Jeff Langmaid breaks movement into three levels: segmental, regional, and whole-body. When one segment moves wrong, it breaks everything above it. Use this framework to explain to patients why their back pain isn't just about their back.
Welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor where each week we deliver the latest chiropractic research and marketing strategies all in the time it takes to get to your office. Now here's your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid.
Hello and welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langme. Today's episode is going to be a short episode and it's gonna be a little bit different. I have been holed up in bed all week long. This is the first day I've been able to get up out of bed all week. And that's gonna lead to today being a little bit of a different episode and certainly a short one. But I wanted to talk a little bit about how I've been thinking about chiropractic and movement over the past year or so. Throw out some thoughts for you to consider and think about this week as you're taking care of in your practice. Now, before we get started, I'll say a few words about novopulse. This is where recovery meets performance. Learn more about this new technology that can reduce pain and inflammation while improving your patient's function at novo-pulse.com recovery I'll drop that link in the show notes as well. This is a really, really, really unique tool in the marketplace. There's nothing actually like it. There's no competitors and I'm gonna encourage you to check it out if you are a movement based and pain reduction based practice. Novo-pulse.com recovery I'll drop that link down notes as well. But as I said at the top, I wanted to talk a little bit about movement. This is something I've been thinking about chatting about. And if you've been listening over the past year to this podcast, you might have heard me explain movement in terms of three phases. I guess you could say three buckets of movement and that's segmental movement, regional movement and whole body movement. And I think of chiropractic as a movement based natural healthcare profession. And when I think about when I think movement based, I've tended to refine over the last year, maybe couple years really these three phases or buckets. It's very difficult, impossible to have optimal whole body motion and movement if regional motion's shot in suboptimal and they trace it back one step farther. It's almost impossible to have great regional movement or motion if segmental motion is not optimal. And this is where I believe we as chiropractors really stake our claim and really provide such a tremendous benefit for the people that are coming into our practice because whole body movement is really the life effect, the lifestyle, the hobbies. This is why people come in, is to get back to those activities that they've been limited in quite often, right? And whether you're a runner, whether you're a crossfitter, whether you're a hockey player, whatever it might be, if you're struggling due to pain or performance issues, et cetera. I think all of us as chiropractors, almost regardless, with very few exceptions, I'm sure there's a couple exceptions. But you really value movement, value motion and analyze motion. And we do that in many different ways. Maybe you do it formally through fms, through sfma. Maybe you do it more, I'm going to say informally, through range of motion, through motion palpation, perhaps through whatever it might be for you and your technique and your practice. But many of us as chiropractors, nearly all of us really emphasize the fact that segmental movement, which is what we do with the art science philosophy of the chiropractic adjustment, it matters, and it matters so greatly because, again, it's impossible to have great whole body motion if you're segmental. If you trace it back, if you have segmental motion issues, you're going to have regional motion issues. If you have good regional movement or motion and you have segmental issues, it's probably due to a compensation. One area is locked up, others are compensating, and you can only rob Peter to pay Paul for so much time. We see this time and time again in our practices where you know, somebody, you know, maybe they get away with something, quote, unquote, for days, for weeks, for months. For some people, it's even years before ultimately the body says, I've had enough. And then they end up with those life impacts, those life effects that draw them to come into our practice and seek help. But I'm going to encourage you to think, just think about this. I don't really have a conclusion to this today, more so than just the thought. You know, if you've thought about motion and movement, have you ever thought about it in terms of these three phases? And maybe the secondary question to that is, have you explained it to your patients in this fashion? There's something about us as humans. And threes are easy to remember, they're easy to understand, and they're easy to learn from. So when you're explaining to somebody the reason we're adjusting C5, C6 in your neck is because that segment's not moving correctly. If that segment's not moving correctly, you're not going to be able to have really great neck or cervical spine range of motion and alter ultimately that restriction can limit or make your whole body movement suboptimized. Now, obviously there's some exceptions to that, right? But I think it's an interesting way to think about what we do as chiro refractors. Yes, the adjustment does much more than just establish good biomechanics. It does much more than just establish improved motion. But for many people, I mean, we're still learning, put it that way, we're still learning the impact on biochemical marker changes, on central nervous system, peripheral nervous system changes and influence with the chiropractic adjustment, our patients are going to be hard pressed to understand and learn that after just a few visits into our practice. So the questions become, how do we fundamentally help them understand the benefits of what we're providing, aside from just pain relief, which is a huge benefit, but how do we help them understand why we're doing what we're doing? And I think really, these three buckets, these three phases of motion are an area where I've been exploring mentally for a little while. I think it's an interesting area to continue to explore and I'd love your feedback. If you have positive feedback on it, negative feedback on it, hit me up. Jeffeevidencebasedchiropractor.com I'll be back next week with a more traditional episode. I promise I'll bring more energy next week as well. Before we wrap up, I'll say a few words about Echiro ehr. Every EHR sells features, but few have Echiro's expertise. If you are looking for an EHR that is built on compliance and documentation standards, then check out Echiro ehr. They have a fantastic product, fantastic team over there. And again, documentation, documentation and compliance are at the top of their list. And finally, Chiromatchmakers.com if you are looking, if you're a doc out there looking for your next career opportunity, we have over 100 jobs open right now paying $75,000 or more per year. So if you're looking for a chiropractic job opportunity, head over to chiromatchmakers.com or if you are looking to expand your team, we'd be happy to help save you the trouble and heartache of trying to go through it on your own. So you can head over to chiromatchmakers.com I hope everybody have a fantastic week in practice. I hope you are safe and not sick out there. I'll be back next week with another episode. Thanks so much for tuning in. Thanks for listening. Have an awesome week in practice and I'll talk to you soon. Bye bye.
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