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We often think of movement as purely a physical endeavor, dictated by muscles and bones responding to signals from the brain. But what if I told you that the bustling community of microbes in your gut and the intricate network of fascia play a significant, often overlooked, role in how well you move and feel? Buckle up, because we’re about to explore the fascinating and interconnected world of the “gut-brain axis” and its surprising influence on your physical capabilities.

The Gut-Brain Axis: More Than Just a Feeling

You’ve probably experienced a “gut feeling” or felt nervous butterflies in your stomach. This isn’t just a coincidence. Scientists have discovered a complex two-way communication system between your digestive tract and your brain, aptly named the gut-brain axis. This intricate network involves direct neural pathways (like the vagus nerve), the immune system, and the production of various signaling molecules.

One of the key players in this communication is the gut microbiome – the trillions of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microorganisms that reside in your intestines. This diverse community isn’t just passively living there; they actively interact with our bodies, influencing everything from digestion and immunity to mood and even brain function.

Research is increasingly highlighting the profound impact of the gut microbiome on the brain. These tiny inhabitants produce a vast array of neurochemicals, including neurotransmitters like serotonin (often associated with feelings of well-being) and GABA (a calming neurotransmitter), which can travel to the brain and influence its activity. They also play a crucial role in regulating inflammation, which, when chronic, can negatively impact both the brain and the body.

Fascia: The Unsung Messenger in the Gut-Brain Dialogue

Now, where does fascia fit into this picture? Remember fascia, the body’s continuous web of connective tissue? It’s not just about muscles and movement. Fascia also intimately surrounds and supports our internal organs, including the digestive system. This creates a physical link between our musculoskeletal system and our gut.

Think of your intestines nestled within layers of fascia. Tension or inflammation in the gut can directly impact the surrounding fascial tissues, leading to tightness and restrictions in the torso. Conversely, postural imbalances or restrictions in the fascia of the abdomen and back can put pressure on the digestive organs, potentially affecting their function and the delicate balance of the gut microbiome.

Emerging research suggests that the fascial network acts as another communication pathway in the gut-brain axis.The rich network of sensory nerves within fascia can detect changes in the gut environment, such as inflammation or distension, and relay this information to the nervous system. This feedback loop can influence our perception of pain, stiffness, and even our overall sense of well-being, which can indirectly impact our motivation and ability to move.

How Your Gut Talks to Your Muscles (and Vice Versa)

So, how does this gut-brain-fascia connection influence our movement? Imagine a scenario where your gut microbiome is imbalanced – perhaps due to a poor diet or stress. This imbalance can lead to increased inflammation in the gut lining. This inflammation can then:

• Impact Fascia: The inflammation can irritate the surrounding fascia, causing it to become tighter and less pliable in the abdominal region. This restriction can limit torso rotation, hip mobility, and even affect breathing patterns.
• Influence the Nervous System: The gut sends signals of discomfort and inflammation up the gut-brain axis. This can lead to a generalized feeling of sluggishness, fatigue, and even pain signals that might manifest in areas seemingly unrelated to the gut, like the lower back or hips.
• Alter Muscle Function: Chronic inflammation and pain signals can inhibit muscle activation and coordination. Your body might subconsciously limit movement to avoid triggering further discomfort.

Conversely, poor posture and restricted movement can also negatively impact the gut. Slouching, for example, can compress the abdominal organs, potentially hindering digestion and blood flow, which can, in turn, affect the gut microbiome.

The Basal Ganglia: The Brain’s Movement Maestro and the Gut’s Influence

Now, let’s bring in another crucial player: the basal ganglia. These are a group of brain structures deep within the cerebrum that play a vital role in motor control, learning new movements, and regulating movement initiation, speed, and fluidity.

The basal ganglia don’t operate in isolation. They receive input from various parts of the brain and are highly sensitive to neurochemical signals. Research indicates that the gut-brain axis can influence the function of the basal ganglia. The neurotransmitters produced in the gut, as well as inflammatory signals, can impact the delicate balance of neurochemicals within the basal ganglia, potentially affecting motor control and coordination.

Healthy brain function, including optimal basal ganglia activity, is essential for smooth, efficient, and purposeful movement. When the gut-brain axis is disrupted, it can indirectly affect the basal ganglia, leading to:

• Impaired Motor Coordination: Difficulty with fine motor skills or feeling clumsy.
• Reduced Movement Efficiency: Movements might feel stiff, jerky, or require more effort.
• Lowered Motivation to Move: Feelings of fatigue and discomfort can decrease the desire to be physically active.

You Are What You Eat (and How You Move): The Nutritional Link

This brings us to the critical role of nutrition. What we eat directly fuels our gut microbiome. A diet high in processed foods, sugar, and unhealthy fats can promote the growth of less beneficial bacteria, leading to dysbiosis (an imbalance in the gut microbiome), increased inflammation, and a compromised gut barrier.

Conversely, a diet rich in fiber, fruits, vegetables, and fermented foods can support a diverse and healthy gut microbiome. This, in turn, can positively influence the gut-brain axis, potentially leading to:

• Reduced Inflammation: A balanced gut microbiome helps regulate inflammation throughout the body, including the fascia and the brain.
• Improved Neurotransmitter Production: Healthy gut bacteria contribute to the production of neurotransmitters that support mood, motivation, and potentially, optimal brain function for movement.
• Enhanced Energy Levels: A well-nourished gut can improve nutrient absorption, leading to more sustained energy for physical activity.

Think of it this way: If you’re constantly feeding your gut “junk food,” the signals it sends to your brain and the impact on your fascial system are likely to be negative, hindering your ability to move well and feel energetic. On the other hand, nourishing your gut with wholesome foods can create a positive feedback loop, supporting both your mental and physical well-being and allowing for more fluid and enjoyable movement.

The Takeaway: Listen to Your Gut (and Your Fascia) for Better Movement

The connection between your gut, brain, fascia, and movement is a powerful reminder that our bodies are interconnected systems. Paying attention to your gut health through a balanced diet, managing stress, and engaging in regular, mindful movement can have a profound impact on your overall physical capabilities and well-being.

While the research in this area is still evolving, the evidence strongly suggests that nurturing your inner ecosystem and understanding the role of fascia can unlock a deeper understanding of how your body moves, feels, and functions. So, listen to your gut, move with intention, and nourish your body from the inside out – your body movement will thank you for it!

A good rule of thumb is…if you can’t pronounce it easily, chances are your body can’t digest it very easily either. I will save that discussion for another day 😀

We often think of muscles, bones, and joints as the primary players in our movement and the culprits behind our aches and pains. But beneath the surface, a silent, interconnected network is constantly at work, influencing everything from our posture to our athletic performance and even our experience of pain. This intricate web is fascia.

For years, fascia was largely overlooked in anatomy textbooks, often considered mere “packing material.” However, groundbreaking research is revealing its crucial role as a dynamic, sensory-rich tissue that deserves our attention. Let’s dive into the fascinating world of fascia and how understanding it can revolutionize our approach to movement and pain.

The Body’s Interconnected Web: Fascial Lines
Imagine a three-dimensional spiderweb enveloping every muscle fiber, muscle group, organ, nerve, and blood vessel in your body. This is fascia. It’s a continuous sheet of connective tissue made primarily of collagen and elastin fibers, providing support, stability, and separation while allowing for movement.

Instead of viewing muscles in isolation, a more holistic approach considers the fascial lines that run throughout the body. These are continuous tracts of fascia that connect seemingly disparate areas. Some well-researched examples include:

• The Superficial Front Line: Connecting the top of the feet, up the front of the legs, torso, and neck, ending at the brow.
• The Superficial Back Line: Running from the soles of the feet, up the back of the legs, torso, and neck, ending at the forehead.
• The Lateral Lines: Situated on the sides of the body, connecting the foot, lateral leg, torso, and neck.
• The Spiral Line: Wrapping around the torso and limbs in a double helix, crucial for rotational movements.
• The Deep Front Line: Located deep within the core, influencing posture, breathing, and organ support.

These lines demonstrate how tension or restriction in one area of the body can have a ripple effect throughout the entire system. A tight hamstring, for instance, can influence posture in the upper back and even contribute to neck pain due to its connection along the Superficial Back Line.

The Sensory Superhighway: Fascia and the Nervous System
Fascia isn’t just a passive structural component; it’s a highly innervated tissue, densely packed with various types of sensory receptors. These receptors act as communication hubs, constantly relaying information about tension, stretch, pressure, vibration, and even pain back to the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and ultimately to the central nervous system (CNS) – the brain and spinal cord.

This constant feedback loop is crucial for proprioception, our body’s sense of where it is in space. When you move, your fascia stretches and compresses, and these sensory receptors fire signals that inform your brain about joint angles, muscle length, and the overall position of your body. This allows for smooth, coordinated movements without us having to consciously think about every step.
Furthermore, research suggests that fascia plays a significant role in nociception, the perception of pain. While muscles are often implicated in pain, the dense network of nerve endings in fascia can also be a primary source of discomfort. Inflammation, injury, or even prolonged tension within the fascial network can trigger these pain receptors, sending signals to the brain that we interpret as pain.

Fascial Communication with Muscles: A Tensegrity System
The relationship between fascia and muscles is inseparable. Fascia surrounds individual muscle fibers (endomysium), bundles of muscle fibers (perimysium), and the entire muscle (epimysium). This interconnectedness allows for efficient force transmission during movement.

Think of the body as a tensegrity structure – a system that maintains its integrity through a balance of tension and compression. Muscles provide the contractile force (tension), while fascia acts as the continuous tensional network that distributes these forces throughout the body.
When a muscle contracts, the surrounding fascia helps to direct the force generated, allowing for coordinated and efficient movement. Conversely, restrictions or adhesions within the fascia can limit muscle function, reduce range of motion, and alter movement patterns. Imagine trying to pull a string through a tangled sleeve – the movement will be restricted and inefficient. Similarly, tight fascia can impede muscle contraction and lead to compensatory movements in other areas.

The Impact on Human Movement and the Origins of Pain
The intricate communication network of fascia profoundly impacts how we move and how we experience pain. When the fascial system is healthy and pliable, it allows for a wide range of motion, efficient force transmission, and optimal proprioception. Movements feel fluid and effortless.

However, factors like sedentary lifestyles, repetitive movements, injuries, stress, and poor posture can lead to fascial restrictions, adhesions (where layers of fascia stick together), and increased tension. These changes can:

• Limit Range of Motion: Tight fascia can act like a straitjacket, restricting the movement of underlying muscles and joints.
• Impair Muscle Function: Restrictions can prevent muscles from contracting fully and efficiently, leading to weakness and fatigue.
• Alter Movement Patterns: To compensate for restricted movement, the body may adopt inefficient and potentially harmful movement patterns.
• Contribute to Pain: Increased tension and inflammation within the fascia can directly trigger pain receptors. Furthermore, altered movement patterns can overload other tissues, leading to secondary pain.

The Pain Paradox: Why the Site of Pain is Often Not the Source
This understanding of fascia is crucial when assessing and treating pain. Pain is merely a symptom, a signal from the nervous system indicating that something is not right. Often, the location of the pain is not the source of the problem.

Consider someone experiencing knee pain. While the knee itself might be inflamed or irritated, the underlying issue could stem from tight hip flexors pulling the pelvis out of alignment, leading to altered biomechanics and increased stress on the knee joint. Similarly, shoulder pain could be related to restrictions in the thoracic spine or even tightness in the opposing hip, affecting the body’s overall balance and movement patterns.

The body tightens to protect. When there is an injury, inflammation, or even chronic stress, the fascial system often responds by tightening around the affected area to provide stability and limit movement, preventing further damage. This protective mechanism, while initially helpful, can become problematic over time. The sustained tension can lead to adhesions, reduced blood flow, and increased sensitivity in the area, contributing to chronic pain.

Therefore, a comprehensive approach to movement assessment and pain management must look beyond the site of pain and consider the interconnectedness of the entire fascial system. Identifying and addressing restrictions and imbalances throughout the body is key to restoring optimal movement, reducing pain, and promoting long-term well-being.

By recognizing the vital role of fascia, we can shift our focus from simply treating symptoms to addressing the underlying causes of movement dysfunction and pain. Embracing practices that promote fascial health, such as mindful movement, stretching, foam rolling, and manual therapies, can unlock the body’s innate potential for fluid, pain-free movement. The unsung hero of our bodies is finally getting the recognition it deserves.

Most clients who come to see me attribute a painful shoulder, neck or back to tired muscles or stiff joints. But these symptoms can also be caused by a part of your body you probably haven’t heard of…the fascia. Until recently, this complex network of tissue throughout our bodies received very little attention despite it’s leading role in every move we make, as well as being our body’s largest organ (yes, it’s larger than the skin).

What is fascia?

Fascia is a thin covering of connective tissue that surrounds every organ, blood vessel, bone, nerve fiber and muscle in place within our body. This complex tissue does way more than provide internal organization and structure; it also contains nerves that are almost as sensitive as your skin. When fascia is stressed, it tightens up within our body. The muscle tightness you’re feeling is more likely being caused by your fascia.

Although fascia can look like a sheet of tissue, it’s actually made up of multiple layers with liquid in between called hyaluronan. Fascia is designed to stretch and glide as your body moves. Healthy fascia is smooth, slippery and flexible and allows body movement free from any restrictions.

Fascia-Related Pain and Muscle Tightness

When certain things occur within your body, it can cause fascia to thicken and become sticky. When this happens it can cause fascia to dry up and tighten around muscles causing limited mobility, pain, and knots (adhesions) to develop. Factors that can cause fascia to become dysfunctional are:

• Lifestyle of limited movements and physical activity, such as sitting for hours at a desk day after day
• Repetitive movements that overwork one part of your body, like with your arms when working on a computer
• Trauma of a surgery or an injury

For some people, pain adhesions can worsen over time causing the fascia to contort or compress the muscle it surrounds. This can result in hard, tender area in the muscle called trigger points. These trigger points can cause pain to occur:

• During regular movements or in sports activities
• When pressure is applied to an area on the body
• In seemingly unrelated parts of the body called “referred pain”

How to Keep Fascia Healthy?

Keeping your fascia healthy has many more benefits than you can imagine. Besides being able to move more easily, having better range of motion, you will find that you experience less pain and discomfort too. Things you can do to prevent fascia problems are:

• Move more and in a variety of ways. In addition to exercising, change up your routine and avoid doing the same workout every day.
• Have a desk or office job? Take a few minutes every hour to stand up and move around the office. Consider taking the stairs vs. the elevator, walk around your office when on a conference call. Be active throughout your day.
• Try to maintain good posture. Posture is important because it’s the position from where all movement starts. Slumping over your desk staring at a screen or on the phone can cause fascia to tighten. Try to maintain good posture whether sitting or standing.
• Get Sleep. Maintaining proper rest is priceless and cost you nothing.
• Stay Well Hydrated. Drink water throughout your day…don’t wait until your thirsty.
• Practice relaxation methods such as Breathing Exercises. Your body is built around your breath! Again, this costs you nothing.

Types of Fascia Pain Conditions

• Plantar Fasciitis
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Frozen Shoulder
• Myofascial Pain Syndrome

How to Treat Fascia Pain?

Apart from the obvious unpleasant pain, fascia system dysfunction can get in the way of doing sports or other physical activities. Pain is a message from your body that something is wrong. Stress trauma and overuse/underuse, and repetitive movements can alter your fascia system’s integrity. While it is not certain what caused it, one thing for sure is that relief is possible with the right treatment.

Every previous injury you’ve experienced in your life is like malware in your body’s fascia system. Like malware glitches can slow down the performance of a computer, previous trauma impacts the nervous and fascia systems to create “energy leakages” that influence overall body performance. The body is an interrelated system and every action causes a reaction.

At Dominion Performance and Sports Therapy, I offer a manual therapeutic soft tissue approach that doesn’t involve steroid shots, dry needling, acupuncture, or pain. Starting with a complex biomechanical screening used to assess your body, I’m able to identify and explain the root drivers for your discomfort. Then, show before and after a treatment screenings that provide the data backed results.

Cheers,  DRock

When the human energy field and gravity are at war, needless to say, gravity wins every time.  – Ida Rolf

What that statement above all boils down to is that we are in a constant battle with the effects of time and gravity every day.  So whatever training, strength and conditioning or fitness program you ascribe to unless it in some way addresses weakness, stiffness, and alignment then you won’t get the long-term results you desire.

Example of an Injury Scenario:

• Athlete’s hamstrings become tight and painful
• Athlete gets treated for their symptoms, limited Range of Motion (ROM) and pain reduces
• Athlete’s hamstring condition continues to erode and then gets worse during training and the season despite treatment regimen
• Athlete is put on Injured List and rests a few games
• Athlete’s symptoms and pain subsides during the rest period and modified training
• Athlete returns to their sport & full-time training
• Athlete’s hamstrings become tight and painful again

Obviously, if you stop doing certain movements that hurt, then that associated movement pain will go away.  However, if the pain returns once you return to sport or regular activities, then this is a clear sign that something isn’t right.  The design of our body is not flawed.  It is what we do or don’t do that causes pain and discomfort.

Before you randomly determine that something is basically wrong with your shoulder, back or knee or worse decide that you are predisposed to ‘fall apart’ after a certain age, let’s consider the opposite.  Something you are doing or not doing is making your shoulder, back or knee hurt.  Before you are so quick to cut, replace, and generally cut out a body part as obsolete, consider the contrary…your strength, range of motion, and postural alignment have eroded over time which is not allowing your shoulder, back or knee to function properly.

Our necks, shoulders, wrists, backs, hips, knees and feet are not randomly thrown together.  They are parts of a very sophisticated interrelated system that is very well designed. If we are really prone to having shoulder pain, bad backs or knees, and weak ankles…then how did humans ever evolve in the first place?

So what went wrong? To poorly paraphrase Mr. Shakespeare…”the fault, dear Brutus, is not in the design of our bodies, but it lies within us.”

Any intrusion to the human body, such as injuries and surgeries, upsets the body’s natural neurological processes and also leaves residual trauma and scar tissue behind.  This remaining scar tissue from surgeries, injuries, and continued repetitive motion negatively impacts neuromuscular motor control.  Many times surgeries and injuries healing outcomes are positive.  However, even when an outcome is considered good, it often leaves an athlete with a new set of problems later down the road.

It’s simple.  If you aren’t doing the exercises with the correct alignment, then you won’t get the maximum benefits.  The key to health and fitness is postural alignment.  There’s more to it than just do it.

Cheers,  DRock

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

Dianne Rockefeller is an Athletic Performance Therapist, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Muscle Activation Specialist, MAT Certified Jumpstart Trainer, National Academy of Sports Medicine – Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist, Certified Myoskeletal Therapist, Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner, and Certified Cupping Therapist. She treats athletes of all levels, from youth to professional, ALL sports. She brings a very unique perspective to manual therapy utilizing her experiences 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 Sports Performance Therapies”.  Contact Dianne at drock@dtasm.com or 210-973-4848.

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity and I’m not sure about the former.” – Albert Einstein

Throughout history, great discoveries have been met with resistance long before they were ever accepted.  Today we accept that the world is round without the slightest doubt.  Yet, if you asked anyone in the fifteenth century they would have told you that it was undoubtedly flat.

In an age where sports performance and medical professionals have come to rely heavily on high-tech equipment to decipher what is wrong with their athletes, we must understand that there is a big difference between knowing and understanding.  While not designed to replace these screening and assessment procedures, one must recognize that you must first understand what is occurring within the body to produce the said ‘asymmetries’ before you can ever accurately treat an athlete.  Even then, one should never assume that the obvious is true because the brain is constantly recalibrating 24/7 due to things like gravity and time.

Additionally, if a dysfunction is improperly assessed for long enough, the dysfunction becomes worse and can result in significant injury to an athlete.  It’s because the human neuromuscular system contains the brain, spinal cord, and all related structures that any restriction or imbalances in the system may directly affect any or all aspects of the nervous system performance.

Why should it surprise us that we can rely on the body’s own inner guidance to facilitate a positive response through the manual use of our hands?  In my mind, this is healthcare in its most uncomplicated form. A collaborative effort between two people simply allowing the body to do what it was meant to do best.  Sometimes we are so caught up in the world of high tech ‘data’ that we forget what a highly skilled therapist can possess.  They have an ability to assess in ways that are just not possible with conventional medical screening equipment and these results are an adjuvant to any high tech assessment data.

“First they will laugh… after that they will either deny or follow you.” 
― Kushiro Shoko

Whether working with patients who have undergone many surgeries and treatments that have physically changed their body or working with elite athletes, we are all human beings.  Although not everyone has a 100 million dollar contract, everyone’s human nervous system DOES work the same way.  No exceptions.

Last time I checked, the brain is an incomparable guide if you understand and will take the time to listen.  And therein lies the rub…

Cheers,  DRock

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

Dianne Rockefeller is a Athletic Performance Therapist, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Muscle Activation Specialist, MAT Certified Jumpstart Trainer, National Academy of Sports Medicine – Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist, Certified Myoskeletal Therapist, Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner, and Certified Cupping Therapist. She treats athletes of all levels, from youth to professional, ALL sports. She brings a very unique perspective to manual therapy utilizing her experiences 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 Sports Performance Therapies”.  Contact Dianne at drock@dtasm.com or 210-973-4848.

Have you seen the new iPhone commercial for their face recognition on the Apple iPhone X?  There’s a man and his dog snoozing by the water enjoying an afternoon nap.  The man’s iPhone “pinging” notifications keep interrupting his rest, so he slowly raises his electronic reclining lounge chair up and then squints one-eyed at his phone’s screen.  The device unlocks.  The man sees it’s only ‘Craig’ and then begins to resume his nap as the recliner slowly lowers.

Actually, it’s really our own intelligence and evolution that has made us not want to do any more than we have to in life.  Why walk when you can ride?  Why stand when you can sit?  Why get up and turn on the TV when you have a remote? We’ve become a world where it makes no sense to move or do more than we have to in life.

Modern society has reached a point where it no longer requires much physical effort nor supports functional movement for our bodies.  Don’t believe me?  Then Google a page from an early Sears Roebuck catalog…do you see any nail guns, electric saws, power screwdrivers, kitchen mixers, or Cuisinart food processors? Life back then required a person to pound, push, turn a screw, chop, beat an egg, and to knead dough.  Today, you can use an app to do your grocery shopping and deliver the food to your door.  All the while, hardly moving a muscle.

Your Mind, Your Body and Your Lifetime…the first two will determine the last one.

As we age, the “use or lose it” rule becomes more and more applicable. Unused neural pathways of movement are regularly pruned in our brains, while stronger connections are strengthened. While this process in early life is necessary, as we age neurons left out of use become damaged. Rather than trying to repair them, our brains just go around the obstruction and make do with what’s available. Without proper neural input from the brain, our muscles cannot perform at their best.

Without regular use, your neural pathways in your brain begin losing their ability to communicate effectively with your muscles. The eroding results in limited Range of Motion in the body.  Eventually, this improper muscular sensory information causes muscular force-couple relationships to become altered and this altering of information skews how you feel and disrupts your proprioception.  Since the body is an interrelated system, where the pain is ain’t the problem.

It’s simple.  In order to keep your body performing at it’s best, you need to do varied movements often and regularly.  Functional movement should not be limited to a personal trainer certification or a movement assessment system.  Just like you take supplements and vitamins that your body needs, why not try supplementing movement into your day?  It’s really easy to do and costs you nothing except a few extra calories.  Plus, you might even enjoy it!

This said…It’s time to get up from my desk and get moving now!

Cheers,  DRock

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

Dianne Rockefeller is an Athletic Performance Therapist, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Muscle Activation Specialist, MAT Certified Jumpstart Trainer, National Academy of Sports Medicine – Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist, Certified Myoskeletal Therapist, Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner, and Certified Cupping Therapist. She treats athletes of all levels, from youth to professional, ALL sports. She brings a very unique perspective to manual therapy utilizing her experiences 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 Sports Performance Therapies”.  Contact Dianne at drock@dtasm.com or 210-973-4848.

What keeps Tom Brady winning Superbowls? Extraordinary proprioception.  Proprioception is also the sense that allowed Jerome Simpson to do this…

Athletic ability like this is so amazing to watch, isn’t it?  Jerome knew exactly where his body was in time and space to perfectly execute that forward flip over a cardinal player to land on his feet in the end zone.   It’s another example of exceptional human proprioception.

What is Proprioception?   

Proprioception is a combination of the Latin word “proprius” meaning “one’s own” and “perception”.  It is your Central Nervous System’s (CNS) perception of self or more accurately, the brain’s ability to know where your body is and what it is doing.  It’s the sense of where your limbs are in relation to your body.

Your senses such as sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing are essentially external senses.  These five senses collect information from outside the body from the outside world and communicates this information to your brain.  Proprioceptors are sensory receptors within your body that collect information from the body itself.

For example, if I asked you to close your eyes, stand on one leg and then lift your both arms out in front of you with your elbow bent to 90°, then you would know that your arms were is in this position because of proprioception. If you had trouble doing this with your arms while standing on one leg, then you might have a problem with proprioception. If you had no problem doing this, then you were able to do so because of proprioception.

Proprioceptors are the sensory organs in our bodies that give us the ability to sense balance and position.   These sensory receptors reside inside our muscles (muscle spindles), tendons (Golgi tendon organs) and joint capsules.  Proprioception allows you to pick up a remembered object without looking at it, to walk without looking at your feet, and to move in the dark without falling over.

Proprioception and Injury Prevention

Our sense of proprioception impacts a lot of things in our bodies; balance, coordination, and application of complex movements. It provides us with an innate sense of coordination that helps us control movements AND protects our muscles and joints from strains and sprains. Without proprioception, we wouldn’t be able to run safely on uneven surfaces, throwing a ball would be more difficult and we certainly would have trouble touching our nose with our eyes closed without it!

Proprioception also plays a significant role in injury prevention in professional sports too.  The better the proprioceptors are communicating to the CNS in an athlete, the higher the likely hood that their body will be able to protect itself from what it sees coming and DOESN’T see coming.  The faster your proprioceptors are responding to sensory signal in your body, the faster they can respond to protect you.

Exceptional proprioception is what allows professional athletes to do their jobs better with fewer injuries, as well as the same 6^thsense that keeps someone like Tom Brady winning Superbowls and playing professional football season after season.

How does proprioception prevent injuries?

First, muscle spindles and Golgi tendon organs (GTOs) detect changes in length and tension of our muscles, which helps protect us from muscle, ligament and joint injuries. For example, if you are jogging along an uneven surface, and you roll your ankle, the GTOs and muscle spindles pick up a change in the tension and force being applied to your muscles and tendons, and they are most likely able to send a quick signal to your Central Nervous System (CNS/spinal cord and brain).  This signal sent by these sensory receptors, allows your CNS to then send a message to your muscles in your so that the muscles can react before damage can occur. Without this swift proprioception reflex, you would be on the ground before you knew it, and would probably have an injured ankle as a result of your fall.

Secondly, muscle spindles play a significant role in the “tightness” of muscles. You know that feeling you get when you stretch your hamstrings? The tightness you feel your hamstring muscles is the result of an involuntary muscle contraction caused by the muscle spindles.  The reason behind this muscle contraction is to protect your muscles and joints from injury by keeping them in a ‘safe’ range of motion. Your Central Nervous System (CNS) has a default setting for its idea of the “ideal maximum length” of each muscle, and the muscle spindles prevent the muscles from going past this length by causing the muscle to contract. Without this proprioception sense, even the simple act of running would cause severe injuries much more frequently.

Far Reaching Consequences of Impaired Proprioception

Impaired proprioception can impact other every aspects of your life.  The reason proprioception is so important is that it is not limited to just high profile athletes and their flips on the football field. In order to speak, your brain needs to use proprioception to keep track of where your jaw and tongue are and what shape your throat is when you speak.  In order to drive, you need to be able to move the steering wheel, the pedals and all the other controls without looking at them. Typing on your keyboard or playing any musical instrument requires you to move without looking at your hands.

Even holding an object – a pen, a cup, a spoon, someone’s hand, or buttoning up a shirt – uses proprioception as well as uses your sense of touch.   Walking too requires accurately moving hips, legs and feet and without proprioception these tasks become difficult without monitoring those limbs with your eyes, sending a continuous stream of corrections on the basis of what you can see, rather than the much faster and more accurate basis of what you “know”.

How is your proprioception?  Not sure? If in doubt, get it checked out by a professional. You might just be surprised by your results!

Cheers and Happy New Year,

Drock

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

Dianne Rockefeller is a Athletic Performance Therapist, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Muscle Activation Specialist, MAT Certified Jumpstart Trainer, National Academy of Sports Medicine – Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist, Certified Myoskeletal Therapist, Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner, and Certified Cupping Therapist. She treats athletes of all levels, from youth to professional, 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 Sports Performance Therapies”.  Contact Dianne at drock@dtasm.com or 210-973-4848.

The idea that sitting can be harmful to your health seems pretty ridiculous at first thought. Right?  I mean how could something so harmless as “sitting“ hurt you?

The problem here is that our modern world has become way too “chair-based.”  Humans spend way too much time sitting, and we are only now beginning to realize how bad it is for health.  We sit in our cars, on buses, on subways, at work, in front of TV’s, on airplanes, etc.  That’s not to say you should never sit down and relax, it’s just that you should try to minimize the time you spend sitting during your day.

Did you know that according to a study published in 2013 by the Mayo Clinic, neck and back pain is the third most common cause of doctor visits in the United States?

Many back pain sufferers struggle with what’s causing their back pain, not realizing that the 8 hours or more they spend sitting during their day could be the real culprit for their discomfort.  Minimizing sedentary time is just as important for health as diet and regular exercise.

On that same note, exercising for 60 minutes a day so you can sit or lie down for the other 23 hours in your day isn’t going to cut it either (most people don’t even exercise 3-4 times a week).  Just like you can’t outrun a bad diet, and you can’t out-exercise a sedentary lifestyle by working out 3 to 4 times a week for 60 minutes.  As one of my strength and conditioning coach always used to say to me, “calories in, calories out…now you do the math“.  The same formula goes for “undoing” hours of sitting.

What happens to your muscles when you sit for long periods of time?

Weaken Legs and Hips:       If you don’t use them, you lose these powerful stabilizers of your pelvis and hips.  By sitting all day, you’re not using your powerful lower body muscles. (these are also the muscles needed to hold you up).  Sitting for periods of time causes atrophy, which weakens muscles.  Without these key stabilizing muscles your body base (pelvis and legs), your body becomes at risk for injury.

Tight Hips and Bad Back:     Just like your leg and hips, your back will also suffer from sitting too much. When the muscles that are the support team for your pelvis are weakened, then your seated posture gets hurt.  What does your spine rest upon? Oh yeah, your pelvis. Especially if you have existing bad posture or you do not have an ergonomic work area. This poor posture when sitting causes uneven compression on the discs in your spine and then this can lead to things like “premature disc degeneration” which is usually accompanied by chronic pain.

Stiff Shoulders and Neck:     As with legs, hips, back…you shoulders and neck will most likely be negatively impacted and suffer from sitting.  This is especially true if you’re hunched over looking at a computer screen, tablet or phone.

Anxiety and Depression:     Lesser understood than the above listed physical side effects are the mental ones.  Anxiety and depression issues are higher in people who sit the most.  Now these conditions could also be due to the experiencing of chronic pain and weight gain too.  We all have heard how exercise helps keep our brain fit (British Journal of Sports Medicine).

Heart Disease:     Yes, sitting can potentially hurt your heart.  One study has found that men who spent more than 23 hours per week watching TV had a 64% greater risk of dying of cardiovascular disease than men who only watch 11 hours.  A recent government study even found that people who sit more have a 147% higher risk of suffering from a heart attack or stroke.

The bottom line is that our bodies were meant to move.  More than half of us spend over six hours a day sitting down each day.  Your widening rear end isn’t the only side effect of lifestyle choices.  Sitting has both short term and long-term side effects on your body.  All of which make this seemingly “harmless” activity potentially deadly.

So, do your own math…exactly how many hours of your day do you spend sitting?

Cheers, drock

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

Dianne Rockefeller is a Athletic Performance Therapist, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Muscle Activation Specialist, MAT Certified Jumpstart Trainer, National Academy of Sports Medicine – Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist, Certified Myoskeletal Therapist, Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner, and Certified Cupping Therapist. She treats athletes of all levels, from youth to professional, 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 Sports Performance Therapies”.  Contact Dianne at drock@dtasm.com or 210-973-4848.

O.K., let’s go back to a previous blog where I talked about Kinesthetic awareness (Click Here). In my blog entry from May 2017, I talked about the being able to “feel” what your body is doing and how stresses over time can affect your kinesthetic sense (sense of body movement). Like drops in a bucket; your body’s proprioception sense can also become distorted with age, injuries, repetitive motions, and other life stresses.

Imagine that you are in your living room and it is solid pitch black. You can’t even see your hand in front of your face. As long as your dog didn’t get in your way or something like that, then you’d probably be able to walk across it without tripping over anything. Right? You’d know exactly where you are in your room and you’d know if whether your right or left foot was in front of the other as you walked across it. You’d rely on your sense of balance to know whether or not you are standing up or sitting down in a chair. You’d know where your body is in space without having to actually see it. That’s known as your sense of proprioception.

In other words, it’s our capability to sense our body’s position or balance.

Where does our sense of proprioception originate? In our joints, tendons and yes, in our MUSCLES! Throughout our body we have a bunch of tiny little sensors that are located in our body in almost all of our muscles. These receptors located within muscles and are known as “Muscle Spindles.” Muscle spindles are the receptors in our body that communicate to our brain giving it all sorts of feedback.

Muscle spindles are sensitive to stretch that occurs in muscle contractions. It’s this stretch in muscle contractions (say, when you lift something) that also stretches the muscle spindles within the muscle and which causes the sensor to send information to the brain. This is how you’re able to tell exactly how contracted or relaxed every single muscle in your entire body is at any given moment. This sense is what allows us to know where our body is in position and balance too.

You might ask…isn’t this the same as Kinesthesia?   No? Well, what’s the difference?

The difference is that kinesthesia is talking about the movement of your body.   A way to differentiate between the two senses is that proprioception can be thought of as a cognitive awareness of your body. It’s more of an understanding or comprehension.  Its a little bit more subconscious.   You are not always thinking about where exactly your body is in space, how’s it’s oriented when you’re walking or if you’re running. You are not overtly thinking about it.

On the other hand, kinesthesia is more behavioral and conscious. Like trying to make a basketball shot. You are constantly shooting the basketball. Sometimes you miss, sometimes you make the shot from where you are positioned on the floor…but every time you actually shoot the ball your body is able to detect exactly HOW it’s shooting. Over time, you are able to learn things like, that if you move in a certain way that you are able to sink more baskets. You are able to detect what that movement is and learn how that movement improves your shooting skills or to better perform whatever task is at hand.

Proprioception and Kinesthesia are NOT the same, but the two senses DO share a lot in common. They both can also be negatively impacted by an accumulation of stress, trauma and overuse on the body. If you don’t believe me, then take a look at any NBA player on any given day and you’ll see games where someone is shooting lights out and makes just about every shot he takes. Then on the next night, that same player can’t seem to buy a bucket if he tried. If you asked the player, they’d say it was just an “off” night for them. When in fact it’s a combination of these two senses (Propriorception and Kinesthesia) being negatively impacted by a number of body stresses.   Why do think the Pros are painstakingly going to such lengths to study recovery enhancement and injury prevention?

Just like mileage can impact the performance of your car if you do not keep up its regular maintenance…age, stress, trauma and over use is like mileage on the body’s muscular system tolerance levels. It’s this delicate balance in the body that every team and athlete is constantly striving for in order to improve performance. Its why so many teams are performing biomechanical screenings and tracking their players’ rest, employing “shot docs”, designing custom training/PT routines, and tracking playing minutes with high tech software. Teams are trying to identify that magic formula with data.

However, here in lies the flaw with the above formula…there really isn’t any way to measure someone’s proprioception or kinesthesia senses. You can’t purchase software that can do this or can a player report how these senses “feel” on a scale from 1 to 10 each day.  Think about that last one…how can anyone really “feel” whether or not his nervous system is slightly off?  We can certainly feel stiff or tight, but how can we measure how much this affects proprioception or kinesthesia?

EXACTY…it’s impossible! There’s no magic number or guarantee.  Yes, there are “indicators” but how do you know how genuine the software indicators are? There’s NO protocol, because no two bodies are the same…and this is also the reason why I stay so busy – LOL!

Cheers,

Drock

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

Dianne Rockefeller is a Athletic Performance Therapist, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Muscle Activation Specialist, MAT Certified Jumpstart Trainer, National Academy of Sports Medicine – Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist, Certified Myoskeletal Therapist, Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner, and Certified Cupping Therapist. She treats athletes of all levels, from youth to professional, 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.

As a performance and sports therapist, I was trained to believe that sometimes I know your body better than you do. If you are experiencing any discomfort or limit in range of motion (ROM), then you should hand your body over to me (the same way you might bring your broken car to a mechanic). With little or no input from you, if the exchange goes well, voila! You’re all fixed up and ready to roll thanks to my genius.

The problem is that this dynamic sets us both up for failure.

Your body is a self-healing organism. If you’re by-passing its natural self-repair and recovery process by handing all your power over to a doctor, PT, manual therapist or athletic trainer, then you are ignoring an important component you need to recover and to avoid injuries. This is not a revolutionary idea. If you’ve read any of my previous blogs, then you know what a HUGE fan I am of “Headspace” (a self meditation app) and how it is now being implemented into professional sports like the NBA.

As healthcare providers, we learn that the body is the only thing that can heal itself (pain killers and steroid shots don’t heal you). Our anatomy and physiology texts teach us that our bodies are brilliantly equipped with natural self-repair mechanisms that can kill bad cells we produce every day, fight infections, repair broken bones and injured tissues, keep our coronary arteries open and naturally fight the aging process.

We also learn about our autonomic nervous system and how it is divided into two parts. The sympathetic nervous system, which produces the body’s stress response (referred to as the “Fight or Flight”) and the parasympathetic nervous system which produces a relaxation response (also know as “Rest and Digest”). It all seems pretty simple, right?

What is not really explained in school is that your body’s recovery and self-repair only FULLY functions when your body is in a relaxed state. Meaning the less stressed you are, the more repair and maintenance is then going on in your parasympathetic nervous system. I’m constantly preaching to my clients how emotional stress can cause issues in their body tissues too and how “Stresses” can defeat their body’s recovery processes.

Stresses have changed over the last few hundred years wouldn’t you say? We’ve gone from being chased by bears, to money and social worries. Stress responses were supposed to be more life or limb threatening dangers, but many modern day humans are in “fight or flight” all the time. Stress is WAY more complex than demands on your energy and time.

NEWSFLASH: Your brain can’t tell the difference between “Help, I ‘m being chased by a grizzly!” and “I don’t have enough money to pay my rent” or “I’m never going to get well”.

As far as your brain is concerned, all these modern day stresses signal “DANGER” and this stress negatively affects your body’s ability to heal and recovery. No amount of Kale or ingested supplements can counter balance these toxic effects either. Your body takes longer to heal or recover because has lost its inner balance ability to heal and self-repair efficiently.

In a nutshell, here’s why….

Your Autonomic Nervous system has two big sub-systems, Sympathetic (Fight or Flight) and Parasympathetic (Digest and Rest). Both nervous systems play role in blood flow to intestines and play a big role in how much blood is available for other parts of the body. So, when the sympathetic nervous system is activated by some kind of stress (fight or flight situation), then blood flow to your intestines DECREASES. Blood flow is often diverted to other areas to avoid dangerous situations.

Whereas in non-threatening times, when you are in a resting situation the opposite occurs. When your are relaxed you increase blood flow to your intestines to increase your body’s ability to digest food; which then enhances your body’s ability to self-repair, recover and heal. The Autonomic Nervous system does a TON of other things. However, this is how STRESS effects how our body’s recovery process.

So now, do you understand why the big push is on for meditation and douche days in professional sports? When athletes relax, their bodies’ natural “self-repair” mechanisms flips on and it enhances their recovery processes. At the end of the day, sports recovery is based on science and this is a big business.

Next time, I need to blog about how and why what I do affects this very same system. However, for now…I need to go put my headphones on and get in another session of my Headspace app.

Cheers,

drock

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

Dianne Rockefeller is a Athletic Performance Therapist, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Muscle Activation Specialist, MAT Certified Jumpstart Trainer, National Academy of Sports Medicine – Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist, Certified Myoskeletal Therapist, Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner, and Certified Cupping Therapist. She treats athletes of all levels, from youth to professional, 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.