Episode #10 - The Backbone of Jiu Jitsu: Exploring Spinal Health with Dr. Emily Loftus

Welcome to another gripping episode of Caffeinated Jiu Jitsu, where we fuse our love for caffeine and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with the wisdom of expert guests. Today's featured guest is none other than chiropractor and sports health enthusiast, Dr. Emily Loftus. Are you grappling with the fear of injuries, especially back related, in the riveting world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu? Well, Dr. Loftus is here to dispel your fears and replace them with practical knowledge and insights. 

We've often heard that age could be a limiting factor in Jiu Jitsu, but is this really the case? Together with Dr. Loftus, we break down this myth, taking inspiration from seasoned practitioners who continue to excel in the sport. We also throw a spotlight on the holistic benefits of chiropractic care for Jiu Jitsu practitioners and its crucial role in long-term health and wellness. Dive into the correlation between diet, mental health, physical conditioning, and chiropractic care - it's a blend that's sure to spike your adrenaline and your curiosity!

Finally, we wrap things up by acknowledging our faithful listeners – you've been our backbone throughout this journey and your support means the world to us. We're committed to keep bringing subject matter experts like Dr. Loftus onto the podcast, ensuring each episode is not just insightful, but also impactful. So, keep your mugs full and your spirits high - we look forward to seeing you on the mats for the next episode!

Connect with me at caffeinatedjiujitsu@gmail.com.

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Chapters

• 0:02 Taking Care of Your Back
• 14:12 Chiropractic Care and Benefits for Jujitsu
• 30:10 Long-Term Health and Wellness in Jujitsu
• 40:42 Warm-Up and Cool Down in Exercise
• 45:45 Chiropractic Myths Debunked
• 51:56 Listener Appreciation and Podcast Promotion

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome to Kaffinade Jiu Jitsu, the blend of white belt enthusiasm, black belt wisdom and a dash of caffeine for that extra kick. Dive deep into the world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as we explore the journey, techniques, challenges and the sheer joy of the sport from a white belt's perspective. I'm intriguing interviews with renowned coaches and professors to playful fun episodes that will have you chuckling mid-roll. We've got it all brewed and ready. Now stepping onto the mats and into your ears. Here's your host, joe Motez.

Speaker 2: 0:55

And welcome back everyone to another episode of Kaffinade Jiu Jitsu. I am your host, joe Motez, and it seems like we were just here. I am super excited for this episode, this week's episode, because this week's episode is actually closing out something we started a few weeks ago or two weeks ago, and that is, you know, conversation around wellness and taking care of yourself on the mat and, you know, preventing injuries. But today we're talking about specific type of injuries and we're talking about taking care of our backs not taking our backs, but taking good care of our backs. I know I have shared several injuries that I've had on this podcast and it seems like when I do get injured, it is my back. So we have brought on a renowned chiropractor, dr Emily Loftus. That last name may ring a bell for those of you who train out of Alliance Roswell. Emily, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 3: 2:08

Hey, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Speaker 2: 2:11

Yeah, thank you so much. So you are absolutely well. You are our first doctor, right? That's cool. I think we're getting pretty fancy now we're bringing on medical professionals, so that's cool. Yeah, let's start out learning a little bit more about you. I've been lucky enough to experience some of the magic in your work. You know you've worked on me and several of us before competition and we'll talk a little bit about that. But right now, let's get to know you. You know how long you've been doing what you do, what maybe got you into it? And, yeah, just kind of have some open conversation around that.

Speaker 3: 2:53

Yeah, absolutely. So I started off my kind of passion for the health and wellness industry. I became a certified personal trainer probably almost 10 years now and it really sparked my passion for being preventative with my health and wellness and all of that sort of stuff. And I was just so hungry for information and knowledge and knew I wanted to do more than personal training and so I looked into physical therapy and becoming a nurse.

Speaker 3: 3:30

And you know I happened to move here to Georgia, like two miles down the road from one of the country's biggest chiropractic schools, life University and you know I just kind of applied and took the leap and got accepted right away and throughout chiropractic school I ended up falling in love with this area of the profession called sports chiropractic, which is where we really take care of the surrounding structures, muscles, tendons, ligaments, along with the joint space and the spine, really focusing on optimizing the full musculoskeletal system as a whole.

Speaker 3: 4:14

And so through my program I got functional movement certifications and soft tissue certifications and all that sort of stuff to go along with my doctorate in chiropractic as well. So it's a pretty cool profession. You get to work with a lot of really talented athletes anyone from you know just picking up new sports and hobbies to people who are really trying to go to the CrossFit Games or compete competitively in Jiu Jitsu and all that sort of stuff. So it's really cool to see people chasing after their dreams, whether it's recreationally, just to stay fit. You know they have these big fitness aspirations and they have big goals. So it's pretty cool to see.

Speaker 2: 4:59

Yeah, I don't think that I knew you had, like you know, experience and education and kind of physical fitness. I think you said personal trainer. I do have one question that was kind of going through my mind so you've had experience with kind of like maybe the more traditional sports like football, baseball, things like that. I would imagine a lot of chiropractors see that is Jiu Jitsu, the weirdest one, like kind of the one that's a little more oddball, or is there something else that comes to mind when you think about I can't believe I just did that or worked in that space?

Speaker 3: 5:47

In terms of different sports that I've worked in or the sport itself.

Speaker 2: 5:52

Yeah, yeah, the sport or activity right, like, for instance, I think you told me one time you worked on horses, right.

Speaker 3: 6:00

Yeah, so I'm also an animal chiropractor.

Speaker 2: 6:03

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 6:05

So I work primarily with horses and the riders, which I will say horse riders and Jiu Jitsu athletes, are very similar in the fact that they are obsessed with their sport. You know, like they if they do that sport, you know it kind of thing where it is like a part of their personality almost. So I think that's really cool. I think that's why I like working on the Jiu Jitsu athletes is because they just love what they do and they want to do anything to keep doing what they're doing. The last thing they want to be told is you have to take a break. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:43

That's. I think that's one of my biggest fears and I think I tell every everybody that you know that kind of asks me hey, what, what do you worry about, or what's some of your challenges, and it's like getting out of my mental space that I'm going to get injured. You know, 43 years old, I'm not the oldest guy at the academy, but I'm. I'm like in between right, like I'm maybe a few people down or a couple people down, so yeah, yeah. So there's just the fear of getting some kind of annoying injury. And you know, because, like I said at the beginning of your conversation here, you've worked on me. I think it has it been twice now, or three times. It's at least been twice.

Speaker 3: 7:27

Yeah, two or three times yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:29

So so my injury that seems like is going to be the go to is going to be in the back, so I'm super, you know, jazzed that that we have access to you like like we do. We joke we have our own team doctor, right. So, yeah, that's, that's awesome. And then you're also. You know, you talked about the riders being passionate, but you're also a rider, right, so that's that's your your sport as well, so share a little bit about that.

Speaker 2: 8:03

You know, I know that's kind of not the focus of what we want to talk about today, but I'd love to learn, like is this something you, you did when you were young, like when you were a kid, or is this something that you got into when you, you know, became an adult? Share a little bit about that.

Speaker 3: 8:18

Yeah. So I started riding I when I was four or five years old. One of my classmates had one of those little girl pony riding birthday parties and at this point my mom and I kind of joke that I went and just never stopped my phone love with it that day and just haven't stopped riding since then. So I've been riding for a long time now. It's almost like I don't know how to not be around horses at this point because, like I said earlier, it really is just it's basically my whole personality is horses and being around them, being outside the physical activity aspect of it.

Speaker 3: 9:05

So I, when I found out that animal chiropractic was even a thing, I just knew that was something I had to chase after. And because the riders are also athletes and the horse can't function If the riders not moving properly, and vice versa, I knew I had to do the sports chiropractic with it. Because you know it takes two to tango, like if the riders not moving well, the horse can't do its job, but if the horse isn't moving well, then there's no way the rider can outperform that. The horses are just too big. So being able to work on both of them is really special.

Speaker 2: 9:43

Yeah, this is interesting. We're going to spend a few minutes in this because, full disclosure, I I'm not afraid of a lot of things. I was in the military for umpteen years and in most of my career I jumped out of airplanes.

Speaker 2: 10:05

And even before that I was always that kid that was jumping the ramps on the go-karts and skateboards and all of that right. But, emily, I am terrified, terrified of horses. And what would I have done if I had to live back in the medieval times or something? I would have had to walk everywhere and you know, they're just massive animals and you know, when I think about like and I've written one before, it's a really really funny story, really quick. So, my dad I don't have a lot of memories, you know, growing up with my dad, but there's one that stands out and it's he took me and my step-sister and my brother to this riding place up in the mountains. I can't remember where, but I got on this horse and the horse's name I still remember to this day was Jigolo and Like a great horse name, right, right and. But the horse was so old I thought, like I thought it was sick or something. And you know, obviously they probably put me on that one because they knew it was, you know-.

Speaker 3: 11:17

Docile.

Speaker 2: 11:18

Yeah, docile. They want to say old. I don't know if you-.

Speaker 2: 11:21

But, yeah, I remember, and I remember thinking, god, this is the highest I've ever been in my life, like off the ground, like even this slow, you know old horse felt just like a beast. So yeah, that's really cool. But the point of Megana sharing that story, I couldn't imagine like the skill set it would have. You would have to have to work on, you know, or do that kind of work with horses. I mean, was that part of your education? Did you have to do some kind of specialty training for that? I mean, how does one get into, you know, animal chiropractic work?

Speaker 3: 12:01

Yes, yes. So to become an animal chiropractor you have to have a doctorate, and either you have to be a DVM doctor of veterinary medicine or a doctor of chiropractic. So to even go to the program you have to have your doctorate in one of those two. And then the program itself is another I think two to 300 classroom hours of training so we learn the anatomy and all of that sort of stuff. When it comes to you know, actually your certification is for all animals, so it's kind of large animal anatomy and small animal anatomy All woven into one. So it's pretty cool. It takes a lot of time. I mean it takes a lot of time, energy, money to get the additional certification, but it's pretty cool, it's a great profession and the animals just they freaking love it. I mean, I would say animals even love it more than the humans do, because they don't second guess it.

Speaker 3: 13:06

Yeah, you know what I mean Like they're like wow, that feels way better and they're grateful for it and they really show it, whereas they're not. Is it working? Am I feeling better? Do I feel better? Did they get the right spot? I don't know if I got it. Do they need to see others Like they're not? They're not asking all the questions, it's just simple for them, which is pretty cool.

Speaker 2: 13:27

Yeah, I mean, you were the first chiropractor that I had ever seen in my in my life period and that's even being, you know, in the military and going through you know all of that, the jumps and stuff. You were the first one. So, yeah, it absolutely makes a difference and it's really cool to hear you talk about that and I hear the passion coming through, yeah, or, you know, I'll say, obsession coming through. Right, so that's what we are so well, let's, let's jump into the the topic right.

Speaker 2: 13:55

Cause there's several, I know I sent you over a list and you're like oh my God, Joe, we're going to be talking for two days on this Because but I think we've got some good, good, good picks, so to speak. But let's just start really with the basics and in your mind. How does chiropractic care really benefit jujitsu practitioners?

Speaker 3: 14:21

So many ways. So the classic kind of description of how chiropractic benefits just the general population is a few picture. So our goal is to take pressure off of the nerves, your nerves, everything in the body, right From muscles to organs, to you know, just running all of sensory input from your fingers and they're basically like telecommunication systems, so you want them to function as optimally as possible. However, as many of us have experienced through sports activities, all of that sort of stuff known nerves are pretty easy to get pinched or spasm or get inflamed. It can be caused by all sorts of different things. But if you picture the nerve like let's just use the example of a water hose, right, you're watering your lawn and the water's coming out, fine. But if someone comes out and puts a brick on the water hose, all of a sudden water's still coming out, it's just dribbling out right.

Speaker 3: 15:27

So it's kind of the same thing with a nerve. Or if that nerve is being impinched by muscle spasms, bone overgrowth or like bone spurs, joints that are just what we call subluxated or slightly out of place, it can cause kind of that same effect as the water hose, where they're still firing. You're still getting function, but is it functioning optimally? No, you could water your lawn a lot faster if that brick wasn't on the hose right? So in terms of jujitsu, you know you have to not only be, you have to be strong. You have so much core strength and arm strength you also have to be fast, and if those nerves aren't functioning optimally, then they're not. You know they're not going to fire at full speed, which could be the difference between you getting the takedown or the other person right.

Speaker 2: 16:18

So yeah, yeah, I think that's absolutely. That's a great answer, I guess for me, right, or for most of the listeners and the untrained. I don't think we think about how intertwined everything is inside the body and the muscles and things like that. What do you think are some? Have you been? Well, let me ask this have you been working? Were you working on jujitsu practitioners prior to us at Alliance, or was this kind of the first exposure to jujitsu practitioners?

Speaker 3: 17:09

Yeah, so I would say I've been around. I went to chiropractic school actually with a couple people that did jujitsu and that's how Dar, my husband, ended up getting into. It was because one of my buddies from school asked him to come one day, just kind of on a whim, and he went and he fell in love with it and the rest is history. So I've been kind of around it and hearing them talk about it and actually through chiropractic school some of those guys who did jujitsu were my patients going through school. So it's kind of funny how it's jujitsu has woven itself into my chiropractic career. I guess I hadn't really thought about it until you asked that question, but it really has been around ever since I started chiropractic school.

Speaker 2: 17:55

Yeah, I'm going to do the name of that person that referred, because that's the reason I spend most of my mornings in a lot of pain now. So well, guys, you just murdered me. What was it? What's the day? Wednesday, anyway. So okay, well, knowing that, and what do you think are some of the common injuries in jujitsu, that techniques in chiropractic techniques? Can help prevent and manage, and I think you talked a little bit about like the pinched nerve, but are there?

Speaker 3: 18:34

others. Yeah, oh yeah. So I know, like the, probably the biggest one I see quite frequently is ribs tend to be an issue just because of that, simply the positions that you're in, and it puts a lot of pressure and you get twisted and curled up into a ball and then you're trying to, you know, sneak your way out of it, and I see a lot of rib issues. Where they can, they can be what we call subluxated, which I've used that term a couple of times. So just to explain what that means, the technical definition for it is basically a minor luxation, so it's not dislocated, it's just hairline millimeters out of place.

Speaker 3: 19:18

But when that nerve is millimeters big, that can make a big difference. And there are a lot of nerves that wrap all the way around your ribs and then you know that can have pinpoint pain, like pinching, but it also can cause difficulty breathing, and so anytime someone says, oh, I have a sharp pain, and you take the time, I take a deep breath. It tends to be a rib that is kind of, you know, fiddled around a little bit and is pressing on one of those nerves, and I would think I think that's one of the big issues or more common things that I see, other than that? A lot of joints, joint issues, where you know you're twerking your shoulders, your elbows, your wrist, ankles, all sorts of stuff. So just making sure that those structures around the joints are strong enough to handle the amount of pressure that's placed on them, right?

Speaker 2: 20:11

right. When I think about chiropractic work and things like that, I don't think about the ribs, for some reason, I think it's all in the back, but that's in the scope, right, that's in absolutely.

Speaker 2: 20:27

the ribs need some TLC after a lot of hard training and you know when I roll with our professor and you know hard rig is huge it just feels like a truck for like two days is sitting on my chest and I I've never thought about, well, maybe I need to get you know some, some kind of work or adjustment or something. And that and that brings me to my next question what is like just quick definition of what? What is a chiropractic adjustment? Because that's what you've done on me a couple times now and like what's going on when that happens?

Speaker 3: 22:12

Yeah, so kind of similar to what I was talking about with the fire hose or the. The water hose example is, you know, the each vertebrae in your spine has a minimum of six or six joint articulations. Right has an articulation with the joint above the vertebrae above and articulations with the joint below, and then, if it's in your mid back of your thoracic spine, each of those vertebrae also articulates with a rib on each side. So there's up to eight different articulations that can kind of be putting pressure on the nerves at each level. And so basically what we're doing is trying to recognize where there's a restriction in one of those joints and then reintroducing movement into the joint to allow it to resume in like natural gliding tendencies, and so that takes pressure off the nerve and then all of the nerves can that innervate.

Speaker 3: 23:10

All of the things in the body can function optimally. So muscles, organs, you know all sorts of stuff. Pretty much everything it well, not pretty much everything in the body is operated from those nerves. So if we can take the pressure off of them, then that that's. That's the goal is to take all the pressure off of the nerves.

Speaker 2: 23:31

Got it, got it. Yeah, that makes a whole lot, a whole lot of sense. I've never thought about it, because when I think about adjustments, I think, like I can say this so you're adjusting something to make it better. Typically right or you're yeah, but in this case is is adjusting something to make it function properly.

Speaker 2: 23:55

Right so yeah, another question kind of in this, this section, that that, talking about adjustments, can you discuss a little bit about the role and because flexibility, mobility, things like that it's huge. And jujitsu, can you discuss the role of flexibility, joint mobility and pain reduction that you know adjustments have in increasing the the jujitsu athletes performance? Because at you know, alliance jujitsu team, whether it's head court any, any alliance has typically many of us compete right and opens in the world and things like that. So can you talk a little bit about that and the importance of it?

Speaker 3: 24:41

Yeah, absolutely so. One thing I think a lot of people don't understand is do you think if I asked you what the difference was between flexibility and mobility, do you feel like you have a good?

Speaker 2: 24:53

absolutely not. Differences Absolutely not.

Speaker 3: 24:57

So I would yeah, yeah, I think that's, that's really common and, honestly, when I started sports chiropractic I didn't know the answer. So I would say flexibility is how well the muscles themselves can stretch. So the muscles tend to be kind of like a rubber band. They should be able you should be able to stretch them, but then when you release it, they should, kind of they should be able to resume their natural shape, right, it shouldn't be like a super stretched out rubber band that's been had tension on it for 10 years and all of a sudden you let it go and it doesn't shrink back. So flexibility is creating that muscle tension to where it allow, it's allowed to expand and stretch, but also pre-contract, whereas mobility is more the quality of the motion in the joint itself. So the difference between the muscles and all the soft tissue, as opposed to the bony structures like, say, your hip joint, right, that should be able to move pretty freely in a circle.

Speaker 3: 25:59

But a lot of us don't have that Right. You know, we we can move it good and all of a sudden we hear some sandpaper cracks and it gets kind of crunchy, and then it'll move good again and it'll get all crunchy again, and so that's kind of the difference between the flexibility and mobility, both of which you need to do, because you know when you're in all these positions and everything. The muscles need to be able to stretch and come back to the normal length, but you know when you're in, have someone in close guard or you know anything like that. You gotta have the joint mobility to be able to get in and out of these positions and move around, and you gotta be limber enough to be able to change positions.

Speaker 2: 26:48

So yeah, yeah, no, that's great and really like how you broke down and described the difference between mobility and flexibility. I like how you talked about close guard, because you know most of us older guys, we almost always go into close guard.

Speaker 2: 27:05

That's how we survive against. You know these 27 and 29 year olds, you know mega athletes and. But what I did know, what I do notice, is like my hips and maybe my lower back will hurt a little more the next day, like if I'm playing from close guard and I go into lasso guard and I stay in lasso guard for you know it's with the leg intertwined and the opponent's arm and yeah, I feel like, wow, I'm feeling some kind of different here.

Speaker 2: 27:40

You know, I think it's you know I don't invest time like I should in mobility and flexibility practices and I think that's to my detriment a little bit.

Speaker 1: 27:50

And I think, if I think.

Speaker 2: 27:52

I think what I don't wanna say. I don't think if you're in this for the long game, you can ignore not doing mobility and flexibility work Right I? Mean.

Speaker 1: 28:04

I just don't.

Speaker 2: 28:05

I think it would catch up with you and maybe that's what's going on.

Speaker 3: 28:10

I always joke that it's pretty funny because you know we do these sports right Whether it's Jiu Jitsu, crossfit, horse riding, anything In part right, of course we love them, but in part to stay healthy and live a long, healthy life.

Speaker 3: 28:25

But we break our bodies doing that, just like we would if we weren't doing them right. Like you, either hurt if you don't do the thing, but you hurt if you do do the thing. But the difference is is if you are staying sedentary and not moving around a lot, you tend to create, like bone changes, which is what could cause the bone spurs and stuff like that, whereas if you're moving the joints, they're staying well, lubricated and keeping movement in them, which is the goal. Right, that's what creates the longevity that we're looking for to keep moving in 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond. I mean, if you start getting bone spurs and the joint phase starts to close down, that's when we get into real trouble. So, and then chiropractic just adds on to that, because the adjustment helps introduce more space into the joint. So it's pretty cool to see all of it and it's just the body's amazing, the things that it can do and the things that it knows to do without anyone telling it to you.

Speaker 2: 29:24

Yeah, yeah, it's almost like it's on autopilot, but you have to take care of it. And I think one of my I think my favorite quote because I love quotes was one that compared the body to an instrument and it's the greatest one you'll ever own. And you'll miss it when it's gone. There's all kind of quotes around that, so which actually kind of brings me a little bit to the next thing I wanna talk about is longevity in the sport and the importance chiropractic work has in that If you actually talked a little bit about it, you know, a little bit ago and you know.

Speaker 2: 30:04

Just share some of your insights on long-term health and wellness in the sport of jujitsu right, like I mean do practitioners need to be going once a month to a chiropractor? Once a week, do you know? I hear a lot about massages and things like that. What kind? Of things do we need to be doing to ensure that long-term health and also a follow-up? Does age matter?

Speaker 3: 30:33

Well, one thing I love about jujitsu is that it really is a forever sport. I mean, have you seen jujitsu grandma on Instagram.

Speaker 2: 30:41

Oh God, she's awesome.

Speaker 3: 30:43

I can't wait to see. I think it's math, right, she's.

Speaker 2: 30:46

and I you know what she does she beats people down and she's a purple belt.

Speaker 3: 30:51

That's what I'm saying, right.

Speaker 2: 30:52

And then I listened to a podcast, so my white belt it's Jim Trick. He actually inspired me to start this podcast. He's just awesome and he had someone on his one of his last episodes I listened to. It was a 75-year-old guy who got his black belt. He didn't start jujitsu until he was 65.

Speaker 3: 31:15

Heck, yeah, that's crazy, right, see, and that's what I love is, I mean, everyone's path is different, everyone has experiences with different things, but age really isn't an excuse. You know, like I've seen some amazing things. I mean, there are. I got my Russian kettlebell certification, which is like functional movement specifically with kettlebells, and in order to get your certification, you have to be able to do 100 kettlebell snatches in less than five minutes. I got my certification there with someone who was almost 80 years old.

Speaker 2: 31:51

No way don't tell me that.

Speaker 3: 31:54

And I thought to myself I was like well, if I can't do this, then I gotta get my life together because homeboy over here just made it look easy and he was doing more weight than I was.

Speaker 3: 32:06

And so does age matter? Not really. I mean, of course, depending on where you're at in a certain age, you might have to adapt your strategy a little bit different. And I don't know any coach, trainer, professor that isn't willing to work with you to help get you to where you wanna be, at, whatever age. They're all in the industry because they wanna help you and they wanna get you to where you wanna be. And just like how you get there might look different than how a 25 year old gets there, but I really liked Jiu Jitsu for that reason, because you can do it forever, like there's really no reason that you can't.

Speaker 3: 32:48

But, that being said, like you do have to take care of your body. And you know, if you pull a muscle, don't just ignore it and wait for it to go away and then keep going back to the gym and putting too much pressure on it, because all that's gonna do is keep tearing it, ripping it, ripping it and then it's gonna end up tearing. So we wanna create healthy tissues, healthy joints, healthy movement patterns, and it's pretty cool that sports chiropractors can do all of those things. So definitely being and the reason I got into chiropractic was to be proactive and preventative in good quality movement, rather than reactive, you know, like oh, I tore a muscle and now let's do something about it.

Speaker 3: 33:33

Like we really wanna beat it before it happens, rather than okay, now I'm broken and I need to be fixed, cause that's when we end up having to take breaks from doing the things we love and no one likes to do that.

Speaker 2: 33:47

Yeah, so part of long-term health is just paying attention to your body and taking the time before you have to take time right.

Speaker 1: 33:55

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2: 33:57

So there's another kind of topic I wanna talk about within this space, and do you view chiropractic type work therapy as kind of like a holistic health approach? Is it classified like that, or?

Speaker 3: 34:19

is it? Yeah, so chiropractic is holistic in nature, because the goal in chiropractic is to get to the root cause of the injury, right Like? A good example is I was working on someone at the gym at Alliance in Roswell and he was having elbow pain and he couldn't get rid of it. Couldn't get rid of it and I was looking around the elbow and there was really nothing out of sorts. And you may or may not know this, but all the nerves that come down the arms start in the neck right. They come out of the cervical spine in the neck. So I kind of traced his pain up towards the neck and, sure enough, adjusted his neck and the elbow pain was gone.

Speaker 2: 35:00

Oh, wow.

Speaker 3: 35:03

And so it's just yeah, it's pretty cool.

Speaker 2: 35:06

Yeah, and the reason I ask is so, if it's kind of holistic in nature do you? Think there's an importance when it comes, an importance and a correlation when it comes to diets, your mental health, your physical conditioning all that play in part with good chiropractic care right.

Speaker 1: 35:32

Like I mean, are there?

Speaker 2: 35:32

foods you can eat that like will help you stay aligned. You know, I don't know. I just I wonder that right, because if there is, I mean, is it like Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, because I should be really good? So I've had like two of those today. Not the big packs, but like the little Christmas.

Speaker 3: 35:51

You got the Kings, by the way, these cups.

Speaker 2: 35:54

I mean no, we're gonna end that out, but yeah.

Speaker 3: 35:58

I mean I can't speak to specifics is something certain foods gonna help you stay in alignment better, but of course, there are foods that are known to be more inflammatory in nature. Things like a lot of sugar or for some people, like gluten, seems to get them really inflamed. Things like that can be really inflammatory soy, eggs, all sorts of stuff but that's really dependent on the person. Of course, sugar is pretty much inflammatory for everyone, unfortunately. Oh that's true. I know so your Reese's Peanut Butter Diet is-?

Speaker 2: 36:38

Well, it's probably my coffee too, because I have a little bit of coffee with my creamer. So, yeah, I know it's bad.

Speaker 3: 36:45

Everyone has their, everyone has their their-.

Speaker 2: 36:50

Their vices? What?

Speaker 3: 36:51

sort their vices. Yes, exactly, Everyone has their vice. So if coffee with creamer is yours, I'd say they're a lot worse vices. Oh yeah yeah, I definitely think that. Well, don't think Diet definitely has a big effect on kind of your longevity, but in terms of making an adjustment or a chiropractic care last longer, probably, you know not, not as much.

Speaker 2: 37:15

What about? What about like mental health and stressed and anxiety? Okay, then we'll keep this looking at that, because I hear so. Well, I'll just share my kind of story here. So I have PTSD from the military and it's actually chronic anxiety and I notice sometimes when I'm having maybe a bad week on it or something like I'm real tense in them. I'm tense in my muscles up in my back and in my neck or I'm sitting. Maybe I'm grinding my teeth and I don't notice. Does that play into any of this, Do you think?

Speaker 3: 37:56

Definitely so. I kind of touched on it briefly earlier. But the spine being out of place and putting pressure on the nerves is just one way that nerves can have pressure on them. Nerves are all intertwined with the muscles and so muscular tension can actually also put pressure on the nerves.

Speaker 3: 38:15

So things like that where you know your shoulders are up in your ears because you're so stressed out and then your upper traps and your shoulders get really tight and that's one of the most common places I mean that can your nerves from your neck are all woven into, you know, your pec muscles, your trap muscles, going down into your arm, and so then people have that shooting pain down their arm into their fingers and it can actually not be a nerve issue at all, it's just the tight musculature. So just another reason why you know preventative either chiropractic care or even preventative physical therapy or you know some people do both is really important for preventing these things and, and you know exercise, added into that, is also stress relief. So it's all just a big cycle and it's all. It's all connected. And the the more I learn about the body and the systems and how it works, I feel like the less I know, because it's just so intertwined and.

Speaker 2: 39:16

That's the way I feel about your jiu-jitsu.

Speaker 3: 39:19

Right, exactly.

Speaker 2: 39:20

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 39:21

The more you learn the less.

Speaker 2: 39:23

You know the way I live life at this point. Yeah, I think that's that's true for a lot of things in life, and definitely for the things that are worth doing, because you know, that means you're always going to be challenged, you're always going to be pushed.

Speaker 2: 39:36

So just a little bit, so just you know. A couple more questions. Sure, and going into the weeds a little bit here, what would you say are some daily routines or practices that you would recommend jiu-jitsu athletes and practitioners do to support spinal health and maybe overall well well-being, in conjunction with, you know, getting the regular adjustments and stuff like that?

Speaker 3: 40:01

Sure. So one thing that no one on this planet ever does know, especially us athletes, is stretching after a workout. I've seen you and Dar walk out of the gym, walk right out Right out. Yep, hop off the mat, put your shoes on, you take a sip of water and then you walk out.

Speaker 2: 40:20

That's probably the only sip of water I'll take that morning.

Speaker 3: 40:24

But yeah, yeah, 100%, I know I feel it about an hour later.

Speaker 2: 40:27

I'm just all tight and like I'm like, oh, I should have stretched yeah.

Speaker 3: 40:31

So the best time, the best muscle to stretch is a warm muscle. So, like the five minutes after after you train is the most valuable in terms of getting the best bang for your buck on. You know, creating that mobility and flexibility that we talked about earlier, things like hip circles, or you know some sort of supine twist of the spine to create some motion. You know where you lay on your back and kind of drop your knees to one side and then drop your knees to the other side to kind of create that rotation in that low back.

Speaker 2: 41:05

Right.

Speaker 3: 41:06

Some sort of like thread the needle for your mid back.

Speaker 3: 41:10

A lot of us, especially people who sit for work, our midbacks get so tight and so locked up in that mid back, between your shoulder blades, is supposed to be the most mobile part of your spine and because of how much we're sitting and how little we're moving around now it's tending to be the least mobile part of our spine which is causing us low back pain and neck pain and all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 3: 41:36

So just taking the five minutes after workouts, we'll you know whether it's to get to do or weightlifting, anything like that. The warm muscle is. You're going to get the best bang for your buck when your muscles are warm. So that, but also I would say, creating strength and stability for all of the smaller muscles, is really big, because a lot of pain and a lot of injuries actually are caused by instability of the joints. We do all mobilization and flexibility and all of that stuff, which is great and we definitely need that, but sometimes, if the joints too mobile, the brain sees it as a threat to the joint, so it locks everything down, which which creates muscle spasm around the joint and then it creates that pain response that the body's like don't do it anymore. Don't do it.

Speaker 3: 42:26

It's not a big part, but it's actually because the joint has no stability and so the brain freaks out, and anyway, I'm going off on a tangent again.

Speaker 3: 42:34

but no, that's, that's awesome Like yeah, things like shoulders, hips, they need a lot of stability. They're big joints, they go, you know they go in every direction. So we really want to make sure that they're stable so that they can function optimally. And also when we, when you get put in arm bars and all sorts of stuff, you know it has the ability to lock it down so it doesn't go too far. Yeah, like you got to have that stability to back it up. Otherwise, you know your joint's going to be moving in directions where we do not want it to go.

Speaker 2: 43:06

So, yeah, I know that there there are so many practitioners out there now and there are going to be some that listen to this that that's going to speak to, because none of us. I bet you could tour all of the Jiu Jitsu academies in school, or at least a large percentage of them, and you'd see the same thing. They just get up after you know 30 minutes of hard intense. I mean we look like we're about to die when we come off, right Like we're dripping sweat and they were just like yeah, do us.

Speaker 1: 43:37

A sea of them are you know and then we go sit down or maybe we'll drink a protein shake or something than me.

Speaker 2: 43:43

I have one of those, you know, office jobs where, like I could, be sitting in a board meeting for you know an hour, or I could be sitting on the phone or conference, you know. So it's not like I'm coming to work and you know, doing my stretches at my desk I'm not, no, I'm not. So that's great. I'm really glad you know we talked about that, because I think it's critical to kind of call everybody out on the carpet and hear why that stuff's so important because I believe it would definitely change a lot of our games or my game if we focused on that more.

Speaker 3: 44:22

So I will say I've noticed that at the Alliance and Roswell and specifically because of the only time I've really truly watched a whole training session. But you do a really good job warming up which is a huge portion.

Speaker 3: 44:38

We just really need to improve the cool down because when you go from really hot muscles and then you walk outside especially in Georgia, not today, but in the past few days where it's 30 degrees outside, your muscles just like shrink up and you know that can do a lot of long term damage, you know, if we do that every day, so even just like three to five minutes every day after training will make a huge, huge difference, like I guarantee. If you start today, next week I'll be hearing from you about how much better you feel. Yeah, well, that's really is that fast.

Speaker 2: 45:13

Yeah, that's. My commitment is tomorrow because I'm not going to go into the morning class and I haven't told dark that yet.

Speaker 2: 45:20

But I'm not going to the morning class I'm going to the afternoon or the lunch class, so I'm going to try that, because I'll have a little more time to do things too. So so, really, last last question here, and then any closing thoughts or insights that you want to share, share to the listeners. You know, if there's this one thing, but what I do want to do is give you the chance, because I hear a lot of myths and misconceptions when it comes to, like chiropractic care.

Speaker 3: 45:50

And you know what?

Speaker 2: 45:52

are there any out there that are just outrageous, that you're like yeah, I want to this, you know debunk.

Speaker 3: 46:01

So one I would say is chiropractic is has become our field has grown so much that there are a lot of different kinds of chiropractors. So I you know there's people who are very much more energy focused, even in the industry. We call them woo woo chiropractors or they're focused on kind of you know the the super philosophic chiropractic, which is a lot more about, you know, turning the power on and making sure the whole body's functioning optimally, versus, you know kind of more what I do, which is the sports chiropractic. It's a little bit more of the like functional medicine, kind of physical therapy side of things. So you know, the cool thing is that they all work.

Speaker 3: 46:50

You know people go to the willow chiropractors and see great results. People come to sports chiropractor to see great results. It's just really specific on you and what you're looking for and what you need you know, based off of what your day to day looks like. So one thing is just really looking for a chiropractor that you you jive with kind of the messages that they put out there and what their specialties are, because you know if you say, if you went to a willow chiropractor you'd be like screw this chiropractic nonsense. This doesn't make any sense to me Like I don't need this. This isn't helping my huge knot that I have in my shoulder blades.

Speaker 2: 47:29

I was wondering if that was going to make an appearance today. God, that thing was huge, right, that was crazy. I was still hoping for a name for it. I know I need to like and I would have never found that if you wouldn't have. That was, that was crazy I like when you, when you found it, I immediately felt it, but before that, I was like, oh my God, I felt so great after.

Speaker 2: 47:50

Yeah, no, but I do need to name it. I'm thinking like like this is going to sound weird, but like Charlie, because you know, like Charlie horse and kind of play on words anyway, okay, yeah right, all right, so it's your pet knot, so whatever you will, well, I hope it's gone and I hope it doesn't come back. But if I don't stretch and keep doing crazy stuff, it probably will. So Right.

Speaker 3: 48:16

So yeah, I think that would be one thing, and the second thing if I had to debunk one more theory is that actually chiropractic is no longer just about back pain. You know, like I've seen people in the gym who have issues with their shoulders and their knees and their ankles, and that guy with the elbow pain, and it's not all treated from the spine. That's why we do soft tissue work and we can adjust extremities and all sorts of things. So I know Dar comes home from to just do some days and complains about his toes hurting or his fingers hurting, and so I work on his hands and his feet and all that sort of stuff too. So don't not go to a chiropractor or sports chiropractor or physiotherapist just because it's not back pain.

Speaker 2: 49:04

Has dark ever come home and said man today, joe kicked my butt, he hasn't, has he? He's never said that.

Speaker 3: 49:13

How do I answer this question without getting in trouble either way?

Speaker 2: 49:17

No, no, well, I already know the answer.

Speaker 3: 49:19

The answer is probably not, so he has not mentioned you specifically but he has come home and he has said it was he just, it was really hard this morning and then flopped onto the couch. Oh yeah, okay. Well, was that thanks to you? Yeah, 100%.

Speaker 2: 49:36

I'm in there somewhere. So, no, it's gosh, we love training in the mornings, it's just so amazing and we do have great warm ups and that's cool downs Not so much. But thank you so much for you know, kind of busting those myths, I think it's. I think it's important to you know. It's funny is the person I was talking to this about that had all this you know commentary about it is someone probably hadn't been to a chiropractic and a chiropractor in a long time, if ever, right. So, and that's always where, you know, these myths come from typically never, from knowledge, right?

Speaker 2: 50:20

So, final thing, any final thoughts that you want to share with the listeners, and just, it can be literally anything. Maybe that we've discussed any points you want to drive home, anything like that.

Speaker 3: 50:38

The biggest thing I will preach to everyone for the rest of my life is really just take care of your body. You only get one of them and unfortunately it's kind of like what you said about the instruments. I mean, if you abuse it there's, it's really hard to get it back. So as soon as you can start moving it and preventing injuries and preventing future aches and pains, the better off you're going to be for as long as possible. And whether it looks like walking I mean, even if you're not an intense athlete who is crazy enough to do jiu-jitsu, just any sort of movement or ride horses or ride- horses, which I think is way crazier, by the way.

Speaker 2: 51:22

way crazier Like how did those people ride a horse full speed with like armor and like into battle and anyway, no, that's not. Yeah, Emily, thank you so much for coming on.

Speaker 2: 51:38

Yeah, this has been awesome and I feel more educated and motivated to, you know, take care of myself better, and I know that there are a lot of listeners and that's one of the things you know. Thank you to all the listeners because we've seen a huge spike over the past several episodes and people interested in the podcast. So you know, we have guests on, like yourself, that are they're able to, you know, bring some really subject matter expert on a topic. I think that's great. So thank you again for being here and for the rest of you, stay grounded, stay caffeinated and let's roll through this journey together. We will see you on the mats for the next episode.

Speaker 1: 52:37

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