Just another quick rapid fire update before I head off to the last day. sniff sniff
As stated the other day, ANY THREAT can be interpreted as pain and pain and poor performance are the same thing. I just realized this AM that one of the reasons I love David Allen's system of organization (called "Getting Things Done") is that it allows me to take tasks and put them into a system and get them off my mind and I believe it also reduces the threat level. I am sure all of us reach point where it feels like there is WAY more things going than we can do, which is a threat and at min leads to increased stress.
Wrist mobility can be huge for shoulder ROM and we learned some super fast drills to assess it.
Strength can be viewed as a threat. You are strong enough to lift it already but your brain/nervous system won't let you. Two great examples of this are Roger Bannister breaking the 4 minute mile and Fred Hatfield squatting over 1,000 lbs. Both were feats that people said could not be done, but they did not believe them and did it. Soon after, there were many more in a few weeks to months that did the same thing. Their beliefs were shattered.
Stress is only a stimulus--disstress vs eustress
The primary area of threat to the body is the head and esp the eyes (vision). This will have huge ramifications for sports performance and pain reduction. I don't see enough people in the training/performance enhancement field addressing this at all. A running back with great vision will have a HUGE advantage. Why do you think top athlete always talk about "seeing the game" etc. Now some of that goes beyond just vision, but vision is a great start.
Example, I have been doing some visual work (eye muscle work too) and it has made a huge difference. I had my private session with Dr. Cobb and we worked on more visual items. I had a "lazy eye" as a kid and they patched my good eye at that time to force my other eye to work more. So today my eyes track together (for the most part), but I am suppressing the signal from my other eye; so I am only using one eye. Dr. Cobb had me do some drills to get both of my eyes "back online" and the difference in gait and posture was crazy. I had neurally chunked my current posture (and basically everything) to my vision of only using one eye so once I get my other eye back online I will have binocular vision, and that is going to absolutely huge.
Visceral pain and referred pain and what to do about it. Yes, it may not be your shoulder that is the true source of the issue. I watched a private session and saw that it was the liver on an athlete here that was affecting his shoulder pain and range of motion. Yes it sounds insane, but look up "Head's zones" if you are interested. Again, ALL DETAILS MATTER. Dr Fernando Cervero has some good stuff on visceral pain too.
Breath retraining. Think of how many breaths you take a day--about 20 to 26,000 EACH day. If this is messed up, it is not good. Since it is controlled by muscles and the nervous system it can be retrained. If you are breathing with only chest and not your belly you will need to check this out (contact me with any questions of course).
For all you cardio bunnies, efficiency is HUGE! Breathing is a huge part of this and with some simple drills can shave time of your best times very quickly.
Neurodynamics--what is it and how to test for it.
Nerve glide testing for all the majors nerves in the body
Cranial Sacral--what is it and does it work? The cranium is extremely important (remember it holds that thing we call a brain). The lines (sutures) are NOT fused. There is current research to back this up. The first time I heard that I thought it was bull crap, but it is true.
There is a connection between the top of the spine (C2) and the coverings of the skull/brain; so you can affect it by very precise mobility work with the head and upper spine.
There was more but my ride is on the way.
Rock on
Mike N
