Mary Young Chiropractor - humans . horses . dogs

21/06/2025

Here’s a fun one. This lady had her eyes shut and was imagining riding her horse. Her brain told her she was in the same position before (top) and after (bottom) a chiropractic adjustment.

Make sure your brain has the full picture from your body - check in to go from good to better. Your body, your horse and your coach will all thank you!!!

Stop struggling! Contact Mary for help with improving strength and resilience in your horse, your dog, and/or yourself.

10/06/2025

Rockrose Equestrian Sports Centre

Can you be bothered going from good to better?? Here’s how

10/06/2025

Can you be bothered going from good to better?? Here’s how

09/06/2025

In a world where you can be anything, be precise.

Here’s a little montage showing how careful you need to be when stretching your horse out.

It’s crucial to be aware of the anatomy you’re actually affecting, not just the muscle you mainly intend to reach.

Have you ever seen your horse rest the opposite back leg when you pull a foreleg out? That’s another great indication that your foreleg stretch is asking questions all the way back to his quarters!!

21/03/2025

It’s only a few weeks till the start of the judo tournament season. We’re not waiting for an injury.

I’m going to spend some tense moments, watching my little boy try to throw and hold down someone else’s little boy who’s trying to do the same.

He’s been trained by some of the best teachers in the country, and he’s worked really hard.

He’s going to need the quickest reactions he can have, the most strength in every position, and the calm energy to win or lose and then do it all again five minutes later.

We are lucky to be able to use chiropractic adjustment as a part of his preparation. It lets his brain have the best view of where every inch of his body is, so he’s as fast and accurate as he can be. Every week his nervous system gets tuned up, so any potential problems get headed off at the pass.

We’re not waiting for an injury.

16/03/2025

Head stabilisation during running.

As we land, our head pitches forward and then as we take off, it pitches backward. Really fast. Mini-whiplash.

Did you know these two supercool adaptations humans make to counteract this stress?

1) As we swing our arm up and forward, we are positioning it just right to let the trapezius muscle on that side contract. As we bring the arm downward, its weight stops the head pitching forward and sends it on its reverse trajectory, into extension. This is a vibration control concept also used in engineering buildings, in which concept it’s called mass dampening.

2) By reducing the muscular links between the head/neck and the trunk (other apes have many more) the human body allows Newton’s third law - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction - to save the day. The trunk pitches forward as the head pitches backward, stabilising the head through the stride.

1) only works when the link between the head and the arm (the nuchal ligament and the trapezius) is elastic.
2) only works when the neck is free to ‘flop’ independently of the trunk.

Daniel Lieberman’s writing on the evolution of the human head is really exciting.

13/03/2025

Adaptation v Transformation

We can ADAPT to a changing environment. We can use sugar and alcohol to bring us up and down while we keep on going. We can take more weight on a good leg to shield the other one. We can stop moving our low back. We can repress our honest responses. We cope, often successfully.

We can also TRANSFORM, though. Transformation is usually harder to achieve, but it means we make a change that leaves us not needing to adapt any more. It changes our understanding of the world and of ourselves. We find a shift that makes a change so high up the chain that all our drivers are altered. We don’t just deny ourselves the coping strategies - we don’t need them.

Coping is a short-term strategy.

11/03/2025

Want to get stronger? When you’re working out, stop. (and then rest, and repeat)

This week I learned some more about isometric holds and why they are really important for safe workouts. ISOMETRIC means holding your muscle at the same (iso) length (metric) as you’re doing resistance training. So, essentially, holding still in your stress position, rather than moving the weight up or down. Think plank, wall sit, deadlift hold. Or … your three-breath yoga pose.

Here’s why it’s so important.

TENDONS are straps of connective tissue attaching your muscles to your bones. They transfer the force of the contracting muscle to the bone, creating movement (or preventing it). As a tendon is loaded, the load goes first through the strongest fibres. It makes sense for the body to pick the A-team, right? Any weaker or damaged fibres are shielded from the stress of the lift.

If the load continues, however, the stronger fibres within the tendon tire, and the body only THEN recruits the B-team of weaker fibres, giving them a chance to strengthen up. This is why weight training makes us stronger.

How to get injured: load your muscle enough that your tendon recruits weak tissues (the process I describe above) and do it fast enough to rupture the tendon before you can realise that the B-team isn’t up to this match. Go lifting big weights fast, till you can’t.

How to get stronger: load the muscle enough to engage the tendon (this can be 6/10 effort) and hold it there for 20 seconds. Here’s the weird - THEN REST. Seriously. REST and repeat.

Here’s how it works.

If you do this 8 times, 20 seconds on and a minute off, you’ve sent the signal to your tendon that it needs the B-team, and it needs it to be better. 20 seconds is as long as it takes to get your brain to get that instruction. Keeping the stress on after that initial period just increases the risk of injury. So resting and repeating maximises the signal and minimises the damage.

Work smart not hard.

You can read more about Dr Keith Baar’s work all over the internet.

07/03/2025

I’ve heard that horses whisper this to each other late at night …

10/08/2024

Inside shot of the lovely space at Wheatrig…

Every Monday, starting in September....
Young Chiropractor - humans . horses . dogs will be holding clinics in The Retreat. Contact her via her page for further details.

02/08/2024

Sunny new website at www.MYgreenlight.co.uk - see what you think, and book in!!

Follow this page if you are done dictating and want to earn a green light from your equine partner. Mary is a horsewoman, a teacher and a chiropractor