Down the Rabbit Hole
Things outside of the conventional strength & conditioning stuff.
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Down the Rabbit Hole
The Reconditioning Athletes Roadmap
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Ever wondered why some injuries seem to linger or why athletes frequently re-injure the same area? The answer might surprise you—and it's not always where the pain is.
Reconditioning injured athletes requires looking beyond the obvious. When working with athletes recovering from injury, I start with a crucial conversation to understand whether we're dealing with an acute or chronic issue, contact or non-contact injury, and what specific movements trigger discomfort. These details provide the roadmap for effective recovery.
What most traditional approaches miss is the powerful role of the nervous system in pain perception and movement restoration. Protective reflexes often remain activated long after tissue has healed, creating ongoing issues and setting the stage for re-injury. This explains why a previous injury remains the strongest predictor of future injuries—your body's alarm system never fully reset.
Through brain-based approaches, I've seen remarkable results—like the soccer player whose Achilles pain completely disappeared after addressing a pelvic misalignment, or the football player who returned from injury stronger by correcting throwing mechanics that caused the problem in the first place. Sometimes where the pain is, it isn't. The discomfort may simply be the final expression of a chain of compensations happening elsewhere.
My reconditioning process incorporates natural healing supports alongside proper movement training. Using food supplements, light therapy, grounding techniques, and other modalities can significantly accelerate recovery, often allowing athletes to safely return to play sooner than conventional timelines suggest. But perhaps most importantly, I help injured athletes feel like athletes again during recovery—integrating perceptual training, reactive drills, and sport-specific activities appropriate to their stage of healing.
The future of effective reconditioning lies in comprehensive approaches addressing mechanics, neurology, timing, and perception. By incorporating tools like interactive metronomes to assess and improve neurological timing, we're addressing dimensions of recovery that traditional approaches miss. The cerebellum—your brain's center for accuracy, balance, coordination, and timing—proves critical for athletes returning to high performance.
Ready to transform your approach to injury and recovery? Listen now to learn practical strategies you can implement today to bridge the gap between pain and performance.
Introduction to Reconditioning Athletes
Speaker 1Jeff here at DC Sports , joining back with another podcast down the rabbit hole . I spent some time . I apologize , but I'm back . I just want to do a little podcast short . I want to share my thoughts because it's questions that I get a lot from you all about rehab or reconditioning or working with injured athletes . So I wanted to do a little podcast on reconditioning or working with injured athletes , and so I wanted to do a little podcast on reconditioning athletes and what that means to me and my kind of process that I go through when doing this . And so , for me , reconditioning , what does that mean ? Well , first of all , I can't use rehab . So that's a word I can't use here because I'm not a medical professional in the state of Pennsylvania . I can get in trouble for saying that . So I say recondition . And then two , reconditioning to me is kind of a bridge between getting someone out of pain and getting them back to performing . So to me it's really just training in the presence of pain . To me it's really just training in the presence of pain . And so I start every , regardless of the type .
Speaker 1I'm going to give some generalities and I'll give some examples , but I'm going to speak kind of more in generalities about this stuff , but when anyone comes to me with an issue that we're trying to recondition , I start with a conversation . I just want to know about them . I want to know about the situation . I want to know , you know , is this an acute thing or is this a chronic thing that keeps popping up from time to time ? Is this due to a contact injury you know you were playing a sport and someone rolled up on your ankle or someone took out your knee or is this a non-contact issue ? You know it's just it occurred through repetitive motion . Or you know it just occurred suddenly , you know , while you're running or while you're changing direction or landing or whatever it is . You know if it's , if it's chronic or if it's more non-contact . Is it ? Are there specific motions that really bother you ? So , okay , maybe it's your knees and it hurts when you run , and maybe it hurts when you go up and downstairs , but outside of that you're , you're pretty good . Or you know it's your shoulder and it just hurts when you throw . Or your elbow it really hurts when you throw . Um , you know , I want to . These are . These are all kind of clues for me to try to use to problem solve what's going on , so I can , I can help .
Speaker 1Now the other questions . I ask , okay , what are you doing for , or what have you been doing for this problem ? Uh , are you going to a physical therapist ? Are you going to a chiropractor ? Have you got x-rays , mris ? Um , you know , are you just kind of sitting on your thumbs like , what are you doing to help alleviate this problem ? And that again tells me a good bit . Maybe it's someone who just tore their ACL . I've worked with several ACL clients and you know they're going to physical therapy two to three times a week , but they want to get a little bit more , because maybe they feel that the physical therapy is to three times a week but they want to get a little bit more because maybe they feel that the physical therapy is just it's good , but it's just kind of limited to the knee and they're not doing anything else for the ankle , knees , hips , um , on the other side , or or whatever .
Speaker 1So I play well with others . Is what what I tell them ? So I , I take into consideration everything that doing , but but I want to know what's going on so I can kind of fill in the gaps and fill in the holes of things that are missed . I want to know , you know , do they have a history of one-sided issues ? Right , they have a history of right shoulder , right hip , right knee . They have a history of left back , left ankle things . You know , or maybe you know they're just kind of all over the place . I want to know about their environment , you know . Are they good eaters ? Are they good sleepers ? You know the stress levels are they kind of ? Are they kind of stressful people ? Are they kind of calm ? You know things like that . You know , is this issue , did this issue occur during training ? You know ? Is it something that keeps popping up while you work out or while you're training ? You know ? If so , what is it you've been doing ? You know a lot of issues that I have generally seen I can .
Speaker 1As far as training related issues , you know , volume is usually the number one culprit of what's going on right . I have a problem solving process that I go through my head when things aren't going in the direction that that I want , for whatever reason , and number one is are we doing too much right ? Is there just too much going on with with , you know , with the training process ? Number two is are we not recovering enough Right , are we ? Are we lacking , are we missing something with recovery ? So maybe , um , their sleep you know that's where sleep comes in or maybe the frequency of their training is too much and they're just not able to recover . Or maybe that's just the type of person they are , maybe they just need more , uh , in the way of recovery .
Speaker 1Um , three is you know , are , are , is there something out , external things , going on outside right ? Is there external stress ? Is there , you know , uh , are they in the middle of finals ? Are they taking tests ? You know , are they ? Are we in training camp ? And and and we got also work while there cause some kids ? You know , some kids have to have to still work a little bit . You know , is their home life a little chaotic and things like that . So all this kind of paints pictures for me with with what's going on .
Speaker 1And then you know where I start . Is I , since pain is a signal to the brain , I
Initial Assessment and Conversation
Speaker 1kind of start with the brain and the nervous system and see what I can do to help downregulate their nervous system and possibly , you know , at least , if nothing else , decrease their symptoms by , you know , at least 50% in that first session , using some things that . You know that I've already talked about before and interviewed experts on here in my podcast . So do we need to downregulate their system ? Is their body kind of protecting and guarding this and that's why maybe they're having this issue ? So , for instance , there's reflexes in the body that help to protect us when we get hurt , and sometimes these reflexes do not get turned off even when pain is gone .
Speaker 1So the number one predictor for a future injury is a previous injury and I believe that is a multifactorial conversation and reasons for that . I think one of the reasons for this is because these mechanisms are left on . They're still there , and that's where you get tone issues . That's where you get this discomfort in these areas . You know , maybe I'm not in pain , but it just still feels tight and just still doesn't feel right . And athletes want to play . Man , like , athletes just want to . They just want to play . So they want to know when they get hurt and they talk to anyone uh , pt Cairo myself how fast can I get back ? And you know , um , they'll usually . If they're not in pain , then they'll usually just assume they're good and they'll just rush right back . And again , another reason why the biggest predictor for a future injury is a previous injury is because there's steps , in my opinion , that should be taking place to get them to return to play .
Speaker 1And so , okay , can I use the brain to turn off of these pain signals , right , can I use the other side of the body with total motion release to get the symptoms to decrease and range of motion to increase ? Can I use reflexes in the body to turn off this guarding ? Can I use reflexes in the body to restore tone and decrease the sympathetic activity in and around that area and up and down that chain ? You know , again , if it's a hamstring issue , okay , maybe you know there's some SI joint stuff . We got to kind of calm down some QLs and erector stuff . Maybe there's some calf and some ankle things going on , that kind guard this , this hamstring or whatever it is . So , okay , can I use these modalities , these reflexes , to to calm that ? Um , you know posture . I check posture because , as we've talked about in previous podcasts , posture and your resting tone can , can have an effect . You know , your eyes are the stern wheel , your tires or your feet are the tires and if they're kind of going in different directions or if they got some funky things going on , that can lead to some tone issues and that can set some issues .
Speaker 1So an example like right now , tendon health is all the rage in my industry , with people sharing information , doing podcasts and doing interviews and lectures about tendon health , and I'm not saying at all that it's not important , but I don't . I just don't see what the big fuss is over it . You know , for instance , for Achilles issues , I had a very particular case with a girl soccer player , and this is a one of one . So I'm not saying this is always the case , but sometimes the answer is a little bit easier than what people on the social media and these podcasts make it out to be . Um , where this girl soccer player , I was working with a team and she came up to me said , coach , my , my achilles uh hurts and uh , again , I was working with the team . So I had about 30 girls in the in the weight room while I was trying to do some stuff . I said , okay , here , uh , you know , lay down real quick , let's where I always start , and this was something I learned and started doing before posturalogy . But it's hey , let's just check your pelvis and see if that's level . And uh , the Achilles issue was on her right Achilles and her right ASIS was significantly lower than her left . So I had her do a couple of pelvis exercises while I was continuing to work with the girls .
Speaker 1Um , before I came back to to specifically check out her Achilles , and I , I kid you not , maybe about 45 seconds later I turn around and the girl's off the floor . She wasn't even there anymore and I said , hey , so-and-so you know what's up your Achilles , okay , or like what's going on . And she goes , yeah , so-and-so , you know what's up your Achilles , okay , or what's going on . And she goes , yeah , my Achilles feels great . Now I said , all right , well , come here , let's check . And I palpated her Achilles and there was no startled reflex , there was no jumping , there was no tenderness , there was no NSRs , no perceptive pain . She was good . And I rechecked her pelvis and it was level . Um , so for me that's a an example .
Speaker 1And there's some people out there talking about how , uh , they don't believe in all of this voodoo stuff where sometimes an Achilles issue is an Achilles issue and they haven't seen enough evidence to point to hey , maybe your Achilles issues is related to a shoulder or related to something else elsewhere . Hey , maybe your Achilles issues is related to a shoulder or related to something else elsewhere , and I , for me , I'm a middle path person . I believe the answer is always in the always going to be in the middle . Sometimes the Achilles issue is an Achilles issue , but sometimes there's something up the chain that can have an effect elsewhere , and that's what I've learned from taking more of a brain-based approach to things . Is is sometimes man . You know where the pain is , it isn't , and you know you've probably heard me say that before and you've definitely heard that in the podcast I did with Perry Nicholson , and that is just a quote I live by . Sometimes , where the pain is , it isn't , and so that's kind of what I do with these brain-based approaches . I want to see Again maybe where the pain is . Is just kind of the straw that broke the camel's back and there's other things kind of pulling and tugging , causing the issues there , and then sometimes the pain is where the pain is and that's it . There's nothing more to it . But regardless , I'm going to go through my brain-based approach of looking to see what we can do . So we're going to check posture
Problem Solving Process
Speaker 1right , what's going on with the posture ?
Speaker 1I had a boy in specifically yesterday that had a little glute med , lower back discomfort , discomfort in his left side , and he's been complaining about it for a few days . And so , all right , man , let's do a quick postural check , let's see what's going on . And his right hip was significantly rotated and significantly lower when I say significantly , about an inch lower than his left , which is pretty big and his pelvis was rotating . I had his father come over and look and he even saw it . And then we looked at his feet . His right foot was significantly more velgous than his left , and so we did some postural work . We put him in the insoles , we did some eye work . Next thing , you know , he said his hip felt fine . He had absolutely no discomfort in his hip . His hips were more level I'm not going to say completely level which tells me that there still could be some stuff going on in his nervous system . However , he had no discomfort in his uh , glute med , ql or pelvis issue , uh , anymore .
Speaker 1So again , um , I start there . Uh , you know , maybe some lymphatic work . You know I'm a big believer in in neuro lymphatic work and Dr Perry Nicholson talked about that in our podcast . Sorry to keep bringing that up , but he's someone that I look up to in this industry . He's put out some awesome content and courses on lymphatic work .
Speaker 1You know , maybe there's some points in the body and there's some different types of therapies Ryan Welton on his myofascial points that are kind of light switches or kind of switches for pain , and so sometimes you know , all we got to use is some turn off some of these switches and pain and that can open us up to doing more things . But nonetheless , I address the nervous system and the brain . And you know , if we don't , if for me and this is my thought process if I don't see a decrease in pain by at least 25 to 50 percent in the first session using these modalities , to me it's more of a . I think there's more of a structural issue going on , meaning you know there's a strain , there's a sprain , there's something else going on , and that doesn't mean that these modalities don't help with those as well . Square One is well recorded on social media , through Sean and through other Square One practitioners , of people who are having significant issues in decreasing their symptoms or completely limiting their systems just using proprioception and some sensory-based therapies .
Speaker 1But then I want to go into okay , so let's just say it's more of a structural issue and we got to now do more kind of I don't want to say traditional stuff because I don't know if I do anything that's really traditional . But now we're of , I want to say traditional stuff Cause I don't know if I do anything that's really traditional . But now we're okay , we're going to get into some training a little bit now with what's going on , okay , so what can the person do and what can't the person do ? You know , where ? Where are we limited with with stuff ? So you know , maybe their shoulder hurts and they can't lift overhead . You know , maybe it's either . Again , there's something going on where they can't . Just they have pain lifting overhead .
Speaker 1You know I have some blood flow restriction training , so we use Katsu , which is the original blood flow restriction training out of Japan . I have great electric stim that has an AC and DC electrical current so we might hook them up and then we're doing training guys , we're doing exercises . You know there's what has been called internal training and then there's external training . Internal training is generally seen as more of the traditional rehab stuff , so more single joint work , while external training is more of the uh , the multi , uh joint work , more of the uh barbells and dumbbells and kettlebells and stuff like that . And so for me , my training process , regardless if the uh an athlete's injured or not , is I use a good mix of both .
Speaker 1So you know , we , we kind of go through , we go through that process and again , what can we do , what can't we do ? I mean , the goal usually , generally with every athlete I've ever worked with , is they want to get back to what they're doing as soon as possible . So if that is plan A , then plan B in my process is as close to getting them to plan A as possible , and if we can't do plan B , then plan C is just a fraction of plan B and plan D is a fraction of plan C , but nonetheless , all the while trying to get them back to what they're doing . So again , for instance , I worked at a sports medicine orthopedic practice for about two years and I was the continuation between rehab and return to play . So , um , and something that amazed me in this world is how little , um , how little these professionals and I'm not going to say all of them , but how little they look at the mechanics . So , for instance , let's say , the mechanism of injury is throwing or the mechanism of injury is running , and how little these people in these industries look at . Well , let's look at how they throw , let's look at how they run . Right For me , movement is , if that's what they have to do in their sport and that's what maybe caused the issue , then let's look at that as best as we can . So if they can't run well , do you have video of you running ? Do you have any ? You know ? Is there any footage ? Same when they're throwing ? I want to see what's going on . Um , give me an idea , just a sense of how , because what I've learned from dr yes , this is non-contact injuries are going to occur for one of three reasons Poor mechanics , poor physical abilities in the mechanics . So , whether it's strength , flexibility , endurance and then lack of recovery , right . So maybe volume is too much . Throwing athletes , especially here in PA , what I've sadly come to find is there is no regulation of pitch counts with kids here , and even coaches that say they do are full of crap , because I've heard from athletes and other parents and stuff that , yeah , they might do a pitch count , but they don't take that into consideration for the very next day . They just take it into consideration for that one day and that's it , but then the next day , or , you know , two days later they're having them go back and throw another 75 , 80 pitches at 14 years old , which is just to me too much , um , but nonetheless we're trying to get them back to there . So I want to know how they ran . So , uh , again with runners , right . So , let's say , their knees hurt or shin issues , well , let's look at how they run right , let's get a sense of that , so one can we get them out of pain ? And if so , okay , let's do a kind of a short to long , uh extensive to intensive , kind of running program . Um , I want to get and I do that with throwing as well um , the goal is to get them back to high intensity , but it's not at the expense of quality , and quality matters most . So quality at lower intensities and then we work up and so , okay , let's see how they run .
Speaker 1And I've worked with I've said this before in other podcasts , I've been saying this for almost going on 15 years now , which is crazy . I have not assessed an athlete who had non-contact related issues running from running that was not a heel striker and what really . There was a couple instances that really kind of made me realize this when I was working at the sports medicine orthopedic practice there was three cross-country track athletes that I worked with , all female , that had to have compartment surgery . She had compartment syndrome and she had to have surgery to release the fascia because you know , her
Brain-Based Approaches to Pain
Speaker 1legs would go numb and she would literally fall . And I was like , wow , and you watch her run ? I mean it's just all in her heels , just all in her heels . And I'll fight anyone who's willing to debate that heel striking is the cause of that . Whether they're sprinting or whether they're jogging , heel striking is detrimental to the shock absorption that the lower extremities have to incur when , again , whether jogging , running or sprinting . So to me that's the number one thing I look for now in any athlete , whether they're my six-year-old kids or they're professional athletes how does their foot hit the ground ? Where does your foot hit the ground ? Because that sends a whole host of issues up and down the chain , and so looking at mechanics was big .
Speaker 1You know the story you've probably heard me tell and I'll tell it again . That really started me on this whole path to begin with was when I was working with a high school football team in upstate New York and the quarterback fractured his elbow throwing the football . He was not hit , he was not sacked , he did not hit the ground , he did not hit his arm on anyone's helmet or anything like that . He threw a pass and I remember it like it was yesterday and it looked like it got punted . It just was this duck up in the air and I remember him yelling and that was it . They came off and , uh , his elbow was , he couldn't , it was swollen and he couldn't do anything . And the next day he came to the practice that I was working at and had the x x-rays and mris and he had a fracture of his epicondyl plate in his elbow , in his throwing arm . And so that's what led me to reaching out to Yosef Johnson of Ultimate Athlete Concepts , and that's what led me to meeting Dr Michael Yeses and starting the whole journey which has led me to this very , very moment . And so after this boy had surgery on his elbow , he had to have a screw put in his elbow and we started going through the rehab process and he he was , didn't have pain . Um , we , uh . We went out to go see dr yeses and he was able to look at video footage of him throwing uh prior from that summer and seven on sevens , and he was able to pinpoint the mechanical faults of what was going on , and then we got right to work .
Speaker 1As far as working on mechanics , so , um , you know , there's a whole camp of people out there that , uh , are anti mechanics and they're starting they have been for years and they're starting to swing around at least this is my view of it . They're starting to swing around a little bit to realize or to talk more about that . Hey , there are there's no such thing as perfect mechanics , but there are some key aspects that we should know as coaches and this is , I mean , to be honest with you , this is what Dr Yeses has been preaching for freaking years , guys , to be honest with you , this is what Dr yes has been preaching for freaking years , guys these key aspects of mechanics that are the force producing actions to what the athlete has to do , whether it's running , cutting , throwing , jumping , whatever , and so , regardless , mechanics matter , and so that is a large part of what I do , and that's why I start with a mechanical assessment Anytime I get an athlete that know my first assessment session with them after the conversation is out . Now I want to see the move , and I want to see the move in a specific manner and then , after we've assessed their mechanics , now we break it down into more joint by joint stuff , I get them on the table and we check active , the passive range motion of of things going on , um , and then we'll do some more . Now , uh , global movements , you know , squatting patterns , hinging patterns and things like that , um and and uh , kind of draw the plan from there .
Speaker 1But in the reconditioning um of what's going on , I , you know what can they do , what can't . So again , for instance , let's say it's in a knee , okay , well , if they can't really do much with a knee , well , how does their hip move ? How does their ankle move ? I want to see what's going on there . Um , you know whether , if they can dorsiflex or not , because of pain in the , in the knee or whatever , okay , maybe we can do inversion , eversion or plantar flexion . What's going on there with the hip ? Okay , I want to check the hip , whether we can do a Thomas test , a favor test , checking hip , internal rotation , external rotation , you know , again , what can we do , what can't we do . Do they have tibial rotation ? You know , these are all things I want to check Now . I also take into consideration that you know it's the chicken or the egg . Did the pain cause these lack of movements or did these lack of movements cause the pain ? I don't know , but nonetheless I know that maybe they now have lack of movement and I want to work on that .
Speaker 1And then , you know , from a healing standpoint , I use Mother Nature , you know . So , while we're going through the rehab or the sorry reconditioning oh man , caught myself there Reconditioning process , I want to use mother nature to help us . So we use food supplements , which I've talked about in podcasts before , or adaptogens , which I talked about with Hank Kreinhoff in the very first episode . Uh , we'll use light therapy , which I talked about with Chris Corfas , and uh , light therapy , both from a color standpoint , with the Biopatron light device that I have , as well as red light therapy or infrared therapy that we'll use . I'll use grounding mats that I have here , or I recommend to them to get on their own or PEMF mats through Therasage , which is a company that I'm an affiliate with , Um . You know , we had a ? Uh , a girl a couple of years ago come to me and she tore her ACL one of the last games of her lacrosse season ,
Mechanics Matter: Case Studies
Speaker 1um , and so they were all in on all that . So she got grounding mats , she got the postural insoles , she did the food supplements religiously . Um , we did light therapy , we did the stim . On top of you know , she went to PT to really just get the range of motion back and then we did everything else and she was back and cleared in six months .
Speaker 1Now I've had , I've had , some vigorous discussions with some people in about getting athletes cleared in six months and they argue with me that oh , okay , well , the tendons and the ligaments are not fully healed by that time . I don't know . I'll be honest with you , I have no idea . I don't know how to check that . I don't know how . You know what I mean . I know their movement quality to me looks good and that's the number one thing I do do jump tests and maybe some isometric things . But the number one thing I do do jump tests and maybe some isometric things . But that doesn't drive what I do . Movement quality really drives what I do and also how they feel drives what they do . And , plus , I'm not the one that clears them and they yell at me or they'll give me crap , but the doctor clears them and the doctors have the orthopedics around here , have their assessments , they do , and if they pass those , then , like , I don't know how you can argue that stuff .
Speaker 1So , um , yeah , that's pretty interesting world because , for whatever reason , we have these timelines that were created by people way smarter than me that , you know , an ankle injury should , should be , you know , a month , or depending on the grade , ankle injury , or same with the hamstrings , same with this , but in my , my , my , my defense , my , my devil's advocate to them is okay , well , those numbers are , are great and definitely take into consideration , but were they studied ? You know , if this is based off of studies , were they studied while the athletes used food supplements , while the athletes used light therapy , while the athletes used grounding mats and used neurology and posturology while they did that ? Well , no , because there's too many variables to throw that into a study . So studies are generally to try to eliminate the amount of variables to get down to a very specific thing , and so that is always one of the arguments , because that is such a large part of what my reconditioning is is using mother nature , using light , frequency , vibration , all the things that Nikola Tesla talked about , you know , 100 some odd years ago .
Speaker 1So , yeah , I don't know . I just have a problem with timelines . I take them into consideration , but it doesn't really mean much to me . What means more to me is the movement quality of the athletes and how they feel . And then , from a movement standpoint , not only do I want to see how they move in , whatever their mechanical fault was If it was throwing , I want to see how they throw . If it was running , I want to see how they run .
Speaker 1But I also want to then do a kind of I want to start incorporating perceptual aspects of things , and that's also kind of a missed but yeah , missed topic missed conversation for the reconditioned athlete , or reconditioning athletes , is now incorporating perceptual work into that , and some people do that in a general sense , which is good . Again , I think it all works . So they'll do like these chaotic I don't know what they're calledotic jumps , where an athlete will jump up in the air and then someone will push them randomly in a different in a direction , and then the athlete has to stick the landing . I think those are great and I've used those before and I like those . Um , but what I mean by perceptual and it's that that is part of it as well now is okay . I want to see how they can move . You know reacting to athletes .
Speaker 1So I had a boy come to me , actually with sad . He's 13 years old . I've never worked with a 13 year old boy that tore it towards ACL . He did it while playing soccer . So he was I don't know . I think he was about a month out from surgery when I met him and , uh , maybe maybe two months and nonetheless , while , okay , we got him to the point where he wasn't in pain anymore , you know , he was able to squat , he was able to do these things . No , no problem .
Speaker 1Okay , now let's start doing some small-sided things , and that's where I like I start with the uh , the vision , performance x , uh charts from slow the game down , um , and start getting them to see and move right . Can they see and move , can they perceive something and then move ? Based off of that , and I'll start in a more of a closed fashion with that , and then you know when they they can do that pretty proficiently and and with no issues , all right , now let's go to some small sided , chaotic things . Okay , let's do a little bit of a fun tag game , uh , whether it's a knee tag or a shoulder tag game based off of someone else . Let's do a little bit of a tug of war . Let's start incorporating very small-sided but reactive and playful things .
Speaker 1For me , what's missed a missed conversation in the rehab reconditioning world is let's get athletes back to feeling like athletes again . Sometimes these injuries are so catastrophic physically and emotionally to these athletes because now they're taken away from something that they love and they're laid up in bed or they're laid in these casts or they just can't do what they want . They start to lose a little bit of confidence in that feeling of being an athlete and just feeling good again . So I try to get that back during this whole process as well . So we're doing balance activities , we're doing eye hand coordination stuff , we're doing tracking things . I'm trying to I incorporate this into the process as well .
Speaker 1Um , because I want them to feel like they're still athletes and not just this okay , let's just go do your band exercise , let's go do your TKEs , let's go do some clams or bridges , All this stupid crap that
Working with Mother Nature
Speaker 1you know our rehab and world is stuck on . I want them to start feeling like athletes again . So let's start moving a little bit and when they can get to the point where they feel confident or they seem confident and I feel pretty confident . Let's start doing some small-sided stuff . Let's do a very small-sided tag game with just one person . Let's do some reactive stuff with a tennis ball . Let's do okay now . Let's start to build it out . When I think they're good , all right . Let's do , um , okay , now let's start to build it out when when I think they're good , all right . Let's go a little bit larger with the space when we're trying to react to someone . Let's put in some , some , uh , barriers maybe . So it's a little bit um , resembles kind of like an ultimate tag activity where maybe there's one barrier in there that they can use to run around or or have to chase um . And let's start building it out from kind of a small-sided game to more of a medium , to a larger size activity , now getting closer and closer to resembling what they have to do . Again , maybe when they start they're at plan D , but then we work to plan C , then we work to plan B and then plan A is ultimately getting back to what they want to do .
Speaker 1So I incorporate during the process a lot of those type of activities , one from , again , from a psychological standpoint , but also because I want to see how they move . I want to keep them moving . The best way to keep a joint healthy is to move the joint as much as we can , regardless , you know , even if it's the smallest bit . And then I want them to not have that decoupling of sensory information to things , because a lot of these , you know I've talked about it before , um , in a video I did about acls .
Speaker 1But what is missed a lot of times is a lot of these non-contact injuries , and even contact injuries are are perceptually , you know . So what's popular out there and talked about is the majority of ACL injuries are non-contact , right , I think it was anywhere from 70 , 80 percent of ACL injuries are non-contact . But what is missed is and there was a study done on Premier League , I think it was Premier League soccer showing that , ok , it's non-contact . It was premier league soccer showing that , okay , it's not in contact . However , there there was an athlete or there's an opponent within three to five meters of that person . Um , so they're reacting , generally reacting to something , and a lot of times the majority of ACLs in this one study was was with premier league soccer , was these athletes were defending right , which is highly perceptual , and having to be reactive to things versus being offensive , and so that to me , on top of some other studies , tells that there's a large perceptual aspect to this .
Speaker 1So let's work on that . Let's add that back into the mix . So if we were throwing okay , can they throw without pain , you know mildly . Can they throw without pain at high intensity ? Now , can they throw out pain with some movement ? Now , can they throw throw with some pain while reacting to something or trying to be accurate or trying to evade someone , depending on on the sport and what they're trying to do ? Um , can they do it with different you know , this is some of the differential learning Can they do it with different tools , different pieces of equipment a football , a frisbee , a little bit of a weighted ball , a little bit of a lighted ball , a little bit of a bigger ball like a handball . You know things like that , using differential learning . I like using that as well . Yeah , it's all for for me it's , it's , it's all of it . It's not just it's training in the presence of , of pain , and it's not just all right , let's just do these leg lifts , knee extensions , tkes , banded shoulder shit . Let's let's get athletes to . One continue being athletes . And two , let's train around the issue while we work on the issue as well . Um , so yeah , I don't know .
Speaker 1I just felt compelled to share that based off of a large amount of conversations that I've had with with coaches from all over the world that that have been kind enough to reach out to me and ask questions . You know , where does all of this stuff fit ? You know , where does total motion release technique fit ? Where does posturology fit ? Where does the neurology fit ? And to me it's .
Speaker 1I'm interviewing the nervous system , um , a large part during the process , and then I'm seeing what , what it will take and what it won't . Um , you know . So some people say acupuncture doesn't work . Some people say it works well . Okay , it works for some because that's what their nervous system needed . It works for . It doesn't work for others because that's not what they needed . There's some maybe deeper things going on . So I don't everything's useful , nothing's useful . Let's kind of interviewed the nervous system and see what's going on .
Speaker 1And then , you know , one last thing that I think is in this last year I've been incorporating and I've seen pretty cool things with that I wanted to talk about is the role of timing and the cerebellum in timing and rhythm back in the reconditioning world . So I was fortunate enough , I bought for our facility an interactive metronome , which is a computer-based program that measures timing within a person's system . So what it is ? Essentially it's a
Perceptual Work in Rehabilitation
Speaker 1computer program where I put on headphones and then I can either use my hands , I can use my feet , I can use my hand in feet at the same time and I'm trying to time my clapping , my stepping , my stomping , my whatever , based off of a metronome that I hear in my ear . And , as a practitioner , I can set the metronome to whatever beat I want . So they can either go 80 beats per second or we can go down to 30 beats per second . It's generally set with the interactive metronome at 54 beats per second and then we can assess the whole body .
Speaker 1What's been pretty interesting having this now for the last year and using it for , I would say , probably over a couple hundred athletes testing them is the injured . The injured site you know whether it's the leg or the arm is usually uh , milliseconds wise , much slower in reacting than than other parts of the body . So that's been pretty cool . So that's been a game changer , one to assess from a timing and rhythm standpoint . But then also we can train that as well , both from general movement things , timing issues , so whether we're reacting to lights or cones , or they're doing stuff to metronomes that I have playing in headphones or they're doing the interactive metronome itself , but that's been a pretty cool thing .
Speaker 1That um I really , I really like that we have in our reconditioning process now is to be able to measure and then monitor and improve timing , um with the athlete's neurological timing , which is a cerebellum-based activity , because the cerebellum is a part of the brain that's responsible for well ABC , accuracy , balance and coordination and well ABCT and timing . And so the cerebellum allows us to do what it is we want to do . And so the better we can fine tune the cerebellum , the better the athlete's going to get back to being able to do what it is they want . And so if the number one predictor for a future injury is a previous injury , I want to address every part of a person in the rehab process because I don't want them to get injured again . Right , the best ability is eligibility , and they're not eligible to play if they're hurt . And so , if nothing else , this is what I tell parents all the time .
Speaker 1If nothing else that I do well in my practice , I at least keep athletes healthy and I get them healthy , yeah , so hopefully that gives you some ideas and maybe some questions to reach out and talk to me about . I love talking about reconditioning athletes . It's actually quite a passion that I have . I like doing that as much as getting an athlete faster or jumping higher or whatever else it is . I like that . I hope this was helpful and you guys enjoyed it , Thanks .