Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group, LLC Blog

 

Gray Cook reminds us in his most recent book, Movement, that things are not always what they appear.

• What we view as weakness may be muscle inhibition
• The weakness is a prime mover might be the result of a dysfunctional stabilizer
• Poor function in an agonist may actually be problems with the antagonist.
• What we view as tightness may be protective muscle tone, guarding and inadequate muscle coordination.
• What we see as bad technique might be the only option for the individual performing poorly selected exercises.
• What we see as a low general fitness may be the extra metabolic demand produced by inferior neuromuscular coordination and compensation behavior.

-pg.25. Movement by Gray Cook.

....or we could just ignore these points and sleep a whole lot better at night "knowing" that our patients somehow simply didn't respond to our "traditional" treatment protocol.

... or we could take a look a little bit further down the rabbit hole.

The decision is yours. 

 

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.

Mark Toomey (right) pictured here with Pavel Tsatsouline.

 

I first met Mark at an SFMA course this past summer and although I signed up for the two day course and appreciated everything the course had to offer, I found myself returning for the second day solely to speak with Mark. To say Mark is electric and a true master of his trade would be a severe understatement – his energy and world experiences in elite level training along with his many experiences with rehabilitation is sure to enlighten and invigorate all those that hear him speak.  Along with Dr. Di Muro, Mark’s presentation will explore how best to approach pain management, rehabilitation and training from a truly integrated and patient centered approach.

Conference Agenda and Registration details for Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants, are coming soon.

Be sure to save the date and plan on joining us June 3rd and 4th in Boston this coming summer.

 

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.

 

 

 

BSMPG is proud to announce the finalized speaker set for this year's Hockey Summit in Boston June 3rd and 4th.  This will be the third consecutive year that BSMPG has hosted the nations top Hockey Training Conference with this year boasting the most impressive speaker set yet! 

With Speakers representing Boston College, University of Wisconsin, University of Minnesota and Quinnipiac University along with the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes joining Keynote speakers which include Dr. Shirley Sahrmann, Tom Myers, Clare Frank, Charlie Weingroff and Pete Viterriti - this event is a must for anyone involved in the training and care of the hockey athletes.

 

In discussing a case of stress fractures with some friends recently, the concept of Load vs. Mechanics was discussed.

“It’s all load. Too much running, too much conditioning heading into the season,” suggested the athletic trainer in the room.

“No, no, no – that kid was set up to fail from the start. She’s got funny feet and that’s the reason. Everyone else ran the same distance and didn’t have a problem.”

The conversation ultimately boiled down to this:

Are you applying an unreasonable amount of load to normal mechanics or are you applying a reasonable amount of load to unusual mechanics?

Yes, too much load too fast will always get you there, but having “abnormal” mechanics will certainly ensure that you get there a whole lot faster.

My father would always tell me that every time you point your finger there are three others pointing right back at you.

So the next time your athlete walks in reporting a stress fracture don’t be so quick to point the finger at the group down the hall, and instead ask yourself if that athlete suffered their injury from load or mechanics and what you did to screen, monitor and address the problem BEFORE it sidelined them.

 

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.

 

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.

People often mistake opportunity for work because it comes dressed in overalls and carries a lunch bucket.


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.

The problem with right now is that right now is just too late.

Right now happened 3 months ago.
Right now was waking up 30 minutes early each morning to work on your fundamentals skills.
Right now was taking 300 hook shots in the lane each day before practice even started.
Right now was back in June when you decided sleep was more important than the continuing education course you missed at the national convention.

Seldom does opportunity present itself at the very same time as right now.

The nice thing about right now however, is that it’s exactly the right time to start preparing for 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.

As 2010 comes to an end, I thought I'd use this last week to direct you to 5 of the most popular blog articles from this past year.

Happy New Year and all the best this coming year!

Enjoy

 

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