Martial Arts & Fitness

In 1995, I worked the national championship tournament for Tae Kwondo in Colorado Springs.  It was my second martial arts competition.  The first was a couple of years earlier when I worked the Judo competition at the Tennessee Sportsfest.

I've always had a passing interest in martial arts but have never really followed up on that interest.  I do recall that the Colorado Springs tournament gave me the opportunity to hang out with Nitro of American Gladiator fame.

Brad Hatcher of Hatcher Martial Arts became a friend many years ago, partly because of his injuries.  

Brad, who was winning international competitions when most were long-since retired from competition, has remained competitive and, yes, occasionally injured.

Which means we get to stay in touch.

His dojo/gym, which maintains a cadre of dedicated members, some of which have been there for 20 years or more, is something of a local institution.

To many folks, the first things that come to mind when they think of martial arts are fighting, mixed martial arts (MMA) competitions, or the movie Karate Kid.

MMA is hot right now due in no small part to the emergence of a female athlete, Ronda Rousey.  She is the sport's current superstar in a sport that has always been totally dominated by its male participants.

It is fierce competition and definitely all about fighting.

And in the Karate Kid movie, the end of the movie is (no spoiler alert needed surely) victory for Daniel and Mr. Miyagi.

But martial arts is not about all that at all.

I liked the movie Karate Kid.  "Wax on, wax off" became the catchphrase used to describe many tasks that had an ulterior purpose.  It was about a whole lot more than a kid finding a father figure and beating the bad guy in the end.

Daniel (from the movie) answers it all when Mr. Miyagi asks him why he is doing karate:  "So I won't have to fight."  Mr. Miyagi's answer was "Miyagi have hope for you."

That's part of it.  Self defense.  I know that Brad has taught self-defense classes for years. A lot of those are for women who might not have to be so fearful of going out alone.

I know that martial arts training is also great for self-discipline.  I've seen lots of kids that lacked discipline or even any measure of self-control get into martial arts and become model citizens.  Their behavior not only improves but so do their grades.

What you usually don't think about when you think of martial arts are the fitness benefits.  Spar with someone for two minutes and you'll know what I'm talking about.

I talk a lot about the benefits of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT--CrossFit is one type).  Components of martial arts training are definitely HIIT.

If a typical gym isn't your thing and running, swimming, or biking seem like terminal boredom, you might check into one of the local dojo's. 

But a little advice:  It is all about the teacher.  If the emphasis is on fighting, you might want to look elsewhere.

Parent Lessons

Right outside my clinic, beside where I park my truck every day, is the most gorgeous tiny maple tree you have ever seen.    Every time I see that little tree, I pause.  Maybe it's to think about my problems.  More often, it's to reflect on my blessings.

My mom is going through some pretty serious health issues right now and time for reflection seems aplenty.  I find myself wandering to the lessons that my parents taught me.

One came to mind this week when I spilled some coffee and a kind patient offered to clean it up for me.  "Nope.  I was taught to clean up your own messes."

That got me to thinking about all those lessons. "If you did it, you fix it."

I wish Congress would figure that one out.  They should have listened to my momma.   We would have a lot fewer messes that way.

I was always taught that anything worth doing was worth doing well. 

When I was about 12, I built my own treehouse.  My dad, who couldn't help, sat at the bottom of the tree in a lawn chair and supervised.

He could tell when I didn't drive a nail all the way in, content just to beat it in crooked.  He insisted that I pull that nail out, straighten it, and do it again, this time correctly.

There are life lessons to be learned in that.

I was taught to always finish what you start.

That's a rule that a lot of parents have.  I've heard it from lots of folks.

Usually it is interpreted as a mandate that once you commit to playing on a team, you have to stick with that team until the end of the season.  I think that can be a pretty shallow way of looking at things.

I know of at least one circumstance where it just became impossible for a young athlete to continue on his team.  This young man went through summer camps and team workouts but soon after the season started decided for all the right reasons that he could no longer continue.

His situation was untenable and continuing just wasn't a good idea.  He instead focused on his other sport and did quite well there.

No, finishing what you start to me is more a commitment to self.  A commitment to excellence in all that you do. 

My own rule was that you had to play some sport (and make good grades and be happy).  It didn't matter what it was.  In my family, that wasn't an issue as my kids played everything.

Finishing what you start means staying committed to the Big Three: Exercise, Education, and Excellence. 

When I was high school, my mom would send me off to school by saying "you tell those girls at that school that you're the best looking boy in school."

I wasn't but moms need to tell those lies.

Remember the Titans

This week, I listened raptly as Coach Herman Boone gave the keynote address at the FCA banquet.  Coach Boone was the real life coach of the T.C. Williams High School Titans upon which the movie Remember the Titans was based.

I guess those around me were wondering what the heck I was doing scribbling furiously in the margins of the program.  But I knew then where my next column was going.  I was inspired by Coach Boone.

"Give legs to your dreams."

Coach Boone came from poverty.  He came from a family that could not support his dreams but that didn't get in the way.  He dreamed of graduating from college and coaching football. 

Fortunately for him, he had more people telling him he could do it than were telling him he couldn't.

It's all about providing opportunities for kids.  Opening doors.  Supporting dreams. 

Growing up, my parents made sure I had opportunities. Sports.  Boy Scouts.  Camps.  Visits to museums and national monuments and Civil War battlefields.  Music teachers and positive influences.  Church, always.

I was never NOT going to college.  It simply wasn't an option.  Bad grades were not acceptable.  Not working was unacceptable.  Doing chores was not optional.  Being accountable was expected.  You finish what you start.  Everything you do gets your best effort.

Through all that and more, my parents helped give legs to my dreams. 

"Never ever rest until your good gets better and your better gets best."

I talk often about sports providing life lessons.  Sports do that and more.  Sports build character.  

When you get beat down, and at some point you will, if you get back up better, stronger, and smarter, you have just built character.  You have built strength into your soul.

"Leadership means did you make a difference in a teammate."

We need to constantly lift each other up.  Take those negative influences in your life and give them a toss. 

"If you thought Remember the Titans was a football movie, you weren't paying attention."

Many of those at the banquet could not comprehend a world where blacks drank in one fountain and whites in another.  They cannot fathom blacks having to go in the back door of a restaurant and then not being able to sit down but having to take their food out back and eat in the alley.

They can't imagine seating in a theater where blacks sat in one area (usually the balcony) and whites sat in another (usually the front). 

But three members of that 1971 Titans team, Julius Campbell, Petey Jones, and Blue Stanton sat there and told about those days.  Told of the days where blacks went to one school and whites to another. 

They talked about the battles of lining up side by side as teammates.  And they talked about the triumphs big and small that arrived when they became a team.

We still fight battles...too many battles.  Maybe today it matters less what color your skin is but it still matters. 

Barriers of many sizes and shapes still exist.

We've Come A Long Way Baby

I suppose you know by now that I've been at this stuff for a long time.  As of December, I will have been a physical therapist for 38 years.  I've been an athletic trainer for 32 years.

I have a hard time even fathoming all that.  Heck, it doesn't even seem like I should be 38 years old.  

The reality is that I've been a father for almost that long.

Health care in general and physical therapy, athletic training, and sports medicine in particular bear no resemblance today to what it was then.

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about physical therapy treatment of back pain.  Things like body mechanics, core strength, fitness, and weight control today serve as the basics for evidence-based physical therapy care of back pain.

In 1977, it was hot packs, ultrasound, massage, and Williams Flexion Exercises.   Physical Therapists today don't even know what Williams Flexion Exercises are, since we now know, because of solid research, that they don't work.

In 1977, Athletic Trainers were still limiting fluid intake.  As an athlete in the early 70's, I can remember one small cup of this new thing called Gatorade that we were allowed in the middle of an August football practice.  We now know that to be a big mistake.

As I wrote last week, in 1977, we were telling everyone that there was no evidence that steroids made you bigger and stronger.  I even went on Bob Gilbert's The Sports Page radio show to declare that they really wouldn't do much for you.

Oh how wrong we all were.  What we didn't know much about then was also all those horrible side effects.  All I knew was that a buddy of mine that was into bodybuilding after a UT football career had gotten into steroids quite heavily.

I was an undergrad at UT and headed for physical therapy school so I was everyone's health care person.  So he confided in me that his testicles were the size of pinto beans and wondered if it could be those steroids. 

My family doc at that time had even recommended steroids to me a couple of years before.  He knew I was trying to make it as a college football player and needed to be bigger and stronger.  He shared the product information sheet that came with the steroids and one word jumped out at me:  Impotence.

I knew then that I wanted children one day so that's all it took.  Football, for me, was not worth that.

So my undergrad diagnosis of my buddy's testicular atrophy was "well...YES."  Little did I know how right I would prove to be.  That buddy never fathered children.

So jump forward to 1985.  What do we know now that we didn't know then?

That early intervention is the key.  That proper treatment started early makes all the difference in the world.

That concussions are serious business.

That rushing someone back to competition after an ACL reconstruction is simply wrong.

That ankles don't become "dependent" on ankle braces.  We used to avoid bracing ankles because of that.  We now know that the braces just protect the ankle.

We used to say "ice for 48 hours, then heat after that."  No way.  Ice is almost always better than heat.  And if it's an injury and there is still pain, inflammation, or swelling, you NEVER use heat.

We've come a long way baby.

PED's

One of the things that I hear too often is "the professional athletes use it so why shouldn't I?"

This ranges from multi-colored tape jobs to alternative forms of health care. 

Well, there are many reasons why it really might not be a good idea.  First, keep in mind that professional athletes will do anything (anything) to succeed at their sport. 

My sport, bicycling, has been notoriously drug-enhanced.  I defended Lance Armstrong all the way to his TV confession.  The most drug-tested athlete in the history of sport, who had apparently passed every single one of those drug tests, was guilty as sin.

Proving that drug testing is a farce.  That even the best tests can be beaten.

With millions at stake, the NFL is packed with people who will do anything (anything) to play the game. A first round draft pick that plays for five years will be wealthy beyond our comprehension for the rest of their lives unless they're really stupid.

Even some athletes without huge financial incentives follow the same pattern.  Several years ago, Olympic athletes were asked if they would give up 2 years of their life for a gold medal.   Overwhelmingly, they said yes. 

These are athletes that rarely are able to make a decent living at their sport.  Yet, for one moment of glory, they would give up 2 years of their life.

Most of what we're talking about is Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED's).  You've heard the term.  

It's a problem in sports that just won't go away. 

The first thing most people think about with PED's is steroids.  More specifically, anabolic steroids.  Athletes will take them to get bigger and stronger.

Back in the early 80's, many of us, yours truly included, insisted that there was no evidence that steroids made you bigger and/or stronger.  Those using steroids were laughing at us behind our backs. 

Because they do make you bigger and stronger but at a tremendous cost.  Like impotence.  Yeah...really. 

Like liver disease, kidney disease, heart disease such as heart attack and stroke, high blood pressure.  

Like hair loss and acne.

Females on anabolic steroids can grow hair, get deep voices, and have menstrual irregularities.  

Males on anabolic steroids can grow breasts.

Anabolic steroids can cause increased aggression, irritability, and altered moods. 

There are other things that athletes are using to enhance their performance.  Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is one.  I can't even begin to tell you how dangerous HGH can be.

The one that is probably the biggest problem around here is stimulants.  The bad news is that those can be bought in any convenience market in the country.  Marketed as "energy" products, they come in pill and drink form and under a lot of different names.

But they are all basically just stimulants.  Check the ingredients.

And 16 year old athletes (or any 16 year olds, really) do not need to be taking chemical stimulants.  Ever.

Back Pain

One of the most difficult things to deal with in health care is back pain.  Statistics tell us that 80% of Americans will have a significant episode of back pain at some point in their life but that other 20% probably has had an episode of back pain that was not bad enough to seek health care but still a problem.

More U.S. dollars are spent on back and neck care than any other medical condition yet we seem to be making little headway in fighting the pain and disability they bring.

The gamut of things that are used to treat back pain boggles the mind.  In physical therapy, it's a big part of what we do. 

My clinical practice for most of the last 25 years has focused on extremity orthopedics (Prior to that, it was pretty much everything orthopedic).  

Knees, shoulders, feet, ankles.  Sports injuries.  But because of the demand, I'm seeing a lot of patients with back pain these days. 

So what do we do with those patients?

Dealing with back pain is a complex, complicated affair.  Lots of treatments give you temporary relief.  I can help most patients feel better.  But what we are trying to do in physical therapy is to provide you with effective, lasting treatment.

Sometimes we help the patient to manage their back pain.  Back pain that has been severe and constant that becomes mild and infrequent--well that is often a successful outcome. 

Sometimes the back problem is structural to the extent that we can't help you.  A lot of times, surgery can.  Effective surgical interventions save a lot of people from lifetime back problems.

It is my opinion that there are several key ingredients to treating back pain.  Most of them are on you.

#1  Exercise daily.  As in every day.  Walking is usually great for back pain.  Consult a professional.

#2  Lose weight (if you need to).  Back pain is not strictly the curse of the obese but it doesn't help.

#3  Build core strength.  What is core strength?  Basically your trunk.  Pretty much everything from your armpit to your kneecaps.

#4  Eat better.  In sports, we have a saying "garbage in, garbage out."  Good health demands good eating.  Fewer carbs, fewer desserts.  Abandon sodas.  Read ingredients.

#5  Sleep!  Most of us don't get enough (I don't).  But proper rest is essential to dealing with the physical demands of the day.

#6  Watch less TV.  Do you really need to sit more?

That's it.

It really isn't that hard but it takes persistence.  You must diligently do all those things.  You must consistently do that which will make you healthy.  It is the only thing that really works.

In a lot of ways, your physical therapist becomes your partner in health care.  It's our job to recognize the many challenges (not everyone can afford to eat well, not everyone has time to exercise every day) and strategize with you about how to overcome those challenges.

October is National Physical Therapy month.  Sure, this has been a little self-serving but my profession has done a good job of leading the research on what truly works with back pain.   

Don't Hide Your Scars

When you see Graysen McConnell, you automatically think, "what a beautiful, got-it-together young lady."

I remember Graysen as a cheerleader at MHS.  Her dad has been a friend for years but I never knew much about Graysen other than what I saw on the football sidelines.

But Graysen has a story.  She has scoliosis.

Scoliosis usually begins developing in puberty and affects girls more often than boys.  In some cases, it is self-arresting, stopping on its own with minimal consequences.  In others, it progresses to a severe degree, causing all kinds of complications, sometimes the least of which is really bad back pain.

Scoliosis is something I know well.  As a physical therapist, I've seen my share professionally.

But on a more personal note, my wife had a favorite uncle with a very severe case of scoliosis that eventually led to complications that caused his death. 

Let me let Graysen's mom Shawna describe her daughter's scoliosis:

"When most people look at Graysen they don't automatically notice her crooked back.  They think she has one hip cocked.  You know, one leg bent at the knee, causing one hip to hang lower.  She puts her hand on her hip.  It just looks intentional.  The hand is intentional.  The bent knee is intentional.  It makes it all look more natural and it has become a habit.  The 'ole hand-on-the-hip, one-knee-bent trick.  You will see it most of her pictures.

But, Graysen's back is crooked.  45 degrees when last measured in October."

That was from early last year.  Her problems were immense.  Her back pain was severe and unrelenting.  So she and her family starting seeking solutions. 

That search took them to Austin, Texas and Dr. Matthew Geck, an orthopedic surgeon that specializes in scoliosis surgery.

Graysen had the surgery on May 29, 2014 in Austin.  Although they had hoped for a minimally invasive surgery, that wasn't possible.  So Graysen ended up with a 10 inch scar along her low back.

Leap ahead to a year and a half later.  Graysen is a sophomore at Lipscomb University in Nashville, majoring in biochemistry and looking to a career in dentistry.    Her surgery was a huge success.  She is essentially pain free now.  Life for this wonderful young lady is SO much better.  Her back is straight and her health is good.

And she wears her scars proudly.  She is not ashamed of them, does not let them affect who she is.

And once more in her mom's words:

"Don't hide your scars. They create questions and interest, they start conversations and a way to know each other better.  They can open doors, if we let them. Share them and your story. I know that it has power and beauty, and I now know THAT is the purpose of our scars."

If you are interested in more, you can follow the McConnell family saga through mom's blog called "Graysen's Backstory."  It can be found at graysenmcconnell.blogspot.com.