A collection of interesting studies, new findings or new ways of looking at old practices.

Body Mechanics’ own Matt Danziger takes an inquisitive look at emerging findings in sports medicine and physiology. Normally he does this to satiate his own thirst for knowledge and drive to learn any findings that could make him a better massage therapist, so we thought we’d put his effort to some more public use and share his findings right here with our clients and friends.

Reads

Should You Do Static Stretching Before You Exercise?

Our pal Nick Ng does a nice job covering some of the back and forth on static stretching in a warm-up. The short story is: we don’t know what it does, but the idea that static stretching is either essential or harmful is probably overblown. Static stretching probably helps a bit, but if the short-term power output is of maximum importance, you shouldn’t hold stretches for more than a minute. 
Read more on Nick’s blog.

Videos

Perfect Posture Myths?
YouTube personality and bodybuilder Jeff Nippard is joined by two physical therapists to discuss why perfect posture isn’t worth chasing and it could be causing more harm than good.  The featured folks all display a strong bias toward strength training, but the point still stands that movement and exercise are far more important than perfect alignment. Of course, if something hurts, it’s totally reasonable to avoid and modify positions that hurt in the short term. 

What’s New in Pain?
Post-doctoral researcher and physiotherapist Tasha Stanton talks about how different things like words, vision, smells, and sounds can all influence how our bodies feel and act. . All of this stuff is incredible, but in one of her studies, a visual illusion combined with gentle traction at the knee managed to provoke increased swelling in a man with knee osteoarthritis, but by altering the illusion, the swelling went down. This seems like some (albeit limited) evidence that perceptions can alter bodily processes at the level of multiple body systems.
Click here to watch What’s New in Pain

Research

Getting out of Neutral
It is literally impossible to maintain a true neutral spine while squatting, deadlifting, jumping, or similar movements. There is insufficient evidence to make broad recommendations about lifting while trying to attempt a neutral spine in regard to injury risks. Most lumbar herniations can be ascribed to hereditary factors with only small changes seen in numbers based upon physical activity. Lifting in a moderately flexed position may be more efficient in terms of strength. However, these benefits should always be weighed against potential risks.
Read the full paper here

3D Model of Massage Affecting Human Tissue
The major implication from this study is that the nervous system primarily mediates the sense of release felt by both patient and the massage practitioner. There is some room in the literature for debate about changes in fluid dynamics and endocrine involvement on a broader scale, but all of those play second or third fiddle to the nervous system.
View the model and the full study

Leave your thoughts and reactions to any of these topics in the comments below!

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