“Where did this concept come from, that in order to fix our pain, we just need to stretch more?” asks host Dr. Andrew Fix on this episode of The Code, after assessing a number of runners ahead of a major racing day in Colorado. Many athletes who experience joint pain mistakenly think that their problem is a lack of range of motion or tissue mobility—when actually, when they are assessed, they have quite a wide range of mobility, even on the joint experiencing pain. More often than not, Dr. Fix argues, the issue is a lack of strength and control in that joint.

He breaks down the mechanics of movement when playing sports—particularly long distance running—and what leads to the pain we experience even when we stretch, or apply external applications like tape and braces. He explains why increasing our movement habits is important but ultimately won’t home in on the pain, and what you actually need to do to get to the root of the problem.

Humans have evolved to be active on our feet. After this episode, you’ll understand better how to keep moving forward free from pain.

Quotes

• “Let’s not just tape your knee, because what we know is, KT tape or rock tape any one of these external things—a knee brace for example—they don’t fix the problem. They can temporarily change symptoms and give you some sensory input.” (2:18 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

• “In almost every single one of them, on the same side that they had knee pain, we saw either a lack of control or strength in their hip. We had them balance on one foot, it’s really hard. We tested their hip motion, I think a few of them actually had more motion on their “affected” side, the side where they had knee pain. But when we tested their strength, boy, was it lacking. Boy, was it less on the side that they had the knee pain.” (7:08 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

• “It does not take a lot of ‘mobility’ or I should say ‘range of motion’ to go through and do these activities. We have to demonstrate great control and great stability in these small ranges of motion, especially in an activity like running because there’s impact involved.” (9:21 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

• “If you’re lacking mobility and you’re starting to have symptoms, stretching might be appropriate for you, but you have to do some sort of assessment, some sort of a screening process and look at things and figure out what the actual deficits at play here, the limitations in my body or my training that could be responsible for these symptoms.” (11:50 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

Links

https://andrew7ng.podbean.com/e/93-mobility-vs-stiffness-striking-the-perfect-balance/

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The post 122. You Can’t Stretch Your Problems Away appeared first on Physio Room.

Unstructured play isn’t, and shouldn’t be, just for kids. “We need you, I want you, you need you to go play,” implores host Dr. Andrew Fix on today’s episode of The Code. When we’re little, he explains, we play freely, on a daily basis and, for the most part, without injury. As we get older, and start to play less, we begin to feel more stiff, more achy and less mobile as a result. In the United States, where rates of arthritis and obesity are particularly high, it’s important to start moving your body the way you did as a child.

Dr. Fix recalls a recent trip he took with family, including his young niece and nephew, to the local park. The adults threw themselves into play along with the kids, and it demonstrated an important lesson about strength, coordination and longevity.

Quotes

• “As adults, many times we stop playing, we stop doing the things we used to do as kids and then our bodies start to pay the price for that.” (1:28 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

• “Nothing takes me back to being a kid like throwing the football around. Throwing something. If I’m ever having a bad day, if I’m ever just wanting to clear my mind of things, if I can go outside and play catch with somebody, and throw a ball around, Oh my gosh. It is so therapeutic for me.” (3:18 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

• “All of us, for the most part, when we’re kids, we do all sorts of stuff. We play, we go do things, we build up an intense sweat, we do this day after day, after day, after day, we’re playing with our friends. And we’re not hurt, we don’t have injuries—we might fall and we might scuff our knee, we might actually hurt something. A kid could fall off the monkey bars and actually injure something—but what I mean is we don’t have these constant day-to-day aches and pains that many of us have now.” (6:04 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

• “Many of us are much weaker now, relative to how big we are, than what we were as kids.” (6:48 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

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The post 120. Live to Play Another Day appeared first on Physio Room.

“Knowledge is power”—or is it? It’s a phrase we hear often, but never really question. On today’s episode of The Code, host Dr. Andrew Fix suggests that knowledge is not power, at least not unto itself. Knowledge becomes powerful only when we put it into action.

Dr. Fix cites his own experience using a tracking device to illustrate. He collected so much body data— heart rate variability, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation—all of which was useless because he did nothing with it. He will explain the danger in reading too many self-improvement books and listening to self-improvement podcasts and whether list-making or time blocking is better for time management and goal setting.

Join today’s episode to learn Dr. Fix’s advice about turning your own knowledge into power. That’s where the magic really happens.

Quotes

• “Knowledge really isn’t power. A lot of people who are in powerful positions or a lot of people who do great things have a lot of knowledge, but knowledge by itself is useless. It’s just information. It’s just information until you are able to, or you choose to, do something with it.” (1:41 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

• “Just like that phrase “creativity without action is just imagination.” Or “goals without action are just dreams.” Unless you choose to do something with the information that you have, what good is that information?” (2:08 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

• “Gather as much information as you want and as you can. But at the end of the day, please make sure you do something with that information because it’s going to improve your life, it’s going to improve somebody else’s life and everyone’s going to be better off for it because we’re going to put that knowledge into action and that’s where the magic can really happen.” (6:29 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

Links

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The post 116. Knowledge is NOT Power appeared first on Physio Room.

“Our medical system, here in the United States, is failing you, and failing me and failing us.” says Dr. Andrew Fix. Doctors’ appointments last less than ten minutes and patients leave feeling neglected and unheard. If specialists are able to offer any solutions to patients’ problems, they are often impractical and do not address root causes. Insurance companies do everything they can to deny coverage, leaving patients to seek alternative and preventative solutions.

On today’s episode of The Code, Dr. Fix shares stories of two women in his life who each sought treatment from traditional doctors. Learn the baffling advice his mother received from doctors about a persistent ringing in her ear, and the unlikely route she took to discover the source of the issue. Hear the story of a woman who was told by numerous doctors that they were unable—or unwilling—to help her with digestive issues and what Dr. Fix and his colleagues at the Physio Room did to help.

With so many obstacles built into the healthcare system, clients need to be strong self-advocates. Dr. Fix reveals what approach they need to take to get the help they need, and what providers can do to make their interactions with clients more positive and productive.

Quotes

• “If you have a real life threatening concern, condition, injury, this is probably the place you want to be. If you need to get rushed into surgery, if you have cancer, or a heart condition and require open-heart surgery— this is probably the place where you want to be because we have the ability to treat things really, really well when they’re present.”  (3:57 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

• “When you go see an orthopedic or a physical therapist and say, ‘It hurts when I reach up; it hurts when I do this with my shoulder,’ and their solution to you is, ‘Well, don’t do that thing,’ which we all know is not a solution. That’s just avoiding the issue.” (6:22 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

• “Unfortunately, our traditional medical system is just not set up to do that, to be able to have the providers have the amount of time necessary to listen and not be interrupted and just literally, truly listen to the clients, and have the amount of time necessary to do so, and really hear what they’re saying and digest it and respond with some helpful recommendations.” (13:17 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

• “There are so many restrictions placed on providers and on the medical facilities by the third party payers — AKA the health insurance companies — who are just trying to deny, deny deny.” (15:43 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

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The post 114. The Medical System is Failing You appeared first on Physio Room.

“Maybe you see a child run out into the road after a ball. You want your fight or flight response, your sympathetic nervous system to boost so you can quickly run out there, grab that child and get him out of the way of harm. You don’t want there to be a delay.”

In today’s solo episode of “The Code,” Dr. Andrew Fix talks to us about Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and how we can optimize it to perform better in all areas of our lives. HRV, essentially, measures the time intervals between your heartbeats. Why is this important? Because the higher your HRV the more resilient your body–particularly your cardiovascular system—and the more responsive your physiology is to changes in input.

The heart gets a great deal of its input from the sympathetic nervous system—which is responsible for our “fight or flight” response— and the parasympathetic nervous system—responsible for our “rest and digest” response. A high HRV means we more quickly and sharply perform in both of these modes, and more quickly and easily switch between the two.

There are several fitness and lifestyle changes we can make to increase our HRV. Dr. Fix describes what to do and what not to do in terms of training, hydration and nutrition. He reveals the three most important factors in getting quality sleep, how an ideal day should begin and end, and the importance of finding value in our work.

Quotes:

• “Why do we monitor this; why is it even important? Well, HRV can be used as a measure of resilience in your body, particularly your cardiovascular system. Resilience and your physiological flexibility. How responsive your body is to changes in input.” (3:40 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

• “The higher your HRV is, the more responsive your body is to each of these inputs, the quicker your body can make that change and flip the switch from ‘on’ to ‘off’ and vice versa, which is good. You want to be responsive to both.”  (6:36 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

• “Really as it relates to the HRV, it’s the circadian rhythm. In an ideal world, if you could watch the sunrise and watch the sunset go above and below the horizon every day, that would be amazing. I know that doesn’t work with many of our busy schedules. However, if you could design your day from a light exposure standpoint the way that would be most optimal, that would be very beneficial to do.”  (18:34 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

Links

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The post 109. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) | What Is It And How to Change It? appeared first on Physio Room.