How to Reduce Crossfit Injuries

If you’re into Crossfit, you know how addictive it can become. That mix of high-intensity interval training and competition can help drive your motivation and commitment and lead you to achieve amazing changes to your body. That consistency becomes the key to your success - to getting the results you're after, but what do you do when you're injured?

Preventing Crossfit Injuries 

Injuries often occur when your body doesn’t have the correct balance of strength and flexibility. Muscles tears, sprain and strains, and even painful arthritic changes can flare up for a number of reasons, such as attempting to lift too much weight at once or not having enough flexibility to support that weight through a full range of motion. How can you reduce your likelihood of injury? Researchers have discovered that a combination of proper warm up/cool down, a full range of motion and progressive intensity training can help reduce injuries when strength training.  

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• Take a few minutes to stretch before and after your workout.

• Increase the weight you lift slowly and focus on quality reps vs. max weight.

• Use good posture and ergonomics during your workouts - don’t “cheat” and increase your risk of injury.

 

One of the most effective ways to improve your spinal mobility and flexibility is through Chiropractic care. Adjustments to your spine and extremities have been shown to increase their range of motion and may help you find that perfect balance of strength and flexibility.

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Short-term effect of spinal manipulation on pain perception, spinal mobility, and full height recovery in male subjects with degenerative disk disease: a randomized controlled trial. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 2014. Progressive resistance strength training and the related injuries in older adults: the susceptibility of the shoulder. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research 2014.

Create a Chiropractic Blog to Drive Massive Free Traffic with SEO

SEO or search engine optimization is how people find your website when they search Google for a chiropractor. Being at the top of the list is crucial. So how can you get there for free? Consistent, high-quality blogging!

Blogging is essential if you want to drive massive traffic to your website and more new patients into your practice. When you have a blog that you actually update, it is going to get more people onto your site, it's going to get more people into your practice, and it is going to help spread your message- your unique health care message- in a way that gets maximum impact.

Your Chiropractic Blog Can Drive MASSIVE Free Traffic to Your Website via SEO

So when I say blog, you might be thinking, "those things have been around forever. I don't know if it's right for me, it seems kind of passe". I want you to get that out of your mind. Blogging gives Google, Bing, Yahoo, and all the other search engines an opportunity to find your practice.

If you have a website and it's just a single page, like a click funnel, but you've made it awesome and loaded it with keywords, you are still fighting an uphill battle! That page is only a single opportunity to showcase to the search engines what you and your practice are about. I want you to have hundreds, if not thousands of opportunities to showcase your practice! That is why blogging is so important.

So I want you to think of a blog like multiple opportunities to show different facets of you and your practice to the public, to the community, to your audience, because that's really what a blog is all about. It gives you the ability to have your own territory and not rely only on Facebook or Instagram or all these other channels and platforms that can change their algorithm any day of the week. Controllable assets, like a website and blog, are a great thing to have a business and market effectively over a long period of time.

Every time you publish content to your blog it gives you the opportunity to control your message. And these messages can grow over time. Keep in mind that every chiropractic blog that you produce gives Google an opportunity to "see" your keywords. So if you have ten blogs posts, fifty blog posts, or one-hundred and fifty blog posts you have the chance to exponentially increase the number of keywords that you're hitting relative to your practice. And it also gives all of the search engines a great deal of context for what you're practice focus. Maybe it's natural healthcare, alternative healthcare, chiropractic fitness, stem cell, multidisciplinary care. Either way, by consistently publishing blog content you will be providing more information to hype your SEO. And the more data that you provide to Google, the more information that you put out there, the better job it can do to find the right people to get to your website.

Search engines are in the business of serving up the best and most specific answer to a query on their platform. That is why a blog is by far and away the best way to improve your search engine optimization. The other thing that is fantastic about a blog is that over time it can evolve. It doesn't need to be your" grandfather's blog" where it's just text on a page.

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via GIPHY

• You can make it engaging with pictures.

• You can add in video content.

• You can even add infographics and gifs.

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As the search engines have increased their abilities throughout the last five to ten years, their ability to understand images and video embedded into your blog has dramatically increased. So what do I mean by that? Previously it was only the keywords was all about the words on the page. But now the pictures themselves give context clues to the search engines. When you give Google more data, it will find highly relevant people to give your page more exposure. These people are more likely to come in and be patients.

Adding video and images also gives you the opportunity to have that page becomes more dynamic. If a patient or person goes to your blog and it's just a million words on a page, and it looks like the next great American novel, it's difficult for somebody to get through. Mostly, it's poor user experience. But if you see a paragraph, and then there's a beautiful picture, another paragraph, and perhaps a little video- now your blog starts to become a really compelling piece of your website that can keep people engaged for a long time.

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Get our FREE Guide to Improving Your Chiropractic SEO!

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And guess what happens?

The longer people stay on your page, the higher the page will rank in Google. They love people hanging out on the page because in Google's mind that means you are delivering the goods. Your page gave the exact information that the individual person was looking for. And when somebody hangs out on your page for a while and clicks around, in Google's mind that tells them, they did a good job matching you up. Guess what happens as that starts to occur across multiple pages?

Your overall ranking will go up, and you will start to drive massive traffic to your website with organic search engine optimization.

You can almost think of it like lottery tickets. If you have just a home page or only one blog you have one ticket to win. You don't have a high probability of getting the jackpot. But if you create high-quality content across hundreds of blogs, your essentially buying hundreds of lottery tickets. You just dramatically increased your chance to win!

Tactical Tips to Improve Your Blog and SEO

One tactical tip when you put out a blog is really try to stay above 350 or 400 words. Now you don't need to go up to 8,000 or 10,000 words necessarily, but if you can get between 300-1200 words, you're in a great spot. If you only have 50 words on a page and maybe one image, the search engines may believe you have a "landing page" or squeeze page and Google will begin to steer traffic away from that page. If you have at least 300-ish words in the blog, then you are telling Google that you have done your homework that you have put some time into providing context for your information. Getting over 300 words will also keep people on your page longer and allow you to hit more keywords.

Finally, remember to keep your blog dynamic. If you have a video relevant to that topic of the blog, put it in the middle of it. It's a great way to get engagement, grab additional keywords, and to keep people excited about your content. If you have a beautiful picture, throw that on there and share it to Instagram.

The bottom line is that if you put out high-quality content consistently over a long period then you will be rewarded with a massive influx of organic, free traffic to your website. So if you have been on the fence about starting a blog, you can clearly see I would encourage you to do so. Blogging allows you to climb the rankings on Google, drive more traffic to your website, established subject matter expertise and more. It has been one of the biggest reasons The Evidence Based Chiropractor has been successful for many many years. You can do the same for the people in your community, and build your practice in the process!

If you have any questions about blogging or any questions on platforms, leave them down below. I'll be happy to answer any question that you might have, and that is why you need to start a blog today.

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Looking for awesome blog content, social media posts, videos, video scripts, patient handouts, and more all done for you? Check out The Smart Chiropractor!

Marketing Chiropractic to Medical Doctors

Marketing chiropractic to medical doctors. Today we are going to break the tips, tactics, and strategies you can use to successfully market your practice to medical doctors in your community and make a massive impact on the health of your friends and neighbors.

The opportunity to speak with, and get referrals from, medical doctors have never been better. And when I say medical doctors let me be clear. I mean all other health care professionals. It could be an MD, DO, midwife, doula, OB-GYN, athletic trainer, etc. The same process for reaching out to medical doctors can be used for reaching out to any type of healthcare provider.

Let's break down a few important stats and facts. A recent research publication showcased that over 90% of primary care physicians have been asked about chiropractic by their patients. Yet only 11% of those individuals had made a formal referral to a chiropractor. Think about that gap! Over 90% of primary care doctors have been asked about chiropractic, yet only 11 percent have made a formal referral!!

That gap is your opportunity. It's your opportunity to take a few simple steps and start bridging that gap with the other health care providers in your community. That's why am I so passionate about this. We know chiropractic utilization hovers around 12-15%, yet 90% of people will deal with muscular-skeletal complaints at some point in their life. Thankfully, less than 1% of these people have red flags. So that means almost everybody on planet earth is going to deal with a musculoskeletal complaint yet barely more than 10 percent are gonna come to see us!

Research has consistently showcased chiropractic is very often the best option for care. And if somebody is not finding you and your practice it is very likely, they are going to go down a drastically different path. What is that "alternative" path? People with neck pain and with the back pain commonly take medications that don't work, move onto injections that are ineffective, and then they may undergo a surgical intervention which could have been avoided if they would have had exposure to your practice early on.

The opportunity to save one person from that path is worth the work that it may take to bridge the gap with those physicians in your community.

This is a long term strategy; it takes some time to build a relationships that can last your whole career. It's not like an advertisement that when you shut it off, and nobody sees it ever again. These relationships can evolve into hundreds, if not thousands, of patients being referred into your practice over a very long period. At nearly zero cost. That is why this is so crucially important.

How to market chiropractic to medical doctors.

Are you ready? Well, let's get started! There are three distinct categories of outreach. I call these the three legs of the referral stool. The three legs are case notes, research, and meetings.

Each leg is critically important in supporting the others. Let's start with case notes. Case notes showcase that you are actively co-managing with these other health care providers. That helps to build social proof which is so important. I would imagine you work hard to have 80-90% of the people walking out of your office feeling a lot better than when they walked in. You need to show that off to the other health care providers in your community. And there's no better way to do that than a case notes. You should think of your case notes a patient-centric testimonial. So make sure you're sending case notes.

The second leg of the stool is research. Research updates are a fantastic way to stay up to date with what's going on not only in our profession but also to keep the other healthcare providers in your community up to date on what's going on with healthcare at large. So what's the importance of research? Research does a couple different things. First, it gives you the opportunity to have a consistent message being placed in front of these other health care providers in a professional context. I think that you know that sending a medical doctor a coupon is probably not the best use of your time. So how do you reach out consistently and not aggravate them or become a nuisance? Research is a great way to do that. We recommend a cadence or a frequency of sending an update one time per month.

One time per month gives you the opportunity to stay very consistent. It's a controllable marketing asset. That type of consistency is so important in bridging the gap and building that relationship. Case notes don't have the luxury of the same consistency. Case notes will ebb and flow. You can't control who walks in your front door, but you certainly can control that you get a research update.

The third leg of the stool is following up with meetings. Nothing can build trust and rapport quicker than meeting another provider faces to face. Meetings are also the most challenging aspect of your outreach. They can take some time to book and will take consistently follow up with a lot of outbound calls. But, when executed properly they can really accelerate the process of relationships building. The best way to approach a meeting is to ask a lot of questions and discover the value proposition that you can bring to the table.

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DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE MD MEETING GUIDE TO WALK THROUGH THE ENTIRE PROCESS!

So there you have it. The three attributes the three legs of the stool that you should focus on immediately if you're looking to reach out and bridge the gap send that case notes out. Make sure that you're getting research updates out one time per month, set up some meetings, and start sending case notes.

If you have any questions about any of this whatsoever, please leave a comment down below. At the evidence-based chiropractor, we have helped hundreds of chiropractors generate thousands of referrals by going through a systematic process of building relationships with other healthcare providers. And if that work has helped one person avoid unnecessary surgical interventions, then it's been worth the effort!

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Become a member of The Evidence Based Chiropractor and receive the complete solution to market your practice to medical professionals in your community.

The Most Overlooked Source of Back Pain: Fatty Infiltration of the Multifidus

Your back hurts, and no one can figure out why. It can be incredibly frustrating when you've had x-rays, MRI's and more doctors visits than you care to remember.

Well, there is a very common source of back pain that is often overlooked. It's impossible to see on X-rays and often overlooked on MRI.

What is the most overlooked source of back pain?

Fatty infiltration of the multifidus. If you have a patient that has an MRI, first of all, take a look at those pictures. Don't just look at the report. Furthermore, take a good look at those axial slices when you go down to L4-L5-S1. You will see the multifidus in what I call it the channels or gutters directly posterior to the lamina. The multifidus there should look like a beautiful marble sized steak and then on the outside should be superficial fat, which is white. If you cannot tell the difference between what is the fat and what is the muscle tissue- then you have fatty infiltration of the multifidus.

This is very important because very few docs are talking to their patients about that right now. But if there is deconditioning and fatty infiltration of the musculature, it is going to result in needed more than one or two adjustments to get where they want to be. They are genuinely deconditioned, so it helps you set better expectations for your patients.

The pain occurs in this area because essentially they are unstable. Normal movement patterns will place a tremendous amount of stress and strain on the facets, discs, and all other supporting structures when the muscles are deconditioned. Those other structures aren't designed to handle the extra load and will often fail- thus resulting in pain.

This is also relevant information to know if that patient is exploring a surgical intervention such as a laminectomy or decompression. How well do you think that's going to hold together? Probably not very well.

One more questions, do you think spinal injections are miraculously going to take care of 50 years of degenerative change? I don't think so!

So, I would encourage you to be different, be better. A lot of physicians are not looking at those axial pictures, and if you are, you probably haven't checked out the integrity of the multifidus lately. I would encourage you to do so for next patient that comes in that has an MRI. Look at those actual pictures. Take a look at multifidus and see what you think about the integrity of the muscle and set a better expectation for the recovery of your patient. Your practice is where they should be if they have this challenge. Establishing proper motion with adjustments, gapping the facets, getting movement into the disc and improving the multifidus through exercise and rehab is typically a great start to a successful plan of care.

Social Media Tips for Chiropractors: How to Easily Create Compelling Content

You know that publishing and producing top quality content online on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and your website is imperative to driving interest and patients into your practice. But for a lot of docs, it can be exceptionally challenging to keep up with content production. Sound familiar?

I know a lot of people who have a Facebook page's for their practice that goes dormant for weeks at a time. So I wanted to break down how you can take one piece of content and split it into a variety of different parts that you can utilize throughout weeks or months in your practice.

Let's start at the top and walk through how each piece works and how you can utilize them to get more influence, and ultimately more eyeballs on your social media content.

Creating Compelling Chiropractic Content for Social Media

It all starts with a piece of smart material. What is "smart" content? It's a topic that you would feel comfortable talking about for five to ten minutes if I put you on the spot right now and started filming. Maybe it is disc herniation, ergonomics, spinal curves, etc. We each have our own topics that we just know inside and out.

This topic will be your pillar piece of content from which everything else is created. Here's the catch (isn't there always a catch?). The best way to make this process work is to take your pillar topic, or smart content, and create a 5-10 minute of you discussing it. I know, a lot of docs have challenges shooting video. So if you have any questions comment down below. But here's what you can do, and why you should start with a video.

Once you shoot a video, all of your other content can actually be distilled down from that initial video. While shoot your video be sure to paint a clear picture and talk about the topic confidently. Once you do, you can have that video transcribed into text. That creates an excellent blog post. Then guess what? You can post a picture of the video on Instagram, a link to the blog on Facebook and much more.

Depending on the topic you also may have just created a brand new patient education piece for your practice. The options and opportunities are endless.

For instance, take a still image from you speaking during the video. Now you have a beautiful picture. Well, when you combine some of the text of the blog and the images self what do you have? You have an excellent social media post that you can publish on Facebook and LinkedIn.

And don't forget about that audio. If you rip the sound, you have a podcast episode already in the bag!.

And finally off of that video 5 to 10 minutes. You can break down a 60-second piece of it and then have that as a story on your Facebook or on your Instagram page.

If this sounds interesting to you but your concerned about not having enough time I encourage you to check out The Smart Chiropractor. We automate this entire process and provide a done for you social media solution for your practice!