By Anthony Houssain, D.C.
In the Spring of 2020, I wiped the cobwebs off my mountain bike, and after a 10-year hiatus, I determined it was time to “get back in shape.” The last 10 years had been consumed by work and cheering on my daughters on the sidelines of soccer fields. But it was time to once again practice what I have always preached to my patients, and reclaim my exercise routine.
You would think after all of the patients I had treated through the years from spine injuries to ankle and wrist injuries, that what happened next shouldn’t have been surprising. About two weeks into my new regime, I suffered 3 torn tendons in my left foot and ankle. It seemed my 50-year-old body wasn’t quite the same as it was at 35.
Although the injury was painful and disruptive, it was a catalyst for me. It made me realize training a 50-year-old body is very different from training a 35-year-old one. Injuries don't just cause pain and interrupt daily activities. They also impact our ability to maintain health and fitness. It’s difficult to get your heart rate up when you have an Achilles tendon injury or an ACL tear in your knee. And every week that we are unable to participate in a fitness routine has long-lasting effects on our health!
At SpineCare, we have become experts at diagnosing, treating, and rehabilitating all varieties of musculoskeletal conditions. In my 26 years in practice, however, I’ve seen a frequent pattern of patients recovering from injury, transitioning out of rehab to a fitness environment then experiencing a setback or reinjury. So I set to work to determine the best way to keep myself AND my patients as injury-free as possible as we move toward fitness.
After two years of researching the best way to approach this need, it became clear that a clinical fitness approach including strength and resistance training could be designed for any fitness level or age, AND it could be modified for someone even if they may have had previous surgeries or chronic pain symptoms. This type of program would allow my patients (and myself!) to maintain needed fitness levels, prevent injury due to arthritis, inactivity, weight, and age, AND return us to a level of fitness we need to stay healthy.
That’s why I designed and added SpineFit to our SpineCare Clinic. I did it for my family, my patients, my community, and myself. Spinecare helps my patients regain their health, and SpineFit helps them not only regain their ability to maintain their health but also improve their fitness levels. If you are part of our SpineCare community, please come and visit SpineFit. If you’ve had a great experience at SpineCare, I invite you to sign up for a free SpineFit Class. I’m confident you’ll love it as much as I do! I will end this blog with a quote from one of the best books I have read on the subject in the last 10 years, Outlive by Peter Attia MD-
“Exercise is by far the most potent longevity ‘drug.’ No other intervention does nearly as much to prolong our lifespan and preserve our cognitive function. But most people don’t do nearly enough–and exercising the wrong way can do as much harm as good.” Chapter 1: The Long Game, pg. 17
Yours in health and fitness,
Anthony