It was a good weekend.

I love school.  I love sharp pencils and blank notebooks just waiting to be written on.  I used to love the promise of September, of a new school year with new projects and new challenges.  I have eight years of post-secondary education under my belt, and I would happily go back for more if I thought my busy life could juggle it.  But that’s not in the cards for me in the foreseeable future, so for now, continuing education seminars are the “school” that meets that need.

RCCSSI attended one such seminar this past weekend.  It was the Royal College of Chiropractic Sports Sciences annual conference.  Quite the title, no?  I’ve been to this conference before, and I love it every year.  This year’s theme was “Train Smarter,” and we listened to wonderful presenters like Mark Rippetoe, Christian Thibaudeau, and Dr. Andreo Spina talk about training, performance, and movement.  Two days of bliss, where I could sit with my sharpened pencil and my new notebook and soak up new ways of thinking and new forms of inspiration

But you know what was the best part?  You guessed it, it was the people.  It was being called “Ash” and saying “remember when?”, seeing classmates I haven’t seen in years and spending time with like-minded colleagues.  It was a sense of belonging in a very male-dominated field and a shared interest in all things sport and athlete and treatment and research.  I love my job and my patients and my hands-on practice, and it is events like these that keep me motivated to continually improve, to learn more, to question more, to master more, to progress more.

It was a good weekend.

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Do You Want to Run Faster?

This past weekend, I attended the RCCSS’s (Royal College of Chiropractic Sports Sciences) Run Faster Conference.  It was full of learning, thinking, and engaging presentations, with a line-up of presenters at the top of their fields.  It made me want to ‘Run Faster’, and it certainly made me want to help you to ‘Run Faster’.  I can’t possibly summarize a weekend of knowledge in one blog post, but here are some quotes that resonated with me, and perhaps they’ll do the same for you:

Dr. Mike Young, “The Science of Speed” and running biomechanics:

  • “We don’t innately run perfectly.”

Wes Moerman, “Integration for Performance” from a coach’s perspective:

  • “Athlete health is a key to sustained development.  Missed sessions are better than missed periods of time.”

Dr. Jeff Cubos, “Integration of Treatment for Performance” from a therapist’s perspective:

  • “Treatment is any type of intervention that creates adaptation.”

Dr. Judy Goss, “Sports Psychology for Performance and Injury Recovery”:

  • “You have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

Dr. Reed Ferber, “Biomechanics for Injury Prevention and Performance”:

  • You need to have “daily positive stress”; do something every day that’s positive that stresses your body.

Dr. John Berardi, “Nutrition for Performance and Injury Recovery”:

  • “Resting metabolic rate (RMR) can increase 15-50% during injury”; don’t under-eat when you are injured.

Blaise Dubois, “Running Shoes: The Science and the Controversy”:

  • “Comfort is key.”

Dr. Alex Hutchinson, “The Science of Performance” and “The New Recovery”:

  • “Prevention works better than cure.”

Jason Dunkerley, “Motivation and Performance”:

  • “We need to re-define challenges.”

I’ve included links to all of the speakers above, so if you’re interested in a particular topic, I encourage you to click and read more about them.  As always, if you have a question about something I’ve written, please let me know; you can find me here, or on Facebook and Twitter.

Happy running!

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