Celebrate Athletic Training Month with a Functional Movement Screen

Move Better, Train Smarter, and Stay in the Game with Therapy Solutions’ Athletic Trainer

This March, we’re celebrating Athletic Training Month, a time to recognize the professionals who help people stay active, recover safely, and perform at their best.

Many people see athletic trainers on the sidelines during a game and assume that working with athletes on the field is all they do. In reality, though, athletic training helps with injury prevention, movement quality, performance support, and safe return to activity.

At Therapy Solutions, our athletic training program supports athletes and active individuals of all ages with one simple goal: to help people move better so they can keep doing what they love. One of the most effective tools we use to support that goal is a functional movement screening (FMS).

Athletic Training Month Is the Perfect Time to Schedule Your FMS

Athletic Training Month is the perfect time of year to learn more about how athletic training can help you meet your performance goals, and a functional movement screening at Therapy Solutions is a great place to start.

If you want to train smarter, reduce injury risk, and improve your body’s function, reach out to schedule your functional movement screen today. Your movement matters, and we’re here to support it.

How to Heal: Become Aware

Why is it so important to be aware and mindful of your past hurts and wounds? Aren’t we supposed to live in the present and not dwell on the past? Yes, however, in order to let go of the past, we need to be aware of how it is affecting our present.  We have to name it and see it and then tame it. When wounds/trauma memories occur, the brain does not store the trauma memories in narrative form, like other memories. The brain stores the trauma memory emotionally and sensorially. For example, let’s say you had a number of incidents from your childhood that made you “feel” you were not good enough. Every time you felt not good enough, your body stored this memory in your senses, not in a narrative type fashion. You felt your heart ache, you felt shame in your chest, and perhaps you isolated and used negative self-talk as a result. These feelings and sensations were stored in your body.  Your body learned to recognize them and then to alert you to fight, flight, freeze or fawn to survive. Hence, a pattern is developed. In the present day, you can get triggered by a similar sensation while the situation means something very different.  This pattern will continue if you do not become aware of the trigger from your past.  As we get older, our brains become more developed, allowing us to better understand situations from our childhood that we couldn’t fully process at the time. Despite researching your worth, reading, and finding support through church—all of which helped you realize that your past self-perceptions were untrue—it seems one will still frequently struggle with feeling not good enough.  We are often only logically aware of the belief that we are not good enough. It is important to remember, however, that trauma memories are not logical or narrative; they are felt. We must remain mindful of our emotional alarm system and how these feelings manifest.

Your body remembers your hurt and sometimes a sight, sound, smell, or person can trigger you. Triggers activate emotional and body memories, not event memories.  Your brain does not remember it narratively like other memories. Memories of wounds/traumas are stored deep in your subconscious memory. Therefore, trauma/wound memories may be difficult to put into words (logic).

You may notice some people can get very defensive or hurt by something you say that was meant to be harmless or innocent. That is because, as trauma/wound memories are stored in our neural network, they can be activated (triggered) anytime you encounter sensory or emotional reminders of trauma. When this occurs, your brain immediately feels that it is in danger and prepares you to continue the pattern you have been doing since you were a child. 

To heal, it is important to differentiate triggered feelings from regular feelings. Triggered reactions are typically sudden, intense, and slow to fade.  Regular feelings ebb and flow, and they build more gradually to a peak. Triggered feelings tell us more about the past, while regular feelings tell us more about the present movement. If you are feeling triggered by your past, contact Therapy Solutions to talk to one of our mental health counselors and Take Your Life Back!