Sunday, February 27, 2011

MESH

Lisa Gansky: The future of business is the "mesh" | Video on TED.com

Great TED talk by Lisa Gansky, got me thinking: how can we "mesh" fitness?
It is very individualized but lets take a look at Crossfit.com
A community based fitness program on the international scale.
Although a little intimidating at first, it is scaleable to children, geriatrics and everyone in between thus allowing a great mesh.
Their philosophy is very transparent, organic, grassroots.
Is it a perfect system? No, but it is one of the best fitness strategies I have seen. But as with my previous post of building a foundation, there needs to be an individualized "ramp-up" program to make sure this like any other program is SAFE!
Go mesh and be healthy!

Creating a Foundation

Every step you take will put load on various joints in various ways. Every movement you make may be harming you! Should we not move at all? Of course not, we need to be moving all the time: motion is lotion...
We need to learn to move correctly
"Consult your healthcare provider before starting any exercise program"
Have you seen/heard that phrase before?
How many people do you know that actually did that?
People who decide to start working out should save a lot of time and resources by learning to do it correctly.
What is correct working out?
Here comes the philosophical debate.
What is fun and will keep you involved may be better than what may actually get you to be the healthiest/fittest which may not be as fun for you.
The idea of Evidence Based Practice has three components:
1. What the literature/research recommends
2. Practitioner experience/expertise and discretion
3. Patient/client values and preferences

This becomes difficult to sell on a large scale. A magazine such as Mens Health or a workout program like P90X can only be so successful because they most likely are pushing the 2nd piece of EBP (expertise) and sometimes even utilize some of the research but it is up to the patient/client to use their product. This is why to be most efficient and effective a one to one program becomes necessary. If we want to have a true utilization of EBP, to get closer to reaching our full potential of 'how to exercise properly' there should be a qualified professional working with the individual to continuously adapt a program. A goal of most top clinicians should be to foster independence with an exercise program so the individual can take control and be their own coach. The most critical part is that foundation building where we can utilize something like the SWOT method (as applied to the body). Identify weakness and threats to the body to help you reach your goals as expeditiously as possible, as safe as possible with long term (pronounced LIFETIME) insight.
We as a culture tend to be very reactive (I can't fit into my jeans anymore, I should go lose some weight OR my shoulder hurts to the point I cannot lift my arm to brush my hair NOW I should see a medical professional) while we should be proactive!
We tend to be short sighted while we need to look at the full spectrum of health and wellness.

I am going to lecture tomorrow to some high school football players and hope I can foster them to achieve/change their goals in the short and long terms.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Perspectives for Patients




Thank you JOSPT for another great feature!
In response to a recent reader survey they have added this fantastic feature that will "translate evidence into practice" by allowing patients to have access to the most up to date information in a lay format.
Click here to read more about this FREE feature for all!
Let's keep pushing this profession further!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

CSM 2011

As a student physical therapist I attended all 9 of the national meetings available from the APTA. Since attaining my doctorate in may 2008 this weekend is my first return to a national conference.

I think its a great event for so many reasons. However, it highlights where we are as a profession. The diversity of practice is the strength and weakness of our profession. There are 18 specialty sections and many special interest groups branching from each section, over 50 I would say.

I went to a great talk about branding yesterday. The top 100 image results in Google for the term "physical therapy" was discussed. 42 showed gait training while 4 were related to back specialist and 2 related to performance with a few others in between. I invite you to do this experiment and see how it matches your perception of PT. Perception is everything, no matter your skill level as clinicians.

"We are who Google says we are"

As much as I enjoy some gait training, I as a PT see performance as the bigger picture. We are lacking in the market that is fitness and we should be the top of the food chain as musculoskeletal experts. Selena from EIM has a great post about her takeaway from csm, I will try to link to it when I'm not on my Droid.

A lot of excitement about where we can go but also a lot of frustration for me because of where we are. Stay optimistic and keep moving forward is all I/we can do. Thank you APTA for pushing us forward and thank you EIM for pushing APTA.
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Tuesday, February 8, 2011

NOLA

I am down here in new Orleans, mahony's for the po boys. Sat through day 1 of level 1 of the titleist performance institute. It is a system to help assess athletes that play golf to find movement patterns that may affect their golf game. A large emphasis is placed on the necessity for medical professionals, golf pros, and fitness trainers to work together. They use a lot of principles from the selective functional movement assessment which is a course I took back in august of last year (I like taking courses). So far I have some interesting ideas on how to use the content especially in new York city where golf fitness seems to be lacking, moreso than other types of fitness.
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