TWIST AND OUCH by Dr. Adam Rushford
“Doc, could my golfing be affecting the health of my back?” This is a question I hear frequently in my office every spring and summer. My answer, “If you let it.”
I
am not a big fan of addition by subtraction when it comes to health. I hate to tell a patient that they can’t do something that they love just because it might add stress or strain to their body. My approach for my health and my patients is simple. Instead of changing the environment to suit the weakened body, I strive to meet lifes environmental challenges. Like anything else, there is best practice for being able to achieve this. Listen, I am glad you see a Chiropractor, Massage Therapist, and PT to give you pain relief when you are in acute distress, but this approach is reactionary. Weather trying to achieve success in finance, personal relationships, or sports, you have to take a proactive approach. Being reactive is the equivalent of just putting out fire after fire and doesn’t allow you to form a foundation of success that you can continue to build on. Your body houses one quadrillion nerves that transmit messages from your brain at 270 mph to over 32.7 trillion cells that perform over 200,000 functions every second. And we have the audacity
22 | Good Fat Life
to say that we “know our bodies.” We know very little, and the little that we do know is just pain based. Do you want to be the pain free golfer or do you want to be the strong, mobile golfer that has excellent control of their club. Here are some rules: •
Be motivated by the carrot (a stable, balanced, mobile swing) and not the stick (running from pain) when developing your plan off the course. Violent rotation, after violent rotation is damaging to your body, so develop rehabilitative processes that addresses optimal mobility, strength, alignment, and nutrition to help your body recover.
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Chances are, you are an expert in something that you get paid for. Now think of your customer trying to do on their own what you are an expert in. Wasted time, frustration, and poor outcomes ensue. Get an expert who has devoted their life work understanding how your body functions and not just how it feels, and use them to guide,
motivate, and improve your life. When finding an expert, be picky, get referrals, and don’t be afraid of communicating and asking questions. •
Never, ever, ever, ever start the golf season without first getting a tune up. Every spring, the most common diagnosis in my office is Weekend Warrior Syndrome. This is transmitted by hibernating for 5 months and then hitting 18 the first sunny 60 degree day. You tune up every other piece of machinery in your garage in the spring, before you put it to work, so why neglect your most important tool. Schedule an in-depth evaluation of your alignment, mobility and strength weeks in advance of the season, to recalculate what deficiencies you need to strengthen before you tee off on one.
Not a golfer? You could replace the action of golf with whatever your purpose and passion is in life and the same rules apply.
