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The exercises your physical therapist recommended can be a great help to shoulder pain. However, if the nervous system isn’t functioning correctly, there’s a possibility they might not be providing the benefit you were hoping for.  There’s 3 different reasons your nervous system could be interfering with your physical therapy exercises: 1. The muscles in the shoulder and arm are stuck in a shortened, protective state. When an injury occurs or pain starts to develop, the nervous system immediately begins to place muscles around the shoulder in what we call a protective state. In the protected state, the muscles are limited to a much smaller range of motion, making them feel tight (and sometimes sore). You may notice as you go through your physical therapy exercises that your range of motion feels very limited, or that you’re unable to hold your shoulder in the position that’s recommended for the exercise. These are both indications that the muscles around the shoulder are stuck in a shortened, protective state, preventing your physical therapy exercises from giving you the most benefit. 2. You’ve learned compensation patterns that keep the correct muscles from working during the exercises. Think back to when you first injured your shoulder or started to experience pain. Did you immediately start using the affected arm a little differently? Maybe you started rotating your body a little more when reaching for objects, or pulling your neck down to your shoulder when reaching overhead. These adjustments to your normal movement patterns are what we call compensation patterns. Because your body believes a certain movement may be painful, it learns different ways to accomplish the same tasks. Let’s take one of the most classic physical therapy exercises: external rotation with a resistance band and see how compensations might affect the exercise (Video below). This exercise is often prescribed to help strengthen the rotator cuff – however, it’s rarely performed properly. The rotator cuff muscles are so weak that the body learns more efficient ways to perform the movement. If the wrist bends, elbow comes away from the body, or shoulder sits forward during the exercise (all compensation patterns), you will not get the intended benefit of the exercise. 3. Your nervous system is sympathetic dominant.
The nervous system constantly shifts on a spectrum between the sympathetic and parasympathetic state. The sympathetic state is more commonly known as our “fight or flight” response, which can be extremely beneficial in overcoming challenging situations. The parasympathetic state is commonly known as our “rest and digest” state, which is where our body does its most efficient repair and healing. When your nervous system fails to properly process stressors (whether they are related to work, relationships, exercise, nutrition, sleep, or a number of other factors), it can become what we call “sympathetic dominant.” When the nervous system is sympathetic dominant, it spends less time in the parasympathetic state, meaning it will not heal optimally (no matter how often you do your physical therapy exercises). So what does all this mean? If you want your physical therapy exercises to be effective, I highly recommend qualified supervision while performing the movements. Your physical therapist should be able to instruct you on how to perform the movements properly AND common ways they are done improperly. If you feel your forearm fatiguing during an exercise that’s supposed to be strengthening your shoulder, you’re probably doing it incorrectly, and need to communicate that with your therapist. If you believe you might have trouble processing stressors, ask your physical therapist for techniques on how to do so or if they can connect you with another professional with expertise in this area. At Premier, we use a number of techniques to overcome all 3 of these obstacle and optimize the recovery proceess.. Neuro Therapy helps to identify muscles that are in the protected state, fix compensation patterns, and re-train the nervous system to repair the shoulder efficiently. Click the link below to apply for a chance to experience Neuro Therapy for free: go.premierneurotherapy.com/apply A member of our team will review your application and determine if you qualify for a free Neuro Therapy Discovery Session. If additional information is required, we will reach out within 1 buiness day after receving the application.
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The word “stress” tends to carry a negative stigma. In fact, many of our clients’ have mentioned that their stress levels elevate just at the mention of the word. Over the last couple of decades, our society has become pretty well educated on the long term effects of stress. It’s been linked to negative health outcomes like:
Just to name a few. Such education over the last decade has led to the aforementioned negative “stigma” around stress. But what if that negative stigma is actually increasing your likelihood of poor health outcomes?  A study in 2012 challenged this point by asking the question “Does the perception that stress affects health matter?” The study concluded: “Individuals who perceived that stress affects their health and reported a large amount of stress had an increased risk of premature death.” It goes on to estimate that, over the 8 years of the survey, 182,000, people died prematurely in the US due to their negative perception of stress. So what can we do with this information? The first thing we need to do is understand why the stress response exists in the body. The stress response evolved as a way for humans to “rise to the occasion” for big moments. In other words, stress exists to HELP us, NOT hurt us. When we understand this, we can start to identify stress as a POSITIVE thing in our life. When we identify stress as a positive thing, we can harness it’s power and use it to tackle the challenges in front of us. And when we tackle the challenges in front of us, we feel good about what we’ve accomplished. And when we feel good about what we’ve accomplished, the stress response is short lived.  The problem with stress exists when we perceive it as a negative. When we perceive stress as a negative, we do one of three things that encourage the stress response to become ongoing.
If you’re dealing with stress in any of these 3 ways, you need to find a way to view stress as a POSITIVE in your life, or it will have a negative affect on your health. A few of the tools from previous posts (here and here) will help you to control your stress, tackle the challenges in front of you, and take the time to recognize your accomplishments. I can’t tell you how many people say these words to our therapists “I wish I knew you existed before surgery.” When I hear this, I’m moved in a couple of different ways. On one hand, I’m happy to hear clients are feeling improvement after working with us. On the other hand, I’m motivated to help educate people on the alternatives to surgery before they find out “the hard way” that surgery doesn’t always deliver the results they were hoping for. This week, I’ve compiled a few stats specifically related to shoulder surgery, hoping to do my part in educating others about the process.  .1) The number of total shoulder replacements performed in the US increased from 18,000 in 2000 to more than 45,000 in 2013. On one side, this could be looked at as good news, because it’s an indication that the surgery might be a more viable option than in the past. However, it’s also scary in some regards, as it shows how often people are neglecting proper shoulder care BEFORE it gets to the point of surgery. When you consider that a total shoulder replacement requires the arm to be in a sling for 4-6 weeks before starting 6 months of intensive rehabilitation, it might sound like a little better idea to take care of your shoulder before it gets to the point of replacement. 2) Surgery for shoulder impingement is no more effective than a supervised exercise program. One study took a look at patients who had undergone surgery for shoulder impingement 8-11 years after surgery. The study found that 50% of patients still had pain during activity and 32% still had pain at rest. In another study, it was found that patients who underwent surgery for should impingement experienced the same results as those who went through a structured exercise program. Of course, the cost and effort involved with surgery (and the rehab process) far exceeds the costs of a structured exercise program. 3) Even with minor rotator cuff repairs, unsuccessful surgery occurs 1 out of 4 times. And the numbers get worse, depending on the severity of the tear. For moderate tears, the rate of unsuccessful surgery increases to 50%. For severe tears, the rate of unsuccessful surgery increases to 60%. Moral of the story here: Surgery should be an absolute last resort. If you haven’t already seen a physical therapist (or tried Neuro Therapy), surgery shouldn’t even be on your radar. The success rates are just too low and recovery processes too long. If you're new to Neuro Therapy, our staff specializes in helping people who suffer from chronic pain (i.e. pain that has lasted longer than you expected), delayed recovery from surgery, and repetitive injuries. In many cases, people suffering with shoulder pain want to do everything possible before trying surgery. If that sounds like you, click here to apply for a FREE Neuro Therapy session (we call it a "Discovery" Session). https://go.premierneurotherapy.com/apply  After applying for the session, our staff will review your application to make sure you are a quality candidate for our program.
If selected, we will reach out to schedule the session. You will get the chance to meet our staff, ask any questions you have about Neuro Therapy, and go through a Neuro Therapy session from beginning to end. The discovery session is set up to give you all the information you need to see if Neuro Therapy can be a solution for your shoulder pain. Click here to apply: https://go.premierneurotherapy.com/apply Over the past 2 months, Zach and I have been testing a daily 10 minute routine we discovered on one of our client’s podcasts, Suiting Up With Paul Rabil. Near the end of September, Paul interviewed Life and Business Strategist, Tony Robbins, on his podcast. If you're interested, you can click here to listen to the interview. The interview really got us thinking. Over the past 20 years, our society has stepped up its game in promoting physical wellness. Many of you reading this may have a strict exercise routine that takes anywhere from 3-10 hours of your week. But how much time are you spending on optimizing your mental health and performance? If you’re like Zach and me two months ago, you're probably spending 0 hours per week optimizing your mindset. Mindset has a tremendous impact on both controlling pain and optimizing performance. In other words, it can be the barrier that's keeping you from breaking through with your rehab program or performance levels.
For those of you unfamiliar with Tony Robbin's work, he inspires people all over the world to break through the limits keeping them from the quality of life they desire. In order to do so, he brings incredible amounts of positive, infectious energy to each and every conference he puts on. As he puts it, he doesn’t wake up every day with this kind of energy (he is human after all..). There are days when he wakes up and says “What country am I in… what the hell happened to my neck?” Nonetheless, he must find a way to put himself in the right mindset to inspire others, and this simple, 10 minute routine is how he does it. I’ve provided written instructions for the routine below, but I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you listen to Tony’s energetic explanation of the routine (and associated psychological advantages it provides) on the podcast. Click here to listen to the interview. Tony's description of the 10 minute routine starts 40:15 into the interview.  The 10 Minute Routine 1) First, he makes a radical change in his body with 3 sets of 30 of breath of fire (see video demonstration here – Note that no actual fire is involved). PS - if you're not into the "yoga" aspect of breath of fire, you can simply sit on your couch or at the kitchen table to do this activity. 2) Second, he thinks of 3 things in his life he’s grateful for. This isn’t as simple as saying “I’m grateful for the shoes under my feet, roof over my head, and food in my stomach” and being done. Tony actually spends 1 MINUTE of time not only telling himself he’s grateful for the specific things in his life, but truly taking his mind go to that place in time and feel the gratuity of the moment. Having tried methods like gratitude journals in the past (which are effective), I can tell you this is a much more powerful way to experience and cultivate a daily mindset of gratuity. 3) Next, he does 3 minutes of a blessing and a prayer. He imagines positive, healing energy flowing into his body, asking for whatever characteristics he needs (compassion, courage, strength, etc.) for a great day. After 2 minutes of imagining positive, healing energy flowing into his body, he takes 1 minute to send energy to others in his life (children, wife, family, friends, clients, etc.). In the interview, Tony elaborates on the psychological advantages of this activity. 4) Finally, he envisions his 3 To Thrive. He thinks of 3 results (1 minute each) he wants to achieve, taking not only the time to think about the result, but truly feel it. So if one of your 3 goals is to land that new client, you’ll allow your mind/body to feel as if you’ve already landed that clinet. Take 1 minute to envision, imagine, and feel the celebration associated with achieving your top goals!  10 minutes out of your day is all it takes to start seeing a SERIOUS psychological advantage. As we’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, controlling the mind plays an important role in controlling pain and performance.
With just 2 months of persistent work, Zach and I have already realized many advantages with this routine like:
As Tony puts, it “If you don’t have 10 minutes for your life, you don’t have a life.” Try this simple, 10 minute routine for a few days and let us know what you think! Whether it is wrapping pads, assessing a client, or analyzing movement patterns, our staff works with a careful eye to ensure no stone goes unturned in helping clients recover from persistent pain. Out of all of the joints in the body, the shoulder is where this level of detail matters most. If the little things are ignored, you’ll drastically decrease your chances of successfully relieving shoulder pain. In other words, the little things matter when addressing the shoulder. Here’s why. 1) The Shoulder Is a Complex Joint The shoulder is what’s called a “ball and socket” joint. This means that there is a ball at the top of your arm that rests inside a socket close to the end of your collar bone. The ball and socket set-up gives it a lot of freedom in movement that other joints do not have. With increased freedom, comes increased complexity. All of the muscles (deltoid, pectoral, lat, rotator cuff muscles, biceps, etc.) must work in unison to properly support the socket in the joint. If not, movement can become painful.  2) The Shoulder Builds Physical Protective Mechanisms Ideally, movement of the shoulder should be smooth. However, when things are just a little bit off, you may feel roughness, catching, grinding, or snapping, which can start to be painful. When the shoulder isn’t moving smoothly, it starts to develop physical protective mechanisms, like bone spurs and scar tissue. With additional tissue in the socket of the joint, the space for the ball to move becomes more limited, and problems can compound. In other words, when things like bone spurs and scar tissue develop, the little things matter even more.  3) The Rotator Cuff Muscles Often Get Overworked
The shoulder uses several large, powerful muscles to generate force like the pec, deltoid, lat, and biceps. However, if any of these large muscles are not doing their jobs correctly (due to previous injury or improper movement patterns), the rotator cuff muscles must pick up the slack. The rotator cuff muscles are smaller muscles meant to stabilize the shoulder. If they’re required to do the work of large muscle groups, they will become overworked and potentially tear. Like I mentioned above, the shoulder is a complex joint. If you’ve been dealing with shoulder pain and aren’t getting better, it’s likely that the little things aren’t getting addressed. Click the link below to schedule a FREE, 90 minute, initial evaluation (we call it a Discovery Session) with my detail oriented team, and you’ll learn what “little things” are keeping your shoulder from feeling normal again. Click here>> go.premierneurotherapy.com/apply Stress is a normal part of life. Everyone lives with it, and everyone handles it a little differently. At times, stress can feel overwhelming and like it’s eating us alive. You know the feeling- the palms start sweating, the heart rate speeds up, muscles start tensing up, and it can be difficult to get a deep breath. The body starts to go into a defensive, protective state.  But it doesn’t HAVE to be this way. Ultimately, you are in complete control of how your body handles and interprets stress. Studies have shown that people who perceive stress as a negative have poorer health outcomes (decreased lifespan, increased pain levels, decreased ability to recover, etc.) than those who interpret stress as a positive. What an empowering thought – you have control over how your body interprets stress!  So what are some ways we can start to “re-shape” the way that our bodies’ are interpreting stress. One of the ways we can do this is through our breath.
With each breath, your body is making neurophysiological micro-adjustments to the body’s “stress levels.” As you inhale, the brain slightly increases the production of a chemical called noradrenaline. Noradrenaline increases heart rate, blood pressure, blood flow to skeletal muscle, and decreases blood flow to the digestive system. These are all actions traditionally associated with the “stress response.” Too much noradrenaline production and you may start to feel the sweaty palm symptoms of stress start to come on. As you exhale, noradrenaline production decreases and heart rate and blood pressure follow. The human body is an incredible thing, and it’s amazing to me that these small adjustments are being made with every single breath. So how can we take this concept and use it to take control of our body’s interpretation of stress? When we feel stress levels rising, all we need to do is take 2 minutes to focus on our breath. By focusing on your breath, you can help noradrenaline levels to decrease before the stress becomes too overwhelming. Here’s the 2 minute exercise you can use to take control over your stress levels: 1. First, place your hand over your stomach and breathe normally. As you inhale, you should feel your stomach (actually your diaphragm) expand slightly. As you exhale, you should you feel your stomach (actually your diaphragm) contract slightly. Get a feel for this action with each breath before starting the exercise. 2.Once you have a feel for the action of the diaphragm, inhale for a 4 count and feel the diaphragm expanding. 3. Now exhale for an 8 count. This might feel like a long time and like you’re running out of breath – as you practice, you’ll get better at controlling the exhale for 8 seconds. As you exhale, feel the diaphragm contracting. 4. Repeat this 4 count inhale, 8 count exhale action for 2 minutes (or 10 breaths). That’s it. By focusing on and extending the exhale of your breath, you’ll decrease noradrenaline levels in the brain and take back control of your response to stress. You can literally do this anywhere – in the car, in your office, in bed, or in the gym. If you’re someone who constantly feels stressed out, try to work this simple exercise into your daily routine 2-3 times/day. To live a long, happy life, you need to take the body out of auto-pilot and take back the wheel. This exercise will help you do just that. Once you give it a try, let me know what you think – it will be challenging out first, but with consistent practice, you’ll be on your way to mastery. Want help figuring out how stress is contributing your persistent pain or injuries? Click here to arrange a time to chat with a member of our team! The 7 key differences between Neuro Therapy and Physical Therapy (as told by a Physical Therapist)10/29/2018 This article was written by Leah Zinnert, Clinical Director of Neuro Therapy at Premier. Since joining our team in the beginning of August, Leah has used her expertise to drive amazing results for clients (sometime so quickly that even she can't believe.)
She's been able to help clients who had been in pain for years, seen every specialist in the books, and were starting to give up hope. Whether it's the gym, tennis court, or working in the yard, It's been a pleasure watching Leah help people get where they want to be. This week, she outlined what she's found to be the 7 key differences between Neuro Therapy and Physical Therapy. Enjoy, Evan === I have been getting a ton of questions recently about the differences between Physical Therapy and Neuro Therapy. After writing and re-writing this blog post – I’ve narrowed it down to the 7 most important ones..... I hope this answers your questions! 1) Hardware vs. Software When you are rehabbing an injury in Physical Therapy, there are usually 2-3 major categories that you could be working on:
We call this our “hardware.” But take a moment to think about what exactly is controlling all of those components – the nervous system right? We call this our “software” There are two driving factors to our recovery and overall performance:
After an injury those neurological signals can get interrupted, weakened or changed all together. Long after the initial injury has occurred, tissues have healed, and we try to resume our normal activities – there are often underlying nervous system deficits that prevent us from returning to our full potential and increase our risk for developing further issues down the road if left unaddressed. Moral of the story – you could stretch all day but if your nervous system (your software) is in the background saying “no, that’s not happening” – it’s not going to happen. Same with strengthening. You could work on strengthening your quadriceps muscle, for example, but if you’re unable to fully activate those fibers due to a past injury, pain, compensation pattern or protective mechanism, you may not be able to get the strength you’re hoping to gain. Technology has advanced to allow us to tap into those things – your therapy should too! 2) Symptoms vs. Origin of Symptoms. We have a saying in Neuro therapy… ”The location of your pain is typically not where the problem started, but where it ended up.” For any of my PT friends reading this – of course this is how we’re trained to evaluate these types of things. You need to look at least a joint above and a joint below to assess properly. In Neuro Therapy, we take this concept to the next level. Through our unique “search” process, we pinpoint your unique dysfunctions. We find the exact breakdown in neuro communication that is occurring due to past injury, scar tissue, inflammation, muscle dysfunction, etc. What does this mean for you and the rest of our clients? More effective treatment sessions and often times a MUCH more efficient recovery. 3) Optimization of all body systems Your body’s ability to heal and recover depends on a number of factors. In order to ensure your recovery is efficient (and doesn’t drag on for weeks/months), you should focus on giving your body everything it needs to recover. As an example, you may notice that when you get sick, you feel the need to sleep for hours and sometimes days. Why? Because the body needs sleep (among other things) to recover efficiently. The same principle applies to injuries (check out an awesome article on the importance of sleep in the rehab process here: http://www.apta.org/PTinMotion/News/2017/8/8/PTJOnSleep/ When you go through the Neuro Therapy process at Premier, you’ll receive targets for sleep, protein intake, and water intake. You'll also track your fatigue and stress from day to day. It may seem like a lot of work – because it is. The point of Neuro Therapy is not to be easy. It’s to get you better. We are asking you to step outside of your comfort zone and really optimize all aspects of your recovery. 4) Time and Attention I know that when I was practicing Physical Therapy in a traditional setting there were some patients that I wish I could have had more one-on-one time with. Whether it was due to scheduling conflicts, double bookings, insurance limitations or clinic expectations, Physical Therapy sessions often felt a bit rushed. During the Neuro Therapy process, clients receive 60 minute, 1 on 1, detail oriented sessions. These sessions occur 4-5 days/week over the course of 2-5 weeks and are geared solely to helping you achieve your goals. That’s right, no more months and months of therapy before you see results. 5) Passive vs. Active Neuro Therapy is not a miracle cure. Yes, you read that correctly. I’m saying this to emphasize the point that therapy – whether it be Physical Therapy or Neuro Therapy – it is work, and you are responsible for earning your results. Even if you’re at Physical Therapy, you can’t expect to show up 2-3 times a week for 8 weeks, lay on the treatment table, get massaged and do a few exercises with heat and stim and expect to be ‘fixed.’ You’re going to need to put work in on your own. This is why Neuro Therapy works. It is designed for you to take an active part in your recovery, push you to your limits, and challenge you on a whole different level. 6) The Gold Standard – A plan tailored to your goals After learning more about your personal history and needs, we design a plan specifically tailored to your needs… and we’ll hold you to it. From day 1, clients know the plan, expectations, and targets for each day. We are constantly assessing and re-assessing. Tracking your progress and updating your plan daily. There are specific protocols in place for testing and trialing all the activities clients want to get back to doing.. No matter your goals – big or small – we will ensure that you can do those things successfully under our supervision before leaving us. 7) #Premierfamily Not only are you getting an unforgettable therapy experience at Premier Neuro Therapy, you become a part of our family. We get to know you beyond just your pain levels and injury history. We are here to push you, encourage you, help you through the lows and celebrate all of your wins! If you haven’t already – check us out on social media to learn more about what Neuro Therapy is all about: Click to follow Premier on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/premierneurotherapy/ Each week, inevitably, I get a few email inquiries that go something like this: “My shoulder hurts when I bench or do certain types of overhead exercises, it even bothers me while I sleep - what do you think it is?” When shoulder pain limits our ability to workout, throw a baseball, or even just do an overhead movements around the house (grabbing a cup out of the cupboard, for instance), it can really start to affect quality of life. Unfortunately, there's no easy answer to the above question without a more thorough evaluation (we'll get to that later...) The cause of shoulder pain is unique to each individual. Making a recommendation without knowing what's actually happening to cause the issue is never productive and not how we like to operate. With that being said, shoulder discomfort can be caused by a number of factors, but today we'll take a look at two of them:
Movement Pattern #1: Wrist Flexion Wait... what? The movement of my wrists can cause shoulder pain? Absolutely-- if the muscles in the forearm are out of balance, the shoulder is forced to take on extra, unnecessary force that would not normally be absorbed by this muscle group. Here's a quick self-check you can do to help determine if forearm imbalances are a contributing factor to your shoulder pain; Try picking up some heavy dumbbells and hold them at your sides. Did you notice anything right away at your wrists or in your forearms? Was your first instinct to curl your wrist to help hold the dumbbell? Do your wrists look like Figure 1? If so, bingo-- this is called wrist flexion, and when the wrist flexes forward, the shoulder normally follows, leading to shoulder issues. It's a problem you'll want to address to help your shoulder feel better.  Movement Pattern #2: Elbow Flexion Similar to the movement of the wrist, elbow flexion (bending the elbow) is, at first glance, unrelated to how the shoulder functions... but it's actually one of the most common patterns we see in clients with shoulder pain. :Let's say we want to reach for something overhead at a fixed height. First, think about trying to reach for it with a straight arm. Next, we try to reach for it with an arm bent at the elbow. In order to reach the object with a bent elbow, you'll need to raise the shoulder closer to the neck, which puts more stress on the shoulder, and can often cause pain (Now imagine doing this with a heavily weighted overhead press and we can see where issues arise). Here's a quick test you can run to see if this is an issue for you: Grab a barbell and perform a front deltoid raise. Keep your hands shoulder width apart, arms straight, and lift the barbell overhead (fast forward to 0:17 to see CrossFit games competitor and Outsiders CrossFit superstar, Rose Wall, performing the front delt raise). Is any part of that movement making you want to bend your elbows? Do your arms look like Figure 2?  If so, there's likely an imbalance between the biceps and triceps, It may also be difficult to keep the elbows extended while lifting overhead. Without proper activation of the biceps or triceps, the shoulder will compensate for that imbalance and can ultimately lead to a shoulder injury. Movement Pattern #3: Limited shoulder flexion Limited shoulder flexion makes a little more sense intuitively when thinking about shoulder pain. If shoulder flexion is limited, it means you have a difficult time raising your arm overhead without one of two things happening:
This an indication that a muscular imbalance exists between the pectorals, deltoids, and lats. You can test this by doing the following: Stand with your heels, glutes, and upper back against a wall. With your arms resting at your sides, lift one arm straight out in front of you and overhead. Try to touch your thumb to the wall behind you by only moving your shoulder. Are you able to reach the wall without either of the compensations in Figure 3 or Figure 4 coming out?
If any of the above movement patterns are evident, they are likely a contributing factor to your shoulder pain. During a Neuro Therapy Discovery Session, we are able to pinpoint exactly where the muscular imbalances are in the body that are causing these patterns. We're also able to start re-training the muscles to work correctly so you can begin to move properly again. When we eliminate the contributing factors (improper movement patterns and muscular imbalances), we eliminate the pain. If you're interested in applying for a FREE Discovery Session, just click here: Apply for a FREE, 90 minute, Neuro Therapy Discovery Session to pinpoint your muscular imbalances and learn more about improper movement patterns You can also arrange for a free 15 minute call with a member of our team by clicking here: Click here to arrange a call. Or download our free guide with the 28 Most Frequently Asked Questions About Neuro Therapy by clicking here: Click here to download our free guide: 28 Most Frequently Asked Questions About Neuro Therapy. Or here:  This article was written by Premier Neuro Therapy team member, Zach Michael. Mental and spiritual health…woah. That’s not a topic I thought I’d never be writing about. Growing up, the only time I ever heard the term mental, it was either related to “mental toughness” or being crazy. As an athlete, “mental toughness” meant you needed to be able to stay focused, even keeled, and un-rattled, no matter how badly the game was going. In some respects, to me, it also meant shutting down your emotions and bottling things up. If I was going to maintain an even keel, I wasn’t allowed to let myself get too high during the good time or too low during the bad times. The easiest way to do this was to keep myself from feeling anything emotionally.  The only time I ever heard the term “spiritual” or “spirituality” was in church. Spirituality was completely related to God. It meant following what the Bible says, which at the time just felt like a set of rules based on something people from a long time ago wrote down. Add in that these had many different interpretations, and as a young person, spirituality felt confusing and constricting. Whether it was a conscious decision or not, I think I decided to write off any need to focus on mental and spiritual health a long time ago. I was a tough guy– I didn’t need to put any more effort into the area. The problem is my interpretation of mental and spiritual health was way off. Let’s start with spiritual health. It doesn’t necessarily have to have anything to do with the Bible or any religious teaching. For some, it does – and that’s ok, because spirituality is about what’s best for your soul (or conscience). Notice I said your soul. Spiritual health is about allowing the best version of you to drive your actions. It’s about allowing the ‘good voice’ in your head make decisions, rather than the bad voice. It’s about pursuing the best version of you and being able to feel good about it. It’s not about trying to follow someone else’s interpretation of what’s best for you and feeling bad about it when you don’t live up to those standards.  Which leads right back to mental health. Shutting your ‘feelings’ off is probably not exemplary mental health. In order to be healthy spiritually and mentally, you must be able to feel. You need to be able to feel gratitude for the things you have in life. You need to be able to identify when you’re feeling sad, angry, or stressed, and be able to talk to others about it.
Mental health is about being in tune with how you’re feeling, understanding what circumstances are making you feel that way, and knowing you can take action to change those circumstances if you choose. As we noted in a previous blog, your mental and spiritual health plays a vital role in optimal performance of the nervous system. Many of you reading this are likely doing AMAZING work with your physical health by working out consistently and eating healthy. If you’re anything like me, you wouldn’t know where to start if asked to work on your mental and spiritual health. Over the next few months, we’ll be sharing a few mental/spiritual “workouts” on this blog to get you on the right track – be sure to tune in. Questions about the blog? Comment below or shoot me an email at support@premierneurotherapy.com. As many of you now know, Neuro Therapy is a unique experience. Because of how different the process is, new clients almost always ask “How in the world did you get into this and decide to build a company around it?” To put it simply, I both got into Neuro and was able to build a company around it through what I’ve found to be a magical concept: Word of mouth referrals. I personally was referred to Neuro Therapy after suffering a grade II hamstring injury while playing football at Penn State. I was a red-shirt senior and looking the end of my career dead in the eye if I didn’t find something to get me back on the field quickly. After recovering from the injury in 7 days (about 3 weeks faster than a normal hamstring recovery) and earning a starting position, I was sold. Neuro Therapy had allowed me to achieve my childhood dream of playing in front of 110,000 screaming fans in Beaver Stadium.  From that point on, I wanted to do everything possible to introduce others to the amazing benefits of Neuro.
I started by referring all of my injured Penn State teammates to the local Neuro Therapist who had helped me. I also made sure that every family member that was dealing with persistent pain knew Neuro was an option for them. Eventually, after seeing family and friends benefit from Neuro the same way I did, I made the decision to start Premier Neuro Therapy. From the start of Premier in August of 2015, our company has continued to grow through the same way it started - word of mouth referrals. Whether it's through our network of MLB clients around the country or clients in our community, nearly every person we work with seems to tell others about Neuro. Clients who’ve accomplished their goals during our work together have felt compelled to tell family and friends they NEED to at least give Neuro a try. Most times these referrals fall into one of 4 categories:;
I couldn’t be more grateful for these recommendations. Rather than focusing on marketing and advertising, clients have spread the word for us, allowing us to focus the majority of our time on delivering the best experience possible. Our work with clients is always at the forefront of our thoughts and conversations – although you aren’t physically there with us, we even take you home. Needless to say, this company would not be what it is today without you taking the time to spread the word. If you hadn’t taken the time to talk about it, share your experiences, send pictures, take videos, and even leave reviews, Premier Neuro Therapy would likely not exist. For that, I’ll be forever grateful. If you’ve got a friend or family member in mind who might benefit from Neuro, please continue to spread the word. They’ll be in great hands with my team, and remember – the first session is always free. We do this to ensure your referrals are able to learn more about how Neuro works, confirm that they're a good candidate for Premier, and make sure that they believe it can truly help them before starting a program with us. Click here to refer a friend or family member to Premier: https://go.premierneurotherapy.com/referral If you’re not sure how to explain Neuro to friends and family, feel free to comment below or shoot me an email at support@premierneurotherapy.com – we’re happy to help! |
About the AuthorEvan Lewis is a nationwide leader in Neuro Therapy and founded the Baltimore area's only specialist Neuro Therapy facility. 
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Premier Neuro Therapy LLC
support@premierneurotherapy.com
(410) 929-0642
Physical Therapists Learn More Here
Premier Neuro Therapy LLC
support@premierneurotherapy.com
(410) 929-0642
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Our location:
10815 Beaver Dam Rd, Ste E Cockeysville, MD 21030 |