Dr. Austin Baraki is a practicing Internal Medicine Physician, competitive lifter, and strength coach located in San Antonio, Texas. Originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia, he completed his undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the College of William & Mary, his doctorate in medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School, and Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.
So you’ve been training, but have started experiencing pain. This is an extremely common experience that we get asked about on a daily basis. Essentially, the question is “Doc, what do I do?” Before we begin, we should point out that this will not be a philosophical magnum opus on pain and the human condition. […]
Crepitus is the menacingly-named phenomenon of noises produced by a joint during movement. It is common to hear snaps, crackles, and pops when flexing or extending a knee or an elbow. At times, these noises can be accompanied by a sensation of mechanical stiffness. When combined, these can cause distress, evoking deep-seated fears people have […]
Take home points: I wrote an article titled Aches & Pains wherein I contrasted the traditional biomedical approach to pain with the modern biopsychosocial approach, which accounts for the complex interactions between biological, psychological, and social factors in the human pain experience. I discussed examples of how these issues influence the practice of clinicians including […]
Introduction Regular followers are likely familiar with our interest in a “biopsychosocial” approach to both training and injury, particularly the modifiable psychological factors that can have significant effects on performance, recovery, and subsequent adaptation. One important phenomenon we discuss frequently in the context of acute injury and persistent pain is catastrophizing. Catastrophizing is a complex […]
Yes. Your metabolism changes when you lose weight. Some of these changes are good, e.g. decreased fasting blood sugar, improved cholesterol measures, decreased storage of fat in places you don’t want it like your liver and waist, etc. Not all of the metabolic changes are good however, and in recent times there has been much […]
A 2014 paper by Draganich & Erdal studied the effect of sleep on cognitive functioning in 164 undergraduate students – with an interesting twist. Participants were given a questionnaire in which they ranked how deeply they had slept the prior night on a scale of 1-10. Subjects received education about REM sleep and cognitive function, […]