Functional Movement and Injuries...

So I'm off to my first crossfit experience. I heard so many things when I starting to lift weights last year, you'll get bulky, you'll get injured, you'll feel great.

A year later I can say yes, I gained some bulk, in the form of muscles. So now I can lift with my legs properly vs my back, I have strength in my arms vs using my body weight to accomplish tasks. I have better wind and less exhaustion. 

I didn't get injured but old injuries resurfaced. Pushing my body through its full ranges of motion only Revealed injuries I already had. Getting those injuries addressed as they appeared was key to preventing back strain and other common training soreness. Making sure my knees, ankles and feet were properly balanced under my pelvis, setting my shoulder blades and keeping my wrists neutral, ensuring my centre of balance was indeed in the centre of my body are invaluable to injury prevention and correction. 

If you are starting on a task you haven't done in a while, learning a new task or feeling something show up in your body that hasn't been there before make sure you listen to your body. Its trying to tell you something. We are designed to move, through full ranges of motion, in every direction, without warming up extensively. These are the times to come in and get your body treated. Before the warning signs become full on problems. 

All the sides of health

There are many aspects to maintaining your health, we cannot address just one and expect the others to just fall into line. But if we can get one performing better the others will show improvements too. 

Physically we must be active and move our bodies around, this stretches tissues, circulates fluids like our blood and lymph. Blood brings nutrients, delivers hormones, essentially feeds every area of the body, lymph carries away the by-products. Moving our bodies through their full ranges of motion help to ensure that blood and lymph reach every tissue. 

The fuel we use is another important aspect. What we consume, the by-products of that fuel, the timing, frequency and volume of food are all key factors to maintaining health. Making sure we are only consuming the fuels we need is also key. Some of the things we crave are clues that we are deficient in a mineral or nutrient instead, but it is easier to say 'I crave chocolate' than to say 'I crave Magnesium and should therefore have nuts/seeds'. 

Taking care of ourselves mentally is another vital part of health. Recognizing good and bad thought patterns, triggers for each, and managing them properly. If you feel that you're having a thought pattern that you can't break, talking to a professional who can give you tools, help you find the root source of that thought and break the cycle is incredibly valuable. 

These three are just a few of the vital systems that all need to be functioning. It never ceases to amaze me how what I eat affects how I think, or how I move affects the food I choose. Full body health is a multi-dish balance scale, change one and they all are affected. 

Why didn't anyone else figure this out?

There are lots of factors in making an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan. 

1. Asking all the history questions (digestive history, accidents, surgeries, incidences, dental, bladder, reproductive, head injuries, lifestyle, etc)
2. Paying attention to the timeline, what symptom showed up when, after what change and before what symptom.  
3. Don't dismiss things as "normal". There is a huge difference between "common" and "normal". 
4. And we want to know about that funny little weird thing that showed up after that incident that seemed unimportant, sometimes those are the golden clues. 
5. Take the time to take the history. A good history can tell a therapist where to start, how your body may react and how to design and execute your treatment plan. 

Help your doctors and therapists out, most try to take under 10 minutes to get your history, many people can't describe their activities from yesterday in under 10 min, let alone their history.

Coming online...

Well the foray into the online world has been a long time coming but I am super excited to be at this point. I truly hope this will make it easier to reach more people and help everyone get the help they need to take care of themselves. This is where I'd like to be able to post interesting bits and pieces and answers to general questions you may have. 

A little history...

When I graduated high school I had lots of dreams of riding professionally, those all came crashing down with a back injury. Not knowing where it would lead but having a little faith and a adventurous twist I took a hat, wrote a dozen career choices onto papers and pulled one out. Pulling Massage Therapy was part luck, part fate and fully the best thing I may have ever done. I enrolled at Wellington College of Remedial Massage Therapy a couple weeks later and never looked back. When faced with client cases that were complicated I knew there had to be something more, why did massage help some but not all? When I heard about the Canadian College of Osteopathy  program starting in Winnipeg I knew I wanted to check it out. Here we are 6 years later, still faced with complicated patients but looking forward to helping every one.