Show Me the Research!

I have been working as the Athletic Development Coach at a Private Christian School now for over 3 years. During that time I have been able to really educate some of our athletes on the heart of the philosophy we use. It has been real interesting to see the reaction that many of them get as they move on to College. Pretty much all of them have been met with some sort of hostility and resistance. 

Let me give you an example. I had the chance to train a great tennis player while she was in High School with me. She now plays in College and during the season developed some foot and ankle pain. In typical fashion the trainers immediately went straight to focusing on her foot. They had her picking up marbles with her toes and placing them in a bucket. Then some calf and ankle stretches and a few other things. 

Sounds like some great ideas but as we have mentioned time and time again, they never stopped and asked the question of, “Why?”. Was there no amount of curiosity of how the pain developed and what was causing it? There was an automatic assumption that the foot and ankle were simple not strong enough. 

What they apparently do not realize about the athlete is that she has a tendency to get real tight in her groin when she fatigues. When she starts to get real tight from lack of proper training she tends to create some awkward angles in her legs. Her femurs tend to be pulled toward the midline of the body which in turn also causes the tibia and fibula to move laterally away from the midline of the body. These angles create a lot of stress into the lower legs as now the shins, calves, and more importantly the feet are being help in an anatomically incorrect position. 

Strengthening of the feet and lower legs might be a temporary fix to the problem since if you could increase each those areas ability to handle the stress they are under the athlete should be able to keep the pain from coming on as frequently. Again I am assuming on this one. Now If you were to correct the problem at the source in this case the tightness in her hips you could completely remove the unnecessary stress that is creating the pain in the foot. 

Somewhere during her exercises this athlete was doing a few exercises I had given her to address the tightness in her hips. The trainer’s apparently were very upset at this saying that she could not do the exercises anymore because she could not show any research to back up what she was doing.

Well here you go, here is your research. To each of those trainers that needs the research I want you to use yourself as an example. Please tell me how you were able to learn how to roll over for the first time as an infant? Then could you please list for me the exercises you did to learn how to crawl? Once you were able to crawl what where the best training machines and apparatuses you used to learn to walk and run? 

The system Train2move uses has more research than any other system ever created. Everyone in the world who is capable of walking is proof that we are living adaptive organisms that constantly change based on the stimulus we receive. If you develop a pain symptom in your body it is frequently a reaction to the change in the muscular system that is allowing there to be stress in the area that is not designed to be there. If you want to argue this fact, place your elbow in a cast, leave it there for a week and take it off. Now use that arm to pick up a large suitcase. Good Luck. The lack of stimulus to the muscles around the elbow mean it will have become tight, weak, and ultimately not be able to properly move the elbow.

If you are in the fitness industry, please be open to any and all ideas. Assuming you know the exact exercise to “fix” a pain symptom is very dangerous. It will limit your growth as a trainer and more importantly you are most likely not giving the individual you are working with the best rehabilitation they can get.

In the case of the Tennis player, some basic stretching of the hips and the foot pain was gone. Figure out what is causing the pain, try to not just address the pain. Your results will amaze you.