Movement

On being a god

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So you want the body of a god. Pick your pantheon. Greek, Roman, Norse. All images are interpreted by artists and storytellers, so what you’re actually wanting is the body that a painter, sculpter or mosaicist created to symbolise their desires. I wanted the body of a god and got Dionysis.

Anyway, god, or goddess, it is.

First, to be like a god, live like one. Perhaps without the destruction and disinterest in the humans, but in other ways, train, sleep, eat like a goddess.

The norse gods would have had fish, grains, meat, washing it down with beer (mead is for celebrations). The greek or romans? Fresh fish, fruits and vegetables, olives, breads, cheeses. What you put in, is what you get out and eventually the body composition will follow the diet.

The one thing none of the diets would had would have been confectionary (other than sweet cakes, ambrosia and dried fruits), and processed foods.

As for training, for the greeks, lots of running, throwing, lifting (think olympic disciplines). The norse, heavier lifts, walking, hunting and rowing. They created their gods from what they knew.

To be like a god, first live like one.

What has any of this got to do with a sports injury clinic?

Firstly, I firmly believe that we forget the basics to follow the latest trend or fad. Secondly, we are what we consume. Thirdly, even the gods needed help and support sometimes and having an expert at your side when you go on the journey is a good thing.

We can offer nutritional reviews, training and planning support and treatment for those injuries sustained in the cause of achieving your goals.

Understanding the Vagus Nerve: Myths vs. Facts

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Stressed? Tired? Anxious? Run down? Digestive issues? Just not feeling the spark in the bedroom? Perhaps your Vagus Nerve needs resetting!

Or so many practitoners will try to persuade you. And of course they will share the secrets of their protocol for only 10 dollars and your email address.

Fact: The vagus nerve is the 10th cranial nerve, and one of the only ones that leave the skull to travel around the body (Vagus – Wanderer – Vagrant). In the case of the vagus nerve, it heads down the neck, outside of the spinal cord, and acts as the parasympathetic highway, adding control to the heart, digestion, major solid organs and even your response to inflammation.

So yes, if you are experiencing a huge variety of issues, then the vagus nerve is likely to be involved, especially if there is a psychological component.

However. A vagus nerve reset isn’t a secret protocol or a mystic trick, and it may not make all those issues go away, especially if you haven’t actually made a start at dealing with the underlying issues leading to them.

Want to reset your vagus nerve? Do anything that relaxes you. Breathing exercises, meditation, gentle rythmic exercise. As long as its not excessively stimulating and you enjoy it, it’ll work.

Some research also shows that there is a relationship between heart rate variability and the vagus nerve, and that asymmetric breathing (short nasal in, long pursed lip breath out), can help this.

When you look at it closely, most of the online information regarding resetting the vagus nerve is actually long term lifestyle management, with a funny hat. Change your diet, control your stress, exercise and train in a manner that supports your health. And most importantly, breathe.

Simple, cheap, effective.

And of course, always consult an expert when considering such things, to make sure that you are solving the correct problem.

The Importance of Proper Breathing for Health and Wellness

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Have you ever felt your breath catch? An awe inspiring view, a new love across the room, a shock from unexpected news? Have you ever felt really short of breath, like there isn’t enough air in the room? Lots of things can make us feel short of breath, some exciting (the new love across the room, the view), some scary (the sound of unknown feet on a dark night, shocking news), exertion and even some diseases.

Therefore a caveat – if you think that your shortness of breath, particularly if linked with a new or persistant cough, could be of pathological origin, go and see your primary medical provider for assessment and treatment.

Breathing is the most fundamental process of life, something we have done since the moment we were born and the last thing we shall do. It is something we never notice until it becomes the only things we can do and is also, uniquely, one of the only autonomic actions that we can control.

Hold your breath. Just stop. No in, no out, just pause. If you are relaxing and have no known underlying issues, you should be able to last 20 – 30 seconds before the desire to breath kicks in. Physiologically, this desire is driven by the change in Carbon Dioxide, not the drop in Oxygen.

The ability to control your breathing, and your response to it, is a wonderful gift, that can help relieve headaches, reduce your perception of stress, control anxiety, increase athletic performance and even change your mood.

And, if your breathing is restricted mechanically, there is research based evidence that manual therapies can also help improve this, increasing your functional effective volume and respiratory mechanics, also helping with the above issues.

At the Clinic, we have spent years working with specialists and carrying out research ourselves on best ways to treat, unlock and improve breathing, from relaxation exercises to breath control systems, and manual therapies to address underlying function issues.

Book today online and talk to us to experience the benefits.

On: Obesity

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We all know what obesity looks like. Too many ‘spoons pie and pint nights, too many burgers, not enough gym time.

Except, we don’t.

It might be visually obvious if the T shirt barely covers the waistline, but how do you define it? If you use the BMI scale (weight in kilos divided by height in metres squared), then obesity is considered anything over a BMI of 30, overweight is over 25, healthy is 20-25 and so forth.

But then a lot of athletes, especially power althletes, are obese. Of course, the more mass you have to move around, the greater the load your body has to manage, both for joint health and cardiovascular load but this doesn’t take into consideration the positive effect of muscle mass, cardiovascular fitness, and any other number of markers for health. The only use for BMI in most aspects is to tell you what you already know, when its far too low or far too high. For reference, you probably don’t want to be below 20 (not enough muscle mass) and above 30 (increased risk of joint issues).

A preferred methodology, for a rapid ready reckoner, is height to waist ratio. This ignores mass, but can idicate central obesity, which has been shown to have a detrimental effect on internal organs and general health. This is simply calculated as a ratio of height to waist circumference (waist divided by height in m), and should be less than 0.5.

As for markers of fitness, define your own. Markers such as the amount you can lift, or how fast you can run, are spurious goal setting. And no matter what the companies might say, you can’t tell your fitness from blood tests. Those are for if you are sick. Otherwise the levels will constantly fluctuate and tell you very little.

Be able to run, if you have the physical capability. Then try to increase the distance you can cover. Lift heavy things safely, then do it again. Move regularly, as smoothly and freely as possible. Constantly develop your capacity.

Train as though your life depends on it.

It does.

On: failure

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If you try to do too much in one go, you’ll fail.

You’ll fail because change requires effort and energy to sustain and you only have so much of it to go around.

Getting up earlier requires going to be earlier. But you can’t do that if you have commitments that keep you busy.

Cleaning up your diet requires knowledge, planning, effort.

Going to the gym is bullshit. I love gyms, they’re generally my safe place, but they are not the panacea sold by fitness grifters. Gyms are a place of effort, learning, painful self reflection. Go when you are ready for the lesson and can take humility in your kitbag.

Meditation and mindfulness are not solutions, they’re tools. If you can’t accept the dancing monkeys in your head, you’re not going to want to spend any time with them.

And after all that negativity?

Get rid of something. Less is far easier to manage than more.

Stop drinking. Stop smoking. Stop scrolling. If you can’t, accept you might have an addition issue and ask for support.

Walk more, drive less.

Throw out something from your house. It’s almost certainly clutter and there’s a probability someone else could benefit.

Positive deeds are loops. One feeds another. Make space for positive things.

We can offer some of this support.

An exercise review. A safe space to work through basic coaching issues, treatment to give your body space in itself to heal. A motivating kick and gentle reminder that being human takes effort but is worth it.

But make space. Do less, just do less better.

Be kind, be curious.

On: You’re wrong about the gym

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A new gym opens, the marketing tells you that if you join, you can finally tone up, lose weight and get fitter.

Possibly.

But only if you know what you’re doing with the rest of your life.

Otherwise, its just a kind of fun place to hang out and move.

The gym should be a place of education (in ancient Greece, the gynasium was a place of practical learning, and its still grammar school in Germany). It should be a place where you find new boundaries, develop skills and work on yourself. It should be a structured, functional representation of the rest of life.

But. If you were to get a modern gym goer to take off their huge headphones, stop posing for IG reels and ask them why they’re there, it will more likely be that they want to get toned, or lose weight. Or both. If you managed to ask a teen boy, they’ll probably tell you they want to build muscle. The ironic thing being that a healthy teen is so awash with growth potential, almost any resistance training will create that effect. Less so a man over 30 but the potential is still there.

None of those will happen unless you have the rest of your life squared away. If you’re too stressed, if you’re not sleeping great, if you leave the gym and walk straight into Costa for a triple syrup latte with added cake, if you don’t get your protein intake dialed in, if you don’t allow yourself space to rest, then its going to be so much harder to achieve any of your desired outcomes.

Even if you have defined them well enough. But thats a subject for another day.

Go to the gym. take advice from a professional, not just an influencer. but get the rest of your life sorted as well.

Flow and glide

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To move smoothly, all your tissues need to flow and glide. If they cannot, or do not, then the body will attempt to compromise. And eventually, it can fail. This leads to restriction, pain and immobility. Which can of course create a viscious circle of reduced ability.

What can cause changes in the glide? Joints we all sort of understand. Pain, swelling, inflammation and instability will lead to changes around that joint. But the soft tissues can also experiene those, leading to a conceptual stickiness, where tissues simply don’t want to move over each other smoothly. Some stickiness can be temporary, some can be more permanent (scarring), but stickiness within the system can lead to drag on the tensegrity, reducing the adaption capabilities. This is why you can see limitations in the shoulder and find the solution in the ankle, why mobility exercises that improve tissue range of motion can reduce pain globally, and why it is sometimes so hard to achieve complete resolution in a presentation. You haven’t dealt with the underlying lesion.

The thing is, trying to get your head around this is only the first element of treatment. and it can be particularly difficult, to detach from the description and go looking, or listening, to where another problem lies.

Treat close, check the chain, look at the centre, improve the chain, repeat.

On: Rituals and routines

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It seems like every influencer has their own special ritual and routine that helps them optimise their productivity, create more wealth and still manage to find time for their side hustle / thruple / vanlife trip around the pacific north west. And you can learn the secret if you listen to their podcast / buy their e-book / subscribe to their youtube channel.

And if thats true then I’m pleased for them, they’ve achieved some sense of balance and awareness in their lives.

For the rest of us, those who don’t speak fluent Aspiranto (the common language of the Antisocial media personality), some of the ideas can still offer us a benefit, especially if we draw our attention to them.

First though, definitions.

A routine is a sequence of actions that are repeated regularly, often without much thought. They can be simple, like brushing your teeth before bed, or more complex, like going to the gym regularly. As well as saving time and energy, they can also provide us with a sense of structure and predictability.

Rituals are also a series of repeated actions, but they are typically more intentional and meaningful than routines. Rituals can be religious, spiritual, or secular. Often performed less frequently, they can be performed to mark important life events, to connect with others, or simply to find peace and calm.

However, it is important to note that the distinction between routines and rituals is not always clear-cut. For example, a morning routine of yoga and meditation could be considered both a routine and a ritual, depending on the individual’s intention.

And herein lie the key differences: Intention, Attention, Focus.

To turn a routine into a ritual, we have to be fully present in the process. We have to understand the why , not just the what, and allow that awareness to be part of the process. And, we can often use symbols and anchors to help us trigger those patterns more effectively.

If, for example, you were brought up in the Western Christian Catholic tradition, then the smells and the bells would automatically allow you to access the full script for the ritual taking place, whereas it could seem confusing and overwhelming if you had never experienced it before.

These symbols and anchors can all be used to create a sense of belonging in those who have been initiated, and may create a barrier to those who are outside.

So, to improve an aspect of our lives, we can create a routine to support it. Want to drink more water, put in place a structure that encourages this with the use of triggers and anchor points. Feel that a 5 minute mobility routine would offer some benefit to your overall health? Make it simple to carry out. Look at what is currently stopping you and remove those barriers.

And, to make the mobility a meditation, or to use the water break as a gratitude practice (both of which are backed by real science to offer benefit), then choose your focus in the moment to be on your breath, on the process, on reflection, rather than carrying out the motions.

On: Galen

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The history of medicine is littered with men, and women, who even today, have an impact on the way we treat and are treated when we are ill.

One of these, and one of my favourite, was Galen. A Greek physician who practiced in the 1st Century CE Roman Empire, he studied extensively before moving to Rome and eventually becoming physician to the Emperors, and Gladiators. This gave him significant insight into many areas, and although we now know that many of his thoughts on illess and physiology are incorrect, a great deal of his work is still relevant.

Two of his tenets, which I believe still stand, and we still use are:

The body is a complex interconnect system, which has the capacity to heal itself. This is very similar to the osteopathic principles.

Use physical therapies first, then drugs, then surgery.

This last principle is still undervalued by both patient and practitioner, as it is not an easy fix, and given today’s current phamacopea, it is too easy to reach into the cabinet and take a pill rather than look for an underlying cause.

I would advocate to choose to be different. Seek the cause, make a change and overall health will improve.

How we move affects how we think

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There is a connection between how we move, how we breathe and how we think. This connection is well known and recognised in many traditions, and even by a running shoe manufacturer, but most of us ignore the cues that are there, if we were to tune into our bodies a little more.

I was discussing this recently with a professional singing and breathwork coach, and having worked with people with varying levels of paralysis, it is possible to see the way thought is entrained to the breath cycle.

As the coach showed me, we begin each thought with a breath and generally reach the end of the thought before the end of the breath. However, if we are unable to hold a deep breath for long enough, our thoughts can get chopped off by the need for air.

Thus we may begin the thought again, creating a frustrating cycle of thought and breath. But by allowing ourselves the space to breath and think, to move and breath, and to move and think, by acknowledging that this cycle takes place then we can help it all to work more effectively.

And, through seeking professional support, to optimise our breathing, to find balance in the respiratory system as well as the rest of the body, then we can improve even more.