A physical therapist addresses misconceptions around intensity, soreness, and pain
“No pain, no gain” might be the worst phrase ever uttered in the gym. Asking the question, “Is it soreness or pain?” is a close second. At the end of the day, both pain and soreness are unpleasant. Attempting to delineate between the two is meaningless for most of us. For trained people who are highly attuned to each response their body has after exercise, sure, they can tell the difference. For everyone else, any kind of discomfort is typically a deterrent to continue making treks to the gym or lacing up running shoes.
Pain is not necessary to obtain benefits from exercise. Though exercise does need to be challenging, as our bodies adapt when they are pushed, pain doesn’t have to be part of the equation. …
Mental models, reflective practice, curiosity, and uncertainty are necessary to succeed in our careers and life.
“You may have noticed students who just try to remember and pound back what is remembered. Well, they fail in school and fail in life. You’ve got to hang experience on a latticework of models in your head.” - Charlie Munger
School largely emphasizes the accumulation of facts. …
Simply telling someone to build resilience is a cop-out. Understanding perception and cognitive fallacies point to better solutions.
“The world in our heads is not a precise replica of reality; our expectations about the frequency of events are distorted by the prevalence and emotional intensity of the messages to which we are exposed.” — Daniel Kahneman
To address burnout, we cannot adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. …
There is no such thing as a “best” diet
Ah nutrition, the minor, straightforward, non-controversial, never-going-to-offend-or-tick-anyone-off topic. Let me preface with what this article will not be. It will not be a series of recommendations and arguments for or against specific dietary approaches, followed by a closing recommendation of a single strategy. Why? That is a waste of time.
There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all diet. …
Exercise does not have to be painful or miserable to be effective
Do you enjoy exercise? For many people, the answer is a resounding no. The lack of awareness of the benefits of exercise is rarely the reason for abstinence. Instead, it is a matter of dreading the act of exercising. Not only is exercise difficult and time-consuming, once you finish you are sore, tired, smell bad, and are constantly hungry. What is an easy way to make the experience worse? Do something that brings zero joy.
As a physical therapist, I have worked with many patients that dread exercise. I am called a physical torturer before I even introduce myself. I have little doubt personal trainers and athletic trainers have received similar treatment. …
Why curating your reading is important for personal and professional growth.
“What book would you recommend?”
How often are you asked, or have you asked, this question? Often it is genuine but on occasion, it is a throw-away-question and almost always it is incomplete.
That is not to say I do not care about book recommendations, but that book decisions are personal. There are millions of titles to choose from and millions of books that are fantastic (total guess here, no source to cite or objective criteria on “fantastic”). A recommendation may be perfect for one individual yet fall woefully short for another.
Instead, when asking for a recommendation, be specific.
Early in my career, the emphasis was on leadership.
If you look at the progression of the books I have read, there has typically been a theme. …
Sleep deprivation influences nearly all measures of performance
I cringe every time I hear the phrase “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” and fortunately, that reaction is becoming more common. Over the past 5–10 years, sleep has been getting a lot more attention. While we may, for the most part, be past the days of “sleep is for weaklings,” proudly acknowledging how little we average on a nightly basis, sleep still falls far down the priority totem pole for many people.
Sleep can be divided into five stages — one with rapid-eye-movement (REM) and four without — which occur across roughly 90-minute sleep cycles. While REM sleep is associated with dreams, non-REM is the period for energy conservation and nervous system recuperation.[1] During non-REM sleep, our body releases hormones, increases the synthesis of protein, and mobilizes free fatty acids to provide energy. …
Why clinicians are slow to adopt change and what to do about it.
How do you know if the healthcare you receive is the best available treatment? I am not referring to the credentials of the providers. In many cases, years of experience and certifications are meaningless. Passively accruing years of experience and passing standardized exams does not translate to high-quality care. Employing evidence-based practice is what matters.
Evidence-based practice is a combination of recent research, provider expertise, and patient values and expectations. All three must be considered in decision making — no excuses.
Let me preface, I am not referring to emergency medicine. While the biases and heuristics — will touch on these shortly — absolutely play a role, patient values and expectations may be limited. …
Why shoe type, pronation, and strike pattern don’t matter as much as you think
News flash, runners injure themselves frequently. Furthermore, they keep running when they are injured. One study following 161 runners preparing for either a half or full marathon found 9 out of 10 runners reported illness or a running-related injury leading up to the race. At any two-week period of the 16-week study, 1 out of 7 runners experienced an illness or running-related injury. (source) As any runner will know, most of those injuries did not result in withdrawal from the race. There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and runners will keep running despite being injured.
I made running a separate article for a couple of reasons. Originally, it was combined with part 1, however, that created a 6000-word article and would have resulted in my expansive readership (don’t burst my bubble) rapidly dwindling. Also, running-related injury prevention is a beastly topic. We are not dealing with a single injury like a hamstring, UCL, or ACL tear — granted, those aren’t necessarily “simple” either. …
Using professional baseball to explain the influence of cognitive bias
“With enough mental gymnastics, just about any fact can become misshapen in favor to one’s confirmation bias.” ― Criss Jami, Healology
The confirmation bias is possibly the most prevalent bias we, as humans, experience. Bias can never be eliminated; our brain craves congruency to the vast array of information it receives in any given moment. We can, however, identify bias and use critical thinking to navigate cognitive traps and act accordingly. The confirmation bias is strong it is the “I’m right” bias.
Doubt and uncertainty are vital for intellectual growth, but they are not naturally embraced. It is natural to seek data that confirms our beliefs, to gravitate to the arguments that support our assertions, while seeking holes in arguments, or altogether ignoring data that refute us. As healthcare misinformation grows, political divides deepen, and debates on COVID-19 strengthen, the confirmation bias has been employed ad nauseam. As these topics of conversation tend to rapidly spike our emotions, I will use a less emotion-charged event to showcase the influence of the confirmation bias. Nationals fans may disagree with me on the emotion piece. …
