Tuesday, October 6, 2009

IS PAIN THE MOTHER OF INVENTION?

Bob walked the entire LA Marathon on his hands.


Is Pain the Mother of Invention?


In Febuary 27th, 1979, I faced a near death experience. My life as I knew it was over—I thought. The light at the end of the tunnel was there. I saw it. My athletic career, college scholarships and Olympic dreams dashed.


The near detachment and amputation of my left arm, left me wondering why I was alive and what I was meant to do? It was unclear to me at the time. The sadness and detachment I felt was overwhelming. All I could hear were the recurring words from the Medical team stating “though we reattached the arm, we are not sure if it will ever work again.”

Friday, October 2, 2009

Are Swimmers at Risk for Lower back Pain?

Swimming is often recommended for those with back pain, yet, so many times the mechanism of injury is replicated by excessive neck and lower back movement in the water.


A collapsed spine at the start...
Poor posture is replicated on the starting block (as seen above) and in the water, repetitive motion and break down occurs at the weak links in the spine unless it is strengthened and braced by turning on the correct postural and core muscles in the water. Some of the greatest world class swimmers know how to replicate these neutral zones and partially stiffen up their spine to plane out in the water. This creates greater speed and greater longevity to a swimmers spine without the repetitive micro trauma.
Mike Alexandrov driving a powerful spine angle into the water


Dave Huslig, Physical Therapist, from VALIR PT in Oklahoma City, OK, said "after only 1 treatment with the AB-Inforcer, a swimmer with 2 months of Lower Back Pain reported feeling much better. The addition of the AB-Inforcer was the only intervention I changed with his protocol which allowed for the reduction of pain and increased mobility of his lumbar joints."

The 3 sensors in the AB-Inforcer teach the patient quickly how to plane out the spine and maintain neutral zones while functioning in the water. In this case with this swimming athlete, in one supervised treatment the postural awareness provided by the biofeedback in the AB-Inforcer allowed the athlete to stay pain free! Sign us up!

Michael Alexandrov
Lee Brandon, CSCS trains Olympic Swimmers to focus on spine first, extremities second!

Marcus Rogan, 2Time Olympian and Silver Medalist Training with  Lee  for London 2012, using the AB-Inforcer, with cables and dumbbells simultaneously  to simulate the fatigue in the water of the extremities, but the precise stiffness necessary out of the spine! The hand piece lights up when doing the exercises properly!


TPC Saw Grass Pro AM Long Drive Champion, Dr. Jeff Litow, MD., Age 62


“I won the TPC Saw Grass Pro Am Long Drive event in May with a drive of 291 yards. I came to Lee and trained using the AB-Inforcer® and the Simple to complex Neu-Spine® exercise progressions for less than 6 months and got incredible results. When I met Lee I had some back pain and spine issues, and drove the ball 200-220 on a good day. Now I am out driving myself by 50-90 yards in the same conditions. Incredible!
I use my AB-Inforcer everyday to reinforce good form and posture while doing my core exercises that seem to be transferring to my golf course performance and awareness!”
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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

AB-Inforcer Success Story on Amazon: How the AB-Inforcer Gave Me My Quality of Life Back.


AB-Inforcer Success Story on Amazon:


AB-Inforcer® - Model 563591
Other products by Sammons Preston


5.0 out of 5 stars:


How The Ab-Inforcer Gave Me My Quality Of Life Back, June 22, 2009
By
LeeAnn Laporte - See all my reviews(REAL NAME) I am 45 years old and have Parkinson's Disease. For 5 years I have had lower back pain,neck pain and sever headaches. My Doctor increased my med's but that did not help. I was going to physical therapy for 5 years 2 times a week but I was still getting worse, my pain my walking my muscles and my posture was getting weaker. When I had my 6 month check-up in January 2008 with my Neurologist, he said in 6 months to a year I will need somthing to help me walk. I did some research to see if there is an exercise I can do to help me with my pain, posture and get my legs stronger. If you don't have good posture you won't have good balance. I found an exercise called the Ab-Inforcer and I contacted the inventor(Lee Brandon). I asked her if the Ab-Inforcer has ever been used by someone with PD. She said no but after telling her a little about PD and what I was looking for in an exercise, she was willing to give it a try with me. Here is somone who did not know me and took time from her busy schedule to try to help me. I started working out with the Ab-Inforcer in May,2008. 7 weeks later my back pain was gone and so were my headaches. For 5 years physical therapy did not help and in 7 weeks I feel like a new person. I am able to play golf again with no pain, my posture is also getting better and my legs are alot stronger. I have alot more energy. At my last appointment with my Neurologist on August 4,2008, 3 months since I've been working out with the Ab-Inforcer, my Doctor was shocked. He could not believe how good I was doing, my walking got faster and for the first time I was able to stand up with my hands across my chest from a sitting position- a task that I could never do before. He told me to keep working with this exercise it has definitely helped me. I know this is not a cure, but it has given me a better quality of life back and I hope we can help others with PD, MS ,ect. to have the same chance. I highly recommend the Ab-Inforcer.

Monday, September 28, 2009

CORE MYTHS: CAN DEVELOPING YOUR ABS ACTUALLY HURT YOUR BACK?

CORE MYTHS: CAN DEVELOPING YOUR ABS ACTUALLY HURT YOUR BACK?


NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: Phys Ed, by Gretchen Reynolds, JUNE 21ST, 2009.


The genesis of much of the ab work we do these days probably lies in the work done in an Australian physiotherapy lab during the mid- 1990’s. Researchers there, hoping to elucidate the underlying cause of back pain, attached electrodes to people’s midsections and directed them to rapidly raise and lower their arms, like the alarmist robot in “Lost in Space”. In those with healthy backs, the scientists found, a deep abdominal muscle tensed several milliseconds before the arms rose. The brain apparently alerted the muscle, the transverses abdominis, to brace the spine in the advance of movement. In those with back pain, however, the transverses abdominis didn’t fire early. The spine wasn’t ready for the flailing. It wobbled and ached. Perhaps, the researchers theorized, the increasing abdominal strength could erase back pain. The lab worked with the patients in pan to isolate and strengthen that particular deep muscle, in part by sucking in their guts during exercises. The results, though mixed, showed some promise against sore backs.

From that highly technical foray into rehabilitative medicine, a booming industry of fitness classes was born, “The idea leaked” into gyms and Pilates classes that core health was “all about the Transversus abdominis,” Thomas Nesser, an associate professor of physical education at Indiana State University who has studied core fitness, told me recently. Personal trainers began directing clients to pull in their bally buttons during crunches on Swiss balls or to press their backs against the floor during sit-ups, deeply hollowing their stomachs, then curling up one spinal segment at a time. “People are now spending hours trying to strengthen their deep ab muscles”, Nesser said.

But there is growing dissent among sports scientists about whether al of this attention to the deep abdominal muscles actually gives you a more powerful core and a stronger back and whether it’s even safe. A provocative article published in The British Journal of Sports Medicine last year asserted that some of the key findings from the first Australian study of back pain might be wrong. Moreover, even if they were true for some people in pain, the results might not apply to the generally healthy and fit whose trunk muscles weren’t misfiring in the first place.

“There’s so much mythology out there about the core,” maintains Stuart McGill, a highly regarded professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo in Canada and a back-pain clinician who has been crusading against ab exercises that require hollowing your belly. “The idea has reached trainers and through them the public that the core means only the abs. There is no science behind that idea.”

Advanced prone brace option
The “core” remains a somewhat nebulous concept; but most researchers consider it the corset of muscles and connective tissue that encircle and hold the spine in place. If your core is stable, your spine remains upright while your body swivels around it. But, McGill says, the muscles forming the core must be balanced to allow the spine to bear large loads. If you concentrate on strengthening only one set of muscles within the core, you can destabilize your spine by pulling it out of alignment. Think of the spine as a fishing rod supported by muscular guy wires. If all of the wires are tensed equally, the rod stays straight. “If you pull the wires closer to the spine,” McGill says, as you do when you pull in your stomach while trying to isolate the transverses abdominis, “what happens?” The rod buckles. So, too, he said, can your spine if you overly focus on the deep abdominal muscles. “In research at our lab,” he went on to say, “the amount of load that the spine can bear without injury was greatly reduced when subjects pulled in their belly buttons” during crunches and other exercises.

Instead, he suggests, a core exercise program should emphasize all of the major muscles that girdle the spine, including but not concentrating on the abs. “Side plank” (lie on your side and raise your upper body) and “bird dog” (in which, from all fours, you raise an alternate arm and leg) exercise the important muscles embedded along the back and sides of the core. As for the abdominals, no sit-ups, McGill said; they place devastating loads on the disks. An approved crunch begins with you lying down, one knee bent, and hands [positioned beneath the lower back for support. “Do not hollow your stomach or press your back against the floor,” McGill says. Gently lift your head and shoulders, hold briefly and relax back down. These three exercises done regularly, McGill said, can provide well-rounded, thorough core stability. And they avoid the pitfalls of the all-abs core routine. “I see too many people.” McGill told me with a sigh, “who have six-pack abs, and a ruined back.”


See proposed exercise video on line at www.nytimes.com/physed

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See how the AB-Inforcer is the only objective core trainer that encourages good form, "bracing -- not hollowing" the spinal stabilizers and provides feedback underneath the back, taking the place of having to subjectively use your hands.
The AB-Inforcer is a tool that teaches spinal "bracing" while maintaining neutral for
beginning to advanced users.  Marcus Rogan, @ Time Olympic Silver Medalist in
Swimming training with Lee Brandon, CSCS 


· AB-Inforcer Core exercises at a glance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cEYsXi8nic
· EMG Analysis of the AB-Inforcer® -VS- Pressure Cuff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3eMTlJTE30
· Women’s World Long Drive Champion: Beating Laura Davies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ-PBqRT
· Spine-Sparing Tip: Posture = Power
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmL_s8wMmg0
· Other Lee Brandon, CSCS and AB-Inforcer® Video’s: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=longdrivechamp2001&view=videos&sort=v
· THE GOLF CHANNEL: Golf Academy Live: Posture=Power http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_28YM4scfk

Thursday, September 24, 2009

PHYSICAL THERAPY EVENT IN TULSA AN OVERWHELMING SUCCESS.


PHYSICAL THERAPY EVENT IN TULSA AN OVERWHELMING SUCCESS.



AB-Vanced NEU-Spine Technologies of Los Angeles Teams with Relax the Back Stores, for Oklahoma Physical Therapy Association Workshop for “Bad Backs to Elite Performance”
Adding to its long list of medical recognitions, AB-Vanced NEU-Spine Technologies of Los Angeles is proud to announce its successful Continuing educational event with the Oklahoma Physical Therapy Association.
LOS ANGELES, CA. September 24, 2009 – As a committed specialist in providing progressions and solutions for strengthening and stabilizing the spine, AB-Vanced NEU-Spine Technologies, LLC (ABNST, LLC) is happy to announce its recent successful event coordinated with Oklahoma’s Relax the Back (RTB) stores for the Oklahoma Physical Therapy Association (OPTA). The continuing educational program included cutting edge research on spine stabilization -- back and neck pain solutions for professionals teaching therapeutic progressions for functional training and assessment. “Considering ABNST, LLC’s established reputation for excellence when providing simple innovative training options for professional bridging the gap between dysfunction and function when dealing with back pain and postural disorders, joining forces with RTB known for excellence in providing lifestyle products that provide solutions for back pain management not only makes sense but is truly exciting,” according to Lee Brandon, C.S.C.S., President of ABNST, LLC. “In the last 10 years, RTB has supported Health and Wellness programs, and is an outstanding support for professionals promoting pain management solutions for lifestyle changes to their clients. We are also honored and thankful for the opportunity to support professional programs, such as the Oklahoma Physical Therapy Association, which is committed to offering the latest in advanced therapeutic research and techniques to their members. We believe that these continuing educational services and workshops will serve as excellent cornerstones for preeminent programs, professionals and cutting-edge services to gain the attention of new patients and ultimately help them experience much-desired pain relief on the short term and a heightened lifestyle change for the long term.” According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more than 250,000 work-related back injuries annually. Coincidentally, health care professionals are most susceptible to injury.
According to national statistics, six of the top 10 professions at greatest risk for back injury are: nurse's aides, licensed practical nurses, registered nurses, health aides, radiology technicians, and physical therapists. There are innumerable cases of back injury outside of the workplace.
It is common knowledge among strength training professionals and back injury health care professionals that core strength training is essential in promoting spinal health and reducing the likelihood of back-related injuries.

For more information, visit http://www.abinforcer.com/, call Lee Brandon, CSCS, at 702-334-4327, or mailto:longdrivechamp@msn.com or Denise Vladovich, CEAS, Relax The Back Medical Liaison, (405) 414-2715 or email at MktSolutions@cox.net .


About Lee Brandon
Lee Brandon, CSCS is a LA-based Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, motivational speaker and is the founder of AB-Vanced NEU-Spine® Training, holding multiple patents for fitness innovations. She is also the 2001 Re/Max and 2003 Safeway Women’s World Long Drive Champion, Olympic training coach and a former NFL assistant strength coach for the New York Jets.. For more information visit http://www.leebrandoninc.com/

About Relax The Back
Relax The Back is a back-care specialty retailer. Based in Southern California, the company operates over 120 franchise and independently owned retail locations throughout North America. Relax The Back offers a selection of medically-endorsed, high-quality back/relaxation lifestyle products, including the popular Relax The Back mattresses. Information about the company and its products can be found at http://www.relaxtheback.com/.

About Oklahoma Physical Therapy Association
The OPTA is dedicated to the profession of physical therapy in Oklahoma and to serving the state’s members. http://www.okpt.org/

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