Entries categorized "ABR Comparisons"

ABR Combines Miracle and Magic To Heal a Badly Broken Bone. Part 2. 'THE MAGIC'

The Magic...

Why have I brought such an unscientific category as magic into this conversation about something as tangible as the speed healing of a badly broken bone?

But is it really unscientific ? – In fact, what is true science if not something that dives into the deep unknown, into the non-obvious and surfaces up with a valuable trophy of something both beautiful and practical at the same time.

That's exactly how I see ABR technique – especially the 3Q.Until this day I am amazed by its magic.

At first glance, it is absolutely counterintuitive – because the very idea of "action at distance" when the impact somehow emerges behind the seemingly impenetrable barrier is really foreign to our brains that are accustomed to the consecutive action where reaching 'deep' requires the visible journey through the layers that are wrapped around it.

In fact, this magic is very much described in detail in the main descriptions of the 3Q ABR technique that have been available on this blog for a long time:

ABR 'Classic' Technique - 3Q Principles Illustrated

ABR Technique Essence Illustrated

However, on a very human perspective it is often quite difficult to make those abstract graphs and models to feel alive, and to skip the unclear details of how exactly it works by focusing entirely on the external template of the "How to do ABR 3Q" – contact, volume touch, compression, pause, return etc.

That's why I believe this example is so powerful:

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When you look at this photo – there is no room for the mental escape.

There is rigid cast made of solid gypsum that has no elasticity and no 'give' in it. There is no way that you can "squeeze the arm inside the cast". The cast itself appears to be a boundary so  impenetrable that the very description of "Well, he put his hands onto my cast with some foam pads in between…" sounds like crazy outrageous bullshit… That's exactly how our athlete felt when the orthopedic surgeons and later his coach and the teammates were asking him about what was actually done to his broken arm to make it heal so fast…

On the one hand, I am encouraging you to re-visit the ABR technique essentials:

ABR 'Classic' Technique - 3Q Principles Illustrated

ABR Technique Essence Illustrated

On the other hand, I am inviting you to really appreciate how powerful is the tool that you have , literally, in your own hands when you do ABR applications/exercises for your kids.

And at the same time, I want you to really understand that to make the best out of this powerful tool, to make it really magical – you need the catalyst that makes this magic happen. You heard it from me many times – "Focus, concentration, awareness, attention to detail".

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Yes, sure Alex is an extraordinary talent to begin with, who perfected his ABR craft over the last 9 years by daily practicing for 8 hours and more – but practicing in itself wouldn't deliver the level of  mastery that he has today without those powerful catalysts of focus, concentration, awareness and attention to detail.

I want to assure you each and every of you has this potential. No matter where you are today technically – there is lots of room for improvement. Why? – Because our depth & tensional gradient perception is the  most sophisticated and precise sensory quality of us humans.

I keep bringing the same simple example over and over again – all of us can easily feel when we accidentally flip at once 2 pages of a magazine, a book or a newspaper instead of flipping just a single page.

What does that mean? – The page is only 0.2 mm thick (1/100 of an inch) and yet an average person can feel it without any prior training or particular concentration.

How does that impact  your daily ABR work? – Directly.

The 'compression' range that you work within, when you deliver a 3Q or "egg" or "ball" exercise – is of 1-2 cm (0.5 -1.0 inch). So whilst most people intuitively consider this being  "very small" – in reality it is huge, because it consists of at least 100 of those incremental 'layers' of depth change impact. So even a small improvement in your concentration and awareness  has a potential to accumulate and to translate into a major increase of your ABR work effectiveness – within exactly the same hours that you are already doing. A small improvement in your concentration and awareness  – has the potential to make a huge difference in the progress of your kids.

And that's why next time when an ABR trainer asks you to practice the techniques further, to concentrate or to pay attention to the nuances of your positioning and setups – please do not brush it off as "Oh, again – I know all that stuff already.. Just give me my home exercises so I can be on my way home sooner rather than later".

I assure you – you as an ABR therapist for your child DO HAVE an incredible potential that your child can benefit from enormously. All you need for this is to improve your 'inner game' - your concentration, your awareness, you attention to detail, and your visualization… And, in fact, there is nothing ABR-unique to this.

Listen to any high performance athlete, read their interviews – what's the overriding theme there? – A high level 'outer game' of visible performance and outcome is only possible when based on the advanced 'inner game'… So the same is true for yourself – improve your 'inner game' and the 'outer game' of accelerated progress and achievement for your child is going to follow – sooner than you expect it..

The magic of deep myofascial & osteoarticular response will be put to work for you and for your child…

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Talking about the 'inner game' and about the refinement of your ABR  technical skills I'd be looking for some response from you on these matters.

TO THE ATTENTION OF ALL ABR FAMILIES

Question 1.

Over the recent years I have accumulated a lot of videos teaching the techniques and going into the specific details and nuances of positioning, setups, technical refinements etc.

We've been using those for the internal training of ABR team but the constraints of the ABR training sessions that we have today only allow to share a fraction of those with you during the trainings at the ABR Centers and Satellites.

However, at the same time – I often here the remarks both from many parents and from the Trainers giving feedback after the sessions – that "parents are 'at full learning capacity' with the technical training that we already  give" assuming that any further dive into the details is going to be an overload and overwhelm.

I believe that this is true for some parents but I hope that some of you do have some ''spare learning capacity'.

Such trainings will need to undergo some editing and setting up a membership site for accessing these video – so it is quite a lot of extra work & expense on our part. So I'd want to hear what's the level of interest towards it among the active ABR families.

Question 2.

Whilst my own style of training is very technical and detail oriented – after working closely with Alex for the last year – I can see that his training brings an entirely different perspective and dimension that I find very valuable:

His largest focus is on your 'inner  game' – on your ABR Mindset and on the Philosophy of expressing your relationship and deep personal connection with your child via your exercise. One of his favorite sayings is: "You have to make your ABR ball ALIVE… With every 'roll' you want to bring some extra life into your child's body through this ball – can you achieve that if your ball is dead in your hands?"..

Again, I am unlikely to come up with this perspective myself because my entire language and the worldview is shaped differently  but I am fully behind it and I think that there is a tremendous value to it for those who are ready to hear the deeper meaning…

So my question is quite straightforward – if I see enough enthusiasm from you – we'll then try to make these trainings available during the coming year, either via the membership site or some other video sharing form. 

I am  asking these questions for a very simple reason – we have plenty more to give but I want to see the volunteers who'd deliberately step up and say: "Yes, I am ready to do this extra learning work."

These levels of trainings is not something that I am going to simply dump on YouTube or Vimeo for the curiosity of the passing strangers..

You are welcome to leave you responses in the comments here but otherwise please write to me <[email protected]>

P.S.

In the next few weeks I am going to publish quite a lot in this blog – I've been silent in it for most of the past year – but there was a lot brewing with some fundamental breakthroughs and transformations to the entire ABR landscape – so stay tuned…



ABR Combines Miracle and Magic To Heal a Badly Broken Bone.Part 1. THE MIRACLE

I haven't posted anything to this blog for a long, long time – nearly 9 months. Not that I have ran out of the ABR insights to share – it is actually quite the opposite. There have been so many new developments and discoveries in the recent months that I felt somewhat overwhelmed with  the rapid pace of the new ideas and understandings. So, frankly I did not really know what I had to start with. The main idea behind this blog's postings is to help you to navigate through the information overload and to add clarity to your understanding of your child's development.  At the stage when so many new things sprang up within ABR all at once – I had a feeling that I was more likely to contribute to your informational overload rather than helping you with that extra clarity …

However, for the last couple of months I have been overflowing with the insights I wanted to share but experienced that infamous 'writer's block'. The trouble with writing is the same as with any other skill: once the routine was  interrupted – it is very difficult to get back on track.

However, sometimes life lends a helping hand to a struggling writer …

This time it happened in the form of ABR Miracle and Magic combined! I was provided with a true life story that is so incredible that it has to be shared regardless of whatever writer's block I face.

Alright, first of all WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE "MIRACLE" AND THE "MAGIC"?.

Often we tend to think of those two  as being very much the same, which is incorrect.

Miracle is about the outcome. Magic is about the process.

Miracle is the result that is radically better and faster than the one that is 'normally' expected by following the 'standard' course of action. 'Miracle' is the case when the 'impossible' becomes real.

Magic, on the other hand, is the process, which is mysterious and not readily understood by following the intuitive or scientific interpretation of how the things 'normally happen' and 'should work' .

In fact, most miracles in life arise not from 'magic' but from the deep understanding and systematic implementation.

Major developmental progress that your children affected by Cerebral Palsy achieve via your ABR work – head control, weight-bearing, expanded movement repertoire, sitting etc. – are true miracles because they are thought to be 'impossible' for a brain-injured child. But do you achieve that by magic? – Not at all. Those 'typical' ABR miracles – including the mind-blowing freaking ones – are the result of your systematic and smart work.

  Cerebral Plasy Before-After Comparison

What is this? – That's a miracle, plain and simple. Because a GMFCS Level 3 child is not supposed to improve after the age of 5 … But he does – thanks to the ABR work of his parents.  The impossible – becomes possible…

But at the same time – the very fact that one needs to put dozens and dozens of hours of the routine work – somewhat blurs the magnitude of such miracles.

What I want to share today is a different kind of miracle – a more 'obvious' one. The one that happened quickly and unconventionally

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A couple of years back in one of my most popular blog posts: Mind-blowing-freaking-miracle-pelvis-transformation-in-quadriplegic-cerebral-palsy – I've introduced Alex 'The Great'  – the ABR wizard PT from Greece responsible for that incredible pelvic transformation of a severely affected quadriplegic child that gave the name to that post.

Well, it is time to bring Alex onto the ABR central stage yet again… With even more incredible stuff.

Continue reading "ABR Combines Miracle and Magic To Heal a Badly Broken Bone.Part 1. THE MIRACLE" »


THE TRUTH ABOUT THE WALKING FOR THE PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY

This post is somewhat of a re-start . I have made an announcement about starting these series THE TRUTH ABOUT THE WALKING FOR THE PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY  a good 2 months ago – but my full immersion into the depth of Salutogenesis matters kept me pretty much oblivious to the outside world for the past 2 months.  Those  were an extremely rewarding months for myself intellectually and I assure that all of you are going to be the major benefactors of these new ideas for years to come…

Anyway with the key pieces of the Salutogenic puzzle being in place – it feels like it is time to re-emerge and deliver on my previous promises – especially bearing in mind that all the videos for the "The Truth About The Walking" series have already been done back in May – all I need to do is to give you a little bit of a written context around them.

With "The Truth About The Walking" series we are going back to the story of Luca that I spoke about back in May Prevailing over tragedy -- ABR facilitates amazing recovery

First of all, that post illustrated the remarkable saving of the heavily damaged leg by the "simple" technique of Transfascial Viscoelastic Stimulation aka "Egg Rolling".

Back then  I included a couple of before/after pictures that shown the remarkable recovery of walking abilities in less than 2 weeks after introducing a set of ABR exercises.

So in this post,  you can see that walking transformation much clearer – in the form of a 3-minute video that plays simultaneously the 2 short videos  of Luca's walking taken on April 26th, 2012 and on May 7th, 2012 – so you can see the dynamic aspects of where we started from and how the situation have improved within just 12 days.

https://vimeo.com/43451820

Luca_Walking Tests April 26th vs May 7th_SIMULATNEOUS_YT HD from ABR Central on Vimeo.

 

Secondly, and more importantly – I wanted to use this opportunity to help your understanding  of what walking is – what makes it work properly or improperly – starting with this post and following into the series of connected ones: "The Truth About The Walking…".

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE WALKING.

Most of the people – including professionals – have a very intuitive perception of how walking "works" – the legs support the body, muscles of the legs contract, move the leg  bones and so it goes – the legs carrying the upper body in space.

Well, I hope that by now you realize – that when it comes to human movement – intuitive is misleading.  I'll actually  go further and say – intuitive is not simply misleading – it's actually profoundly wrong.

Who pays the highest price for the intuitive misconceptions about walking? – You, the parents of children with Cerebral Palsy.

You are the ones who end up doing damage to your kids bodies out of your best intentions, you are the ones who are being guided by false perceptions of what makes the increments of progress, you are the ones who invest your efforts in the activities with the least of long-term rewards … This list goes on and on …

So I am inviting you to really follow the next few posts very closely, especially if your child has a quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy  – because for spastic quadriplegic kids everything "intuitive" about movement is a sure path to destruction and failure

Please click to keep reading

Continue reading "THE TRUTH ABOUT THE WALKING FOR THE PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY" »


Mind-Blowing Freaking Miracle... Pelvis Transformation in Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy

Usually I am quite reserved in progress descriptions that kids achieve with ABR – trying to avoid the hype and over-expectations. Typically I am more keen on outlining the specifics of the challenges that lie ahead rather than celebrating the achievements already made. And often enough parents find this style not the most motivating … but that’s the way I see the world:  whatever has been achieved as of today is already part of the past – so, let’s try to focus on the next step forwards…

By telling you this I just want to draw a bit of extra attention to what I am about to share with you today… because this time it is different… and even I cannot contain emotions … because it is indeed – a mind-blowing freaking  unbelievable miracle!

Well, I hope that I have your attention now :-)

… and probably you think that I am going to demonstrate a quadriplegic  child who miraculously went from horizontal incapacitation to running around and jumping on a single leg? – Sorry, not this time…

This type of stuff – “a developmental airlift “, or a “developmental helicopter ride”, that allows to skip phases of development – is cut of heavenly cloth. I am much more earth-bound.

Nonetheless the transformation that I am about to share with you counts on a scale of miracle as long as we stay earth-bound and realistic.

What I am going to demonstrate is an exceptionally rapid structural transformation of a classic distorted and merged quadriplegic pelvis following the “egg” work…

Let’s proceed to the video to have the entire case well illustrated…

I hope that I have managed to get you excited enough to sit through a 35 minute video…

First I wanted to charge straight through to the comparison of before and after – but afterwards decided that it is going to be of greater educational value for you to have it done in 3 parts:

  • Normal pelvis structure and X-ray
  • Typical pelvis of a child with quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy that ends up under the knife of an orthopedic surgeon with a massive intervention (bone cutting, metal screws insertion etc.)
  • The “mind blowing freaking miracle” – amazing transformation of the pelvic structure in a severe spastic quadriplegic child following the “egg” rolling work delivered by the ABR superstar man – Alexander “The Great “from Greece :-)

And all that leads to a not so subtle hint – your child’s future is in YOUR HANDS – but these hands have to be skillful to extract the full potential that ABR work has for your child… – so you need to study and practice and pay attention to detail without rushing to “I got it –can I go home earlier?”

 

P.S. I am going to add a couple of final episodes to the previous video – “Cerebral Palsy and fascia science in a tea cup” – and I hope are going to appreciate the connection that my tea cup simple example of the relationship between a dense film-like membrane and porous underlying gel has with the specifics of skeletal transformations in Cerebral Palsy pelvis…

 

P.P.S. Comments and likes are most appreciated.

 


Fascia Course -- positives abound

My apologies for the interruption in the information flow from the Fascia Research course but things were too intense for the last few days.

Wednesday – the get-together dinner and then I needed time to prepare what was called a ‘Participant Presentation. I titled mine “Myofascial Paradoxes in Cerebral Palsy” and, frankly, did not really know what reaction to expect. Many of the hands-on practitioners such as osteopaths, Rolfers etc. do work periodically with CP kids, and those who attended this Fascia Research are among the leaders and innovators in their fields, so there was always a possibility of professional ego ‘clashes’ etc.

I’ve seen this in the past – especially at the Cerebral Palsy conference –some, say PTs, have a quick look at our comparison pictures, give you a nod, but then would either start bragging about their own ‘amazing results’ or would go along the lines: “It’s just an anecdote and fluke anyway…” or “Look at the foot – it is still spastic” and so on, basically trying on a ‘judge’s robe’ of a “mainstream expert” towards the lowly “alternatives”.

Things were completely different with the Fascia Research Course crowd. The moment I introduced and illustrated the concept of ‘Compressional Weakness’ – I had genuine focused attention, even though we were at the end of extremely intense learning week, just hours before going home. Seeing the pics like those:

William Supine_Compaison_Adult Cerebral Palsy

Continue reading "Fascia Course -- positives abound" »


Before ABR -Sitting Challenges in a Quadriplegic CP - Fundamental Analysis

FULL VERSION: Before ABR -Sitting Challenges in a Quadriplegic CP - Fundamental Analysis.

Well, finally we have a chance to zoom in -- from the overviews, which are no doubt, -- inspirational to the educationally meaningful substance -- the actual analysis.

This video is 20 min long and it goes over all the typical manifestations of poor segmentation as well as re-iterating and illustrating the discussion about the support level evolution in sitting.

There is another important component that I did not emphasize enough before but certainly do now -- that's the connection between the suspended arm support and the proper ground reaction support. The two are inversely related, which gives an important prognostic tool of progress even when facing some transitional challenges -- sure better understanding of such a link will emerge after the next video -- Stage 1 of progress that I will describe in details in a few days.

Meanwhile, I believe I need to emphasize one important aspect -- some of you, although inspired by a progress of this particular quadriplegic boy, have difficulties in connecting/ relating to this particular example telling yourself: "My son is much older" or "My daughter is floppy" and so on. Yes, to certain extent you are correct, -- there are nuances and specifics between ages, types and so on. And you'd know that I am the person who is extremely detail and finesse oriented -- usually I bore everyone to a state of being drowsy by digging into yet further case specifics under the bright lights that make your eyelids close involuntary :-) .. However, I'd like you to think about these videos in a truly educational context -- looking at the elementary building blocks of the large "cerebral palsy" problem. Cerebral Palsy is a disorder of posture and movement -- tangible physical aspects that depend on the mechanics of the elements -- the building blocks, These elementary components are pretty much the same -- spasticity, rigidity, instability, lack of segmentation, inability for counterbalancing and so on... They are very much the same whether it is a younger or an older child; a boy or a girl; spastic or flaccid or athetoid; milder or less severe and so on. For sure, these elementary problems come in different combinations and in different magnitude depending on the type of cerebral palsy or specifics of developmental challenges. Nonetheless, the better a parent knows the elementary blocks -- the better understanding of the larger jigsaw puzzle becomes possible otherwise everything blurs -- emotional; physical; quantitative and qualitative ... -- bringing stress.

That's exactly the case where knowledge is power -- because you , my friends, have the rest -- love, dedication and a selfless desire to help your kids... That's why I'll keep encouraging you to learn...

Thanks for reading ... please stay focused -- there is a pretty long video coming .... :-)

P.S. By the way -- for those of you who have challenges with a streaming video -- please go ahead and download them -- that will save you the discomfort of unexpected frozen frames etc.


SITTING Progress & Evolution Overview in a Spastic Quadriplegic Boy

If the previous video "Motor Development  Progress  ... Cerebral Palsy Quadriplegic Child"  -- http://www.vimeo.com/6671771 -- was more inspirational than educational  this video "Sitting progress in a Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy" has already much more of an educational value .

The case of this quadriplegic spastic boy is so classic that each and every parent of a child with cerebral palsy will find important illustrations and clarifications:

  • Levels of support in sitting - evolution from high to low
  • Specifics of tailor sitting
  • Suspended support by the arms -- 1 handed support and 2 handed
  • Sitting platform configuration
  • Segmentation and selective mobility between the head, shoulder girdle, pelvis

I am very much aware-- you have already heard it from me and probably  telling yourself : "I know, I know , I know..." but nonetheless I do recommend you to watch it and visualize these stages because the better you visualize them on the examples of the other brain injured kids the more meaningful specifics you will be able to notice in yours.

And that's the key for your own motivation, piece of mind and confidence-- your ability to notice the increments of improvements in your own child.

I want to emphasize once more -- We are posting these Progress Overview videos with an educational and not a promotional purpose. The goal is not say: "Look what a wonderful progress with ABR in just 2 years of work..." That would be a wrong message because some children respond slower and some faster, some parents have more opportunities for the ABR homework and some have less. These are realities and I do not want you to be stressed and ask yourself 'Have we achieved as much or less or more in 2 years?' I would much prefer you to focus on the stages of transformations that, for example, this quadriplegic boy had through ABR because these stages are very much typical. Therefore, even if different children respond at different rate -- the fundamentals and stages are very much the same.

And another really important aspect -- these changes are not accidental, the progress of this Qudariplegic boy, GMFCS Level 5, is not a fluke -- it's a result of systematic transitions that were methodically addressed through  Advanced Biomechanical Rehabilitation.

That's why – I am really trying my best to pre-warm you about the oncoming videos which analyze in details each of the stages of progress during 2 years of Advanced Biomechanical Rehabilitation --sitting, hand functions, crawling.

Please look at it as an illustrated textbook intended to enhance your knowledge not as see-and-forget promotional videos. That's why I will encourage you to return back to these videos several times and ideally even show them to some of your friends and family, -- watch their reaction, look at their level of understanding and try to clarify things for them. Become an educator yourself -- for one selfish reason: there is no better way to learn yourself than by teaching the others. 


Motor Development through ABR -- Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy Boy Case Study

I've been thinking for a while on a presentation format of key ideas of ABR that will be of the most educational value. Apparently it's not as easy as it sounds. There are quite a few challenges.

A number of parents do not want to go beyond a quick before/after loking for just enough to feed the imagination as a "miracle progress in cerebral palsy treatment'. Obviously, at ABR -- even though we are actually the only cerebral palsy rehabilitation method who do have systematic before/after progress reports for brain injured kids -- we want to avoid encouraging the 'quick wow super progress' seekers. But at the same time -- my theoretical rants even when they are perfectly relevant like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSok3q_jmsU -- often seem to be not clicking...

Unfortunately... :-( Since I do believe firmly that the proper MINDSET is more important to success than Skillset or let alone Toolset...

So I was looking for the other avenues and then decide to do it in a Case Study form -- to just take a more or less typical case with a typical progress rate and explain the stages with illustrations of key motor functions: sitting, crawling, fine skills of a hand. The hint came from a strange fact that all of us at ABR Teams worldwide have been observing for a while: Every parent of a special needs child sees the progress a lot more readily in another  special kid. I guess, it's the emotional bond to your own one that  blurs everything together -- not allowing to concentrate on studying and recognizing the stages essential for any case of cerebral palsy, spasticity etc. ;

That's why I decided to try this new format -- taking a single case and illustrate the universal truths for any child with a brain injury. I started from a spastic quadriplegic case as the most typical for us -- but, sure, there will be other types as well:  flaccid; athetoid; hemiplegic etc.

I hope this avenue will work better -- but obviously the ultimate judges are the 'collective you' : I'll only know whether this avenue is worth pursuing further if you give me the feedback through your comments and mails.

Altogether -- there are 28 videos (10 min to 30 min long) -- 1 General Progress Overview; 3 x 1 = Progress overviews for each of the domains: Sitting, Hand Function; Crawling; and another 4-5 videos per domain covering the transitions from the initial condition before ABR and then the changes every several months. All in all -- the period covered is 24 months.

I've learned from my mistakes (somewhat :-)) -- and I am not going to dump them all on you at once.

Right now you can watch 6 videos -- Motor Development Progress overview (Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy Boy Case Study) and 5 more videos zooming into the domain of sitting as the core representation of weight-bearing progress.

I am starting with the  first one:  Motor Development Progress Overview - Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy Child GMFCS 5 -- I will be posting the other ones with regular intervals and with extra comments.

I hope that avenue will prove educational and I am looking forwards for your response.

Thanks a lot.