The pages of my blog have been eerily quiet recently. You could almost hear a pin drop around here. I could use the holiday season as a fine excuse. But it isn't the presence of festive cheer that makes my writing world silent of late.
You see, the evil crud hath struck me down.
Gone are the days when you had a little stuffy nose or tickle in your throat. Nowadays, you get some bizarre strain of strange upper respiratory crud that seems to wipe you out, drain you of your energy, and put you in a haze for a few days. Or longer.
Welcome to my world of late.
Rest and ice. Rest and ice. Rest and ice. The broken record plays "rest and ice" repeatedly. It is a phrase uttered by injured athletes and clinicians around the world. And it doesn't matter if you are an elite athlete or a weekend warrior. Same record.
If you are active, then chances are good you have sustained some form of injury in your sport history. Chances are just as good that you have been told to "rest and ice" by any number of clinicians.
With the state of sport science, it's time for the collective sports wisdom to change. Rest and ice is not the solution.
We hear the phrases bantered about by physical therapists, lobbyists, and legislators alike: unfettered direct access, restricted direct access, and many other state-dependent variations on a similar theme.
There is oftentimes much rejoicing when physical therapists gain some "degree" of access for consumers. Celebrations take place in the streets. The proclamations of "another state with patient access" can be heard resounding through the valleys.
But there is a significant difference between access - and permission.
Each of us, injured or not, has a daily struggle against gravity. Fortunately for us, we adapt to the demands imposed upon us, assuming we are in an environment (cellular and metabolic) in which we can do so.
Our capacity, our load tolerance, fluctuates as a function of both training and de-training. Daily. Humans are very dynamic in this process.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest problems in the world of injury recovery is the blatant ignorance of some simple principles that govern life on planet earth.
You can now add three more high-profile athletes that have recently found (or will soon find themselves) under the knife of the spine surgeon: tennis pro Andy Murray, former F1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen, and Arian Foster, running back for the Houston Texans.
I am starting to get concerned that spine surgery is becoming trendy in international sport. At first, I thought it was just a reflection of the over-utilization that is witnessed in the general public in the United States. But now, "minor" spine surgery is all over the sports pages.
I have two words for these, and many other, athletes: directional preference.
We spend a lot of time and energy thinking about the stimulus. It comes in the form of a training session, a treatment, or a medical intervention. In the world of sport, coaches focus on the specific training session(s) to perform in order to enhance performance. In the world of health care, we focus on the treatment intervention that will provide a specific treatment effect. The stimulus reigns supreme in our collective consciousness.
But a stimulus is only as good as the response it evokes. Better yet, a stimulus is only as good as the body's ability to recover from and adapt to the applied stimulus.
Recovery is the critical, and oftentimes forgotten, component of optimal health.
You have the freedom of speech. You have the freedom of assembly. You have the freedom of expression.
In the United States, you have a lot of freedoms and rights. But, strangely enough, you don't have the freedom to choose your health care provider. There is, more often than not, some gatekeeper-driven law that is trying to "protect you" while ultimately controlling who you receive care from and how it takes place.
Most would consider this blatantly unacceptable if it happened to their freedom of speech or expression. But in the vast majority of US states (32), this is exactly what happens.
In health care in 2013, it is high time for consumers to have The Right To Choose.
Up to 60% of runners will sustain an injury within any given year. Poor running mechanics, in conjunction with poor, ineffective and outdated training methods, can pose a significant injury risk. "RunSmart" was written to address these issues in the running community.
"Running Injuries: Etiology And Recovery- Based Treatment" (co-author Bridget Clark, PT) appears in the third edition and fourth editions of "Clinical Orthopaedic Rehabilitation: A Team Approach" by Charles Giangarra, MD and Robert C. Manske, PT.
Allan Besselink, PT, DPT, Ph.D., Dip.MDT has a unique voice in the world of sports, education, and health care. Read more about Allan here.
Top 5 finalist in three categories: "Best Overall Blog", "Best PT Blog" and "Best Advocacy Blog".
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