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Dr. Shirley Sahrmann — A Legendary PT Does a Deep Dive on Tim’s Low-Back Issues, Teaches How to Unlearn Painful Patterns, Talks About Movement as Medicine (or Poison), and More (#685)

Dr. Shirley Sahrmann — A Legendary PT Does a Deep Dive on Tim’s Low-Back Issues, Teaches How to Unlearn Painful Patterns, Talks About Movement as Medicine (or Poison), and More (#685)

September 04, 2023
in Success

“Usually the problem is that motion that’s problematic is occurring during all of your activities. The soul follows the rules of physics. It takes the path of least resistance. So if it’s easy to move there, it keeps moving there, and that’s what you’re trying to transpiration to make it easier to move at other places where you should be moving more.”
— Dr. Shirley Sahrmann

Shirley A. Sahrmann, PT, PhD, is Professor Emerita of Physical Therapy at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. She received her bachelor’s stratum in physical therapy and her masters and doctorate degrees in neurobiology from Washington University, where she joined the physical therapy sense and became the first director of their PhD program in movement science.

Shirley became a Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association in 1986 and in 1998 was selected to receive the Mary McMillan Award, the Association’s highest honor. She is a recipient of the Association’s Marion Williams Research Award, the Lucy Blair Service Award, the Kendall Practice Award, and the Inaugural John H.P. Maley Lecturer Award.

She has moreover received Washington University’s Distinguished Sense Award, the Distinguished Alumni Award, the School of Medicine’s Inaugural Distinguished Clinician Award, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Indianapolis. She has moreover received the Bowling-Erhard Orthopedic Clinical Practice Award from the Orthopaedic Academy of the APTA. She has served on the APTA Board of Directors and as president of the Missouri Chapter.

Her first book, Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes, has been translated into seven languages. Her second book, Movement System Impairment Syndromes of the Extremities, Cervical and Thoracic Spines, has been equally influential in promoting movement diagnoses.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. You can watch the interview on YouTube here.

Brought to you by AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement, LMNT electrolyte supplement, and Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating.

The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

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#685: Dr. Shirley Sahrmann — A Legendary PT Does a Deep Dive on Tim's Low-Back Issues, Teaches How to Unlearn Painful Patterns, Talks Well-nigh Movement as Medicine (or Poison), and More

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Want to hear an episode with someone who considers Dr. Sahrmann’s work a unconfined influence? Listen to my conversation with performance mentor Eric Cressey, in which we discussed why pinpointing the rationalization of lower-back pain can be so challenging, how seemingly unrelated meds can exacerbate pain, addressing and correcting suboptimal patterns of movement, improving thoracic mobility, defusing desk-bound damage, how to ask the right questions when seeking treatment for what ails you, and much more.

#675: Eric Cressey, Cressey Sports Performance — Tactical Deep Dive on When Pain, Movement Diagnosis, Training Principles, Developing Mobility, Building Power, Fascial Manipulation, and Rules for Athletes

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Dr. Shirley Sahrmann:

2023 Speaking and Undertow Schedule | LinkedIn

SHOW NOTES

[07:12] A unenduring terminology primer.
[13:00] Why Shirley’s first typesetting is so influential among physical therapists.
[15:54] The correlation between lifestyle and health hasn’t unchangingly been obvious.
[18:16] Low when pain: not a diagnosis, but a symptom.
[20:41] The trouble with overdeveloped abdominals.
[22:32] What’s my problem?
[30:14] The Movement Systems Syndromes (MSS) approach.
[31:29] The wrong walk home.
[33:01] Correcting bad habits.
[35:00] Psoas it goes.
[37:03] Other wontedly repeating culprits.
[40:36] Pump handle and skillet handle.
[43:41] The soul follows the path of least resistance.
[48:00] Anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS)
[49:20] How Shirley examines a new patient.
[55:11] Assessing athletes vs. non-athletes.
[56:18] Dynamic neuromuscular stabilization (DNS)
[57:49] Collapso-smasho and squeezo-smasho.
[59:10] Correcting low shoulders.
[1:05:26] Stretching: yes or no?
[1:09:56] Addressing my rectal stiffness.
[1:16:28] When the spine doesn’t want to go withal for the ride.
[1:18:38] How has Shirley made it to 86 with her physical and mental health intact?
[1:34:32] What men should know well-nigh femoral retroversion.
[1:38:44] If it walks like a duck…
[1:41:11] Managing symptoms of Scheuermann’s disease.
[1:42:49] Parting thoughts.

MORE SHIRLEY SAHRMANN QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“One of the things I unchangingly loved doing with patients was saying, ‘So, who taught you to walk?’ They say, ‘Nobody.’ I say, ‘That’s the problem.’ Just considering you’re doing it doesn’t midpoint you’re doing it right. You’re just doing it.”
— Dr. Shirley Sahrmann

“Exercise won’t transpiration the way you move. You have to transpiration the way you move, and that can modernize how muscles function.”
— Dr. Shirley Sahrmann

“Nothing is increasingly scary than ‘Here comes the pain. What did I do? How did I do it? How do I get out of it?’ And if you’re showing people, if you go this way, it hurts, if you do it this other way, it doesn’t hurt … they’re in tuition of [their symptoms], and they know what to do to subtract them.”
— Dr. Shirley Sahrmann

“Usually the problem is that motion that’s problematic is occurring during all of your activities. The soul follows the rules of physics. It takes the path of least resistance. So if it’s easy to move there, it keeps moving there, and that’s what you’re trying to transpiration to make it easier to move at other places where you should be moving more.”
— Dr. Shirley Sahrmann

“You want to ventilator your part-way of gravity, not pull it.”
— Dr. Shirley Sahrmann

“It’s not inevitable what’s going to happen to you. You can do things via lifestyle to modernize what your outcome’s going to be.”
— Dr. Shirley Sahrmann

“At least 70 percent of the people with when pain, it’s considering their hip’s not moving optimally.”
— Dr. Shirley Sahrmann