Is Stretching Bad for you?

Is Stretching Bad for you?

If you are an athlete, Maybe.

Contrary to conventional belief and research in the 1980's and 90's, pre-exercise stretching neither improves performance nor decreases injuries.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that traditional static stretching actually decreases performance in activities that require strength, speed, and power. Studies of strength and power have demonstrated performance decreases of as much as 30% for up to 60 minutes after exercise.

A second major reason that many coaches and athletes still view static stretching as an important preactivity ritual is the belief that it reduces the likelihood of subsequent injury. Yet, A study of lower limb injuries among 1,538 male army recruits found that pre-exercise static stretching had no effect on injury rates after a 12-week stretching protocol.

So if you are stretching to prevent injury, while you are not doing harm, you are likely wasting your time.

Although the verdict is not out yet, other warm-up activities, including general muscle warming exercises
and dynamic active range-of-motion exercises, might be most beneficial in improving physical performance.

Prevent Ear Infections? Just Channel Carol Burnett

Prevent Ear Infections? Just Channel Carol Burnett

Once again I am dating myself here. 

For those of you who remember The Carol Burnett show, she would tug at her left earlobe at the end of each episode (In case you are interested, I have read that this was a way of communicating a hello to her Grandma).

Little did Carol know she may have been preventing ear infections, at least potential ones in her left ear as:

-There are a number of lymph vessels under the ear and tugging of it can help to stimulate lymph circulation secondary to movement and stretching of the skin.

 -A mechanism for ear infections is the blocking of the esutachian tubes. Pulling of the ear lobes facilitates the opening of them.

While there are other mechanisms for unblocking the esutachian tubes, none of the others can be as easily performed on young children as pulling of the ears and it is this population who are most susceptible to ear infections.

They are the primary reason for pediatrician visits, they can be associated with extremely high fevers resulting in visits to the ER, and multiple infections can result in the need for surgery.

It is interesting to note that the motion incorporated in the pulling of the ear lobe is similar to the action performed during breast feeding and it has been well documented in the literature that breastfeeding reduces the incidence of ear infections.

In order to perform this on your little ones, gently pinch your child’s earlobe with your thumb and index finger, tug gently up and down. You can even teach your older children to do this by themselves, particularly after bathing or swimming.

Traps like Mt. Everest?

Traps like Mt. Everest?

You know who I am talking about, the people who have their shoulders so elevated they appear to be trying to clean their ears with their Glenohumeral  joints. (see above)The ones that when you palpate their traps, accessory breathing muscles and especially their first rib, you feel like you need a hammer and chisel to break up the spasm.

They are often high strung; a little stressed out, and may have chronic pain, or even better RSD (chronic pain on steriods).

What is going on here?

Obviously, a lot of things but what these individuals will share is that they are breathing with their accessory muscles, not their diaphragm.  Most simply put these people are not breathing properly.

I calculated that person who takes the average 10 breaths per minute, breathes 16.560 times per day.

The diaphragm can handle this task; it is uniquely designed to do so, as it is both a smooth and skeletal muscle.  Smooth muscles do not fatigue. The traps and accessory muscles of the neck cannot, they are mere skeletal muscles, as a result of this unwanted demand placed upon them they become hypertonic and angry.  

The following is a link to watch the motions of the diaphragm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp-gCvW8PRY

Aside from decreasing accessory muscle hypertonicity thus decrease neck and shoulder pain and pathology, other benefits of Diaphragmatic breathing include:

1.  Increased oxygenation
2. Stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system to elicit relaxation
3.  Decreased emotional stress
4. Improved circulation and improved peristalsis due to the up and down action of the diaphragm on the abdominal viscera.
5. Decreased symptoms of chronic pain patient
6. Decreased symptoms of RSD and other autonomic disorders.
7. The patient has a lot of opportunity to practice (theoretically over 16,000 times per day)

The challenge is that it can be surprisingly difficult to teach. 

Traditional techniques included visualization, placing your hand or another item on your stomach and make it move. These work for some patients, but for the really tough ones I use the following;

3 easy ways to facilitate diaphragmatic breathing:

1.       Elevate your legs: This will put the weight of the abdominal viscera, and facilitate diaphragmatic breathing.

2.       Bend over so that your hips are at a 90 degree angle and make sure to rest your arms on a piece of furniture. Gravity is now acting on the abdominal viscera and facilitating the diaphragm to contract. In the picture below, note that the arms can be bent and supported closer to the trunk.

3.       Make an “OK” sign with your fingers, if you are old enough to remember Sasson jeans it is their logo.  It is called the Gyan Mudra and it is used in yoga and meditation practice to facilitate diaphragmatic breathing. 

If you don't know where to start with your treatment of a chronic pain patient begin the same as a human does as it enters the world, with a diaphragmatic breath. 

Forward head posture, its not in your head

We are a manifestation of our compensations.

Our bodies are experts at adapting to our environment.  They will even adapt to abnormalities within its own system. Unfortunately this adaptive ability may result in disease, injury, dysfunction and eventually disability.

Attempt the following

1.       Rotate your pelvis posteriorly (posterior pelvic tilt) to flatten your back. Make sure that you only move your pelvis.

2.       If you don’t move your thoracic spine or your neck forward,  you will feel like you are leaning backwards as if caught in a strong wind.  

Next:

1.       Keep your entire body stationary and bear 90 percent of your weight on your heels.


Again you will feel as if you are going to fall backwards and in order to maintain balance, you will need to compensate by moving;  either your head, trunk or both forward.

In these examples your center of gravity is being moved back and the body will feel off balance unless it compensates by moving the trunk, the head or both forward.  

The result being a forward head posture.

If the therapist treats the neck, shoulders or thoracic spine, there will be no carryover as the forward head posture is a compensation for their center of gravity being moved posteriorly. 

The therapist must treat the underlying cause of the problem, restoring center of gravity to it proper position in order to have success and carryover. 

In the previous examples a therapist will need to treat:

•  The Pelvis:  to increase anterior rotation
•  The ankle: Increasing dorsiflexion to increase weight bearing into the arch and toes.

    Only then would it be appropriate to treat the neck, thoracic spine and or shoulders.