Do you know of a good massage therapist?

Posted on February 12, 2011 by Coach Mike

I’ve been asked a few times recently who I recommend for a good deep tissue massage, specifically for Tennis Elbow (Lateral Epicondylitis), the pain one feels on the outside of the elbow from repeated or strenuous pulling activities and for shoulder discomfort resulting from a combination of poor posture and overhead activity.

Here is my recommendation:

Massage Therapist: Chris Larson, NCTMB, NCPT, A Deep Tissue & Muscular Orthopaedic Rehab Specialist.

Chris works out of:

Joint Ventures,

Kenmore Square

654 Beacon Street

Boston, MA 02215

and

Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning

29 Draper Street,

Woburn, MA 01801

Shin Splints

Posted on July 23, 2009 by Coach Mike

Ouch. You ever get shin splints. The very uncomfortable pain, most commonly associated with your anterior shin bone (tibia). Well, often times people who are de-conditioned and out of shape experience this problem when they:

Go from sedentary and inactive to weight bearing and active
Go from sedentary and/or walking to linear, multi-directional or stop + start running
change running surfaces: grass to turf, pavement, concrete or wood
wear improper footwear: old, worn out sneakers or poorly fitting sneakers
have poor foot musculature (soft feet as opposed to strong, muscular feet)
have weak (lack of stability or loose) or jacked up (lack of mobility or stiff) ankles
have weak anterior shin muscles
have poor hip mobility (stiff hips)
have poor lumbar spine stability (weak core)
have poor recovery from activity
forgot their shin pads and got kicked by your partner in Krav Maga

Why does this happen?

The most common reason they experience this is because their feet are soft from wearing soft shoes. Their ankles are weak and stiff from previous ankle sprains or sitting too often and for too long. Their calves, Achilles tendon or entire lower leg musculatures are tight from also sitting too often and for too long. They lack mobility in their hips (too stiff, not a good dancer) and their core is probably weak (unstable and soft like a bowl full of jelly). You could go further and say their thoracic spine is stiff (upper back), their scapulo-thoracic joint (shoulder blade) is unstable and weak and their gleno-humeral or shoulder joint is stiff and weak. The whole kinetic chain is usually messed up, but not in all cases.

What do you do?

Here’s an 11 point action plan I use in my Newton (Boston) Change Your Body Boot Camps to correct shin splints for my participants from acute symptomatic treatment of the actual pain on your shins (ouch!) to the long term resolution of your issue, sometimes it’s even instantaneous relief, just ask Flo.

1. Ice massage with an ice cup (paper cup filled with water and frozen) rubbed over pain site for 10min (if cold sensitive, take off and put back on when tolerable)

2. Foam Roll calf and Achilles tendon. Turn foot in & out.

3. Foam Roll peronneals on the lateral aspect of the lower leg. This is the Curt Shilling muscle from the blood sox or sock days of 2004.

4. Foam Roll the shins

5. Lacrosse ball roll on foot

6. 3-Directional Flat Ankle Mobes (straight over 2nd toe, diagonally towards big toe & pinky toe)

7. 3-Directional Incline Ankle Mobes (straight over 2nd toe, diagonally over big & pinky toes)

8. Frontal Plane ankle mobes (pronation & supination)

9. Active Shin Stretch

10. Active Gastrocnemius Stretch

11. Active Soleus Stretch

Give it a whirl and post a comment below to let me know how it works for you.

Your coach,

Mike Alves

Boston Boot Camp

Newton Boot Camp

Change Your Body Boot Camps

Self Image

Posted on July 10, 2009 by Coach Mike

Self Image

There are 2 areas I am rapidly learning about to help my clients achieve their goals. Nutrition is one and psychology is the other. I’m confident my strength and conditioning programs do what their designed to do and am working to master these other 2 areas.

Nutrition involves building a network of go to experts to send clients to or ask questions of, as well as learning answers to basic questions/problems and creating systems to ensure success.

Psychology is a whole other world. Here I need to get into my clients heads and understand what they’re thinking, why they do or don’t do what they do (wink) and how they see themselves.

I’ve got a handful of self improvement resources I’m utilizing and a current one is a book called Psycho-Cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz.

Dr. Maltz was an renowned plastic surgeon who was mystified how some patients could have instantaneous personality change after surgery and others would not. The others, would still see themselves as blemished even though the particular area of dislike had been improved. These patients could even view before and after photographs of themselves and still see no change.

Poor Self Image

Dr. Maltz discovered they had a self image problem that plastic surgery could not correct. I’ve only just begun the book (re-reading Chapter 2) so I can’t give a full review, but you may already see what I’m hoping to learn. I’m hoping to learn how to spot people who have a poor self image and learn how to instantaneously change it (or as soon as possible).

Upon dialog with my human blog inspiration client, Lisa, about this topic, I learned about Physiognomy (pronounced with a silent G). Physiognomy is the assessment of a person’s character or personality from their outer appearance, especially the face . The term physiognomy can also refer to the general appearance of a person, object or terrain, without reference to its implied characteristics. Basically not only do people judge themselves, but they also judge other people as well.

You: “Duh, Mike! I could have told you that.”

Me: O.K. You’re right. I guess I wanted to share the new vocabulary word.

Anyways, (I’ll get to the point now), I suspect if you can change a person’s or your own self image, not only will it be easier for you to make and accept lasting physical change, but you could potentially alter an observer’s perception of you.

Example: If your countenance or facial expression at rest is one of a frown, sneer or saddness, people may draw the conclusion that your a walking dark cloud and to choose to stay away from you. On the flip side if your countenance at rest is one of a subtle smile or mysterious look, people may draw the conclusion that you’re a happy, attractive or interesting person and be drawn to you.

Not that you judge (wink), but what is your first impression of these countenances?

So in conclusion.

Sometime in the near future I hope to become excellent at instantaneous and sustainable self image corrections for myself, my clients and people I come in contact with. I hope to use this to alter the physiognomies or first impressions of other people. This combined with superior nutritional, strength and conditioning programs should result in a whole lotta people who love themselves and their new bodies/lifestyles.

Your coach,

Mike Alves

Newton Boot Camp

p.s. Speaking of Love, check out what Flo loves.

Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 9:42:36 AM
Subject: Yay Boot Camp!

Hey Mike,
As challenging and hard as it is, I LOVE boot camp!…I’m always surprised by how great I feel at the end of the hour, ready to go and energized for the day.

Just wanted to let you know.

Thanks!
Flo

References

Maltz, Dr. Maxwell. The New Psycho-Cybernetics. New York: Prentice Hall Press, 2001.

“Physiognomy.” Wikipedia. 14 Jul. 2009 ,

Eat Fiber, Live Longer

Posted on June 18, 2009 by Coach Mike

I’m currently reading Dr. Walter Willet’s, Eat, Drink and Be Healthy classic and am amazed at all the nuggets he shares. I’m a performance guy, who loves to train hard and lives an active lifestyle, but reading this book has awakened me to many things, specifically eating to prevent disease. (ha, what a novel, yet simple concept)

I train my clients from the inside out, from the core so to speak, and I eat and talk about eating healthful foods. My usual point of view on nutrition is geared towards performance or cosmetic reasons, but this book takes it to another level. Disease prevention.

I’m from huge families and we’ve experienced our share of death and disease over the years while living an American lifestyle. To know how my family eats and lives and then to be a health professional and read this book is, uh…life changing. Most everyone knows that eating certain foods in excess are going to make you fat (or maybe they really don’t know), but imagine knowing that eating certain foods was going to kill you (as in ashes to ashes, dust to dust), require you to stick your body with needles everyday, require you to take pills so you could go #2 more easily and regularly, give you the opportunity to rave about your triple bypass surgery instead of your triple double in basketball or let you shave your head bald so you can drink nauseating chemical cocktails while feeling green without envy. Sounds exciting, right? Where do you sign up? NOT.

So, I just read about fiber and thought I’d share 4 great things fiber can do for you.

Fiber regulates blood sugar by slowing digestion (helps control hunger & weight gain).
High Fiber foods help prevent diabetes (no needle sticking).
Fiber reduces your risk of heart disease by about 30% (no Armani Pace Makers or Louis Vitton Stents).
Fiber prevents constipation and diverticular disease. (Screw the laxatives).

So basically, eat a bowl of rolled or steel cut oatmeal each day to lose weight, have high energy without the lulls, which stablizes your blood sugar so you don’t go into food coma, so you don’t get hungry again, overeat and become fat which leads to more problems, so you don’t become insulin sensitive, which would lead to a fun life of sticking yourself with needles because you have type 2 diabetes (not), so you reduce your cholesterol level which keeps your heart pumping strong for fun active living (think sports, adventures and “adult” activities) and maybe best of all because you take this for granted the most, you’ll have quick, painless and regular bathroom trips instead of taking pills or going to the hospital because you “gotta go” and you can’t.

Yours living the active life,

Your health & fitness expert,

Your ace,

Your coach,

Mike Alves

Newton Personal Trainer

Newton Fitness Boot Camp

p.s. registration closes July 3rd @ noon, for the next boot camp.

p.p.s. Get in shape this summer, not next.

p.p.p.s. sign up for Change YOUR Body Boot Camps now

Relaxation

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Coach Mike

You ever feel like your day is totally packed, you have no time to breathe or think or god forbid eat, drink or exercise?

Really!?!? What’s that like, I’ve never experienced that? Joke, I’m just kidding.

Today one of my clients was off. I decided after watching her struggle through her outdoor conditioning, that I would cut out 5 minutes and use it for something special.

I asked if she had a picnic table in her back yard. “Yes”, was her reply. I say, “O.K., we’re going to finish in the back with some stretching. Does that sound cool?” “Yes” was her reply”

I lead her through 5 minutes of body weight stretching and then I ask her to lie on her back on her picnic table with her knees bent & feet on the bench.

I tell her, “O.K., here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to lie on your back, with your eyes closed and we’re going to spend 5 minutes relaxing. 1 minute on each of the 5 senses. Ready?”

“Yes!,” she said.

Minute 1: Hear

“O.K. Eyes closed. I want you to listen. Listen to all the sounds around you. Listen to the birds, listen to the air, your breathing, my voice, the traffic off in a distance. Separate each sound and listen to all the different sounds.”

Minute 2: Smell

“Now smell the air. Can you smell the grass, the flowers, the trees? Can you smell yourself, your hair, your clothes, your scent? Can you smell your breath? Take a big breath.”

Minute 3: Touch

“Now feel your body. Feel your feet. Feel your sneakers, the foam insulation, the treads, the wooden bench. Feel the picnic table. Feel your shirt, your shorts. Feel hair, just hanging. Feel your knees, your butt, and your shoulders. Feel the air as you breathe. Take a big breath. Feel the limitless air you can consume.”

Minute 4: Taste

“Taste your mouth. Imagine how water tastes when you’re thirsty. Imagine today’s workout, when you asked for a water break. How did the water taste. The coldness, frost on the glass. The ice. Was it refreshing? Taste how clear & pure it was. How satisfying. Now imagine your favorite food. How does it taste. How does it taste as you roll it around in your mouth. What does it taste like? Is it hot, cold, hard, soft, squishy or crunchy? Is it sweet or salty?”

Minute 5: See

“Now visualize something beautiful. Imagine your favorite place. Is it the beach, is it home. Is it a country or a resort? Are you with people, your husband, your daughter, and your friends? Are you by yourself? What’s the weather like? Is it warm or cool? What are you doing? What are you wearing? Are you laughing? Why is this beautiful? Why is this a favorite place?”

“O.K., now wake up. How do you feel?”

Silence and a foggy smile. “C’mon, let’s go back inside”, I say”

“Where did you learn that?” she softly says, while still awakening.

“In a relaxation class in college, different books, conferences, here & there.”

“That was great!” she says.

“Thank you! I figured you were a little beat up today and could use something special. So, I subtracted 5 minutes from something important (conditioning) to give you 5 minutes, to reboot & recover. Was it good?”

“Yes, it was great!” was her reply.

I said, “Sometimes your day is so packed, you’re tired and you need energy, but coffee isn’t doing the trick. You decide, f’ it, I need to reboot and take 5 minutes for myself. You can nap or do relaxing meditation like you did today. I often use this trick. I’ll sleep in my car, at my desk, in a park, on the sofa, or I’ll go for a walk, lie on a foam roller, anything. Just 5 minutes to slow things down, clear my head & reboot my system. It’s amazing how 5 minutes can feel so long and powerful. It doesn’t recover you completely, but it sure makes you feel better or more able to conquer what lies ahead. Do you agree?”

“Yes!” she replied still groggy.

5 Minutes. Because you’re worth it!

Yours in living the active life,

Mike Alves

Newton Personal Trainer and Newton Fitness Boot Camps

Mike Alves, Personal Trainer Newton (Boston)

Health, Body Transformations and Performance One Program at a Time

Do you know of a good massage therapist?

Shin Splints

Self Image

Eat Fiber, Live Longer

Relaxation