Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group, LLC Blog

George Mumford, speaker at the 2011 BSMPG Basketball Specific Conference - June 3/4th in Boston, was recently featured in the LA times for his help with Laker big man,  Andrew Bynum and the Laker team hours before they took on the Boston Celtics in their recent east coast road trip.

Result: Lakers 92 Celtics 86

"Sensing the need for a team pick-me-up, the Lakers coach asked longtime friend and sports psychologist George Mumford to talk to the players several hours before they took on the Boston Celtics..."

Read more by clicking HERE.

George Mumford also featured on orangecounty.com

I once heard Mike Boyle say if you ever want to get fit, simply go to your nearest commercial gym and do the exact opposite of what everyone is doing.  I decided to put his theory to the test at our general student fitness facility this past week. 

1. Commercial Gym Choice: Laying down and lumbar flexion

I think this exercise choice can be summed up best when I heard one kid ask another,”Are you sure this is suppose to hurt like this?”

Opposite Choice: anything not involving lumbar flexion including front bridges and McGill’s Big Three.

(ahhh, sweet back relief)

2. Commercial Gym Choice: Slow Paced Jog

What’s the definition of crazy? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.  I’ve never understood why people continue to jog at a slow pace for hours on end and then act surprised when they haven’t lost any weight or end up injured.

Opposite Choice: it was a nasty Boston day with snow and sleet so elected to stay inside and join the herd of runners on the treadmills except choosing to ramp both speed and incline upwards while jumping on and off in 30:30 second sprint intervals. 

 
3. Commercial Gym Choice: Partial Body Weight Movement

During the aforementioned sprint rest intervals I couldn’t help but notice on the woman on the treadmill beside me. Her treadmill was set to the highest incline possible with both hands on the front rail holding on for dear life!  I’ve never seen anything like it before – it was as if she was in a hurricane and the rail at the front was her lifeline! Not to be outdone, the guy on the stair climber just down from her had the reverse-extended-elbow lock on each hand rail suspending his body weight overtop of the moving stairs below.  If you choose to utilize any type of “cardiovascular” equipment be sure to move your own body weight and not have the machine help you out.

(ok, so she's not hanging on for dear life, but why is she hanging on at all? Is it that hard to walk?)

Opposite: I was still sprinting without holding on so I figured this one was covered.

More tomorrow....

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

I’m always amazed during fall pre-participation screenings how accepting we’ve become to athletes reporting pain.

“Ya, it hurts, but it never keeps me from playing.”

That line is often followed by:

“Ok, let me know when it really bothers you” (which is usually too late) or, “just make sure you ice after practice each day (like that was some magic bullet which was going to keep them from missing practice or playing time during the year).

One of the most important reasons to screen your athletes prior to participating in athletics is to “filter” out those that experience pain during simple motions and motor patterns. If an athlete reports pain during a deep squat or a simple McKenzie press up, how do we expect them to get through fall camp?

Reporting pain is not a bad thing.  It’s simply an opportunity for us to address dysfunction before that pain becomes a problem.

“Pain is a warning sign. Long before pain represents a chronic problem, it can alert us to poor alignment, overuse, imbalance and inflammation.  We embrace all the other warning signs in our lives – computer virus alerts or the oil light on the dashboard – but when it comes to the body, we act as if the warning sign of pain is an inconvenience.  We cover it up so we can keep moving. If we ignore pain’s natural self-limiting nature, we are ignorant to the lessons its ancient design provides.”
p. 50. Movement by Gray Cook.

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

Some people don’t do what they’re told, and others only do what they are told.

Both are problems.

Too good not to share....

This article originally appeared on ESPN.com - TrueHoop by Henry Abbott on 1/3/11

So, it's a new year, and thanks to the power of resolutions, the gym is crowded again.

All these people who have not worked out in a long time are back at it, for now.

Doesn't that picture worry you just a little? All that sedentary living, followed by a frenzy of playing hoops again, or running, or spinning or whatever ... that's like an injury waiting to happen. Muscles and tendons and joints that have been aging without conditioning, now tested once more.

It's no wonder that every advertisement pushing workouts includes the line about consulting a physician before beginning an exercise regimen.

But this is what strikes me: Really? You need a doctor's note to exercise?

Isn't that entirely backwards? Shouldn't you need a doctor's note to sit on the couch instead?

In other words, if you don't exercise for six months, then sprain your ankle playing hoops one time, it's the sitting that needs to stop, not the hooping. Right?

These days, we spend the vast majority of our lives sitting still in the dim light, or lying down, watching screens. And you can make a pretty strong case it's killing us.

We're descended from people who moved their bodies just about all day every day to stay alive. They got tons of sunlight. If you believe Christopher McDougall's thesis in "Born to Run," at a key stage in human evolution, our ancestors literally chased animals all day -- until the deer dropped from exhaustion. Imagine whole families together, including the children and the old people -- running one ultramarathon after another, for survival.

Now imagine getting those people, or their descendants, to sit in the car, at the desk, or on the couch all day. They'd go nuts! They'd have obesity, heart disease, diabetes, depression, and all the other leading killers in modern society.

So hell yeah, let's get out there. Let's honor those New Year's resolutions. Let's move these bodies that were meant to move. And when you find yourself slipping, a month or two from now, and thinking about spending less time in the gym and more time on the couch ... cal

I ran into an old friend a few weeks ago and asked him what he did for screening at the end of his soccer season as I was looking to improve on our year end procedure.

“What do you mean?” he asked, “once the fall season is done I don’t really think about them until next fall again – maybe a few post-season surgery follow ups but that’s it.”

Puzzled, I asked,

-    How do you know what specific weaknesses each athlete should work on individually during the spring and summer to avoid injury next fall?
-    How do you know if your rehabilitation programming was successful? Did the athlete with the ankle sprain ever regain their single leg hop test distance (oh, I guess you have to measure that to be able to compare)
-    How do you know if your strength program lowered the team’s injury rate from previous years? Did it maintain lower extremity strength and power over the course of the season?

How do you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you are to begin with?

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

How closely are you looking at your athletes?

"Loss of mobility is sometimes the only way the body can achieve a point of stability, but that stability is not authentic. It is often seen or observed as stiffness or inflexibility, but on a sensory motor level, it is part of a system with no other available choice. It is basically engineered dysfunction at a local level to allow continued physical performance at a global level."

Pg. 27. Movement by Gray Cook.

Purchase the 2010 Basketball and Hockey Specific Training DVD's before the new year and save.  These DVD sets will only be on sale for one more week until they return to their original price.

Watch the country's best strength and conditioning coaches and therapists discuss how to take your team's training to the next level.

Click HERE to purchase one or both of these DVD sets.

This conference was held in Boston, MA on May 22nd and 23rd, 2010 

Included: 4 DVDs with almost 6 total hours of Hockey Training information

Presentations by: Sean Skahan - Anaheim Ducks, In-season Training in the NHL, Jack Blatherwick - Washington Capitals, Sources of Information: Separating Fact from Fiction, Frank Burgraff - Burgraff Skaing, Protecting the Stride, Larry Cahalin - Northeastern University, Inspiratory Muscle Training: Improving Lung Function and Recovery, Alan Degennaro - formally of the Cleveland Browns, Injury Prevention and Sport, and Keynote Presentation by Bill Hartman, Corrective Exercise Techniques.

Cost: $89.00  NOW ON SALE!  $75

This conference was held in Boston, MA on May 22nd and 23rd, 2010

 Included: 5 DVDs with over 7.5 hours of Basketball Information

Presentations by: Keith D'Amelio - Stanford University, Assessing the Basketball Athlete, Charlie Weingroff - formally of the Philadelphia 76ers, Lower Extremity Performance and WBV Training Methods, Mike Curtis - University of Virginia, A Systematic Approach to Movement Training for Basketball, Tim Beltz - University of Pittsburgh, Establishing a Training Base for the Basketball Athlete, Amanda Kimball - University of Connecticut, Building a National Champion, Alan DeGennaro - formally of the Cleveland Browns, Injury Prevention and Sport and Keynote Presentation by Bill Hartman, Corrective Exercise Techniques.

Cost: $119.00 NOW ON SALE! $99

BSMPG wishes all of our friends and family the very best this Holiday Season.