The patient in this case was Paragon’s Director of Research Sam Bock. He had previously been a full time athlete for 9 years in Canada’s bobsled program where he and his athletes did large volumes of heavy lifting and sprint training on hard surfaces in track shoes for much of the 4-6 hours of training each day, 11 months a year. The cumulative wear & tear eventually caughtup, and he was forced to quit fulltime training at age 34 due to a recurring stress fracture in his right foot. This eventually cleared up, and was not a problem for normal running, but would flare up under any heavy sled pushing or sprinting in spikes. So he resorted to running and stair training to keep in shape.
However within three years Bock had chronic pain deep in both groin insertions and about the outer sides of both hips. He had to quit running, and eventually even light walking, as even this was causing the chronic pain that made standing and sleeping at night uncomfortable. Skating without pain was impossible due to the jarring impact on the hips.
An initial consultation from one of Montreal’s leading hip specialists indicated that Bock probably had the same deteriorating hips as his father. He based that preliminary analysis on the inner groin and outer hip pain that was typical of those with arthritic hips, like Bock’s father who had experienced the exact same symptoms since his early 60s when playing hockey, and had been forced to quit when his arthritic right hip was replaced at age 68.
Bock was not interested in surgery. He began research to try to develop a strategy to delay such surgery as long as possible. The research indicated that excess omega 6 fatty-acid consumption promoted pro-inflammatory conditions, such as arthritis, and that an excess of tissue calcium relative to magnesium could be capable of causing chronically tight muscles capable of creating chronic tendon pain and compressed sore joints. It also indicated that cartilage was very slow to repair, as it had just a fraction of the blood and nutrient flow of other tissues, and that body tissue pH needed to be maintained above 7.0 for full cellular regeneration and recovery.
With this new information he developed an experimental protocol to try to rehabilitate his hips. He began a period of several months rest, followed with no other leg training other than slowly executed light weight lifting — to strengthen what he felt were weak groin and hip muscles.
Gradually over the next 3 years the hips began to strengthen. The improved nutrition and regular pH monitoring allowed better healing, regeneration, and prevented the previous muscle cramping capable of causing more joint-related trauma.
Mid way through the 2nd year of the program he was able to re-begin very light stair work outs with no discomfort.
The following year at age 40 Bock invented Paragon’s MSR weighted shoe inserts for his elite track athlete’s sprint training. He decided to test the inserts out on an uphill grade that would minimize impact to the hips on any faster running he might achieve.
After a gradual start, he soon found himself running very quickly. Just six weeks after starting training, he was electronically tested, and despite no proper speed training, was just 4 1/100ths off his fastest ever 30 meter sprint time, and just half a second off his 300m PB set eight years earlier when he was 32.
Two years later in 2002 Bock invented a new MSR hip training machine for his Olympic bobsled and sprint athletes that eliminated any vertical impact while training. At age 43, he trained on this for just a few weeks and out-skated one of the NHL hockey players he was training, despite no skating for the past 6 years. From age 45-47 he began playing regular hockey again in order to train with his professional athletes, doing sprints and other high-level workouts with no pain. He was able to match some of his NHL players sprint times in full equipment.
The new training and nutrition programs eliminated joint impact and let his hips regenerate. At age 51 Bock has no pain, and is able to train normally.