I am very, very, VERY excited to announce that my book is now done and available for purchase! It's called A Guide to Better Movement: The Science and Practice of Moving with More Skill and Less Pain.
Read MoreFor today's post I am very pleased to offer a guest submission from Jamie Hale, M.S. Jamie is an experimental researcher specializing in behavioral nutrition and cognitive science.
Read MoreA few months ago I came across a very informative video by Dom Mazetti, a distinguished professor of bro-science. In the video, Dom uses a flow chart and well-established principles of bro-logic to determine whether someone "even lifts." If you haven't already watched it, I highly recommend it.
Read MoreI just did an interview with Cinema, a physical therapist who writes a great blog at Cinema Says. I was honored to be asked to do the interview and the questions were great. We talked about my background as an attorney, what I think about evidence-based versus science-based practice, my upcoming book, how I practice, my favorite books, and lots of other subjects I don''t often talk about on this blog. It think it came out pretty well.
Read MoreGraded exposure is a key concept in understanding how to reduce pain caused by movement. It's a very common sense idea, and one that most people kind of know at some level, because there is profound truth to it. But it's also an idea that most people will probably fail to put into practice in a systematic way. Here’s a brief discussion of what it is, why it works and how to do it.
Read MoreThere is a lot of much needed skepticism on the internets these days in regard to the idea that we can diagnose movement “dysfunction” and prescribe movement “correction.” A lot of this debate centers on the FMS and other systemic approaches to improving quality of movement. I think a lot of this discussion is useful and productive. I also think that the level of skepticism sometimes goes too far, veering into what I call “movement relativism” - the idea that one movement will work just as well as another for a given purpose, or that we don’t have the slightest idea how to tell whether one way of moving is better than another.
Read More2014 should be an exciting year for Better Movement! Here are some upcoming events.
Read MoreI have seen a lot of interesting research and discussion lately on the issue of movement variability. The ability to make small adjustments to a basic repetitive pattern like heart rate, brain waves, energy use and movement seems to be a good indicator of health and function.
Read MoreThanks for reading the blog this year everyone! Here is a brief look back at some highlights. 1. Writing a book
Read MoreI recently had the privilege of attending a continuing education class at Athletes Performance in Arizona, which is one of the top athletic training facilities in the country, run by Mark Verstegen. It's a beautiful facility, with a nice grass field, an amazing workout room, and lots of elite athletes walking around and training. It was a very fun atmosphere and I was all geeked out. There are many things that I would like to write about from this experience (including the excellent DNSclasses that I was attending while there), but for now I just wanted to make a few brief observations about the way the athletes spent their time.
Read MoreIn the previous two posts, I discussed two basic ideas. First, that the developmental movement patterns learned in infancy are building blocks for the more complex movements that we use in our daily lives as adults. These simple patterns are combined to form complex movements, just as words and letters are combined to make sentences. If someone is limited in performing a basic movement like squatting or rotating, there are a very wide range of everyday movements that will be compromised. Therefore, if we are going to spend any time working to improve our movement, it is these fundamental patterns that should get most of our attention.
Read MoreIn the previous post I pointed out that the developmental movement patterns learned in infancy are building blocks for the more complex movements that we use in our daily lives as adults. These simple patterns are combined to form sophisticated movements, just as words and letters are combined to make sentences.
Read MoreInfants develop movement by progressively learning a series of fundamental movement patterns, which form the building blocks for more complex movements. For example, while lying on the ground and sitting in various positions, an infant learns to stabilize her head so she can see the world. Her head stabilization skills are a building block for the postural control required in standing and walking. While reaching to grab interesting objects, she learns the arm/trunk coordination patterns that are also used to crawl and walk, and eventually throw and climb.
Read MoreSince I'm in the process of writing a book, I don't have much time to post. So here's a little excerpt from the book. It's about the distinction between sensation and perception.
Read MoreIn recent years, pain science has become far more widely known, and that is leading to some interesting conversation and also confusion in the fitness, massage and manual therapy communities. Lorimer Moseley and David Butler have been charismatic and influential teachers on this issue. A good example of their work is found in the popular book Explain Pain, which uses neuromatrix theory as a theoretical background. Moseley provides a very accessible and entertaining talk about pain science in this recent DVD video.
Read MoreI really enjoy studying biomechanics. I find it totally fascinating to learn, for example, that a certain muscle is very well suited to stabilize a joint, but not to move it through a large range of motion; or that it is active in one movement but not another; or that it becomes atrophied in people with chronic pain. I think this kind of detective work is very cool and I always look forward to applying it to help one of my clients. But that is where things get frustrating, because with biomechanics, as with so many other subjects, the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know as much as you would like to know. And sometimes you don't know enough for your treatment protocols to make any sense.
Read MoreSteven Pinker has a thought provoking article out this week called Science is Not Your Enemy. I hesitate to link it, because it discusses politics and religion, which are not the topics of this blog. So, fair warning and read at your own risk! But it had so many great thoughts on anti-science attitudes that I wanted to include some quotes. I have noticed that some of my colleagues in the bodywork community are somewhat disapproving of using a scientific approach to understanding how the body responds to manual therapy. It is almost like the very mention of science brings a bad smell into the room.
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