Bench Pressing and Shoulder Pain Solutions Part 3

If you just joined in the conversation here, be sure to read the posts from the start of this series below

Shoulder Pain While Doing a Bench Press Gone Part 1

Bench Pressing and Shoulder Pain Solutions Part 2

The Solution So Far

In part 1 we discused Dave coming into the Extreme Human Performance Center here in Minnesota with pain while doing a bench press without any weight on the bar (so 45 lbs) and awhile later in the same session working up to 270 lbs without any pain!

In part 2 we discussed a solution that you can try yourself and what I did to get Dave back to benching pain free in a short amount of time.

The key in part 2 was the nervous system and looking at some opposite joints.  Dave’s LEFT shoulder was the issue, so we did some very specific mobility work for his RIGHT hip.

Now in Part 3, we will discuss the other key factor to keep you moving in the right direction, setting personal records (PRs) and increasing your athletic performance both on the field and in the gym!

Biomechanics

Most of you are probably surprised that I am now discussing more biomechanics.  When I first started learning more about exercise, I was convinced that the biomechanical path had all of the answers   Heck, I even did a MS in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Tech (say what up to the Yooopers) with a concentration in Biomechanics.  I spent years looking at the stuff and read even more for fun.  I will save you the discussion about the mathematical theory of plasticity and other fun stuff; so stick with me.

When I started doing Z-Health about 3.5 years ago, I fully realized the power of the nervous system since it was actually controlling the muscles and of course your movements. WOW!  Seems so obvious I know.
If your nervous system is out of whack, your performance is not ideal!

Most of my blog posts here are about how to deal with the nervous system and get the most out of it, primarily because

1) it works

2) almost nobody is talking about it

3) it works really fast

It will probably be a surprise to some of you that I am now talking about biomechanics again!  The reality is that optimal lifting technique is always important and almost everyone agrees on that.

Integration

The key is how to integrate the nervous system into the biomechanical model.  Many fitness experts are way too focus on biomechanics ONLY.  Do we truly know if your right glute is not working and that is your issue? Maybe, maybe not.  Is it ONLY your psoas?  What about all of the other muscles around that area?  Whatever your answer, we need to stay focused on the END RESULT.  That is what matters.

Are you lifting more weight while having less pain and becoming a better athlete?

“The Answer”

The approach that I use now is simply addressing 1) the nervous system and 2) the mechanical system (soft tissue, muscle, etc).

The nervous system answer was in part 1.

The mechanical answer is that we need to change the function of the tissue to work better.

In Dave’s case, we found that he had a very hard time with right hip internal rotation with his knee straight.  After doing that, the pain dropped dramatically.

I suspect that there is some tissue in his right hip that needs better function.   How do we get better function and then a tissue change to that area?  Exercise!  Load ‘em up.

Corrective Exercise

Truth be told, I have not done any standard “corrective exercise” work for about 3 years now.  I used to do a crap ton of it and while it worked to some degree, but I was never happy with the results.

The solution In Dave’s case he ended up doing a forward lunge to 45 degrees on the right leg with internal rotation at the hip.

How?

“Test the parts then test the whole” -Frankie Faires

We tested a forward lunge – good
Next tested a forward lunge to 45 degree – better
Then a forward lunge to 45 degree with internal hip rotation – best!

The testing was a range of motion test as discussed in the Gym Movements DVD and in the new upcoming Grip n Rip DVD (which has tons of amazing info on it, coming soon, so stay tuned here).

Car Talk

Ever listen to the Car Talk guys Click and Clack?  I have only listened to them a few times and I loved that they were so excited about cars.  I get the same way about exercise and human performance – how to get you to bust even more PRs!

If your car pulls to the right going down the road, what do you do?  You turn the steering wheel a bit to the left to get the car to go straight.

Think of this steering as changing the effects on the nervous system.  Each time you do a mobility drill targeted at the nervous system, you are turning the wheel a bit to the left.    The downside is that the car now go straight (increased performance, less pain), but you need to keep providing input by turning it a bit left.

You bring the car in and find that you had a bent tie rod (or some mechanical issue) that was causing the car to pull to the right all the time.   They drop a new one in (for way more money than you expected) and hours later your car now goes in a straight line, without you having to steer it left a bit.  Nice!

Your Body As a Car

Tissue is constantly changing, and by doing this particular lunge, it is like replacing the tie rod in your car; over time the tissue will adapt to a new and better function!  The results is more performance and less pain PERMANENTLY.    The shorter the issue, the shorter this process.

Summary

For long term change to have you hitting PRs like a crazy person in less pain, you need to
1) Address the nervous system via joint mobility work (some times eye movements too, but that is another topic)
2) Address the mechanics of the tissue via “corrective” exercise

Without addressing both of these, your results may be more short term.

I know this was something that I did NOT do for quite some time.  Athletes would come in, I would address the nervous system and get them out of pain and moving better; but long term they would have other issues or the same one would crop up again.   I knew they still had some “movement issues” but once they were out of pain it was hard to get them to come back again.

Now I incorporate some type of loading into their “homework” to get them moving in the right direction in case I don’t see them again.    I also emphasize that they need to have their lifting form evaluated to make sure it is correct and good for their body!   A perfect squat may NOT be the best exercise for them.

Don’t repeat my mistakes and be sure to address both the nervous system and the mechanical system with a customized approach.

Comments?

What do you think?  Let me know below!  I look forward to your comments as always.

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

PS
For more information on how to set up your own training program to have you hitting PRs in the gym all with less pain, you will need to pick up the new Grip n Rip DVD once it is out.   As soon as it is released, I will have the info here.  Not sure what the final price will be as Adam Glass,  Brad Nelson and friends are handling it; but I know it will not be cheap.   If you are good, you are not cheap.

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Bench Pressing and Shoulder Pain Solutions Part 2

If you just joined in the conversation here, be sure to read the post from yesterday below

Trainer Mike T Nelson Testimonial: Shoulder Pain While Doing a Bench Press Gone!

The Solution

Note, this is what worked in this case for exercise and this does not automatically mean it will work for you since everyone is individual.   This not medical advice and if you have a medical issue, talk to your doc.  It if it painful, don’t do it!

Hopefully that will keep my attorney happy, so here we go.

Shoulder Issue, Check My Hip?

The body is a huge X.  I know it goes not look like one, but trust me on this one.
As you step with your right foot, the impact force is transmitted up the back of the leg, past the right knee, into the right hip where it then moves over to the LEFT side of the body (around the SI joint), up the left scapula where it starts to split into 1) left upper trap and left side of the face and 2) left shoulder and on out to the left elbow and eventually the left wrist/hand.

The formal name for this it the “Back Force Transmission Line” and I first learned of this from Dr. Cobb of Z-Health.

It makes sense that the force would have to shift to the opposite side in order to keep the body balanced in gait (walking movement).  Look at what you do with your opposite shoulder/arm when you run!    Hopefully you will see some opposite motion going on there.   If all the force were to stay on the right side when you plant your right foot, it would be very difficult!

Don’t believe me?  Test it!   Run how you would normally run and now try these 2 drills
1) Run without moving your arms.    Get a buddy to do this and video it.
2) Run by moving your arms in the WRONG directions.  Humans are so hard wired to walk that this is VERY hard to do.   If you can do it easily, that is not a good sign.

Efficiency Is Key

The body is so amazingly designed I love it.  Looking a bit deeper, we see that the tendons, fascia and soft tissue are designed to absorb and return force; thus making movement much more efficient.

We Are All One

Many of you are familiar with Thomas Meyer’s “Anatomy Trains” and the idea of biotensegrity from Dr. Stephen Levin at http://www.biotensegrity.com/ If so, you are on the right track.

Cadavers To the Rescue!

The body is highly highly connected.  If you ever get the chance to do any cadaver work I highly highly recommend it.  When you start, you will see nice clean lines and everything looks very clean.  This is because at the lower level cadaver work, someone else has already prosected (cut, chop, cut cut, chop)  the cadaver for you!   This is not bad, as there are tons of things to be learned from this method since having undergrads hacking away on cadavers is not only expensive, but impractical.

Note: I am not implying any disrespect to those that have donated their bodies to science for use as a cadaver model, just trying to not use too many techy words so people can understand what is involved in the process.

As you do more advanced cadaver work (and the lab fee goes up to over a grand just for one class; still working on paying back many lab fees myself yet), you will soon find fat and fascia EVERYWHERE.  Trust me, you want to pick a lean cadaver if you can.  Seriously.

Perhaps you got to see the bodies exhibit, which is amazing too!

So we now that the body is all connected, and it appears that the primary path is the back force transmission line.

Serape Effect: More Evidence

The serape effect is primarily referred to as a crisscrossed connection between the lower and upper body, most commonly (maybe not so commonly as I am a big geek) used in discussing the connection from the shoulder to the opposite hip (glute).   It was first mentioned by Logan, G., & McKinney, W. 1970 (1), so there are some evidence from multiple sources for a connection between the shoulder and the opposite hip.

Cross Body Connection Here?  Yes!

No, not here!

Enter the Nervous System

So far we have made the case for the mechanical structure of the body and how it is all connected from your little toe to your pinky finger.
The nervous system is entwined in the picture too since it is actually controlling and sensing movement of the entire body.

Cross-Body Nervous System Connection?

Great question!   There does appear to be a nervous system connection that works “cross-body”.  Again, this probably goes back to a gait (walking) type motion.

In an experiment done by Kline TL et al. (3),  in stroke patients they showed quote, “rectus femoris in the impaired leg was active during finger flexion of the impaired hand in the stroke survivors and all four tested muscles in the impaired arm were active during extension of the legs ”

Note, this was done in stroke patients and in a similar study done by Ellis MD et al. used non stroke patients (um, normal people) they did not show a pattern in them (4).

Any Evidence In Non Stroke Patients?

In a very cool study from  Huang HJ,  et al. (6) published recently stated,  “We found increased muscle activation in passive lower limbs during active upper limb effort compared with passive upper limb effort. Likewise, increased muscle activation in passive upper limbs occurred during active lower limb effort compared with passive lower limb effort, suggesting a bidirectional effect”

English Please

While these neurologically intact (read = normal) people did an upper body movement, they saw increased muscle activation in a NON MOVING lower limb.    Back to our running example, try to move your arms in the wrong direction and it is really really hard.  It looks like our wiring is set to faciliate moving the opposite limb!

Can We Alter It?

Cortis C et al. (5) showed that interlimb coordination was better in soccer players, quote,  ”Regardless of age, soccer players always showed better performances (handgrip: 383 +/- 140 N; CMJ: 28.3 +/- 8.7 cm; IP: 55.2 +/- 12.9 s; and AP: 31.8 +/- 25.0 s) than sedentary individuals (handgrip: 313 +/- 124 N; CMJ: 21.0 +/- 9.4 cm; IP: 46.7 +/- 20.2 s, and AP: 21.1 +/- 23.9 s).  ”

While this is not the exact same thing, it is similar and appears to be trainable.  I know I am reaching a bit with these data here, but there is not one perfect study to directly point to any of this yet.  I think in the next 2-3 years (so someone is doing it right now) we will have a more exact study.

Enough With the Science!  Solution!

Back to our friend Dave and his bench rising from the dead from painful with the bar to 270 lbs in one session.

Note: If you have any medical issues, see your doctor.  I am not claiming to cure or fix anything that you have currently going on.  Don’t move through pain and see a professional!

For the sake of entertainment, here is the process I used for Dave to get his shoulder pain reduced.

My goal was to get him to bench heavy again in a short period of time.  It just so happens that when you get someone to move better, many many times (with acute pain) there pain levels drop dramatically.  As my buddy Frankie says “the body really cares most about FUNCTION – what can you do.”

Step 1

Find out what movement is painful.

This may take a bit of work, but you want to isolate the painful movement.  In Dave’s case, it was primarily left arm external rotation with his elbow bent.

Step 2

Do the EXACT opposite motion with the opposite joint

The opposite joint to the left shoulder is the RIGHT hip.  Heck, they even look scary similar as both are a ball and socket joint.

We know that LEFT arm EXTERNAL rotation with his elbow bent created the pain.
What is the exact opposite of that movement?

Do you have it?

Are you sure?

Correct!  Right hip internal rotation with a straight (not bent) knee (knee is the opposite to the elbow).

Step 3

Perform a joint mobility drill in the new position

So with his right hip internally rotated, knee straight, laying down, we had him create a circle at the hip joint (joint mobility) very slow, with no pain.  He did 3-5 reps in each (clockwise and counter clockwise) directions.

Step 4

Walk around for about 20 seconds, retest the painful motion

Any difference?

If they stare at you like a 2 headed purple space alien, you are on the right track.  Then yell at them “Never doubt my VooDoo”  That always helps!

I learned this method from Dr. Cobb initially in R Phase, so thanks again!

I Left Something Out

Come on back tomorrow for part 3 as we are still missing something.

Can anyone guess what it is?

The hint is in the first part of the article.    What other exercise do you think we had Dave do for his homework?  No, you can’t ask Dave directly (nice try).

Put your guesses in the comments below, and the winner gets a free 30 minute phone consult with me (valued at about $50).

Comments must be posted by tomororw Friday March 12 at midnight CST to be eligible. You may only enter once, but you can leave multiple comments and the latest comment you left will be used for your answer.  I will do my best to scan my spam folder too, but I can’t promise that if your comment ends up in there that I will find it (getting over 100 spams a day now).  Once comments are in, I will post the answer and the final installment of part 3 (so Sat AM).

Summary

Today we went on a tour of the body to show that it is all connected by both mechanical links (muscles, soft tissue, tendons, etc) and the nervous system.     We provided data to explain how it all works together, gave some demos for you to test it yourself, and provided you a possible solution to try on your own.

Your homework is

1) If you have an issue, try it out first and see if it works for you.   Do this on your own risk and if you have an issue, go see a doc!

2) Figure out what component we did not address yet and place your comment below.  Closest one get a free 30 minute phone consult from me.

I am excited to see how gets it!  Don’t worry, even if you did Z-Health training, you can still enter below too for the missing component.  In the event of a tie, the first one posted (by time stamp) gets it.

Rock on!
Mike T Nelson

REFERENCES

1) Logan, G., & McKinney, W. 1970. The serape effect. In Anatomic Kinesiology (2nd Ed., pp. 154-561). New York: William C. Brown, Co.

2) Publications for Biotensegrity at http://www.biotensegrity.com/index.php

3) Kline TL, Schmit BD, Kamper DG. Exaggerated interlimb neural coupling following stroke. Brain. 2007 Jan;130(Pt 1):159-69.

4) Ellis MD, Acosta AM, Yao J, Dewald JP. Position-dependent torque coupling and associated muscle activation in the hemiparetic upper extremity. Exp Brain Res. 2007 Feb;176(4):594-602.

5)  Cortis C, Tessitore A, Perroni F, Lupo C, Pesce C, Ammendolia A, Capranica L.    Interlimb coordination, strength, and power in soccer players across the lifespan.  J Strength Cond Res. 2009 Dec;23(9):2458-66.

6) Huang HJ, Ferris DP.  Upper and lower limb muscle activation is bidirectionally and ipsilaterally coupled.  Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009 Sep;41(9):1778-89.

PS

Get those answers in the comment section now before the clock his midnight on tomorrow (Friday, March 11) for a chance to win a free 30 min phone consult with yours truly!

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Joint Mobility for a Shoulder Issue, Which Joints Help the Most?

Common wisdom would say that you need to work on the shoulder.  Perhaps

Further done the chain they say scapular mobility.  Perhaps

Now thoracic spine mobility is the in thing.  Does that help?  Perhaps

What about opposite hip function since we know they are connected via the serape effect?  Perhpas

Opposite foot and ankle?  Same side wrist?

The key question is “How do you know”

Test it

Everyone is different, so you will need a custom approach with each athlete.

In general, for shoulder issues I find the following to work really well

• Same side wrist
• Thoracic Spine
• Opposite Hip
• Opposite foot/ankle

Does this work all the time?  No, but most of the time is does for acute/chronic movement issues.

If you get rid of the pain, is the athlete good to go?

No, you need to make sure they can play their sport at the same level as before.  Performance must be evaluated.  If there is still a decrease in performance, they are not 100%, despite passing whatever wizz bang test of the week they ace.

Comments?

What do you think?  What works for you?  Let me know in the comments section!  I love comments!!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

Thanks to Jodie for letting me film her in the video as an example.  Only 3 more weeks until the big wedding date for us!

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Testimonial for Mike T Nelson: Hip Flexor and Groin Tight and Painful on Squats

Mike T. Nelson single handedly took me out of pain in 10 minutes.

I had been doing many months of heavy front squats when my right hip flexor and groin area became extremely tight and painful. No matter what method I used, it just simply would not let up. After suffering for weeks, I decided to call on Mike.

During his consultation he showed my some joint mobility/ Z-Health type drills and I was doing squats about 3/4 of the way to rock-bottom in 10 Minutes!

My pain was a solid 8 out of 10 at its worst before the consultation. 5 days after the consultation with Mike T. Nelson I was at Grip N Rip 2.0 (a workshop in Woodbury, MN) hitting Personal Records on the Deadlift, PAIN-FREE.

Stop wasting time at your local doctors office and get out of pain and start moving BETTER with Mr. Nelson.

-Dustin Williams, Owner of Wrought Iron Strength and Conditioning, Hugo, MN.

If you are in pain, you are limiting your performance.

If this can be done for pain, imagine what we can do for your performance!

Now It Is Your Turn!

A Huge thanks to Dustin for taking the time to write that up and taking action to look for an answer to his pain and movement issues.

• If you are interested in a phone consult, for a limited time they are only $90 per session (normal rate is $110) and are 100% guaranteed.  If you are not happy for ANY reason, there is NO charge, email me by clicking HERE
• If you are in the St. Paul, MN area, you can see me in person for $110 per session (normal is $125) and it is 100% guaranteed also, email me by clicking HERE

Drop me an email by clicking HERE to move better with less pain today!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

If you are still not sure, see all the other testimonials below

Mike T Nelson and Extreme Human Performance Testimonials

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I Am Pissed!  A Trip Inside My Head

I am really pissed off right now and I can’t focus on anything else, so you will get an inside look into my brain. Caution, you have been warned.

As readers of this blog know, I do training and nutrition work to get professional and every day athletes of all types performance increases. I’ve been doing it for several years now and I’ve spent well over $200,000 over the years on getting better at my craft via college, seminars, certifications, books, etc. This is not meant to impress you, but if you are serious about something you have to pay to play. I know many others that have paid very large sums to practice their craft, so this is no different.

Why I am Pissed

I am pissed off to no end now because I could not get the result I wanted from an athlete I worked with this morning. Note, this has absolutely nothing to do with the athlete and everything to do with me. I feel like I failed him because I did not have a solution to his pain issue. We spent 1.5 hours trying all sorts of things, with very little change. My agreement is that if I can’t get a performance increases or a large change in your pain, the session is free. The athletes satisfaction is my primary concern and I fully believe that if I don’t deliver, I should NOT be compensated. End of story.

The System Is Broke

This is the direct opposite to most professions. Take physical therapy (not to pick on them, but….) if you (not anyone who reads this blog, way too bright for that) are an average PT and you take 12 sessions to get a result and you charge $50 per session, you made $600. If you are a stellar PT and you get the result in 3 sessions, at the same price, you get $150. You were clearly better (got the same result in LESS time), but you made about 1/4 as much. How much incentive is there for you to get better? Not much!

True, that it is different when you own your own business, since if you suck, hopefully you will go out of business. If you suck, I don’t want you around to drag everyone else down and please go away and the sooner the better. I won’t get into the whole fitness business and how anyone can take a weekend cert by mail and be a fitness trainer. It makes me vomit in my mouth a bit each time I read it. Ugh. I need some mouth wash. Ok, I am back now. Where was I? I know business is very complicated and there are times where the most knowledgeable are also piss broke, but if you work for a large company, there is normally very little incentive to get better.

You’re Insane

I have many great friends in the field who are doctors, physical therapist, other trainers, consultants etc and almost all of them tell me I am completely out of my tree, coo coo insane, have a melon where my head should be because this is my expectation below

I expect that 99% of the people that walk through my door that I can get a dramatic performance increase (also many times equalling a decrease in pain) in ONE session that last 1-2 hours.

I’ve had many long discussions with many of them arguing that IF this is even physiologically possible. They say no and I say it is possible. If pain and performance are primarily (not entirely of course) controlled by the brain, we know that you can make changes in the brain extremely fast (as I have learned in Z-Health).

Yes, there are times that there will be a biomechanical and/or biochemical issue, but even then you should still be able to see a large change in one session.

I’ve seen athletes with missing rotators via MRI have no limitations on shoulder function and no pain.

Is this the norm? No, but it can happen. My point is that I feel the brain and nervous system are the most plastic systems in the body and are also open to the greatest change at the fastest speed (this is supported by research on brain neuroplasticity).

Does this mean we ONLY need to focus on the nervous system–no, of course not; but if pain reduction and performance are your goals, you have to address the nervous system.

Victory Destroys Knowledge

That was a great quote from Dan John. While I do remember many of the “successes” I’ve had, my failures stick in my brain like a canary in a coal mine. You notices I put “successes” in quotes since I did not do ANY of the darn work, the athlete did all the work and hence they should get the credit. I just helped point them in a better direction. They had the discipline to do the work!

I’ve been very fortunate to work with athletes to get them out of pain, avoid surgeries, compete in the Olympics pain free, bend over to pick up their kids without pain, take a ski trip vacation and ski 5 days in a row for the first time ever, etc. These are all great and completed by highly motivated athletes.

What I remember more are the cases where I could not do anything. We tried for 2-3 sessions or more with no change. Granted, these athletes usually had been everywhere and done everything, but I still feel like I should have had a solution.

I know that their pain is not my issue and that it takes many reps to over ride the lifetime of poor reps they have accumulated and that nobody has a 100% solution for chronic pain. Look no further than research on the success of various low back pain treatments and many of them are acute, no chronic pain issues. Yet somehow I feel I should have all the answers. They come to me as their last hope and if I can’t help them in a very short period of time I feel like I let them down and have failed them. Completely unrealistic I know, but I still feel pissed when I can’t get a result. I know there is a solution and when it evades me I can’t stand it. Yes I am neurotic too.

What To Do

To keep myself sane, I don’t work primarily with chronic pain clients. The toll on my psyche is more than I can handle and the logical conclusion is that the better you get, the harder the cases you get and at the end you will only be left with your failures. I know I can’t handle that. I do, however, take on “hard cases” to force myself to learn. I learn more from the difficult ones than from any others. Fear of failure will drive you much farther than success, but you need to be aware of the cost.

Performance increases are relatively easy for me now. I know that sounds like a super arrogant statement, but it is true. Most athletes have just a slight (or major) movement issue that is impairing their current performance. Remove that (which could be mobility, visual, vestibular or soft tissue) and performances goes up. Think of it as removing the king pin from a log jam. Once you do that, the whole river flows again just by that one minor change.

Your Trip Is Complete

There you have it. A trip inside my brain to see what drives me. I did warn you that it is a bit of a scary place. I’ve been told by multiple well meaning people that I need more knowledge like I need a hole in the head and I should spend more time on marketing. My business model of primarily seeing athletes for single sessions once a month or even less is the worst possible thing to do. What you realize very fast is that once someone is out of pain, they forget they ever had pain extremely fast, so your time for referrals is very short. Getting new clients routinely is much harder than working with them routinely. I do have some reoccurring clients, but most come for an acute change and that is what I deliver.

While I am spending more time learning marketing and business now (and they are no evil and truly needed), my true passion is bridging the chasm between research land and practice. We can learn a ton from both and in the process and I move step by step closer to that 99%. I may never get there, but if you aim high and miss by a bit, you are still much higher than if you aimed low. Don’t tell this to my psyche if you see it lying on the road somewhere trying to hitch hike!

A HUGE Thank You!

Thanks to all for their support and reading this blog. It truly means a ton to me and I promise I will do everything I can to help as many athletes of all types destroy their old personal records. I feel incredibly fortunate that I know exactly why I was put on this earth and exactly what I want/need to do. Many spend their lifetimes looking and wandering, so I am truly blessed and grateful.

I need to send a very special shout out to my soon to be wife Jodie too for all of her endless support and to my family. Thank you!!

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

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Phone Consultation Testimonial for Mike T Nelson: Low Back and Hip Pain

Another testimonial from a recent phone consult I did

I had been experiencing low back, hip and leg pain as well are forearm pain for several months. After going to my chiropractor and back doctor several times with no relief, I decided that I wanted to work with a Z-Health practitioner. However, there were none in my immediate area. I also wanted to work with a Z-Health Master Trainer. I contacted Mike regarding a phone consultation.

During our consultation Mike asked me multiple questions about my health and the pain I was experiencing. He had me doing different movements while on the phone and spent as much time with me as needed.

Mike had me to do arm circles, foot work and eye drills as well as recommending some changes to my diet.

He has continued to correspond with me via e-mail to provide additional suggestions to reduce and manage my pain including breathing exercises.

My pain is now greatly reduced and I am sure it will further diminish overtime as I continue to do all that Mike as recommended.

I would highly recommend Mike to anyone who is in pain.

—Brett Williamson

Now It Is Your Turn!

A Huge thanks to Brett for taking the time to write that up and taking the bull by the horns to look for an answer to his pain and movement issues.

If you are interested in a phone consult, for a limited time they are only $90 per session (normal rate is $110) and are 100% guaranteed.  If you are not happy for ANY reason, there is NO charge.

Drop me an email by clicking HERE to move better with less pain today!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

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I trust you had a great Turkey Day (if you are in the USA) and a great weekend to everyone else. Jodie and I took a short trip to South Padre Island Texas for some kiteboarding time and had a blast. I got to ride 4 days and Jodie got in some great practice with the kite 3 times. I will have more details on it very soon.

Just a quick note that I had an article on “Pain and Performance” published on Boddicker Performance. I know what you are thinking, “Ugh, that sounds about as much fun to read as having a testicle removed” but I tried my best to make it a bit more entertaining while staying true to the science. You will have to be the final judge on that, but here is some feedback

“You are the only person I know who can make reading about the pain neuromatrix pain free for everyone.   Great post”  –Dustin Schlichting

Go there and find out for yourself. (Note, it is a bit hard to read, so feel to print it out. Carson is working on changing the format soon).

Pain and Performance

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

Foam Roller Exercises Are the Bomb and Will Solve Everything!

Below is a funny video about how foam roller exercises will fix everything, even if done in pain.

A newer study below looked at the effects of a very hard and stiff foam roller- Multilevel rigid roller (MRR) and a standard Bio-Foam roller (BFR).
Let’s see what they found

Standard Foam Roller

A Do it Yourself “Hardcore” Roller

What they found is that the Multilevel Rigid Roller exerted more pressure.   Hello McFly, really?  You are telling me that if I get down and roll around on a rolling pin it will be more pressure on my IT band than a foam roller?  Do we really need research to tell us this?

Wrong Questions

They are asking the wrong question here for this study.   If you want a better answer, you need a better question.  A better question is “Does rolling on a foam roller (SMR) result in better long term performance?”

While I have not seen any direct research on that question yet, my answer is NO.

I’ve outlined it in this post below

Get Off the Foam Roller

Why I have No Love for the Foam Roller

My biggest issue with foam rollers is that people do their foam rolling in pain.  Ironically, most are rolling around humping their foam roller trying to get OUT of pain.  Creating MORE pain to get OUT of pain makes about as much sense as coming to see me about your right shoulder that is painful and I take a cow brander and brand your opposite shoulder.  I can guarantee you that your right shoulder will not be painful (and that will be $110 please too.)   Did I solve anything?  Nope, I did not change the underlying issue of your right shoulder?  Nope!  But I sure a heck altered the signal to your brain regarding your right shoulder pain and now it is NOT painful.

Enough With the “Hardcore” Painful Soft Tissue Work

Keep in mind that pain is a creation of the brain and is very complex.    Think of it as the “check engine light” on your car.  When it comes on, you are not sure what is going on, but something is not right and you better stop the darn car before you rip up the engine.   So you bring it to the dealer, they charge you a crap ton of money and hook up their computer to see what is going on.  Hopefully they then fix the underlying issue and you are on your way, albeit with a lighter wallet.  

Pain is telling you that something is not right, and you better go get it checked out by a professional.

See this video below that explains the process of pain

What To Do

You need to teach your brain that movement is NOT painful.  While that is easy in theory, in practice it can be a bit tricky.    Most will get huge benefits from active joint mobility work (like Z-Health).  All the drills have to be done so they are not painful to begin the re-education process.  The brain works by prediction and association.  Move in pain and that 3 pound thing at the end of your spine starts to associate movement with pain.  This is not what we want.  We want pain free movement.

What are your thoughts?  Are you going to continue to move in pain in the interest of feeling better?

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

If you are interested in a custom movement coaching session to increase performance, feel better and move better, drop me a line.

Contact Mike T. Nelson to set up an appointment today by clicking HERE

REFERENCES

A comparison of the pressure exerted on soft tissue by 2 myofascial rollers.
Curran PF, Fiore RD, Crisco JJ.

J Sport Rehabil. 2008 Nov;17(4):432-42

Dept of Orthopaedics, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI 02903, USA.

CONTEXT: Self-myofascial release (SMR) is a technique used to treat myofascial restrictions and restore soft-tissue extensibility. PURPOSE: To determine whether the pressure and contact area on the lateral thigh differ between a Multilevel rigid roller (MRR) and a Bio-Foam roller (BFR) for participants performing SMR. PARTICIPANTS: Ten healthy young men and women. METHODS: Participants performed an SMR technique on the lateral thigh using both myofascial rollers. Thin-film pressure sensels recorded pressure and contact area during each SMR trial. RESULTS: Mean sensel pressure exerted on the soft tissue of the lateral thigh by the MRR (51.8 +/- 10.7 kPa) was significantly (P < .001) greater than that of the conventional BFR (33.4 +/- 6.4 kPa). Mean contact area of the MRR (47.0 +/- 16.1 cm2) was significantly (P < .005) less than that of the BFR (68.4 +/- 25.3 cm2). CONCLUSION: The significantly higher pressure and isolated contact area with the MRR suggest a potential benefit in SMR.

I apologize that I did not get this up this past weekend as I have been fighting some weird bug (hopefully not that swine flue, I mean H1N1) and I’ve been pulling a Rip Van Winkle and sleeping like crazy.  My body shut down on Sat again at about 7pm and I was in bed by 8:40pm and slept 11.5 hours.  This was the 4th time this past week I slept more than 10 hours at night since I could not get anything else done.  Probably a combo of PhD work, a full meet, TSC, planning a wedding, work, training, etc in the past 2.5 weeks, but such is life.  The great part was I felt human again on Sunday and got in a pretty good squat session in the 42 degree garage (it is snowing like crazy now too as I type this).  Go Vikings!!

This is the promised follow up to the Tight Hips, Stop Static Stretching post below.

Tight Hips?  Stop Static Stretching

So welcome back from the link.   You did read it, right?

As you know I am a fan of active mobility work over static stretching as I feel you can get a better result (at least the same range of motion) in a shorter time and you are increasing strength at the end range of motion.   Static stretching makes a muscle weaker.

I have the video below and 2 snap shots of the before and after change in ROM (range of motion).

ROM After Static Stretching of the Hip Flexors

ROM After Joint Mobility Work (Opposite Joint) for the Hip Flexors

Notes:

This athlete did not have particularly tight hips to start with per say, but still got some increased range of motion, even after doing a bit of static stretching.

In the interest of full disclosure I did the same thing one another athlete this past week and saw a very minimal change.   This is expected since we are dealing with physiology here and everyone is going to be a bit different; so the exact same thing will not work 100% of the time for everyone, all the time.  If I could find that one single factor, I would be making a lot more money! hehehe.

You must re-evaluated every exercise with every athlete to know if you are making them better for worse!  You can use gait, range of motion, muscle testing as a few (all of those are taught in the Z-Health R Phase course).

Why Bother?

I can tell you first hand that if you have hips so tight you can bounce quarter off them, you better get them figured out ASAP.  Not only is it decreasing your performance, you are running the risk of injury.  I’ve pulled both of my hip flexors (left and right sides) and a few of my adductors all at the same time.  WOW, that was incredibly painful.   I’ve done all sort of fun stuff to my body over the years from busting up my right ankle (snowboarding), completely dislocated my right shoulder (broomball) and many more but none of them were as remotely painful as my hip flexor pull/strain. I walked like a friggin penguin and that was painful.

I may be cute, but I walk funny (photo credit John)

I could not get in and out of my car without lifting up my legs and bitting my lip to prevent me from yelling in pain which tends to draw lots of attention in the work parking lot and may even wake up the security guard.   I could not roll over at night without waking up in pain–that was a blast. ha!  I would cringe, grab on to the covers and try to slide them under myself while at the same time grabbing my opposite leg, counting to 3 and puling my leg over at the same time trying to slide the other sheet under me.   Trust me, you don’t want to injury your hip flexors!   I will leave the story about riding my pedal bike 150 miles 2 days later on the MS 150 fund raiser for another day.  I figured if I could endure that, it was peanuts to those that had MS.

What did we learn today?

If you can see an increase in range of motion with a joint mobility drill, why would you static stretch?  I think most static stretch since they don’t have another option!  Now you have another option (I like the Z-Health R Phase for precise joint mobility work).

If you are interested in how working the opposite joint helps range of motion, see this post below

Opposite Joints: My elbow hurst and you want me to check my knee?

Let me know what questions you have by posting a comment below!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

One of the really cool things I love about my job is that I get to work with some amazing athletes doing some extreme performances.   If you want to skip the writing, scroll down to see the super short video testimonial.

One such athlete is Chris.  He is currently down at a many day long (think weeks) try out to be an Army Ranger.

I’ve had the privilege of working with him a few times on some pain and movement issues.  The first session involved primarily foot and ankle work to get the muscles around his hips (glutes aka butt muscle and psoas) back to working at 100%.   His gait (walking movement) improved dramatically also.

On his second visit, he developed some slight foot pain and we soon found that his left pinky toe would not move at all, despite how hard he tried to move it.  We went to his RIGHT hand little finger and that combined with some hands on work on a scar on his leg (just holding the tissue in a specific direction while he did the mobility work) allowed his left pinky toe to start moving again.

The great part was when he came in this past time, he had full control of his left pinky toe and no foot pain as he was very diligent about doing his homework exercises for just a few minutes each day for 4 weeks.

He is also a fitness/ personal trainer, runs a bootcamp here in Minnesota, and has been training very hard for Ranger school.   His right hip started to act up a bit, so we took a look at it to get him up to 100% for Ranger school.

This time the same foot/ankle work had no effect.  It seemed like his right psoas was very tight and angry (I’m probably the only one with this mental picture of a psoas muscle with a mad face on it), causing pain when he lifted his right knee up in a marching like motion.

I tested his eye reflexes and found they were “positive” in the up position.  I repeated the same foot/ankle work on the right side, but this time I had him hold his eyes in the up position.   Viola -  the muscles fired well, psoas released (aka a happy psoas now),  hip movement was great, gait was great and no pain.

This is a pretty typical progression that I see.  Standard Z-Health R Phase mobility work for 2-5 sessions and then most need some specific eye work (taught in the Z-Health I Phase cert) to get the muscles working again, thus restoring optimal pain free movement.

Don’t just take my word for it though, here from Chris himself in the video below

Let me hear your comments!

Rock on!

Mike T Nelson

PS

If you are interested in a Z-Health session for yourself or a friend, email me at michaelTnelson@yahoo.com today.  Sessions are booked ona first come, first serve basis and are 100% guaranteed.   The risk is on ME to PROVE to you that it works.