Friday, January 29, 2010

National Marathon and DC Tri Club Multisport Clinics

I will be working as an Active Release Techniques provider at the National Marathon in Washington DC on March 20th again this year. If you are at the race feel free to stop for a treatment after your run.
I will also be taking part in the DC Tri Club Multisport Clinics on March 6th and April 3rd at VIDA Fitness (15th and P St) @ 1PM. I will be discussing injury prevention and how to perform a proper dynamic warm-up. Hope to see you there.

Washington DC Tri

I just wanted to let people know that I have decided to run this years Washington DC Tri on June 20th. This will be my first triathlon and more than likely not my last. I already know how to strength train correctly and am a very good cyclist. This will help me with giving out specific triathlon training recommendations. I will continue to update everyone on my training and how I think each aspect can be improved.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Time to seek treatment

I have had a few patients recently that have been dealing with injuries for long periods of time. Each person has told me that they have been meaning to get treated for a long time but never went anywhere for treatment.
Before I bad mouth anyone I will admit that I was just like this for most of my life. However, I now know the consequences of waiting to start treatment after an injury. When there is damage to soft tissue it takes only 24 hours for scar tissue to form. This is exactly what the injury needs to begin with. The problem is that scar tissue continues to develop and remodel. There is one major problem with this entire event. Scar tissue isn't completely put down in the same line of drive of muscles, tendons, or ligaments. It is haphazardly developed in the injured tissue. The reason this becomes a problem is the tissue no longer can stretch to its original length. Scar tissue doesn't have the elasticity that regular tissue has.
By waiting to seek treatment you are allowing the scar tissue to begin to bind to other soft tissue structures. Once this has occurred the amount of stretch in all tissues around the injured area decreases.
Your initial injury may have healed itself with rest but you now have to deal with what amounts to a large clump of inflexible, sticky scar tissue that prevents normal movement. Even if you begin to strengthen the injured tissue it will only be strengthen through a shorter range of motion. If you seek treatment, such as ART or Graston, early enough this event can be avoided. ART and Graston are two soft tissue treatments that are designed to break up scar tissue and allow free range of motion. With just a few treatments you can see a dramatic reduction in pain with increased range of motion.
The idea of resting an injury just doesn't make sense. It is better to get treatment quickly after an injury to help your body heal correctly and reduce the amount of scar tissue development in the long run.