Pickleball Injuries With Dr. Dr. Alyssa Hirschman of Healing Hands PREP

In this episode, Eric tackles the topic of Pickleball Injuries with Dr. Alyssa Hirschman and Brent Barbee from Healing Hands PREP located in Montgomery County, Maryland. Dr. Alyssa Hirschman is a top Chiropractic/Physical Therapy Health Expert with years of experience in chiropractic treatment and helping the people in her community ease their aches and pains, improve their quality of life, and perform better.


Healing Hands: PREP
404 King Farm Blvd #140
Rockville, MD 20850

Hours
M - F: 9:00 am - 6:00 pm
Sat: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sun: Closed

https://www.healinghandsprep.com
[e-mail]
[phone]​

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
Hey there, Raymakers, Welcome tothis episode of the Chambers podcast. And
today we're talking about probably one ofmy favorite topics, which is pick a
ball, but one of the leastfavorite topics for me is pick a ball
injuries. As you guys know,I love pick a ball. I go
out there, I play every singleday, and one of the things I'm
starting to notice is a lot ofpeople getting injured. So in this episode,

(00:29):
we brought some very special guests becausenot only are they Chamber members,
but they're in the business of painmanagement and helping us get through stuff like
that, and they're going to giveus their expert advice on what we can
do in order to prevent it andalso to treat it if we have to.
I want to bring in doctor LissaHerschmann and Bret Barbie who are with

(00:50):
Healing Hands Prep, and they're gonnahelp us. Brent, doctor Lissa,
Welcome to the show. How areyou guys doing again? Good are you
well? First of all, let'sstart off and say welcome to the Chamber.
You guys are acting brand new membersto the Chamber, Am I right?
Right? New? Yep? Yougot a ribbon cutting coming up soon.
Huh yeah, August seventeen. Augustseventeen, hopefully I can be there.
I'll make sure that I schedule myselfto be there and meet you guys

(01:10):
in person. How long have youbeen in this area? Just open wise,
we've only been opened for two months. Two months. Well, what
made you open in this area?What made you open to practice? Well?
I personally grew up in this area, Montgomery County, and I really
wanted to help my community, especiallygrow and everything. So I worked.
I've built up in my practice roomdoing chiropractic here at Insage Therapy. I've

(01:30):
done vario assortments in natural holistic typeof approaches with conservative therapy to help people
in my community. So I finallywanted to build something I create on my
own to build in all those resourcesto help people. Here's a question for
you. When you opened up,did you think that pick a ball in

(01:51):
particular was going to be such abig injury prone business. I mean no,
not at all. But we're actuallyfairly new to this or to pickleball,
so we're interested in learning more aboutit. Oh great, Well,
I gotta get you guys on thecourt. Yeah, already. I play
not too far from where your officeis was your office is in Keen Farm,
right, correct, Yeah, theyhave like I don't know, pick
a ball field, but like,oh yeah, yeah, they there's actually

(02:14):
four pickaball courts right there by.What you guys are we never knew.
Thanks for telling, because I mightcome by your office and knock on the
door one day with us some paddlesin hand. So okay, so let's
talk about what I'm seeing out there, because, as you know, I'm
a pickball trainer as well certified trainer, and one of the things that I'm
seeing is that a lot of peoplewho have never played any sport at all,

(02:39):
all of a sudden, because pickaballis so easy to pick up and
start playing, they come in andthey get themselves injured. So that's very
common for a person that's not veryactive from a cientary position and then just
jumps in to start doing something.Let's say, it's always when you do
something like that, they're very proneto injuries, especially since they're not used

(03:00):
to the activity level. I mean, even though pickaball is really easy to
pick up and everything, it's justthem building up the straight they need to
do a lot of those various activitiesin it just causes wear and tear,
and pickaball is a lot like tennis. I imagine you're twisting your feed everything
getting like being and everything too.So yeah, those joints quick movements like
that that they're not used to.Just right away, I hear popping sound

(03:22):
not good? Oh God, thatjust does not sound well. Yeah,
So what do you recommend for somebodyas far as before we start, because
one of the things that with mein particular, that hurts a lot tends
to be the hamstrings because you're stretchingfrom side to side, the calf muscle
back and forth, or jumping upand down. What do you recommend?

(03:44):
So honestly, with that kind oftreatment, we do various things. We
do chiropractic here, but on topof that, the dry kneeling is the
thing that's going to be most effectiveto relieve the pain. Underneath. What
happens is those muscles, because youstart using them so much, start over
spasming, so they'd kind of reallytaught and tight, while the other side
is a little weaker. So it'sa balance game kind of thing. So
when you release it with dry kneeling, it gets to the nervous system layer

(04:08):
and releases all that pain whatever youhad going on, and just relaxes the
muscle is dry netling something like sortof acupuncture. People confuse it all the
time, but it's more of adirect thing. So with acupuncture there are
more Eastern modality mindset where they're thinkingsomething on your foot is matching an organ
your body, the Shiatsu system kindof thing. So, but this is

(04:30):
more of a direct approach where it'slike we know where the problem is,
we feel where the problem is,We're targeting this problem and it should relieve
the area. Very good. Youmentioned muscle spasms. I mean that's another
one. I was watching TV theother day after playing and I think I
hydrate pretty well. I mean I'lldrink half a gallon of water throughout the

(04:53):
day, but I mean it justgot my hamstring got tight and I couldn't
even stand up. How's your vitaminbalance in that sense too, like magnesium,
calcium, all those levels, Likeare you supplementing with the water or
just not even on the map?I'd be honest with you, Well,
that plays a major role too.You're nutritional way you intake as well as

(05:14):
what your output is in a sensetoo, it's all balanced. But like
if you're not taking the proper nutrientsto counteract this new activity you're getting,
you're not going to be an equallevel, which is going to cause more
muscle spazzods, especially a low magnesiumlevel. So I get the feeling that
you guys are more holistic. Ohyeah, we definitely so I'll even say
this, we're definitely not we're notanti surgery, and we're not anti medicine

(05:35):
where we know it's a good,a cute fix, like right away fix,
but like in the long term,it's not going to benefit you.
Like even medicine that you're taking shouldbe a short term fix because what it
does it masks the problems, doesn'tmake the problems go away, but makes
things tolerable so you can do youreveryday routine. Very good, Very good.
Bright, You look like you wantedto say something, you wanted to
add something to that. I wasjust gonna say that a lot of times.

(05:57):
I mean, there are certainly conditionsthat require surgery, and there's conditions
where you know medication is the appropriatething to do at first, but there's
so many conditions that are creatable usingconservative care. But things like a lot
of people don't know that now you'vementioned conservative care. What does that mean?
Well, those are all the thingsthat doctor List has been talking about.
So for example, chiropractic care,massage therapy, right needling, e

(06:19):
stem physical therapy, all the thingsthat we offer here, all the things
that she's able to do for thepatients. Those are ways to treat pain
and injuries and other conditions without necessitatingmedication or surgery. And so it's a
great idea to try those conservative caretechniques first because a lot of times patients

(06:42):
can have a great outcome with thatand it keeps the medication of the surgery
to only those situations where they're reallywarranted. Gotcha catcha. So you guys
provide all these services under one roof. Yep, it's a FUNA. That
is fabulous. That is fabulous.I'm really excited to be able to come
down and have you guys actually comedown and talk to some of my UH

(07:04):
students. Because again, there's preventionand then there's treatment, right, So
I guess we want to be somewherein the middle because I know that picketball
players tend to be very aggressive andvery competitive and no matter what you do,
it is a sport, you know, it's gonna hurt whether you do
nothing or you do something right.Well that's a great point actually too,

(07:24):
because we even just seeing a highschooler recently who plays football and he unfortunately
like got injured two years ago.His rib was called displaced, so got
out of place room like a tackleon injury and then like you know,
he put off or two years becausehe got better in a sense. But
you know now he just had anothertackle last week, and so what he

(07:45):
had to do right away was starttaking a pain pill once a day because
that's what you need to do toget through the day. And so he
just saw us the other day,felt a million times better. But he
learned that it's more of a youknow, you got to work over time
while you're playing this sport because ifyou can buy them together, it's going
to optimize your performance, but it'salso going to help you prevent injury.
Right absolutely, And I think thisis something very important for both spectrums of

(08:09):
pickle ball, which is you've gota lot of they call it the old
people sport really, you know,which i'd probably fall into that you know,
over fifty that's okay, yeah,right, if we're very proud that
your guys are being active. Actually, we very much promote activity levels.
So like the fact that people arepicking up pickle ball like kudos, like
we have nothing. I mean,I could be watching TV all day long,

(08:31):
it's exactly yeah. Yeah. Butthen you have the young people who
they're fast and they move around alot. I mean, you know,
you got these older guys who've beenplaying forever and they'll put the ball all
over the court and you'll see theolder guys like me that won't move for
it, but the young guys arejust all over those you know, twenty

(08:54):
two feet of court space that theygot there. You know, I'll even
tell you a story. My grandfatherused to tell me about how he played
squash. So he was a younghot shot, you know, ran fast
across the court, was quickest toget the ball and everything. He played
this guy that was twenty years olderthan him, and like, by the
end of their game, he wasso exhausted from playing from he lost completely

(09:16):
too, because the guy had strategyof how to hit, fall and everything.
So it's not even how old youare. If you know what you're
doing and you're good at it,that's it, you know, And it's
one of these now here's and Iyou know, we'll come into the end
of the interview. But one ofthe things about pickaball is that me,
in my case, I'm fifty oneyears old, I can play uh forty

(09:39):
six hours a day. And youthink, okay, well, you know
you're you're active or whatever. Butyou've got guys who are in the seventies,
guys and gals in their seventies playingfour to six hours a day.
Of course they take a nap inbetween, you know, you know,
they go What other sport do youknow that can do that? Maybe golf?

(10:03):
Well, I'll think professionals of alot of industries that stub at like
people training for the Olympics probably dothat. I mean, you're not think
at that level. Like you know, people are really dedicated to what they're
doing, which is great, youknow a sense absolutely so you know,
being able to optimize, being anoptimal condition and being able to see a
professional and get some advice. Sogive us your information because I want to

(10:26):
get people to who are either plane, pick a ball or playing golf or
whatever it is that they're doing,to speak to somebody like you so that
they can know what they need todo in order to prevent and treat any
type of injuries. Give us yourinformation, sure, well. The name
of the practice is Healing Hands Prep, which stands for Pain Relief and an
hance Performance. Our website is wwwdot Healing hands Prep dot com all one

(10:50):
word and our phone numbers two fourzero two four two nine five nine eight
and we're located at four or fourkeen Fire Boulevard, number one, forty,
Rockville, Maryland. Well, listen, guys, thank you so much
for being on the interview today.Much success to you, guys. I
know I'll be knocking on your doorsometime soon with some paddles in hand.
Bring you guys out to the courtand I'll definitely invite you to one of

(11:13):
my classes as guest speakers. Howabout that good? All right, guys,
thank you so much