Aloha Yogis!

Happy August, oh my, we have made it so far in this quarantine struggle. I hope you are staying healthy, happy, and are making the most of this time. True story I have about 1,000 blog post ideas these days from muscle cramping to the benefits of downdog for shoulder health to the benefits of apple cider vinegar for overall health, but most of my time is spent hunkering down and writing all about the brain for my dissertation.

In my Goal Chaser Series this Summer, one of my students asked me what my goals were, and truthfully, they are all academic this year.

Mission: write the damn dissertation, publish, and graduate!

In other news, I am presenting next week at the American Society of Biomechanics Annual Meeting. The conference was supposed to be in Atlanta, GA but it is now virtual, thanks COVID-19. I am really excited to attend, and even more thrilled to present.

I am presenting my work on a processing paper I’ve written with some colleagues. It is actually quite technical. Initially, I thought it was beyond the scope of my knowledge, but I am grateful that I challenged myself to learn the intricacies of processing.

Here is the gist: I processed the biomechanical outputs of two of the “hottest” variables (knee adduction moment and dynamic knee varus angle) on the same nine patients in four different ways. One of the processing methods yields wildly different outcomes compared to the other three. Clinically, this is confusing.

Why should anyone care, you say?

The paper speaks to the need for authors to specify their data processing methodology, because processed one way it would appear the surgery was a huge failure; however, processed the other three ways it appears the surgery was an immediate and long term success. Because with total knee arthroplasty, clinical decisions are made based on the outcomes of biomechanical analyses, it is actually some important work!

Don't researchers always think their work is important though?

Don't worry, I am not oblivious to this truth. Needless to say, my mind is deeply steeped in the research world right now, I will let you know how the presentation goes! In the meantime, I am still recording yoga classes, but have run into a minor YouTube upload hiccup. If any tech readers want to lend a hand, I am all ears! Hopefully, I have more classes for you soon! It has been fun hearing from those of you who have taken my online classes! I definitely recommend the Foundations Yoga Class for beginners! I will include the link below.

As always, if you would like to join me “live” tomorrow for my Sunday Yoga Flow, I would LOVE to see you! It is seriously the best start to the week, sweating out all the worries on the yoga mat. Looking forward to tomorrow's big exhale.

Until tomorrow,

LM

P.S. this is a photo of me with all of our 31 retroreflective markers on as we were going to collect some pilot data.