We test the rotator cuff muscles for their internal/external rotation and abduction strength but they have a very important Always-On function too.  Just like the scapular stabilizers, the rotator cuff needs to dynamically stabilize so that other muscles like the deltoids and pectoralis muscles can have power.     Online Courses: https://richardhazel.podia.com We are in the last days of the Black Friday double discount sale. Take 20% off any course or bundle of courses until the end of 2025 BLACKFRIDAY20 at checkout. Bundles of courses are already discounted at 20% so you can add another 20% on top of that until the sale ends. My courses don't expire.  

Light sensitivity, watering eyes, ptosis, sinus pain, facial pain and migraine are all symptoms that can come from neck muscles via the TCC (Trigeminocervical Complex)     Online Courses: https://richardhazel.podia.com Black Friday Discount ends at the end of the year. BLACKFRIDAY20 for 20% all courses and bundles of courses.  

Most acupuncturists can treat pain. But the pain comes back. We need to stop obsessing about disc bulges and MRIs and start looking at the actual mechanical problem that is leading to pain. Fix what's tight then strengthen what's inhibited and then retrain the movement pattern. Janda already did the hard work and most are just ignoring it and treating the site of pain.     Online Courses: https://richardhazel.podia.com BLACKFRIDAY20 at checkout for 20% off until the end of the year.    

Most people over 50 have disc bulges and degeneration and are not in pain. 30% of people in their 20s have disc bulges and are not in pain. Janda would say that the disc is being injured by postural issues due to muscle imbalances and also because of dysfunctional movement patterns caused by those Upper and Lower Crossed Syndromes.  Treating a disc bulge only gives temporary relief. The underlying sheering force caused by a short tight psoas or a forward head placement will start to injury adjacent discs and will perpetuate pain.  Fix the Function! Correct the Crossed Patterns and retrain the movement patterns for lasting relief of chronic pain.   https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4464797/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3921966/   BLACKFRIDAY20 at Checkout (look for the link to click) for 20% off all Courses and Bundles of Courses on my Podia site. Bundles are already 20% discounted and you can add the Black Friday Discount on top of that until the end of the year.   https://richardhazel.podia.com   My Courses Don't Expire  

Sometimes Dry Needling is the best and fastest way to get full function back and to relieve pain. On these two college football players the electric stimulation acupuncture was barely touching their pain. Dry Needling give me instant and satisfying results.    Don't Forget, I'm running a 20% Discount on all Courses and Bundles of Courses (already discounted at 20%) until the end of the year.  Use the Code BLACKFRIDAY20 at checkout (look for the link to enter the code) It's a great chance to get 20% already discounted bundles for huge savings on courses that DO NOT EXPIRE.  You keep them as a reference anytime you need them.   Videos are indexed for fast reference.  All courses can be discounted and you can reuse the code as many times as you want until the end of the year. https://richardhazel.podia.com   Correction: I said insipid instead of insidious onset. 😂 

I'm not diagnosing or treating anything and I'm not telling anyone what they should do or what they should tell their patients to do. I'm sharing the research so that people can talk to their doctors about possible ways to reverse sarcopenia and fibrotic muscle and regain healthy fast-twitch muscle.     Online Courses: https://richardhazel.podia.com    

This was a little mind-blowing to see this week. I was treating someone who had a stroke 20 years ago and then this happened!   HINT: There was a musculocutaneous nerve entrapment I wasn't expecting to see.      Online Courses: https://richardhazel.podia.com

The 0-5 scale on Manual Muscle Tests was created in 1915 to find neuromuscular issues in paretic patients (like people with polio).   The MMT should not be trusted for Sports Optimization and Injury Prevention in Athletes.   Here's what the research says. (Pro tip: The MMT is more of a test of the strength of the examiner, than of the athlete)       Online Courses (that never expire)  https://richardhazel.podia.com    

I rarely see pain above the knee on my average patients, but I see it very often on athletes, especially jumping sports.   Here's what I've found to work and what I think is the underlying cause.   Online Courses: https://richardhazel.podia.com    

Part 2 of the Kinetic Chain is the shoulder elbow and wrist in the acceleration phase of pitching and the deceleration phase (where the injuries are more common)     Online Courses: https://richardhazel.podia.com    

Ground Reaction Force (GRF) Hip-To-Shoulder Separation (HTS) The Anterior Oblique Sling The Posterior Oblique Sling Setting the groundwork for Part Two about Baseball Pitching   Online Course: https://richardhazel.podia.com  

The Hip Internal and External Rotators are important for agility to rapidly change direction and have an important role to play in proprioception and to avoid knee injury.   Online Courses: https://richardhazel.podia.com Courses Never Expire.  

The Abductors and the Adductors of the Hip are essential for sports with lateral movement, cutting and changing direction with Power and Agility.   Optimizing the Lateral Stabilizers will also help to avoid knee and ankle injuries.   Online Courses: https://richardhazel.podia.com    

Interesting case this week of bilateral foot pain and numbness on an American Football Player.  I walk through my thinking, my way to assess and confirm my assumptions and the results mid-way through and the adjustment I made to get to 100% pain-free.   Online Courses: https://richardhazel.podia.com SEPT20 all month for 20% off all courses.  

Part One of Three How we can optimize Sports Performance by working on the Lumbopelvic Hip Complex in all Planes of Movement Today it's about Triple Extension   Online Courses: https://richardhazel.podia.com SEPT20 for 20% all Courses until the end of Sept 2025

Thank you to everyone who made our Barcelona Acupuncture Congress a success! I give a brief recap of what I talked about. Then a college Volleyball player had an injury of the interosseous muscles of the foot.     I'm running a 20% Discount for September  SEPT20 at checkout for all courses. My courses never expire!   https://richardhazel.podia.com    

Most thumb pain can be fixed really quickly with electric stimulation acupuncture on the motor points of the thumb muscles. Here's what I do for thumb pain.      Online Courses: https://richardhazel.podia.com  

I've been showing this to people in live seminars for years but I'm finally willing to say with certainty that this is repeatable and reliable for relieving the lower leg symptoms from sciatica.    Online Courses: https://richardhazel.podia.com    

Until now, sports medicine has been highly influenced by the MDs who treat injury so we often follow suit as acupuncturists. Functional Acupuncture is always looking at the whole picture. We can treat more than just the injury. We can look up the chain or into the past to find healthy muscles to optimize and improve sports performance and avoid injury.    Learn more about Functional Acupuncture with my Online Courses on Podia: https://richardhazel.podia.com      

I'm working on a tough case of knee pain on a college football player and I'm telling you here how I went about treating and adjusting my treatment as new information became clear.    Online Courses: https://richardhazel.podia.com   The New Peripheral Nerve Entrapment Course is here:  https://richardhazel.podia.com/peripheral-nerve-entrapments