Pittsburgh Training

As we continue to prepare for the Great Race. I am amazed by the great places to train here in Pittsburgh. North Park, Riverview Park, and Schenley Park are all wonderful and I am sure the others are just as good. What's most exciting is the diversity in training that we are able to do right here in downtown Pittsburgh. We are able to walk right out of our office downtown and train on a variety of terrains and surfaces all within a 5 minute warm-up jog. Some of my favorites are running around PNC Park and Heinz Field, both of which are less than a 4 mile loop from the office. We also do speed work on the jail trail and the trail on the North Shore. The many bridges offer an effective substitute for small inclined hills. If we want a more substantial incline, that's easy...it's Pittsburgh.

10k training

Our customized training is usually performed in our training studio in downtown Pittsburgh. We have some clients though, that aren't only training for strength, but also want to run and use running as a mechanism to get healthy. We encourage this. We are working with a client who decided he wanted to run a 10k later this year. We have been working on getting in mileage so he can run a quality race. His last race was in 1982, that was also his first, so we started from scratch. He has progressed quite well, and is noticing changes in how he looks and feels. Also, he has received comments from others. We recently set up a mock race for him (5k), and he exceeded our expectations. With a little more training he will be ready for his big race.

House Calls

How many doctors are willing to come to your house? We designed our practice to make the doctors accessible, and in so doing we figured we should offer on site services. The way it works is simple.

We do recommend that the first visit is performed in the office, to make sure we get everything set up right. We can then take our 15 lb portable chiropractic table to your house and give the treatments there. Many people will have problems where they "can't even move" and it's quite a hassle to try to get to the office. In those situations its nice to be able to take our services to them. It's possible because we don't need that much equipment to treat people. There is an increased value in our care when we do this.

We also offer on site fitness training which has been popular and successful with some of the local apartments.

Office Expectations

I have given several tours of the office recently, and try to be the best guide I can. We chose to abandon the typical health care office look for what we consider a more modern feel. Most offices in our area are white walled, sterile, cold looking facilities. We wanted something better, so our walls have color, we try to keep the lights low with the maximum natural light so it feels inviting. Most people who visit us comment on how comfortable the space is.

I believe that people want to feel comfortable at the doctors office, and we are doing our best to change the intimidating and sometimes obnoxious atmosphere. On the other hand maybe the consistency of the white walls and bright paintings are comforting because of conventional expectations of what an office should be.

Ergonomically Designed

We just finished a series of presentations on ergonomics. We usually enjoy giving them, but honestly I was quite worried about this one. Ergonomics is generally tedious, or so I thought. In preparation, we looked at the relevant research and were prepared to discuss proper angles and heights of chairs only to find out that it really didn't matter. Not that ergonomics don't matter, and that you shouldn't try to sit properly and work in good postures, but that the exact angles really didn't show much of a benefit in the research. What really worked is just moving. Taking short breaks and short stretches. So that's what we taught. Amazingly, ergonomics went from memorizing angles to stretching and quick exercises. People were engaged, and surprisingly interested in what we were discussing. I guess ergonomics can be fun.

Exercise Nutrition

Last week I came across this article and was worried what I might find on the inside. Most athletes, and people for that matter are so willing to try new things and to believe marketing by the growing business of sports nutrition, that it drives me crazy. I was relieved to read about people who take a common sense approach to nutrition post exercise. I get very excited when people show an ability to think for themselves (an ability I like to think I gained not too long ago), instead of just believing what someone else tells you.

I see many runners who are willing to drink each and every recovery drink and/or sports drink after every run, even short easy runs, when all this isn't even necessary. I personally opt for a little protein shake with some wheat germ and flax seed because it is convenient. I think it tastes alright too. It's not perfect, but it gets the job done for me. Real food is always better than processed food, but what's important is that you get some protein, and some carbs in following your training. You don't need a full meal right away, just a little something to help you repair. Most repairing will happen while you sleep anyway, so just take it easy and eat something.

Health Care?

Mass Health Care

I kind of thought this was going to be quite a mess. It looked like it was for the first little while, but according to The Washington Post, Massachusetts has done a good job with their health care plan. The number of their uninsured has been cut in half, and they say that there are only a few problems with people having to wait. Apparently the copays are even reasonable...for now. They are projecting that they will go up, which I imagine will cause the problem most people face of getting priced out of health care. Hopefully they can keep up with the preventative coverage and helping people before they need expensive procedures.

If people could only have access to the care they need at reasonable prices. I don't know what perfect health care looks like, and there seems to be problems with each system, but apparently France does a good job.