Is it such a Stretch to become Flexible??? Flexibility and its Function in Injury Prevention:

Flexibility and stretching seem to be one of the crosses to bear among athletes as well as the general population.

This became evident recently with the newest Los Angeles Galaxy sensation David Beckham. The reports were clear that Beckham twisted his ankle and was unsure if he would be able to play. “Galaxy waiting on Beckham fitness” was the headline from Reuters.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: David Beckham, struggling to recover from a left ankle injury, was left out of the Los Angeles Galaxy lineup here Tuesday in the US club's 2-1 Superliga victory over Mexico's Pachuca. Beckham made his debut for the Galaxy here last Saturday, playing 12 minutes as a substitute in a 1-0 friendly loss to English side Chelsea. The midfielder who signed a contract worth a potential 250 million dollars to leave Real Madrid is trying to boost football interest by Americans but he was only a spectator as he continues to have treatment upon his sore ankle.”

This is the extreme of what poor stretching, no stretching, and NORMAL stretching can cause. We have all seen the struggles of Kobe Bryant and others who have serious injuries that take them OUT OF THE GAME and could have been avoided if only they had the techniques and training to become powerfully flexible.

According to Dictionary.com, Stretch has several meanings. The one I am speaking about is this: “to stretch oneself by extending the limbs and lengthening the muscles to the utmost:”

There are many forms of stretching that can be utilized together. Some techniques have been found to be much more effective than others.

Some of the kinds of stretching are:
Passive stretching - an external force exerts upon the limb to move it into the new position.
Active stretching - eliminates force and its adverse effects from stretching procedures
Static stretching - used to stretch muscles while the body is at rest
Dynamic stretching - utilizing momentum from form, static-active stretching strength, and the momentum from static-active stretching strength
Ballistic stretching - NEVER DO THIS TECHNIQUE
Resistance Stretching - form of stretching in which a muscle simultaneously contracts and elongates

My definition of the way MOST people normally stretch looks like this:

a single directional movement that takes a joint or muscle to the extreme of its range of motion, opening the muscle fibers and creating space in your body

Normal Stretching: This kind of stretching is most common among the few who actually take time out to stretch. It is a basic set of techniques that open up space allowing for a greater range of motion and less likely chance for injury.

Poor Stretching: We have all seen people out on a field or in a class doing the “Ballistic Stretching.” The best literal illustration I can give for this is someone standing straight and trying to touch his/her toes, bouncing up and down. This uses bouncing motion to stretch muscles past their range of motion before they are ready to do so. This is not only poor stretching, but can cause injury and should not be utilized.

No Stretching: As seen by the couch potato (illustration of couch potato soon to follow). I play with an adult baseball league, and I watch maybe 90% of the players come out to the field and not stretch. They simply start throwing and warming up, but with no preliminary stretching. This lack of proper stretching is prevalent in most of our culture. It is a direct cause of almost all strain/sprain injuries as well as tears and dislocations.

There is a technique of stretching that to date in my field has been considered the MOST EFFECTIVE. That technique is called PNF, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, and is oftentimes a combination of passive stretching and isometrics contractions

So, as I began studying PNF and getting deeper into the nature of a body and the mechanisms of stretching, I began to get a really powerful feel as to the body’s true stretching capabilities and how much it was necessary for Injury Prevention.


There is another way!!!

Throughout my years as a gymnast and martial artist, as well as training with athletes and going through studies in performance, I have found a way to increase your flexibility as well as create more power in the extremes of that flexibility. This technique has proven to me and to my patients to be the crème de la crème of stretching modalities.


Utilizing many of the principles of PNF, I create resistance and contraction at the extremes of the Range of Motion. This is a very effective start to creating power. One of the additions I have made is a technique I call:

Multi-Directional Resistance Stretching©

Let’s say you are stretching someone’s shoulder. When you hit the extent of that person’s range of motion, you can start out with Direct Resistance which is resistance that is directly counter to the motion that got you in that stretch - basic Antagonist Agonist stretching. What I like to add into this is freeform resistance coming from different angles that the person being stretched may not know about. In this way the person getting stretched is holding a tight contraction at the extent of Range of Motion fatiguing muscle fibers and holding off my resistance at different angles causing those balancers to react quickly. This works a greater area of muscle fiber as well as multiple groups of muscles to allow for a simultaneous stretching as well as a powerful contraction within the muscle. What ends up happening is that a person not only becomes more flexible with a greater range of motion, but they also build power in the extremes of flexibility allowing for a highly advanced form of personal injury prevention.

This kind of Power Flexibility is seen perfectly in MMA (mixed martial arts). Someone is in a submission hold and is being flexed well beyond what would be considered most people’s Range of Motion, yet they not only can maneuver out of the hold, but have enough strength in that extreme position to withstand and resist the hold which can cause serious damage such as broken bones and dislocated joints.

Simply being flexible is helpful, but when you add power to that flexibility, you have the greatest likelihood for being injury free…

Let me give you an example of how the power of Multi-Directional Resistance Stretching© can aid in Injury Prevention…

About 4 years ago, I was riding my motorcycle in Oakland, CA. I came around a bend and was blinded by the sun. As I went through the red light, I was T-Boned by a car. I was traveling at approximately 45 MPH and came to a sudden stop. At the time, I was wearing sandals and shorts rather than protective ankle boots and long pants. I am not a small man and this kind of impact for someone my size, more so than most people that are of average size, could be a life altering severe injury. Upon impact, I was hurled over the car into a double flip. If only someone was videotaping this, it would have made for a tremendous stunt on Real TV. I landed on my feet with my left ankle turned out, rolled forward, and stopped directly on my butt facing the wrong direction. Due to the lack of proper clothing, I suffered a fairly bad road rash on my right leg from when I rolled forward. However, because I have spent so much of my focus with creating powerful flexibility, I had absolutely no torn or ripped ligaments in my ankles and absolutely no broken bones. I had a sprained ankle, a few cuts, and other than that was fine. It took me about 2-2 months for the road rash to heal up, but I was back on my feet walking around within 2 weeks.

This result was a testament to really one kind of powerful flexibility.

Multi-Directional Resistance Stretching©

written by Ari Gronich
Owner and Founder and Developer of
The Academy for Performance Therapy

The Real Squeeze on Muscle Cramping

Venus overcomes leg cramps to beat Hingis" was the headlines on MSNBC.com

After watching Venus Williams lying on the ground at Wimbledon screaming in agony from a severe muscle cramp in her leg, I decided that it would be a great topic to speak on here...

A friend and avid tennis enthusiast began asking me some questions about these cramps that were so obviously in effect with some top ranked sports stars.

His questions started with:

"What is a muscle cramp?"

The dictionary answer looks like this:


1. A sudden, involuntary, spasmodic muscular contraction causing severe pain,
often occurring in the leg or shoulder as the result of strain or chill.
2. A temporary partial paralysis of habitually or excessively used muscles.



The real question in my book is not so much what is a cramp, but WHY is a cramp? What is the cause underlying the symptoms, and what do the symptoms tell us about how to treat a cramp?

I have several answers to this type of question.

• Cramping is caused by several affects that come together. I will mention some of these as well as treatment options to help prevent cramping from occurring...
  Tight muscles that are not warmed up properly or stretched effectively is one of the primary causes for the symptom of cramping. Also muscles that have been overworked and are in the state of strain or are already inflamed due to doing too much prior to heavy extended exercise can cramp.

• Pre-Event Sports Massage is one of the most effective methods for preventing cramping. This style of therapy increases circulation and activates acetylcholine in your body. (Biochemistry: The acetic acid ester of choline, C7H17NO3, released and hydrolyzed during nerve conduction and causing muscle action by transmitting nerve impulses across synapses. This is responsible for fast reaction time as well as keeping your muscles ready for POUNCING.) In other words, when you have plenty of this active in your muscle cells, your body is set for action - not for seizing. Pre-Event Sports Massage also aids in pushing built-up lactic acid out of muscle tissue, gradually warming the muscle fibers and creating an environment where cramping is less likely to occur.

• Dehydration and loss of electrolytes due to excess exercise with minimal replenishment of proper fluids leads to a build up of lactic acid, an increase of inflammation, and a decrease in proper circulation. Upon a slight cooling of the muscles, there is so much build up that a seizing occurs causing cramping.

• Lack of stretching and proper warm up can also contribute to the ease at which a cramp will come on. If you do a pre stretch routine along with some warm up exercises, you increase vasodilation as well as the space in between muscle fibers thereby increasing your muscles’ ability to flush lactic acid out of the muscles. Also, this pre event warm up brings the temperature of your muscles up gradually so that there is not such a great spike in temperature at "GAME TIME." This allows for a decrease in inflammation and, upon cooling, less likely chance for cramping to occur.

• A cooling down period is very important as well to decrease your chances of developing cramps. This allows your muscles to gradually come down in temperature eliminating much of the seize that happens when your muscles go from a state of inflammation to a direct state of cool. Along with this period, it would be a good idea to elevate your legs and arms above your heart so that your circulation can work with gravity to flush the excess blood flow and acid out of your extremities.

• Always drink WATER especially some of the new electrolyte enhanced waters, while exercising and performing.

His next question was more of an immediate emergency question. He asked me:

"What do I do if I didn't do any of those things and I am in the middle of a cramp RIGHT NOW?"

This is where my philosophy meets nature and more scientific principles.

At the heart of this question lies the “Go To” vs “Run From” philosophies. To answer this question, I come from a natural point of view.

The mechanism of a cramp is:

Overly acidic muscles contracting and spasming and seizing trying to do WHAT?

• The act of contraction, spasm, and seizing has three effects. (a) The contraction acts to squeeze muscles and take away space from them; (b) the more you can take space away, the less can fit in; and (c) the less that can fit in, the more you eliminate what does not belong; therefore, nature is telling you that there is something in your muscles that it does not want there.

• Spasming is a mechanism that aids in vibrating the muscle cells to expand and contract very quickly creating a pump-like action, opening and closing, pushing acid out of the muscle when open and stopping that acid from coming back in when closing. This also aids in the elimination of our culprit.

• The seizing or paralyzing of the muscle is designed to lock your muscle in place so that the other two mechanisms work more efficiently.

We tend not to like nature very much, and we try very hard to push out of a cramp and eliminate the immediacy of the pain we are in. What happens when we do this is we open up the floodgates for the fluid and, almost like a sponge, we suck more acid into the muscle making the next cramp much more likely and sometimes even more severe. When we try to go away from our pain, we draw it in more and more.

If we were to follow nature, what would be the most effective method?

Enjoy your pain!!! What I mean by this is that to aid nature in its course is the most effective way to eliminate cramps in the moment as well as help prevent them from occurring in the future.

"How do you aid nature?"

Well, this is where my personal explorations came in. If I were to follow nature and look at the mechanisms of a cramp, my only response would be to help the cramp out.

This is done by squeezing into the cramp. Lock the muscle even more and squeeze as hard as you can for as long as you can stand it. You must breathe throughout this process. What will happen is you will feel your muscles vibrate and twitch at a much more accelerated speed. You will feel the muscle fibers begin to burn and then begin to fatigue. You will feel the cramping getting almost hard to sustain. As you tighten and tighten and tighten your muscles into the cramp, you will notice a very strange thing. As much as the pain got you when you started squeezing, that pain will begin to decrease and the twitching that was once very fast will start to get slower and more pronounced and your muscle will fatigue from being locked and begin to give way.

This is the point when you squeeze even tighter. It is crucial that at the point of relaxation, your muscles are so over fatigued that they simply drop into a limp jello-like state. When you get to this point, you have pushed a great majority of that lactic acid out of the muscles; you have stretched and fatigued your muscles enough that they can relax; and such a great level, and you have created an environment in your body where cramps become much less likely next time.

The more you can stand the pain and the more you can follow nature’s mechanisms, the greater your performance will be with the least likely chance of causing injury.

If you have any questions feel free to email me.

Thanks

Written By Ari Gronich
www.performancetherapist.com

M.E.N.S. A Complete program

Meditation
Exercise
Nutrition
Stretching

Description of each:

Meditation: Just 15 to 20 minutes a day is all that is needed. Sit in a comfortable way, free of distractions. Close your eyes. Imagine being in a place that is most relaxing to you (beach, meadow, stream, etc.). Focus on your breathing. Notice body sensations (itches, stresses, etc.) but avoid moving to remove them. Allow thoughts to bubble up and then pass through. Observe all your many thoughts without acting on them. Do NOT try to stop your thinking; that is impossible. Just notice your thinking. If you judge your own thoughts or make decisions, that's OK too; just observe that judgments and decisions are also thoughts, and let them pass through along with the rest of them.

Exercise: Just 20-30 minute a day, no more than an hour, of vigorous mixed resistance and cardio-vascular exercise (weights and biking for example). You can mix them in the same day or alternate. Vigorous does not mean muscle-tearing and exhausting. Make it simple and enjoyable. Pick a regular time each day. If you have health problems, see your physician before engaging in an exercise program.

Nutrition: 5 small meals a day, emphasizing fruits, vegetables, complex carbs, and lean meats, if any. Minimize sweets and white starches (bread, white rice, potatoes, cake, tortillas, etc.) and avoiding heavy animal fats such as cold-cuts, sausages, and whole milk (including whole milk cheeses and whole milk yogurt).

Stretching: Stretch all major muscle groups at least twice a day (morning and afternoon for example), and intermittently throughout the day (get out of your chair at least once an hour and stretch).

Main purpose for each

Meditation: Enables you to ride through stressful events and interactions; trains your mind to let unwanted thoughts pass through rather than cause emotional reactions. Physically, it can help reduce fat accumulation in the mid-body, which is known to be stress related.

Exercise: Evens out the temperament - reduces mood swings, particularly downward swings. Obviously, also, exercise will improve your appearance and overall physical health.

Nutrition: Levels out the mood swings. Physically, it will also help you lose weight and improve overall health.

Stretching: Helps emotions pass out of your system freely rather than accumulate, thus freeing you of reactive (past-history and emotional) responses to events. Also removes toxins from the system with myriad mental and physical benefits. Physically, stretching removes pain in joints and muscles and increases flexibility and agility.

Biochemical effects

Meditation: Reduces release of adrenaline and cortisol, the stress-related hormones. In cases of adrenal fatigue, the result of extended periods of stress, which can cause wild variations in many different hormones in the body, meditation can help return the adrenal glands to normal functioning.

Exercise: As described, exercise releases serotonin. It raises mood level. Exercise. as described. may in fact reduce or eliminate the need for chemical anti-depressants.

Nutrition: As described, levels out insulin levels throughout the day. This in turn reduces hunger pangs and emotional eating. Also, by eliminating hunger pangs, which is a stressor, reduces anxiety and the release of stress-related hormones (adrenaline and cortisol).

Stretching: Removes toxic bi-products of the hormone system, allowing the system to function smoothly.


suggested by Dr. Richard Recor, PhD. and Authored by Robert Kramarz

Never do Sit Ups Again...!!!

Traditionally if you wanted to create a strong core and rock hard abs, you had to do an endless amount of sit ups. You would either put your hands behind your head, torquing your neck and causing all sorts of low back pain, or you would put your arms across your chest and try to keep your head straight, looking at the ceiling, and all the while remembering to breathe properly.

Then crunches, which targeted only a small portion of your abs, came along, but they too created other issues with low back and neck. These injuries were much less than the sit up but did not give a well- rounded full abs workout.

So late at night you are sitting around on the couch or lying in bed and all of a sudden you see these infomercials. The people all have amazing abs and they are giving all the credit to the newest and greatest machine on the market. For only $99.95 you too can have the abs of a Greek statue. Some of these machines are great and others fall by the wayside.

In my business we see people all day long that have one major issue. If this issue was taken care of, then all of the other problems would be much easier to handle. This is the issue of CORE STRENGTH.

There are several ways to work the abs, but the greatest way that I have found WITHIN a workout that does not take any extra time and yet burns up your tummy like no body's business, IS...................

Systematically get yourself into an unbalanced position while at the same time doing other resistance training. Then do what is necessary to get balanced while continuing the resistance training.

In other words, creating an imbalance and attempting to find that balance while in the midst of doing your resistance training is the answer.

Suggestions for how to do this are:

1. Use a balance ball while lifting your free weights.
2. Balance on one leg at a time.
3. Use pulley machines that pull back on you creating a need to balance both
directions.
4. In order to get to your oblique’s, cross your body and create straight
movements.

Soon I will have pictures and the like up so that you can see how you can utilize these techniques to build a powerful, flexible core without ever doing sit ups again!!!

Written By Ari Gronich
www.performancetherapist.com

Fresh Injuries and the Proper use of Heat and Ice...

Situation: You just pulled a muscle in your calf and need to know the correct protocol for a quick recovery.

The standard treatment is known as R.I.C.E. which stands for:

Rest
Ice
Compress
Elevate

I have a different method that produces much faster healing and recovery with the potential to come out of the injury with more flexibility and power than with the standard treatment.

The First Step is:

Ice and elevate your leg, preferably above your heart. This will allow for inflammation to go down and proper circulation back into the damaged area.

The difference comes in this Second Step:

While you are elevated, begin to flex your foot and calf muscles slowly. Hold the flex for 10-15 seconds or as long as you can. Push down into the ground; work the muscle tissue. Remember to do this slowly and with much care. What you will find is that through this working of the muscles you will end up pushing more of the fluid through the muscles thus decreasing inflammation and swelling and increasing your flexibility and mobility. The more intensely you can push through the pain, the more quickly you will recover.

The Third Step in this process is HEAT!!!

Heat is tricky and must be handled with care. It is with many years of seeing patients and working with dry heat and moist heat and all kinds of heat that I found what seems to work the most effectively: Steaming Heat from a Wet Hot Towel!!! It is truly that simple. Dry heat tends to add to inflammation and the seizing and cramping of muscles. Even moist heat, like from a hyrdrocolator, tends to increase muscle stiffness - especially when you take the heat away and the cool air closes in.

Take a towel and wet it with steamy hot water or put it in a plastic microwavable bag and heat it inside a microwave until it is steamy hot, then place that on the troubled area.

My experience is that because of the nature of steamy heat, it opens the pores of your skin and increases your body’s ability to draw out toxins while increasing circulation and decreasing inflammation.

Just a logical guess, but because the steam is PULLING up away from the skin, it is pulling more of the lactic acid to the surface and out of your skin bringing the damage closer to the surface and allowing for a more expedient recovery time.

In summary, for those of you who do not like 4 letter words, the new MUCH better method I recommend is:

Ice
Elevate
Flex with resistance
Steamy heat
Flex
Elevate
Ice
Rest
Repeat

I am off to the Infrared Sauna

’Till Next Time

Written By Ari Gronich
www.performancetherapist.com

Why I am writing this Blog!!!

I am writing this blog to introduce myself and this concept of Performance Therapy. My name is Ari Gronich, and I am the founder of the Academy of Performance Therapy.

So What is Performance Therapy ANYWAY!!

Performance Therapy is a three-pronged approach to your body as it relates to your sport. It incorporates the treatment and prevention of injury along with improving performance. It is unique in that our approach incorporates a holistic view of soft tissue damage and its effects on the entire moving system of your body. We look at joints, ligaments, tendons, muscle bellies, balancing muscles, core strength, and much more to develop these complete, and yet individualized, programs for each person.

In this particular blog, I want to share with you some ways in which YOU as an individual can take a proactive step in your own Injury Prevention and Pain Relief as well as increase your performance. Things you can expect to get out of this blog include:

1. How to deal with a fresh injury

2. How to speed up your recovery time

3. A new approach to stretching that will GREATLY increase Injury Prevention

4. The Importance of Range of Motion and Flexibility Training

5. Building a powerful Core without ever doing sit ups again...

Written By: Ari Gronich
www.performancetherapist.com