Blog Archives

Take The Leap...Today

2/29/2016

February 29th...happy leap day!
Every four years we're given an extra 24 hours.
What you do with this extra time is up to you.
If you work for a large company and your salary is based on 365 days of work, well, then you might complain all day and argue this is the worst day ever.
If you were born today, you should be excited; you age 4x slower than the rest of us!

In my mind, who this day really is for, is for those people out there who are on the edge of taking a leap of faith. Taking a chance on something they aren't 100% sure will work or turn out in their favor. The people out there who are in situations they aren't happy in, yet for whatever reason have not taken the leap to change them.

Today is for YOU. For YOU to take the LEAP.

Fear and doubt kill more dreams than failure ever will.

Making a big life change is scary.
But you know what's even scarier?
Regret.
We're given an extra day this year to man (or woman) up, take advantage of extra time to handle the stuff going on in our lives that needs to change, and take a chance on something that excites us.

Shout out to every man and woman out there getting out of bed this morning determined to take the "leap" today and make things happen.

Cheers.
TS

Is Ankle Mobility Limiting Your Performance?

2/28/2016

(*This original post can be found on the blog of Revive Physiotherapy)

If you're a regular in the gym and haven't had your ankle mobility screened, this post is for you.

If you're a CrossFit box owner or coach who cares about your members but do not incorporate ankle mobility screening for each one of your new members, this post is also for you.

Why?

Ankle mobility (or lack thereof) is often times the culprit for sub-par performance during overhead squatting, lunging, jumping, and other tasks that involve dynamic movement of the ankle. Rather than continuing to smash on your lats and pecs with a lacrosse ball in hopes of improving your overhead mobility, save yourself some time and screen out your ankle mobility first.

What's The Big Deal With Ankle Mobility?

Simply put, if your ankle can't get into position during a movement, yet you still demand your body to perform that movement (i.e. squat), other joints/tissues have to compensate! This is why putting blocks under your heels when squatting makes it so much easier to keep your trunk upright; your hips don't have to compensate for the lack of motion in your ankles!

In addition to forcing compensatory movement during squatting, lunging, etc., limited ankle range of motion has also been linked to injury.

Limited ankle range of motion:

...has been shown to be a risk factor for injuries in U.S. Army Rangers
...predisposes basketball players to Patellar Tendinopathy (knee pain)
...increases likelihood of Achilles Tendinopathy
...may play a role in ACL injuries

How Do You Screen Your Ankle Mobility?

Here is a short video filmed for The Exchange Fitness blog that walks you through how to screen your ankle mobility:

Now, a quick note about a "screen" vs. an "assessment." A screen simply means "to check risk" whereas an assessment is to "determine why you can't do something." I mention this because the video above is considered a "screen;" you either have symmetrical range of motion of 4" or more, or you don't. The "assessment" portion of this comes into play when trying to figure out why someone doesn't have that 4" of ankle range of motion. While I would prefer myself (or another qualified provider) to perform a further assessment on someone with limited ankle range of motion (to rule out other potential factors or red flags), I'm all about empowering people to take care of their own body.

So...

As you gathered from the video above, we most often see limitations when performing the ankle range of motion screen as a feeling of "tightness" in the back of your calf, or a "pinch" in the front of the ankle. We would attack these restrictions differently, so it's important to note which feeling you have when testing, and then perform the corresponding exercise for it.

1) Feeling Tightness In The Back

If when performing the ankle mobility screening test above you feel a tightness sensation in the back of your leg, here is the approach I recommend:

2) Feeling a Pinch In The Front

If when performing the ankle mobility screening test you feel a pinch sensation in the front of your ankle, here is the approach I recommend:

Again, I feel strongly about seeking professional care whenever pain is involved with movement. Therefore, if pain is involved with testing or either of these exercises, please seek help! These videos are designed to assist folks who simply feel restricted, not for those in pain!

With both of these exercises, I HIGHLY recommend to screen your ankle mobility, do a few sets of the exercise depending on what you feel, then RE-TEST your ankle mobility right away. Test then re-test allows you to see changes instantly when they occur!

As always, please reach out to myself (trent@revive.physio) if:

You have any questions regarding the above info
Feel pain when performing testing or the exercises
Do not see improvement in your range of motion

Or comment below if you agree or disagree with anything above so we can have a discussion (and I can learn something new!).
Thanks for reading. Cheers.

TS

The More I Learn, The Less I know...

2/28/2016

I've written five blog posts in the past two years...
5.
In two years.
If you ask why I haven't been writing much, I'll tell you "it's because I've been really busy finishing my clinical doctorate in physical therapy."
While that may be a decent excuse, it's not the real reason for my lack of blogging...

The real reason is found in this graphic:

As I advanced further and further through my graduate education (and my expertise slowly increased), I've come to realize I really don't know that much. I can't help but smile in thinking back even just a few years ago to how naive I was to the human body, movement, exercise, etc. I even had to go back and delete a few of my old blog posts as they were completely inaccurate! At the time though, I didn't know what I didn't know...which can be hazardous when you have a platform to share your thoughts AND you're looked at by some as an "expert" in the field.

Now don't get my wrong, I didn't spend 9 years of my life in school and 100K+ in student loans to finally finish and proclaim to the masses "I know nothing!" That's not the point.

The point is, in the past few years, the more I learned, the less excited I was about sharing my thoughts publicly because I honestly didn't know if they were "right!"

I know, I know. I shouldn't worry about being "right" all the time, that's not what blogging is about.

I have to admit though, with technology today and access to so many "experts" across the world, it's often times intimidating to share your thoughts publicly. A common thought is "what if I'm wrong? People won't believe anything I say anymore if they find out I gave false information!"

<<enter new mindset>>

I started this blog in 2012 with high ambitions and excitement to share information to the masses. That excitement slowly declined over the next four years...but it's back. I'm excited about sharing my day to day thoughts on a variety of topics. Honestly, I plan to use my blog basically as like my journal. It will be nice to get my thoughts on paper. I may not be right all the time, but this is my blog. My yard. My platform to share my thoughts. If I'm wrong, I'll admit it and move on. Easy solution.

While I don't consider myself an "expert" quite yet, I'm definitely in the far right "I know nothing" phase of the photo above...and I'm okay with that. As I've always said, small efforts, repeated daily, will lead to success. I'm committed to a lifetime of learning. There will be a lot of "wrongs" along they way, but that's okay. Hopefully others reading this post will relate to the feelings I've had the last few years and realize it's OKAY to be wrong.

"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."

Cheers,

TS