Happy Halloween

As a newbie to these shores I am amazed at the entire phenomenon of Halloween. Sure, we have it in the UK, but if you are older than 6 you don’t pay any attention to it. Instead the big event at this time of year is Guy Fawkes night on November 5th. It was named after Guy Fawkes who planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament on this day in 1605. He failed, but the day is still remembered fondly by setting off fireworks and creating bonfires. The Fire service hate that night…

All these events have me reminiscing about what we left behind. I don’t miss Guy Fawkes night too much (it terrified our poor cat!) and I am having fun thinking up costumes for various Halloween events. I’m still quite conservative this year, I’ll need time to get confident enough to really push the boat out on that one.

And then there’s the lack of daylight that also starts being a feature of this time of year. Our ocean swims are getting later and later waiting for the sun to rise. And I am having to leave earlier if I want to get an evening run in before it gets dark. With the clocks changing next week the prospect of it getting dark at 5pm are not too welcome.

Then I remember what it was like in Bonnie Scotland. In winter it gets light at 9am and dark at around 3.30pm. If it is bad weather it never really gets light at all. I spent months doing every training session in the dark. And because it is generally cold, wet and windy even getting out there to train tests your strength of character. It does build a sense of community amongst us crazy athletes, i.e. anyone stupid enough to venture outside. Whenever I went riding and passed another cyclist on the road there was a nod of acknowledgement between the multiple layers of warmth to a fellow athlete just trying to hang on to the end of the training session. No, I don’t miss that one bit!

Training out here in the dark has it’s own challenges. There is much less street lighting so I have to choose my routes much more carefully. Because the roads are dark but still busy in the morning cycling is also more scary. I have dug out all my Scotland lights and reflective winter clothing. The lights are coming in handy but it is still way too warm to wear the reflective clothing. I’ll figure out my new wardrobe eventually.

I think it just shows, regardless of the local culture or environment, there are challenges everywhere. But more importantly there are great memories and opportunities everywhere as well. I for one will be embracing my first Halloween. Next stop on the great American cultural adventure: Thanksgiving!

Corina

Deceptive Appearances

UFC, the mixed martial arts sport, is one of my guilty pleasures. As a martial artist and exercise professional I can appreciate the physicality and skill of the fighters. I love watching the fighters on TV though I would never actually participate. It is interesting to try and predict the winner of the fights beforehand, and even though the fighters are divided by weight group, like boxers, there are often big differences in size and shape. Bigger is not always better, the guy with the awesome body does not always win and sometimes a guy that is utterly dominant can be knocked out by a single punch, in essence; appearances can be deceptive. I love the idea that you cannot judge a book by it’s cover, and we called our business The Wolf Studio because Corina and I see ourselves as wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Last week I went to dinner with 4 other gentlemen from the dojo where I train. As I approach 3 decades in the martial arts it is not often that I am the lowest grade at the table. None of us looked in the slightest like your stereotypical martial artists, there was a doctor, a lawyer, a university professor, a teacher and me, hardly the knuckleheaded stereotype you may expect. We are all polite and calm, in the dojo the transformation is unbelievable. It is unwise to judge a book by it’s cover.

I am embarrassed to admit that I once taught a class where one of the students was a short, attractive blonde beauty therapist. I immediately thought, dumb, vacuous, eye candy… Actually she was one of the best students I have ever taught, she had excellent hands, an inquisitive brain and showed a real talent. If she was over here I would have her working for me, no question. SO LESSON LEARNED!

In the gym we often see guys who look great, they have big muscles and look great in the mirror, but they can only lift light weights. They are the classical example of guys who have the form without having the function. The classic example of this that I always quote is the story of a chap that I was doing some medicine ball training with. The client was a big muscular chap with a great body, he would throw the medicine balls out and Corina would pass them back while I coached him on his technique. Problems arose when he realized that Corina was throwing the medicine balls back easily after he had put in 100% effort, in essence he was being out done by a skinny blonde girl! He had the body, but not the functional strength. The opposite can also be true, I trained a 4’10 100lbs 40year old home economics teacher, she was tiny, yet in the gym she could out-lift the local rugby guys by squatting well over twice her body weight.

When it comes to Corina who is a tall blonde she often gets labeled as the dumb blonde, but once she opens her mouth you soon realize that she is highly educated. Corina holds a first class honors degree in physics and is one of the most highly qualified practitioners in her field, she even wrote most of the code for this website! In running shops I see pepper spray for female runners and I think that this is a good idea, Corina though carries more than 20years of martial arts experience with black belts in Judo, Karate and Okinawan Weapons, not an easy target.

For me I am short and stocky, I am a quiet, polite introvert. I don’t look like a typical personal trainer, I am not  a ‘beefcake’, I don’t go round shouting “good job!”, I certainly don’t count reps aloud. However I am highly educated, and I am an award winning presenter, though I don’t conform to the stereotype I am very successful as an exercise specialist, therapist and teacher. I have great hands, maybe from all of those years doing Judo, and massage is easy for me, in fact after all of the years training and gaining high-level qualifications I still think that my relaxing massage is my best professional talent.

When we get clients into our studio we ask a lot of questions because we know that you are more than just a stereotype, if you are a runner we won’t just print you off a generic running program. Just because you are a runner doesn’t mean that you have tight hamstrings, as we proved during our last workshop, so we measure your body we don’t guess.

We won’t underestimate you, don’t underestimate us!

Alan

Role Models

Maybe it is because it is cancer awareness month, Corina’s recent cancer scare, a recent martial arts course or maybe something else, but I have been thinking about the people who have influenced who I am, my role models.

Role models whether parents, teachers, coaches, friends, politicians, spiritual leaders or people in the public eye can have a very positive or negative effect upon who we are. I have been lucky enough to have several role models throughout my life, perhaps the most influential was Mr Todd my Judo Sensei. At a time when, like many teenagers, I did not have a positive male role model in my life Mr Todd taught me self discipline and resect. From that I have developed a very strong moral compass, it means that I would rather be at training an hour early rather than a minute late, but I guess that is a good thing.

In the health and fitness industry it is important that we become role models for our clients, we must practice what we preach. That does not mean that we all need to look herculean but we must walk the talk. We must act in a professional way, and yes that means we shouldn’t date clients! The way we present ourselves is important as we set the standards.

How many times do you see a family out riding their bikes and the children wear helmets but the adults don’t? All this teaches the children is that when you grow up you don’t need to wear a helmet. Adults dashing into the street, kids in tow, to save a few minutes rather than walking to the crossing, another negative example. Are you teaching your kids that it is ok to text while driving?

From the sports world we all have our childhood idols and as we grow up our perceptions change. Would I still respect Lance Armstrong if, like another cyclist I trusted Floyd Landis, he tested positive or admitted taking drugs? We can admire the ability of these sportsmen and women, though we may choose not to live our lives in the way that they have.

At a time when the youth of today are bombarded with destructive and divisive images on TV and on the internet it is important that we serve as role models for the young and the old alike. We must think about the image we give, and the standards that we set.

Think about the people in your life who inspired you and think about who you can inspire.

Alan

Taping from the land down under!

A few weeks ago I was asked to help at my dojo with some renovation, the job was to tape off the dojo in preparation for painting. So I found myself after training with my sword, on my hands and knees applying masking tape in the dojo. I seem to spend half my life with tape in my hands and I thought I’d explain my fascination with tape.

When I was training to become a massage therapist taping was just mentioned in passing as another therapeutic modality. Years later when I was teaching the sports massage course I found myself embarrassed by my lack of knowledge on the subject, I just knew that physical therapists used tape and we didn’t. So I found a course I liked and traveled down to London for the 3 day course. The course was run by PhysioUK and though not physiotherapists Corina and I were allowed to attend. This course, Functional Fascial Taping® (FFT) with Ron Alexander, an Australian, changed by professional life more than almost any other.

I thought I was just going to another CPD seminar, you learn a few things and do some networking… mistake. The aim of Functional Fascial Taping® (FFT) is to decrease pain and increase range of motion, using nothing other than normal sports tape! Sounds too good to be true right? We thought so, and so did just about everyone else on the course. Ron asked for a volunteer and up stepped a physiotherapist with an arm that hurt when she lifted heavy objects, this lady was as skeptical as we were and over the next 15minutes Ron taped her in such a way that she had no pain, increased range of motion and more strength. Anecdotal evidence is of little use to hard nosed physiotherapists and some of the audience didn’t believe their eyes.

Ron Alexander was then able to produce real-time ultrasound imaging showing exactly how and why the tape worked. From that moment I was hooked. Not only did FFT work, it could be used with acute injuries, you can apply it to all sorts of injuries and the guy that invented the system was just like us; a soft-tissue therapist, not a physical therapist or an MD, just a guy with good hands and a detailed understanding of how the body works.

Years later I use tape all the time. I have added Kinesio Taping to my repertoire and often use it in conjunction with the FFT and more traditional taping methods.

Tape allows me to treat clients in a way that encourages activity, I can tape in a way that allows athletes to continue to exercise. I can use tape to help reduce pain without using drugs, I can give them more motion and get them to function better.

I often say that if a product sounds too good to be true it probably is, but if it were true I would use it all the time. Functional Fascial Taping® works and I use it all the time!

I love tape, it is effective, it relies on an understanding of functional anatomy, it is part science, part art and part experience.

Alan

Less pain more brain… sports massage doesn’t have to hurt

Corina and I have taught sports massage for many years. We have taught classes to groups of massage therapists and physical therapists, we have had doctors and nurses in our classes, we have taught reiki practitioners and housewives. Our clients have included Olympic athletes and professional triathletes, we have soigneured for cycling teams and have advised professional athletes, our students have built successful businesses and have traveled the world. One of the most important lessons that we hope our students learn is that a good therapist will be able to achieve the desired outcome from a treatment without hurting the client, this is in stark contrast to the perceived wisdom that sports massage should hurt. We need to question the assumption that a good sports massage should hurt.

Many therapists believe that their treatment is not effective unless their client is flinching and is on the edge of crying with pain. We have heard many stories of therapists who will continue to treat while the client is in floods of tears because of the excruciating pain. There are therapists out there that wear their ability to hurt clients as a badge of honor and openly boast about how much pain they can inflict. THIS IS STUPID AND UNETHICAL.

Any idiot can cause a client to be in pain (offense very much intended). Just because it is painful doesn’t mean that it is therapeutic, in fact quite the opposite. Yes sticking your elbow into spasming muscle will hurt, but that doesn’t mean that it will do the client any good or relax the muscle. Sticking a finger in my eye would hurt but that doesn’t mean it will help my short-sightedness.

Why is it that with sports massage: pain = good?

Would you go to a dentist who prided himself on hurting his patients?

We need to educate ourselves and the public about what is good massage and what is bad massage. It is my belief that therapists too often pride themselves on causing discomfort to build their own ego and to disguise a lack of understanding about how the body actually works and how it responds to the treatment we provide. I taught some of the therapists with this attitude so I accept that some of the traditional teaching styles are to blame for this, but this is a problem with sports massage world-wide.

We have taught courses where we know that some of the students think that once graduated they will be able to go out and work so deeply that they will routinely bruise clients. One time we taught a group of students in Aberdeen, the students were part way through their training, and the students all thought that bruising clients was normal and was even desirable, nonsense. By bruising a client you are causing more damage to the tissue, I am not saying that occasionally bruising a client is the end of the world, but regularly breaking capillaries is not clever or therapeutic.

An experienced, qualified therapist will be able to achieve the desired outcome without traumatizing either the tissue or the client.

There is a very big difference between being in slight discomfort and in pain. Therapeutic discomfort is sometimes unavoidable, just as you would expect your legs to be aching slightly whilst running hard intervals. Pain is different and is a signal to your body that something is wrong. If you feel pain during training you need to stop so you don’t injure yourself more. It is exactly the same in massage, if it hurts STOP. Sports Massage is there to help you recover faster and feel better after training or competition. If it makes you feel worse and it causes you to have to take a few days off training until you have recovered from the massage then it is not doing it’s job. Find another therapist who is capable of providing an effective treatment that makes you feel better and not worse, one size does not fit all.

The days of no pain no gain are gone in the gym, it is time that we as therapists used our brains a little more and our elbows a little less!

Alan