As all of you who read my newsletter have known, The Renkens Center has been on a quest to move office locations for the past several months.  I am proud to announce that I am officially in my new office.  To say that I am happy with it and proud of it is an understatement.  At times the process seemed never-ending.  Many people I talked with along the way told me projects like this take longer than first expected.  That was difficult for me to deal with at times.  I wanted it all done "NOW"! 

For those of you who have not yet been to the new Bedford Commons location, I invite you to come check it out.  The space truly inspires me to do my best work.  We are located at 3811 Bedford Avenue, in Suite 104. 

With the expansion I have already been planning many exciting events.  We will soon be having an official open house celebration with give-aways, food, and drinks.  Future events will include an educational lecture series on various health-related topics led by myself and other guest speakers.  For all of you golf enthusiasts, I will be doing some collaborative workshops with Golf In The Now owner, Jim Williams, to address and improve biomechanical and swing dysfunction. Keep an eye out, too, for a revised website with some new content, photos, and a page filled with past issues of my newsletter and other articles I have written!   

In past newsletters I have prompted all of you to consider what choices you are making each day. There are many instances throughout a day when we are confronted with choices to make, and in most cases, our overall health and well being will either improve or take a hit based on the decisions we make. The choices we are confronted with, among others, are whether we will workout and get our daily dose of physical activity, and what we choose to fuel our bodies with when it comes to food and drink options.

For a long time, food has been used as medicine. I know that certain foods can be consumed to facilitate the healing process during times of acute injury and recovery. Poor eating habits, on the other hand, can be a poison leading to fatigue, a weakened immune system, and disease. Even the US Surgeon General has declared that two-thirds of all deaths are directly affected by improper diet and that poor dietary habits play a large role in our country's prominent killers - coronary heart disease, stroke, atherosclerosis, diabetes, and some cancers.

I find that oftentimes, trying to figure out exactly what to eat and how much can be done by simply looking within. I believe that if we wake up and "listen to our body" and its wisdom, we can oftentimes make the right choices. Before you reach for the nearest slice of pizza or handful of chips, simply pause and think about your choice. Is the food you are about to eat going to give you energy, or is it going to take energy away from you? Begin to regard your food choices as either life-enhancing or life-depleting. In the end, your dietary choices should support life. If you listen intuitively to your body's needs, I believe you will find a moderately balanced approach to eating suited to your constitution and body type.

First, I always try to keep the content of my newsletters as positive as possible. In the end, however, getting results is positive and stalling the healing process or worse yet, making conditions worse, is negative.

I recently had a patient tell me about her experience with an orthopedist whom she visited for her low back pain. I would like to say that all of us in the healthcare field - medical and manual practitioners alike - were more up-to-date with the latest research and techniques pertaining to low back pain and other conditions. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Do not get me wrong. It is not only the medical professionals, but also some physical therapists, chiropractors, personal trainers and other professionals who are guilty of offering incorrect, if not harmful, advice. Like any profession, there are going to be some good ones and some not-so-good ones out there.

I am smart enough to know that I do not know all there is to know, but I do pride myself on staying on top of the latest research and practicing what I preach to my patients. The main point from the above example is this: she goes to her ortho complaining of low back pain with referral down the anterior - lateral thigh, which seems to be exaccerbated with flexion and high mileage running. After ordering an MRI and of course seeing some degenerative changes at the L4-L5 level, he advises her to "go do crunches to strengthen her midsection." 

Could he have given her any more harmful advice? Well, maybe if he also told her to begin smoking a pack of cigarettes every day to further dehydrate and degenerate her vertebral disks and to slouch every time she sits. Really, though, why would you tell someone who is flexion intolerant to go flex over and over again in the disguise of crunches? It doesn't make sense to me. 

All to often, crunches and stretching are prescribed in the rehab / training setting. As stated above, crunches can in many cases actually do more harm than good for those suffering from low back pain. I have a "healthy" low back and yet I don't do crunches simply because I am aware of the long term consequences of repeated flexion over time. Furthermore, there needs to be a rationale for stretching. Flexibility without strength and motor control is really useless. Loose joints without precisely controlled activation patterns are unstable. Several studies in regards to the core stabilizers have shown that muscle strength cannot predict who will have back troubles. On the other hand, muscular endurance of the smaller, intrinsic muscles has been shown to be protective. One needs to remember: "Stabilize what needs to be stabilized and mobilize what needs to be mobilized."

I hate to generalize, but in a lot of cases when dealing with patients with a history of back troubles, a couple of things are typically present:  they "forget" how to use their gluteal muscles (yes, the buttock muscles are a part of the "core") and they lack stabilization patterns in the deeper intrinsic muscles around the spine. These people need proper stimulation to their nervous system along with the correct prescription of exercises to reinforce the new recruitment / activation strategies. Decisions must be made for each individual. No two people should be trained or rehabilitated exactly the same way.

Several of you have been supplementing your diet by purchasing quality nutritional supplements by Designs For Health (DFH). I continue to be a huge fan of Designs For Health as they continue to be one of the leaders in nutrition research and supplement formulation.  

In addition to DFH, I am now going to be offering nutritional supplements made by Hammer Nutrition out of White Fish, Montana. In addition to a quality supplement line, Hammer carries a full spectrum of fuels to be used before, during, and after exercise.  Performing techniques such as Active Release and Muscle Activation, I tend to attract quite a few endurance athletes suffering from repetitive strain-type injuries to my office. Carrying both the DFH and Hammer Nutrition products will allow me to supply almost everyone with the supplemental nutrition they would need to meet their goals. 
 
I strongly believe that the consistent use of an intelligent supplement program, along with the proper use of high quality fuels, are integral factors in achieving both optimal overall health and the highest quality performance in training and races. In fact, if you are into training and racing, they are as important in achieving success as all the time you put into training and all the money you spend on equipment.  
 
DFH has been offering me a healthcare professional discount on all of their products which has enabled me to offer all they have to patients at a reduced cost.  Hammer Nutrition is also offering their product line to me at reduced prices. Just as I do with DFH, this enables me to get all of you the Hammer Nutrition line for about 25% less than what you would pay retail or by ordering on their website.  As always, should you need assistance with your supplement program, or if you have any questions about any of the DFH or Hammer products, please feel free to stop by the office or email me at: josh@therenkenscenter.com.