Phillip Kriss, Athlete & Chiropractor

Your body is smart enough to take care of itself if you listen to it The last few years on some days I have taken a beating on the race course. On a dreadful day, my heart rate will escalate to over extremely high with very painful, fearful, frightening consequence. Tunnel vision, dizziness, weaving around, fatigue, pain, cramping, nausea and a nasty pounding headache. Because of that, I have not signed up for any long-distance events for fear of another whipping with the possible outcome of death. I have seen dead people on the race course (in my age group probably) and it is not pretty…I was hoping this whole thing would go away, but it has not. So, off to (another) cardiologist. After a fact-finding question and answer period, the conversation goes something like this: ·          You are over 50 ·          You are a big guy (200 pounds with less than 15% body fat) ·    ...

“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it” -W. Mitchell Last year I did not sign up for a long distance triathlon. At first I was upset about it, but got over it by watching others suffer on long rides and runs while sipping iced tea on the deck. On race day, I felt little remorse. This year I went to sign up for a race, and after looking at the price tag, lack of time and motivation and decided not to sign up. Call me lazy…go ahead…it’s OK… Now some of my buddies are in the thick of training. Many hours in the pool, on the saddle or on the road. Stress levels are climbing. I look at my weeks and ask myself “Self, how did you carve 20-25 hours out of each week?” Myself has no answers. Looking back, I don’t know how I did it. At one point, I had trained and completed 140.6 distance triathlons while opening new business’ and had a life. Kudo’s to me, because I did accomplish what seemed impossible at the time. But, I did what I had to do to get it all do...

Don't Do the Jumbo Shrimp Back 3 years in the cross-fit gym taught me a lot. One of the most interesting thing is how can those nice people put up so much weight and not get hurt? Several times I was instructed to do some High Intensity Activity, looked at the weight and activity and said to myself "WHAT?" But, with proper instruction and practice I found out you can lift way more than you think you can without hurting yourself. Not only that, but I had to fess up that for most of my chiropractic career I was teaching people how to lift incorrectly. Regrettable at least... Then I found out that proper lifting/activity techniques are applicable to swimming, biking and running. To maintain the "power posture" not only makes you more efficient and powerful, but more comfortable. Here is the simple list: Pinch your shoulders together a bit keep your head up and back, directly over your torso arch your low back, and/or stick your butt out as much as...