Mobilis Performance - Intelligent Training

New website!!!!!!

2009-08-04T08:15:00.001-07:00

Great news, our new website is live! Visit IntelligentTrainingSystems.com for course information, research, course locations and much more.

Where is my pain coming from?

2009-04-29T08:25:00.001-07:00

Referred pain is a term used to describe the feeling of pain in a part of your body adjacent to or at a distance from the site of an injury's origin. Despite this being studied increasingly, there is no definitive answer regarding the mechanism behind this phenomenon. Physicians and scientists have known about referred pain since the late 1880s yet the true origins and causes of referred pain are unknown. However, we do know that referred pain can come from a number of areas, like: the thorax (pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, ischemic heart disease and pericarditis), from the spine (radiculitis) and from the genitals (testicular torsion). Commonly though pain is referred from your spine. Often you can get pain in a variety of (almost unlimited) areas, more commonly in your hamstrings, calves, groins, shoulders all referred from your back. Less commonly but equally as impactful, you can get referred pain in your jaw, hands, feet and other more peripheral areas.

The jaw is perhaps an unusual area to get referred pain. In these cases, as long as cardiac tests are negative, do check alternative causes like increased biomechanical loading from the shoulders, spine and nerves. Typically you can get jaw pain from the median nerve being tethered, the costo-vertebral joints (rib joints) being stiff, as well as fibrosis/thickening in muscles around the neck and scapula. Sometimes the exact cause is sometimes difficult to find, but with some thorough investigation and a knowledge of biomechanical screening you can pick out the causes and confirm them by doing a ‘test-exercise’ and seeing how the pain changes. For example we had a lady come to us with jaw pain and she had been cleared of any cardiac involvement and her jaw was checked clinically too, and it was fine. She did however get jaw pain when she ran. On screening her biomechanics she presented with tight median and sciatic nerves, a rotated pelvis and a stiff upper thoracic spine. We started by showing her some sciatic nerve mobilisations and within 3 days she came back and confirmed that her pain when running had reduced significantly. Previously she was getting jaw pain after running for 10 mins, and now she was able to run for 30 mins. Further work mobilising her sciatic nerve and a mobility exercise programme for her median nerve and upper thoracic spine resolved her problem completely within 4 weeks.

While it’s obviously important to get the cardiac side of things checked and cleared when you get jaw pain, if there are no cardiac implications, the causes of pain are often biomechanical. Get someone in your area to check your biomechanics and work on any mechanical problems you may have. It may well help your jaw pain, back pain, knee pain or any other pain you may have. The only problem is that we have only trained about 500 Biomechanics Coaches™, but there’s more being trained every month…………keep your eyes out and if you’re lucky, you’ll find one in your area.

Hamstring Injury Advice from Martin

2009-03-03T05:48:00.000-08:00

Hi, I’m continuously getting questions about hamstring injuries in rugby and what to do about them, so I thought I’d put some info together with the latest thoughts and ideas from a clinical and biomechanical perspective……..

One of the most common injuries in sport is to the hamstrings. Typically though, although the pain often presents itself in the hamstrings, its often due to biomechanical load from another area that is not functioning correctly. Even if you tear the hamstring during sprinting, the underlying cause is often biomechanical, and unless that cause is addressed the problem will become recurrent or simply just not go away. You could even just have a hamstring that feels tight or won’t stretch out properly, either way the cause is often biomechanical.

Often these biomechanical causes are due to the pelvis or spine. A ‘rotated’ pelvis, (which is where one side of pelvis stiffens in an abnormal position) can go unnoticed for many years until the compensations start to cause problems. A rotated pelvis can increase the pressure on the hamstrings partially because it puts more tension through the muscle. In addition, these pelvic problems coupled with a stiff lumbar spine and stiff upper back can increase tension on the sciatic nerve. This in turn puts extra pressure on the hamstring.

Your pelvis can be abnormally rotated during day to day life by unaccustomed lifting or carrying, performing a repetitive movement abnormally or perhaps compensating for another biomechanical issue elsewhere in the body. In rugby, pelvic problems can be caused by a tackle, an awkward fall, scrummaging or landing awkwardly during a line out. In other words most things that occur during a rugby match! When the pelvis rotates, the piriformis muscle in the back of your hip goes into a protective spasm to minimise the pressure going through the joint. This spasm effectively prevents the joint from functioning correctly and so other areas have to compensate. If the problem is caught early enough, treatment will help. Simple therapy can mobilise the joint and improve its function. If however the problem is left for more than 6 weeks, the muscle will change its composition and become fibrotic and so be unable to function normally. In theses cases treatment will help in the short term, but whenever you start training again the hamstring problem recurs because the fibrotic muscle in the pelvis is still compromising the function of the joint and so putting more pressure through the hamstring.

This process can also affect the sciatic nerve. The problem is that when the piriformis muscle in your hip goes into spasm, it causes the sciatic nerve to become tight. It does this because the pelvis doesn’t move as well as normal, so the nerve becomes stiff and also because the nerve can run through the very piriformis muscle that’s in spasm. The body cannot allow damage to the sciatic nerve, its one of the main nerves in the body, so the muscles that would protect it go into a protective spasm. One of which is the hamstring group.

This protective spasm of the hamstrings can cause a number of problems that cause symptoms in the hamstring itself. It can make the hamstring feel tight and stiff. It can make the hamstring feel inflexible as it’s under constant tension. It can also cause a functional muscle imbalance. In other words, if the hamstrings are found to be ‘weak’ in comparison to the quadriceps (quads), one of the causes of this muscle imbalance could be the inability of the hamstring to fire correctly due to its state of tension, rather than it being fundamentally weak.

To manage this cause we first have to return the abnormal muscle tone in the piriformis muscle to normal. In other words you have to do ‘anti-spasm’ exercises for the muscle. Stretching or flexibility work just won’t cut it – it helps in the short term, but the tension returns in time. How often do you stretch to loosen a muscle, only to find the short term benefit disappears after a few hours or less? You need to return the muscle to normal function, not just stretch it. That is why stretching the hamstrings isn’t always the answer to your hamstring problems (in fact mobilising your sciatic nerve is far more effective in these cases). Once the spasm in your piriformis muscle is eradicated as much as possible, then the joint will rotate naturally back into its normal biomechanical position, so reducing the tension on the sciatic nerve and also the hamstring itself.

When the pelvis is back in place you should perform exercises to stabilise it. In other words exercises that educates your muscles to control your pelvis and trunk without them needing to go into spasm. Part of this process is achieved by so-called ‘core stability exercises’. See a local expert in sports injuries, they should be able to guide you through the biomechanics phase and the next stabilise phase.

The work we have just described is usually sufficient to eradicate the hamstring pain that is gradual in onset. In the case of a hamstring tear which was caused perhaps by a high velocity movement like sprinting, it will be necessary to compliment the work we have been describing with a progressive hamstring and pelvic rehabilitation programme as well. But please note that unless the biomechanical causes have been eradicated, then the treatment and rehabilitation process is unlikely to be successful in the long term. This is one reason why hamstring problems become recurrent – the biomechanical causes are not eradicated.

There are other causes of hamstring pain, these are not the only ones, but it is common enough for you to need to understand it, especially if your problem is not going away.

The main other biomechanical causes of hamstring problems are stiffness (or dysfunction) of the lumbar spine (lower back) and thoracic spine (upper back). Stiffness in either of these areas can increase the load on the pelvis and thereby affect the load on your hamstring. Think about when you walk or run, as your left arm and shoulder come forwards, at the same time, your right hip and leg are moving forwards. Meanwhile the opposite body parts are moving in the opposite direction – they are going backwards. Each side of the body works in unison to maintain balance and equilibrium while we move. So if one part of that chain of events does not function properly another has to compensate. So if we have a stiff upper back for example, and one shoulder can’t move as forwards as it needs to when you run, there is another part of the body that will take the strain – often it’s the pelvis.

If you suspect this background is affecting your hamstring injuries, try this exercise which is referred to as an anti-spasm exercise for the piriformis muscle in the pelvis.

4-sign exercise

Technique

1. Sit on a chair and cross one leg over the other as in the picture.
2. Place both hands on the inside of your knee.
3. Pull your knee up into your hands.
4. Pull up @ 20% of maximum effort, just enough to engage the muscles in your hip.
5. This is a static contraction, so make sure the leg does not move.

Instruction
1. Hold for 20 seconds.
2. Do 4 sets on each leg.
3. AM and PM
4. Before & after periods of activity or inactivity.
In the body, things are not always as they seem. Just because your pain or tension is in the hamstring doesn’t mean that’s where it is originating from. Always check the causes of your problems, they rarely exist where you think they do.

Get Rid of Back Pain in 2009

2009-01-05T01:35:00.000-08:00

In case you weren’t able to come to our ‘How to manage your own back pain’ session the other month, I thought it may be helpful to run an article on the outcomes of that session and some ideas as to how you can help your own back pain. We will be running reviews and new sessions in the New Year, so please keep your eyes out for them if you are interested, or speak to Sinead.

One of the most disabling and common ailments in our society today is back pain. In fact according to a top researcher, lower back pain is as common as headaches in modern society. A recent study showed that if you see your GP with your back pain, if he then refers you to a specialist, who then sends you for X-rays and MRI scans, the accuracy of diagnosis is 15-20%. A frightening yet little known fact. Unfortunately the principles of modern medicine mean that the medical profession cannot treat an injury without an accurate diagnosis; is there any wonder why the incidence of back pain has doubled every 10 years for the last 30 years? As you can imagine, the problem is made even worse when you have had back pain for some time. The problem is that when you have had an injury for more than 6 weeks, another part of your body will start to compensate so you can have new pains as your condition deteriorates. So you can actually end up with more than one injury due to the mechanical compensations, which makes diagnosis even more difficult. We need to shift the paradigm and look at back pain differently.

Scientists, called Biomechanists, have been looking at back pain quite differently for some time. They look at the mechanical causes of back pain rather than focusing on the pain itself. They have found that they get better results by managing the biomechanical causes than many in the medical profession achieve by treating the symptoms. In fact independent research has shown that if you see at Physiotherapist over a 6 week period for your low grade back pain, your average improvement will be around 39% in functional capacity (the capacity of your back to perform work). If however you were to perform an exercise programme to manage the mechanical causes of your back pain, your average improvement would be around 141%. A profound difference and one that cannot be ignored.

This biomechanical approach is rapidly taking over from the medical approach in popularity as a much more effective method of treating back pain.

The most interesting thing about this method though, is that patients can be shown how to use it to look after themselves. This reduces the risk of them becoming reliant upon an individual therapist or doctor, and interestingly their compliance with their exercises programme is higher too.

Of course no single method can be the panacea of all ills, but what we are finding is that if the mechanical causes are addressed, the pain can subside without treatment on the 'injury', whatever it might be. Sometimes treatment is also required, however, but often people find that once they've committed to an exercise programme addressing the causes of their pain, they are then more able to manage the problem themselves. Then if local treatment is necessary, it is more likely to be successful, as the mechanical causes are no longer present.

Lets look at one of the most important tests called the 4-sign. If any of you have internet access you can ‘Google’ Patrick Fabre test and you will find more information about it there.

The Test:

Start:
Sit on a chair or stool and cross one leg over the other as shown in the diagram fig 1.

Test:
Relax your knee donw to a confrotable posoition. Look at the height of your knee from the imaginary line running throuhg your other knee, running parallel to the floor. Your knee should be only 2 – 3” higher than this line. Now try the the other leg and see if there is a difference in knee height from the imaginary line when you compare each side.

Results:
There should be symmetry, with the right side range of movement the same as the left. As a guide, the distance from the knee to the imaginary line should be no greater than 2 – 3”. If you have asymmetry where one knee is higher than the other there are some exercises that will help.

Meaning:
If one knee is higher it means that there is a muscle in your hip that is tight or in spasm. This can limit the movement in your pelvis and in turn can put more pressure on your back, causing pain. A simple exercise to reduce the spasm in your pelvis can help the pelvis to move again, thereby taking the pressure off your spine.

Running with an Injury or Over Training

2008-11-21T08:38:00.000-08:00

Injuries can affect us all regardless of age, sex, fitness or ability, but we can manage or limit the number of times we get injured; and we can do this by going back to basics. A topic which has been written about numerous times, but we are not talking about strength levels, stretching or core stability, we mean back to your basic biomechanics.

By regularly assessing your biomechanics you can help eliminate and prevent many injuries and problems. One of the fundamental causes of injury is the body compensating for weak biomechanical links in your kinetic chain which can cause unaccustomed load that in turn result in pain and injury.

Example:
Calf injuries are common in sports people and are caused by a number of different issues. Flat feet, high arches, tight calves, poor preparation and previous injury to the calves or associated joints are all typically considered when trying to prevent calf injuries. One commonly overlooked, but very relevant cause is a tight sciatic nerve.

If the sciatic nerve is tight or not moving freely within the structures that surround it, then the muscles in the area of stiffness provide the nerve with protective spasm during locomotion. In other words they contract to minimise the pressure on the nerve while you move at high speeds. If the nerve is loaded or stretched too much, the muscles can spasm enough to cause themselves to tear or cramp up - which can feel like a tear. The stiffness in the nerve may well be near the point where the nerve runs through the calf muscle, and so that can be why you have the injury in the calf.

To check to see if your calf injuries are related to your sciatic nerve, try this test:

Test
Lay on your back and get a team mate to lift your leg straight up. Tell them to stop when you start to feel a tension or stretch in your leg. Notice where this tension is felt. You can feel it in the hamstring area, but could be anywhere below the knee, or indeed in your buttock or back. If you feel it anywhere outside your hamstring area, the stretch you feel may be nerve related. In this example the stretch may be in the calf, which might indicate that the nerve is tightest there and can be causing the calf injuries.

Then slowly ask them to move you leg across the midline of the body, in other words move the leg so it is above your other leg. Do not allow your leg lower at all when you do this. If the stiffness increases, and especially if the tension is felt into your calf, then there is likely to be a nerve element to your calf damage.

A problem with your sciatic nerve may also indicate you have problems with your back that you are unaware of, in which case, it may be worth seeing a specialist sports health professional to get them to check it out for you.

If during all this your stretch is felt in your hamstring, then it is unlikely you have a nerve related issue. If at any time you feel tingling or numbness in your leg (especially your lower leg), then chances are your tight sciatic nerve is implicated in your calf problems.

If this is the case then you can gently mobilise the nerve to reduce its impact on the surrounding muscles. A simple exercise called a slump can help.

Exercise
Sit on a table where your legs can hang freely without touching the floor. Slouch down with your head down and your chin touching your chest. Note at this point if you have any feeling of tension or stretching.

Then slowly straighten your leg. As soon as you get to the point of light tension or a gentle stretch, slowly lower your leg again. Build up gradually to repeating 15 x 3 sets, once or twice per day.
Please note that if at ay time you feel tingling or pins and needles, you are taking the leg too straight, so reduce the range – ‘more is not better’!

There are a number of other biomechanical issues, like tight nerves, that can cause injury and also compromise performance. At Mobilis Performance we have created a series of courses that teach sports coaches, personal trainers, physios, osteopaths, chiropractors and sports therapists, tests like this to use when working with your players/athletes/clients. For more information, visit the Mobilis Performance website.

Trans Abs

2008-10-28T06:36:00.000-07:00

To follow up from one of my latest blog posts I’ve been inundated with people wanting to find out more about the Trans Abs piece we did on 8th October. We have done more work about this in the last 2 weeks and have tested another 4 people who have had diastasis rectus and we can confirm that when they engage Trans Abs their rectus abdominus separation widens. There is some degree of hollowing in some of them (we estimate that it’s those who have the most tension in their linea alba), but they all demonstrate a widening of their separation. This raises further questions about the conventional wisdom of doing Trans Abs work to help diastasis rectus. I am linking up with Mark Maybury in the next few months to start to measure these people and put a paper together in a more formal way. There are too many unanswered questions – as we understand more I’ll publish it here.

CSP congress

2008-10-20T03:46:00.000-07:00

I was at the CSP Congress for the first time ever last weekend and it was a great show for us. As well as it being very productive for my partners Mobilis Healthcare, there were many people who showed an interest in the biomechanical screening and foot biomechanics courses that we run and how this links to their clinical work. We are linking more closely than ever with Kate France (Podiatrist) who runs foot biomechanics courses and we’re linking her work with our own to produce a more complete series of courses for you. As this develops I’ll let you know.

Separated Rectus Abdominis (Diastasis recti) – are we rehabilitating them correctly?

2008-10-08T06:53:00.000-07:00

Those therapists amongst you will know about Diastasis recti, a separation between the left and right side of the rectus abdominus muscle, which covers the front surface of the abdominal area. It is another name for the more commonly described Split Rectus Abdominus. It is caused by pregnancy and the rectus muscle being stretched by the baby in the uterus. It is most common in the later trimesters and more so with multiple births or repeated pregnancies.

A diastasis recti looks like a ridge, which runs down the middle of the abdominals. It stretches from the sternum to the navel and increases with abdominal muscle contraction. In the later part of pregnancy, the top of the pregnant uterus is often seen bulging out of the abdominal wall when rectus is engaged. An outline of parts of the unborn baby may be seen in some severe cases.

Post natally you can check if your client/patient has Diastasis recti by laying them supine with knees bent (crook lying) and get them to raise their heads. You commonly see a central ridge protrude in the centre of Rectus Abdominis and if you palpate above the navel you should feel a soft gap between two hard muscles. Measure the space of the gap using your fingers (this is called a Rec Check). If the gap is greater than two finger widths, your client/patient may be suffering from separated muscles.

No treatment as such will help pregnant women with this condition, although exercise may help, but there is limited evidence that exercise will resolve the problem. However postnatally conventional wisdom suggests that after any discomfort has settled it is reasonable to start some light abdominal work, but do not work the obliques initially. Understanding their origin and insertions reveals any oblique contraction will most likely exaggerate the split of Rectus. Conventional wisdom suggests to start with pelvic floor work and stabilising work using Transversus Abdominis (Trans Abs) with the pelvis in the correct position, then do co-activation work with pelvic floor then progress to try and shorten Rectus by doing inner range work. The production of relaxin (a hormone that is secreted in abundance when pregnant) effects the collagen make up in the linae alba (the central tendon in rectus abdominus) and may be a cause of the diastasis. As soon as the placenta is delivered the increased secretion of relaxin reduces to normal, but the effects can last for up to 5 months and breast feeding will keep it higher than normal until your client/patient has stopped. This may affect how quickly the Diastasis recti will reduce.

Please be careful while working Transversus Abdominis though. While conventional wisdom is sometimes right, it sometimes isn’t, let’s challenge it now. If you look at the origin and insertion of Transversus Abdominis and consider its function, logically when it contracts it will pull the rectus apart further, much the same as contracting the obliques would. There is no evidence to suggest that doing Trans Abs work is the right thing to do, its just something that we all do, without it seems, much thought as to why. Just think, if the Trans Abs inserts into the aponeurosis of rectus (anteriorly below the navel and posteriorly above the navel), any Trans Abs contraction should pull the rectus apart further. So why do we work Trans Abs initially with a diastasis recti?

Actually we’ve measured the split of rectus using Ultrasound scanning and it does separate further when Trans Abs is engaged. I am collaborating with a colleague, Mark Maybury, who is an Extended Scope Physiotherapist specializing in Ultrasound scanning, and we plan to do a paper on this – to challenge conventional wisdom in this field. We hope to have it completed in the next few months, please come back and see what we find, I’ll put the paper here when it’s completed.

What is your experience with this condition?

Possible Leg Length Discrepancy

2008-09-08T01:19:00.000-07:00

Hi Martin

I am working with an athlete and have just done the normalise tests with him.

His left leg is 5 to 7 mm longer than his right. Downing’s test was fine so in my eyes suggests that he has actually got one leg longer than the other. Gillett’s test was positive (there did seem to be a little movement on both sides but not great).

In his upper body there was high tone on right erector spinae in the thoracic spine, high tone on left upper traps, mild left scapula winging when standing and rotated to the right (right shoulder back, left shoulder forward) sway back posture.

What is the best way ahead? If he does have a leg length discrepancy, do we pop an insert in the shoe of the shorter leg? This would obviously mean dramatically altering his training for a long period for his body to adjust. Do we leave it? The athlete is 18 years old and is currently on 30 miles a week. He has been up to 40 miles a week last cross country season. He and his coach are looking to up the mileage to 50 for this cross country season. He has no history of any injury. I think this may change though when the mileage goes up. He is in the top 40 in England for 1500 metres in the under 20 age range. A very dedicated athlete.
I would welcome any comments you can make on this.

Hi ‘Coach’

He may indeed have a genuine leg length discrepancy if Downing's is negative. However if Gillett's is positive (and I notice on the screening form that the 4-sign is positive on the left side too) it is possible that his pelvis is still rotated, remember Downing's is just one way of establishing if the pelvis is functioning correctly. So I'd do the anti-spasm exercises and the exercises that work the other areas that biomechanically load the pelvis (all the other tests that are positive in the Normalise screening) and then re-measure.

When the pelvic (and other tests) come back negative, then see how the leg length discrepancy measures. If it's still longer then a heal raise may be appropriate depending upon the exact discrepancy. If that was the case I'd send him to an Orthotist or Podiatrist (or even a musculo-skeletal therapist who was experienced in this type of thing) for the prescription. If however the leg length has been reduced by the biomechanical work then we know it was from the pelvis and he may well not need a raise.

Generally though, there would need to be quite a good argument and significant discrepancy before we should consider heel raises for anyone.

I hope that helps.

Martin

I’ll let you all know how this athlete gets on with that advice and see how he improves over time.

Visit Mobilis Performance at the LIW, Birmingham NEC, Stand 5150

2008-08-11T05:46:00.000-07:00

Mobilis Performance will be attending the Leisure Industry Week (LIW) show at the NEC in Birmingham, 23rd – 25th September, on Stand 5150.

"Leisure Industry Week is the ultimate event for everyone in the leisure industry. It’s the show that attracts thousands of leisure professionals for hundreds of different reasons every year" (LIW, 2008).

In addition to promoting the ‘Biomechanical Screening courses for Injury Prevention and optimal performance’, we will be carrying out biomechanical screens that you can use on your clients throughout the 3 days. Or, just drop in for chat about our courses and our up and coming Diploma which will qualify Personal Trainers as 'Biomechanics Coaches'.

Also, WIN PRIZES!

Free prize draw; Put your business card or details in to the draw pot and you could win:

1st Prize – a FREE Normalise course
2nd Prize – 25% discount on a course
3rd Prize – 10% discount on a course

See you there!

For more information on Leisure Industry Week please visit the official LIW website.

Dwain Chambers Saga Finally Put To Rest

2008-07-29T04:11:00.000-07:00

Its been a long time since good sense prevailed, but at last the Dwain Chambers affair has been put to rest. Actually it was quite simple, he entered competitions with a full understanding of the rules and that if he took certain drugs he would be band for life. He broke the rules and was band for life. That’s it, isn’t it? Of course he then tried to change the rules in a vain attempt to clear his name, but even those who are usually too politically correct to make sensible and fair decisions saw sense in this case. Now let’s get on with the Olympics.

The MBT Trainers Debate

2008-07-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

Well, the MBT trainers continue to cause huge debate, and now they’ve been around for a little while, serious questions are being asked about their long term effects. Interestingly the answers are inconclusive at best.

A Sheffield Hallam University study concluded that wearing MBTs was better for the knees, hips and ankles than wearing conventional shoes. It would be interesting to learn how they are defining ‘better’ as many are questioning the effects.

Our work using video analysis has demonstrated that the shoes can be so unstable that they often encourage over pronation. The problem is that the majority of us have over pronation issues, the instability and malalignments from which causes extra pressure on musculo-skeletal structures so they become overloaded by attempting to compensate and eventually fail. We know this because for many years podiatrists and Orthotists have been trying to minimise the effects of over pronation, and when prescribed correctly, orthotics often helps the individuals pain and performance.

One main reason why MBT claim that their shoes increase the amount of muscle work is because it loads the muscles so they’re working harder than normal, well that would be right in this case as they’re working over time to compensate for the negative instability from the shoe. As Dr David Johnson, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital in Bristol, says: “The claims as to assisting posture, back, hip and knee problems are not supported by evidence or any good rational explanation. Indeed the instability provoked will increase the muscle activity and energy required to walk – thus increasing fatigue and tiredness.” If you are one of the few who have supinated or very arched and rigid feet, then this instability and extra shock absorption is a good thing, if not it can be harmful over time.

There is little evidence that they help with the removal of cellulite either. According Esther Walker of the Independent Extra, “this is backed up by Hannah Snow who wore MBTs daily for two years and found they toned her muscles but did not get rid of the fine layer of cellulite on the top of her legs”. Well, they will work the legs harder as the shoes are so unstable that the leg muscles have to work unusually hard to stabilise the legs. Harder in this context isn’t necessarily better.

Esther Walker also reports that Sammy Margo of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists believes that MBTs are not necessarily a bad thing but that they are not for everyone: “They can possibly help people with stiff backs, who do jobs that involve a lot of standing. Ideally, you should get them only on the recommendation of a physiotherapist and should be trained to use them properly. They are not a cure-all for modern life.”

So despite the PR machine’s claims, nothing is the panacea for all ills. Obviously MBTs, like anything, has its place and will help some people, but be sure to establish whether you’re likely to be one of them first.

Unleashing the sporting potential our country has to offer

2008-07-02T04:14:00.000-07:00

Well, its that time of year again and the Wimbledon Tennis is upon us. It’ll no doubt be another year of expectation heightened by the PR machines and then dashed by our seemingly innate inability to play tennis consistently at the highest level, despite the millions of pounds spent on developing tennis in the UK.

My feeling is that despite the amount of money being pumped into the sport, the main factor that is not being addressed adequately, is that this is a typically middle class, white sport. Until we can attract a broader mix of players at young age who are hungry to ‘get out of the ghettos’, we will never unleash the potential that this country undoubtedly has in its lockers. Come on the LTA, lets give free tennis courts and lessons to our under privileged kids and those kids who’s parent earn under a certain income and can’t afford to go to the fancy tennis clubs. Lets get the PR machine to look for our ‘Tiger Woods’ and lets try and make this great sport truly open to all.

The young player Murray is obviously our great hope and injuries apart will helpfully give us something to cheer this year. As many of my friends are Scottish, I’m well aware that he’ll be British if he wins and Scottish if he doesn’t! Good Luck Andy!

Participants from a wide range of specialist areas benefit from our courses

2008-06-23T02:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend we probably had the most diverse group of participants on the biomechanics screening courses we run. There were physios, podiatrists, sports therapists, personal trainers, Pilates teachers and athletics coaches. It was a rich collection of skills and talent and a great group to work with.

The challenge with working with such a diverse group is making the content relevant to each arena. The personal trainers and coaches were interested in its application to injury prevention and optimal performance and the Pilates teachers were keen to learn about its application into their classes and private clients and how that plays into the management of back pain. The podiatrists were fascinated to learn how pelvic biomechanics could play into and compliment their orthotic prescription and the physios and sports therapists were interested in all of the applications.

The questions that came out from the group provided them all with a much broader view of how biomechanics can be applied across the different arenas, but also expanded on the application of the information into their areas as well. So all things considered a very positive weekend and we look forward to taking the group through the next 2 phases of the courses.

Course dates are available throughout the UK for the Mobilis Performance Intelligent Training Courses.

Physio First Conference - A Great Success!

2008-04-30T06:05:00.000-07:00

We had a great show this weekend at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham. We were at the Physio First Conference to talk to Physios for the first time en mass about our Biomechanics Screening courses and their application to the clinical field. The interest was very positive and we are looking to set up many courses for Physios and other Therapists in the near future.

As many of your will be aware, one of our partner products is called the Flexi-bar . This is a flexible bar that provides the user with a very effective way of stabilising the shoulder and spine particularly. Its quite new to the physio worlds and went down a storm. As soon as they saw the product in action the biomechanical and clinical benefits were obvious. In fact they were suggesting applications to us!

Also this weekend we had a Normalise Course in Bristol which was run by Ros and Rachel, which went down really well. We had 2 Podiatrists, 4 athletics coaches and 8 personal trainers on the course. One of the great things about the courses that we are told by participants is the variety of backgrounds that people have who attend the courses. This then leads into some great discussions about the application of the biomechanics content that we deliver. One area of interest is usually the conversations around the application of orthotics to the sporting arena and how they can be so helpful and yet sometimes can cause all sorts of problems. When podiatrists sit the courses they start to have a better understanding of the big picture and how the pelvic biomechanics can influence the prescription of orthotics and how undertaking the full biomechanical picture can help orthotic prescription and reduce the risk of the athlete or gym-goer reacting negatively to them.

FitPro Spring Convention - Wow What a Great Show!

2008-04-16T03:50:00.000-07:00

This was the first time we have been to FitPro and we were overwhelmed by the response from Personal Trainers (PT’s) and health clubs. We presented a technical presentation to a very enthusiastic audience, despite it being at 8am on the Sunday morning (and this was definitely the morning after the night before!). We also had an exhibition stand. This was very busy all weekend and was supposed to close at 3.30 on Sunday afternoon, and while other exhibitors were closing up at lunch time, we had guys queuing until 4pm to find out more about what we do.

The PT’s were fascinated by the concept of the biomechanical preparation they can provide for their clients and how it would improve not only their exercise prescription but also help manage the biomechanical causes of the many ailments that their clients often suffer from. As always we made it clear that the biomechanics programmes are not deigned in this context for treating people’s injuries, the whole idea is to help reduce the biomechanical causes, which can have a profound effect. We were providing free biomechanical screens (tests) to delegates to demonstrate how simple they were and quick to perform, despite being biomechanically valid.

It was also good to catch up with our friends from Flexi-bar and Power Plate and look at more ways that we can work together. In fact Flexi-bar very kindly donated a flexi-bar as one of our prizes which was won by a delighted PT!

Now we’re spending a lot of time working through the massive amount of interest and contacting people to provide them the info they’re after. If you’re one of them, you’ll be hearing from us soon!

FitPro Spring Convention

2008-04-03T02:32:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s that time of year again and we’re busy preparing for FitPro, the one of the industries main fitness shows in the UK. As well as exhibiting at the show, we have a demonstration area where we can show PTs and coaches the best biomechanical screening techniques for their clients and athletes to help improve their functional training programmes. So please drop by so we can explain the sort of biomechanical screening that you can do to help your exercise prescription.

We will be joined on the stand by our friends from Flexi-bar from time to time over the FitPro weekend and we’ll be discussing how we link their flexi-bar and XCO products into our training courses.

Also, we’ve been invited to present at the show too. I’ll be presenting at 8am on Sunday 13th April. Yes, we’ll be discussing functional training and no doubt we’ll be discussing core training too. But perhaps more importantly we’ll be talking about how all the functional training in the world and all the core training in the world can work against you if you have poor biomechanics. If you try and pattern particular functional movements, in 3 planes using multi joint patterns for example, and your client has biomechanical problems (which is very common), you can be sure that they will ‘break’ or get injured sooner or later. Functional training is not new and we’ve been using it in rehab for years, so we cannot underestimate its importance, however as good as functional training and screening is, it’s critical that your clients are prepared biomechanically, otherwise you’ll find the functional training you are doing is merely teaching your client faulty movement patterns. And this ultimately leads to injury.

Although biomechanics can be very complex, and indeed the principles of our work is heavily research lead, the actual practical application is very simple. We have been teaching PTs and coaches the biomechanical screens for some time now and the feedback is incredibly positive – please drop by if you can, I think you’ll find our evidence based work very interesting and will hopefully help you think further out of the box than you already do.

Dwain Chambers: Do cheats prosper?

2008-03-26T04:06:00.000-07:00

As many of you will know, Dwain Chambers has been selected to compete for Great Britain in the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Valencia, Spain next month. And quite rightly so, according to the ‘first-past-the-post’ selection criteria that UK Athletics (UKA) have adopted. Legally he has the right, based upon those selection criteria that everyone in the sport has to follow, to compete in Valencia. It is the only decision that UKA could have made.

The question is whether the selection criteria are correct, fair and proper. In my opinion, in this case it is not. I believe, and this may not be the opinion of Mobilis, given the amount of time drugs cheats have been among our sport it is hard to believe that this scenario has not been predicted and the consequences clarified. Listening to reports of Neils de Vos, the recently appointed Chief Executive of UKA, I can’t imagine that the present criteria would still be in place if he’d have had his way and had the time to have dealt with it.

The public are looking at all our governing bodies to ‘do the right thing’ both morally and professionally, but UKA have been unable to make a stand against what is clearly an inappropriate selection due to an ineffective selection protocol. In this day of political correctness-gone-mad, can we please have some common sense about this issue?

The problems that I have with this selection are:

He is preventing a young and promising athlete from competing and gaining valuable experience at a world class event.

He is compromising how our Olympic athletes, our Olympic movement and even our country are being portrayed.

It comes over very strongly that we are condoning drugs cheats.

I can’t believe that he will ultimately be allowed to compete. If the threats of Euromeetings (an umbrella body representing most leading promoters) are anything to go by, they are looking to ostracise drugs cheats, and it would not be surprising if this offers further momentum to Neils de Vos’ position. In fact I can’t believe that the ‘powers-that-be’ will not have thought of another obstacle further down the road to prevent him from competing, but still keeping their legal noses clean. Let’s wait and see.

Is Chambers the Tip of the Drugs Iceberg?

2008-03-06T12:18:00.002-08:00

The sad Dwain Chambers affair, just reminds us that the drug cheats are still around in the world of athletics and that our testing laboratories are playing catch up to try and find the new performance-enhancing substances. Victor Conte, head of the California-based BALCO Lab, recently said: “The vast majority of athletes in Beijing will be using performance enhancing substances, but they will be undetectable”.

What chance does the ‘honest’ athlete have? And you’d like to think that there are some still out there. Certainly you look at some of our top athletes in the UK and it would be hard to believe some of them are ‘dirty’, but we’ll probably never know for sure.

Talking of our top athletes, one came out of the woodwork yesterday to comment on the Dwain Chambers affair. Linford Christie was once described by one of his fellow Olympic competitors as the most balanced athlete in the world – he has a chip on both shoulders! I'm not sure what Mobilis thinks about this but, I’m not sure why he felt anybody cared what a former convicted drugs cheat (and as a current coach of a convicted drugs cheat) thinks, but he put his two-penneth in today anyway. He believes that British athletics has brought this on itself by not having enough good sprinters to beat Chambers.

I think he’s missing the point really, but then he returned to his usual tack by saying, “A lot of people have given their opinion, but I only look after myself and what I do”. There speaks a true team player and people’s champion. One thing he did say that was quite insightful though was, “at Beijing we should not concentrate on the medals we win, we should be looking at the performances. Our young athletes should be getting the experience they need in Beijing ready to look for medals at the London 2012 Olympics.”

Does this refreshing attitude make him a future Performance Director of UKA? Perhaps not, but he’s absolutely right, with the lack of experience of our younger athletes it would be unrealistic and unreasonable to load the pressure on them to win medals at Beijing, but with the experience from that Olympics, we could be looking at a formidable team in 2012 if we nurture our young athletes physically and mentally over the next four years.

Lets see what happens between now and the World Indoors, lets hope athletics has some good stories to tell in the build up.

Mobilis Performance Partners with Flexi-Sport

2008-03-05T14:03:00.001-08:00

Mobilis Performance™ is proud to announce a new partner. Flexi-Sport has long been established in the fitness industry and produces the Flexi-bar, which is an excellent product that teaches you how to engage the core naturally. The Flexi-bar causes the core to work, whether you are trying to engage it or not. In fact, as the core is a ‘reflex’ muscle group (in other words it needs to be able to work without you consciously thinking about it), a core programme is incomplete without this type of training.

To describe how the core works, think about when you bend over to pick something up. You never consciously think to tighten your core before you pick up the object, the process happens automatically. At least it should do.

For many people, this natural and reflex tightening of their core doesn't happen for some reason, often due to poor posture and a history of previous injury. In these cases, the core has to be trained to work functionally again. The Flexi-bar is a great way of doing that.

We are now using the Flexi-bars on our stabilise courses to teach people how to work the core muscles in the right way.

Flexi-Sport also run courses to teach you how to use the Flexi-bars, and these courses compliment the work done by Mobilis Performance. We cover many areas on our stabilise courses, and we now also teach you when the Flexi-bars should be used in an exercise programme and how to best integrate them into your programming.

The Flexi-bar courses, run by Steve Schiemer and Rebecca Small, then take this Flexi-bar training to the next level and give you a variety of exercises and programmes to follow.

We are looking to work together at FitPro (the international fitness conference and exhibition) where both Mobilis Performance and Flexi-bar are presenters.

Mobilis and Flexi-Sport are keen to develop a course structure that allows us to combine the benefits of the biomechanical aspect of Mobilis Performances work, with the practical skills of Flexi-bar. We hope to make this a two-day course and we will keep you informed on the progress of this course.

To buy a Flexi-bar, please visit the Mobilis Healthcare website.

Recent and Upcoming Intelligent Training™ Courses

2008-03-05T14:02:00.002-08:00

The recent course we ran for the Professional Golf Association (PGA) was a great success. On the course, we had nine PGA coaches and a personal trainer who delivers bespoke fitness programmes for golfers. They got a lot of the course and their feedback on the course was excellent.

The people who took the course now fully appreciate that you cannot provide the best coaching service to any level of golfer without understanding the biomechanics of the body and its influences on the swing. We used one example of a right-handed, 18 handicapper who typically slices the ball (the ball moves quite a long way from left to right while it’s in the air). This can obviously be due to several set up and swing factors including incomplete shoulder turn, poor weight transference, out to in swing plane, over-swinging and many others.

After working together for a day, the participants on the course now appreciate that no matter how hard they work on someone’s swing, if the golfers have what we describe as ‘intrinsic biomechanical issues’, their hard work coaching and practicing might be in vain.

Biomechanical factors that can cause a slice can include, tight upper back, one leg being longer than the other, a rotated pelvis (which most golfers don’t even know that they have), tight sciatic nerves (the nerve that runs down the back of the leg) and, especially, a tight median nerve (a nerve in the arm). All these factors need to be dealt with before the coach can confidently say that any abnormal swing is due technique.

By the end of the day the participants on the course were confident that they could tell the difference between a poor swing due to abnormal biomechanics and one due to poor technique.

We are working closely with the PGA and will be running these courses throughout the country to teach PGA pros, fitness instructors, allied health professionals and strength and conditioning coaches the implications of this science to the golf swing.

Regarding our athletics-related courses, we are presenting a seminar this weekend (16/17 February 2008) at Birmingham Alexander Stadium at a squad day for their endurance coaches, which will be lead by one of our tutors Rosalind Shuttleworth. The seminar will be about how understanding intrinsic biomechanical principles can significantly reduce the risk of athletes getting injured. On Sunday 17 February, we have another Normalise course that we’re delivering at the Robin Park Arena in Wigan, lead by another of our tutors Nigel Morgan. I (Martin Haines) will also be at both events and hope to see you there.

New Year, New Opportunities

2008-03-05T14:02:00.001-08:00

It's been quite a long time long since our last blog entry. Christmas, booking people on courses and planning 2008 has taken up most of our time in recent weeks.

The New Year brings some great opportunities for us as a business and, hopefully, that means we'll be able to run more courses and participate in more seminars and exhibitions, so we can help more sports coaches and fitness professionals.

We're expanding the number of courses for both groups and have planned more than 20 Intelligent Training courses between now and the end of April 2008. The courses are now being run in many regions between the North East and the South West, but we're keen to go beyond these regions and provide the courses across the UK. We hope to be able to reach the other regions by the summer. In fact, we hope to be confirming courses in Wales by the end of January 2008.

This year we're expanding into new arenas. We're starting to run a full series of Intelligent Training courses for golf coaches. We are working closely with the PGA to look at the best ways of rolling out the courses for golf pros. This will help to teach pros to learn more about their students and help them in many ways beyond just improving their golf swing.

A properly prescribed exercise programme can help the swing, as Tiger Woods has proven. It can help the shape of shots and consistency of swing.

Mechanical problems like leg length discrepancies can cause slices, tight sciatic nerves can cause timing and tempo problems. Muscle spasm, that cannot even be felt, can cause restricted movement in the hips and spines.

Similarly to the coaching and fitness arenas, we are keen to make the courses available to as many golf coaches in as many regions as possible. We have a taster course on 1st Feb 2008 at the PGA in the Belfry in Birmingham, which is fully subscribed, and we'll report on its progress in the next few weeks. If you're interested to find out more, please send an email to Mobilis Performance.

East Midlands Sports Personality of the Year - Enterprise in Sport Award – Mobilis Performance

2008-03-05T14:00:00.001-08:00

It's been too long since we last made an entry into the blog, but for good reason, we have been inundated with interest about the injury prevention courses. Since we last did a blog entry we have run 2 courses, one Normalise Course in London (Lee Valley) and one Stabilise Course in East Midlands (Loughborough University). They both went down very well and the coaches and personal trainers who attended are keen to get on the next level of course now. We are also beginning to plan ways of keeping in touch with the participants of the courses by way of log books and web updates, so that we can continue to help their development between sessions.

We've also run 2 seminars in the north. One at the North West Regional Coaches Network and one at the Yorkshire and Humberside regional meeting. Both groups were very enthusiastic about the programmes and the interest via the web site has been great since.

Simon Grantham (UK Athletics) was presenting at the North West Regional Network speaking (amongst other things) about athletes funding, it was very interesting to see how the system has been developed. Actually this increased our resolve to press for more courses within the athletics arena.

Although the funding from UKA has increased over the years and is far better than it was, say 10 years ago, but out of all the thousands of athletes in the UK there are only 86 on full funding. In other words only 86 have access to the professional advice that they need to provide, amongst other things, injury prevention courses. At the top end this is catered for by the strength and conditioning coaches and physio's, but below that there is very limited access to top level advice. This makes us more determined to continue to provide coaches (and fitness instructors, strength and conditioning coaches, sports therapists) with the tools to be able to assess their athletes/clients and then enable them to prescribe the relevant exercises to prevent injury and improve performance.

Simon asked some interesting questions after he sat in on our presentation. One was about the difference between nerve stretching and nerve mobilizing. I explained that nerve stretching was for nerves that were inflexible or tight. Nerve mobilizing was for nerves that were bound down or adhered either within or between muscles. He also asked whether nerve issues could affect neuromuscular performance. To that I explained that it most certainly can. Nerve tension can inhibit how muscles fire and so can compromise neuromuscular firing patterns and compromise performance and most certainly increase the risk of injury. I'm sure Simon knew the answers to the questions, he was just throwing them out to the other coaches to show them how far reaching nerve biomechanics could go and how important it was that they understand these issues to fully prepare their athletes.

As well as this we have been to the Back Show Expo which was a great event. I was surprised at the number of people that attended and the number of people who were swarming around our stand! If you weren't aware, as well as being an education provider, we are part of the Mobilis Healthcare Group who provide medical products for a variety of issues, but one area we understand a lot about is back pain. So it was a double-whammy by both presenting and exhibiting at the show. We could help people by educating them how they can help their own backs and also provide them with products to do the same. In fact the interest was so great that we've started to look at running back courses for people with back pain, to help empower them to look after their backs using the latest biomechanical concepts, rather than the medical approach which is becoming recognised as less and less effective.

We have a great few weeks ahead of us with another Normalise Course in the South West this weekend and one up in the North East the following week. Perhaps the highlight will be that we have been nominated for the East Midlands Sports Personality of the Year - Enterprise in Sport Award. We'll know on 26th November if we've won it, but I must say it's an honour just to be nominated. We'll report back next week to let you know how we get on!

Mobilis Wins Customer Service Excellence Award

2008-03-05T13:56:00.000-08:00

The Mobilis Healthcare Group has won the British Healthcare Trades Association award for outstanding customer service. Mobilis was presented with the winners’ trophy for their service excellence to physiotherapy, podiatry, occupational therapy and sports healthcare professionals at the British Healthcare Trades Association's Annual Awards Dinner on 8th November 2007.

Mobilis was chosen by readers of Assistive Technologies for their in-depth expertise and experience in the field.

Broadcaster Angela Rippon presented the award to Ian Eaves, who collected the award on behalf of the Mobilis Board. After the presentation, Eaves said:

“This award confirms a recent customer satisfaction survey carried out by Mobilis which shows that over 80% of our customers rate the professionalism of Mobilis staff as good or excellent. This is a clear recognition of our ability to provide expertise across a wide portfolio of Healthcare and Sports sectors. It is a fitting tribute to all the Mobilis staff who, over the last 18 months, have worked tirelessly to implement the installation of a major new IT and logistics system, a key enabler to maintaining the loyalty and goodwill of our customers.”