Subjects Of Athletic training Philosophies (SOAP) Notes

Hello everybody! Today I’d like to talk about compensation patterns. When I was in school, I learned the basics about muscular compensation. I knew the simple idea that if one muscle wasn’t going to do its job, another muscle would pick up the slack. I thought I had a decent grasp on the concept, especially when you match up muscular compensation with something like lower cross syndrome. It wasn’t until recently that I put together multiple pieces of the puzzle to better understand how compensation works. I have previously mentioned Douglas Heel’s body zones and Tom Myers’ anatomy trains as key components in describing compensation patterns. Myers sets the tone with his understanding of how the body is connected through a complex fascial system and how force easily travels from one area to another. More recently I have received my level 1 Reflexive Performance Reset (RPR) certification. RPR is partially based on Heel’s Be Activated course, specifically one element that carries ...

Hello Everybody! In this SOAP Note, I’d like to just offer up my thoughts on the human body. I’ve tried to research and understand as many different interpretations of the body and movement as I can find. In doing so, I have collected in this article many of what I consider to be the most effective philosophies regarding the body. Some of those who have influenced my understanding include; Tom Myers, Gray Cook, Mike Reinold, Douglas Heel, Kelly Starrett, and Mike Boyle just to name a few. I’m sure you recognize some of those names if not all of them, and if any are unfamiliar to you I would encourage you to check them out. I don’t want to use this article to just describe the theories presented by all of these brilliant men, instead I am going to talk about some of the similarities I have found or adaptations I use. A mentor of mine from my days as an undergrad AT student once told me that mobility = flexibility + strength. In other words, range of motion (flexibility) requires co...

Hello everybody! After reconsidering many of my treatment methods I’ve come to form a principle I want to talk about. It’s a simple thought, but it carries weight through almost all injury rehabilitation and treatment. The principle is, “I can never affect your body as much as you can”. I’ll discuss how I came to realize this and I’ll provide a few examples of how it works. The idea first came into my head when I was researching Blood Flow Restriction therapy (BFR) as part of applying for a grant to purchase a couple BFR units. The science stands for itself with BFR. But the basic concept is that by restricting blood flow to a limb during light load exercise we cause the body to release hormones similar to when performing a maximum effort lift. In my opinion, this works like a “life hack” for weight training especially in the rehabilitation setting where most athletes are unable to perform a max-out lift. A former mentor of mine once told me that despite all of the technology we ha...

Hello everyone! Over the past year or so, I have been reconsidering many of my rehab philosophies due to 3 realizations I’ve had. All three realizations have to do with how we train the body in a rehab setting, specifically the role that nerves play in rehab. It started for me when I began paying attention to how long athletes would continue to get consistent treatment. For the sake of this discussion, we won’t include surgical cases (though most of the points I want to discuss still apply to them). To begin let’s consider an average injury, whether that is a lateral ankle sprain, hamstring strain, or indistinguishable shoulder pain that flips between presenting as impingement and rotator cuff irritation. Of course all injuries exist on a spectrum from “mild” to “severe”, however I am focusing on the bulk around the average. I don’t have concrete statistics available, but I think it would be fair to estimate around 75% of non-surgical injuries are resolved within a 3-6 week timel...

Welcome to Subjects Of Athletic training Philosophies, aka The SOAP Notes! My name is Mark Dominick and I am a certified Athletic Trainer. I created this website with one simple intent - to guide discussion amongst fellow professionals in the sports medicine/performance world on various subjects of exercise and treatment philosophies. I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to work with some amazing people and when I’ve faced difficult cases, I have turned to my co-workers for wisdom and suggestions. These discussions have generated some great ideas and I thought, what if I could expand this conversation to include anybody else willing to participate? My goal is to bring everyone to the table to share their knowledge on the ever complicated human body so that we all may benefit. I will attempt to stir conversation by posting some of my ideas, opinions, and philosophies but I will never claim to know everything about a subject. I bring an open mind to the SOAP Notes and I hope you do too...