What is the Osteopathic Sports Energy Technique (SET)?
Osteopathic Sports Energy Technique, founded by world renowned osteopath Dr. Shahin Pourgol, is a form of advanced osteopathic technique designed to enhance athletic performance by increasing speed. This is accomplished by working on the fast twitch type IIb skeletal muscle fibers.
Athletes can often achieve a dramatic increase in speed after the first session. They can run, kick, jump or punch faster after doing the first set of SET techniques.
Muscle tissue consists of fibers (cells) that are highly specialized for the active generation of force for contraction. Due to this feature, muscle tissue provides movement, posture maintenance, and heat production. Based on certain structural and functional characteristics, muscle tissue is classified into three types: cardiac, smooth, and skeletal. Based on various structural and functional characteristics, skeletal muscle fibers are classified into three types: type I fibers, type II fibers, and type II a fibers.
Type IIb fibers, also called fast twitch or fast glycolytic fibers; they contain a low myoglobin content, relatively few mitochondria, relatively few blood capillaries, and large amounts of glycogen. Type IIb fibers are white, are designed to generate ATP through anaerobic metabolic processes, cannot continuously supply skeletal muscle fibers with enough ATP, are easily fatigued, split ATP at a rapid rate, and have a fast twitch velocity. Typically, people are born with an average of 50% slow twitch and 50% fast twitch fibers. Properly trained sprinters change this ratio to 80% fast twitch fibers in the leg muscles, while marathon runners change the ratio with advanced training to 80% slow twitch fibers in the lower extremity muscles.
Because fast twitch fibers use anaerobic metabolism to create fuel, they are much better at generating short bursts of force and speed than slow muscles. However, they tire more quickly. Fast twitch fibers generally produce the same amount of force per contraction as slow muscles, but they get their name because they can fire more quickly. Having more fast twitch fibers can be an advantage for athletes as they need to generate a lot of force quickly.
Almost all osteopathic techniques have been founded by American osteopaths. This is the first time in the history of osteopathy that a Canadian osteopath has managed to develop an osteopathic technique.
Osteopathy is now the fastest growing healthcare profession in the world and in Canada it is the 13th most in-demand occupation, as reported by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce). Osteopathy is effective for people of all ages, from babies to the elderly. It offers an approach with soft, non-invasive techniques. An osteopathic evaluation is so refined that the osteopathic manual practitioner can detect dysfunction without necessarily having the benefit of a specific complaint often difficult to obtain from young children.
Osteopathy is equally beneficial for athletes (whether professional or amateur), people with problems stemming from a sedentary job or lifestyle, people exposed to occupational hazards, and people suffering from a wide range of traumas.
Osteopathy can be an adjunct to medical care for women throughout their pregnancy and for mothers immediately after delivery. In fact, osteopathy can be very effective in helping the mother’s body to restore and resume her function in the postpartum period.
Osteopathy helps patients “manage” their own health in order to restore and maintain “good health” whenever possible. The philosophy of osteopathy promotes ‘health’ versus ‘disease’, teaches people to learn to appreciate a quality of life and encourages opportunities to live it to the fullest.
Osteopathy personalizes the treatments for each individual according to their age, physical characteristics and specific reactions to the treatments.