Greg Lehman http://www.greglehman.ca/ is a Canadian physiotherapist, chiropractor and strength and conditioning specialist treating musculoskeletal disorders within a biopsychosocial model. He is incredibly well-read, a highly skilled educator. And he’s funny.
Before his clinical career, Greg received a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council MSc graduate scholarship and became one of only two students each year to train with Professor Stuart McGill in his Occupational Biomechanics Laboratory, subsequently published more than 20 peer-reviewed papers in the manual therapy and exercise biomechanics field. He was an assistant professor at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College teaching a graduate-level course in Spine Biomechanics and Instrumentation as well conducting more than 20 research experiments while supervising more than 50 students.
Greg has lectured on a number of topics on reconciling treatment biomechanics with pain science, running injuries, golf biomechanics, occupational low back injuries and therapeutic neuroscience. His courses Reconciling Biomechanics with Pain Science and Running Resiliency have been taught more than 60 times in more than 40 locations worldwide.
In this conversation, Greg and I talk about how the biomechanics research invalidates the idea of ‘dysfunction’ as a cause of pain or disability, why scapular dyskinesis (aka poor scapular positioning and movement) is not a thing, knee valgus during a squat is nothing to worry about and several other interesting topics.
Greg shares his approach of movement optimism, and his basic framework for working within a biopsychosocial model.
Resources
Can we actually measure spinal stability, and does it change as a result of spinal stabilisation exercise?
- Shamsi et al (2017) Comparison of spinal stability following motor control and general exercises in nonspecific chronic low back pain patients
Shoulder rehabilitation
- Improvement in pain and function after surgical rotator cuff repair unrelated to changes in tear size over two years – Kukkonen et al. (2015) Treatment of Nontraumatic Rotator Cuff Tears: A Randomized Controlled Trial with Two Years of Clinical and Imaging Follow-up
- Littlewood A self-managed single exercise programme versus usual physiotherapy treatment for rotator cuff tendinopathy: a randomised controlled trial (the SELF study)
Exercise as a painkiller
- Vaegter et al. (2014) Isometric exercises reduce temporal summation of pressure pain in humans
- Vaegter et al (2015) Aerobic Exercise and Cold Pressor Test Induce Hypoalgesia in Active and Inactive Men and Women
The Scapular dyskinesis debate
- The original paper – Hickey et al. (2018) Scapular dyskinesis increases the risk of future shoulder pain by 43% in asymptomatic athletes: a systematic review and meta-analysis
- The rebuttal – Littlewood & Cools (2018) Scapular dyskinesis and shoulder pain: the devil is in the detail
Strengthening hip abductors improves knee pain but does not change valgus