Get excited! CrossFit Regionals are here. The six events have been revealed and competitors across the world will compete on three separate weekends. Soon there will be countless of individuals across the world tuning in to watch these competitions. Rachel and I both have enjoyed past competitions, but this year is special and it should be to everyone with Wichita pride.
The concept that chiropractors can perform physical therapy is almost unknown; chiropractors can perform and bill for physical therapy depending on passing of the appropriate board examination. Some chiropractic schools do not focus on physical therapy as part of their curriculum, and in doing so, those students and graduate doctors are not capable of billing for physical therapy. A state's allowed scope of practice can often influence a school's opinion on providing this type of education. Some chiropractic schools do not offer education in physical therapy because surrounding states' scopes of practice do not allow chiropractors to bill physical therapy to insurance companies and therefore that school unfortunately does not teach physical therapy.
As stated in previous blogs, defining and understanding chiropractic can be vague. There are many techniques offered by chiropractors in an attempt to address a variety of health issues - not always musculoskeletal in nature. However, when considering chiropractic, most individuals think of some form of manipulation or adjusting. To better understand how chiropractic adjustments are beneficial, a concept known as the "Joint-by-Joint Approach," established by Mike Boyle and Gray Cook, needs to be acknowledged.
There is a common lie Wichitans tell ourselves: you can get everything you want on one side of Wichita. If you live on the west side of Wichita, then there is no need to go east and vice versa. This idea that you can get everything you need in one specific location in Wichita is highly flawed. If this were true, why would you ever travel to Colorado, Kansas City, Tulsa? Here is a fun topic that everyone in Wichita likes to talk about - the possibility of Cheesecake Factory. You are lying to yourself if you think you would not drive across Wichita to go to the Cheesecake Factory, regardless of where it opened. So I ask you – why isn't an extra 10 minute drive time to get the quality service or product you are wanting worth the extra drive time?
Insurance is constantly changing with Obamacare and it appears this is going to be no different under the Trump administration. Things used to be simple; it wasn't too long ago that a co-pay meant a co-pay. Now things are not always as they appear. As a result, many chiropractic clinics and other health professionals are leaving insurance plans and companies altogether, or sticking only with the larger groups such as: United Healthcare, Aetna, and Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Defining what chiropractic is to the public is just as confusing to the profession itself. Throughout graduate school, chiropractic is taught as a "Science, Philosophy, and Art." Depending on the personality of the future chiropractor, they may lean toward one of these pillars more so than the others. For both Rachel and me, we found our salvation through a group called Motion Palpation Institute (MPI). It was the first group that clicked with us; MPI laid the foundation upon which we stand. To understand the turmoil in the profession, it helps to understand the "camps", in regard to the adjustment. In chiropractic, you will typically find two camps: a static model and a movement-based model.
If you haven’t heard, with the start of 2017, Wichita now has its own edition of Startup Grind, powered by Google for Entrepreneurs. Startup Grind is another Wichita community event, held monthly, by and for the entrepreneurs of our city. January’s event was a huge success, with a turnout of 225 people! This month featured Brian Williamson, an entrepreneur in the world of pharmacy. The informal format of the event was set up to resemble a fireside chat between two people. The audience learned the process of Brian coming to be where he is now, including the many challenges and triumphs along the way.
With the ever-evolving healthcare situation, it is hard as a consumer to find quality care at an affordable rate. This has driven many healthcare practitioners and practices, from a broad range of disciplines, to ditch insurance all together and go "cash only". In addition, this is causing a surge in differing healthcare models. For chiropractic, you may see practices that stick to adjustments only, practices that incorporate electrical stimulation or ultrasound, and others that open the technique box much wider.
When someone mentions chiropractic and its role within healthcare, you are most likely going to hear a broad range of opinions. This is largely due to the wide diversity in styles of chiropractors. There are chiropractors that adjust based solely on imaging, there are chiropractors that do not utilize any imaging, there are chiropractors that focus on nutrition alone, and then there are a variety of options in-between. Vast options exist to best suit your personality, needs, health, wellness, and fitness goals. Chiropractic is a wonderful and amazing profession for its diversity, however, its unclarity in regards to scope of practice creates a major problem.
Last weekend, Dr. Rachel and I traveled to the ‘burbs of Chicago, Illinois, to better our skills and knowledge of Dynamic Neuromuscular Rehabilitation (DNS). We decided to drive the 10+ hours with a future college of ours, and as any chiro-nerd will do, we talked about topics related to our profession the entire time including: our shortcomings, our successes, expectations for this specific DNS course, and how to better integrate DNS into our chiropractic approaches. Like many things in life, it helps to put thoughts into words, so, this blog is a way for us to express what DNS and chiropractic is in our eyes, and also our goals to help better our Wichita community through combining them together.
The suboccipitals are a group of muscles functioning to generate motion and to stabilize the skull on the first two cervical vertebra of the spine. Collectively, this group includes a pair of each: inferior capitus oblique (red), superior capitus oblique (green), rectus capitus posterior major (blue) and rectus capitus posterior minor muscles (orange).
Squatting is great for recruiting maximum neural activity to challenge the body. If you have not read Part 1 and watched the associated videos, I highly recommend it. It will give you a highlighted viewpoint as to where this blog is directed. To better understand squatting and knee position as an adult, we need to strip away everything and go to back to the basics.
Back pain is a common occurrence for many Americans with our daily cubicle-esk lifestyle. Overtime, rounding the back can lead to trigger point formations in the rhomboids, which may produce pain. Rolling out the rhomboid muscles with a lacrosse ball, can help decrease pain within the middle back, improve scapulothoracic range of motion, and improve power output.
The shoulder girdle is a dynamic structure. Keeping the rotator cuff muscles healthy can help improve pain free shoulder range of motion.
Short blog this week. The video below discusses the referral patterns for the pectoralis major and pectoralis minor. The pain patterns are similar, but how to get the most out of foam rolling these two muscles is slightly different. It's about working smarter, not harder.
Here is a list of my 5 favorite types, of foam rollers or accessory rollers, in no particular order. Each one has its own unique advantage.
Everyone has heard the phrase repeatedly, over the past 5 years or so, while squatting, “drive your knees out.” This can be a great cue when used appropriately, however, it has almost become obnoxious with everyone and their mothers yelling this phrase. Don’t get me wrong, I apply the cue myself, but it is highly overused. The cue should NOT be said every single time someone squats, if so, find a new gym.
Foam rolling has become an increasingly popular solution for self-myofascial release to decrease pain and to increase performance. Dr. Rachel and I have taught at several locations "The ART of Foam Rolling," to help everyone from inpiduals to large groups of people wanting to empower their health and performance in Wichita, Kansas. While teaching, we hear several different excuses, if you would, as to why an inpidual may choose not to foam roll. We hear everything from “I don’t have enough time,” to “it hurts too much.” Let’s be real for a second, to foam roll might take 10 minutes out of your day, tops, that equates to 0.007%. Yes, it might take some time in learning how to get the most out of foam rolling when performing it, but still it is not rocket science. With this blog, I want to address an easy concept to help you incorporate foam rolling into your daily routine, while also dispelling a couple myths.
