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Dr. John Pietila
14 Plays3 days ago
In This Episode: Dr. John Pietila—known to many as Dr. J—is a Chiropractic Neurologist, a Fellow of the American College of Functional Neurology, and one of only a few specialists worldwide in his field.
A former collegiate decathlete and sports doctor for the Italian National Soccer Team during the 2014 World Cup, Dr. Pietila brings a unique perspective to injury prevention, athletic performance, and healthy aging.
He’s the inventor of the NeuroTarget System, a groundbreaking approach based on one simple but powerful truth: All injuries are caused by an inability to absorb force properly.
We cover:
The real reason injuries happen
How the nervous system, fuel delivery, and joint mechanics work together
Why “tech neck” is the silent posture killer
Sport-specific training myths
Diet, supplements, and mindset for long-term performance
How just 30 minutes a week can create the physical foundation for running, lifting, swimming—even walking—without pain.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Guests
00:00:31
Speaker
Welcome to Russell Jones Speaks, where we explore big issues that matter to parents, grandparents, and kids. We tackle intergenerational issues. Everything that affects parents, grands, and children is on the table.
00:00:44
Speaker
That includes health and fitness, relationships, attitude, family unity, vision, adversity, God, and anything else that might arise. The goal is for you to take away something that you can use in your life immediately.
00:00:58
Speaker
I really want to help improve the lives of families, especially those with 10 to 13 year old middle schoolers. Let's talk. Go to RussellJonesSpeaks.com to get an amazing gift and then jump on a call with me.
00:01:12
Speaker
So today i have a special guest, Dr. John Pietula is a doctor of chiropractic, a diplomat on the American Chiropractic Neurology Board and is a fellow of the American College of Functional Neurology.
00:01:26
Speaker
He is one of only a few chiropractic neurologists. As an athlete, Dr. Pietula starred as a decathlete in college. He has worked with many athletes over the years, including serving as a doctor for the Italian national soccer team during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
00:01:45
Speaker
He invented and developed the neuro-target system.
Understanding Injuries and Personal Experiences
00:01:49
Speaker
Dr. J, as he is affectionately known, believes that all injuries are caused by an inability to absorb force properly.
00:01:56
Speaker
Simply put, force is constantly entering our bodies and should be absorbed and mitigated by our muscles. As long as this process happens, we can continue activities with no problems.
00:02:07
Speaker
However, problems do begin when force enters our body and is not absorbed by our muscles. This force is allowed to transfer away from the muscle and enter in surrounding the I'm sorry, and enter into surrounding tissues tissue, such as a tendon, ligament, cartilage, meniscus, labrum, or a disc in the back.
00:02:28
Speaker
These structures are not primary force absorbing structures and force entering into them causes them to become injured. It may be a small injury, such as tendinitis or a big injury like a disc herniation or ruptured ligament.
00:02:43
Speaker
Either way, the cause was unabsorbed force entering the injured tissue. So with all that, welcome, Dr. J. Thank you so much for having me, Russell.
00:02:55
Speaker
Yeah, I'm excited today about the conversation. ah I guess we've I met you about 20 years ago. i made a journey up to... In Minnesota, ah the sports scene in New Jersey was ah basically my kids were getting hurt in sports all the time.
00:03:15
Speaker
um We heard about this system that was helping athletes ah of all ages, pros on down. And I got curious because I was i was hurting myself at that point.
00:03:29
Speaker
And so we we flew up to Minnesota, and or as we say, Minnesota. answer right so And so, you know, we got introduced into this whole different world. Uh, I had been training people since 1984, but I was introduced to the way the body works in a whole different way. There was, uh, Dennis Thompson and Jay Schroeder and all these guys around and, and they said, but you got to go see
Dr. Pietula's Background and Career Path
00:03:58
Speaker
Dr. J. You got to go see Dr. J. You know?
00:04:00
Speaker
And, uh, And so I went in and ah you did your evaluation of me and i was I was really thankful. And for everybody listening, I just want everybody to know, I mean, I'm still a performing strongman at 72 years old.
00:04:14
Speaker
i went I saw Dr. J 20 years ago and I thought I was done at 52. I had the whole thing in my head that I was old, I was beat up, everything hurt I remember you guys, there was a group of you, Tim Rieger, everybody was cracking up, you know, the horrible shape the strong man from New Jersey was in.
00:04:35
Speaker
And, but anyway, ah and I did return at least one, maybe two more times to learn from you. And so again, that was like really, really valuable information.
00:04:45
Speaker
So, um so let's start, you know, we'll do those start at the beginning thing. Doc, tell us, you know, like growing up, you know, where'd you grow up? Big family, small family. Yeah, I have ah ah three older sisters. The two oldest are identical twins, which is kind of a unique experience at certain points.
00:05:02
Speaker
um And played ah football, basketball. i did wrestling, ran track in high school. And we had a tiny school. There was like 700 people in our town. So you really had to play the sports and you had to go out for the plays and you had to be a knowledgeable and you had to do all the things because there really just wasn't enough people to to make the groups, you know, big enough to do anything with. So I was the center for our football team.
00:05:31
Speaker
Yeah, like 160 pounds. um So, you know, and I was not the biggest guy, but one of the bigger guys. So that kind of gives you an idea of what, you know, what we came from. And um did you have have to play the Did you have to play all the bigger schools in the area too? oh yeah. yeah Yeah. we We played this one school and the nose guard was a full 200 pounds heavier than me.
00:05:56
Speaker
And I remember trying to block them and... I mean, he just, it was like a brick wall. He didn't sack the quarterback because he wasn't very fast and I could get in his way, but I couldn't move him at all. It was just unbelievable how solid he was, but yes ah we didn't have a track team.
00:06:13
Speaker
um So we went to the school board and we petitioned for it when I was a sophomore and we had to raise all this money and find coaches and, but we got it done. So I, we started track when I was a sophomore and i I, you know, just being athletic naturally, i knew that that would be something I wanted to do and and eventually made it to the state championship in the 110 meter high hurdles. So that that was my event right there. And then I went to Bemidji State.
00:06:45
Speaker
That's a, wait a second. I'm trying to imagine
Discovering Functional Neurology
00:06:48
Speaker
the center on my high school football team running high hurdles. I'm not seeing that's seeing that. I mean, I was a very fast and agile runner. um I could change direction really quickly.
00:07:01
Speaker
And in track, like my start was the thing. Like I, every time the gun went off, I was immediately three, four feet ahead of everyone else. Now my top speed wasn't really there. So like at the hundred meter dash, you know, everyone would gain on me the whole way. But that That really helped me in the hurdles because it's really like 10, 10 meter races, you know, and you don't stop on top of the hurdle, but every time you clear a hurdle, like most people lose a step and I wasn't, I was staying right where I was. So that gave me a huge advantage.
00:07:33
Speaker
Um, with the hurdles, but yeah. um So same thing in football, you know, i was really explosive, could create a lot of force, but a lot of people wanted me to play a running back or something because I was so, you know, tricky with my running, but um I don't know. i didn't I don't like like the contact. That's not my, that's not my fun side of things. So yeah, then um my my parents, my aunts and uncles, they all went to Bemidji State University. So I just thought that's where you go when you graduate from high school. So I went up there and
00:08:05
Speaker
Wasn't really even going to go out for the track team, but the coach ah called me and said, you better come on out. So we went out and ran hurdles, and I tried to triple jump, um and it was okay. But, you know, as a freshman, you're terrible compared to everyone else. And um got better, and then I was kind of just – you know, we didn't even have pole vault in high school. So then as a sophomore in college, watching the pole vaulters, you know, I just knew deep down that was something I really wanted to do. So I told the the coach, you know, I want to do this decathlon.
00:08:39
Speaker
And he's like, Nope, it's not going to work. You can't pole vault. He never threw the javelin. Like you can't, you know, and I was like, no coach, I, I, I can do this. So my teammate, uh, he started coaching me in the pole vault and the very first meet we went to, i already, he was jumping like 13 feet. So, um, which was better than a ah lot of the actual pole vaulters. So I just kept ah working at it. And, um,
00:09:07
Speaker
ah and the other events. But one thing that was kind of that I kind of learned from the decathlon was that when you train, um you'd think that you'd want to work on the your poorest skill.
00:09:20
Speaker
But what we actually found was that my best skills, if I trained on those, actually could get more better than I could if I trained on a poor skill. So my poorest was um the shot put, and I could throw like 32 feet.
00:09:35
Speaker
And with a lot of training, I think I got it you know up to like 34 feet. right so But in the pole vault, you know my first meet, I was at 13 feet. And by the time I was a senior, ah was jumping over 16 feet.
00:09:50
Speaker
And so that's a huge increase. And same with my hurdles. i was you know running like... you know, mid 15s, upper 15s, and I was able to get down into the 1490s. So um again, when you talk about the decathlon, they score it by your time, and they basically assign points to how much faster you go. So it's not about getting first or a second, it's about getting your time and then getting the points. And running under 15, you know, you're getting almost 1000 points for that.
00:10:21
Speaker
And same with the pole vault jumping over 16 feet. So that really helps your score. And um by the time I was a senior, I was the champion hurdler for our school. And I didn't set any records there. But um I did tie that both indoor and outdoor pole vault record.
00:10:37
Speaker
And I set the school record and the conference record for the decathlon. um And that school record held for a little over 10 years. And then this giant of a man came in there and and beat the record, not by much.
00:10:53
Speaker
um And I do have my picture with him, you know, and he's towering over me. ah But now he's got the record and they actually canceled the men's track program there now. So he's going to be the record holder for the rest of his life. But yeah.
00:11:07
Speaker
I did have the opportunity to go down to Drake and run in the Drake relays. And we actually set a school record there, the 110 shuttle hurdle relay. And so I do have a record on the board at Bemidji state. When you tie, I tied those pole vault records. So those, I don't get my name up for that, but.
00:11:25
Speaker
What was, um, you suffered an
Brain Function and Injury Prevention
00:11:28
Speaker
injury somewhere along the way, or you had a couple of injuries. ah Yeah. I mean, I, I had a um ah back problem stemming way back to high school. um Even maybe even before that, when I was playing in a hayloft at my end grandpa's farm, I had fell forward off this. We were racing from one end to the other across the hay bales and I fell and my head went down into a hole and my back bent backwards. So that was kind of my initial back injury.
00:11:54
Speaker
And what did what I know now as being a doctor, what happened is I basically got a spondylolisthesis that occurred at that time. So it was kind of on and off.
00:12:04
Speaker
um But by the time I got to college, I was running a race and I, and don't know, I didn't kick my back leg up high enough in the hurdles and I hit the hurdle and I, I mean, the hurdle just like broke half and went flying and, um,
00:12:18
Speaker
i really strained my SI joint like bad. And so that, and at that time I didn't know anything about chiropractic or injuries. So trying to train with that SI joint weakness was a big challenge because anytime I'd bring my leg up and out or stretch that hip, like it would just pull that joint apart and get, get so inflamed. So pole vaulting was easy because it was pretty linear, but the hurtling, I just couldn't get my leg up. It wouldn't work.
00:12:48
Speaker
Were you doing a, So you were probably doing what most athletes end up doing is following ah coach's instructions or imitating what you see in terms of, of stretching, right?
00:13:02
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah. And you'd go down to the trainer, and he'd put ice and stim on it, and then he'd show you some stretches and exercises. And in high school, when I hurt my back, You know, I went to the um chiropractor and that's kind of where I got introduced to chiropractic. And and it did. It helped a lot.
00:13:20
Speaker
um But in college, I was like, well, I want to go to the chiropractor. So they paid for it. I went downtown, saw the local guy and it it just made it worse. um And I know now it was because that s SI joint was real strained and he was, you know, laying me on my side and.
00:13:37
Speaker
cracking the thing and stretching it out, you know, and that really isn't the treatment that I do now for that type of injury. But I was starting to get kind of disappointed already that because I had decided way back in elementary when I saw that chiropractor that that that was the field for me. That's what I wanted to do. so So you had to go to a different school?
00:13:57
Speaker
I'm guessing a different school you had to go to. Yeah, after after undergrad, then you go to actual chiropractic school. Okay. So I came down to Minneapolis for that. There's a school here. And so then, all right, so you're... um your specialty, ah that we talk about that I would, you know, heard about with you was, was, you know, looking at things neurologically first.
00:14:22
Speaker
Um, and, uh, Like, how did that come about that you got that interest or you saw that as the place you needed to be?
00:14:35
Speaker
Yeah. So um in chiropractic school, I was going around to all the clubs, learning as much as I could about all the different techniques. And one technique I saw and learned about was called applied kinesiology, which is a muscle testing technique.
00:14:52
Speaker
And I thought that was so cool and so amazing. I mean, I couldn't believe it. and But the one thing that was about it is you'd ask, how does that work? And nobody could say, you know, that's well, it's energy or, you know, it's intention or it's this or that. And like, it was just really weird.
00:15:09
Speaker
And, you know, for myself, I'm like, well, How am I going to use that on a patient if I can't even tell them how it works? You know, and so I kind of got into, I really liked it. So I got pretty proficient at it, but I was really looking for and explanation of how the heck muscle testing could work. How can a muscle be strong? And then you do something and then it's weak again.
00:15:33
Speaker
yeah, So that's really, I got invited to go to an introductory functional neurology course. They wanted to try to get this class going, but they needed more people. And the instructor was talking about central integrated state of the ventral horn and the all or nothing pathway to the muscle. So all or nothing means it's on or off.
00:15:53
Speaker
And if it hits threshold, it's on. If it can't hit threshold, it's off. And that, that was the answer. And so I knew right there that functional neurology was going to be the platform of how things work.
00:16:09
Speaker
So I can build this, ah the neural target system on that premise. And that, that's exactly how I got started. Okay. So, okay. So in the introduction, I, I gave like your,
00:16:23
Speaker
your view of injury as as ah you know I interpreted it years ago. Just walk neophytes like me through it. I mean, I'm not total neophyte because I've been using your system for years. But folks listening to this, you know there's going to be people that are ah have gone to chiros, have had good experience, have gone to chiros, have had bad experience, or people that are throwing everything but the kitchen sink at it. They're going to chiro, physical therapy.
00:16:51
Speaker
they're getting injections from their MD, they're going, you know, all these, all these different things. What, um, ki it just give us like exactly like, like walking me through as a patient or something like that. I come to you with a disc herniation or, or I come to you with L5 issue or something like that. Something, you know really common, I guess, in our culture.
00:17:16
Speaker
what What would you do? yeah So um I'm going to start a little bit out of order, but um that was another thing that really grabbed my attention was that when I could adjust someone,
00:17:27
Speaker
you know, with neck pain. And it was like a miracle. They were 100% better. And then I'd have the next patient with the same neck pain, same adjustment, and wouldn't respond at all.
00:17:40
Speaker
And I was kind of like, what's going on here? Why does the adjustment work sometimes and not other times? And like... We were talking about bones being in place and out of place. And honestly, when you do an adjustment, lot of times the bone felt exactly the same after the adjustment as before.
00:17:56
Speaker
um If I you know was honest with myself, But then when I talked about functional neurology and learning about what the adjustment actually does, that, again, set that framework of like, oh, now I know how to use chiropractic to actually create the outcome that I'm looking for.
00:18:16
Speaker
And so that's where my spiel kind of comes that I talk to patients about. So think about an injury. You get hurt. you run into the orthopedist, what his job is, is to figure out what did you hurt?
00:18:28
Speaker
You know, and did you herniate a disc? Did you fracture a bone? Do you have, you know, bursitis? And once they diagnose you with that particular injury, that's going to dictate the treatment you get. So maybe you get a cortisone injection, or maybe you need surgery, or maybe you just need to wear a brace, or you a lot of times they recommend rest and ice, and maybe physical therapy or something like that. But What they don't take the time to figure out is how did you hurt the thing in the first place?
00:18:57
Speaker
Because what people don't really grasp or ever think about is that there's something that causes injuries to occur. And it might seem obvious, right? Like, oh, well, you know, I took a check in hockey against the boards, and that's how I dislocated my shoulder, right? Well, that's obvious. So that's trauma. And that really kind of sets us up for this idea that there's two mechanisms, how people can get hurt.
00:19:23
Speaker
And the one that everybody thinks about is how strong they are. And basically, if you have a certain amount of strength, and more force is going to enter into your body than that strength, you can't absorb it. It's too much.
00:19:36
Speaker
And so that results in this force transfer. And wherever that tissue ends up or the force ends up, that's the tissue that gets injured. And that's pretty easy to conceptualize. But what about the guy that just goes out for a jog?
00:19:49
Speaker
Or what about the person that just turns to put their plate on the counter and their their back goes out, right? Or they bend down to pick up some a piece of paper on the ground and they can't get back up again. These types of injuries aren't explained by that mechanism because it's low force entering your body.
00:20:05
Speaker
And if you were to get even stronger, you still can't absorb that low force. So these are the injuries that we focus on at NeuroTarget. And so what happens is this force enters into your body and receptors in your joints receive that information and they feed that information into your brain, telling your brain how the force is coming into your body.
00:20:26
Speaker
your brain processes those signals and then your brain sends messages down to the muscles to turn on whatever muscles are needed to absorb that force. And this reflex is constantly firing. It never takes a break because gravity is always, always pulling on us.
00:20:43
Speaker
Now, this whole mechanism is super important because if you think about how the brain develops, you're born really with a structure and not that much function in your brain. But what happens is gravity pulls on our body and we start moving.
00:20:57
Speaker
And those receptors are feeding into the brain, stimulating the brain and helping it start connecting and growing. And gravity is the key um stimulus because if you think about the other sensations, you know, like light, well, sometimes it's light and sometimes it's dark or temperature. Sometimes it's hot. Sometimes it's cold.
00:21:17
Speaker
Sometimes ah your pants are tight and sometimes your pants are loose, right? Sometimes it's painful. Sometimes it tickles. Sometimes it's pressure. Sometimes it's vibration, right? and So all these um sensory modalities that we receive They're not constant, but gravity is.
00:21:35
Speaker
So our brain is very, very intimately connected to our gravity receptors, which are basically the joint receptors in our in our body. And so that helps our brain develop.
00:21:46
Speaker
And this reflex then, because of gravity and pulling on our body, it becomes very, very efficient. You don't even think about it. And in fact, at night, when you roll over in bed, your brain's automatically absorbing and creating force the way that it's supposed to.
00:21:59
Speaker
But what happens is our brain actually processes at a frequency, cycles per second, right? And what happens with time is it gets out of balance. We get a dominant cortex and a non-dominant cortex.
00:22:14
Speaker
And that happens for a lot of reasons. Could be because of ah ah an injury and and now you're not using your right leg as much. So the parts of your brain receiving information, they decrease in activity.
00:22:25
Speaker
Could be just the way you were born. I know for myself, I'm a right brain person. My right brain is more active. And that allows me to um behave a certain way because I tend to dominate and do things that that brain's good at.
00:22:38
Speaker
And the other brain I don't use as much. So you can see that. That's why some people are really good at math and they can't even spell like a simple word, right? Or vice versa. Someone's really funny.
00:22:50
Speaker
And the other guy, like he can't understand a joke for
Holistic Treatment Approaches
00:22:53
Speaker
the life of them. It's because of the different parts of the brain that are dominant. So If this brain is processing slower, the left side will just say, and the right side is processing faster.
00:23:03
Speaker
It seems obvious that the muscles getting information from the right side are going to work better than the muscles getting information from the left side. And that's why when you look at people, They got their heads tilted, right? Or their shoulders higher or one foot turns out, right? These are these these are the manifestations of this asymmetric brain.
00:23:22
Speaker
um But to take it a step further, if it gets too far um deficient, The amount of time that it takes to process that information and create output is too long.
00:23:33
Speaker
And it's fractions of a second too long. So basically, as force enters into your body and this reflex is firing, we need to get that muscle to turn on before the force you know passes by the area.
00:23:48
Speaker
And if that brain is processing too slowly, there's going to be a delay in the output. So the force comes up, it goes into your back, and then the muscle turns on. Now this all or nothing pathway, it is on or off. And so you could have a very, very strong muscle, but just like a light bulb, if it's turned off, there's no light and same with the muscle. So that allows these tiny forces to sneak by, you know, and maybe one tiny force doesn't do much damage, but if you're going to go out and run five miles and every step that force transfers into your back, by the time you get home, you're going to have a pretty bad back pain.
00:24:24
Speaker
And so The whole neuro target system is really set up to evaluate this, um exactly what I described. We go through a neuro exam. We test all the different areas of the brain. Every test we do is completely normal, but we're just looking for these little differences.
00:24:38
Speaker
And that helps me target in on what part of your brain we might want to look at um for the treatment. And then we go through your whole body and we physically test each muscle to see how fast it can turn on.
00:24:50
Speaker
And it's pretty obvious when we find a muscle that can't turn on, it's like the light switch is off. And we can use that muscle and track it up through the nervous system to see where that weakness is coming from.
00:25:01
Speaker
And we can do things to the body to create feedback from the joint receptors to see if we can change that weakness. And that's one of the ways we figure out exactly what type of treatment will work for you as an individual.
00:25:15
Speaker
And some people have low back pain and we have to adjust their neck. And some people have neck pain and we adjust their shoulder. Some people have, ah you know, hip pain and we have to adjust their head, you know, so it's all about this troubleshooting to figure out what kind of feedback can we create. um So then this is kind of the icing on the cake then is we can use chiropractic as a method for stretching receptors in the joints.
00:25:39
Speaker
and i talked to you about how intimate that relationship is so When I say, hey, Russell, I'm Dr. J, like that's a stimulus to your brain. And you can remember my name after that because you form ah ah new neuron that you never had before, that Dr. J neuron. And that neuron is gonna grow and connect with other concepts that are similar to what you might experience.
00:26:02
Speaker
So you can relate to what I'm talking about. And the more connections that are made, the stronger my neuron gets. And just my talking to you is enough stimulus to change your brain. Well, when I manipulate a joint,
00:26:13
Speaker
that firing into the brain is over 100 times more powerful than what I just described. So with just a few adjustments, you know, three, four or five adjustments to the body, we can have huge impacts into brain function and changing that brain in real time. We call that plasticity. That's the ability of the brain to change. And that's what makes neurology so fun is you can have a finding, you can do something and go back and retest the finding immediately to see if there's a difference in function.
00:26:43
Speaker
Now I know if I do bicep curls, and I put the weight down, got to wait like 12 days before I can actually do a test to see if that those curls changed my muscle, right? I don't want to wait 12 days to fix someone's brain, I want to see an immediate response. And that's what makes functional neurology such a fun thing to do. Because when they get up from the table, they immediately can tell there's something different, they feel different, they feel lighter, they feel a lot less pain.
00:27:12
Speaker
um And that's the thing. So this system in itself isn't like the the silver bullet, we get rid of the cause of the problem. You still have the problem, though.
00:27:23
Speaker
You still have a disc herniation. So you might still need surgery. You might still need physical therapy and stretching. You might need ARP wave therapy. You might not. If you're not actually injured, you might feel 100% better after that adjustment, you know, and then it's like the one and done, which is always a fun thing, too. So we do need what we currently have, which is, you know orthopedics.
00:27:43
Speaker
But that shouldn't be the first line of defense. We need to get rid of the cause first. And just one more quick point. having a traumatic injury actually sets you up for having this neurological delay. So that's when a lot of people, they hurt themselves traumatically, but they just can't seem to heal from that injury. It's because that underlying imbalance is continuing to perpetuate the injury and just removing that allows you to recover so much faster. It's unbelievable. The difference.
00:28:15
Speaker
Okay. So, One of the the issues that I have with ah physical therapy, chiropractic is um position, compensation patterns, addressing those that things that I developed over time. When I came to see you, i had, you know, I'd fallen out of a tree, you know, 15 years before. I never went to get checked. ah
00:28:45
Speaker
You know, it wiped out my one hip. You know, When you muscle tested me, there was a bunch of things that were not firing. I was compensating. I was still bending steel, breaking things, whatever, you know, from my strongman stuff. But I wasn't using the right muscles. And obviously, things were getting worse.
00:29:06
Speaker
But I think for, like, normal people, you go and you get adjusted, you feel better. um but you're never given a system to to strengthen or overcome your compensations.
00:29:25
Speaker
Just talk to me about that. because like you know A doctor will say you go to you know ah everybody walks around with their smartwatch and they're counting their steps, but their steps, that there they're compensating. i can I'm watching people walk and they're like dragging one leg. they're shift Their body's all out of whack.
00:29:42
Speaker
and To your point about force entering your body, it's entering, it's causing... damage, I would think like long term. So how do you um how do you address that with a patient like over time?
Healthcare System and Integrative Health
00:29:54
Speaker
Like, do you teach ah position like or is that you go to somebody else for that?
00:30:01
Speaker
No. So and that you're exactly right. When people hurt themselves, and they feel like they're healing from an injury, what they're actually doing is they're learning how to compensate for that injury.
00:30:13
Speaker
The injury is stuck there because scar tissue walls off that unstable injured tissue and basically locks that injury in place and blood can't get through that scar tissue. So that injury stays there.
00:30:27
Speaker
And that's that's this compensation pattern. It's all about the representation or the awareness of where your body is in space and this perception of a of a threat so if you have a have have a feeling that if i step on my foot it's gonna hurt then you automatically set up a pathway to like not do that and so that's it's in a lot of times over time then you kind of lose where your foot is in space.
00:30:58
Speaker
And now this pattern is locked in. And even if the foot heals, you still got this weird limp because you've ingrained this pattern in your system. So rehabbing that is all about getting the brain to be aware of where the body part is in space.
00:31:13
Speaker
And one, chiropractic is a huge way when you manipulate those receptors in the joint to get that connection going again. um We can also use ah exercise as a way, you know, moving a joint.
00:31:25
Speaker
um we can use modalities on the joint at the same time we're moving it. So lot of things we use here is vibration. we We use um electrical stim.
00:31:36
Speaker
you know And if we put, let's just say the ARP wave on your joint, and then we make you move it, every one movement is like, you know, 100 500 movements in your brain. So we can rapidly retrain your awareness of where your body is in space and how it's supposed to be moving. And we can, we can restore those compensation patterns, um, pretty quickly through that kind of methodology. Okay.
00:32:02
Speaker
And, and I noticed too, in, in your system, ah which i wasn't aware of, and I don't know if you were including it you know back then, ah you talk about fuel delivery.
00:32:14
Speaker
talk Talk about that. um ah Yeah. um i i It was part of the system, um barely. And I didn't really have it as a separate wing back then. But um when Dr. Jen joined my practice, she's really excellent in functional medicine. And so she really kind of brought that part of the system um in. And it's very, very important because when you act activate receptors and they fire into the brain, there has to be enough fuel in the brain to um receive that information and create um neurological firing and change.
00:32:52
Speaker
And if you have low oxygen or but low glucose, you're It's like driving a car without gas. You push on the gas pedal and it's just not going anywhere. Right. So so back in the day, i would evaluate that, you know, a simple test would be like shining a light in their eye, watching their pupil constrict and then just seeing how long that thing can stay constricted before it starts to fatigue open.
00:33:15
Speaker
you know, if we've got three, four seconds of constriction, you know, that's ah that's a decent amount of fuel. If we shine the light in there and it closes and opens up, you know, within a second, that's not good fuel. And so that that would be something I would consider in the treatment. So do we have to do some rib adjustments to try to get more oxygenation?
00:33:35
Speaker
Do we have to actually, you know, give them a snack or or some sort of sugar to get the sugar up in their brain? um But Dr. Jen took it to a whole new level in that She really wanted to look at, again, getting back to these underlying mechanisms of why the fuel is is bad. Do you have a leaky gut?
00:33:55
Speaker
are Is your body full of inflammation? Do you have underlying conditions, you know, like a hypothyroid or ah anemia, you know, or anxiety? you know, chronic ah breathing disorder that's causing, you know, or is it just postural or, or, you know, how, you know, sleeping and eating and all these factors, is it autoimmune? You know, she really could get into that by looking at blood chemistry. And, and when you target,
00:34:20
Speaker
you know, an anemia, which is a problem where you can't bind oxygen to your blood cells properly, and we can get that underlying condition resolved, we can really help that fuel delivery.
00:34:31
Speaker
And that then allows us to, to change their brain where we wouldn't have been able to before. so so you're, you're looking at people's diet supplementation and
00:34:47
Speaker
Okay. And are you giving them like specific action? I'm i'm guessing yes, right? Absolutely. Yeah. Everything is a hundred percent individualized to that person. So a lot of times we'll actually order blood labs.
00:35:00
Speaker
We get a very comprehensive lab panel that we can look at multiple markers, you know, a lot of medical providers, if they look at your thyroid, you know, they look at the T3 and T4 and maybe TSH or, you know, three little markers and they're like, oh, okay. And then here's some thyroid medication where we're actually going to look at, you know, eight different markers where we can really kind of track that mechanism back and figure out, you know, where, where is this thyroid dysfunction really stemming from?
00:35:31
Speaker
And then we can go after that, you know, whether it's with a change in diet or a change in their supplements, you know, and we can get really specific to that individual. Right.
00:35:44
Speaker
Cool. Uh, yeah. So, okay. So we're, when we were talking a few days ago, uh, we talked about, you know i was wanting about medicine today, ah you know, just the state of it.
00:36:00
Speaker
And you had referenced where there'd be like like true health care, where um like you talked earlier about, you know, okay, if ah whatever, my elbow hurts, I go to the orthopedist.
00:36:16
Speaker
Well, probably I can't even because in the medical system today, I have to go to my my whatever primary first primary first yeah and then I got to go to my orthopedist and it it takes weeks to get in if not months but I don't want to into that whole story but um and so um but you you're on the ah on another side ah you're not in ah let me ask you this could kind the the neurologic chiropractic approach that you take be
00:36:51
Speaker
complementary joined with, um so you know, what we're going to call allopathic medicine today, ah mainstream medicine.
00:37:02
Speaker
Is there a place there? Or is it just is it just a systemic thing that's keeping everybody separated? Yeah, I definitely think there is. And I think what I was talking to back then a couple days ago was this continuum where you start perfectly healthy and as your health deteriorates, you're moving to the right and eventually you're gonna cross a line where you have a disease.
00:37:29
Speaker
And so chiropractic or functional neurology is gonna be working to the left of that line. And the idea is that we we actually take the time to educate patients about sleeping and, you know, going to the bathroom and making sure their bowels are moving and eating healthy foods, you know, and avoiding inflammatory foods like sugar and gluten and dairy, know, that could be a problem for certain people.
00:37:53
Speaker
um And we take the time to educate them on how to exercise and how to do, you know, certain things. Medical doctors, they don't have time for that. You're in, you're out. you know So we that's the first whole thing is just keeping people to the left of that line.
00:38:08
Speaker
But you know if someone breaks their arm, I definitely don't want them coming into my office. you know They got to go see that you know the medical doctor for that and get a cast on it. So you know i we're we're both necessary.
00:38:22
Speaker
And if someone... you know The idea about the education is giving people the tools to help themselves. Now, there's just some people... I don't know, they're too lazy or they just like alcohol too much and they just can't stop.
00:38:36
Speaker
They're gonna cross that line. And the problem is if you get a medication you know for high cholesterol, you're not really given the tools to help yourself anymore. Now you got a bandaid and you're stuck on that medication because if you get off it, your cholesterol is gonna go up again. So I feel like maybe it's a little bit of a hook and you can get those people in and get them on a medication. And then at that point it's downhill because they they get a side effect and then they gotta have another medication.
00:39:05
Speaker
And then that causes some complication and then they need another medication. And then they've got five medications And they got it. And then they're seeing these doctors and they got to see the specialists and they got four specialists they're seeing. And they're all like not really co-managing. Nobody's really taking the lead and they're getting really mismanaged, if you ask me, to the point where they're just their health deteriorates rapidly at that point. So our whole job is to prevent people from getting there as good as we can. But they got to want it, too. I can't, you know I can lead a horse to water, but I can't make him drink. So.
00:39:39
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, that comes back to, you know, mindset. I mean, ah ah ah well, I've written about it for years and stuff. I mean, just in terms of owning your health. I mean, no matter, you know, where you go, I think, you know, are I think the way we're raised, we're never really looking at our bodies. We're looking outside our knowledge that we accumulate, you know, how to read, how to do math, or do all those different things. But, know,
00:40:07
Speaker
the self-awareness about our own physical being and how that works and how we have to adjust over time as our body changes and situations change.
00:40:18
Speaker
And I think, um, you know, the mindset to own your health, uh, you, you know, you just said, I mean, some people, it seems that they're, it, it's, it's a lazy thing.
00:40:29
Speaker
um you know, it's easy to say, you know, I mean, when I was a kid, I mean, the local doctor that came to the house was, was like second only to God. I mean, know, whatever the doctor said or shot you with or whatever it was, it was the right thing.
00:40:43
Speaker
Um, But owning your own health, yeah, it it takes energy. It takes thought. you know It takes all you know responsibility. so So we're talking about – I saw just a quick interjection. I saw a really cool thing. you know It showed this ah woman who was obese, and she was talking about hard it how hard it was to be overweight, how much difficulty there was revolving around that.
00:41:08
Speaker
But then it's like, well, look at this person who's in shape. Look how hard they work. at their diet and eating and and in the gym, you know, to keep their body healthy. Like they're both hard.
00:41:19
Speaker
So it's like, just pick your hard, which, which hard do you think is better? You know, the it's not going to be easy either way. So yeah, sorry to interrupt. Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. No. So I'm just saying, so when you have a a new patient come in, ah client patient come in, own you start talking to them.
00:41:37
Speaker
um Like how do you evaluate like their mindset? You know, what, like what jumps out at you? ah Because, well, you answer that. Yeah. um like Yeah. I mean, the first thing is I just ask them, you know, like, well, what's going on? You know, tell me about your complaint. And the detail to which they can describe their complaint really lets me know how, how well they can observe their own body.
00:42:03
Speaker
And, you know, you can get ah 18 year old kid. so And it's like, what's going on? don't know. Like, what are you doing here? Well, I guess my, my ankle hurts. Like, well, what happened to it?
00:42:15
Speaker
don't know. I guess like I kind of tweaked it or something like, well, you know, how is it? Like, I don't know. Like he doesn't know. He literally isn't feeling his body. And he just doesn't have that awareness or the intention of, you know, what's going on inside me.
00:42:30
Speaker
Then you get some other people and they're, mean, they're describing like, I feel it here in the tendon. I feel it feels like bone. It feels like pulling. If I move like this, like I can feel it more this way, relief. You know, they got all the answers. So they are really in tune with their body.
00:42:44
Speaker
And part of my quest is when they get up after the treatment, it's like, listen, just take a moment and just feel your body now. Feel what it feels like, because this is what it feels like when you're absorbing force properly.
00:42:56
Speaker
And when you don't feel that anymore, there's a problem. So you have to get aware of yourself so you know when you need help. Right. And that and um I think A lot of people get that because they can feel it right then. Like it's a it's a and you were there. You did it. And so it's this really distinct difference in how you're standing and where the pressure is. And, you know, it's it's so noticeable. I think it's a good point to bring up at that moment so that they can actually get in touch with their body.
Mindset and Training in Athletics
00:43:29
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. So, okay. So in, uh, let's say perfect world. All right. Somebody comes into you, treat them and they say, doc, uh, I really, this, this exercise thing, there's so much information out there.
00:43:44
Speaker
They're, you know, they're, uh, I mean, it's it's just too much for me to even comprehend. There's classes, there's groups, there's gyms, there's this way, there's, you know, all these different things. What what would be the ideal, you know, training exercise ah for me? I'm just, I just want to be healthy.
00:44:05
Speaker
You know, I don't want to, you know, climb you know, climb, you know, Kilimanjaro. I don't want to, you know, be in the world's strongest man competition. I don't, I don't want to be ripped to shreds for a beauty, you know, bikini contest. I just want to feel good and, you know, and, and just be healthy. What, what would be that regimen?
00:44:25
Speaker
What would that look like? So first off, I would say if there's a certain type of exercise that you actually like doing, that's going to be better than not doing anything at all. So do that.
00:44:37
Speaker
um But if you really want to get into it, there There is ways of exercising that can promote health more than other types. so So I like to use a lot of isometric exercises and a lot of eccentric exercises. There's so's some really good reasons for that. One is with an isometric, you're not moving and you can't hurt yourself.
00:45:02
Speaker
if you're not moving. So they're very, very safe. And with an isometric, you're really squeezing against yourself or holding your own body weight. um ah A 10-year-old can do it and a 95-year-old can do it because a 95-year-old, there's no way they're going to squeeze so hard that they can hurt themselves. So it's self-governing and it's kind of um a little bit mind over matter. If you want to get more out of it, you squeeze harder.
00:45:27
Speaker
You want to get make it a little bit easier, all you squeeze less hard. So it's very safe. And when you start looking at research, about how the body works. If the things that the body needs is one, it needs to be stimulated to the point where it fails.
00:45:41
Speaker
And two, it has to be done at a high velocity. So if you move at high velocity, that that could be dangerous. But what's really cool about the nervous system is when you're holding a position, your muscles are actually alternating between the flexor and the extensor at the fastest rate possible, which is around 15 Hertz.
00:46:02
Speaker
But that is actually highest velocity firing of the nervous system. And so not moving is training at velocity. And now you hold that until you literally fail.
00:46:14
Speaker
So now we've got a great stimulus and we took it to the failure that stimulates your muscle to actually respond and grow. If I just do 10 reps with the biceps and rack the weight, I didn't fail.
00:46:26
Speaker
My muscle's not changing and adapting to that. The other thing that I really like about the eccentric component is that it actually um loads the tendon a little bit more.
00:46:37
Speaker
That's important because your tendon has receptors in there which govern how much force the muscle can transfer to the bone, right? That's like a bridge. And it limits it to the point where you're not going to injure your tendon, or at least you shouldn't.
00:46:52
Speaker
And many, many people, most people are actually way stronger than they can actually display because their tendon is limiting that force transfer. And so when you start exercising in an eccentric position and strengthening your tendons, you're going to allow your muscle then to,
00:47:10
Speaker
to display more force that it's capable of because there's less restriction there. So I always think about these eccentric exercises is really like laying down the platform to what now you can build strength upon.
00:47:27
Speaker
Now, most people go straight to building strength without the platform. And what do they end up with tendon and ligament, strains, brains all the time. So if we can lay that platform, then you can build strength on. So clearly you would start with something like you lay down the platform.
00:47:43
Speaker
And then as you proceed through training, you're going to start um absorbing more force, creating more force and getting, you know, to different types of exercises where you're actually building strength in the muscle.
00:47:54
Speaker
But I'm going to say a low percentage of people actually make it to the end. You don't even need the end. If you can just do the beginning. I mean, I've seen people ah bench press, you know, 235.
00:48:08
Speaker
And then we train them in some eccentric positions and change the muscle length relationship and change that goji tendon firing. And that bench presses, they're up to like 350 now.
00:48:19
Speaker
And it's like, there's no way they could have got that much stronger. we just we released the strength that they already had, because we changed that muscles are also really cool. Because if you look at how they work,
00:48:32
Speaker
Calcium comes into the muscle and that causes the muscle to shorten. And then energy comes into the muscle and it causes the muscle then to pump the calcium out and then the muscle can lengthen again. So the energy is actually used for the relaxing part.
00:48:47
Speaker
And a lot of people don't really, they didn't really think about that. And that's one of the reasons why dead people are so stiff because they can't relax anymore. They don't have any energy. Right. So this um eccentric is is cool because if you start with a short muscle and you start contracting it, it only can create force related to how many overlaps it can create.
00:49:11
Speaker
Right now, if I start with a muscle that's real long, it can overlap way more. And so just again, by training a muscle in a longer position, this eccentric position, we're going to get way more overlap. And again, that force curve goes up because of that.
00:49:27
Speaker
um Also, if you have a longer muscle, you're going to feel looser. So by doing these eccentric holds, we're going to create a lot more range of motion. And we're going to be at these end point ranges of motion. So we're actually training our brain.
00:49:40
Speaker
how to use our muscles to support our joint in an extreme position. And we're creating that awareness that I talked about earlier, um which is really helpful for the body.
00:49:51
Speaker
And then lastly, if we look at a muscle, ah as it contracts and the energy comes in and it relaxes and contracts and relaxes, as we start running out of energy, we're going to lose that lengthening part. So the muscle is going to be going like this.
00:50:05
Speaker
And when it gets fully shortened, that's what we call fatigue, right? I'm fatigued now. I can't do anymore. Well, if we start with a muscle that's long, it takes a lot longer to get to that fully fatigued position than if we start with a short muscle. It gets there a lot quicker.
00:50:23
Speaker
And by training, we actually are going to lengthen that muscle back out. So we can actually use um eccentric isometrics as a method of recovering muscles after you know a sporting event or after a hard training because we can lengthen those fibers back out again.
00:50:41
Speaker
yeah I mean, that I'm barely touching the surface. There's also huge implications with eccentric movements and um ah growth hormone release. And they look at blood chemistry, cholesterol levels, um triglycerides, and there's huge changes um to the betterment um with those blood chemistry markers by doing a half hour of eccentric training per week.
00:51:04
Speaker
I mean, 30 minutes is nothing. Even testosterone. even testosterone Yeah, huge, huge changes. And they can compare that to concentric training 30 minutes, five days a week.
00:51:18
Speaker
doesn't even touch it compared to one 30 minute session once a week of eccentric training. um So, I mean, it's just so powerful. Most people, they can just do that and they never need to progress beyond there, but you could, um there is methodology to to start training different traits um and different methodologies. So if we're learning how to get into a position,
00:51:41
Speaker
Next thing we need to do is learn how to absorb force in the position. So that's where we start, you know, dropping weights and catching it or bringing it down and holding it. um And then the third point then would be actually creating force from the position.
00:51:55
Speaker
And that's where you start getting the concentric movement again. But that's the third thing you should be training because we need to lay this foundation of force absorption first before we can get into the creation of force. So that's the last thing.
00:52:08
Speaker
And people always go there first. Right. Before you go to the gym, this foundation should be laid. So, so let's say if you were, you said, okay, doc, I'm, I'm on board with that. I want to, I want to do this, uh, isometric workout that you're talking about, lay the foundation.
00:52:26
Speaker
um you know, with the goal being, I, i want you know, i want to go to the gym. I like, you know, i like the atmosphere. I, you know, I want to lift heavy, whatever, uh, hypertrophy and beach muscles, whatever. Um, what, what length of time,
00:52:40
Speaker
like ah over how many like weeks or months, I know it'd be individual, but generally speaking, how what length of time would it take you to lay that foundation? Because you're going to be, right, when you're doing the isometrics, you're going to be in your perfect position, right? you're you're gonna ah you're gonna your Your body awareness is going to be improving all the time.
00:53:01
Speaker
you're You're going to be working yourself cardiovascularly because if you're really applying the force like you're talking about, yeah you're going to be breaking out into a sweat as you're doing it. um But what what length of time would that would that take, you know, and in your opinion, to to so lay that foundation?
00:53:19
Speaker
You know, I'm not sure... you could ever get to the point where, well, I shouldn't say that. I was going to say that you would never really get to the point where you, you were done laying the foundation, but that that's actually not true.
00:53:33
Speaker
There is some, there is some mathematical calculations um that we can use. um I have it in my notes somewhere. I don't remember it offhand, but you can measure the amount of force that's produced over time um on a, there's like a ah platform that can measure that stuff. So you could, you'd have like a, maybe like a bench and you're, you're not actually benching. You're just pushing into the bar and this plate is measuring force and you have to create so much force in a certain period of time. And with these calculations, it tells you when you've kind of reached your,
00:54:09
Speaker
maximum potential of that particular trait and when you have to move on from it. For example, if you're throwing a shot put and you're getting stronger and stronger and stronger, now I can bench 300, now I can bench 400, now I can bench 500.
00:54:26
Speaker
You've got the strength, but if you can't move your arm fast, you can't throw the shot put farther. So eventually you're going to get to a point where strength isn't helping anymore. We got to work on the velocity, right?
00:54:39
Speaker
And train change that trait. So now I can start using my strength. to move that shot put faster. Right. And, you know, cause if I'm pushing 300 and it takes me two seconds and I push 500 and it takes me two seconds, the shot puts at the same velocity.
00:54:56
Speaker
Right. And it's, I could throw a heavier shot, put the same distance, but that's not what the goal is. It's to throw that 16 pounder faster. So we've had to, you know, change the trade at that point. So there is, there is um ways to measure and that the traits are in a specific order that you go through.
Working with Elite Athletes
00:55:15
Speaker
Um, and I have that all written down too, but so you, you could look at those calculations and that would tell you when to move to the next trait. And also depending on what you're training for, you know, you would want to concentrate more heavily on certain areas. Obviously you wouldn't train a distance runner the same way you're going to train a shot putter, right? Cause the shot putter is going to need a lot of strength and speed where a marathoner is going to need a lot more endurance, right? So there's kind of this looking at what, what do you really want to get out of it? That's important, I think.
00:55:46
Speaker
Okay. All right. So that leads into my next point. ah And I think we talked about this a little bit too, was ah you're, you're a parent.
00:55:58
Speaker
whatever your kids, middle school, high school coming up the ranks and they're, you know, they want to be a, an athlete, pick a sport, whichever sport, baseball, football, basketball, whatever.
00:56:10
Speaker
And so they're, they're, you know, they're getting coached, they're practicing their skill. And then, um and then somebody comes along and has a sports specific strength workout.
00:56:27
Speaker
Um, what what's your, i don't know. I kind of get a ah check when I hear that. Yeah, me too. I mean, there's a, there's a skill is definitely necessary. I mean, you can't hit a baseball with a bat if you don't have skills, right. Or shoot a basket and and make a basket.
00:56:49
Speaker
um But there's the physiology that supports that. Right. And if you're a fast runner and a good jumper, You're going to be good at basketball and baseball and football and track, right? But if if all you know how to do is hit a ball with a bat or shoot a basket, you might be able to do it once, but then you're going to be fatigued after that. So it's like we have to train this, again, the platform that we can build that skill upon, you know, and um I think it's important. And if if you put someone in an ISO squat and they're holding it and within –
00:57:28
Speaker
you know, 20 seconds they're falling down. ah They got some work to do. And I think that the more you dial into the specific skill and the repetitiveness there, you're you're just you're asking for more problems.
00:57:43
Speaker
And you don't really need specific training strength-wise for for different sports. I mean, we're humans, we move. And that's what we need to train as our body to move as a unit. And when when you get into an ISO pushup,
00:57:58
Speaker
You're using every muscle from your toes to the top of your head and to hold that position. And so we're training the body as a unit. I'm not isolating, you know, my knee extension, ah you know, for a skill. So um I think that if you can build that platform, you really, the then you can train skill on top of that. And and actually I coach track, ah track and field for many years.
00:58:22
Speaker
And we would have the athletes come in. We'd start with the ISO pushup. five minutes. We'd go to the right squat or a lunge five minutes, left lunge five minutes.
00:58:34
Speaker
Okay. That was our warmup and our training. Now we would go to the skilled stuff. We would do triple jump. We do pole vault. We do high jump. We do all this stuff. And then at the end of practice, another five minutes of the standing glute ham exercise.
00:58:49
Speaker
And that was, that was it. They never ran. But they all got faster. Nobody got hurt. I mean, it was it was crazy. And and actually, the people if theres someone did get hurt, it was because they came late and they missed that warm-up.
00:59:03
Speaker
Missed the warm-up. And they went in cold. But ah the kids, they... it it helped their body awareness because they all felt like when I do this warmup, I actually, be I'm faster.
00:59:15
Speaker
i can tell. um So that was a, that was a really cool kind of experiment that I did just as I trick coached, you know, and I remember one time i was late and the assistant, my little assistant, at least he was like, well, I, I sent him out for a long, slow, you know, recovery run. And I was like, what are you doing? No, that's like the opposite of everything I've been working on this whole year. But,
00:59:36
Speaker
Yes, sir. It's ingrained, the system. It's ingrained. yeah So, okay. So so American ah exercise, I feel, you know, really needs to an overhaul, but you had this awesome experience of working with the Italian national team. just Just give us a little bit of on that because, you Yeah. the the the The mindset of training in Europe, is it different than training in America?
01:00:06
Speaker
you know, just, and, and, you know, obviously the experience of going to the world cup, that must've been awesome. Oh, it's unbelievable. um You know, I, I, at that time in my life was really highly focused on injury prevention.
01:00:20
Speaker
um And obviously this muscle weakness, this misfiring, is the thing that sets you up to become injured. So if you can find that and fix it before someone gets hurt, you actually prevent those injuries from occurring. So I worked for a team in Florence, Italy called Fiorentina. That's their pro soccer team.
01:00:40
Speaker
And um their staff, their doctors managed the injuries, tracked all the injuries, tracked the training, tracked everything. And when i I actually got there in the midway point of the season. So they had six months of data, how the season was going, and basically nothing changed except that I got there.
01:01:00
Speaker
And then the next six months, they found a huge reduction in their injury rate. And they're their injury rate before I got there was about 26 injuries per 1,000 hours of training.
01:01:13
Speaker
After that six months, it dropped down to four injuries per 1,000 hours of training. And it never went above that. So I worked there from 2009 to 2014, and it always stayed below that four injuries. And the Italian league average is 28 injuries per 1,000 hours. So you know they already felt like they were doing a good job getting down to 26, but dropping to 24 is like ah another level. So when you can take a player or a team and have your best players on the field every game uninjured, I mean, that's...
01:01:48
Speaker
That's how you win. Were you um but you working with them as as a group or you working with each athlete one-on-one? Yep, each athlete one-on-one. So I would um test each athlete once every four days.
01:02:02
Speaker
If they passed, we wouldn't do anything. If they failed, I would correct them and then they'd have to come back the next day for another test. And so that was as simple as it was, really simple.
01:02:13
Speaker
um The preventative side of things and the injury, fixing injuries, it's exactly the same as performance optimization as well. Because when you look at ah muscle,
01:02:26
Speaker
producing force, 30% of the force produced is related to the size of the muscle. And 70% is related to how the brain tells that muscle what to do. So actually, by using the neural target system and manipulating this neuromuscular connection, we actually can have very measurable and noticeable improvements in performance as well. So that's kind of once I got their injuries under wrap, I mean, it was honestly, there wasn't much for me to do at that point.
01:02:54
Speaker
So we started doing this performance optimization with ah select players before matches. And I mean, you could literally see someone moving differently and be like, wow, that guy is on tonight. And so that's actually what led me to the national team then is they wanted that preventative side, but that performance optimization, you know, going into those matches at the world cup and um So, so there was guys from the, the Fiorentino team you were working with that were on the national team.
01:03:22
Speaker
And then yeahp I guess everybody comes together. Yeah. Everybody from all the teams. And I remember one guy was saying near the end of it, he's like, this, the this was the first time i came to the national team.
01:03:35
Speaker
And I feel better leaving than I did when I got here. Because the national team, they don't really care if you get hurt. They just send you back. Like they just, they get you, they use you, and then it's over, right? And you go back to your team. So if you're injured, you just, you're out of there.
01:03:49
Speaker
But these guys were coming in with, you know, these subclinical aches and pains, ah little tweaks, little compensation patterns. And when we get them in balance and you eliminate all that stuff,
01:04:00
Speaker
they can move. It's amazing. You know, and that was kind of a cool thing that Fiorentina actually did was they, um, they started buying up the, the old, almost retired guys, right?
01:04:13
Speaker
They got so much experience, right? But they can't move their bodies because they're, got 47 injuries right so we bring them in we'd get them in balance we'd start rehabbing them we'd get them get their tissue healed get them back out there and they would play phenomenally so we could extend their career you know years And they could get another contract where they were basically put out to pasture, you know, right before that. So that was a really cool thing. And if you're Tina could build these guys up and then sell them or rent them out and make a profit off of it, actually, that was one of their, one of their ways they could make some money. Nice, nice, nice.
01:04:53
Speaker
So, um, okay. couple more things, doc. I do appreciate your time coming on with us today. Aging. Um, I was talking to another old timer, actually just about my age, 72. He's been training his whole life. um And in the conversation, he said to me, he said, you know, one of the big mistakes people make is that they they don't change the way they train.
01:05:25
Speaker
as they age. um And he, he came up, he said, I really feel at this point in time that at least every, I think he said 10 years.
01:05:37
Speaker
And i said to him, said, yeah, I don't, I think that's even too big a gap. I know you're a lot younger than me, but I really think that we have to make these adjustments ah maybe five years or less, especially 70 was a huge turning. I mean, you know there's all these places, but 70 was a huge ah excuse me turning point for me, not the number, but you know around that time, I'm not saying and I turned 70 and whatever. but um but I just see people around me that they can't make that, that adjustment in their training.
01:06:12
Speaker
Um, do you, do you work with older people as well? I mean, um, yeah that are that are really willing to keep the keep their fitness level up. I mean, I can see people coming in and getting an adjustment, quote unquote, but people that are really, ah you know, moving, trying to move forward as best they can while, you know, stalling the inevitable, which is, you know, we're all going to die eventually. So, but.
01:06:36
Speaker
Yeah. I think when, when they lose something, it kind of dawns on them like, oh, I'm not, I'm not keeping up here. I, I what what kind of life am I going to have if I can't golf anymore? Like this, that's what I my whole retirement was based upon me being able to golf, right?
01:06:54
Speaker
So I think that's a big stimulus for them to want to do something about it, right? But it's the older you get, the harder it is to gain. It's, you you know, the the it becomes more about maintenance, right? And keeping what you've got and keep stimulating your body. So um but I'm, I'm actually a little curious if you could, what kind of change uh, you know, do you, do you make at certain points?
01:07:20
Speaker
Well, I mean, he does a complete, I mean, his training, he's a, uh, UCLA bio guy that he, he went totally off to grid like 40 years ago with, uh, you know, 97% of the food that he eats is ah him and his wife grow and, or make or whatever. I mean, he's,
01:07:43
Speaker
he's really deep into, you know, into the physical, his physical world. And I mean, he does all these types of hill training and he does grip things and he does dynamic things and he does all kinds of stuff, you know, um for me personally, I'm, I think it's just been like going even from, i used to train two to three days a week and that was fine.
01:08:10
Speaker
Now I find that I have to train six days a week to feel better. Shorter workouts, but the that daily stimulation seems to be really important for me to be able to, again, do the stuff that I'm still doing. i can I'm not at the same level as I was 20 years ago strength-wise, but I can still do pretty much everything. I think my my jujitsu son-in-law and everything, he calls it old man strength.
01:08:39
Speaker
You know, yeah I think that's ah that's a real thing. i think the challenge is the stamina. um You know, that's something, that you know, that's a battle. um But yeah, so I like tweaks like that um and and just just forcing myself to ah not let that little voice inside my head, you know, keep telling me.
01:09:04
Speaker
You're getting older oh yeah and older. It comes back to that to that mindset thing, but there's also reality too. I don't want to be you know ah you know that I'm never going to get sick. or i'm never i mean I just want to know that prepared for those eventualities and stuff. i don't know The good Lord's going to tell me how long I'm going to be bending horseshoes and doing things like that. have no idea.
01:09:28
Speaker
But yeah, I think it's all about that, that management of the
Tech Neck and Posture Solutions
01:09:32
Speaker
stimulus versus your recovery, you know, and just having that awareness of how your body tolerates each side of that component and and creating that balance there. I think that's the key right there. You know, I can't.
01:09:45
Speaker
I think. Yeah, there has to be a level of wisdom that comes with it, you know, because sometimes, you know, you're being you're being lazy. And other times you're like, no, I'm not being lazy. It's, this is, you know, this is somewhat of a limitation that I need to address, you know?
01:10:03
Speaker
So ah anyway, yeah. Switch gears. One more thing. Okay. We call it tech neck. Yeah. Kyphosis in our culture today. i mean, it's just, I mean, just everywhere. Right.
01:10:18
Speaker
I, I, I don't even know what the world's going to look like in 20 years. I mean, like, it's going to be devolution instead of evolution of the human species.
01:10:29
Speaker
But what, what do you, how do you address that with people? How do you, what suggestions, what, what do you do?
01:10:40
Speaker
Yeah. so And is any of it reversible? Oh yeah. Yep. So there's a, there's a principle in the body. It's called Wolf's law. And anywhere that you put a stress in the body, that tissue is going to build up to meet the demand placed on it, right? That's why when we train, we want to stress the tendon to build that up. But when you got your head tipped forward, they they can measure the amount of ah tension at the fulcrum here.
01:11:10
Speaker
And it is the amount of pounds that go to that area. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was like... eight times the actual weight of the head because when you go forward, it's going out now, right? And so of to create enough pulling to hold it, um it could puts a tremendous amount of force on the back of the neck. And so what the body does then it it starts bringing in calcium.
01:11:35
Speaker
to reinforce that tissue. And so what we see is on the back of the vertebras on those spinous processes, this calcium is starting to grow out, and they're getting longer. And you can see these like, maybe little spurs, you could call them coming out from the back of the neck where these muscles and stuff are attaching because there's so much stress on them that we need to calcify that tissue to make it stronger. So that's the first thing that we're seeing that on x rays now, the tech neck. And so It's this position, though, that is causing it. So, you know, in the office, what we talk about is getting your head up, getting it back, you know, getting your phone up in front of you. Like, you know, and you can rest your elbows on your kind of the front of your body and sit there and you get your head in a neutral position, you know, at your desk, getting your computer screen up so you can look straight, you know, instead of looking down, ah you know, at stuff.
01:12:27
Speaker
um those are just some simple ergonomical things that you can do. But, um you know, and then just, you don't need to spend 14 hours on your phone, you know, and you can look at a, look at a lot of teenagers phone use. And it's ridiculous that, you know, 12 to 14 hours a day looking at their phone or doing something, you and I check my phone and I think I had like 49 minutes on it, like at the end of the day, you know? So, I mean, I get to work, it goes in the drawer.
01:12:56
Speaker
I check it right before I head home to see if my wife needs me to pick up groceries or something. And then, I mean, it basically lays on the counter until I set the alarm to wake me up the next morning. So, Right.
01:13:07
Speaker
um But that's the thing. And then having your head forward and, you know, over strengthening the back of your neck, you're you're going to create some imbalances. So the next thing is you want to actually do some active strengthening for the front of the neck. So it could be as simple as laying on your back and just holding your head up and putting that tension here because the tighter and the stronger your back gets,
01:13:29
Speaker
the more that neck is going to go into that military spine or even that kyphotic um curvature. And we want to keep it, you know, more lordotic. So we've got to get this strengthening. um There's another one that I give people where they lay on their back and they're basically tucking and extending like this and just strengthening those deep neck flexors to start creating that balance and take the pressure off the back.
01:13:52
Speaker
And those are some simple exercises we just do right in the office here. But I also see any rotational things or anything. or um really No, but I was going to kind of get to that. It's actually vertical.
01:14:05
Speaker
So because of the scrolling and this eye movement, we're starting to see these, um, uh,
01:14:13
Speaker
not normal eye movements going up and down. And that's really important because when you look up, you move your head up. And when you look down, you move your head down. When you look to the right, you move your head to the right and left to the same.
01:14:26
Speaker
Those neck muscles are linked to the eye muscles. And in fact, the nerves that go to the eyes just keep going down and control the neck muscles. So they're one-to-one linked.
01:14:41
Speaker
And if when we check people's eye movements, what we're actually looking at is how do they move their neck? We don't have to watch them move their head. And if I see an eye movement that's jerky, I know when they move their head in that same direction, their head is jerking.
01:14:56
Speaker
And that's putting stress on these structures. And and what we see with the scrolling, is that their up and down, their vertical movements aren't coordinated properly. And that has a lot to do with up and down head movements, which has a lot to do with their front to back center of gravity.
01:15:13
Speaker
And we start seeing this gravitational shift forward and putting even more stress on their back. And they that's why... A lot of the old people, as they start losing this, they start getting rounded and lot more forward. So um we have to actually give people exercises where they're looking at a target, you know, and moving their head up or just, you know, moving in different directions to try to re-coordinate and retrain that those pathways that are starting to get deficient.
01:15:41
Speaker
Well, yeah. And that should, I mean... the The strengthening of the neck and and putting keeping it in position should actually be part of when you exercise, right? i mean that's Absolutely.
01:15:55
Speaker
that should I mean, you can add extra on top of it if you need it, right? But yeah, so ah yeah it's just ah it's a big deal. But anyway. It's going to get bigger too, I think.
01:16:08
Speaker
Yes, sir. All right. So, Doc, what's the best way? and Do you do what's the best way for people to get in touch with you? Do you do do you do any online consultations or do people have to schlep up to?
01:16:22
Speaker
Was it Burnsville? Yeah, Burnsville. Yeah, they got to get up here. They got to come in. That's I'm a face to face guy. I got to get my hands on. Yeah, I got to, you know, and see you move, feel the way your muscles work. That's how we figure it out. It's it's. ah It's a hand-on thing, yeah.
01:16:39
Speaker
But that's that's that's not... a um Actually, from the experience I had flying up there, it's not too far away, right, from the big airport
Conclusion and Resources
01:16:48
Speaker
up there? Yeah, this maybe 10, 15-minute drive, straight south. Yeah.
01:16:53
Speaker
I don't know. um i That might be a trip I would encourage people to take. But anyway, I know your website is
01:17:07
Speaker
And, um, that's a wrap. i'm I'm just really excited about today. And I hope everyone enjoyed today's episode and you got some takeaways that you can use. More information about Dr. Pietula's pages and website will be in the notes.
01:17:22
Speaker
Please share this with your friends and don't forget all my stuff at russelljonespeaks.com. If you're a parent or grandparent, or mentor to a 10, 15-year-old, check out our 60-day transformational interactive video series, Top Secrets of Success for Kids and Parents. It's amazing.
01:17:38
Speaker
It will equip and encourage parents and kids. Yes. RussellJonesSpeaks.com. Get on our email list. Jump on a call with me. And in the words of the inimitable Hulk Hogan, say your prayers, take your vitamins, and you'll never go wrong.
01:17:52
Speaker
Then you can go and make it a great day. Bye for now.