuals in a class of 20 or 30 in a hour. Let’s do the math…

• 60 minutes divided by 20 = 3 minutes per person
• 60 minutes divided by 30 = 2 minutes per person

From my experience, I know how long it can take for me to get someone to perform a corrective exercise properly and to contract the right muscles while relaxing wrong ones…usually way more than 10 minutes to get this done correctly…and you think you are the exception to the rule?

Now, I’m not bashing the exercise industry. Let me interject that I have the utmost respect for those who exercise regularly without causing damage to their bodies. Anyone who does this to maintain health and sticks with it is a hero in my book.  It’s just that the ones who usually succeed at these programs or sports are usually a select group. They are usually the people who already possess the attributes needed for that class…strength and flexibility.

Rather, I just want to stress by aligning yourself first you bring more efficiency, results and enjoyment to your sport or exercise program.

So, we often avoid what we really need. It’s human nature.