Imagine if you will, that you are sleeping comfortably in your warm bed. Then there is a loud noise actually a bunch of loud noises. In the midst of this roaring din, you come to realize that you are not in your warm bed but in a pit of lions. Somehow, you managed to have a slumber party with the King of the Jungle, and didn’t end up being a midnight snack. The loud noises aren’t the lions letting you know that you are going to be the continental breakfast but the onlooking crowd bellowing out in amazement that you made it out alive. Daniel in the lions’ den was always one of my favorite stories growing up. It was comforting to know that even though I could be surrounded by ferocious beasts I would still be protected.
There’s another story about lions. In this one, a soldier has to go alone into a snowy pit to deal with a vicious lion. As if it wasn’t bad enough, having to fight a lion this man had to beat the brakes off of two guys that looked like they were the blood brothers of the Ultimate Warrior. Benaiah beat those two guys and turned that lion into a Snuggie. Then he helped make Solomon the king. Benaiah was “bout that life.”
Why did one guy get to sleep with the lions and the other one had to throw hands? It’s funny how sometimes we get put in situations where the only thing to do is be still. Then you have to roll up your sleeves and get dirty in other situations. Both guys were in the lions’ den but two vastly different outcomes.
Here recently, I’ve been in some trying situations. Situations, that had me stressed and close to broken. I looked back on the decisions that I made and second-guessed everything that I did leading up to that moment in time. Being in a spot where you don’t know where to turn, what to do, or if you can even make it out alive will mess with your head. After praying about things I needed to decide if I would rest or fight.
At times rest/pausing was the solution. I needed to evaluate things a little more or wait for the dust to settle. If I would have tucked my head down and pushed through I would have missed the answer because I would have been too busy being busy to see what was appearing out of the fog.
Other times, the kid needed to put his headgear on and get dirty. These situations called for some type of action on my part. I needed to step out of my comfort zone and take action either by seeking out that new referral source or doing that thing I didn’t want to do but knew had to be done. Lions in their own nature seem to understand this concept very well. They have an understanding of when it’s time to rest and when it’s time to be a Lion. Daniel and Benaiah were both in the lions’ den but they each had a different purpose and each purpose required a different action.
Hey, I’m Q. Jordan and I’m a “Too”. I’ve always been “too” something. Usually too much or too extra. I’ve been told I talked to White I’ve been told I talked too urban. I’ve been called too loud and then told I’m too quiet. I’m too wild or I’m too reserved. my whole entire life has always been I’m too something. It always seems that when I’m told that I’m too something is used to try to put me down or break me. I could be wrong on this but in my recollections the conversations that I’ve had when I was too wild too Urban, I talk too White or I use too much slang. I’m too quiet, too slow, too fast we’re all used as an insult or to tell me I would never make it. It’s funny how words can be used to knock you down. What people may mean for constructive criticism if said the wrong way can be another hurdle for you to overcome.
I’ve listened to patients being told that their backs were too weak. That their muscles are too frail. That they were too old or too small to get better. that the situation was too severe for them to progress. I’ve watched people be broken down and trip into conceding defeat before even stepping into the fight because of words. I’ve watched as my own words which I meant to motivate someone tear them down. It’s funny how we’re told sticks and stones may break our bones but words can never hurt us those words can wreak havoc on our mental state which in turn jacks up our physical state.
I’ve tried in my years after the therapist to watch what I say to my patients to provide more encouraging words to them so it does not break them down. but then I’ve been told that my communication skills are too limited or that I use too many big words or that I’m too verbose or too laconic.
I usually relish the opportunity to make someone swallow their words whole. but there is something about being told that my clinic was too little or too rinky-dink or too new and that hurt me. So I started to think about these things. Unfortunately, that’s what my clinic became for a while, a small little mobile PT Clinic with a limited reach not many patients, and not much word of mouth.
Then I stumbled upon some patients that were told that they were too far gone or their heart was too bad, their back was too weak or their body was too frail. These were good people. What kind of hearts that as soon as you meet them you become family to them. how I was raised Nobody messes with family. You can say whatever you want about me but when your words or your actions hurt my family it’s a problem. That’s how I took those situations with those clients. if they were called too frail, the training was geared toward making them strong. If they thought they were too frail, too weak, or too feeble when they left me they thought they could take on the world.
That’s what they said I brought to the table. sure it’s not the biggest it’s not the coolest it’s not the most spacious but what I do and when I bring to the table is confidence and a passion that motivates people. They say I can get them to do more than what they thought they could do and what they wanted to do. that I had a sneaky way of getting what I wanted to be done while making it seem like it was their idea and they were all the happier for it.
One of them asked me why I hadn’t applied those same tricks to growing in my business. and the only answer I could give him at the time was that I guess I was too scared. for somebody with the name Fearless that’s not a good look. The person told me that I need to go out there like I do with my therapy sessions with the confidence that I know what I’m doing and I’m done. I’m the best person for the job. That I need to take every loss and failure as a chance to come back harder like I told him. He said that upon first meeting me I just seemed like too much but in a good way.
Being too much isn’t so bad I guess. It’s part of who I am and I like myself. I have achieved a lot by being just “too much and too extra.” So I guess if anyone else is considered too much or too extra, own that bad boy.
So, last night I had a dream. For some reason, as a 41-year-old man, I’m stuck riding the pine on my son’s Varsity Basketball team except he wasn’t there. All of a sudden guys who played on my high school team just started appearing pushing me further down the bench. Rob, my best friend from high school, lobbies to get me into the weekend tournament but the coach says no. Actually, the coach says HELL NO. Growing up playing ball on the neighborhood courts was really just a way for me to hang out with the guys, a way to try to make friends. I really didn’t care about scoring because I wasn’t that good at shooting or dribbling and just kind of drifted to improve the other parts of my game. Honestly, I had more fun just running around than with the rock in my hands. My game was more Rodman than Jordan, which was always a source of jokes.
My bad got off track. So after the coach said I was going to stay buried in the depth chart the gym morphed into my old high school gym. Dejected about being told I would never play, I wander down the hall into the wrestling room. There stood Coach Riddick or as we called him Deebo, the assistant wrestling coach, rearranging the room that for the time being was basically being used as storage due to the basketball tournament. We called him Deebo because he looked just like Deebo except for the lazy eye. He frequently drove the guys who didn’t have a ride home so me and my boy Mookie had to listen to a lot of his talks.
“Why are you on the basketball team, boy that’s not you. I thought you loved wrestling, why did you quit?”
“I don’t know, it just got too hard, I got tired of losing. Besides, my friends were all playing basketball.”
He chuckles, “ Boy you’ve always been a complainer and always been animated. That never stopped you from getting back up and putting in the work to get good. You were close to becoming really good but you stopped and went to this. Are you even enjoying this the way you enjoyed wrestling? I think you need to let loose who you really are. That person pushed himself to be better and motivated others around him to go harder. That person got back up and found a way.”
Just like that Deebo vanishes and the basketball court, the whole gym dematerialized and I’m watching the t.v. in the apartment back in PT school. It’s the Ultimate Fighter final, the very first one. Stephan Bonnar, r.i.p, and Forrest Griffin are tearing each other a new one. Neither fighter is backing down. No matter how hard these guys got hit they moved forward. 3 rounds of No Quit. I was energized.
Coming out of my slumber, I questioned what my dream was about. What did me riding the pine in basketball mean and why was it that I had a conversation with Deebo out of all people. It left me thinking have I really gotten that far away from my WHY in life that I needed a lecture from my old wrestling coach.
I’m still trying to gather my thoughts from this dream. My head is racing with thoughts on what basketball and wrestling really represent. Was it a cry from my subconscious mind or just a result of not fully reheating the chicken I ate for dinner? Since it did take me back to high school, the lesson was something along the lines of “Make it a great day or not the choice is yours” which was the signoff for the morning announcements. Maybe my wife just had it so hot in the bedroom that it took me back to the wrestling room.
“Hey Dr. Q I just want to talk to you and see where your facility”
“well we’re mobile right now so we come out to your house or we take you to your gym to do your therapy “
“What about all the machines that my doctor says I need to move my knee?”
“Well honestly whatever could be done at a clinic can also be done at your home and if we need to use heavier weights than my kettlebells I have access to multiple gyms.”
“Well my doctor said I needed these machines to move it and I just don’t see how this can be done in my home because there’s nothing here. The clinic has machines to do my therapy I don’t get s**** here.”
“Well, honestly the only machine that you need to get better is connected to you. Our bodies need the appropriate loading and stress to the injured structures to heal. The equipment is just an extra tool in the toolbox. Most of the equipment that you use in the clinic I have in my trunk right now.”
“ NO! My doctor says I need to use the equipment and he’s adamant that I use equipment so I’m just gonna go to this place.“
I’ve had this conversation so many times where somebody starts off inquiring about my services but when they find out that I’m mobile they have a hard time picturing how we’re gonna do therapy without the fancy treadmill and other machines with LED lights and sounds. It gets frustrating because it seems like I can convince people I don’t have any relationship to the benefits of in-home outpatient therapy more easily than I can’t people that I have known sometimes for 10+ years. Other times it’s the doctor who is so adamant that they need to use equipment that they go to another place first even though they want to come here. Sometimes, quiet is kept, and the MD if they are so adamant about going to a specific place has a relationship with the said clinic and tries to push patients to that clinic even though in the state of Virginia and many other states the client can go to whatever clinic they so choose.
What’s funny, to me, is that I’ve worked in multiple PT clinics and managed most of them. I was responsible for ordering all this fancy equipment. Invariably the equipment either collected dust or was used to allow the Therapist to catch up on notes.. I remember looking at the sale guide for different types of zero-gravity treadmills. Those things on the cheap end were as expensive as a new car meaning we would have to see more clients to cover that expense. I have a few friends who are therapists and they say that the Lexus of treadmills gets driven less than a Hummer during a price hike on gasoline.
Back in North Carolina, a vendor came to my clinic trying to sell me on a shockwave/ laser machine. The gist of the machine was that it sent “ shockwaves” down into your muscles to break up scar tissue to promote healing. The demo was great. It was fun to use after about two weeks that they became a coat hanger, a $10,000 coat hanger. That fancy machine was used on exactly 2 people for three visits each for a clinic that saw close to 100 clients a week. It did feel good on my knee but by the time I finished doing squats at the gym, my knee was hurting again.
I understand seeing the fancy equipment and wanting to go there because it looks like the place to be. In 2009, I fell into the trap of a gym that had new weight machines, the shiny cardio equipment. I was spending over $50 a month for membership. The thing was the gym was at least 20 minutes away from my job without traffic and since I lived 45 minutes from work. Let’s just say going home from the gym was the worst, especially after leg day. After a while it didn’t matter how fancy the cable machines were or how new the grips on the pull-up bars were. Getting there was just inconvenient. I was paying $50 a month in gym fees and did more working out at the house with my free weights.
When you go to P.T. clinic you expect to see treadmills, Nusteps, and UBE’s of many colors. Most do not realize that in a lot of those clinics you’re with an overworked physical therapist who’s treating three other people at the same time they’re treating you. Sure, being on the Nustep or the arm bike/treadmill will help to increase mobility but it also allows the P.T. to at least partially finish the note from the four patients an hour before. At times it’s not even a PT or PTA you’re working with so why not just pay $10 to use the same equipment at Planet Fitness especially if you’re on them for 20-30 minutes.
I’m going to give you a trade secret: you can go to Walmart and get a little pedal bike for $30-$50 and use it the same way you use the arm bike or the recumbent bike. Oh and that $2000 treadmill that the PT clinic has, which has to be fixed frequently, just go for a walk. Unless you’re training to return to sports or going to a PT specifically for running, no one is going to turn the treadmill speed past 2.0 mph and most people walk that speed.
There’s one more piece of fancy equipment in most PT clinics, the electrical stimulation device. You know the device that they plug up to you turn it on and you feel a little electrical current down your body and everyone disappears on you for 15-20 minutes. I love this machine, it is great at relieving temporary pain so I’m not going to bash it. I show people how to use one all the time then I have them go on Amazon or Wally World and purchase one for the price of their copay most times and now they have that temporary pain relief for the life of the machine.
I guess what I’m getting at is that the fancy equipment is only as good as the person, and the reason for you being put on that machine. Also, that fancy piece of equipment can be replicated by something you have at home unless you’re having to lift/move serious weight. I was always told that the sign of a good therapist was the one that can use the human body and simple objects that are present as the basis for the exercise program. That if I had to rely on machines and give everyone the same exercises no matter how the patient presented I was nothing more than a tech. That most patients don’t have fancy machines at home. That the art of therapy was looking at the patient, the n=1, and using what was available to get the job done.
5 months later
“Dr. Q how are you doing” “I’m good how’s everything going how did your therapy go”
“well all they did was put me on a bike and kinda left me alone to do the same for exercise all the time I really couldn’t do it at home”
“Well, how’s your knee feeling?”
“Well, it hurts when I go up my stairs because my stairs weren’t quite the same size as theirs when I try to clean my tub it hurts.”
The protagonist is warming up in the back. Short of stature and of medium build. Think Little Mac with a tan. His face is pale and sweaty. He says to his coach “Do you think I can win?”
“Champ, Champ, what aspects of your opponent’s game are you worried about?” A reporter asks while the champ is getting his hands wrapped. The champ looks like the love child of Sagat and the Incredible Hulk. He just laughs as his 40-0 record pops up on the screen.
The camera cuts back to the hero slowly walking down the ramp with a generic hip hop sound laden with extra bass roars in the background that somehow seamlessly transitions into Prince’s When Doves Cry. Cut to a montage of the hero taking classes and training. A shot pops up with his single mom in the hospital with multiple IV drips and the Doctor saying she needs surgery but it costs some exorbitant amount due to the poor insurance. The next shot is of him in the Financial aid office and him looking at a check that is only half of the amount promised. Then we see the hero calling someone on the phone with someone but he hangs up angrily. Dejected, he goes to the coach and tells him to sign him up. The coach tells him that it’s a long shot and that his mom won’t be happy. Cue scenes of various fights where the hero is getting worked but miraculously his hand keeps getting raised.
Beat morphs back into the walkout song. The Champ walks in the ring and the hero whispers to the coach “What if I go down?”
“Then go down swinging.”
Growing up I always loved a good underdog story. Something about the whole David and Goliath trope, facing insurmountable odds, just amped me up. I guess because I was always the runt of the litter surrounded by athletes and toughs that I just naturally fell in line with the underdog. The one that was ignored but refused to quit.
In my world, I frequently meet underdogs. People who have been told they will never be able to do something again. They usually have multiple comorbidities and after the evaluation sometimes I just look down at my notes and think “Aw smurf this ain’t gonna be good.”
I had the opportunity last year to work with another client who had so much going on medically that the thought of just being able to walk on the beach with their spouse did not seem like an achievable goal. The thing was this patient during the evaluation said that they had goals and a marriage to keep. The client said that they knew it was going to be hard and painful but they weren’t giving up easily.
This client was a rockstar. If I said 10 reps they did 12. There were hiccups where they had to go to the hospital for a few days due to medical issues. Each time they came back, they came back hard. Their level of enthusiasm and dogged persistence motivated me to push forward even when it looked like Fearless was going down. It took a while but eventually, they got to the point where they were able to walk on the beach and go out on outings with their spouse. They even signed up to join a gym. I asked them how they were able to push through. It was simple: the fight in them was bigger than the fight they were up against.
Scene:
The fight is furious with a drumbeat that punctuates every hit. The hero is dropped twice in quick succession. In slow-mo, as he hits the ground another quick montage hits of those closest to the hero telling him he is crazy or how he is going to end up beside his mom in the hospital. The champ goes in for the finish and one last flashback of the mysterious phone call and we finally hear the other end of the conversation. The person on the other end says they can’t help but if the hero just keeps pressing something good will come. The hero awakens and
With all his might flies up and connects with a thunderous punch to the jaw of the champ. The champs’ eyes roll-up. Fade to black cue theme song.
Hall of Fame Boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler said “It’s hard to get up at 5 am to do roadwork when you’re wearing silk pajamas.” I always thought this was a funny quote, just something a fighter said to talk about the heart of his opponent then I started to realize that these words rang true for so many situations.
I’ve been a Doctor of Physical Therapy now for 15 years and just looking back on this morning it’s so much easier to just hit the snooze button. In 2004-2005 I was struggling to stay in school, keep the lights on and food on my table. It didn’t matter because I had a goal to achieve. Just about everyday I’d get up before dawn and do a quick workout. I would then take the almost hour long bus ride to get to campus from my apartment on the southside of the city. Riding the bus was free to the students then and that meant I could save on parking and gas. Then I wake up early on the weekends just to make it to my job that paid me barely above minimum wage. Now I struggle to get out of the bed at 6:30 most mornings and I haven’t seen the inside of a bus when buck was a calf.
It’s not that I’m trying to glorify the struggle but that struggle brought me to the place of stability, of relative safety. This would be a good thing if I didn’t let myself become complacent. I developed a Que Sera…Sera type of attitude. The hard work, the early morning and late night studying and workout sessions that got me to the big dance became anathema to me. After opening my own clinic. It was hard embracing that grind again. It was so easy too many times to count for me to say “ I can just go make $95,000 here or I can go there and run a clinic.” After all those years of saying that I wanted something of my own, something better, why was it so easy for me to look back with fondness to a life that did not bring me joy. Mr. Hagler’s words ring true “It’s hard to wake up at 5 am when you’ve been sleeping in silk pajamas.”
I see it with my patients all the time. When we sit and talk and they tell me about the lives that they led, the things that they’ve done. Inevitably there comes a point where they got comfortable and stopped for some reason. Then they get comfortable and that nagging annoyance of pain gets serious and they’re having more problems than not. The notion that I’m retired now and I don’t need to do anything has allowed many people to become complacent on the couch and then with that sedentary lifestyle comes pain, weakness and loss of function.
Look at it another way. As children most of us are squatting, pulling, pushing, jumping, stooping all the ING words that your therapist or trainer tries to get you to do now you almost certainly did all the time as a child. As a child a lot of people were proportionately stronger than they were then. We all hung on the monkey bars and pulled ourselves up and in circles. Do you know how hard it is to do a pullup now as a 40 year old man and I can do more than most people nowadays and the sad part I can’t do a lot right now. Somewhere along the line we stop being children and putting stress through our bodies via play and for those of us that don’t find an active alternative to this the pain starts. A few years ago there was a big movement to move like a child/baby. It’s not that we should necessarily move like our toddler selves but we should still be doing some of the same things. The thing is try to get most people to get down on the ground and crawl. It’s hard getting some of us to get up to change the t.v. I understand, you’ve had a hard day or you’re tired but spending too long not putting stress in the joint, not lubricating your body by moving is a disaster waiting to happen.
I’ve seen it happen in relationships where a guy has been doing everything he could to get a particular girl. Then when they get together he stops doing those things gradually and the relationship becomes different. He no longer buys her flowers or opens her door. Maybe he went out of his way in his life. The guy or girl gets complacent and is first attracted to that person and because having the girl of his dreams with him is no longer a dream and is the norm. So they stop doing the things that helped them get the love of their life. Then that’s when problems can begin to arise and then heartache and pain.
Marvelous Marvin was talking about how hard it was to train once a fighter became champion or got that big purse they were gunning for and the difficulty in trying to make yourself do the things that brought you to that point in the first place. Most of us will never be a champion prize fighter but the situation is the same. We get to a point where it gets harder to do the little things that got us to the peak.
2020 was supposed to be the year of the Vision, Greatness, Magnificence . At the start of Physical Therapy school all we heard about was Vision 2020, the next evolution of Physical Therapy when we finally got our due. This year was also the year that Fearless Physical Therapy was to open in Virginia and take the 757 by storm. This was to be the year where all the hard work started paying dividends. The best laid plans of mice and men. Warning an epic rant is about to begin.
Vision 2020 was the next level for Physical Therapist. We would gain our autonomy. We were supposed to become the providers’ of choice. Finally get the respect of our peers and start making that money. Well in 2020 we got a 9% payment reduction from Medicare thrown into our collective face. Direct Access has happened but not to the extent we thought and it feels like sometimes the dreams that we got sold in 03 were just that. We still have to explain what we do and just about anyone can claim they do “Physical Therapy”. Yeah 2020 is the year of vision.
I started Fearless with enough money saved to last about 6 months. Did it the way all the books tell you too. I thought everything was cool. The best laid plans of mice and men. That money that was saved up ended up going to car repairs, repairs to other things and people needing money. On top of it all Fearless wasn’t bringing in the dollars like I thought it would. Once Covid-19 really started to spread around here traction for Fearless stopped. The little name recognition we were getting just stopped. No new patients coming in, no prospects and no cash. I had to borrow money from my family, something I said I’d never do again. Staying up late wondering how I’m going to pay the rent, car note and other bills. I haven’t been this low since God knows when. I always had a steady paycheck coming in once I finished PT school except for a few months back in 2014 when I transitioned back here. 2020 hit me hard and before I could get up stomped me down another 6 feet.
I’m definitely not the only one who is wiping dirt from off their face. I’ve watched many people struggle this year. People have lost family members, been hospitalized and just all kinds of loss. We’ve seen this country be torn apart at the seams and all the ugly truths laid bare. This wasn’t supposed to happen in 2020. At the onset of the year everyone was speaking life and claiming gains upon gains. Instead 2020 felt like the year of ROCK BOTTOM because we hit ROCK BOTTOM.
The thing is from Rock Bottom the only direction you can go is up. For me the hard times that have encircled me have led to a lot of gains. The problems of this year have allowed me to spend more time with my family. I’ve had the opportunities to learn a lot about running a business. It’s also allowed me to reassess things and return to the real WHY’s. The things that I can go back to when I’m at my wits end. It’s made me appreciate every patient that I did have and forced me to become stronger. My grandmother always told me that I have to be strong in adversity and stand tall and praise God even in the storms because no matter how rough the seas get he will keep me. If Fearless would have hit the trajectory I wanted… I would be in for a world of hurt later on. If I was successful starting off I wouldn’t have found mentors and people to learn from. I would have made some tragic mistakes because I would have felt like I didn’t need any help and would not have realized there were a lot of things about business that I was ignorant to.
The lull in scheduling also allowed me to learn more about current concepts in PT. I was able to sit back and reinforce things that I learned in Residency or in school. If I was seeing 20-30 patients a day I wouldn’t have been able to go back into the lab and get better at my craft. With fewer patients I was allowed to strengthen skills that have kind of gone by the wayside due to having to be forced to meet metrics at my previous jobs. I learned what my shortcomings were and how to fix them. These shortcomings could have been tragic if I had a high volume caseload for 2020 but once again there is a positive in a perceived negative. 2020 has shown me how to make something out of nothing. The funny thing about being on the floor looking at the lights is that it changes your perspective and if you want to have your hand raised in the end it forces you to re-evaluate what you’re doing wrong.
So yeah 2020 was hard. It felt like rock bottom was hit and hit hard. I know it’s hard to see a silver lining in a year where it seems like everything that could go wrong went wrong. Just have to change your perspective and focus on finding a meritorious solution to a meretricious situation. Give yourself a chance to vent, cry two tears and take advantage of the position that 2020 has put you in. I’m not going to lie it may seem implausible and downright impossible but with the right perspective anything can be possible.
My life has been filled with highs. I look back and remember all the sunshine that has shone bright in my life. The thing is in order to appreciate the sunshine you have to have some rain. My greatest moments have come after going through some great hardships. There were plenty of times that I wanted to throw in the towel, just hang my head and walk home. Luckily I’m a history buff and all throughout history there are stories of great achievements coming after being in a dark bleak place. Two stories have frequently come to mind for me recently, one biblical and one I first learned about in a movie from my youth.
In the beginning of the Book of Joshua, Joshua had the unenviable task of taking over for the great leader Moses. Not only that but to get to the Promised Land he had to lead the Israelites over the Jordan River which was in flood which was a problem. They didn’t have any boats to cross so it was a bigger problem. Then to pile it on across the river a band of rivals were already waiting just itching to pick apart the Israelites because the only way they could possibly cross would be in small groups. God spoke to Joshua and told him to Fear Not but to be strong and Courageous for he was with him as long as he obeyed God’s commandments and focused in on his word. The Jordan receded and they walked across, all of em. As long as Joshua and the Israelites obeyed God they won. The times they lost under Joshua was when they doubted or disobeyed they got whooped. The battle of Ai should have been easy but because the sin of one man the Israelites lost. They beat them the second time by being obedient. In fact as long as they did what God told them to do they won. When they let fear or disobedience creep in they took the L.
The Israelites didn’t get the full of their promised inheritance under Joshua because they couldn’t stay courageous and follow what they were supposed to do. The Israelites really had no alternatives. Sure they could always turn back but back there was the wilderness that they wandered through for 40 years but they weren’t too keen on that. Beyond that when looking back was being slaves to the Egyptians. They already got punished for saying they should just go back to Egypt so surely they wouldn’t be foolish enough to want to go back there even if it was familiar. No familiar may be what you know but there is no way you can grow if you stick with the familiar.
Just put your faith in God, be strong and courageous and do everything you are supposed to do no matter what it looks like. No matter how scary or bleak the situation looks. This year there were so many times where I was in the midst of a rock and a hard place. There were many times where it looked better to just turn back and go back to what I knew go back to what was easy. You can’t get to the promised land doing what is easy. So when the trials and hardships come you have to keep pressing forward.
I had to look at it like the Greek Mercenaries after the Battle of Cunaxa. In 401 B.C. Cyrus the Younger of Persia decided he wanted to usurp power from his brother Arsace. Cyrus found some of the best Greek Mercenaries to beef up his army. These were certified killers. The Warriors, one of my favorite movies as a child, was based on the Battle of Cunaxa and the fallout.
The Greeks knew how to war, these guys were expert fighters. We all heard about the 300 Spartans and the Battle of Marathon. The Greeks knew how to fight and they knew how to strategize. The Greeks had a thing about being outflanked so they took the position by the sea. Unfortunately this meant that Cyrus was closer to the middle. The Greek mercenaries held up their end and beat back every unit they came against barely losing a warrior but it didn’t matter because Cyrus was dead. The Greeks weren’t going to be paid worse off their leaders got tricked into attending a banquet where they were killed and the mercenaries were blocked from their ships. At that moment life for the Greek mercenaries could not have sucked more. No leaders and no way to sail back to Greece. Xenophon was one of the men elected as leader and he had a dilemma: they had no access to food, no safe haven, just enemies and a long arduous march to get home. Every time they advanced more fighting.
They just moved into enemy territory fighting every step up the way. They had to do this for 2 hard years. This was definitely not the road trip they signed up for. Life couldn’t get much worse but they kept pushing forward and after surviving every battle they got even stronger and even more emboldened. The mercenaries did finally make it back home. That’s what I love about this story, the fact no matter what they just kept fighting their way back home. No matter how many times they were pushed back, outflanked or outgunned they kept moving. You have to keep pushing, fighting , swinging for your goals no matter how many times you have to pick yourself back up.
The scariest time for a wrestler is the few brief moments on that scale as the weights rise and fall and finally settle on a number that holds your fate. Did mom’s spaghetti put me over? There’s no way that I’m over. I barely even sniffed lunch. Barely got any sleep last night because I left practice exactly on weight and I had to run to burn off that garlic bread. So there’s no way I can be over… right, the wrestling gods wouldn’t do me like that.
For every wrestler, judoka, boxer, and MMA fighter this is a nightmare that they live with each night not knowing if that scale is going to be a friend or foe. What occurs in those brief moments on that scale can derail weeks or months of hard work. Be too much over your designated weight and it’s curtains for you. It is commonplace to see athletes trying to shed those last few pounds on the day of a weight in. The tortuous look on the combatants face after they missed the first time and realizing that they have maybe an hour to redeem themselves on that scale. How could they be so irresponsible to come in over when they knew all this time what the target weight was? Sometimes it’s not a lack of professionalism or accountability that caused the failure. The human body can only do so much before it hits survival mode and turns itself against its owner. Physiologically speaking you can only strip away so much before the body says “I ain’t the one” and reverses in the other direction. Wrestlers have complained for years that they left practice at or below weight and the next day without eating anything gained weight. Coaches for years have said that they don’t want to hear the excuses and that the athlete needs to hold themselves accountable. In some cases, this is true as the athlete made mistakes along the way but in other cases, the artist just wasn’t physically able to get to that weight.
I consider myself lucky when it comes to cutting weight. When conditioning for the winter season I was only about 150 so dropping down to 130 was easy and from there it was cake because I was either going live at 125 or 130. If I’m honest I usually weighed in at about 123 so I could have gone to 119. I ran every night in enough clothes to fill a laundry hamper. My mom wasn’t happy about that. I ate more salad than a rabbit and my fiber intake was so copious that my mother contemplated buying stock in General Mills. When I did eat lunch it was rice or I splurged on taco day. I restricted my caloric intake during the season so I was never too far off my weight class. I missed weight one time during my first year and it didn’t happen again. In my junior season, I did think about dropping down to 19. I got down to 121 but my head hurt, I was tired and more irascible than usual. Another thing I noticed was that in practice I was not as explosive and fatigued quickly. During a match that I was winning by a wide margin, it felt like my heart was going to explode through my chest and I could barely stand. Why would dropping only a few extra pounds affect me to such a degree? In college, we were trying to get a club team off the ground, and with so few in numbers as long as I was in wrestling shape it didn’t matter much what I weighed since we only had practice.
A sauna is another method that has been used to lose weight Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com
Some friends and patients had to run the gauntlet to make weight. I remember the sauna suits and trash bags and spit cups. A patient one day asked me if I could wrap them in saran wrap before they put on their sweatsuit and sauna suit and taped their socks around their pants. That one took me back to my first week of conditioning and thinking wearing your pants in your socks was just the style for wrestlers. Then the patient proceeded to go to the gym. When they came back the next visit they informed me of having to do squats and ride the bike in the sauna and then the bath. I then had to explain to them the dangers of taking weight cutting to the extreme and asked did they seek out a nutritionist to help.
In the MMA world, the debate on weight cuts seems to be increasing with each event. With a recent fighter hurting themselves trying to get out of the tub and others struggling to make weight the debate is picking up steam. A heavyweight was close to missing weight and had to go back to the scales a second time because he exceeded the 265-pound limit. “Why not just fight a weight closer to your normal weight?” “Shouldn’t there be more weight classes?” “Why not just fight at a heavier weight because it isn’t bigger or better?”
Do a search on the internet on how to cut weight and get bombarded by ads for diet pills, weight-loss teas, fad diets, and sauna suits. Then there are the blog posts about how to shed 25-30 pounds in a week. So many thoughts and suggestions on how to shed pounds and sometimes not safely. It should be a simple equation: just take in fewer calories than you burn. True, that is the basic science to losing weight but it can get more complicated than that in the world of combat sports.
limitn caloric intake Photo by Kristina Paukshtite on Pexels.com
In school, we are taught that the safest way to lose weight and to keep it off is to shed no more than 2-4 pounds a week. More than that and invariably some of the weight especially the water weight comes back. Guys in practice would drop 5-10 pounds easily. If it was a hard practice a lot more can get burned off like putting butter in a microwave. Why then after leaving practice at weight or under the weight came flooding back by the time weight is checked that next morning.
bjj tournament 2/2020
A lot of times the excess weight loss is water weight and when the combatant hydrates the weight comes back. Back in the 90s, it felt like what weight class one wrestled was as much predicated on what their parents or coach wanted as much as science. Most dropped weight to get to a division where they felt like they would hold advantages over most of their weight class. Others dropped to avoid certain opponents. Most never heard of a hydration test and it was not uncommon to see a guy push themselves into dehydration their senior year to get that one last crack at winning a title in a much lower weight class than the one they wrestled in the year before. Shoot, even a set of calipers to determine percent body fat was unheard of for some teams. The thought process behind that being that the more senior wrestler would be more skilled and stronger than the younger wrestlers. Studies report that peak muscle performance declines when in a state or close to a state of dehydration. [1,4] Peak muscle strength may not come into play for some wrestlers with a slick style but the ability to execute quick movements including spinning around an opponent during a scramble also requires muscles to perform as best as possible. Studies have shown that attempting to drop 5% or more of body mass in a day can lead to impaired performance and make being able to cut weight again more difficult.[5]
Hydration testing during the season has become more common over the years. At the collegiate level athletes have the test performed to see how much weight they can safely lose. In the pro ranks, they also check randomly during camp to see how far off the combatant might be from fight weight. The UFC doesn’t let a fighter be more than 10% off from the weight class about a week or so from the fight. The thing is depending on the weight say 170 the fighter can be almost 20 pounds or more off at fight week. That’s not counting the weight they lost in fight camp. You can’t tell me Yoel Romero doesn’t walk around at 220 pounds. How accurate are these tests if a person is allowed to drop that much weight?
These tests have even been tested for accuracy with most being good indicators of when an athlete is dehydrated which is important as being dehydrated starts to go against body composition.[2] Many argue for weigh-ins the evening before because it allows the athlete proper time to euhydrate(rehydrate) One study shows that in athletes who weighed in the evening before about 42% had not reached euhydration while of the athletes who weighed in the morning of 50% had not achieved euhydration [3] There are many potential risks with competing while dehydrated including potential trauma to the brain. After all, when dehydrated the brain begins to lose some of the fluid surrounding it and thus losing some of its protection. This could potentially increase the likelihood of concussion. So how do we make things better?
A good start to help the athletes would be to employ a nutritionist. Someone that can help the athletes meal plan during the build-up to the competition. Someone who recognizes when and how to safely cut calories, what foods to avoid. I follow a lot of the wrestling pages on social media and some of the advice I see passed out to the athletes especially the younger ones is laughable at best and dangerous at worst. Being able to afford a nutritionist may not be practical for a lot of teams but maybe having the athlete perform more regular check-ups with their doctor could be helpful. Some insurances also pay for nutritionists and if not there is always the cash-pay option if enough of the team members can pool their resources. Paying attention to one’s body is also important. If the body keeps shutting down due to multiple difficult weight cuts maybe that lower weight is not for the athlete. Studies are documenting the mal-effects of starving and dehydrating the body have existed for years.
Going down to a lower weight class in and of itself is not a bad thing. Naturally most tend to drop excess weight during the fight camps and wrestling season. Dropping weight over a longer period appears to have no deleterious effects on performance while trying to drop the same amount of weight in a day or 2 has shown to be at times problematic (5,7) This excess weight can normally be kept off with a good diet. Trying to drop down further is also not a problem as long as it is done safely. Plenty of people cut weight without a lot of issues but there are also the stories of those that died due to a cut. Due to this, the ACSM has even taken a stance on weight cuts. [6]
sweating it out in a hot bath is another method Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Sometimes the measures that athletes take to drop down to another weight class can be harmful. Cocooning oneself in layers of sweats, saran wrap, and then putting on a sauna suit is a lot. Throw-in working out like a madman in the sauna while spitting into a cup takes it to another level. It doesn’t take a doctor to know that frequently rapidly dehydrating the body is not a good thing. Think about when you are sick and become dehydrated. How your body feels, the aches and pain, the mental fatigue, and then the cotton-mouth and the cramps. Imagine this on a quicker scale and this is just what it does to you on the outside imagine what happens at a cellular level. Then there’s also the use of diuretics which normally have precautions with them. This can be dangerous practice normally but in addition to the other techniques the issues expand. I will never forget after a weight in I walked into a guy sitting on the floor before a tournament. It was a guy who I wrestled before at 130 but since I was at 125 for this one we could be a little more cordial to each other. He was eating what I thought was chocolate like it was his last meal. At this point I’m starving and I had just weighed in so I’m good so I ask for a piece. He hands me one and says good luck. “Hunh?!” What was that about I so I look down at the chocolate rectangle and realize that was holding a piece of Ex-lax. No way was I going down that rabbit hole and have to go on the mat. I normally had butterflies in my stomach during the 1st period but no way was I going to compound that with the bubble guts.
As I stated earlier there’s nothing wrong with cutting weight as long as it’s done safely. It becomes a health risk with combat athletes try to drop too much weight too soon. We’ve heard stories and seen videos of fighters suffering from a bad cut. I remember one UFC weigh-in were the female fighter had to be basically carried to the scale. She won her fight but she looked off and if she had a higher ranked opponent might have had a notch added in the loss column. It’s important to understand that there’s a safe amount that a fighter can lose and if not done in the correct manner can cause lasting damage.
1 Buford, Thomas & Rossi, Stephen & Smith, Doug & O’Brien, Matthew & Pickering, Chris. (2006). The Effect of a Competitive Wrestling Season on Body Weight, Hydration, and Muscular Performance in Collegiate Wrestlers. Journal of strength and conditioning research / National Strength & Conditioning Association. 20. 689-92. 10.1519/R-19955.1.
2 Bartok C, Schoeller DA, Sullivan JC, Clark RR, Landry GL. Hydration testing in collegiate wrestlers undergoing hypertonic dehydration. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2004 Mar;36(3):510-517. DOI: 10.1249/01.mss.0000117164.25986.f6.
3 Pettersson, S., & Berg, C. M. (2014). Hydration Status in Elite Wrestlers, Judokas, Boxers, and Taekwondo 520-8
4Ratamess, N.A., Hoffman, J.R., Kraemer, W.J., et al. Effects of a competitive wrestling season on body composition, endocrine markers, and anaerobic exercise performance in NCAA collegiate wrestlers. Eur J Appl Physiol 113, 1157–1168 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-012-2
5. Barley, O, Chapman, D & Abbiss, C. (2019) The Current State of Weight-Cutting in Combat Sports. Sports 7(5) 123 https://www.mdpi.com/466374
6 Oppliger RA, Case HS, Horswill CA, Landry GL, Shelter AC. American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Weight loss in wrestlers. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 1996 Jun;28(6):ix-xii.
7Reale, R., Slater, G., & Burke, L. M. (2017). Acute-Weight-Loss Strategies for Combat Sports and Applications to Olympic Success, International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 12(2), 142-151. Retrieved Nov 2, 2020, from https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijspp/12/2/article-p142.xml
Dr. Q. Jordan
Dr. Q. Jordan is the owner of Fearless Physical Therapy in Hampton VA. He has worked with wrestlers, boxers, and other combat sports athletes for many years. He is experienced in concussion management and in manipulation techniques. Fearless Physical Therapy is a mobile P.T. clinic that serves Tidewater and Richmond. Contact us today for your rehab needs.
Shoulder injuries can occur for a variety of reasons during grappling. If you land wrong on your shoulder you have a big knot on what was a normal AC joint. Wait too long to submit and now there’s an issue with the rotator cuff muscles, or ligaments, and tendons. Most of the time these injuries heal with proper conservative care and training. Remember skilled Therapeutic care is needed to safely take the patient through the stages as the athletes ability to progress will vary greatly
Shoulder injuries can occur for a variety of reasons during grappling. Coaches drill into young students’ heads to plant the arm to try to stop a fall. It inevitably happens though with someone and if enough force is placed into the joint during the fall we get a F.O.O.S.H injury. F.O.O.S.H means fall on outstretched shoulder and hand. This type of injury can cause damage to the hand, elbow, and shoulder. At the shoulder, it may cause a dislocation of the Glenohumeral joint or Acromioclavicular joint. Joint locks may also cause a dislocation at the shoulder but usually damage muscle, tendons, and ligaments prior and that pain usually has the practitioner tapping.
parascapular strengthening
Stabilization interventions are paramount after shoulder injury. Your shoulder is one of the most mobile joints in the body. The muscles, ligaments, and tendons did not assist in providing stability the shoulder would be in a world of trouble. Here are two simple exercises to help with keeping that shoulder stable. To provide adequate stabilization you need to build strength in every direction. During the early phases of fixing a dislocated shoulder, it is best to avoid stretching the muscles that were damaged and focus more on improving the concentric phase.
Shoulder stabilization
Mobility training should emphasize being able to move comfortably throughout the available range of motion. Then to progress towards getting full movement. Coinciding with improving motion it is paramount that strength is also increased in that gained range. It would be very detrimental to the practitioner’s progress if their arm can go to the extreme ranges of motion but said arm is a wet noodle. True it is beneficial to have increased flexibility. The rub is when the strength is not present trauma of some form will occur again.
shoulder strengthening exercises
Neuromuscular training occurs at the shoulder to improve the kinesthetic awareness of the shoulder. In wrestling, you have to be aware of where your body is in space. To execute a far ankle pick you have to be able to get the arm free and then move from sagittal to transverse plane while also changing levels and movement of the trunk. This is a confluence of skills that require hours and hours of training to be able to do correctly before injury and requires training post-injury to be able to do fluidly. Sometimes after injury those senses dull. Reaction times get slower, speed is reduced making it easier for you to get caught. Training must occur in multiple directions and not just in a linear plane. Coordination also needs to be improved so it will start at a slow speed with high reps and progress to the tempo of a match to get back ready to hit the mats. During this phase, we need to put weight through the joint with exercises like push-ups and planks and then more sport specific activities like spin-drills, bridge walks, and pummeling with a partner.
walking bridge to promote increased weight bearing through joint for neuromuscular re-education
The rehab program for a grappler will start like the shoulder program for any other patient. As the athlete gets better though there will be a shift to more sport-specific activity to help them get back onto the mats. Remember skilled Therapeutic care is needed to safely take the patient through the stages as the athletes ability to progress will vary greatly
Dr. Marquis “Q” Jordan PT,DPT has been a Physical Therapist for 14 years. He is certified in return to work screens, work conditioning, functional capacity evaluations and concussion management. During his training he has participated in numerous sports symposiums and has advanced training in manual techniques. During his time as a Physical Therapist he has worked with many pro and amateur athletes including boxers, wrestlers and MMA fighters. He currently owns and operates Fearless Physical Therapy a mobile outpatient P.T. clinic in Hampton Roads VA. He is a native of Hampton VA and is a father of 3
