Animal Cruelty Prevention Month
Ghandi is credited with saying, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Since April is Nation Prevention of Animal Cruelty Month, I think it’s worth remembering. In an age when many pets get Christmas presents, birthday parties, and sometimes even their own Facebook pages (have you “liked” Zee the Zamzows Tee Dog yet?), it can be hard to imagine that animal cruelty still exists. But it does, and sometimes it’s closer than you think.
The Power of Suggestion
I’m not known for quoting Buddha, but I do like his statement, “We are shaped by our thoughts. We become what we think.” People really do underestimate the power of their mind. What we think will happen tends to be what actually does happen. We call these “self-fulfilling prophecies,” but in the medical world, they’re known as the “placebo effect” and the “nocebo effect.”
Colorectal Cancer Awareness
March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Colorectal cancer (meaning cancer of the colon or rectum) is the third most common cancer among American men and women and the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. Each year, 140,000 Americans are diagnosed with this cancer, and another 50,000 will die. I lost my mother to this disease almost 20 years ago. Truly this is a cancer that is deserving of our attention towards prevention and early detection.
Exercise Myths
One of the definitions of a myth, according to Merriam-Webster, is “an unfounded or false notion.” Despite being inherently false, it seems like myths take on a life of their own, circulating for years, even decades after being disproven. Remember being told that if you sneezed with your eyes open, your eye balls would pop out? Or that if you drank soda while you ate Pop Rocks, your stomach would explode? And don’t forget the popular “drink a cup of coffee to sober up” line of thinking (sorry, this just creates a caffeinated drunk, but the person is no less drunk for it).
5 Things That Keep Us Young
Last week, I blogged about the top 5 things that make us feel old. This week, I thought I’d do the positive companion piece to that blog, the top 5 things that make us feel young. We’re all getting older, but why do some people seem to age better than others? Based what I’ve seen over my 25 year career as a physical therapist, here are some common traits of the young at heart:
5 Things That Make Us Old
Yesterday I was out making a purchase when I noticed a sign advertising the store’s senior discount. I asked the cashier what age qualified you for the price cut. Good news: I’m not there yet, but it did get me thinking about getting older. It’s happening to all of us, continually, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Yet why do some people seem to age better than others? Genetics surely has something to do with it, but are there other factors besides the clock and our genes? The answer is…yes!
Something New To Stand For
Did you know that in the 1940s, doctors recommended Camel brand cigarettes? With all we know about tobacco use today, that seems pretty incredible, but science has come a long way in the last several decades. By now, it’s no surprise to anyone that smoking, eating too much junk food, drinking too much alcohol, and being overweight are detrimental to your health. If you haven’t read about it yet, scientists have recently named another health hazard – too much sitting.
A Different Kind of Budget
We’re now one week into 2012! How are your resolutions going? If you’re like many Americans, you’ve vowed to lose weight and get in shape this year. Even though these goals are closely related (it’s a kill-two-birds-with-one-stone kind of resolution), they can still be overwhelming. As it turns out, sticking to an exercise plan is not unlike sticking to a financial budget.
Another PT Christmas
Happy Friday and Happy Holidays, everyone! Last year, I posted some physical therapist-approved gifts to get that hard-to-buy-for person on your list. I’ve decided to continue the tradition. Here are five more physical therapist-approved gifts. And the best part? Each of these items has a low price, and one only costs your creativity and time!
India 2011: Part 2
Well, we’re back! Most of you already knew that. As always, we’re so grateful to return home with a renewed understanding of how blessed we are in this country. We’ve been so busy since our homecoming (patients to see, relatives to visit, BSU football games to catch up on – what do you mean we lost?!) that this post is now two weeks late, but late is better than never… or so I’ve been told.
India 2011: Part 1
Sometimes at my house we joke that it’s “that time of year again.” This Friday, Nov. 4th, Bette and I will leave with Chapel Missions India for our fourth medical mission trip to India. It’s a wonderful cap to what has been a pretty epic month at Idaho Physical Therapy (October is National Physical Therapy Month, but it was also our company’s 20th anniversary). The familiar pre-travel emotions have arrived, but the more times we make this journey, the more excitement replaces the worries. We look forward to seeing our friends, the Indian pastors, and our sponsored Indian son, P. Ram Kumar. This year, however, things will be different, and I feel a little like a newbie all over again.
Reflections on 20 Years
Sometimes I can hardly believe it’s been this long. Twenty years ago, I founded Idaho Physical Therapy. During that time, I’ve met hundreds and hundreds of wonderful people, watched my kids grow up, endured lots of financial and personal ups and downs, weathered industry changes, and by God’s grace, still always been able to open the clinic doors again the next day. In a very real way, this little independent business has been my life’s dream come true.
Sport Specific Injuries: Volleyball
While my girls were in high school (three girls over the course of eight years), our household lived and breathed volleyball. They played on their school team (which twice was the Idaho state champion and another year was the runner-up) from August through October, then began the club volleyball season, which lasted from November until July. Between practices, games, and traveling to out-of-state tournaments, it was truly a year-round commitment for the entire family, but it was so much fun, we rarely thought of it that way.
National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month
The media love buzz words, and one of the major ones being thrown for around the last several years is “obesity epidemic.” We’re in one, and unfortunately, it’s not just a grown-up problem. Our poor eating habits and lack of exercise are showing up on our kids too, often around their waists. I’m not a doom and gloom kind of guy, so I won’t go into all the negative statistics here. The bottom line is that healthy, active kids have a better chance of growing into healthy, active adults who are less at risk for diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and all the other ailments associated with being overweight.
Good Muscle Memories
What did you do this morning? Maybe you buttoned your shirt and tied yours shoes while getting dressed. Perhaps you walked the dog. After scrambling eggs or flipping pancakes for breakfast, you probably brushed your teeth. Although you may not have realized it at the time, your muscle memory has been busy from the moment you woke up.
Muscle memory (also called motor learning) is a type of procedural learning wherein an action is repeated until the movements required for it can be performed with little conscious effort or attention. Despite its name, muscle memory doesn’t reside in the muscles themselves, but rather in the complex neural pathways that are formed in our brains when the task is learned. The more the task is repeated, the more well-formed and efficient that pathway becomes.
Sport Specific Injuries: Football
Even though I have four daughters, football is a big deal in my family. We love to watch college teams (of course, our favorite is BSU), and while I admit I’m not a huge fan of the NFL, I do like to cheer for the Packers (I’m a shareholder, after all). I have been an assistant varsity football coach, and Idaho Physical Therapy used to provide the training services for the Idaho Stallions. Because of the sport’s high injury rate, we were kept pretty busy during the season. It’s the nature of the game.
Sport Specific Injuries: Golf
Although we have very mild winters here in the Treasure Valley, sometimes it seems that the cold, damp months go on forever. When the sun finally returns, what better way to celebrate than with a round of golf? By this point in the summer, I hope you’ve enjoyed many great games with friends and have avoided the injuries commonly experienced by golfers.
Your Own Role Model
Looking up to a role model is a natural part of the human experience. It comes most easily when we’re children. What little boy growing up in the ‘50s didn’t want to hit a baseball like Mickey Mantle or throw a spiral like Johnny Unitas? Then there are the role models closer to home; maybe you hoped one day to be as strong as your dad or as fast as your big brother. Looking up to a role model gives us something to strive for and a belief that we can be better. But you can only take this so far.
Sun Safety
Okay, maybe I’m a little late to the party here, but I was recently shocked by a statistic I heard – that Boise is the #1 city in THE WHOLE COUNTRY for skin cancer deaths (see one article here). I guess on one hand, it’s not that surprising. We have beautiful, clear summer days and mild winter months that make it easy to be outside and enjoy Idaho’s natural wonders. And if you’ve lived here for a while like I have (a.k.a. we’re gettin’ old, folks), then odds are you grew up spending long sunny days working on your family’s farm or ranch. I don’t regret the time spent outside or the memories made while doing it, but it’s worth reminding ourselves from time to time that so much sun exposure does add up.
The Dangers of Dehydration
I used to coach a fast pitch club softball team. During the summer, we’d travel to tournaments where we’d play two to five 7-inning games every day. While these tournaments were always tons of fun (all softball, all day, right?!), dehydration was a constant threat. Sweat, heat, lack of shade, exercise – the other coaches and I had to constantly monitor not only the players but also ourselves for signs that we needed more fluids. I’m thankful we never had anyone become dangerously dehydrated, but there were a few close calls.
Sport Specific Injuries: Bowling
I love it when my kids and I can have something in common. When I was growing up, I enjoyed watching the 1960s cartoon The Flintstones. Twenty or so years later, I watched the syndicated reruns with my girls. One of the more memorable things about the show was the way Fred Flintstone bowled. He would run on his toes, the rest of his body motionless, ball held in outstretched arm behind him. Then he would fling it, almost side arm, as effortlessly as if it were a golf ball. Try as we might, none of us could ever quite duplicate his approach. The truth of the matter is, despite how easy Fred might make it look, bowling is a complex activity that often leads to injury.
Put Me In, Coach!
If you know much about me, you know I love coaching! The first team I ever coached was a “little guy” basketball team when I was a sophomore at Vallivue High School. I remember how fun it was to watch kids improve, implement the things they had been taught to the best of their ability, and to watch them have even more fun as their skills grew. I was hooked. Since then, I’ve coached dozens of teams for girls and boys of various levels in many different sports. Varsity fast pitch softball, basketball and football; junior high basketball and volleyball, and youth league baseball, softball, and basketball – my coaching resume is diverse, to say the least.
One Year Anniversary
Well, today marks the one year anniversary of the day I started this blog. The time has really flown (they say it does when you have fun); it seems like just the other day I sat down to write my very first post. I want to thank everyone who has taken time to read my advice, opinions, and random thoughts. I never have to worry about writers’ block because it’s easy to figure out what to say to your friends!
Maybe It Will Just Go Away…
For life’s problems, there are pretty much two ways to respond – you can ignore the problem or you can address it. Deciding the appropriate response depends on the particular issue at hand. For example, fenced dogs who growl as you go by should be ignored. That way you don’t cause their bad behavior to escalate, and perhaps one day, the dog will learn you aren’t a threat that needs barked at. However, if you find your house has a rodent problem, ignoring it will only exacerbate the issue. You have to address the predicament before you’re overrun with furry, little home wreckers.
Sport Specific Injuries: Swimming
As a farm boy growing up in Canyon County, I never had much reason to know how to swim. We might go wading in a ditch on hot summer days, but that was pretty much the extent of my aquatic experience. Then years later in college, I had an epiphany – what if my child was drowning? Would I be able to save them? I had aspirations of being a father someday, and that thought brought me to a cold sweat. Immediately I sought help from a friend who worked as a lifeguard. Three days a week for several months, we met before classes, and he taught me every stroke he knew. In learning to swim, I felt I’d taken an important step in my journey towards fatherhood. And I’m proud to say that when I finally did become a father, each of my kids learned to swim at a young age.
Should You Try a Tri?
This Saturday marks the fourth racing of the Ironman 70.3 Boise triathlon. Starting at Lucky Peak and ending in downtown Boise, this race challenges competitors to 70.3 total miles of swimming, cycling, and running through some of Idaho’s beautiful yet grueling landscapes. If you’ve never been, the event is a ton of fun for spectators, but the most fun is really had by the competitors. Even if you’re not ready to tackle 70.3 miles, that doesn’t mean you can’t try your hand at the booming sport of triathlon.
National Trails Day
Saturday, June 4, is National Trails Day. If you’re not normally the outdoorsy type, you may not realize that the Boise Foothills are known for having some of the best trails in the country with miles of beautiful paths perfect for hiking, running, biking, and horseback riding. With such a wonderful resource right in our back yard, there’s really no excuse not to get out and enjoy it. However, it’s good for both newbies and trail veterans to review safety and etiquette guidelines for trail use before heading out:
Graduation Thoughts
Graduation is always an exciting, emotional time – the joy of your accomplishments, the sorrow of saying goodbye to friends, the nervousness about the future. As I make the rounds of graduation ceremonies and parties, I’m reminded of my own graduations and of the graduations of my children. Each is a proud memory that I will never forget.
The Little Finish
J. R. R. Tolkien once said, “Little by little, one travels far.” It’s really true. Babies learn to walk one step at a time. Novels are written one word at a time. Mountains are climbed one foot at a time. But unfortunately, when we are faced with what seems like an insurmountable task, many of us quit before we even start. “It’s too much work” or “I have so far to go” or “I can’t” become our mantras when instead we should be reminding ourselves, “Just one step at a time.”
Bike to Work Week
May 16-20 is Bike to Work Week. During this time, people are encouraged to try out a more car-free lifestyle by biking to work and other errands rather than driving. The economical and ecological benefits of cycling over driving are huge (less wear and tear on your car, cheaper fuel costs, and a smaller carbon footprint), but perhaps the biggest bonus comes from the healthful profits of being active.
National Runners’ Month
It seems like every month is devoted to one or more worthy causes. January is National Volunteer Blood Donor Month, as well as National Mentoring Month. October is National Crime Prevention Month and National Physical Therapy Month (hint, hint). May is a particularly busy month; it celebrates National Bike Month, National Mental Health Month, and National Runners’ Month. I’m going to discuss the latter.
Sleep On It
I’ve never been a good sleeper. When I was in high school, I had a paper route that got me up at 3:30am, seven days a week, in addition to after-school sports and working on my family’s mint farm. In graduate school, I survived on three hours of sleep a night as I balanced my studies with a full-time job and three kids. Now I do a little better; I average about five or six hours of shut eye. In the mornings, I always tell myself I need to get to bed earlier, but fast forward 18 hours or so and it’s easy for me to find excuses why I can stay up a little later.
Barefoot Running: Part 2
In my last blog post, I discussed some of the history behind the barefoot running movement, as well as the biomechanics behind why many think it’s a good idea. This week, I’ll talk about what it takes to transition to a workout without shoes.
5 Reasons to Participate in the Beat Coach Pete Fun Run
I wanted to share my experience of this year’s Beat Coach Pete Scholarship Fun Run. I COULD tell you about how much fun I had, but instead, I’d rather give you reasons to sign up for the run next year and have fun yourself.
Barefoot Running: Part 1
During the original running boom of the 1960s and 70s, barefoot running was made popular by such athletic giants as Abebe Bikila (an Olympic gold medalist marathoner) and Zola Budd (a world class 5k racer). In 2009, the movement experienced a resurgence thanks largely to the release of Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run, an exploration of barefoot running via the Tarahumara people of northern Mexico (natural runners who regularly cover hundreds of desert miles barefoot). Today, barefoot running has a small, but cult-like following of enthusiasts, most of whom claim it has changed their life by allowing them to be active in ways they never could in their shoe-wearing days.
Sport Specific Injuries: Soccer
Officially it’s about 150 years old, though its roots are much more long-standing. It’s the most popular sport in the world, and fans can participate through youth and amateur leagues, at the professional level, and even in video games. The passion surrounding this sport has been known to cause riots and even wars. I’m of course talking about association football – or as it’s more commonly called here in America, soccer.
What’s Your Legacy?
It’s funny the things that stick out in your mind. When I think of my granddad, I usually see him next to granny at the pinochle table, leaning back in his chair to light his pipe and sneaking a glance at granny’s cards. Three generations later, pinochle is now our family’s traditional game of choice, and granddad’s card legacy is fondly recalled at least once during each game.
Sport Specific Injuries: Track & Field
When you look at the huge mass of events held in modern Olympic competitions, it’s a little surprising to think that for the first dozen or so Olympics (hosted in ancient Greece in the original stadium in Olympia) the only event was the “stadion” run – the equivalent of a 200 meter sprint. Today’s track and field events can be as short as an indoor 50 meter dash or as long as a marathon. Athletes can be as specialized as a world-class shot putter or as versatile as a decathlete. But despite the variety of events, the basic mechanics of running, jumping, and throwing involved in every track and field competition can lead to injury if athletes do not take the necessary precautions.
A Solid Investment
The housing market crash, the stock market controversies, and the resulting economic slump have changed the way many people now think about investing in their future. Are banks still a safe place for my money? What if my social security is not there? With inflation on the rise, what if my savings aren’t enough? I wish I had the answers. But there is one thing I do know – if you want to make a foolproof, no-fail investment that will return rewards to you in spades, invest in your own health.
Sport Specific Injuries: Baseball & Softball
Known as the “all-American pastime,” baseball often appears in nostalgic montages alongside fireworks, apple pie, and the statue of Liberty. The sport’s heroes, such as Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson, seem larger than life, propelling themselves and their sport into legendary status. And yet baseball has always been accessible to the Everyman. Anyone can play just about anywhere – all you need is a stick and a ball. From tee ball to the Special Olympics, from rec leagues to the MLB, just about everyone can find a game to participate in. That’s the greatness of baseball.