I agree. I find this topic unpleasant if it reflects reality. Things like the 45 minute stretch routine posted in the thread would probably increase my week's physical training time by 50% or more, depending on what programs I'm feasibly running at different times. Then the idea that there are so many unexpected causes to very real problems (like listening in one ear...) Multiply these therapy sessions across the weeks (if not repeatedly during the day) and it seems like a full time job to undo mysterious injuries. I guess the hope is to perform SOME movement every day and that it counteracts the unimagined causes of damage.
The level of trial and error involved is significant right now. Perhaps physical knowledge will increase at some point the way computing power has and people will be able to find the causes of their problems quickly and address them efficiently. As of now I just hope everyone can conclude their therapy exercise quests as quickly, efficiently, and effectively as possible.
My two cents and personal experience is that moving "better" during training will aid a lot of bodily issues more than any foam-rolling, voodoo flossing, stick a finger in your mouth or whatever routine will. I realize that "better" is a vague term, and for that I must apologize, I guess. The unfortunate reality is that many well-meaning fitness and health professionals have just been repeating a lot of the same info for a long time, and some of that info has been shown to be ineffective (see below). To me, moving "better" means not fighting natural movement; e.g. not trying to externally rotate something when internal rotation is needed to accomplish the movement.
I agree completely. This is a very important aspect of my life and I would gladly spend money on an expert instead of doing trial and error myself, but in the past I've spent a small fortune on experts and nothing improved.
Unfortunately the reality is that many experts are parroting information they learned from someone else, who learned it from someone else, etc… Some of that information has been shown to be unsupported by evidence, as...ahem...evidenced by the fact that there are so many people who have "tried everything" and gone to numerous professionals with no improvement.
For example, for the sake of the thread, I have been dealing with a wonky shoulder for the past few years. I have learned tons about the shoulder, how it moves, all the muscles (I was formerly on track to get an exercise science degree and go into physcial therapy school), etc. What I was never taught was that there is FAR less correlation between scapular dyskinesis and shoulder pain than you might expect. I have gone through cycles where I film every set of what I do to see if my scapula moves better, only to wind up in an frustrated and anxious state of mind, asking myself, "why does nothing help?"
You know what has helped the most? Stopping filming myself, and just trying to find ways to move that feel good for me (the appearance of the scapula be damned). After seeing some of the research on technique and injury prediction, it became apparent that "perfect form" is something of a fallacy. Pushups are bothersome for me, but
internally rotating my hands on pushups often makes them feel
better. I got the idea after watching calisthenics "legend" Dejan Stipke perform power pushups that way.
Long story short, my shoulder isn't perfect, but it's getting better, slowly, and mostly because I just try and move as "naturally" as I can ("naturally" in this case meaning "not cued"), in ways that don't produce unwanted side effects.
E3 Rehab has some "myth busting" videos as well, where some of the studies are discussed. They have videos and social media on other topics as well.
Canadian Physio Greg Lehman is also a great, no-BS source of information. Beware, though, he will likely tell you that a lot of what you've learned hasn't been supported by evidence. His blog is good, and he has lots of youtube interviews and talks, but his instagram/twitter (I'm not calling it "X") is where he posts most of the links to studies.
For example:
His blog:
www.greglehman.ca
Now, before I irritate at least half of the forum, again, let me take a second to elaborate:
All this is NOT to say that how you move doesn't matter at all. What it is saying is that some things are pathologized by professionals, and that can affect how patients/clients perceive their pain and movement quality. Lehman is big on the bio-psycho-social model of pain. That is, pain is influenced by biology, psychology, and one's social life.
There is something called the "nocebo" effect, describing how patients might experience a negative effect because they have been led to believe it will occur.
en.wikipedia.org
Given the fact that there is evidence that certain movements don't spell doom for your body, this is why I dislike the pathologizing of movement. I've seen threads started here where someone was concered about "butt wink" in an air squat. No offense to these people; they have been led to believe that "butt wink" is going to make their back explode or something, and they have been led to that belief by people who were also led to that belief...etc
To conclude:
I am still a big fan of learning how the body works. I think that I have landed on the conclusion that if someone is having trouble with something, you just have to try things until you find something that helps. I posted about Gary Ward and PRI. I have had lots of success with their approaches, but guess what? Not supported by studies (at least as far as I am aware of).
I think we should consider ourselves lucky if a first-try, "standard" approach to something fixes our issues. Most of the time, however, I think we do best by learning, trying things out, and seeing what seems to make improvements. Lehman has pointed out how when it comes to back pain, targeted "stability" exercises and the like have been shown to be no more effective than general strength training, loaded in an appropriate fashion.
It's nice when we can go to someone and have them say, "do this," and it works. But it's like the age old adage about teaching a man to fish.... just take some time to learn about the body. It doesn't have to be hours. Just a few minutes a day is good. To that end, learn about your own body. Experiment with it. What happens if you move this way, twist that thing, lengthen this way, etc? It's like RIR and autoregulation. You have to become more self-aware to make it really work.
Hopefully something in there is helpful to someone. Dealing with injuries and body issues is quite complicated, and fixing them is often more of a tangled mess than a straight line.
