SNOW INJURY PREVENTION

While not a sport, snow shoveling is just as strenuous and potentially dangerous. Follow these guidelines and save yourself from a lot of post-shoveling pain!

• Don't shovel if you have had serious spinal, lung, or cardiovascular problems, or are out of shape.
• Drink 8 oz of water or Gatorade type drink before you shovel. It may be cold, but you will get dehydrated after shoveling if you are not careful.
• Warm up first! Do this warm-up before you shovel - it is all of 6 minutes!

• Dress warmly in layers, and wear an extra-long sweater to protect the lower back.
• You may want to wear a support or weight belt.
• Always stand erect and bend from the hips and knees, not the waist (mini squat). Handle small to moderate loads of snow. You may want to try one of the bent handle shovels like the one below.

• Keep your abdomen and buttocks tight as you lift or push the snow with your shovel. Read more on how to perform an abdominal brace
• Whenever possible, push rather than lift the snow. Deposit it nearby rather than trying to throw it over a wide area.
• Use the arms, legs, feet, and thighs in a coordinated effort.
• Stop if you feel pain, get dizzy or out of breath.
• Do the warm-up exercises again as a cool-down.
• Drink at least another 8 oz of water or Gatorade drink after you shovel and then eat, plenty of protein to help your muscles recover!
• Drink at least another 8 oz of water or Gatorade drink after you shovel and then eat, plenty of protein to help your muscles recover! Make sure you sip water the rest of the day to fully rehydrate.
• ICE your back (or any other problem areas) for 15 minutes after you finish shoveling. Do this even if you do not have any pain! You will avoid the next day soreness typical after shoveling. You can do this while you eat.
• If you have The Stick or a foam roller - get it out and use it. They are great for a cool down too. Warm-up again tomorrow. See our videos on our You Tube Channel.
• Take an Epsom salts bath before bed. One cup per 60 lbs of bodyweight. Soak for 15 minutes. The magnesium is wonderful for muscle recovery.

If you have pain, call us for an appointment immediately! "The longer pain goes on, the more susceptible it is to other influences and developing into a chronic pain problem. These influences include such things as the ongoing pain signal input to the nervous system without tissue damage, lack of exercise (physical deconditioning), a person's thoughts about the pain, as well as emotional states such as depression and anxiety." This language comes directly from the International Classification of Disease definition of chronic pain.

If you've "just pulled a muscle" remember that this tissue is torn and is never the same. The "healing" is really the formation of a different type of collagen tissue that needs to be treated with ART or Graston and then strengthened as it is weaker and more fibrous than the original tissue. A little damage control now will prevent a big problem later.

CONCUSSIONS PART 1

Any athlete with a suspected concussion should be IMMEDIATELY REMOVED FROM PLAY, urgently assessed medically, should not be left alone and should not drive a motor vehicle.

DENY, CRY, AND CONTINUE TO LIE - THE MARK MCGWIRE STORY

DENY: March 17, 2005 Congressional Hearing, "I'm not here to talk about the past."

CRY: January 11, 2010, Maris' son Rich told the San Francisco Chronicle that McGwire was "pretty choked up" when he called Pat Maris.

CONTINUE TO LIE: McGwire told Bob Costas that "studying pitchers and making his swing shorter led to his increase in home runs and that he could have hit them without performance enhancing drugs." McGwire said, "I believe I was given this gift. The only reason I took steroids was for health purposes." "I did this for health purposes. There's no way I did this for any type of strength use."

"The names I don't remember, but I did injectables," McGwire told Costas. "I preferred the orals. The steroids I took were on a very low dosage." McGwire said that he didn't want to bulk up. "I took very low dosages because I wanted my body to feel normal," he said.

The lying continued with Tony La Russa who said "he didn't know McGwire had used steroids until the slugger admitted using performance-enhancing drugs in the phone call to the manager...."

To date, Mark McGwire has to be THE MOST DISAPPOINTING ATHLETE to be forced into admitting he used steroids and growth hormone. Mark, being a man means owning up to your mistakes with a complete and truthful apology!

Are your children using steroids? Look for these warning signs:

Should Your Child Play Football?

Read this article about Matt Birk, the Baltimore Ravens center. CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE. He states,

"Birk says soreness is just part of the game, and "you're not going to last if you can't deal with it."

"Guys play the game for different reasons," Birk says. "One of them is the challenge, the physical challenge, the mental challenge, to see how much you can take. How much you can withstand. And it's about developing that perseverance every week. Getting your body and your mind ready to go.

"I mean, everybody's sore. Everyone who played yesterday is sore today. That's just part of the game, and you're not going to last if you can't deal with it."

When Birk pops various parts of his body every morning, he jokingly calls it

Big News - Dr. Horwitz Named as Top Sports Medicine Expert by Washintonian Magazine

See p. 124 of the January 2010 issue of Washingtonian Magazine!

USAIN BOLT - Was he really an overnight success? Read on......

Read what Glen Mills, Usain Bolt's coach, had to say about the importance of proper training. I have highlighted certain passages. Read this carefully!

Usain is an extremely gifted athlete. When I started working with him, one of the things that stood out like a sore thumb was his poor mechanics. He was running behind the centre of balance. This resulted in a negative force against his forward drive and it was affecting other areas. For example, his body position put pressure on his lower back and there was a continual shift of his hip girdle and a pull on his hamstring. He was continually having hamstring problems and my assessment was that one of the things that contributed to it was his poor mechanics. Our first task was to get him to run with his upper body core in line with his centre of mass or a forward lean of somewhere around 5-10°. We set about doing drills then we took videos of his workouts and broke them down on the screen in slow motion to show him exactly what he was doing. I would draw diagrams and show him the position that we are working to achieve. Part of his poor mechanics was because