*NEW* The 4B Training Process!

I am excited to announce that I will be starting an online distance program called The 4B Training Process.

I know how it feels to start questioning what happened to my young, limber body, to have achy joints, and be stiff when moving around.

I’ve been in that place of feeling ground down by my job and wanting the exercises I enjoy to be the great release and freedom they used to be.

I understand the confusion over finding the right program to feel strong, able, but still limber.

But the good news is… I made it out the other side!

It took a lot of mindset work, a deepening of my understanding of our natural movement patterns and how resistance exercises can fit in a specific order with those patterns, but I did it.

I made the changes needed to embrace a new method of approaching strength programming.

It was such an exhilarating experience that I couldn’t keep it to myself. That’s why I started The 4 B Training Process!

The 4 B Training Process is a better method of training so you can unlock restricted muscles, reduce pain in joints, reduce the frustration, and return to the physical activities you love to do!

I help physically active people reduce pain and optimize mobility so they can move freely. My process is based on our natural movement patterns unlike standard rehabilitation exercises or generic gym routines.

I’m a Certified Athletic Trainer and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist who combines evidence-based neurological movement patterns, the precise sequence of their coordination, and resistance exercises to reinforce those patterns. So you know you’re getting good, science-based info from me!

I’d also love for you to continue following my blogs for physically active people who are progressing through the journey of HEALING, PREVENTING, and PERFORMING!

You don’t have to go this alone anymore.

I’ve been where you are and found the light at the end of the tunnel.

It IS possible to be pain free and move more freely, so you can enjoy the physical activities you love to do!

Sincerely

Mike Fleming, MS, ATC/L, CSCS

Athletic Trainer and Owner

Fleming Athletics, LLC

Training Center Tour

I’m very excited to post this video! It has been a scrambled and fast paced six months, but I’m finally in a brick and mortor facility that is set up the way I want it and am doing my system of helping people get better! We are located in Spring Grove, PA. Hope you enjoy the video tour. Please contact me if you have any questions or would like to schedule and appointment!

https://youtu.be/0os1pm-f5ng

Most common problems from modern day living. Part 2

In Part 1 we looked at what is happening with our school and work place habit of being seated most of the day or driving in a seated position for lengthy periods of time. If you haven’t read that post yet here is the link:

https://www.flemingathletics.com/blog

In Part 2 we will investigate one of the upper body problems due to the prolonged usage of

Staring at a Screen/ Typing/ and the worst one TEXTING

I think it is safe to say we can all remember a time sitting at a desk when we became too comfortable and slumped forward - leaning on the desk and jutting our head forward to read the screen. We may also remember such a situation and suddenly it didn’t feel good so we sat up straight, maybe rolled our neck around, and possibly even stretched our arms out. This is important - you need to move and maintain a good posture when not moving.

How many of you have had tight muscles around the base of your neck so bad it gave you a headache? The positions we put ourselves in create bad posture in the neck and shoulders and then the muscles in those areas become overactive and spasm. The neck is also the area that all the nerves that innervate your arms come from, so when the muscles are in spasm, not only can you not turn your neck, but the nerves are being compressed and irritated.

The next part of this problem is since these muscles at the base of your neck are overactive, the muscles that stabilize your shoulder blade are getting turned off and weak! This combination then starts to become a continuous spiral towards neck pain or injury, shoulder pain, or injury and headaches.

The first step is to work on your posture regularly! Every 10-15 minutes check yourself. Are you sitting tall? Are you pinching your shoulder blades back? Are you tucking your chin back and holding your head back over your shoulders?

If you have to sit for prolonged periods of time, good posture will help you get through the day feeling better. Also from Part 1, getting up and walking is an excellent way to move and help correct total body posture.

Here is an easy way to loosen up your neck without using any equipment:

Start with your hands up in the air with a slight tilt forward. Stand straight up with good posture.

Now pull the arms down and back to your sides pinching your shoulder blades down and back. At the same time tilt your head to the opposite side that hurts. If both sides hurt do one 10-15 second hold tilting to the right and then raise your arms and repeat the arm pull down but this time tilt to the left. You can repeat these 10-15 second tilt and holds 2-3 times and then come back to them a couple times an hour if needed.

Look for the upcoming Part 3 when we continue correcting these daily grind upper body problems.

Once you have completed this active stretch, perform the overhead stretch. Hold the overhead stretch for 30 seconds on each side. You can repeat this stretch 2 or 3 times if necessary. Then repeat the arm pull and head tilt active stretch to maximize the relaxation of your upper back and neck muscles.

Most common problems from modern day living. Part 1

Hello everyone. I wanted to start with a topic that most of you can relate to, so we are going to investigate common problems with modern living. I am going to look at some of the most common issues that people want me to fix that are direct results of their daily grind. Do you find yourself in these situations on a regular basis or for prolonged time periods of every day:

Sitting/ Driving?

Starring at a screen/ typing/ TEXTING?

The human body is made to move to be able to survive. When you are not moving, the muscles shut down and become tight and/or weak. Let’s start by breaking down the problem. Then we will put together some easy strategies to decrease the lousy way that your body feels as a result of these problems.

Sitting/ Driving - Do you sit at a desk all day long during work or school? Do you have a long commute to work or school? When you stand up or get our of your car do you feel like you are stuck bent at the waist, have pain in the hips or back or knees?

The problem is, in the sitting position your hip flexor muscles become short and tighten up but at the same time your glute muscles (the big strength/power developers of the hip) are on constant stretch and shut down and become weak. The thigh muscles are getting turned off because the legs are not holding up your body or moving your body! I am not judging you, I just stood up to continue typing this. I do want to help you take a small step towards moving better so you can live better!

We need to start by lengthening out those hip flexors with a kneeling hip flexor stretch:

Also once you are stretched out you need to take every opportunity to walk around and always use the stairs. Utilize other strategies such as asking your Human Resource Department if you could be proactive and get a standing desk to improve your health and productivity.

Next do quad stretches - you need to lengthen out those quads and then start using them to make your knees feel better:

Stretching regularly throughout the day will revitalize your nerves and muscles with the main goal of feeling better when you leave work or school.

Finally do a toe touch hamstring stretch - remember these from when you were a kid? You need to do them because your hamstrings are getting tight sitting there all day long, every day with your knees bent.

Remember the stairs! Stairs not only get your heart and lungs working well, but they make your hips, knees, and ankles move through a great range of motion that will increase the health and strength of those joints.

Look for the up coming Part 2 when we continue correcting these daily grind problems.

Welcome to Fleming Athletics!

Hello everyone and welcome to the new website for Fleming Athletics.  This will be a growing medium for distributing helpful information and being able to contact us.

We believe we are called to make the world a better place than it is now by helping people Move Better and Live Better, one client at a time. With our specialized talents of understanding anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, and neuroscience.

Humans are designed to move, and we believe that expanding our clients' ability to move has a major impact on significant health issues like obesity and chronic aches and pains, as well as overall physical and mental well-being.

By utilizing neuromuscular reflexes, balancing of muscle actions on opposite sides of joints, correcting motor patterns and increasing strength and power, we improve our clients’ natural movements.  This leads to decreased pain, better injury recovery, and helps you Move Better and Live Better.

We look forward to hearing from you and working with you to find solutions to your problems so that you can be the physically active person you want to be.  We work on the full spectrum from rehabilitating new injuries to increasing athletic performance to specialized injury prevention and return to play programs.