Ep 008 Chris Beavers

Narrator: 0:10

Welcome to T he Athletes in Motion Podcast: From Race to Recovery. With your hosts, Tom Regal, and Kenny Bailey.

Tom Regal: 0:27

All right. Hey, good morning, Kenny.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:28

How you doing, Tom?

Tom Regal: 0:29

I'm great! How are you?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:30

I am doing well. I want to introduce you to Chris beavers. Say hi to Chris.

Tom Regal: 0:33

Hey, Chris!

Chris Beavers: 0:34

Hey guys! How's it going? Thanks for having me.

Tom Regal: 0:35

Welcome. Welcome. Welcome.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:36

Chris is the owner of Momentum Sports Performance also happens to be a doctor of PT, so we're excited to have you on the show, sir.

Tom Regal: 0:44

Some of my favorite people.

Chris Beavers: 0:46

Thanks, guys. It's always fun to get out and have a conversation and you know, just just open up a little bit.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:51

Yeah. Today's episode, what we want to talk about was, you know, a lot of folks are trying to get back into running, trying to get get more active now that the weather is getting warmer, and we don't have this thing called, you know, pandemic sitting at us right,

Tom Regal: 1:04

We're getting active again.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:05

getting active again, as people get active, which is fantastic! Sometimes it can to lead to injury. So what we want to do is today is talk about sort of the three areas that you see that were just are the most injuries that you see. But before we get started on all that Chris, what how about you give us a little background on sort of what made you decide to become a PT? You know, your journey. What's your story?

Chris Beavers: 1:28

Yeah, man. Yeah, so I you know, I didn't want to be a PT at all times, I knew I wanted to be something in the medical field, I didn't know what that was, I had an injury. Back in high school broke my collarbone thought, you know, surgeon seems like a pretty cool route, maybe, maybe I'll do that. And so got to, you know, went to undergrad, I'm from Nashville did undergrad kind of went through this whole process of, Hey, you know, I'm going to med school. That's my goal. That's my desire, I was hanging out with some surgeons at the time, I actually even registered for the MCAT, which is the the exam to get into medical school. And I signed up for had a date, I was about six months out, I was studying pretty, pretty hard for it. And I got to hang out with a surgeon and he made the statement to me, they kind of shook me up a little bit. And I just wasn't about that life anymore. And he was like, you know, 100% of us get sued within the first five to 10 years of practice....

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:19

Oh lovely....

Chris Beavers: 2:22

Dang, that's tough man. And so that was kind of a red flag to me. And I had another buddy who was a his dad was a pediatrician, I was hanging out with him a little bit. And he was also just talking about, you know, how long grueling hours can be, you know, these guys are, you know, they, they're there when the residents, they go in, you know, they make a call in the middle of the night because they're on call. So they get called to do an emergency surgery of some sort. And here it is 2 am I'm operating on somebody. And now I've got a 12 hour shift on the back end of that, you know, and now I'm operating on people all day, and you're just like, Alright, dude, that sounds terrible. I want a family and I want to be able to, you know, spend some time with them. And so surgery suddenly wasn't the route for me. But you know, I loved orthopedics I loved you know, trying to understand people's movement, you know, I was active myself and, you know, injuries pop up. And I had a buddy who was in PT school. I was like, Man, this sounds interesting, right? We get to spend time with patients. And I think that was the other thing that drew me away from surgery was, look, these guys are with patients for five minutes. Or they're asleep, right for surgery. So So yeah, so we started hanging out, you know, checking out physical therapy. And then there was you know, I took a gap year came back here to Nashville for physical therapy school at Belmont. Started in what 2015 and then graduated in 2018. And, yeah, it was it was awesome. I loved every minute of it. Finally, you know, found that love of orthopedics and just patient care and being able to, you know, treat people the way they deserve to be treated. And not this five minute get in get out shenanigans that the healthcare model has become in many REITs. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 3:57

So when orthopedics is, you know, doing physical therapies, a lot of it's a broad range. Is there a particular because I know you could do everything from like geriatric sort of hip stuff to high performance, pro athletes, was there an area that sort of intrigued you more than others?

Chris Beavers: 4:13

Yeah, for sure. Most definitely. You know, it's kind of led me to start my practice. Definitely sports, right? Like, it's like, Hey, I played sports, all my life, these high performance athletes fascinate me, right? It's like, well, the things these guys can do with their body is just wild. I mean, it's amazing. You know, what's the difference between you know, me this everyday average Joe, versus this guy who's the same age or, you know, younger than me, and some writes in 10 times stronger 10 times faster playing in the NFL and in it or how they recover, right? It's like, my gosh, these guys get injured and they're just, they get back so fast. It's just fascinating to me. And so that was definitely an avenue that was interesting to me as well. And my time at Belmont. You know, I thought hey, do I want to work with pro teams a little bit of certainly in in my mind, do I like go that route, do I you know, look at doing a residency and then ultimately getting into, you know, working for a pro sports team because you're right PT is broad, you know, you can do everything from working in a hospital on the acute care floor. So, you know, a lot of my colleagues are working in the COVID floors right now getting these people moving, which is critical for their their health, and they're just surviving, right? Not my cup of tea, or, hey, we've got somebody who had a hip fracture and is suddenly in a rehab facility and needs to be able to get up and walk around. Again, I think it's such a vital piece to getting people back to where they want to go. It just wasn't my passion. And so, yes, the same thing with that, you know, I started diving down this route hanging out with some people looking at is pro sports an option? And same thing, right, that lifestyle just isn't something that I was willing to go about.

Tom Regal: 5:45

It's pretty brutal.

Chris Beavers: 5:46

Yeah. I mean, like,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 5:46

you're going to Denver! (laughing)

Chris Beavers: 5:47

Yeah, seriously, right. It's like on a whim. It's like, Hey, you got to turn around and drop ship. And, you know, again, they said the Titans PT was like, Look, man, I worked 80 to 100 hours during the season, you're like, ouch, yeah, that is painful. So So again, you know, here I am in this dilemma of man, my love for these high performance athletes and these folks who just have crazy abilities. How do I, how do I get to work in that without selling my soul to work? You know what I mean? And that's, yeah, that's the biggest thing.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 6:17

So yeah. So now you're working with sort of age groupers? Like, you know, like Tom and I that are trying to relive youth and continue to be active and all that the

Tom Regal: 6:25

midlife crisis? Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 6:28

I'm assuming there's some sort of trickle down that you understand, like, from what the pros are doing to, you know, idiots like us, you know.

Chris Beavers: 6:33

Weekend warriors, we like to call you guys. Yeah, I fall in that as well, you know, definitely like to stay active myself. But yeah, you know, it definitely, you know, I don't treat just just pro athletes now, by any stretch of the imagination, but I do treat a very active population. And that kind of led me to start my practice, you know, I got tired of even you know, I worked in a pretty busy outpatient clinic, I've seen a lot of patients a lot of patient volume. I mean, I've seen like, 20 a day, it was terrible, man, you know, four or five people running around? If you've ever been to physical therapy, you're probably like, oh, why would anybody want to do that? Because, again, you got four or five people running around in here at the same time, and you got people who've had 20, 30 year history of low ba k pain, they've been miserable f r quite some time, they haven t taken care of themselves, th y don't sleep well, they don' eat well. Now they've got al these injuries and want somebod to fix them. And you're like Look, man, if I could hav caught this 15 years ago, i might have been a differen story. And then so then I kin of my gears start turning little bit like how can I star working with this, this activ population, right, an preventing some of thes injuries or preventing some o these surgeries potentially because people don't know som of the people you ask som people like what a physica therapists do, they don't have clue. You know, it's like, oh work with old people and hel but help them after a surgery And there's so much more to ou field than that. And and that' really where this kind o performance based physica therapist, you know, model ha come in and where I was, like Look, man, I'm gonna jump shi and make it happen and begi working with with guys like yo or, you know, even high schoo athletes who say, Look, man, don't want to go to the doctor go to the physical therapist and then just tell me to sto running or, or them to tell m to just stop riding my bike o whatever it might be, o CrossFit, etc. And actuall given somebody some legitimat tools to fix their issues, a opposed to just not doing it

Tom Regal: 8:15

Yeah. And one of the things that we've always talked about is basically not waiting until you're injured to deal with things, right. It's part of our recovery. That's part of your program is that you're training and you're recovering, and part of that recovering is PT. I've used PT for years good and bad, right? I've got horror stories. And then I've got some amazing people that I've worked with that have put me back together. That's fantastic. So that's one of the things we're trying to promote with the active lifestyle of saying, Hey, get out there, move around, but incorporate some of this into its I'm always fascinated with, with movement. Right? And, and, and process and movement and how we move our bodies totally fascinates me. And the the older I get, and the more I put my body through, the more I'm fascinated by it, because I'm trying to figure out how to do it better and stronger and safer.

Chris Beavers: 9:02

Yeah, well, I think you hit the nail on the head there is like, you know, you got some good good pts good, you know, bad ones. And you say that about any profession or anything for that matter. But, again, having somebody teach you how to actually move, you know what I mean? Like that's the biggest key is like, what kind of preventative maintenance Can you regularly work on to continue to do the things that you want? Again, you don't wait till your car's check engine light is on and flashing at you to get anything done, right? Like you need to change your oil every couple 1000 miles and rotate your tires and some other preventative maintenance, you know, whether or not someone does that that's on them, but they definitely, eventually they're gonna have to write eventually that car is gonna break down. And same thing when it comes to our bodies as well. You've got to prioritize the quality of someone's movement, and some of these other areas that we'll kind of dive in later today as well.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 9:44

Yeah, and well, yeah, let's do that. So again, we were trying to promote an active life, it's athletes in motion. We we believe that anybody can be an athlete. Everybody is an athlete, right?

Chris Beavers: 9:54

If you have a body, you're an athlete.......

Kenny Bailey<br>: 9:55

It's couch to 5k, exactly

Tom Regal: 9:56

that's what we're Yeah....

Kenny Bailey<br>: 9:57

Oh, wow. Write that down. Yeah. Well, there goes the shirts. Yeah. Hold on, I gotta get on Teespring........(laughing) So I think one of the things that that obviously you know, the weather's getting better things are things are improving people are getting vaccinations, they're they're starting to get out. So we've had the the sedentary world sitting there now people, even people that are experienced are probably excited about now starting to get into races and sign up for things. And folks that are like, Okay, I need I need to make a change. Will Smith just it is you see the photo? Oh, so it's time to Yeah,

Tom Regal: 10:32

I mean, I think the thing that adds to that for the people who were active during the pandemic are now getting out to groups. Yeah, right? And there's no competition and groups are there. Hmm. Right? All of a sudden you're pushing the pace a little bit further, you're going a little bit harder than you normally would have, If you were just by yourself. All of this triggers off lots of issues. So what happens?

Chris Beavers: 10:52

Which is good, you know, I mean, the amount of people who gained weight during during COVID I mean, it happened to so many people. It's like, suddenly Our lives are completely disrupted. We're staying at home. We're not doing any darn thing. And you know, rightfully so initially. We're trying to figure out what the heck's going on. And you know, it now, like I said, people are comfortable getting out. And again, it's these people, they gain a lot of weight. They weren't active at all, and now they're going zero to 100, which is just a good recipe to really get make some some tissues pretty angry. Yeah. And it's like, we're shocked. It's like, oh, man, I can't believe I got that injury. And then you start talking to people about mileage and you're like, wait, you ran 20 miles last week, and it's your first week back? I'd like to know what do you frickin have pain? Yeah, yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:30

So when it from your perspective, as you see people coming in what are sort of the top three areas that you see is sort of the the most injury prone that are happening now, especially, I guess we're gonna focus on running would be, or CrossFit or I guess, but primarily, you're starting to move what where do you see sort of the top three areas?

Chris Beavers: 11:48

Yeah, you know, if we talk about running specifically, definitely kind of that foot and ankle complex, you know, you can kind of lump that into the shin a little bit as well, at the knee. The knee is oftentimes a big fulcrum and a big issue for a lot of people. And then definitely the low back, right. I mean, the low back is, I mean, 80 90% of population experiences low back pain at some point. And so all of these areas are definitely a major issue. You know, if you want to break those down into more specific kind of where the diagnosis I see you know, if we're starting down at the foot and ankle, definitely, you know, plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis, some of these kind of irritation, inflammation type conditions, or overuse issues, you know, certainly stress fractures are sometimes common down to the foot, but oftentimes can can be because someone ramped their mileage up too much, but definitely the the Achilles and the you know, the plantar fascia are probably the two biggest areas at the foot and ankle and then we're diving into the knee I mean you can have any number of things have got some irritation that joint which causes it to swell. I got IT band you know syndrome, which we can dive into that a little bit too but really that that's just irritation on the outside of the knee but the key and one then the low back right just irritation from Hey, we sit all darn day and then we go out and we try to run a bunch of miles and wonder why suddenly Oh, dang this this hurts right and so yeah, it's that those are probably the biggest ones right overuse type injuries or tendinitis type issues around the foot and ankle, the knee and even at a low back.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 13:19

So when,... explain to me, I mean we got people to come to the shop and psych I got plantar fasciitis it's actually spiked quite a bit as we're seeing you know, the first one I say is go see a PT you know, we can probably do something but so how does a I'm a relatively new runner, I'm getting back, right? I was doing you know, I was doing my peloton bike. Now I'm gonna get out on the road and start running. How does that present itself? So when? Because I've heard planner, you know, you hear a lot of people say that or what does that look like?

Chris Beavers: 13:50

Yeah, it definitely hurts a lot from I've had it and I've seen it in patients as well. It generally starts by you know, kind of dole or pain at the heel, right? The the kind of Hallmark sign of some of that is, Hey, I woke up first thing in the morning, the first step that I took, man, my foot kind of hurt, you know, I mean, are kind of some people in the later stage or mid to late stages of this might say, Man, like I got a marble, you know, underneath my heel when I'm standing up and it's just some of that implement, you know, inflamed tissue kind of swelling up on you a little bit, a little bit of bone formation. But again, right, this kind of achy heel pain, it can sometimes get better with activity, right? So what people will say, you know, first thing in the morning, it really hurts, but as I get going that that symptom really decreases, which is which is nice. So then people will say it's not that bad, you know, it goes away after first thing in the morning. And so then what they'll do is they'll go throughout their day, and then they'll just kind of carry on they'll know go run and then eventually that pain becomes pretty darn pronounced where even with some running, it can become problematic, but some people are really good. Their bodies are good at healing themselves. And they will just run this cycle of Hey, I've just got to heal pain in the morning or first thing walking around or walking around barefoot, and then I'm able to get out get along about my day. But eventually that can kind of turn in the opposite direction. Right?

Tom Regal: 15:03

So what's happening that causes that to feel at the base of the heel?

Chris Beavers: 15:08

Yeah. So so the plantar fascia is basically, you know, this is where I'd pull out a diagram, right? So you can google google this. And, you know, take a look at

Kenny Bailey<br>: 15:17

On exhibit A here.........(laughing)Yeah. So for those following along on the radio.....

Chris Beavers: 15:21

yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, left to right on your radio dial here. So the plantar fascia is basically this really tight tissue that lives on the bottom of your foot, right? It's designed is to hold the bones of your foot in place, right, which is kind of an important thing, if I'm running, and I want the bones in my foot just kind of fallen willy nilly all over the place is then you're gonna have a whole lot of other issues, right? Stress fractures and ligament issues and whatnot. So the plantar fascia essentially holds the tissue in place, right? It runs from up towards our toes, all the way down to the heel. And as we're going to push off, or, you know, stand on, and et cetera, again, it holds our bones in place, right. And so oftentimes, the high friction area is right there at the heel, especially if you think about if I'm running and I'm pushing off my toes to sprint or whatnot, that's the area that oftentimes takes the brunt of the punishment. And so again, this kind of inflammatory response will start happening, and then inflammatory responses good, that means your body's trying to heal itself up, it recognizes that, hey, I overstressed this tissue. And it's a good thing, right? It's starting to bring in some healing factors, some other things to clean up the the kind of, you know, pissed off or damaged tissue. And that at that point, that inflammatory process will eventually lead into some new growth of good quality tissue. And then a good quality tissue will eventually or in theory should become just as robust as the original tissue was, right?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 16:42

So at what point? A couple of questions. So what do you do? Like, I'm starting to feel that? Is there something I can do now? And then as if it progresses? When do you want them to come see you?

Chris Beavers: 16:57

Yeah. Right. So that's always the million dollar question, right? When do I go see somebody, you know, when is too much? You know, look, if and I generally, you know, sometimes he's a pain scale with people and a timeline with people. You know, if something's gone on for three to four weeks, and it hasn't gotten better, man, you need to probably go see somebody, it's probably not going to go away, right like that. That's usually where I will tell people, that's when you can draw the line. But in the short term, Look, don't rush to the doctor for every single little, you know, ache and pain that comes on. And because I get them sometimes as well with with my activity. In the short term, easiest things to do would be say, hey, look, if I'm running 10 miles a week, and I've got these symptoms that are that are suddenly popped up, then hey, let me just reduce my mileage a little bit. Or you can sit and think about, okay, well, I get pain in my heel, if I run, you know, at the five mile mark will don't run over five miles temporarily, right? Just to see how can that help alleviate some of my symptoms, right? You know, especially as it relates to plantar fascia pain, which you can do is, you know, you can go to Amazon and find some really cheap, like heel cups and drop those in your shoe. And oftentimes, that's a really nice way to help reduce it. But in the short term, some simple things, you know, to, you know, some ice to the bottom of the foot can obviously feel pretty nice. But again, those are temporary ways to help reduce some of that, that irritation. And again, if that jumpstart your system for the rest of the way, great. You didn't need to see somebody.

Tom Regal: 18:20

Yeah. So then the question that I come up with is, so what's causing that? Right, we've got a whole chain up through your body, right? And the thing that frustrates me is working with an athlete that's got an issue. That's, that's at point A, right? So everybody treats point a

Chris Beavers: 18:38

Hit the nail on the head there.

Tom Regal: 18:39

Yes. So So talk to us through that. How would I get up in the morning? I got a little heel pain, right? How do I mentally walk through what I did? To find where that's actually coming from? Is it my low back? Is it my neck? Is it what is pulling? To cause that and and what simple little things can I do? getting up in the morning going? Hey, okay, let me think about it. How do I how do I walk through the process of signal flow? To to adjust where it's actually coming from?

Chris Beavers: 19:08

Yeah, of course, you know, that definitely. I think you hit the nail on the head, right? You can't be very one sided with where you treat. Yeah, I've got a treat the symptoms as far as that irritated tissue, but there's several different things that can cause it. You know, I'll start at, you know, your part of your question was, how does someone know you know where it's coming from? And most people won't, you know what I mean? I'll give kind of some, some rough guidance today. But that's part of why you pay a professional you know what I mean? It's like trying to build a build a deck, right? You don't know how to do that's why you hire somebody to do it. And so that's part of some of this right? But I'll give you some basic guidelines.

Tom Regal: 19:44

Now. There's no way to pinpoint exactly without knowing because everyone's individualized,

Chris Beavers: 19:47

correct,

Tom Regal: 19:48

but as they start thinking the process through what what do they do and at what points maybe before they go to a PT, is it somebody they go and look at their form?

Chris Beavers: 19:56

Yeah, yeah. Right. So yeah, run form is definitely a big thing as well. But you know, as far as like, what are some areas that can contribute not just related to the bottom of the foot, right? So hey, ankle mobility is a very big thing, right? That's a, that's a huge area, how well does my knee track over my toes? Right? So if you kind of get into like a kneeling position, how well are you able to bring your knee over your toe, and for a lot of people, it's not great, right? And so if you think about when I'm going to run, and I'm putting force through my foot, and ankle, and my ankle doesn't move, worth a dang, that force has got to be dissipated somewhere. And oftentimes, it's to the bottom of the foot. And so that's an area and plus, it doesn't help with some of the shoes that we're wearing, right, we're wearing these really, you know, men's dress shoes are kind of got a little bit of heel on them, women wear high heels all the darn time and then we go get into these, you know, zero drop shoes or shoes that don't have quite as much heel. And you know, we've just set ourselves up for failure with that piece. So oftentimes that the ankle complex is a big area to look at, and then up the chain. This is an often kind of unsung hero is how well you know, we sit all darn day right now. And so our hip flexors are going to get tight. And that can contribute to someone's inability to get their leg behind them. And so when you're running, I mean, again, you got to get your leg pretty far behind you in order to push off and be able to generate some force and propel yourself forward. And if I can't bring my leg behind me at all, again, that force has to be dissipated somewhere oftentimes is at the low back, but also can happen down at the plantar fascia as well. And so I pretty much put now pretty much a lot of athletes look. And again, we'll screen these things to make sure it is pertinent to them. But hip mobility, huge, right, being able to bring that leg behind you. And that if there's one thing if you've got plantar fascia pain, I would start looking at the hips a little bit again, that's that's a long, that's a meet, you know, a medium to long term strategy to fix the symptom. But again, you sit in here city, because you'll Google plantar fascia exercises and everyone's got you're stretching, you're rolling a, you know, a lacrosse ball on it. Yeah, that crap hurts man. Oftentimes, yeah. And oftentimes can make it worse, right? Somebody will come in, yeah, man, I've been doing the stretches I found online or that my doc gave me and they're just pissing the tissue off more, right? It's like a scab, you know, think about that plantar fascia trying to heal up, it's like a scab and you keep stretching the fire out of it and pulling that scab off and wonder why you still have some of those symptoms, you know what I mean? So, but again, hips are probably one of the bigger areas. And then again, you you alluded to like run form analysis, look, find you a PT or someone you know, running coach who does some running analysis to try to understand why you have this in the first place, right? Because again, you can throw band aids at it and say, all right, it went away. But if you've had some of these pains, that kind of up and down, up and down, up and down for years, there's something else that's going on there that can actually fix this for good. Like you're not just stuck living with it forever, which is what people think, well, I've had plantar fasciitis all my life I'm stuck living with and you're like, no, you're not. You haven't treated the cause of it.

Tom Regal: 22:51

Exactly.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 22:52

Well, I think that it's amazing that in we're learning that too, I'm learning myself around hips, right, is that a tight hip flexors are tight hip is.... to backup, I think, Tom, you guys nailed it, right? The body is a chain, right? At some point, the weakest part of that chain is going to break if you don't take care of that, like you said that if you're if you have tight hip flexors that can manifest itself into your knees into your ankles into your back other things as well, that you're that you may be treating the acute area to make the make the owwy go away. But the longer term goal is to get those hip flexors. As so when we look at new runners, I mean, if that's the case, how much help me understand the difference between stretching like a dynamic warmup, for example, because I know I'm supposed to be doing dynamic warmup. Guess how many I do I do about 32 seconds, and then I

Tom Regal: 23:44

Wow that's impressive! You actually get that many...(laughing)

Kenny Bailey<br>: 23:46

And that's usually getting out of the car. And then like maybe my hip and my leg further out of the car. Yeah. All right. Well, the hip flexors are opened up, I can go run now. Yeah. So how important is that kind of that dynamic warmup. And I know there's a lot of eye rolling when it comes to dynamic warm ups. Just walk us through that.

Chris Beavers: 24:02

Yeah, absolutely. So you know, it's interesting. I read a study pretty recently that demonstrated that. And I'll just say this, then I'll kind of back up a little bit, that believe it or not a warm up didn't seem to have a major effect on on people's inability, or ability to stay out of pain. Okay. Now

Kenny Bailey<br>: 24:24

Fascinating....

Chris Beavers: 24:25

which in my PT heart of hearts, I was like, Look, I want that to be true as well, right? Now, that doesn't mean don't warm up. If you're injured, I generally tell my athletes, hey, let's come up with some type of dynamic warm up in some capacity for you. What they did find that was helpful for some level of injury prevention was some regular mobility program outside of running, right? Not doing that before you run. Again, so this is to your question, dynamic warmup versus regular warm up again, and this is where we're talking about losing your hips and some of these other areas. So again, some regular mobility program outside of running is helpful. Now, if someone is a new runner and and we've literally done nothing all day, a dynamic warmup is going to be huge. So what's the difference between like a static warm up and a dynamic warm up. So static warm up is probably what you've seen in like gym class, I'm going to stretch my quads out. I'm going to stretch my hamstrings out and my stretch my low back out. dynamic warmup refers to Hey, I'm kind of moving my muscles, right. So that can be like walking lunges, or single leg deadlifts, or like glute bridges, or, you know, some hamstring kind of flossing techniques. Some of these other just, I'm moving through an active range, I want that tissue and those tendons and ligaments to be able to withstand the load. So if I've got a new runner or somebody who is injured, absolutely a dynamic warmup is going to be much more helpful. And the reason for that static stretching, can decrease force output and cause a little bit of decrease in strength temporarily for an athlete, and that can actually lead to injury, right? And so people say, Well, I don't really stretch before I run and I don't want you stretching before run versus that dynamic warm up of getting the tissues warmed up getting them rolling, that's going to be the bigger key to prevent somebody from being injured.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 26:07

Yeah, and I think you said a really important thing, which is, and I'm learning myself and I'm, I feel like I'm an old dog on some of this stuff, I should know better, but it's not Oh, I right before there, it's not the active part of the run that that you look at for the week, your weekly sort of runs schedules, like, Oh, I'm gonna run on Monday, you know, Wednesday, and then Saturday, I'm gonna do my long run well, in between that to your point mobility, if you if you almost flipped it around and said, Okay, I'm going to work on mobility, and then see what my runs look like. I'm wondering if that mindset switch on the focus this week is on mobility, the outcome of that mobility is going to be a better run, or I'm still going to do the runs. Where because I think mobility and I know I do this, it's sort of uh, oh, yeah, it's on my, it's on my training plan. Yeah, I'll get to if I get to it, where if I make that the primary, and then go do the run? I'm wondering if that would be something where you just don't just focus on the three days of the week, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.

Chris Beavers: 27:02

Yeah, absolutely. Right. It's, it's what what we're doing the other times, you know, research is a little mixed on how much you know, actual time you need. There's some research to say, five to six minutes a week of a particular area, right. So if we're talking to hip flexors, we need about five to six minutes a week of cumulative, you know, stretching, or some type of mobility work to get that where you want to go long term. So I think it's helpful I try to tell my athletes that is, hey, if you can achieve that, like you're probably going to create some tissue change long term, not this. And people do this all the time, they get really gung ho about it, oh, I'm gonna really get after and then they'll have this voracious intensity for a week, and then it just kind of falls to the wayside.

Tom Regal: 27:41

Yeah, I try to work with my athletes and get them to do five or 10 minutes of some kind of mobility every single day, like make it a habit, get up in the morning, do, you know do a little, you know, couple yoga moves, things that will loosen up the hips, especially, and, and just calmly get things kind of flowing for the day, right before they do anything else, whatever they do. Regardless, if it's a rest day, it's a, you know, hard work day, get out there and to actually just move every single day. And I find as I get older, I need that even more so. Right? That's, that's something I get up, do a few push ups along with, you know, a few other yoga moves that kind of gets the blood going gets everything happen makes me feel so much better throughout the day, I move better throughout the day. So things don't tighten up quite as well. When I get to my runs, and my bikes and whatever else. It's all it seems to be so much better.

Chris Beavers: 28:29

Yeah, absolutely. I think, again, it needs to just be a part of a regular practice for you. Right? Yeah, like movements, medicine. And like you say, unfortunately, as we age, tissue quality just isn't as good as it once was. And I think that's the trap people fall into as well. I did that my 20s and 30s. And I didn't have to now I'm totally good to go. And I just get out there and run or I don't do any of those things. And those are important pieces to, you know, stay on top of is as we age and warm up and get where we want to go. Yeah, yeah, you know, and people want to again, as we age, we need to really understand we we got to stay on top of this mobility on a regular basis, we need to warm up a little bit more, but also don't utilize, you know, people want to say mobility is going to fix all things. And that's certainly not the case, either. It's like someone needs to watch you run and try to understand why you have these symptoms. I see. I see plenty of people who come in, you know, especially women, but definitely men as well who who, who are like Gumby. I mean they move so well, they got plenty of mobility, they need to have their run form corrected in some capacity, or even if they are kind of a tight guy. Sometimes correcting that run form can be a big piece in preventing injury as well. And if you tried some mobility work, and you tried some of these other things, it's like that's when you need to go see somebody, right?

Tom Regal: 29:39

Yeah. and focusing on posture, I think and in your daily life outside of movement. I'll fit somebody on a bike, I'll get them perfect, or we'll work on the run great run gait. They'll hold themselves. It'll look great. The picture looks great. The video looks great. And then they go out and they fold their back immediately. And they go Yeah, I'm still having a little bit of pain and just like well, now it's up to you. Yeah, right, right. It's up to you to actually hold that posture. And then get your mind to wire it properly so that you hold that posture. Yeah, time.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 30:04

Okay, so I'm going to this is our first argument. I'm going to love this, I think No, I think that's right. The issue is, you put me on a treadmill on a run gate, I'm gonna look great, right? Yeah, six and a half miles into that run, right when I'm tired. And you know, I'm on my fifth Hill, suddenly, I you know, I'm crunching up like an 80 year old with a cane. Right? So I think part of the challenge sometimes is when you look at those gates, and you look at that and go, okay, you look great. And then you go out there and in the real world, right, I got to get a 10 mile run in at mile eight. It's, it's, it's, and you're right, yeah, it was a moto. Right?

Tom Regal: 30:37

Yeah. And then you should get a coach to give you some strength work exactly. To build your core so that you don't fold up. And that as you're, as you're doing endurance training.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 30:45

saying, to your point is not just mobility. Yeah. Like your mobility is like, to your point looks great. Looks great. When you're when you're sitting in front of somebody for 30 minutes. Exactly. Yeah, you know,

Tom Regal: 30:54

in that, in that mobility is such a broad term, right? strength training is mobility, walking as mobility and stretching as mobility. It's, it's it's a huge, probably confusing people.

Chris Beavers: 31:05

It's the most confusing term on the face of the planet. I mean, pretty much everyone I talked to thinks they have bad posture, bad bad mobility, and I'll and without getting into the rabbit hole, posture is very dynamic. We're, we're dynamic beings, right? If I asked, you know, anybody, any listeners or any of us to stand up straight in what we would call perfect posture all day, we couldn't do it. It's physically impossible. Right? on the same token, if I slouched over my desk all day, you know, that can sometimes create pain, but not necessarily, right? We're dynamic beings and meant to move right slouched over my desk all the darn time sloppy right now, and I don't have neck and back pain.

Tom Regal: 31:41

We're all slouching, right? Yeah. Right, just for everyone.

Chris Beavers: 31:43

But the key is regular movement, right? You can put 400 providers in a room and get 400 different opinions on what perfect posture is there's not one perfect posture, the best posture is moving regularly, and being able to control it. Right. That's that's the big thing. Yeah, I

Kenny Bailey<br>: 31:58

think another thing we said before the program is it's not just muscle skeletal thing to, you know, talk to us a little bit about sort of, you know, hydration, sleep, those kind of things that you see as well, how do those play into injury prevention?

Chris Beavers: 32:11

Yeah. So, you know, I kind of talked to my patients about, you know, what I call four domains of health. It's movement, sleep, nutrition and stress management, right? We talk about that with every single athlete who comes in every single patient we talk to, because it's such a vital piece of injury prevention, and people don't understand it, right? They think, well, I've got bad posture, it's why I've got back pain, or they just think they're stuck with some pain, or Oh, I need to change my shoes. That's why I've got this heel pain. And but it's oftentimes these domains of health that we want to talk about, right. And on a movement standpoint, we've hammered that pretty good so far. But you know, from a movement standpoint, I want to understand what is your volume look like? Right? Well, how is your running volume changed recently? And hey, did you start running on more hills recently, or downhill more frequently, and that can contribute to some of your symptoms, or, man, you're running five days a week, and you really ramped your mileage up from 10 miles, or 20 miles over the course of a week and a half. And it's like, well, no wonder you have pain. And so that's oftentimes too much too soon, is oftentimes one of the biggest culprit of people's symptoms. And to understand that volume, taper it down a little bit to get out of pain, and then tamper it back up or taper it back up to get where you want to go is a huge piece of it, right? So that's movement, right and volume, and listening to that. And I'll swing back around to that with some of these other areas. Let's talk about sleep a little bit. Now that sleeps our superpower, right? I tell this to all my patients, it is the most critical thing an athlete can do to stay, you know, running or staying active, continue to do CrossFit, etc. without injury. We think that we can get by you know, I feel great with five or six hours of sleep. But the A you're probably lying be be you you are you just don't know how much more optimal you can function, right? Getting into some of these deeper waves of sleep is huge for allowing yourselves to clean themselves out with all the crap that you you fuel it with. And all the stress that we put to it from working out, right working out makes us more resilient, but it is also a stress to our system. And if we're not sleeping at minimum seven, eight hours, like I literally tell people and research is starting to say we need to be in bed for about eight, because we're getting quite a bit of wakeup time in the middle of night as well. You don't know it. But there's quite a bit of wakeup time. So I started dabbling and playing with a whoop a little bit, which is a wearable device that does heart rate variability and kind of gives you some recovery scores based on some of these things. And I was fascinated. Oh, you know, I was in bed for you know, seven hours last night now look at it only got six hours and 15 minutes of sleep and you're like, Oh, that's a problem. Right? And, and suddenly, you know, they've done tons of studies on athletes from high school, college, professional and even the recreational athlete. If you aren't getting seven, eight hours of sleep, you are so much more inclined to be injured. I don't know the exact percentage from the study but you are so much more likely to be injured so well..

Kenny Bailey<br>: 34:59

And when What's cool about it is I think people are understanding, it's not just quantity to sleep, it's quality to sleep. So whoop Fitbit, Garmin, Apple, all of those folks are realizing it, we've seen that more and more about not just, hey, did I get, you know, were my eyes closed for seven hours, it's did I get a good quality sleep. Because my wife does the same thing. She has a whoop, she looks at it. And she she can tell when she's like, my day is better when I have seven and a half hours of this, you know, and I had X amount of those hours were quality hours. And she uses a Fitbit to be able to do that. And there's folks that are using whoop that do the same thing. So it's good to see that the industry is, is also educating folks on that as well. That's, that's fantastic.

Chris Beavers: 35:42

Yeah it's a huge thing that I didn't get much in PT school, but the longer I was around, and some of my mentors to talk to their patients about it, it is it is easily one of the most important pieces. And if you've been dealing with injuries for a while or have a bunch of other injuries coming up, sleep is an area that I would look at, you know, moving along to nutrition and stress management, some of these other areas, nutrition is gonna be huge, right? I mean, the age old adage, like you can't outrun a bad diet is still continually true, right? Like, we can't eat a bunch of processed crap all the time and expected to function well at a high level, right? If you look on the back of the ingredient list, and it's you can't pronounce half of it, you probably shouldn't be eating it. Right. Yeah. So that's, that's a big area, you know, when we can get into all kinds of things, right. And I'm not a nutritionist by trade, you've got partners that we work with on that, but some of this loose screening stuff, hey, make sure you're eating enough, I see this a lot in runners, right, they, they want to stay lean, you want to continue to be lean, but if you're not eating enough food man, like you're gonna injure yourself, that tissue is gonna start breaking down. It could be a huge area of, you know, unsung hero for some people, right. And then lastly, stress management, right? Look. And if you we live stressful lives, right? The world's falling apart in some people's eyes outside. You were stressed out from work all the darn time and they will pile it on with a high intense workout, be it CrossFit, be it cycling, be it running, be it whatever. And that's a stress to our system. And oftentimes that can tip you over the edge, right, we have a threshold in which we once we reach it, that's when an injury happens. And sometimes the stress from life and the stress from running and the stress from all kinds of other things can play into it. And so you know, finding an outlet, be it if it is running great. Hey, if it's meditation, great, hey, if it's you know, places like the Recovery Lounge, where you just come in here, hang out and get some cryo and, and kick back with Norma tech boots on the whatever it might be like, you need to have an outlet that is going to help reduce some of that stress. And if working out is a piece of that that's tipping over the edge, then again, look at your volume. And again, the reason we talk about all these domains is because look, if you eat like crap, you sleep like crap, and you're stressed out to the max, and you're wondering why you have had knee pain for the last six years, we've got to fix some of these other areas if we're going to fix this underlying cause of it. And look, you can't just get again, we can't get myopic, and really focus on on the one point of pain. There's other pieces that contribute to someone's symptoms. So

Tom Regal: 38:04

yeah, I think that's our biggest takeaway, right is its whole body. Right? It's everything that affects your body from top to bottom. It's not just one thing, my finger hurts No. Why? What's what are the leading factors up to it? And I think that's, that's, that's huge. I mean,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 38:17

yeah, so as a sort of the, the takeaway on this thing, if you were to recap, it's sort of Okay, I've got something. Well, actually, I lied, I got a, I got a question. Because this is kind of been bugging me, you know, because you're a coach, and you're a PT, and I'm a guy trying to deal with both of you. So I'm on the other end of this. This is the challenge I have, right? the challenge we have is you get a coach, you say, Look, I'm working on my run form, I'm gonna get a coach or you decided to download a training program, and it's going to be a July 4, half marathon, right? And I've decided I've been running 5K's and 10K's now I want to I want to take that challenge up. And so it's May, right, I look at my schedule for the week, and I need to do X amount in there. And most programs are pretty good about you know, 10% ramp of volume, right? And then all of a sudden I get IT issue or a lower back pain and other things. And you're saying logically, so you need to back those mileage down. And you need to be able to get ready to be able to do that the coaches like hey, oh, by the way, you know, you've got a long run on Saturday, in order to get ready for this half marathon. If you don't do an hour and a half, you know, that's going to have a negative effect on so yeah, do I just do Fight Club between the two of you like how do I you know what I mean? Like, how do I yeah, so it's Hunger Games. I'm in the middle. Oh, how exciting from

Tom Regal: 39:39

the from the coach standpoint. I mean, this is challenging for people that just download the program and then don't know exactly how to how to work the mileage, how to how to work their bodies around. If you have a coach that you're working with. The coach should be getting that information on what's hurting, right, what issues you're having. That's something that I insist my athletes Tell me on a regular basis every single day, you know, in training program put in, how are you feeling? What's hurting what's, you know what's good, what's bad, right? And from that point, that information, then the coach should dial you back and adjust your schedule for you. Right? Okay, we've got this issue, we need to back off on this mileage. And then we need to push up on this at this point. That's why you have a coach, right? If you don't have a champion, so if you don't have a you don't have a coach, you have to figure out how to do that yourself. Which is hard, right? So you reach out to other professionals you go to PT can help you do some of that, because they give you some exercises, some things to work on. And you can speak on that.

Chris Beavers: 40:37

Yeah,

Tom Regal: 40:37

Chris?

Chris Beavers: 40:38

Yeah, for sure. Right. So, you know, if you're going to a PT, and they tell you to stop running, fire them and find a new one. That's That's right. Yeah. Because that that's the worst advice someone can get. Right. And oftentimes, that's not the first step that needs to happen, right? You never want to remove the only time I'm going to remove an athlete from activity completely is like, Look, you got a fracture, or you're a detriment to yourself, and your long term health if you continue to run, which is rare in most cases, right? You know, barring, we've ruled all those things out and you're on your own trying to figure it out. So so maybe you figure out, again, the race is coming. Maybe I just reduce the intensity of my run, right? So if I say, Hey, I'm running 10 minute miles, let me let me just dial that, that intensity back a little bit, and see how I feel right? Yeah. And I use kind of a stoplight system with people you know, as far as pain pains, a yellow light, you know, greens kind of carry on, do what you want red, I need to stop, right? It's a pain to yellow light. If that pain is getting worse and more intense as you go, Hey, we need to and you've tried, you know, reducing your intensity and reducing your mileage, then hey, maybe you need to stop and go go see somebody to get some further guidance. Sure. But if that pain gets better, as you go on, it's not worsening. And the race is, you know, two weeks from now, then carry on within reason, you know what I mean? Don't be wild and crazy with it. But again, if.....

Kenny Bailey<br>: 41:50

you may have to readjust your sort of, I'm not going to be running a PR this time. I have to run walk this thing where more than I was going to do before or, or if it is starting to go bright orange into the red like two weeks prior to say, okay, maybe I just need to, you know, live to fight another day kind of deal. But that's been always been the stress I've had is, you know, people that don't have a coach that are like, I'm trying to do this thing. I made a public commitment. I told everybody on Facebook, I'm going to do this on Yeah, everyone's cheering me on. And I got this pain. It's like, well, I can just manage through the pain. And then because you don't want to disappoint people, right? And especially if it's and you don't want disappoint yourself, because this was your big goal coming out to add a COVID. Right. So but so I think that the takeaway is, you know, take care of your body upfront early and often. Yep. Right. If there is a yellow flag, you know, recognize it, do something about it. And then if you have to go ahead and just sort of what you're going to do for that race...

Tom Regal: 42:48

Heed your warnings. Yeah, right. Yeah,

Chris Beavers: 42:49

exactly. Right.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 42:50

Like don't know that sounds obvious. But that's that's it's not.

Tom Regal: 42:54

It sounds obvious, but it's not.

Chris Beavers: 42:55

It's not No, definitely not. Again, my goal is to make it happen. And so again, right, if you've got a long run, it's just absolutely killing you, then hey, maybe why don't you bike for the equivalent amount of miles, you're going to get a pretty similar stimulus as far as time is concerned. But finding ways to cross train and those kind of things can be huge for you, too.

Tom Regal: 43:13

Yeah, I think one of the other big detriments we have is that we go okay, I'm going to do a half my first half marathon, and you immediately set a goal for time. Yeah, you haven't started training for it yet? Nobody does. Yeah, no idea what you're doing right. But so then you're you're forced to be in that goal to be in that goal, even though you're not, you know, and then it's, you know, you set that goal the night before the race is based on your training is, I'm going to be able to run X amount of miles at this pace, Boom boom boom. So that's one of the other challenges that are that we face.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 43:41

So Chris, take us home. What are the three kind of things if you were to kind of what are the two or three things that people need to know? Like, hey, if it's if it's this, it's systemic, if it's this, do this, what would you?

Chris Beavers: 43:54

Yeah, you mean, like three? Just three takeaways? Yeah, as far as like pain, and those kind of things are concerned. So again, listen to the symptoms Don't you know, be mindful of them, but don't be fearful of them? I think if these symptoms continue to get worse and continue to get out of control, then at that point, hey, like, go see a trusted provider, right? Like don't don't and don't accept like, if you do go see somebody, they just tell you stop running. Don't accept that as is complete truth. Right? Like go find somebody that is an ally with you, that's going to give you actionable tools to get where you want to go. And then key right like talking about some of the systemic stuff, like just take care of your body, right hydrate, well, eat well be Be mindful, take care of some of your stress that you're dealing with go see somebody if you if you need to, but eat well move well, and move often and I think is a big key.

Tom Regal: 44:37

Okay. Nice. Great. Nice.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 44:38

So what do you got coming up? anything exciting?

Chris Beavers: 44:40

Yeah. So yeah, we haven't alluded this yet. But so I started my practice about a year and a half ago, and one of my former colleagues that I went school with, we're actually merging our practice, which is pretty, pretty big news. Is that cool? First, all right place that we've actually announced

Kenny Bailey<br>: 44:55

Exclusive right here! on Athletes in

Chris Beavers: 44:58

Yeah, that's right. That's right. So, myself Motion. and Ross Gentry who owns Be Ready Performance Therapy, we're going to merge our practice, we practice the exact same way. Both treat very active individuals and take a very active approach to rehab with people, it's gonna be a super great blend for for our practices, right, so we have two locations now, not only here in Franklin, but also in downtown, right, so we'll have two locations to serve people, nothing will change about the quality of our products, you know, we're really passionate about seeing our athletes one on one and really given them the tools that they want. And so yeah, so Momentum Sports erformance will will become Be eady Performance Therapy, so e're super stoked about that. nd all the big ways that we'll e able to provide for athletes ith two locations and it really ust two minds to kind of create ontent and really just just ive back to our community

Tom Regal: 45:48

Awesome!

Kenny Bailey<br>: 45:49

Congratlulations!

Tom Regal: 45:49

Yeah, Congrats!

Chris Beavers: 45:51

I love it. So yeah, also .....

Tom Regal: 45:53

So what's the social channels? What do we follow you

Chris Beavers: 45:54

So so what we'll get about the new social on? channels which will be on you find us online, bereadyPT.com on social media on Instagram, we put a ton of free content out there on mobility drills and other things of that nature. So I encourage you to follow our channel there, it's going to be@bereadypt or you can email e right if you have questions r just want to know more about o r practice or how we can help r if you have an injury I'd lo e to just just be a resource f r you and answer any questio s that you might have. That s gonna be Chris@bereadypt.co so shoot me an email, let me now how I can help. And yea, hope you guys enjoyed it.

Tom Regal: 46:28

Awesome. Outstanding. Thank you so much for coming in. We really appreciate the conversation. And anybody who's listening at you've enjoyed it, give us a thumbs up, give us five stars where we need the ratings that helps the algorithms more people get, get access to the shows, and all of that. And of course, all your constructive feedback. We appreciate everybody who's reached out to us and given us good feedback, good and bad feedback. We're learning as we go. So we're having fun with this. Thank you all and we'll catch you on the next one.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 46:53

Thanks