Pure Health and Body Therapy LLC

09/22/2016

Come out this Saturday to the community fair benefiting the Erik Hite Foundation😊 They are a wonderful organization of people who assist and support our community's first responders💜💜
Make a donation of any size to the foundation and get a free chair massage!! I will be there in my booth from 11-3, and it would be great to see you there😄

SAVE THE DATE:
3RD Annual First Responders Appreciation Day/Community Fair benefiting the Erik Hite Foundation. Activities include Clydesdale rides, Arabian drawn carriage rides, mini horses, jumping castles, train rides, DJ, BBQ, large scale raffle table and more!

08/17/2016

Come see how Pilates fits in to the concept of variability! Your connective tissue will thank you👍😁👍

// The Specificity Paradox //

Any discussion of athlete health and overuse injury demands another look at this article from IoM’s Derek Vandenbrink.

***
Specificity is Variability

The specificity principle (SAID - specific adaptation to imposed demand) is a powerful concept. It tells us that if we apply a specific stress, a specific adaptation will occur in response to that stress. This sounds like an elementary principle: we impose strength training to achieve strength outcomes, cardio/endurance training to achieve cardio/endurance outcomes, and mobility training to achieve mobility outcomes. We also take it a step further to “specifically” apply stress to our athletes that resemble the required demands of their specific sports - we ask hockey players to perform lateral bounds to mimic the skating stride, basketball players to perform vertical jumps to mimic shooting/rebounding, and football linemen to perform every imaginable bench press to mimic the constant pushing, whether attacking or defending, that happens on the line.

On its own and on the surface, this sounds wonderful - apply the “sport specific” stress to obtain the “sport specific” outcome. And while we’re at it, let’s further extrapolate this into the real world - apply a “life specific” stress to obtain a “life specific” outcome for the every day person who’s looking to lose weight, get stronger and otherwise feel better about their body and about themselves. This IS functional training, right?

But if we step back and think about everyday human movement and the science of training, it starts to feel as if we’re missing something very important about the specificity principle.

Consider how most parents pick up their kids - they don’t set their feet to neutral, ask the child to position themselves to their midline and then, after bracing, symmetrically load each arm as they pull the child to their non-dominant shoulder as the child stays perfectly still. What parents actually do is pay no attention to their feet, bend over to wherever their child is, grab on however they can, and lift their child to whatever position is manageable at the time. Let’s also consider our athletes. No matter what sport, there’s a very good chance players do not actually perform the “specific” movement we train them for as they react to opponents, teammates, their position on the ice/court/field, and the whereabouts of the puck/ball. The imposed demand for both the athlete and the everyday person is reactive, instinctive movement into “non-traditional” positions as they adjust to their environment. It’s non-repetitive. It’s different every time.

This is the paradox inherent in the specificity principle - the movement demands of sport and life are, specifically, variable.

The health and performance of the body relies on our ability to move variably, and it adapts in kind. Our soft tissues (muscle, fascia, and other connective tissues) adapt specifically to the imposed demand (Davis’ Law^1), so if we want to produce strong, powerful and safe movements in variable, reactive directions then we need to stress our connective tissue variably. Our bone tissue adapts specifically to the imposed demand through biomechanical and soft-tissue loading (Wolff’s Law^2), so if we want a solid, robust architecture we need to apply load variably. And let’s not forget about movement skill - our motor learning, development and ability adapt specifically to the imposed demand, so if we want to produce skilled and efficient movement in variable, reactive environments then we need to move variably^3.

References:

1. Clark, MA & Lucett, SC (2010). NASM’s Essentials of Corrective Exercise Training, p. 199. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

2. Frost, HM (2001). From Wolff's law to the Utah paradigm: Insights about bone physiology and its clinical applications. The Anatomical Record, volume 262, p.398-419.

3. Harbourne, RT & Stergiou, N (2009). Movement variability and the use of nonlinear tools: principles to guide physical therapist practice. Physical Therapy, volume 89, p.267-282.

08/13/2016

The human body does amazing things under the right circumstances.

07/24/2016

A small adjustment in body mechanics can make the difference between a good athlete and a great one. Come and see how Pilates can help improve your form and athletic performance!

07/14/2016

05/02/2016

Here's a little snippet taken from a Q & A with Chicago Cubs pitcher, Jake Arrieta, who discovered the magic of Pilates. It's really cool to see Pilates getting some praise and recognition from professional athletes!!

I train with Pilates in the offseason and in-season on a daily basis. Pilates gets my body into a position where I'm activated, I'm loose and I'm ready to go as soon as I step out onto the field. It aids my warm-up process; it gets me much more ready for the day of activity than any other type of warm-up ever has. And the amount of core strength that I've built with Pilates and hamstring strength and hip mobility and mobility in my shoulders and my spine -- those are all things that directly correlate with what I have to do on the field.

I kind of brought Pilates to the Cubs. I went to Ricketts, Jed, Theo, and I told them this is our way to be innovative. In five to 10 years, every clubhouse in baseball is going to be doing this. I think at first a lot of guys were skeptical. But as time has gone by, the amount of guys that are taking part in either a morning routine of Pilates or an afternoon session is pretty high. I'd say there's been 15-20 guys that are actively using Pilates. And they are all seeing the added benefit.

03/08/2016

Pilates is more than a workout. It will strengthen your posture, improve your body mechanics, and can even improve your performance in other sports and exercises. Your joints will thank you!

Pilates Is Your Best Insurance Policy But here’s the deal. If you want to keep doing all those things you do enjoy, you need to take out an insurance policy on your body so you can do them for a long time. It’s called Pilates. Pilates is not stretching, relaxing, low-key, or whatever synonym you …