Is it a Misconception To Think The Pros Get The Best In Sports Medicine???

by Miami Beach Chiropractic Sports Physician, Dr. Todd M. Narson

2008 AVP - "South Beach" Miami Beach, FL

I came across an article this morning about The Minnesota Vikings and their athletic training staff.  It's a nice article - building up their athletic training staff with all their accolades and experience. But something both bothered me and pleased me at the same time; It was this paragraph:

 

"The entire athletic training staff are Performance Enhancement Specialists through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. During the 2010 off-season, the Vikings staff was trained in Graston technique, a patented form of instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization that works to effectively break down scar tissue and fascial    restrictions"

Realistically, there's nothing wrong with that paragraph. It's absolutely 100% accurate. They took the courses, did the training and yes, Graston Technique(r) does all those things (and more)... It makes me happy to hear about people advancing their education and skill-set, especially when it comes to improving the health of other people. 

So what's my problem???

Well, what bothered me is here we have a group of medical professionals that have been behind the curve for quite a while, especially for being at the ultimate level in sports competition - The Pro's.

Working on a chronic post surgical knee using FAKTR technique (2006)

I've been certified in IASTM (Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization) and specifically Graston Technique since 2002...both M1 & M2 certification levels as well as the more advanced IASTM concepts of FAKTR.  Most of the public sits back, watches the games and when their player suddenly gets hurt they rest assured that their getting the best of the latest and greatest technology out there when it comes to sports medicine.  Now it seems that may or may not be true.

Why am I being so harsh on them?

Graston Technique Represented a quantum leap in the technology of treating pain related soft tissue  injuries - a paradigm shift in the way we treat soft tissue injuries.  But this paradigm shift started back in 1994, not 2010.  I first found out about Graston Technique(r) when at a continuing education convention in 2001 and was walking around some of the vendor booths during a break with my friend and sports medicine mentor Dr. Tom Hyde.  This was the first time we encountered it.  Within a year I was sitting in a Graston Technique(r) course. Tom had taken the first course he could find and was already certified and preparing to teach it.  But if you know Tom, well, that's Tom.  He's a walking talking functional sports medicine encyclopedia. If there anything effective and worth while, he dives in head first..learns everything there is to know and ends up teaching the rest of us.

Same thing, just a close up (still 2006)

It took some time to become proficient in the technique and after mastering it, it eventually it became one of my main tools when treating various pain syndromes - especially long term chronic ones.  Conditions like chronic hamstrings strains, I.T. band syndrome & plantar fasciitis in runners and triathletes, rotator cuff injuries in swimmers and "throwing" athletes, bicipital tenosynovitis (what most people call bicipital tendonitis), Post surgical adhesion pain as well as other pesky aches and pains that don't seem to respond to typical physiotherapy, stretching, exercise, pain/anti-inflammatory meds or chiropractic care.  With Graston Technique as a base and FAKTR I was helping conditions that were extremely difficult to treat that took months and months of treatment previously. Now in as little as a few treatment sessions or only a few weeks. 

So why am I explaining this to you? Why does this "press release" erk me so much?  Because I use to think just because they work with the Pro's they were automatically the best. However it turns out you can often find (at least) the same quality physicians, trainers and therapists as the professionals use, right in your neighborhood.  And... you don't have to be a pro athlete to be treated like one.  It's taken over a decade for the Vikings to adopt this wildly successful technique, but I bet there's an advanced IASTM provider right in your neighborhood who is more experienced and more proficient.  

Team Jamaica's Orthopedic Surgeon Assisting Me With IASTM

Want to find a great chiropractic sports medicine physician right in your neighborhood?  Click here to begin your search 

'nuff said

Dr. T

Below are some great resources to find physicians and therapist with advanced degrees and certifications in sports medicine and/or advanced soft tissue treatment techniques like Graston Technique and FAKTR:

1. American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians(r) 

2. ACA Sports Council

Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine.

#chiropractormiamibeach #MiamiBeachChiropractor #SportsInjuriesFixedHere #DrNarson #ToddNarson #Narson #TriDoc #TriathlonDoc #ChiropracticSportsMedicine #ACASC #SportsMedicine #SportsChiropractor #MiamiBeachSportsMedicine #SportsMedicineMiami #MiamiSportsMedicine #MiamiChiropractor #Triathlon #Running #Ironman #IFixPeopleInPain #TrainWithoutPain #MiamiBeachChiropractor #GrastonTechnique #FAKTR #IASTM #Chiropractor #FootPain #Narson #NarsonBodyMechanic #NarsonTool #DACBSP #CCSP #ACBSP #BackPain #NeckPain #ShoulderPain #RotatorCuff #ITBandSyndrome #runnersKnee #PlantarFasciitis #Plantarfascitis #AchillesTendonitis #AchillesTendonosis #GettingAthletesBackInTheGame  #MiamiBeachChiropractor #MiamiSportsMedicine #MiamiBeachSportsMedicine #WeFixPeopleInPain #TrainWithoutPain #ChiropracticSportsMedicine #ACASC #ProSportChiropractic #FunctionalMedicineMiami #DrNarson #BackPainRelief #NeckPainRelief #SportsInjuriesFixedHere #LaserTherapy #RockTape #KinesioTape #KTTape #Nutrition #21DayPurificationProgram #DetoxProgram #PaleoDiet #PaleoDoc #FunctionalNutrition #Chirooractor #Chiropractic #ChiropracticPhysician #DoctorOfChiropractic #USATriathlon #USAT #TeamUSA

Graston Technique(r), FAKTR & Narson Body Mechanic

I've been certified in Graston Technique(r) since 2002/2003. It's a phenomenal method at treating chronic sports injuries and some acute injuries as well. The technique uses 6 stainless steel instruments (pictured to the right) that are used to treat scar tissue and adhesions that prevent the function of normal tissue dynamics typically seen after an improperly healed injury.

Since becoming certified and practicing this technique on thousands of patients over the years I began to notice that I would get the best results when I treated patients in a position of provocation. In other words, when a patient said, "it hurts when I do this" I would treat the condition with my Graston Technique(r) instruments while they were in the position where they complained provoked their pain. My rate of success increased even more.

I began having people hold dumbbell weights, pull on resistance bands or exercise tubing or simply go through the motions of their sport while I administered the treatment. I would follow this more active/function version of Graston Technique(r) with stretching, ice and electric stimulation and pulsed ultrasound. The results were outstanding. You should also know that Graston Technique(r) isn't just treating patients with their instruments. It also involved evaluation of the patient and the administration of treatment afterward (stretching, therapies and home instructions for patient self care).

In 2006 I was picked to travel with a team of sports chiropractors to treat athletes at the 20th Central American & All Caribbean Sport Games. It's basically a mini-Olympics where the winners of these events go on to the Pan American Games and then onto the Olympics.

In most circumstances, all I had was my reflex hammer, some athletic tape & and ACE bandage, my adjusting table and my set of Graston instruments. If I was lucky, there was some ice and plastic bags. I used both the standard Graston Technique(r) and also the more functional version I was slowly discovering. Being in an environment where you often didn't have electricity and certainly didn't have all the comforts of a modern chiropractic sports injury office, you had to so the best with what you had. I found that I was able to use these more functional treating techniques were extremely effective, more so than when treating statically. I helped quite a few athletes get back into their event pain free. I continued to use my modified methods when I finally returned home.

It wasn't too long after that I learned one of my sports medicine mentors, Dr. Tom Hyde along with one of my original Graston Technique (r) instructors, Dr. Greg Doerr had been developing a lot of this "functional" Instrument Soft Tissue Mobilization stuff. I believe they had been doing it for about 4 years at the point when I first caught onto it but had already taken it a lot further. Both being instructors & friends, they they continued to collaborate and add more and more to it. Dr. Hyde and Dr. Doerr continue to develop and add to this functional instrument based soft tissue technique and began teaching and adding to it. I took their class which was called FAKTR-PM (Functional And Kinetic Treatment with Rehab Provocation and Motion (...now shortened to just FAKTR). It was outstanding. The physicians, trainers and therapist that were in the classes were certainly the cream of the crop. I think people knew that they were on to something big.

The technique really developed and advanced, now getting the input of the many of the leading physicians, trainers and therapists from around the world. This FAKTR thing had developed into a very advanced Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization method. It continues to evolve to this day and I'm sure will be better tomorrow than it was yesterday.

I think the Graston Technique(r) is an excellent base of knowledge and represents the foundation for this work. If you want to get into this kind of treatment, Graston Technique(r) is definitely the place to start. It represents the foundation of instrument based soft tissue treatment. In my opinion, you can't get very far without a good foundation. However, as you get more experienced with your technique, FAKTR is where you go from there. FAKTR is an ever evolving technique that incorporates current trends and research. I've seen where one seminar to the next will be different based on information that was published in a recent research journal. It's ever evolving for the right reasons.

What has made performing FAKTR so much easier was the N6 Narson Body Mechanic that I developed. I found that when treating a patient, I changed instruments at least twice, sometimes more. Now, I currently use only 1 stainless steel instrument that has the functionality of my 5 main GT instruments as well as other Gua Sha instruments on the market. It's like a Swiss Army Knife of Soft Tissue instruments. I've added a gripping surface to reduce finger and hand fatigue and now I only need to carry 1 instrument from patient to patient. I only clean 1 instrument and it's much easier to transport when traveling. That's probably considered a shameless plug, but it kind of like talking about baseball without mentioning the glove, ball or bat.

So combine your FAKTR Functional and Kinetic Treatment with Rehab Provocation and Motion with your Narson Body Mechanic N6 and you have a winning combination to treat athletes, difficult chronic sports injuries and more.

For more information on the techniques and instruments discussed above, please click on the following links:

FAKTR www.faktr.com
Narson Body Mechanic N6: www.NarsonBodyMechanic.com
Graston Technique: www.GrastonTechnique.com

Graston Technique(r), FAKTR and Narson Body Mechanic are separate and distinct companies. None of these companies endorses the other. The Narson Body Mechanic instrument should not be confused with Graston Technique(r) instruments. The Narson Body Mechanic is for use with Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization while only Graston Technique(r) tools are for use with Graston Technique(r). Graston Technique(r) is owned by Therapy Care Resources, Inc.

Healthfully yours

DocT



Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine.

Dr. Narson Announces The Opening Of The New Office

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Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine.

#chiropractormiamibeach #MiamiBeachChiropractor #SportsInjuriesFixedHere #DrNarson #ToddNarson #Narson #TriDoc #TriathlonDoc #ChiropracticSportsMedicine #ACASC #SportsMedicine #SportsChiropractor #MiamiBeachSportsMedicine #SportsMedicineMiami #MiamiSportsMedicine #MiamiChiropractor #Triathlon #Running #Ironman #IFixPeopleInPain #TrainWithoutPain #MiamiBeachChiropractor #GrastonTechnique #FAKTR #IASTM #Chiropractor #FootPain #Narson #NarsonBodyMechanic #NarsonTool #DACBSP #CCSP #ACBSP #BackPain #NeckPain #ShoulderPain #RotatorCuff #ITBandSyndrome #runnersKnee #PlantarFasciitis #Plantarfascitis #AchillesTendonitis #AchillesTendonosis #GettingAthletesBackInTheGame  #MiamiBeachChiropractor #MiamiSportsMedicine #MiamiBeachSportsMedicine #WeFixPeopleInPain #TrainWithoutPain #ChiropracticSportsMedicine #ACASC #ProSportChiropractic #FunctionalMedicineMiami #DrNarson #BackPainRelief #NeckPainRelief #SportsInjuriesFixedHere #LaserTherapy #RockTape #KinesioTape #KTTape #Nutrition #21DayPurificationProgram #DetoxProgram #PaleoDiet #PaleoDoc #FunctionalNutrition #Chirooractor #Chiropractic #ChiropracticPhysician #DoctorOfChiropractic #USATriathlon #USAT #TeamUSA

What To Do About Those Old "Aches & Pains" That Keep Coming Back To Haunt

Graston Technique, FAKTR-PM, SASTM, AYSTM I’m sure you remember falling off your bike as a kid. Maybe a little accident on the monkey bars or on the ball field. A bump on the head, a bruised knee, a pulled groin or strained hamstring or maybe a sprained ankle or a sore shoulder from a multitude of childhood horsing & playing around. You went home, mom or dad put on a cold compress and the next day or the day after you’re up and running around again like nothing ever happened.

Ahhhh; but something did happen. Your little bump, bruise, strain or sprain started a little process. Yes it’s your body’s natural healing process but its how we ignore the process that presents the problem. Mom or dad puts an ice pack (if you were lucky) or a heating pad on it for a day or two and then off to the races you go. It doesn’t really matter if you go to a doctor or therapist for treatment of your injury, it will heal on its own regardless. But that doesn’t mean it will heel properly or optimally. That’s where we (the doctors, trainers & therapists) come in.

So, you have some contusion (deep muscle bruise) or strained a muscle that now needs to be fixed. The healing process starts by removing the damaged tissues then when that’s done, it starts bring in the new materials to start rebuilding. Inflammation happens, hopefully it subsides on its own, typically it doesn’t. So you put on some ice, take some over the counter pain killer and you feel fine again. Trust me on this, you’re not fine. You can ignore the pain, the slight change in function and get on with your little life. But the healing process ensues. Eventually, the damaged tissue heals with scar tissue and you’re all patched up. Now, here in lies the problem.

Scar tissue isn’t as good as the original tissue. Just look at any old cut on your arms or hand, or that spot where you skinned your knees as a kid and you can easily see it. Scar tissue has a haphazard matrix of fibers whereas the original tissues matrix is organized. It’s organized based on the specific function of the tissue for both strength and resiliency. Have you ever seen a car that had bad body work done on it? It’s just like that. Most scar tissues (adhesions) are simply a bad “patch job”. If you’re lucky enough to realize what’s going on in the beginning, applying ice compresses, doing light stretching and very light resistance exercise can help scar tissue heal optimally. If you just brushed it off, took a few over the counter pain killers and ignored it, (like most of us); as you get to your mid 30s or 40s all of a sudden you start getting these aches and pain out of nowhere. Then you are forced to deal with it as that once childhood bump, bruise or strain, comes back to Haunt You.

The problem lies in the transition area between the scar tissue and “normal” tissue. It’s a zone of weakness that is prone to re-injury. It’s not that neat organized “normal” flexible tissue you used to have prior to that old injury, and it’s not that thick inflexible scar. It’s the transition somewhere in-between. And it’s weaker!

So, how do you get rid of it?

In the past, we never realized that scar tissue and adhesions from old injuries were such a problem. The conditions were attributed to “old age” (what I call a cop-out), arthritis or the doctor would say something like “you probably twisted yourself in your sleep” or something the like. The approach was typically physical therapy, ice compresses, or heat compresses or stretching or massage, joint mobilization, adjustments to the joints etc. Which, are all good treatments, but never really addressed the primary problem. Now, through a lot of trial and error and some published research, reducing scar tissue and adhesions from old injuries seems to be solving many of the problems people have been told they simply have to “live with”.

Once scar tissues have formed they are pretty darn durable. Which is usually as good thing. But many scars attach to more than just the injured part and therein lies the problem. Muscles, ligaments, connective tissue, fascia etc are all layered on top of one another and they slide & glide on top of each other. When one tissue gets injured, the “stuff” that becomes a scar to heal the area solidified while attaching to a bunch of different tissues in the area bonding them together. But they weren’t made to work together like that, they should work independently. This causes restriction and pain and sometimes it could take years for it to develop as the scars become more mature as the years pass. (Think about lifting your pants leg up while it sticks to your sock or stocking with static cling; or taking a band-aid off a cut while the little white pad sticks to the scab)

You can’t massage them away, some more aggressive stretching works in some cases but is mostly temporary. Typical therapies just never really did the trick. However, over the past 8-10 years a new technology has emerged that directly addresses scar tissues and adhesions at their source. With high density stainless steel soft tissue mobilization tools, doctors and athletic trainers using Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization(IASTM) have been able to detect both superficial and deep scars and adhesions, reduce and remove them and in combination with post IASTM treatment protocols, finally get rid of this nemesis that plagues us as we get older. I have great successes with rotator cuff problems, post surgical knees, chronic hip pain after hip replacement surgery, low back pain, TMJ disorders, neck pain deep contusions, ankle sprains, plantar fascitis just to name a few.

The IASTM technique has been wildly successful to the point where most Athletic Trainers for the NBA, NHL, NFL & MLB have become certified and use the techniques to treat their pro athletes. Sports medicine physicians, therapists and athletic trainers around the world are all learning this stuff now. Back in 2006, I had the privilege to travel to Cartegena Colombia to treat world class athletes along with some of my colleagues at the 2006 Central American & All Caribean Games; and after only a few days, those of us certified in IASTM techniques were getting a huge following amongst the athletes, their team physicians & trainers. Those physicians who weren’t certified, all inquired about signing up for the certification program. That's how powerful this is. Trust me, physicians are a skeptical bunch.

So, if your joints are starting to ache and you feel like you too are suffering from “old age”, maybe try a new approach. If you are an athlete and you feel things aren’t just right, maybe not like they use to be, then seek out a physician, therapist or trainer certified in IASTM and put those childhood bumps, strains and bruises back in the past where they belong.

More info on where to get IASTM instruments and education; click here


Healthfully yours

DocT

Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine.

New Soft Tissue Instrument for use with Graston Technique, FAKTR-PM, SASTM, ASTYM, Gua Sha or IASTM

Graston Technique®, FAKTR-PM, SASTM, ASTYM, Gua Sha and IASTM are the names being thrown around today in the arena of instrument assisted & augmented soft tissue mobilization methods.

Gua Sha (Chinese: 刮痧; pinyin: guā shā), literally "to scrape away fever" in Chinese, dates back sometime between the 5th & 7th centuries. Since then as you could imagine there's been some progress. Science has taken the reigns and nowadays we have Graston Technique®, ASTYM, SASTM and of course all the people running around with spoons and Whartenberg Pinwheels with tape over the pointy wheel doing some made up form of IASTM. The moral of this paragraph is that this ancient method of treatment has lasted the test of (a lot of ) time and has some solid research behind it (referenced below). The reason, quite simply put, it works really well.

No matter which technique you do, there are a lot of "instruments". Each system offers either stainless steel, ceramic or hard plastic tools and there seems to be one tool for each body part. Having been a certified Graston Technique® practitioner since 2002-2003, I've been using my instrument set numerous times daily when treating sports injuries, car accident injuries, chronic back and neck pain and post hip/knee replacement pain. However the more I use the tools, the more I had to carry with me. Tools became slippery from the emollient and when you added it all up, I ended up spending a lot of time changing between different instruments, cleaning and searching for the right tool for the particular tissue I was working on. Although quite effective, it was definitely a hassle that I thought could be streamlined. Greater efficiency with equal or greater effectiveness was what I was looking for.

So, After years of tools slipping from my hands, my hands and fingers getting fatigued as the tools became more slippery during treatments throughout the day, having to change tools during treatment of the same patient, washing, cleaning and transporting multiple tools to and from different treatment rooms. I also found that there were some parts of the existing tools that I never used or needed, so I had to find a something better. However everywhere I looked, nothing existed that fit my needs. Everyone I spoke to was “mostly content” with what was available and no one offered any solution. So with all the metal, wood and plastic soft tissue tools I accumulated over the years, I went to the drawing board and started designing.

After years of my testing different wood, metal & plastic tools available on the market, I started combining the best and most useful elements of the tools I obtained into various designs. During this time my father injured his right shoulder and was unable to abduct his right shoulder. He was diagnosed with a torn supraspinatus with 2.5mm of retraction at the myo-tendon junction, his orthopedic surgeon (as well as an orthopedic second opinion) told him he’d require surgery to repair the rotator cuff if he hoped to regain any function again. He called me and came in for an exam & treatment with his MRI in hand.

This was about the same time I finished my latest design of a new soft tissue instrument (of which there had been many). I had been playing with the design and had just finished refining the drawing the day he came in. As I was working on his shoulder, he was looking over my drawings and took a copy of the latest design back to his shop with him. Without my knowing it, he began taking my design and forging it into reality. He spent that week cutting, grinding and shaping it out of stainless steel. He brought it to me a week later and for the first time I held in my hands what I thought was the perfect soft tissue instrument. Over the next several months as we continued to treat his shoulder, we refined & improved the instrument until it worked as I dreamed it would. Today, I’m proud to say (and to his surgeon’s amazement) my father had a fully functional, pain free & strong rotator cuff, & we had developed an incredibly functional Soft Tissue Mobilization Instrument which we named the Narson Body Mechanic N6.

Now, for the first time, I didn’t have to change tools during treatment. I was able to seamlessly go from tissue to tissue changing techniques simply by turning the tool to the desired treatment edge. No longer did I have to clean multiple tools or stop treatment because tools became too slippery. It was faster, more efficient and everything I was looking for was finally right there in my hands. After cleaning, it easily slipped into my pants pocket to go with me from patient to patient. No longer did I have to carry multiple tools, or go back somewhere in my office to find the one tool I happened to forget to bring with me. Now I have them all with me all the time. No lugging a pouch or tray of tools with me anymore.  The N-6 was all I needed.

So now with “Patent Pending” we go forward with a new all-in-one tool for your soft tissue treatment 'tool belt'. I hope you like it as much as I do.

For Information on the Narson Body Mechanic N6, go to: www.NarsonBodyMechanic.com

References for Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization:

1. Davidson C, Ganion L, Gehlsen G, Verhoestra B, Roepke J, Sevier T. Rat tendon morphologic and functional changes resulting from soft tissue mobilization. Med Sci Sports Exer. 1997;29(3):313-9.

2. Gehlsen GM, Ganion LR, Helfst R. Fibroblast responses to variation in soft tissue mobilization pressure. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1999;31(4):531-5.

3. Melham TJ, Sevier TL, Malnofski MJ, Wilson JK, Helfst RH, Jr. Chronic ankle pain and fibrosis successfully treated with a new noninvasive augmented soft tissue mobilization technique (ASTM): a case report. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1998;30(6):801-4.

4. Carey MT, Ploski M, Sweney L, editors. The Graston Technique of Soft Tissue Mobilization. APTA Combined Sections Meeting; 1999 February 3-7; Seattle, WA.

5. Sevier TL, Wilson JK. Treating lateral epicondylitis. Sports Med. 1999;28(5):375-80.

6. Earley BL, Carey MT, Hall A, editors. The Graston Technique of Instrument-assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization. AOTA Annual Conference and Exposition; 2000 March 30 - April 2; Seattle, WA.

7. Carey MT. The Graston Technique Instruction Manual. 2nd ed. Vincent RE, editor. Indianapolis, IN: TherapyCare Resources, Inc.; 2001.

8. Perle SM, Perry DG, Carey MT, editors. Effects of Graston Technique on Soft Tissue Conditions: A Prospective Case Series. WFC's 7th Biennial Congress; 2003; Orlando, FL: World Federation of Chiropractic.

9. Loghmani MT, Avin K, Burr D, Warden S, editors. Instrument-Assisted Cross Fiber Massage Accelerates Knee Ligament Healing. Combined Sections Meeting; 2006: American Physical Therapy Association.

10. Burke J, Buchberger DJ, Carey-Loghmani MT, Dougherty PE, Greco DS, Dishman JD. A pilot study comparing two manual therapy interventions for carpal tunnel syndrome. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2007 Jan;30(1):50-61.

Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He is a Diplomate of the American Chiropractic Sports Physician (DACBSP) and practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine.

#chiropractormiamibeach #MiamiBeachChiropractor #SportsInjuriesFixedHere #DrNarson #ToddNarson #Narson #TriDoc #TriathlonDoc #ChiropracticSportsMedicine #ACASC #SportsMedicine #SportsChiropractor #MiamiBeachSportsMedicine #SportsMedicineMiami #MiamiSportsMedicine #MiamiChiropractor #Triathlon #Running #Ironman #IFixPeopleInPain #TrainWithoutPain #MiamiBeachChiropractor #GrastonTechnique #FAKTR #IASTM #Chiropractor #FootPain #Narson #NarsonBodyMechanic #NarsonTool #DACBSP #CCSP #ACBSP #BackPain #NeckPain #ShoulderPain #RotatorCuff #ITBandSyndrome #runnersKnee #PlantarFasciitis #Plantarfascitis #AchillesTendonitis #AchillesTendonosis #GettingAthletesBackInTheGame  #MiamiBeachChiropractor #MiamiSportsMedicine #MiamiBeachSportsMedicine #WeFixPeopleInPain #TrainWithoutPain #ChiropracticSportsMedicine #ACASC #ProSportChiropractic #FunctionalMedicineMiami #DrNarson #BackPainRelief #NeckPainRelief #SportsInjuriesFixedHere #LaserTherapy #RockTape #KinesioTape #KTTape #Nutrition #21DayPurificationProgram #DetoxProgram #PaleoDiet #PaleoDoc #FunctionalNutrition #Chirooractor #Chiropractic #ChiropracticPhysician #DoctorOfChiropractic #USATriathlon #USAT #TeamUSA

Hey Doc...It Hurts When I do This...

Sport Specific Exams & Treatment; Is Your Doctor/Therapist Stuck in the Old Paradigm?

Remember the old joke…. A man goes to his doctor and says “hey doc, it hurts when I do this”…. The doctor looks back at him and says “well, then don’t do that”…

While I’ve been involved in sports medicine for at least the past 18 years, I seem to be always fighting those non-sports medicine doctors who love to tell patients to rest. I’ve always told a patient to rest the injured part or the injured motion, but be active or exercise everything else. The sports physician-trainer-therapists’s mantra Never Take An Athlete Out Of Exercise. Which is why “cross-training” was developed. Injured athletes would be given exercises that would help them with other aspects of their primary sport while their injury was healing. Out of season athletes would take on an in season sport with skill sets that could help them with their primary sport until it was back in season.

In the “old days” open heart surgery patients would lay in their hospital beds for weeks following surgery, nowadays, they are up and walking within a few days. You see our bodies were meant to move. We were built for action and action is what we need.

So nowadays, instead of your doctor giving you the answer “well, don’t do that” the smart doctor, trainer or therapist should say “do that again and let me watch you”. The functional exam is all about examining the patient in the position of pain, the activity of pain and even providing some treatment while the patient goes through these dysfunctional or painful activities .

It’s not so much that your body part is hurt and injured, it’s more the function that involves that part and how the "system" functions (or not) that includes that injured body part. Because more and more we’re understanding how interrelated body structures are involved in functions were never new before, just addressing “fixing the part” isn’t good enough. Nowadays you should get a more active exam and more active treatment to go along with it. Yes, passive therapies have their place, but if you are going to your doctor and saying “Doc, it hurts when I do this…” The doctor should do more than prescribe some pills or apply a hot pack and some muscle stimulation. In our office you'll see us treating patients (although it looks more like we're playing around) while they's balancing on gym balls, wobble discs, holding weights, squatting, standing on one leg, standing on a vibration plate, making throwing motions and more. The exam and the treatment depend on their injury, what causes their pain and what sport (or job) they are trying to do that causes their pain.

Here's an example of me working on a goes foot while he's in a position of provokation and function. He's on a motorized wobble board while I'm using my Graston Technique® tools him. The techniques are FAKTR-PM

For those unfamiliar with this, one great system of evaluating and treating musculoskeletal pain is FAKTR-PM)Functional and Kinetic Treatment with Rehabilitation, Provocation and Motion). If your doctor doesn’t know about FAKTR-PM, you can either refer them to www.FAKTR-PM.com to learn more or send them to someone (like me) who has been trained in Graston Technique® and/or FAKTR-PM for a more functional and effective approach to treating those everyday aches and pains or those sports injuries that keep coming back season after season.

'nuff said...

DocT

Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He testifies as an expert witness and does strategic personal injury and workers' compensation consults with law firms. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine, chiropractic, physiotherapy, massage, rehabilitation & nutrition

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