Tag: learning

The Guide to Physical Therapy School

So peeps, I’m going on vacation this week. So instead of a debrief, I present to you the first legit episode of the Zac Cupples show. I’ll be putting these bad boys out occasionally when I have a topic that I feel would be better to riff on as opposed to discussing in a debrief or writing about. Here’s an outline of the topics I discussed Reasons to go into physical therapy What to look for in a PT school The goals of physical therapy school What you should take away from school What classes I recommend a student to take Enjoy!                  Here were the links I mentioned tonight All Gain, No Pain South College Physical Therapy Program Bill Hartman Continuing Education: The Complete Guide to Mastery Explain Pain Course Notes Therapeutic Neuroscience Education Course Notes Lorimer Moseley Explain Pain Course Notes Kettlebell Mashup FMS Level 2 Ultimate MMA Conditioning Dermoneuromodulation Course Notes ART Dry Needling Course Notes Spinal Manipulation Institute A Randomized Trial Comparing Acupuncture, Simulated Acupuncture, and Usual Care for Chronic Low Back Pain Here’s a signup for my newsletter to get a free acute:chronic workload calculator, basketball conditioning program, podcasts, and weekend learning goodies: [yikes-mailchimp form=”1″ submit=”Get learning goodies and more”] Also, check out the mentoring, movement, and training services I offer: Mentoring, Movement, and Training

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August 2017 in Review

Every week, my newsletter subscribers get links to some of the goodies that I’ve come across on the internets. Here were the goodies that my peeps got their learn on from this past August. If you want to get a copy of my weekend learning goodies every Friday, fill out the form below.  That way you can brag to all your friends about the cool things you’ve learned over the weekend. [yikes-mailchimp form=”1″ submit=”Hell yes I want weekend learning goodies every Friday!”] Biggest Lesson of the Month You must first take care of yourself in all aspects of life before you can adequately take care of others. That includes personally, professionally, health, finances, everything. While I have done well in certain areas, I have lagged in others. This imbalance is one reason why I opted to take a job in a rural location. It has helped me strike a balance in many areas, and has eliminated potential distractions that could deter me from achieving that balance. Cryptic? Somewhat. But I think about those times that I’ve been sleep deprived and lost patience with my clients. My lack of taking care of myself in that instance limited my capability to take care of others. Are you taking care of yourself? Quote of the Month The only thing that separates successful people from the ones who aren’t is willingness to work very, very hard. ~Unknown I saw the above quote when I was staying at a hotel before hiking Capitol Reef. The

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A Conversation on Learning with Lance Goyke and Jason Byrne

I recorded a really good conversation with two good buddies of mine, Lance Goyke and Jason Byrne. Lance is a strength coach, photographer, student, and writer. He runs the show at IFAST University, coaches at IFAST, and runs his own excellent blog and Youtube channel. He is also a dear friend of mine, one of the first people I met when I interned with Bill Hartman at IFAST. Jason is an Athletic Trainer at Brandeis University and with the Boston Cannons. He is an avid learner, tinkerer, and phenomenal human being. I truly admire his ability to connect with others, his humility, and comfort with learning from failures. Check him out on Twitter or email him at jbyrneatc@gmail.com We went off the top of the dome on this one, as there was no agenda. I was just hoping to help better all of our learning processes. We got that…and then some! Here were some of the topics we covered: Designing a learning process Test-Retest Failure Being comfortable being uncomfortable Connecting with others How to learn Study habits and more If video isn’t your thing, I have a transcript of our conversation below. You can also download the audio version of this talk if you’d like by subscribing to my newsletter. [yikes-mailchimp form=”1″ submit=”Get the audio version”] Without further adieu, here is the conversation

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Trial and Error, Triplanar Movement, Networking, and Mentors – Movement Debrief Episode 11

Did you miss yesterday’s Movement Debrief? We had a lot of fun. The first time I went on facebook, twitter, and Instagram simultaneously. This debrief was a bit different, as it didn’t involve as much reflection on my patient care, but more on the wonderful continuing education weekend I had. I got to spend time with all my friends learning about a lot of different things. And it led to some great reflections. Here’s what I talked about: Why trial and error is important Being outcome-focused How triplanar movement impacts single plane movements Why having a good network is important Keys the networking The importance of mentors If you want to watch these live, add me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. They air every Wednesday at 8:30pm CST. Enjoy.   Trial and Error Triplanar Movement Networking Mentors

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Continuing Education: The Complete Guide to Mastery

75 That’s my number. No, not that number.   75 is the number of continuing education classes, conferences, home studies, etc that I’ve completed since physical therapy school. Though the courses are many, it was probably too much in a short period of time. When quantity is pursued, quality suffers. Sadly, I didn’t figure out how to get the most out of each class until the latter end of my career. Two classes in particular stand out: Mobilisation of the Nervous System by the NOI Group, and ART lower extremity. Yes, the content was great, but these classes stood out for a different reason. You see, instead of just doing a little bit of prep work, I kicked it up a notch. I extensively reviewed supportive material, took impeccable notes, and hit all the other essentials needed to effectively learn. I was prepared, and because I was prepared I got so much more out of these classes than my typical fair.  The lessons learned in those courses stick with me to this day. For the stuff you really want to learn, I’ll encourage you to do the same. Here is the way to get the most out of your continuing education. By the time you are done reading this post, you’ll understand why I now recommend a more focused learning approach and fewer courses. Let’s see how to do it.  

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The 6-Step Method to Reading the Shit Out of Books

What Were We Talking About Again? If there is one thing I’ve struggled with over the years, it’s long-term retention. Though remembering course materials has had its challenges, the struggle is worse with books. Overconsumption was part of the problem. Trying to read faster, and across multiple unrelated books caused more detriment than use. Much as our attention spans can be overstimulated by abundant information on the internet, so to can we suffer this fate with reading? There are a lot of books after all. While narrowing my reading focus has helped quite a bit, improving my reading strategy was equally important. I remember one summer I made it my goal to learn how to shuffle cards. We played A LOT of cards on my family vacations, and I was tired of having to use the automatic shuffler or having someone else shuffle for me at the family card game. It was time to become a man, damnit! I shuffled anytime I had some free time during the day; which back when I was a kid led to multiple bouts of daily shuffling. By the end of the summer, I was unconscious with shuffling, and still am to this day. Frequent, quality repetitions at any task will likely lead to improvement. Learning material is no different, we must just foster an environment of multiple exposures to said material. Here’s my latest attempt at doing so.

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My 50th Post: Motivation to Learn

A Little Personal It is hard to believe that I have already written my 50th post after starting this blog in February as a way to enhance both my learning and the learning of others. This blog has allowed me to interact with a variety of different individuals that I otherwise would not have. And when people who I deeply respect say they admire what I have to say (or at least my version of what other people say), I am deeply humbled. But I have had several cases in which people wondered if I do anything other than physical therapy and personal training (I do). One of my former mentors came up to me saying that she was worried about me because of how much I am into this. These interactions have made me reflect on why I am reading, working, writing, and learning as much as I can. Thus, I have come to some conclusions as to what drives me to help others. And this drive, while not the norm that some of my peers are accustomed to, is far from wrong. Others are Depending on You When you work as a health professional, some people neglect the fact that your patients and clients trust their bodies with you.  They put their confidence in your knowledge and skills to show them the path to bettering themselves. When someone puts this amount of trust into me, the last thing I want to do is let them down. So I

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