Technology is now at the disposal of all industries, and the fitness industry is no exception. Now is the time when powerfully potent percussive massage therapy is literally at our fingertips. This is a brief rundown of everything you need to know when your clients...
Patrick Silva
Dr. Patrick K. Silva is a Board Certified and Licensed Doctor of Chiropractic with a focus on Sports Rehab, practicing in the beautiful US Pacific Northwest. Building on his preceptorship with the Seahawks' chiropractor (Dr. Jim Kurtz) in 2016, Dr. Patrick has designed his practice around the numerous soft tissue techniques, movement systems, and rehabilitative paradigms that modern sports science has to offer. Dr. Patrick is also a Certified Office Ergonomics Evaluator and Certified Professional Trainer. In his spare time, Dr. Patrick enjoys DIY projects and stays active practicing martial arts, soccer, dodgeball, parkour, and gaming.
Beat the Heat! How the Body Handles High Temps
As heatwaves sweep across the US, marking the start of summer, I was kindly reminded by the 110+ degree weather outside (In SEATTLE, WA) that the body has some pretty cool features. Here is a quick rundown of some of the physics-based and physiological phenomena that...
How to Improve Internal Hip Rotation
We recently established how a lack of internal hip rotation, or HIRD (hip internal rotation deficiency), can create a host of problems from knee pain to back pain, and how it can also be misdiagnosed for other hip pathologies. As common as this problem is, it is often...
The Importance of Internal Hip Rotation and How to Improve It
A body lacking internal hip rotation is like a car with no back wheels. Sure, it might keep going, and even steer, but it's gonna do some damage along the way. In the human body, that missing ROM (range of motion) is often a significant contributor to back, hip, and...
What Are Trigger Points?
There exists as a ubiquitous part of the human condition a vicious cycle of myofascial pain and compensation that is self-perpetuating and inescapable, and quite relevant to the job of a fitness professional. Welcome to Trigger Points 101. Myofascial pain is rough....
The Sitting Solution: Body Hacks to Keep You Loose While Stuck Inside
It's a quarantine conundrum...as the body adapts to staying at home, how do we avoid the deleterious effects of our home behaviors? We all know sitting can be rough on a body, so here's a little run down on the basics of why that is, and how we can curtail the...
Designing a Functional Push-Up Routine
Push-ups feel so good. The work to your shoulders, arms, and back all the while working your core, toning glutes, lengthening our chronically tight iliopsoas/hip flexor group... add to that the hundreds of standard variations you can employ to custom tailor the...
Understanding Cavitation and Tension Adjustments: What’s all that cracking and popping?
Snapping hips, crackling knees, popping knuckles...all part of the human experience. Fully decoding these noisy joints may never come to pass for the technology required to glean such knowledge is for now, out of reach... Just kidding! Modern science knows exactly...
Myofascial Flossing: Compression Bands 101
Do you floss daily? You should. Yeah, it may sound like I'm echoing your dentist, but I'm actually talking about myofascial flossing! If you're already a fitness professional or looking to become a personal trainer, you would do well to master these pro tips for...
Fears and Frights – Addressing Your Fitness Clients’ Biopsychosocial Barriers
October is traditionally a time for beers and fears, but while Bavarian festivals abound and horror movies play on loop, it's easy to forget in all the fun that addressing real fear can be a huge component of what we do as movement experts. Humans carry individual,...
IT Band Syndrome: It’s Not Your IT Band!
Whether your clients have complained about it being tight or you’ve experienced it firsthand, the IT band is searched popularly on YouTube and commonly among those who exercise regularly. Aside from discussion, there is plenty of debate on how to manage tightness or...
Why The Psoas Is Significant
The terms "psoas" and "hip flexor" are common jargon in the health and fitness world, but getting an intimate handle on the specifics may help your clients perform better or even help relieve their back pain. In this article, we'll discuss the anatomy, the...
Teens Growing “Horns”: How To Help Prevent Text Neck
This just in: Teen bodies are going through changes! Perhaps not in the way you'd expect, though. A 2018 study has re-emerged, covered in the last weeks by the BBC, TIME magazine, and spanning the internet with a viral frenzy, discussing strange bony growths showing...
Kinesiology Tape: How Can Fitness Pros Use It?
Kinesiology Tape, or K-Tape is everywhere now, and it’s more important than ever to know the what, why, and how behind the "magic". Don’t be left out of the K-Tape revolution! Myself? I've been dabbling with tapes for over seven years now, and have taped thousands of...
Pec Wall Hover Warm-Up Exercise
The shoulder joint is notoriously prone to injury because of its ability to move in all planes of motion and the sheer number of structures contributing to its support, creating more opportunities for any one of those structures to tighten up, become overactive, or...
3 Best Shoulder Warm-Ups
Skipping your personal training client's warm-up can be tempting, that is, until you find the right ones. Making sure your tissues and joints are ready for loading is vitally important to avoiding injury and getting the most out of your workout. I may be a Doctor of...
What is Mobility and Why Does it Matter?
If you’ve been in the world of fitness more than 10 minutes, you’ve most likely heard the terms mobility, stability and flexibility thrown around a lot. Mobility refers to a joint’s ability to explore its full range of motion (ROM) taking into account restricted...
Three Essential Exercises to Improve Every Client’s Mobility
There will likely always be room for improvement with regard to the fitness client's mobility, so having a short list of go-to exercises that can apply to everyone is a great addition to every trainer's toolbox. The beauty of the following three exercises is the...