As health-care providers, whether you are an MD, DC, PT, ATC, LMT, CPT, etc, we are committed to encouraging transformation and growth in our clients and patients. Unfortunately, there are so many diseases and dysfunctions that exist, many of people are reactively driven to us. Whatever their situation may be, our jobs are to help them back on the road to transformation. To that regard, having principles of function will set a foundation for the way we treat them.
A PRINCIPLE as stated by Webster's dictionary is: a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption. So having a principle will better allow us to choose a particular plan or action or strategy and from then select a tool or technique in which to implement. This allows the practicioner to give the client/patient what they need as opposed to what they know. This is a very important point as I go through the blog.
One of my clients has "back problems" which about 90% of people will experience in their lives. She has been dealing with back pain for most of her adult life. In no particular order she has seen the following people and given the following treatment:
Medical General Practicioner: pain killers and a referral to see a orthopedic surgeon
Orthopedic Surgeon: prescribed physical therapy and if that didnt work, back surgery as an option
Physical Therapist: used all kinds of modalities like electro-stimulation, ice, heat, corrective exercises
Massage Therapist: who massaged her back
Chiropractor: who "adjusted" her back
Acupuncturist: who told her her chi was off balance and did acupuncture on her back
Psychologist: who told her it was all in her mind and she had some parent issues to deal with
Personal Trainer: who give her some back stretches and squats to strengthen her back
First, let me say: ALL OF THESE PROFESSIONS ARE WONDERFUL and the folks who saw this client all had their hearts in the right places. They took what they knew and applied it to her situation. No one was wrong or no one was really right. They all helped her as much as they knew. However, her back pain still came and went. I will NEVER take responsibility for "healing" her. I did not. We as human do not have the ability to heal others. We can only encourage and offer the enviroments in which healing can take place. She healed herself. What she neeeded was someone to look at the TOTAL picture, from top to bottom, side to side, back to front of her situation. This took months of assessing and testing. We had to look at her life physically, mentally and spiritually. Again, we assessed and tested. Some things worked and others did not. However, two weeks ago, she finally came and said, "my back has not bothered me for some time." Well, I was completely shocked but the smile on her face and giggle spoke volumes. She had healed herself. All those along the way, just created environments that enabled that healing to take place naturally.
Pretty cool. There is more but I will go into that a later post.
As we look through the glasses of Applied Functional Science, we realize we must have principles to guide us. There are many but the ones that I'd like to start with are:
1) Function and Athletic Performance is 3D (Multi-Planar: Sagital - Frontal - Transverse).
(Note: Thank you to Gary Gray, PT and Dr. David Tiberio, DPT of the Gray Institute for their contribution to functional movement).
Basing our thought process on principles affords us the opportunity to objectively choose our next steps. One of my goals this blog is to encourage an authentic thought process that can be applied to any situation and in this blog to performance enhancement, post-rehabiliation and injury prevention.
Along the way, we will:
Discuss functional anatomy and Chain Reaction Biomechanics as it applies to sports and other movement based activities like Yoga, Pilates, Martial Arts, etc.
Discuss the other issues that are blocks to our potential.
Post research.
Suggest functional movement patterns.
Look at the "Triad of Human Existence" of Mind/Body/Spirit.
Encourage.
Have fun!
Have a great Friday!
No comments:
Post a Comment