Anatomy of Performance
YOUR PLACE FOR INFO ON PERFORMANCE
What is Sports Medicine?
Sports Medicine is an area of medical practice focuses on sports-related medical services. This may include preventative measures such as conditioning and injury prevention, as well as treatments.
Some of my first interactions with regular clients comes from the need for sports medicine and injury recovery. Some people come to me before major surgery is required due to an athletic injury or simply an overuse injury. Some people come to me anticipation of her surgery I want to make the recovery process much easier. Still others come to me after a major surgery has been completed and are noticing complications. In this final case a new trend is emerging and that is that insurance companies are limiting the amount of physical therapy patients are allowed to receive which then leaves them with either a very expensive out-of-pocket cost or they start seeking alternatives at lower prices in order to continue their recovery.
What is the Sports medicine process at Tony Schwartz bodywork
The first step like everything else starts with the consultation. The consultation is where we get to talk about all the professionals you've already met with in the diagnostic test you've had done to see where you're currently out in terms of your health. Diagnostic palpation is typically part of this process as well where we look at your range of motion in the tightness of joints and muscles this can help us figure out muscles that are too loose or too tight or that are not activating in the correct sequence. A similar process takes place when you first do an assessment with an athletic trainer or a physical therapist. At that point a plan is made as to what the corrections (if any) need to be and a projection of how long those correction should take. For some people this is a very short process And unfortunately for others sometimes there are underlying things that people have not noticed before which could take longer to correct.
In medical circles Sports Medicine tends to follow this process:
1. Acute Pain & Swelling
2.Restore Joint Mobility & Range of Motion
3. Bring Back Muscle Strength & Endurance
4. Coordination of Movement (correction of recovery compensations)
5.Retaining of Sport of Activity Skills
This process could include the use of red light therapy it could include cupping therapy it may even include corrective exercise or physical therapy. The most important thing is that people realize if more professionals are needed we should all work together to help you it's not a competition. I get along with many other healthcare professionals and have regular relationships with a number of them because the human body is just too complex that a single person can know enough to specialize in all the different fields of medicine.
What does Sports medicine Have to do with athletic performance?
It seems obvious that there's a link between these two things but sometimes people fail to understand the approach and why it's so important to understand that approach. Most off an athletes try to begin from a point of increasing their athletic performance without understanding that a proper assessment and consultation is very important determining if there are underline athletic injuries or need for athletic medicine to each other goals they want to. A prime example of this comes up every spring for many people that live in the Midwest let me explain. Around the beginning of April every year in the upper Midwest people start moving from indoor gym and work out facilities to working out outdoors. Most people find this to be a very enjoyable part of spring but often can lead to problems that will last Throughout the summer and here's why: when you go from an indoor environment to an outdoor environment. A great example of this is the difference between running on an indoor track or treadmill to a sidewalk which has slight changes In elevation pitch or surface friction which can throw off a person who is attempting to keep a steady pace to run and causes different muscles to fire in different locations to compensate. So the idea here is to maintain your performance from the inside track to the real life outdoor world. A proper assessment and even a short amount of sports medicine will allow someone to make a seamless transition into work and be a wonderful summer where the focus can then become enhancing already great athletic performance.
ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE
So many athletes have researched how they can better perform and there will always be people who will tell you they have the key to great performance. So here's what I'm gonna tell you: athletic performance as a mix of commitment, knowledge, and natural ability. I will share in your commitment to increasing your athletic performance and I can provide you with knowledge you may not have and as far as your natural ability…that we can do it together is bring that out more through removing slight imperfections in your movement.
So you might ask yourself: What is it that a session at Tony Schwartz Bodywork looks like when your goal is athletic performance? It all starts with assessment during your first session where we discuss your goals and where you think you might need some work. Often times this conversation leads to starting out in sports medicine rather than in performance-based bodywork because you must fix any lingering problems that prevent you from competing or meeting your goals in the first place before you can truly attempt to enhance your athletic performance.
SPORTS MASSAGE
Many people use the term sports massage incorrectly and I want to try and help people understand the difference between increasing athletic performance and what the goals of sports massage really are. Sports massage is intended to help wake up muscles prior to athletic activity which should reduce injury and increase performance and then at the end of a session of physical exertion to reduce the risk of injury (a great example would be marathoners who is the massage therapist the morning of and within an hour of completing a marathon right there at the scene of the events). Yes I do provide sports massage services when requested as I have a lot of experience with athletes because they were some of my first clients years ago. But before sports massage there's always training and performance. Athletic training often times will go hand-in-hand with what people tend to call sports massage because sports massage is a term people know when really it's like saying the word Kleenex it's someone imprecise. The most apt term to use in a situation where you were training for something or you are a regular exercise or is to look for sports medicine. When you move into professional sports for example often times of people that athlete will work with our sports medicine professionals.
PRE EVENT & POST EVENT SPORTS MASSAGE
Pre-event sports massage has an intended goal of quickly waking up and warming up muscles just prior to physical activity. The most common in most often seen form of sports massage is pre-marathon sports massage often done within 30 minutes of the event. Sports massage sessions of this nature range anywhere from five minutes to 20 minutes depending on the nature of the particular client involved and the physical activity.
Post event sports massage is intended to Help muscles joints and ligaments calm down after extreme exercise which will help reduce inflammation, Delayed onset muscle soreness, and help prevent injury. These sessions typically happen within 3 hours of the activity. Most often stretching is incorporated into the sports massage session as a way to ensure that proper range of motion and joint function. Sports massage sessions of this nature range anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour depending on the particular needs involved.
Myoskeletal Alignment Technique MAT
Dr. Erik Dalton is a world renowned expert in the area of massage and bodywork for over 25 years. He has studied and mastered many of the most challenging techniques in the areas of nerve, bone, muscle, and connective tissue release. He has taken the very best techniques from the many massage and bodywork disciplines to create a system that incorporates all of them to make the most effective and efficient systems to get people out of pain and functioning at their best again. Using a system called Myoskeletal Alignment Techniques (MAT) he has produced results for real people. See This Video
Who is This Made For?
Those who suffer with on-going pain from complex medical issues. Often times those who work with chiropractors and physical therapists and their treatments have stalled out or their medical insurance has run out.
Younger athletes who have been injured and have not healed “right”.
Those who have worked hard and need help maintaining their body to keep working hard.
What Myoskeletal Therapy Does for You?
Help relieve chronic pain contributing to poor posture
Releases trapped nerves from tight muscles, joints and ligaments by making room for them to function better
Corrects atrophy, weakness and muscle amnesia in many areas of the body
Addresses breathing disorders caused by a drooping ribcage common is many people
Lessens pain sensitivity through graded exposure assisted stretching in a controlled way
Eliminates protective muscle guarding due to joint dysfunction improving chiropractic results
Improves sleep by lowering sympathetic nervous system tone (a common problem for chronic pain sufferers)
Corrects sports-related tendon and joint injuries massage alone cannot fix
Enhances athletic performance through hands-on proprioceptive training
Fine tune pain signals through targeted exercises that in protect you from injury
Prevent chronic neck and back pain due to tension, trauma & weak posture
How Does MAT Work?
Contract-relax techniques can make the nervous system less threatened by movements…even if muscles aren’t permanently lengthening, trigger points aren’t being obliterated, fascia isn’t stretching, etc.
Active pain-free therapy signals your brain would previously see as painful movement is now safe.
By doing this repeatedly, the nervous system will often start to disassociate the movement from the pain changing pain patterns.
WHAT ARE CORRECTIVE EXERCISES?
They are a group of targeted techniques that leverages the study of anatomy, kinesiology, and biomechanics to address and fix movement compensations and imbalances to improve the overall quality of movement that reduces pain and increases the bodies performance of activities.
DON’T PHYSICAL THERAPISTS DO CORRECTIVE EXERCISES?
Physical therapist actually are specifically trained to deal with compensation and muscle rehabilitation when you're injured. This part of biomechanics is extremely detailed and done incorrectly can cause further injury so that's why physical therapist only deal with those who are injured. General correct of exercise is not even done by your personal trainer because that involves something beyond their scope of practice their job is to help build muscle tissue not correct imbalances.
SO WHERE DOES CORRECT OF EXERCISE FIT INTO THE PERFORMANCE CYCLE?
That takes place at the end of the sports medicine cycle prior to athletic performance. The reason for this is very simple, there are going to be elements of sports medicine you're going to need that are outside of Tony's scope of practice this could include things like chiropractic, surgery, physical therapy, or personal training. Correct of exercise is meant to be done unhealthy air people that do not currently have any acute injuries.
WHAT DOES A CORRECT OF EXERCISE SESSION LOOK LIKE?
Correct of exercise will always start with some kind of a plan constructed from your current and past medical history also take into account your goals in the timeframe you want to try and meet your goals by. Most often people will receive massage or MAT sessions prior to receiving a corrective exercise sessions. This is normal and ok because the goal and methoids for each kind of bodywork are different.
Your consultation Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PARQ)