Episode 02: The Secret to Peak Performance is in Your Feet w/ Dr. Nick Romansky
Mike sits down with Dr. Nick Romansky, senior partner at the Healthmark Foot + Ankle. He has locations in Phoenixville, Exton, and Media.
Dr. Romansky’s Professional Affiliations
0:26 - Mike and Dr. Romansky talk about Dr. Romansky’s affiliations with Nike, USA Olympic team, and other professional, amateur, and college teams. He’s involved in research as well as the clinical application of sports gear like shoes.
Back to the Beginning
1:40 - Dr. Romansky talks about how his career started. While he was in college, there were a lot of sports booms going on: running, tennis, and skiing. There was shown to be a lot of injuries to the lower extremity from this boom.
2:30 - Dr. Romansky went to Penn State for Graduate School and studied exercise physiology, biomechanics, and cardiac rehab. This opened up an opportunity to work on shoe gear for Runner’s World
3:10 - Because Dr. Romansky was mostly involved in lower extremity injury, podiatry was a perfect fit as a career.
4:50 - The foot is the foundation to the rest of the body. If your foot hurts, everything hurts.
Team Podiatrist of US Soccer
6:00 - Because of Dr. Romansky’s strong background in athletic gear and soccer, he became the team podiatrist of the US Soccer Team.
6:30 - The involvement of the US Soccer Teams involve a lot of travel with the team, whether it’s the younger teams or senior teams. He talks a lot about his travels and what he does with the teams.
7:40 - Dr. Romansky has to manage the players holistically during their travels. He’s not just the podiatrist, he has to help the team with diet, hygiene, and water intake.
Treat the Cause, not the Symptom
9:00 - Dr. Romansky’s theory has always been to treat the cause, not the symptom. A pain or injury is usually because of muscle imbalance, weakness, or compensation.
9:20 - He relies heavily on physical therapists because they’re the best anatomists and diagnosticians in the business.
9:44 - He always diagnoses, treats, and rehabs at the same time. He doesn’t want his patients to stop their activity.
11:08 - If you can’t measure, you can’t manage. You have to measure improvement.
11:30 - Our goal is to get you better to where you were before injury. It’s all about expectation. A PT’s job is to get the patient better than before.
It’s Important to Learn How Your Body Moves
13:20 - Focusing on athletes is great but it’s important to look at the general public in order to keep them active and mobile. We’d use all these same techniques (like the functional movement screening). As we all become less active, we have to help the general public more than ever before.
14:30 - Insurance companies are focused on fall prevention for the more mature patients. From an economic point of view, allowing mature patients to understand their bodies more though functional movement screening and training is very important.
16:00 - Giving someone confidence to move better through their daily activities, it’ll also help their mental health.
Communication in the Health Industry
16:40 - Dr. Mike Quintans and Dr. Nick Romansky talk about how important phone and face to face communication is during this technological age. Each doctor has to look at it as a team approach to help his or her mutual patient.
19:00 - Dr. Romansky is the communicator between what is seen in the lab and how it works on the field or the track when it comes to athletic gear. It’s important to go beyond the lab.
The Future of Sports Medicine
20:00 - The two talk about the future of sports medicine. The future is being more proactive with regeneration like the application of stem cells instead of reactive like constructive or reconstructive surgery. So before a joint needs surgical repair, a doctor will treat it with stem cells and homeopathic medicine first.
22:20 - Sometimes insurances aren’t willing to pay for some of these recent treatments even if it is FDA approved.
25:00 - The earlier someone learns about their body and deficits, the better they’ll be in the future. Functional screen needs to happen early and communicated well.
Functional Movement Screening (FMS)
25:30 - Dr. Mike Quintans goes through what the Functional Movement Screen is. If PTs aren’t doing that, they’re missing out on what the real source of the problem is and just treating the symptoms.
26:30 - Your feet are your job. If you don’t take care of your feet, you can’t do your job, you can’t reach your peak performance.
30:30 - Pronation and supination are normal except for when you go outside the normal boundaries.
CONTACT
HealthMark Foot and Ankle has multiple offices.
(610) 565-3668
(610) 565-FOOT
BOOKS
Anatomy Trains by Tom Meyers - it talks about how your whole body is one big fascial plain.
https://www.anatomytrains.com/product/anatomy-trains-fourth-edition/