Brain smudging

As I mentioned earlier in the week I’ll be posting regular links to various blog posts and videos about aspects of pain in an attempt to increase our understanding of what is happening when we injure ourselves. This is a great video on Brain Smudging by the David Butler of NOI group in Australia.

Pain

Over on Facebook we’ve been sharing a lot of links lately about different aspects of pain as we feel that understanding the mechanisms of why we hurt is incredibly important. The more we know about these the the greater the chances of being able to deal with more chronic issues and help prevent acute injuries becoming chronic ones. So you can expect more in the future as we look to expand your ,and our, knowledge about it.

So here’s one of the posts from earlier this week. It’s a link to a blog post over at the Running Physio which is aimed at runners but contains some great information that is useful for everybody. Pain in runners: why do I hurt?

 

 

Posture, what really matters.

There is a huge amount written about why we should have good posture and what it looks like so that we don’t get a sore back, neck etc yet there is little or no evidence that posture has any relationship to whether or not you are going to experience back or neck pain, check out the studies below. Many other factors can influence the chances of you experiencing pain ranging from stress levels to how much movement you get in your day. What can happen when we are sitting or are generally immobile for long periods is that changes in the chemistry of the tissues can occur such that you may feel sore. This can be alleviated by simply getting up and moving around regularly and isn’t related to the the position/posture that you are sitting in. Also in terms of the stress we place on the tissues  when we are sitting it is at a level that is very tolerable and easily adaptable to. Continue reading “Posture, what really matters.”

Saturday inspiration

I picked this up off Twitter and it’s amazing to watch as double amputee Hector Picard changes the inner tube on his bike using his teeth, stump and feet. Hector received a massive electric shock and fell two stories on fire ending with 2nd and 3rd degree burns over 40% of his body but to say he hasn’t let this stop him doing things is an understatement as he is the first double amputee to complete an Iroman triathlon and has completed over 70 other triathlons.

 

The week in review

Here are a few bits and pieces from what I’ve been reading this week.

Ben Cormack at Cor-Kinetic makes some great points regarding joint mobility and our ability to express range of movement in a joint. It has become almost a must do before you do any kind of workout and yet aggressively going after increased range of movement pre workout may not aid your performance and may, in fact, actually hinder it or at least be a waste of time as you don’t need the extra ROM or have no control over it so your brain won’t allow you to access it. Here is Ben’s article.

This one from Running Times looks at different strategies for recovery. Whilst it is aimed at runners the principles apply to all sports with the bottom line being that unless you are getting enough sleep and eating enough quality food no amount of ice baths, compression gear, or creatine will make any difference.

Richmond Stace talks about Andy Murray’s cramps and what might actually cause them and it’s not dehydration or salt deficiency.