Dr.Benjamin Bluestein, Chiropractor, Toronto

Neck aka cervical spine tissue is made up of the same stuff as other parts of the body. Why is it when you hurt your neck, get whiplash. wake up with a stiff neck, or have chronic tightness, active care consists mainly of passive stretching or chin tucks? If you hurt your knee, shoulder, hip, lower back, a responsible clinician may give you standard active care like squats, shoulder rotations, or “core”work. I find that many of my cervical spine patients have not received an active based program that addresses improving their capacity for life and their sport. Neck and the cervical spine can be trained actively through @functional_range_conditioning principles and using an internal strength model to increase capacities of those tissues. Here are just a few samples of strength work you can do with your neck with no equipment, using gravity or internal resistance (@2.5x speed) The necks time you visit your clinician, trainer, rehab specialist, ask them what specifically you can do to improve the tissue capacity of your neck. #forgingelitejoints #functionalrangesystems #functionalrangerelease #chiropractor #torontoYoga #neckpain #functionalrangeconditioning #purefitnesscanada #physiotherapy #headache #bjjlifestyle

Do you get stiffness in your back or hips when sitting too long? post workout? Or with sport? You’ll need to build capacity and make each area function well. Getting a systematic assessment will help you determine the next steps. @functionalrangerelease and @functionalrangeconditioning utilises a systematic approach in assessing the parts. The clinician can find out of your spine is acting like a spine should. Is it joint restrictions or difficulty with control? Your spine as 7 cervical, 12 thoracic and 5 lumbar and each has multiple articulations, muscles and nerves. Taking care to check each level and direction is important. The same thing when it comes to the hip. Does your hip have the ability to rotate in both directions? Do you get pinching in your hip in the front, back or groin area? The ball and socket nature of the hip, means you need to have good range and strength in a variety of positions. #forgingelitejoints #functionalrangesystems #functionalrangerelease #chiropractor #torontoYoga #graciehumaita #functionalrangeconditioning #lustrengththerapy #torontofitness #torontohealth

Assess your readiness with CARs CARs or controlled articular rotations are more than a warm up. They can be used for joint health assessment, strength training and more. One great thing they can be used for is to empower the client or patient to assess joint readiness and obtain their own objective measurement on where they can and can’t move. With brief education, CARs help the client and clinician can make decisions on whether a particular training exercise, position or pose is safe or aggravating and if modifications are necessary. #forgingelitejoints #functionalrangesystems #functionalrangerelease #chiropractor #torontoYoga #jointhealth #functionalrangeconditioning #torontolife #purefitness #torontofitness

Do you have the joint capacity for your life or sport? Many people recognise that strength training is a great way to improve health and performance. Sometimes prerequisite joint capacity isn’t there yet and you need to work within the current capacity during their training, while simultaneously expanding the capacity that they are suboptimal in. If your hip passive and active ranges are suboptimal for what you do in life or sport, how can you expect to load it with activities squatting, running, jumping, BJJ without any restrictions? By assessing current capacity, you can figure out what movements, lifts, techniques or positions are safe (green light), where to watch out (yellow), and NO-NOs (red). #forgingelitejoints #functionalrangesystems #functionalrangerelease #chiropractor #toronto #hippain #squating #powerlifting #BJJlifestyle #lustrengththerapy

Use some resistance to supercharge your cat cow and segmentation. You can use a resistance band or loop to get more out of your cat cow. Cat cow/spinal motion/waves can be great introduction to knowing how to move in fundamental flexion and extension motions. I see some bodies require increase in feedback and/or intensity to help change or improve capacity in a specific area. A resistance band can help you or your clients increase sensation to the spinal areas that may be difficult to cUse some resistance to supercharge your cat cow and segmentation. You can use a resistance band or loop to get more out of your cat cow. Cat cow/spinal motion/waves can be great introduction to knowing how to move in fundamental flexion and extension motions. I see some bodies require increase in feedback and/or intensity to help change or improve capacity in a specific area. A resistance band can help you or your clients increase sensation to the spinal areas that may be difficult to control and also add resistance or intensity where needed. #forgingelitejoints #backday #chiropractic #toronto #purefitnesscanada #backpain #yogatoronto #functionalrangeconditioning #functionalrangereleaseontrol and also add resistance or intensity where needed. #forgingelitejoints #backday #chiropractic #toronto #purefitnesscanada #backpain #yogatoronto #functionalrangeconditioning #functionalrangerelease

Table, Treatment and Training is the best recipe for long term joint health As soon as your clinician can get you off the table, the better. From there you can begin to treat and train. It’s a misconception that treatment only occurs on a table or in the clinicians office. You should be able to get it at any time. Training is the same. If your clinician doesn’t have access to a gym, have them collaborate with someone that knows training. From there, you, the trainer and the clinician, can work together to improve your capacity for what you want in life and sport. Here is some quick highlights from a thoracic spine session. We collaborated with personal trainer Greg, to get some traditional training in to build tissue capacity in the upper posterior chain. #forgingelitejoints #purefitnesscanada #movelab #functionalrangerelease #functionalrangesystems #chiropractic #toronto #thoracicspine

Observing movement is a great way to see spinal capacity. A spinal examination is more than just an x ray or a 10 minute exam you get at a fair. It involves taking a detailed history, movement observation, orthopaedics, palpation, goal setting, lifting assessment and more. A systematic approach needs to be employed to select the best, most specific, treatment, training and education. #forgingelitejoints #lustrengththerapy #functionalrangerelease #functionalrangesystems #chiropractic #toronto

Get outside for some 🏃🏻run and ☀️sun! One part of my daily routine is to get outside to walk, run, jog and hike, regardless of the weather. Do you have any specific daily routines? #sportandspinehealth #forgingelitejoints #runningHk #hiking #hkig #toronto #recovery #chiropractor #physicaltherapy

Always remember rehab=training. Keeping it fun with my rehab. Trying to get in some balance, coordination and plyometric training with skater hops. You can use this exercise to also train your heart muscles Aswell. After increasing said knee and hip tissue capacities, it’s important to train them. #forgingelitejoints #Sportandspinehealth #legday #runningman #balancetraining #physiotherapy #chiropractor #hongkong #toronto

Banded Eccentric wrist extension can be a rehab great exercise for those with lateral elbow or wrist issue. When it comes to lateral elbow tendon issues like tennis elbow, epicondylosis or epicondylitis, it’s good to involve eccentric training at the right point of the rehabilitation process. Working with a clinician can help you in your own healing process. Knowing which tissues, ranges of motion, time and load will help you progress and access new capacity. #forgingelitejoints #functionalrangerelease #functionalrangeconditioning #tenniselbow #armday #chiropractic #physicaltherapy #healthyaging #hkig #toronto

Train the position you got injured in. Here is a small examples of loading the inversion/lateral ankle bioflow. If you have ever rolled your ankle you’ll know what I’m talking about. If you’ve hurt yourself and have a well documented mechanism of injury, your rehabilitation program should include graded loading in the position or mechanism that you got hurt in. This will allow you to improve the biology and bioflow of that same tissue. #ForgingElitejoints #functionalrangesystems #functionalrangerelease #anklespain #physiotherapy #chiropractic #ballislife #footcollective

Creating hip capsular space using @functionalrangerelease Here is a short clip during a hip appointment. PAILs of low/moderate level MVC was applied in external rotation. Manual assessment also revealed lateral thigh and posterior pelvis neurological and mechanical tightness in the bioflow. A slow, controlled, continuous and specific manual therapy treatment and load was applied to said biology. Exercises that recreate the same changes done on the fable was done on the table was also provided. #ForgingEliteJoints #functionalrangesystems #sportandspinehealth #hiphealth #legday #physiotherapy #chiropracticadjustment #functionalrangerelease #martialarts #hkfootball #hkmma

Movement expression ≠ mobility training Illustrated is just a flow from position to position. Video is at 4x. The ability to create movement, have multiple options and reduce risk is accelerated when using a system. Running in the background should be a joint health training system. Functional range systems provides that systematic approach for the individual. @functionalrangeconditioning is programming for the individual. @kinstretch is the the approach to group training. @functionalrangerelease is the gold standard in clinical assessment, manual therapy and treatment. #ForgingEliteJoints #functionalrangeconditioning #chiropractic #physicaltherapy #sportandspinehealth #yoga #movementflow #hongkong #hkig #fitness

Shoulder pain or stiffness? Here is the follow up to the “Yoga without a shoulder” Case. Shown is the initial CARs assessment on the GH joint and the Week 4 follow up. Improvements in workspace are noted. Increases in pain free range, pinch range. Client is now able to flex, extend and internally rotate the shoulder without discomfort. Videos are at 1.5x speed. There is still some compensation occurring but we are well on our way to forging a functioning upper limb and spine. #forgingelitejoints #functionalrangeconditioning #functionalrangesystems #functionalrangeassessment #yogapose #hongkong #chiropractic #handstand #manualtherapy #Functionalrangerelease #stretchingexercises

One example of an intrinsic foot control exercise is the short-foot exercise (SFE). The goal of this exercise is to pull metatarsal heads towards the heel without moving the toes. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Ankle sprains, plantar fascia pain, flat arch, bunions, balance issues are all conditions that would benefit from improvement in intrinsic foot muscle training. If you do any activities on your feet, good intrinsic muscle control is a must to maximise performance and mitigate injury. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ “The results of some studies suggest that the strength of short flexors of toes has an impact on postural control [8]. When the postural demand is increased, for example, during single leg stance, the plantar short foot muscles are significantly more activated than in double leg stance.”- Sulowska et al. 2019 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Applying FRS principles, as long as appropriate joint space exist, use this exercise for motor control and building specific tissue capacity. For example, start with unloaded, controlled reps for multiple sets for learning, then build up to tissue capacity with slow-loaded reps using concentric and eccentric training. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ “70–80% of patients who sustain an ankle sprain develop chronic ankle instability (CAI), which is a predisposing factor for repetitive ankle injury [15,16]. SFE training significantly improves proprioception and dynamic balance in patients with CAI who have experienced recurrent ankle sprains “ - Lee et al. 2019 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Lee, E., Cho, J., & Lee, S. (2019). Short-Foot Exercise Promotes Quantitative Somatosensory Function in Ankle Instability: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Medical Science Monitor, 25, 618–626. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Sulowska, I., Mika, A., Oleksy, Ł., & Stolarczyk, A. (2019). The Influence of Plantar Short Foot Muscle Exercises on the Lower Extremity Muscle Strength and Power in Proximal Segments of the Kinematic Chain in Long-Distance Runners. BioMed Research International, 2019, 1–11. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #forgingelitejoints #Sportandspinehealth #functi

Force on the Achilles with @drlocrao ・・・ The Language 🔻🔻🔻 “Force is the language of cells.” @drandreospina Here is the process of finding WHERE and WHAT KIND of forces need to be applied to a surgically repaired Achilles. 1️⃣ Find the outcome measure 2️⃣ Implement external force-load (if applicable; in this case YES) 3️⃣ Implement internal force-load (Progressive Isometric Angular Loads, or PAILs for short) Impart force every day via expressing new “depths” of ankle CARs (dorsiflexion side), and with PAILs of various intensities (% MVC) Speak the language every day. 🔻 @functionalrangeconditioning #Sportandspinehealth #forgingelitejoints #anklesprain #hkig #chiropractor #physicaltherapy #massage #yogahk #functionalrangesystems

The Big toe AKA the hallux metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint is important for life and sport! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ “This small joint has been shown biomechanically to have joint reaction forces of up to 80% of the body weight through the toe-off phase of normal walking.” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ “This force can increase up to 200–300% of the body weight with athletic activity and up to 800% with jumping” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I’ve had my share of toe injuries from soccer, basketball and BJJ. Get your big toe assessed and moving well as you might need it to rock your kid to sleep with it AKA Life haha. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ York, P. J., Wydra, F. B., & Hunt, K. J. (2017). Injuries to the great toe. Current reviews in musculoskeletal medicine, 10(1), 104–112. doi:10.1007/s12178-017-9390-y [⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀] [⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀] #SportandSpineHealth #ForgingEliteJoints #Functionalrangeconditioning #chiropractic #manualtherapy #running #hongkong #sportsperformance #mobility #basketball #verticaljump #trailrunning #Singapore #bunions

“Jumpman, Jumpman, Jumpman, them boys up to something, woo! “- Drake / Future ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 🎥 @gbphysiologist ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #SportandSpineHealth #verticalleap #ballislife #basketball #jumpman #sports #hongkong #jumping #slamdunk

Views from the lunch time grind with Espada. Learning from @leomarquesbjj . Sweeps from De La Riva was the theme. Then #porrada afterwards. I got smashed by a couple people. Felt good haha. #atosbjj #sportandspinehealth #hongkong #everydayporrada #yogafit #bjjlifestyle #fightlife #kimono #tgif #judo #wrestling #bjj #movement #cardio