Enhancing Athletes' Edge: Chiropractic Techniques without a Twist

Join Dr. Brant Hulsebus and Dr. Todd McDougle in this episode of the ICA Sports and Fitness Science Council podcast. Dr. Hulsebus shares his recent experience with Dr. McDougle at a chiropractic sports seminar, where he learned unique techniques for adjusting strength athletes. Emphasizing the importance of maintaining tensile tension in athletes, Dr. McDougle introduces his McDougle Chiropractic Methods. They discuss applying these techniques not only to athletes but also to everyday patients, highlighting success stories and encouraging chiropractors to explore diverse methods. The podcast also promotes ICA’s upcoming events and seminars focused on sports chiropractic.

Transcript

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Hi there. I'm Dr. Brant Hulsebus, and welcome to another edition of the ICA Sports and Fitness Science Council podcast. Now today, we're back with a familiar face. Most of you have been watching the podcast. You've met Dr. Todd McDougle before. He is our chairman of our little group here that we do. And I had a unique experience at the beginning of December. Dr. McDougle invited me to a sports situation and I was able to learn a little bit what he does. And I had fun because I've been telling all my patients I got to work on the biggest human beings alive. They've been having fun trying to get like football players. I'm like, no bigger wrestlers, no bigger. So why don't you tell them a little bit where we were first and then maybe dive a how we adjust individuals different and why Well, absolutely. And Brant, listen, I, you have spent so much time working on these. podcasts and I just want to say, you know, from, from me to you directly in front of everybody, thank you so much for doing it. They're fun. it, it, it is, I, I know you enjoy it, but it is work. It does take time away from, you know, other things that maybe you could be doing, but I know the the ICA sports council and the ICA itself actually really, truly appreciate you. Getting in there and digging in and really making some great productions. So thank you so much. As far as you know, what you and I did in Madison, Wisconsin on December 5th, we started with a class, which I I love to go ahead and say it was a I think a once in a lifetime opportunity for, for many of our chiropractic colleagues because for the most part, Even after you get a master's degree at a lot of the chiropractic colleges, you come out with a master's A, and a tent and, and a flat table and you know, You're a sports chiropractor and it couldn't be further from the truth. And I think that was one of the things that you were able to go ahead and see and witness firsthand. Right. As far as how it worked, but you know, that obviously the goal was to share with you guys. The principles and the concepts behind working with strength athletes in particular and how it was important to maintain this tensile tension, the, the tone, if you will, for a weightlifter or a strength athlete to go ahead and recruit as many fibers neurologically as possible and going into the depth of why that is. And then. You know, taking the science that already exists and the science that actually started way back Rest of the way out. And it's interesting. In the mid I'm going to give you a little bit of background on what we're going to be talking about today. You in exercise physiology. And funny thing is, is that. You know, it wasn't until I got engaged in 1997 and I, Hello, everyone. Okay. getting adjusted, but I always feel sprung. I feel loose. I feel unstable. And he says, you know, is there some way that you'd come up with? will allow me to maintain strength and power, but still get the benefits of mobility and flexibility and things along those lines. Following the adjustment. And that's what we do. We went to experimenting back in the late nineties Scenario. And I come up with it and it was a short lever, high velocity burst application using a Thompson table. And that is a drop mechanism. Thompson table's been around since 1961. Actually that's Palmer College of Chiropractic had it put into play at Palmer School of Chiropractic, actually, I guess it was. And yeah, it, it's from, from that point on, it's the, the combination of all these things in chiropractic and what I've done, it's created this whole new package called McDougle Chiropractic Methods. I've been blessed to have people like yourself come and participate. So there you have it. So that's long winded version, I guess, but actually a lot to it, right? The first thing like people ask me, they said, you took care of a guy's I was, I got to see Mr. Webb, Matt Webb, and he's six foot seven. I looked up, I'm like 412 pounds. And I'm like, how did you put that guy on his side and get his lower back to adjust? I'm like, I wouldn't. First of all, he crushed me and I would take like a whole bunch of levers and pulleys for me to be able to do that, but that's not at all what we do. It was all really short, quick drops. And what was fun for me to watch was these athletes would come over and see you and you'd have them do a squat and get back up and they looked at you like they were in some distress. And then you lay them on their back and start flexing their legs when they're laying supine. And their legs weren't moving very far. Then you start going to town at the ankles and the toes, then to the knees, then to the hips themselves, the femur heads. And then we're flipping them over Okay. moving better and looser than they have before. And then you're going to go up and do the spine afterwards and they go all the way up to the top. And for me, it was just like, the guys couldn't put their hands above their head and they could do it right away afterwards. And, I'm from a school of chiropractic where if you don't hear that thing go, you didn't do your job. And so for me, it was seeing was believing, right? Seeing these guys do it immediately after. And the rotational force, you talked a little bit about it, but why wouldn't you want to do a rotational force? Could you tell us that again? Well, and that, and that's the thing. I mean, and there's really nothing wrong, I guess, if you will, with doing a side posture maneuver. Everybody does it. Okay. I mean, even non chiropractors are trying to duplicate it right, wrong or otherwise. But if you go ahead and you look at our colleagues within the chiropractic, 90 some percent, according to statistics actually do the side posture application strength sports, you got to remember our goal is not to create a stretch. So we do not want to negatively affect the stretch receptors. If we go ahead and we put a person into a side posture, then we go ahead and we bring it to tension to go ahead and everything set up and ready to go for the adjustment, which is then the thrust afterwards. The, the, the initial phase of that is in itself a lumbar roll stretch period. That's it. All right. Full stop. It is a Yeah, get them there without doing that. Yeah. right? And then you with a, once the stretch, then you go ahead and you deliver an impulse, which is a, I don't know what they call it. It's a, there's. What do they call it? Low velocity or there there's a term. It's not what I do, which is a short lever, high velocity burst application, but it's, it's a, it's a different form. And I don't remember specifically they go ahead and they they describe it, but nonetheless here, you, you couple that with the fact that. have to think about how many joints you're crossing. So, if I go ahead and I put a person in a side posture, you know, obviously the IT band is stretching the, the, the foot may be stretching, the glutes are stretching, the lumbars are stretching, the ribs are stretching, The shoulders are stretching, the head is not in the right Okay. time and varying degrees, right? then you go and you get to tension and then you're stretching it some more and then you're going to create an impulse and you're going to stretch the ligaments and the tendons too. So it's really not a wonder that you have a diminished return the neurology Once you go ahead And so when you go ahead and, and, and we do that, it's no wonder Okay. Okay. Okay. very much. strong before. I'm not strong after. And you know, that's not my best version of a Ukrainian accent. Okay. But but at any rate, he's like, you know, why do people not know this? And I just told him flatly because I haven't shared it with them. I mean, you think about it, you know, brand, I'm the only person on the planet that actually is discussing this feature. In chiropractic. That's crazy. So I took what you taught me and I went back to the hockey team and I said, let's try this with a hockey team. And I ran into a roadblock. with a hockey team. It's called superstition. Huh? You can't do me different before the game. This is how you always take care of me. And I had a great game. So to overcome the superstition, I showed up at practice and I got him after practice. And I told the strength conditioning coach what my goal was here and why I was doing this. And I told the massage therapist, the logic behind what we were doing. I didn't get too much of a report. I don't think they were as excited about it as I was. They were more worried about the upcoming game, but I do tell you, I did see the goalie. I didn't see him before the game, Superstition, but he had his first shutout. Hmm. Coincidence? I think not. But isn't But what I thought was, You, you were able to take what we did. an event and use it Monday. And, and to me, I think, you know, any great seminar, if you can do that with confidence, the seminar was a success. and I told you before, I was a little hands off because I know this is their guy's livelihood and you just taught me on Thursday and you're like, go do it on Friday. And some of the other chiropractors are there, have been with you before they've seen you. This is my first time. And you know me, I was a little hesitant until Matt Webb, again, six foot seven, 400 some pounds, looks at me in the face and says, I want you to adjust me. And as you explained to me, people don't tell a man like that. No. So I jumped in and started doing it and it was really awesome because he went right out there afterwards. He put on Instagram and started throwing these sandbags over his head. And, he did six sandbags. I don't know how much they weigh, but he did six of them over 20 feet up in the air. And In less than 15 seconds. He didn't say, thanks, Dr. Hulsebus for the adjustment, but he did say a lot of things, but he was pretty pumped, was pretty cool to watch, pretty satisfying. the thing that I, I, I, I. I'm picking up from you right now. The vibe is excitement and fun. And that's exactly what I wanted for all the attendees at that event. And you know, not everybody stayed, you know, there's just a couple of you guys that stayed. But you know, I, I really had hoped that, you know you, you would come away with some really solid things and, and, and you have, and, And let me, fun stories. yeah, let me let me tell you a real life application now, because we talking about, this is going to create stability. And their pelvis, not looseness. So I have a patient of mine she's been coming to this office for, and I'm blessed. I'm a third generation chiropractor. She's been coming here for 30 plus years. She's in her late seventies now, and she's a retired nurse. Her husband is at home and needs home care, but she won't get the assisted care that she needs because she used to be a nurse and she wants to take care of her husband, but her lower back and hips are killing her, and she's coming to the office every day. And so I get back from your conference and I see her on Monday. Now, this is not even my patient. I just said, let me go in and talk to her because she's not happy. And I said, what's going on? She told me what she's doing. I said let me try something. So I took a 70 year old woman and I started bending her knees and seeing what's going on. I had her lift her legs without bending her knees. I started making, writing my stuff down. And I said, I'm going to adjust you. Like a six foot seven, 400 pound man. But I won't use those forces on you cause you're 78. And so I did this routine with her and we did the post checks afterwards. And she got tears in her eyes because she hasn't been able to have that stability in her lower back in years. And now she can go home and take care of her husband and now they're not going to go to assisted living. I had a 46 year old dad of four boys who's, by the way. you're right. Yeah. And then I had a 46. Yeah a 46 year old man come in and he loves soccer. He stopped playing a couple of years ago cause his lower back and hips got too bad. I said, I wonder what, so I got him on the table. I did the whole protocol and afterwards I said, now let's do a squat. He hasn't done a squat in eight years. And he was able to do a full squat and he looked right at his two boys. He had four boys and they had two in the room. He said, we're going straight to the soccer field. I'm going to teach you guys what dad can do. And it was pretty cool to watch that happen. So the stuff I learned, I just want to tell the chiropractors, it applies to more than just athletes. It applies to more than just strong men. It applies to more than just hockey players, football players. You can use it across the gamut with your patients. And you don't have to give up what you were doing. I sprinkle a little of this, a little bit of that with it, and if this doesn't work, I try your technique first, because you don't want to hyperextend things, but afterwards, you're like, no, it's still not right. Then I put them on their side and I adjust them. So the stuff that we teach in the sports world applies to everyday patients, but it doesn't take away from what you're doing. Would you agree with everything I just said? I think I think the term across the board, rather you're an athlete. a grandma is performance. So, you know, the, the, the thing that I've learned in strength sports is the same thing I learned working on factory workers and, and farmers and, and, you know, and maybe even nurses, like you're talking about to, to strongmen athletes, or those people who have got rods and screws in their back or plates in their neck or artificial hips or whatever. It is all about performance and to develop a series of protocols that allow people to, to, to be exposed to a technique that affects them. So positively It's tremendous. It really is tremendous. And you know, it all came from strength sports and yeah, I, I, it's interesting. I, I, I really hope that we have more people come in December because we're gonna have official strongman games again in December. But you and I have talked as well as our, our committee for the ICA council on fitness and sports health science to create these little pockets as well. You know, many seminars, if you will create a bit of a speaker's bureau. So we can have people like, you know our friend, Kevin Jackson Dr. Jackson do his concussion protocols. You know, some of the extremity stuff that Dr. Joe Munategi does some of the information that, you know, Dr. Pete, with all his years of bodybuilding, you know, bringing that into the The fold the stuff that you yourself do with hockey and, and then also, you know doing things with rodeo with Dr. Stuckey, for example. I mean, we've got, you know, a wide variety of, of people who do cool things. And then of course, you know, we've got our friend, you know Dr. Dr. Hoft, who is, you know, really into a lot of local. Sports teams specifically high school and junior high and things along those lines, which is where most of our colleagues are probably going to be working. You know, they're not necessarily into working at, you know, high level athletes like you and I are. But, you know, at the same time, That's okay because it's still works and that's the name of the game, right? I see two times the high school athletes and I do professional athletes, right? And that's the thing, we gotta Curriculum, the ICA sports and science fitness councils put together. And so if you'd like to have us come to your state association, we have a five hour program that we're doing. And afterwards you'll receive a certificate from the associate from our sports council that shows you've completed our sports training. So this certificate you can use to market yourself to minor league teams, professional teams, the YMCA. Anybody in your community. So if you're interested in learning more about that, please contact our main office, go to chiropractic. org to learn more. And Dr. Todd, I think we've hit this point. I think we've come to the end of our talk here. I always ask this question. Do you have any final words you'd like to throw in there? Chiropractic first, you know, I am always amazed. I mean, I've had multiple people in the last couple of weeks that have come into our, my office last after spending thousands and thousands of dollars only to find that A specific chiropractic application made all the difference and they've been everywhere else. And really hope to inspire young doctors who are out there to also believe in the craft that they chose as a profession. And, and really, really work at it to get Okay. and, and earn the talents Okay. the fee or the price that you must pay to be a wizard in this profession. that's one thing Dr. Frogley years ago, do you remember Dr. Frogley? Did you ever have to? Yes. Amazing. I always thought he was a wizard because you know, in the student clinic, we would take our student doctors up to Dr. Frogley when there was a challenging case and he would do things that was pure wizardry. And the, the, the funny thing is, is he impacted me in such a way You and see the joy, like I see in your face and, and, and, and, and in the tone of your voice. And that to me is that is just priceless. My friend. And my advice is go find a technique that you don't think you'd ever do. Go find something that you don't, that you said, I don't think I'd ever do that. The technique exists because it helps people and it's just the application of the technique. So go find somebody who uses that application correctly, learn from that person, and you just never know who's gonna walk in your door. So learn all you can. But that's, this is our podcast. So if you're into sports chiropractic, we encourage you to join us. Join us on our journey. Join our sports council. Watch us, follow us, subscribe to this podcast. We're going to start announcing dates here, even more so about times and places you can come meet up with us and see us. As Dr. McDougle said, we've got chiropractors in this group that specialize in all different aspects of sports, in different sports, different arenas, whether it's the t ball team down the team from you or myself. I've been inside of NHL arenas taking care of the professional athletes. Dr. McDougle's traveled all over the world taking care of strong men. Just like us, subscribe to us, listen to these podcasts and just keep checking us out. Subscribe and share us. Other than that, I just wish everybody, thank you for listening and can't wait to talk to you again. Thanks everyone.