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Thread: IF you need to see a medical professional for an injury - what is the best route?

  1. #1
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    Default IF you need to see a medical professional for an injury - what is the best route?

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    Wondering thoughts on best route to take for a chronic injury or pain -

    A couple things I've gathered from SS (and I believe these to be true!)

    1. I understand that lifting form is the first thing that needs to be corrected or at least you need to make sure your form is not causing or limiting your bodys ability to heal - lets say thats squared away (not saying mine is dialed in yet but for sake of discussion)
    2. Just because someone has a title like Doctor, Physical Therapist, Chiropractor, Sports Medicine etc doesnt necessarily mean they have any idea on how best to help you -

    But that still begs the question - if you are dealing with a chronic knee injury/pain (which I am but also asking in the broader sense for a broader audience) what would be your recommended route?

    There are clinics like Airrosti which on one hand sound okay since one of their goals is to fix you without surgery but I'm also skeptical of some kid fresh out of college telling me that i just need to foam roll with him once a week - no idea what their qualifications are to work there

    I have seen a sports physical therapist b(before starting SS) who basically told me that i had overloaded my knees tendons, then underloaded them due to the ensuing pain and that i just need to slowly reload them - I am also skeptical of this diagnosis

    The other option is to see an orthopedist and get some imaging done but again, I feel like the odds of an ortho telling me that squatting heavy is bad for me and telling me to RICE and then charging me over $1000 is highly probable -

    There are internet folks like Knees Over Toes guy who advocate for strengthening the knees through full range of motion which also generally sounds better and smarter than some ortho trying to rush you into a knee surgery but also unsure if his advice/program is of any use -

    Just curious any thoughts on best course of action if someone truly does need to get some kind of 'help' for an injury -

    Thanks,
    Jake

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2017
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    231

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    An orthopedic surgeon's job is to put anatomy in a spot so it can heal. If tendons were vascular and had a better blood supply we wouldn't need them as often. Your job is to filter through BS in the medical system sadly. Find a good orthopedic surgon that works on the area that you injuried. You then get a MRI to see the damage. The medical provider puts this order in. After this you ask yourself these questions once the results come back.
    1. Is a mostly full rehab possible without surgery? For many full thickness tears this is a no.
    2. How long have I tierd rehabbing this and is my rehab echoing the stress, recovery, adaption cycle for my injurie? (Can I do more today then 48-75 hours ago)

    If these are a no then you would prob need surgery, so you can heal and go through the stress, recovery, adaption cycle. This must happen if you want to heal. Even in tendons with tendonitis, they must be made to heal.

    If you have a knee issue the best way to strengthen it is the squat. If the range of motion hurts then do a box squat. Do a squat with a weight you can do (painless ish) and start the stress, recovery, adaption cycle. After your surgery listen to your surgeon about how long to rest post op, but at some point you will need to start doing some kind of squat to fully heal. (Low bar back squat).

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
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    Wichita Falls, Texas
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    2,445

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Jacobrey5 View Post
    Wondering thoughts on best route to take for a chronic injury or pain -

    A couple things I've gathered from SS (and I believe these to be true!)

    1. I understand that lifting form is the first thing that needs to be corrected or at least you need to make sure your form is not causing or limiting your bodys ability to heal - lets say thats squared away (not saying mine is dialed in yet but for sake of discussion)
    2. Just because someone has a title like Doctor, Physical Therapist, Chiropractor, Sports Medicine etc doesnt necessarily mean they have any idea on how best to help you -

    But that still begs the question - if you are dealing with a chronic knee injury/pain (which I am but also asking in the broader sense for a broader audience) what would be your recommended route?

    There are clinics like Airrosti which on one hand sound okay since one of their goals is to fix you without surgery but I'm also skeptical of some kid fresh out of college telling me that i just need to foam roll with him once a week - no idea what their qualifications are to work there

    I have seen a sports physical therapist b(before starting SS) who basically told me that i had overloaded my knees tendons, then underloaded them due to the ensuing pain and that i just need to slowly reload them - I am also skeptical of this diagnosis

    The other option is to see an orthopedist and get some imaging done but again, I feel like the odds of an ortho telling me that squatting heavy is bad for me and telling me to RICE and then charging me over $1000 is highly probable -

    There are internet folks like Knees Over Toes guy who advocate for strengthening the knees through full range of motion which also generally sounds better and smarter than some ortho trying to rush you into a knee surgery but also unsure if his advice/program is of any use -

    Just curious any thoughts on best course of action if someone truly does need to get some kind of 'help' for an injury -

    Thanks,
    Jake
    The first and most important part of this entire process is to have a primary care provider that is aligned with your values and can function as a trusted advisor to you. Your initial appointment with a provider should essentially be a job interview, where you are interviewing the provider for a consultant role on your healthcare team. The provider should leave that appointment knowing full well what activities are important to you, how your current medical situation affects those activities, and your life goals, especially those when they come to living an active lifestyle. Should you have a provider that corrects your personal goals and make a statement such as, “You shouldn’t lift weights”….or anything like that, they should be passed over for inclusion on your healthcare team. Your medical consultants are exactly that, consultants. They have no authority over you. They are advisors. The three pillars of evidence based practice requires your values as a patient be given equal footing as best available data and their expertise as a clinician. If they refuse to take your values into account, and given them equal weight, go elsewhere. I can guarantee anyone on this board would give far more research into who they took their diesel truck to than they give to who is going to be providing them medical care. That should not be the case.

    I would suggest you start by inquiring amongst your peer group as to who you should interview for such a position on your healthcare team. Ask your friends, family, etc that have similar lifestyles who they see, and what their experience with providers has been. If someone reports that their provider has told them something that doesn’t align with your values, don’t go to them. It’s becoming easier to find providers that are consultative rather than authoritarian.

    Online “influencers” are notoriously bad for information. Virtually all of them have a product to sell, and their product is more important than outcomes. In a flooded sphere, you have to differentiate yourself amongst other fitness influencers by keying in on something nobody else is, or by finding something wrong with what everyone else is doing. There needn’t be any true evidence that your product works, so long as it is contrary to someone else of influence. If you need any example of this, go search for the GOATA s^%$posters on Instagram. They have built their entire product based off of picking out all he ways that the worlds best athletes are “misaligned”. They actually posted an entire video talking about how poorly Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone moves. SML is widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes in history. But, nobody wants an easy answer, so there is a deference in the fitness world to “gurus” and everyone wants a complex solution for their unwillingness to train hard. I’d suggest reaching out to someone directly who works with conditions like you have, are concerned about, etc and have a consultation with them to make sure their assessment falls in line with your values, that they provide you with a reasonable explanation (in layman’s terms) for what the assessment and training modifications are going to be, and, for the most part, stay away from content creators unless it is for purely entertainment purposes.

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