Let’s just get down to business here. This was a busy week with lots of extracurricular activities (unfortunately not many fun ones) leading to only a little down time for reading. I’m also trying to make my way through Movement again, and starting Ben Hogan’s 5 Lessons. Learning has never been so much fun! I also said this to a patient like 4 hours ago. “We learn by making mistakes, so it’s okay, you’re gait will get better.” I immediately thought to myself,  I’m glad I have a job that allows me to make small ‘mistakes” to see what works for a patient and what does not, so I can constantly learn.  Any who, read up/

Every time I look at my blog I’m so curious as to why my PNF post is my number one post. It’s really short, simple to read, has no references because I literally barfed the information from my brain onto the page like the kids on the rides in the Sandlot after swallowing chewing tobacco. But I read it and decided to read some more about PNF on my own to make sure that the article still holds up. From time to time I will do this, because I will lay awake at night thinking that something I wrote two years ago is actually crap and I need to fix it. I wanted to make sure that PNF actually works and I was not indeed mis-informing (lying) to my readers.

This article confirms I’m not a lying son-of-a-shutyomouth. There’s a good little discussion session about what types of stretching are helpful  for targeting the tendon or passive resistive torques of muscles. You need to read the FULL ARTICLE to find out.

The application of this next PNF article is a little dicey. Not because it says I was wrong about something, but because in clinical and training room conditions the results are tough to follow through on. UNLESS you have a handheld dynamometer handy and can rig it to not amputate someone leg when you are stretching them (just imagine this thing being pushed into your leg). It determines that optimal contraction percentage used for PNF stretching should be 65%. I have a hard enough time not getting blasted across the room when I tell a 65-year-old guy to use 50% pressure, but if I had a HHD I’d be good to go.

Recently I posted something on here by Don Reagan, and this next blog post includes him, but also a recent follow of mine on twitter. A guy named Mike Irr. Not only does he have the best first name ever, he’s going to be a PT and he’s doing everything in his power to provide a great foundation for his learning. He had the chance to meet up with Don Reagan and discuss a sh*t-ton of stuff considering Don’s learning from the man, the myth, the legend (who? you ask, Gray Cook) right now. This post involves Mike’s take away from a discussion with Don about high vs low threshold movement patterns mainly in terms of athletes, but, if you look around any PT clinic, you’ll see people performing many low threshold movements with high threshold patterns, and it all spells out one thing. d-y-s-f-u-n-c-t-i-o-n.

And what does dysfunction lead to. P to the A to the I to the N. But the smart folks up at McGill University in Canada-egh have figured out that pain basically gets encrypted on the brain and affects future pain. I’m sure my explanation of their findings is awful so please read it because it’s really a cool article about how the environment can actually physically change the make up of the brain.

That’s it for the week. I’m calling Argo to take best picture Sunday.

Alway Evolve,

Mike