The Ivory Tower of Academia. If you've been involved with the educational system in any way, shape, or form, you've at least seen it off in the distance. Perhaps you've occupied it's courtyard, or maybe even resided inside it's walls.
The Ivory Tower - is tarnished.
Last time I looked, academia and education were about teaching and learning. There is plenty of good research literature to indicate that adults learn primarily by interaction, by doing, by being actively involved in their own learning process. In effect, it is much the same way that children learn most effectively. As Bob Pike would say, adults are just babies with big bodies.
... to take a look around us. Be honest. What do you see?
Do you see a "peaches and cream" existence?
Or do you see the current "state of the union" in all it's glory?
Two phrases harken out to me these days ...
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" ... and "If you do what you've done, you'll get what you've gotten". Oh yes, and let's add the Santayana favorite - "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it".
This week marks the 13th anniversary of my first McKenzie course. I would bet that your first thought would be "why remember something so seemingly trivial - it was just a course"! But in our lives, we remember moments in time that shaped us and our perspective on the world. That four days in February 1994 was one such weekend.
What made it so? In the span of four days I was presented with a large volume of research - that contradicted much of what I'd been taught in school. This was, at first, unsettling - but the "scientist" in me decided that you can't simply discount the literature and that if it was all about "being a better PT" then I better sit down and do some homework to understand how all these issues fit together. It pushed my "comfort zone" ... and started me down a path that changed not only my career but my personal life perspective as well.
Sunshine. It never ceases to amaze me.
There is an inherent beauty and power to the sun and it's shining prominence in our galaxy. Sure, there is the perspective of the awesome energy produced by the center of our universe. Yes, it fuels the growth of the flora and fauna of the earth. But there is something so much more elemental about it.
Sunshine. A glimmer of it in the wintertime - and we smile with it's radiant warmth upon us. Having spent many years living in Canada before moving to Texas, I truly understand why "Seasonal Affective Disorder" exists. A long hard winter without the sun can leave you without energy and depressed. It takes but a moment in the sun, a brief fleeting moment of sunshine, to get us to relax, to let the stresses of our days ease away ... to smile. A hard day will always be better with the sun shining down upon us. The world suddenly becomes a better place ...
I am fortunate to have lived a rather eclectic existence thus far - with no signs of that changing any time soon. My days go from left brain, problem-solving-oriented activities, to right brain, creative activities. This variety has added perspective to my world in many ways - and as my thinking skills continue to evolve, so do my creative skills - and vice versa.
I mention this today because I have been thinking about a concept that I apply on a daily basis in my professional world - and how it applies to my everyday life. It is that of "Specific Adaptations To Imposed Demands". From a cellular perspective, this simply means that the tissues of the body adapt to the demands imposed upon them. For example, weight bearing activities foster an in crease in bone density, and strength training fosters muscular strength and power development. Both are examples of very specific adaptations that the human body makes in order to adapt to the demands placed on the system. Within this concept, we traditionally think of the primary tissues of the human body - muscle, bone, cartilage, tendon, and ligament being the main examples.
I've found myself considering the concept of "balance" a lot recently - not so much in the "maintain a vertical posture in space" realm, but more so with regards to "muscle imbalance". The idea of muscle imbalance isn't what causes me great consternation so much as the perceptual reality defined by someone who has "it".
Allow me to explain.
Patients will generally come into our offices with three primary issues - I am in pain, I am unable to move as I normally would, and I have lost some level of function because of one (or both) of these issues. At this time, the perspective is essentially one of "help me understand this problem so I can move on with life".
Up to 60% of runners will sustain an injury within any given year. Poor running mechanics, in conjunction with poor, ineffective and outdated training methods, can pose a significant injury risk. "RunSmart" was written to address these issues in the running community.
"Running Injuries: Etiology And Recovery- Based Treatment" (co-author Bridget Clark, PT) appears in the third edition and fourth editions of "Clinical Orthopaedic Rehabilitation: A Team Approach" by Charles Giangarra, MD and Robert C. Manske, PT.
Allan Besselink, PT, DPT, Ph.D., Dip.MDT has a unique voice in the world of sports, education, and health care. Read more about Allan here.
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