Week 2 Reflection

During week two of my senior project, I became much more familiar with the range of people the Burdenko method applies to.  I was introduced to it to some degree in the first week of Laurie’s classes, even though most of the athletes participating were in the top tier of capability and were without injuries.  For example, there is one middle school boy, a soccer player, who has bad duck feet.  During the exercises he is always focusing on keeping his lower body in line, and learning to recognize when his feet are not straight.  The goal is to help train his body to stay straight all the time.  I watch him on one side of the room trying to improve his alignment, but can also look to the other side and see Laurie’s daughter, Abby, doing the same exercises, only for different effects.  Abby is a very high level ski racer, who this past season was on the US Ski Team.  Through years of competing at such a high level she has no doubt been exposed to a variety of workout methods, and the fact that she comes out to the sessions every time says a lot about the program.  She is confident that the Burdenko method has what she needs to be in the best shape possible, and it has been successful throughout her whole career.

I saw even more of this when Laurie and I went do to observe Igor.  I learned there was no huge distinction between the what Laurie had been doing with her class, and what Igor was doing with his clients.  Igor’s clients may have had injuries or certain challenges with their bodies, but the exercises were just as difficult physically as they were with Laurie’s athletes.  In both the pool and on land, they were still doing a lot to strengthen and train the rest of their bodies.  This came as a surprise to me, because I always assumed there was a big difference between training for high level athletes, and rehab for injured athletes.

What I learned this week will hugely benefit me with my motivation throughout my rehab.  While we were watching Igor work with his clients, Laurie reminded me that what I would be doing for my rehab was not very different then what she would be doing to train her kids.  This made me feel like even though I am injured, I am not missing out on all that much.  I am still able to get a good workout, but in a way that will not disrupt the healing of my knee.  The focus of my rehab will not just be to help my knee heal, but I will be working to strengthen my entire body more then ever before.  

May 19th

Today I came back to campus after lunch, and used my time her to continue reading "Overcoming Paralysis".  It continued to describe the benefits of working in water, and told another miracle story.  This one was of a man Bob McKenna, who when he was 23 fell 5 stories and broke his fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down.  Through years of working with Igor he was later able to walk with just the assistance or ankle braces and crutches, and can live an independent life.

There was also a section on nutrition and how important it is to feed your body food that will help it heal to the best of its ability.  It made clear there was no need for a diet, just he right information on how and what to eat, and how eating "intelligently" is a lifetime commitment and an important part of conditioning the whole body.

May 18th

Today was a long day, beginning at 5:45 when we got up to go down and watch Igor Burdenko, who is the creator of the method I am studying.  He is currently working out of Bosse Sports and Health Club in Sudbury, Ma.  Laurie and I observed while he worked with four different people, mostly with all different problems.  The first client was an 8th grade boy, who was a very talented tennis player.  The boy has recently been growing a lot, and he is now extremely tall with little muscle to support it.  He had so much stress on his joints causing back and knee pain that he was unable to play tennis.  Now after working with Igor he is back on the courts, and as Igor explained to us he is able to regain his strength without pain or interfering with the healing process.  His next client was a doctor and tennis player, with bad back pain.  He too was unable to play temporarily because of his pain, but now since working with Igor has made a lot of progress.  The next client of Igor's required the most patience and attention then what we had seen with the previous two people.  He was a 19 year old boy who had a stroke when he was 15, and he now is very hard of hearing and has slow processing because of swelling of his brain.  His symptoms are similar to that of someone with Multiple Sclerosis or Parkinson's.  Unlike the other clients which worked 50% on land, 50% in water, this person worked all water.  While in the water, he worked on mostly coordination exercises, and ones that will help him regain the control of his body he lost from the stroke.  The fourth client, was an engineer who had a knee and an ankle problem.  He was told he needed surgery for his knee, but since working with Igor has successfully avoided it.  This man had poor coordination issues, which could be a possible source of all his injuries.  The exercises Igor was having him do looked very simple, but they were hard for him to gain control  and have his brain follow along and detect patterns.

After the observation in Sudbury, we went back to Hopkinton and I observed one of Laurie's classes.  The rain again made the session limited to just the garage, but everyone made it work just like the last time.  Laurie took a lot of exercises Igor did, and showed them to her class.  In doing this, she highlighted the fact that one Burdenko exercise can be modified for a person of any age,  and can be used to rehabilitate an injury or problem, or also be a difficult workout for a high level athlete.

May 17th

There was no class today, so Laurie and I went down to the pool to do stuff for myself.  We were able to progress much further than last week because I was more familiar with the basics of the exercises, and my knee was capable of more.  After that we talked a little bit about Igor, and different techniques he has while working with people.  Tomorrow we will go into Boston, where I will get to meet Igor himself.  He has 4 appointments in the morning that Laurie and I will be observing.  It will be interesting to see the exercises and sessions runs by the creator of the method I am studying.

May 16th

Today I did a little more reading in the morning, and then left at lunch time to go to Hopkinton.  Taylor is out of town this week, so Laurie was alone with the group.  She considered splitting it into two sessions to help keep control of the group, but then decided to keep it just one.  Another factor that played into tonights session was the rain.  Normally, about half of the exercises planned are for outside in the street or her driveway, but tonight she had to adjust so everyone was inside.  During the class, in addition to giving the kids the exercises to do, she also taught them about what they were doing.  She explained the difference between static and dynamic strengthening, how to both strengthen and stretch a muscle, and other helpful tips for the athletes to know for when they are training on their own.  Tomorrow there is no class but we will be going down to the pool to learn more there.

Week 1 Reflection

In just the first week, I have learned more about the Burdenko method than I predicted I would during my entire project.  In fact, it is hard for me to keep this reflection short because there are pages of information I want to get to people about this method.  Although watching the classes and doing the exercises were really helpful in teaching me about Burdenko, I have found my favorite and most effective way of learning to be just by talking to Laurie.  In conversation, you can tell how passionate she is about everything, because information just starts pouring out.  She wants me to understand all the Burdenko method entails, and she has already passed that passion on to me.  When people ask me about my project, I really want them to understand just what this is, and how different it is than just “working out” or “rehab”.  During Wednesday’s class a women was walking by on the street and asked what Laurie and Taylor’s classes were all about. Instead of saying it was a conditioning class for high school sports stars, Laurie replied, “I teach athletes how to move.” It is interesting to watch the kids doing all these exercises, because there is a real separation between those who have been trained well, and the kids who are just beginning. For example, her own children do it perfectly, because they have been working on it the better portion of their lives. Other kids in the group who just started, struggle with the simple skills of balance and coordination.  Exercises that look easy may be very difficult to do. An outsider watching would probably think that the kids having trouble were out of shape or not good athletes, when the truth is they may play club soccer 10 months a year or play three varsity sports. That, however, is exactly where the problem lies. Kids today go from sport to sport as each season goes by, and never take the time to condition their bodies. They may run on their off days or lift weights occasionally, but they never train their bodies in ways that will help them catch their balance if they stumble or get knocked, and other functions that are so important for your body to have. This is another reason why Burdenko is so effective in preventing injury.  We were watching her son Pete at his lacrosse game while I was down with the Fucignas at the beginning of the week, and there was a moment when someone hit against Pete and caught him off guard. As Laurie watched his reaction to this and how he quickly got right back in a balanced state she told me, “that, right there, is Burdenko.”

What I learned this week will benefit me hugely with my rehab, and I have already been able to start using it now.  Even this morning, I went by myself and did exercises in the pool.  The pool, if done properly and using the Burdenko exercises, can be a great healing environment for your body.  It is not water aerobics, and you are not simply running in the shallow end.  Everything you are doing is with a belt on, and in the vertical position with your pelvis forward and your body straight.  You are in the position you would be on land, except you are in an anti-gravity situation. For me, what I can do on land is very limited because of my knee. Being in the water puts me in a situation where I can do exercises that push my boundaries and perform much more, but in a safe environment. It helps you to make advances so much faster than if you were only doing your rehab on land. 

I have had a lot of information and specifics thrown at me this week, and I think the reason I have absorbed all of it so well is because it applies directly to myself.  I really want to listen to what Laurie is saying and learn it, so I am knowledgable enough to do some of it on my own.  Burdenko is so complex, that is it no surprise it took her so long to get master certified, and there are few people out there who can properly teach Burdenko. Everything Igor Burdenko has created is so genius, it is a shame that more people don’t know about it or take advantage of it. You can see frustrations Laurie and Taylor have sometimes, when new innovations come out in the workout industry that Igor thought of years, and in some cases, decades before. The reason this is not hugely popular is that it is hard to convince someone how effective the Burdenko method is, without out showing it to them and proving the benefits.  Burdenko is hard to advertise, because there are no hard core workout videos, it cannot give you 30-minute abs, and there is no flashy equipment to accompany it.  But once someone begins Burdenko, all they want to do is show it to their friends and persuade them to do it.  I wish that everyone knew about it, and would train themselves to do it.  It is hard to get into Burdenko, because you really need to be taught it by someone properly trained and be closely monitored at the beginning, but it is really worth the effort.  It is so good for your body, and really makes you transition from being a generic sports stud, to a true athlete.

May 12/13

Unfortunately the blog website was down last night, so I was not able to post my day's work.  Yesterday and today have been less uneventful, because I am back at campus and no longer under the direction of my sponsor.  I have spent these two days reading a book called "Overcoming Paralysis".  It was written by Scott Biehler, with all the information accredited to Igor Burdenko.  Scott was in a motorcycle accident suffered a broken back and was paralyzed from the chest down.  He was told he would not be able to do a lot any more, and without a medical miracle, would never walk.  Through water therapy and working with Igor, he now has control of the muscles below where he was injured, and is making a lot of progress. He wrote this book about his experience and  how to help other in his situation, through the Burdenko method.  I have not yet finished the book, but it goes through all the basics of the Burdenko method and talks about Igor.  It was interesting to discover that Igor turned to water therapy as his main interest and method of therapy after watching his Russian father (Igor is from Russia), who suffered many injuries from World War II, but could still exercise in the water with much less pain and a significantly quicker recovery time.  I also found out that Igor has an interest in working with the handicapped after developing a program where for his athlete who had a serious accident and because quadriplegic.  He went from only being able use his mouth, to miraculously having the use of his arms and being able to write again.  This book has also outlined the five key points of the Burdenko method.  The were to work on the water and in land, work in the vertical position in the water, work with the whole body, work in both directions, and work to develop six essential abilities for everyday life and sport (balance, coordination, flexibility, endurance, speed, and strength - in that order).

There are many cases explained in which Igor has helped people transition from wheelchairs to walking, even when doctors said it wasn't likely to be done.  The book is very interesting so far and I look forward to reporting more on it once I get there.  Until then, I have the weekend off and am back to working at Hopkinton on Monday.