Category: Injuries – Prevention, Care & Rehab

The most advance technology to improve sports performance? You already own it.

Posted on by drockefeller

Looking for the most advance technology to improve your sports performance?  Then take a look in a mirror.  You already own it…it’s called your body.

you are the technology.png

 

One of the best advertising slogans I have ever heard of is the Vibram’s Five Finger shoes slogan “You are the Technology”.  These words are so true.  No need for custom orthotics or the latest greatest shock absorbing athletic shoes.  Let your feet do the job they were designed to do.  For that matter, let your entire body do the job it was designed to do.

All joints are interrelated and if you take away or modify any vital function from one area in your body (like the collapsing of the arch when you walk or run) by using things like orthotic supports or super shock absorbing foot wear, then you are most likely interfering with the way your body is designed to work.

giphy

We have more than 200 joints in our body and to flex or extend each of them would create 2200 different types of movement.  And every one of them is important and has a purpose.  Yes, it all goes back to the old “foot bone is connected to the leg bone” concept and how all “Dem Bones” (and muscles, ligaments and joints) are connected.

Your brain is going to get the task of walking accomplished one way or another.  It is going to get from Point A to Point B the most efficient way possible (using the least amount of energy). Even before any movement takes place, your brain is already involved in the movement decision making process.  It has addressed questions like “What do my surroundings look like around me? What’s my target? What’s the task needed? How do I accomplish this task?  How does this look and feel?  Did you know that it takes only a tenth of a second for our brains to process everything we see?

NEWSFLASH:  According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD’s) are one of the primary reasons why people miss work.  Almost 1/3 of all private industry workers who took time off in 2015 did so because of injuries like strains and sprains.  US Bureau of Labor Statistics

Labor Statistics.png

A simple act like taking a step involves a series of muscle contractions that involve agonists, antagonists and synergists.  Muscles move your bones and the bones are the levers that are required for propulsion in movement.

In taking a step…your arch flattens, your Tibia internally rotates, your knee flexes, and your femur internally rotates as your hip flexes (as well as a lot of other movements too).  After your foot is planted, then muscles start contracting to cause the opposite process to happen. Our bodies are able to walk or run forward by using the elastic energy stored from this flexing process to propel your leg to move you forward. While this is happening on one side of your body, the opposite processes is occurring with the other leg as you walk or run to move that one…wow!!!

So, when you think about how orthotics and shock absorbing shoes can affect the movement of the collapsing of the arch in walking or running, then it’s easy to understand how these things might disrupt your body’s natural technology and cause dysfunctional patterns to develop over time.  Your body has to make up any loss of motion in one part caused by some sort of restriction somewhere else in your body.  All muscles and joints in our bodies serve an important purpose. It’s not like you have a few ‘extra parts’ in your body that you don’t really need like that scene in Doc Hollywood after the mechanics fix Fox’s sports car.

Doc Hollywood Scene

Although it might “feel” good to use these items when your feet ache, you should not come to depend on them all of the time.  If you do, then you’ll soon notice that you’ll start to have stiffness, aches and/or discomfort in some other areas.  Just remember….motion is lotion in our bodies.  You need to use it or you will lose it.  Which reminds of another movie scene. The one from Entrapment with Catherine Zeta-Jones  where she navigates her way through the lasers blindfolded.  This scene reminds you of how truly amazing our brains and bodies are!

entrapment scene.png

Cheers, Drock

dianne-rockefeller

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.

What Exactly is Prolotherapy?

Posted on by drockefeller

Every time I mention Prolotherapy to someone, I am amazed at how many people say that they have never heard of this. Then, I refer to athletes like Coby Bryant and Tim Duncan and explain how they have had PRP Prolotherapy and all of the sudden they say, “oh, yeah…I’ve heard of that stuff. So, do you have bad knees?” I laugh and then continue into the explanation of what and how prolotherapy works.

I’ll defer this answer now to the “expert”…and I mean one of THE EXPERTS in this field. From what I understand, there are only about 35-40 highly experienced prolotherapy doctors in the United States (yes, a ton of other doctors do these injections across the U. S.).  I have never met any MD who understands the body and functional movement quite like Dr. Bradley Fullerton. He takes the time with you to figure out the root drivers to your musculoskeletal pain. A boatload of thanks goes out to Dr. George Fett (a prolo expert in Rome, Italy) for referring me to Dr. Fullerton!

[wpvideo jchCtEdB]

www.proloaustin.com

So, why am I getting prolotherapy? Believe it or not, I have always been pretty active in my life. From the tender age of 6, I have participated and competed in everything from Gymnastics, Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Cheerleading, Springboard Diving, Swimming, Softball, Track & Field, Tennis and Golf. Throughout the years, I have had more than my share of sprained ankles, strained muscles and musculoskeletal pain.

A cheerleading injury I had during my sophomore year in high school is the primary reason for a majority of my aches and pains today. I fell about 5 feet and hit the ground on my left scapula and thoracic spine area in a stunt dismount mishap. As I was falling, all I could think of was “OMG, turn yourself around so that you do not land on your head and snap your neck!” I ended up landing in a twisted position that day injuring a number of areas including my Glute Medius (but didn’t know it at the time).

Years after this fall, I experienced countless muscles spasms and severe pain as my body learned to recruit other muscles for compensations.  Runner’s knee swelling and pain, lumbar spine discomfort, sprained ankles… all due to my injuries and femur instability.  Despite my involvement in professional sports and movement analysis, I never figured out my own root driver. That is, until I met Dr. Bradley D. Fullerton.

Initially, I went to Dr. Fullerton to get a prolotherapy shot in my elbow after my mentor and friend, James Waslaski  , treated my golfers elbow at an orthopedic seminar I was attending a couple of years ago (This is where I met Dr. George Fett).  As he examined my elbow, Dr. Fullerton asked me to show him the movement I did when I injured it. I showed him my down swing and explained to him how I hit something hard in the ground and how this something was obviously the cause of my golfers elbow.

Dr. Fullerton reminded me how it’s important to keep in mind the interplay between my elbow and shoulder girdle in this motion. In particular, how the upper trapezius and levator scapulae originates on the spine and the latissimus dorsi involvement. This relationship with the shoulder has implications that affect the scapula-thoracic joints.  For example, poor scapular stabilization increases activity of the upper trapezius for stabilization, which in turn increases scapular elevation and stress on the cervical origin of the trapezius, lats and fascia.  In short, my shoulders were putting a tremendous amount of stress on my scapula and this stress can lead to a number of other changes in the body.

Next thing I knew…Dr. Fullerton was now examining my scapula-thoracic area. When he did this and compared my right to my left side, he asked me “have you ever fallen and hurt this left part of your back before?” I first responded “No” and then said, “Oh, wait a minute, yes, back in high school!” He then proceeded to show me where my injury had never healed properly on the sonogram. PURE GENIUS!

From here, I looked at so many things differently in the body. On a recent visit with Dr. F, I asked him about Glute Medius and Minimus, hip stability in regard to my fall. I explained my “Twisted Fall Impact” theory to him and next thing I knew we were scheduling an appointment for a sonogram for my Glute Medius and Minimus and discussing his theories.

You may be wondering how two simple muscles can be such relevant players in keeping your posture erect. The simple fact is that they’re key pieces in keeping your movement stable, so that when you walk or run, your hips are able to act as a support system for your upper and lower body. Someone who is chronically weak when in motion is likely experiencing less than adequate support from these muscles, which places a lot of strain on other systems within the body and can tire you out very quickly.

This brings us to today…me getting PRP Prolotherapy for a big tear in my Glute Medius.

Step One: My PRP Blood Draw

[wpvideo W2INsR0Q]

You’ve been injured? Here’s how your body heals

Posted on by drockefeller

FIRST RULE:  No matter what your injury, the majority of your recovery is dependent on your body healing itself.  It is as simple and as difficult as this.

injured athlete blog

No matter what your injury is, whether it’s a tear or strain or sprain or inflammation, your soft tissue is repaired by your own body. There’s NO exception to the first rule (refer above). The healing process is incredibly complex. And this complex process goes on for a lot longer than you might think. Although your pain may be gone right after a session with me or in a couple of weeks, your body continues to heal itself long after your pain has disappeared.

It is very common for the full healing process to continue for 2 years or longer, even for rather minor injuries.  So, if you’ve had a major surgery like a joint replacement or rotator cuff repair…factor this into your healing equation.

  • If you have a soft tissue injury, your body has to heal itself.
  • Painkillers don’t heal you. Your body heals itself.
  • Drugs don’t heal you. They can fight infection but your body heals the tissue damage itself.
  • Even after surgery, your body has a wound that it has to heal itself.

Whether it’s skin, cartilage, a tendon, a ligament, or a muscle…when we injure ourselves we have typically caused tissue to tear.  Additionally, this injury or wound can affect other areas on the body too such as in movement compensation patterns.

Our body’s ability to heal is truly remarkable. Below is an attempt to explain this very complex process in simpler terms. Understanding what is going on in your body is an important part of taking care of your injury. I hope this explanation will help you to better understand the healing process so you can heal more quickly and completely.

Wound Healing Stages

Stage 1 – Stopping The Bleeding

Immediately upon wounding soft tissue, the fluids (blood, lymph and other fluids) in our body leak from the broken tissue. Almost immediately though, the body springs into action. As soon as the injury occurs, your body starts trying to patch the leaks and contain the damage. Your body quickly builds thin membranes around the injury to stop the bleeding. This is the very start of the healing process.

Depending on the level of your injury, this process can take from a matter of minutes, to hours, to even a few days. Think about how fast the bleeding can stop if you cut your skin. That’s how fast your body reacts to start the healing process.

Stage 2 – Filling The Gap

When an injury occurs, there is a gap left between the two sides of the tissue injury. At first it may be filled with bodily fluids, but it needs to be filled by new tissue. New muscle, skin, tendon, etc. doesn’t grow back right away though. Those special tissues need nerves and blood flow to grow and work properly.

In the case of a tissue injury, your body first fills the gap with a special kind of tissue (Let’s simplify this and called it Type 1 tissue). This is a generic tissue. If the wound is a cut on your skin, then this tissue is the soft pink tissue that you see right after your scab comes off. The same Type 1 tissue fills the gap regardless of what kind of tissue was injured. It’s stronger than the membrane that sealed the injury in the first few hours, but it’s still not that strong.

Type 1 tissue can fill a pretty big gap though. Also, once Type 1 tissue is in place, new capillaries, veins and nerves can grow in and around the new tissue. These systems will be needed for the next steps in tissue injury healing. Type 1 tissue can start forming in as little as 12 hours after your initial injury, but it really does most of its growing between 4 and 24 days after you initially injure yourself. By the end of this stage of healing you likely feel little to no more pain and your injured body is at about 50% of its original strength.

Stage 3 – Shrinking The Gap

After you have new blood flow and nerves in the area, a new Type 2 tissue replace the Type 1. With access to proper nutrients from a regular blood supply, this Type 2 tissue is much stronger than its predecessor. Type 2 bonds tightly to the ends of your wound and over time acts like a tightening muscle and pulls the edges of your tissue injury together. This closes the injury area, making it smaller.

As Type 2 tissue pulls your injury together, you see this as the scar shrinking or fading. If the injury is under your skin, the exact same thing is happening, you’re just not seeing it. During stage 3, your injury site is at about 70% of the strength it was before the injury.

Type 2 tissue has less stretch than the final tissue. After all, its purpose is to pull the surrounding tissue together not stretch. This shrinking stage typically occurs between 3 months to 1 year after the time of the original injury. During this time people think they have healed, even though the process is still NOT complete.

Stage 4 – Pliable Tissue Returns 

Finally, after the tissue injury has shrunk as much as possible, your body replaces the Type 2 tissue with original tissue type that was first injured. Only now does new skin, ligament, tendon, muscle, or cartilage grow. It is after your body replaces the Type 2 tissue with original cells that your tissue injury is considered fully healed. Only NOW does it regain the same kind of functionality that it once had. This stage can be 1 to 2 years after the original injury though. This is the stage where the scar on your skin would seem to disappear entirely. The new tissue isn’t perfect though. The lines of growth probably don’t line up perfectly with the lines the old tissue took, so it will never be 100% the same.

Only now is the healing process complete…whew!!!

As I tell all my athletes….“Just because you no longer hurt after a session with me, you are STILL not 100%”

Contact us