Rosser Chiropractic

I’ll admit it.  It may seem odd to some for a chiropractor to be writing an article about gluteal muscles.  The truth is, however, that I’d venture to say that most if not all of my low back pain patients should be doing exercises to target strengthen these muscles rather than focusing on their backs.  “Gluteal amnesia” is a condition that occurs when the hips stop working correctly.  They either don’t activate or they don’t activate at the right time.  This can happen to people who are very active or very in-active and everything in between.  This movement imbalance can end up forcing the joints above and below (knees and lower back) to work in ways they weren’t designed to move.  The result?  Stress, pain, inflammation, etc. on these joints.  You might have gluteal amnesia if you have some of the following symptoms: hip, knee, or lower back stiffness/pain, sciatica/leg pain, loss of range of motion of the hips/legs, hamstring tightness.  Honestly, that just about covers EVERYONE who comes into my office!  I recently wrote an article for the Capital Bicycle Club newsletter that reviews a progression of exercises designed to get you… and your glutes moving better.   Click for the PDF.

One of the things I like about my profession is that the opportunities for learning are vast and the methods I use to take care of patients comes from many places.  Being as close as we are to Seattle, my opportunities are awesome!  This weekend I will be spending my weekend learning at a seminar presented by Dr. Chris J. Colloca, D.C.  He is a bright shining star in chiropractic research, development, and patient care.  He has spent years of his professional life devoted to furthering our understanding of the spine and nervous system, so that others of us can continue to evolve.  He also has a great talent for taking incredibly complex subjects and boiling them down to what matters in everyday practice.  Here’s to a long weekend of having my brain filled up so I can take care of you better! Below is an interview with Dr. Colloca if you are curious.

The Thurston County Bicycle Commuter Contest is nearly upon us again.  That means it must be summer, right?!?  Well, if the rain means a thing to anyone, you’ll know we’re deep in the midst of spring…  fender season in Olympia.  I’m happy to announce that we are one of the new sponsors for the Bicycle Commuter Contest this year!  More than just being the big goof ball who waves at every cyclist he passes, I thought I would put my money where my mouth is and help support this great endeavor.  In addition to offering prizes for the contest, I’m also teaching a cycling specific stretching class in my office on May 4 from 6-7 pm.   This class is available to any contest participant, but space is limited to the first 20 people to RSVP via phone (360.754.6499) or email (andy@rosserchiro.com)

For the past few years, we’ve been happy participants in the Sustainable South Sound organization. Many people in Oly and beyond are familiar with the “Our Money Matters” coupon booklet that comes out at the beginning of the year. As a local community member, this program has a great deal of value to me. It connects me to people and services in my community that I can use, and it also helps introduce me and my services to my local community. I’m writing this article because I just added the Sustainable South Sound logo to the bottom of every page of my website so others can easily find it.  If you are interested in purchasing these books they are available in retailers throughout the area, including our office.  Happy purchasing, and stay connected!

In the process of doing some research for a recent article I wrote for the Capital Bicycle Club’s newsletter, I found the pictures I’ve always dreamed of!  When people ask my why they are sore after riding or starting in on any new exercise, I’ve always tried to take then on the imaginary visual journey of a microscope into the muscles to see what has happened.  Without pictures, though, it’s often very difficult to convey the image.  I was lucky enough to find the pictures below.  They are very useful in showing the cellular damage, congestion, swelling, etc. that occurs to muscles after exercise.  The first picture shows a cross section view of muscle cells prior to exercise.  They are nice and full, with little space between, and evenly spaced nuclei (the darker spots at the perimeter of the cell.)  The second picture shows the extensive swelling and cellular debris still left around the muscle cells 7 days after exercise.  The marker (a) is a decayed muscle fiber, (b) is a normal muscle cell surrounded by the nuclei of other damaged muscle cells, and (c) is a necrotic (dying) muscle cell.  The white space around the cells is inflammatory infiltrate/swelling/and cellular debris.
 

These pictures speak to me about the importance of proper recovery and the focus on this aspect of training that must be taken into consideration.  Automatically, what comes to mind when I see these pictures are the topics of active recovery, monitoring training stress, monitoring for signs of overtraining, being serious about rest weeks, learning self-massage techniques, learning proper nutrition/hydration strategies, etc. to help heal this damage as quickly as possible so that you aren’t going into your next exercise session compromised.

(original photos can be found here)

Pain is a hot topic in my office, as it is in many other chiropractic offices.  It’s one of the main reasons that people are led to seek treatment.  In that way, it would seem that pain is accomplishing what it was designed to do:  It is a signal that something’s wrong and needs our attention.  Recently, I was re-reading Athletic Body in Balance by Gray Cook and came across these great answers to the question “What is Pain Trying to Tell Us?”

~You have poor form/technique
~You didn’t warm up
~You didn’t stretch
~You have muscular imbalances
~Your left and right body aren’t working together
~You are leaking/wasting energy and it’s becoming stress

I could add in a few other items to his list, like overtraining, acute trauma, etc.  But for now, that list is good and addresses some of the concerns that arise when pain sneaks up on us for no obvious reason.

The image is something that I found for a game called Pain.

It’s a little spooky to make big changes, especially when I already love what I’m doing in my practice. But, hey, 2011… here goes nothing! Something that has been in the works for several years is now on in full force. Over the past year, I’ve been gathering and testing the equipment and tools needed to provide a performance and skills testing area for cyclists in the office. In addition to providing musculo-skeletal bike fits in the office, we are also now able to set heart rate and power training zones and provide SpinScan analysis of pedalstroke efficiency. My goal with these services is to marry together my love and knowledge of chiropractic and the way the body works to one of my other loves… the bicycle. More information about the services… and WHY I am offering them is found on the BikeLab page.

We’re very excited to announce that we will be hosting photographer Ryan Richardson for his new show Mud and Salt Water. This show features photographs of two of his passions: cycling and surfing.  I’ve known Ryan for a long time and I am very excited to be a part of this show.  He is the photography lab manager at The Evergreen State College and an adjunct professor at Centralia College.  Please come meet him and enjoy his artwork.  Feel free to invite others who may enjoy his work!  Here’s what you need to know:

Mud and Salt Water. by Ryan Richardson
hosted by Rosser Chiropractic
Friday, December 3, 2010
6:30-9:00pm
*light refreshments will be served