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Jeff Spencer – Lance Armstrong 4X4 in Tour de France

Some things in life are just meant to be. For the third straight year in a row, we are pleased to bring you news that Lance Armstrong and Dr. Jeff Spencer are again victorious in the Tour de France. Of course, this is Lance Armstrongs fourth consecutive win. The French media have now dubbed him "The Boss."

By Michael Dorausch, D.C.

Some things in life are just meant to be. For the third straight year in a row, we are pleased to bring you news that Lance Armstrong and Dr. Jeff Spencer are again victorious in the Tour de France. Of course, this is Lance Armstrongs fourth consecutive win. The French media have now dubbed him “The Boss.”

Armstrong covered 2,032 miles through the mountains and flatlands of rural France in 82 hours, 5 minutes and 12 seconds. To put the distance in perspective, 2200 miles is the distance between Los Angeles international airport in California and the city of Atlanta, Georgia. Or, the distance from JFK airport in New York to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Dr. Jeff Spencer has probably gone through 2,032 miles of tape during these tours. This is also the fourth consecutive year the U.S. Postal team has had Dr. Jeff Spencer, a graduate of Cleveland Chiropractic College in Los Angeles, as their team doctor.

Every person on a team is critical to the teams performance. “In the Tour you find out real quick who’s got the right stuff and who doesn’t” says Dr. Jeff. In competitive sports such as this there is a great interdependency on each person’s ability. That includes riders, trainers, chiropractors, and everyone else that is involved.

Spencer takes a proactive approach to the teams health. His is primarily concerned with optimal performance and he typically works with the riders during the tour until 1 a.m. each morning.

As the stages become more difficult, recovery becomes more important. So much so that Jeff begins working on the riders on the bus while they are heading back to the hotels. Even if a rider does not fall, Dr. Spencer points out that the physical strain of reacting to a pending encounter with the pavement can cause significant exertional muscle soreness for the riders involved.

Ancillary to adjusting, Jeff proactively uses ice, and tools such as taping to facilitate fluid exchange dynamics in areas of congestion. Nutrition consists of lots of fruit, cereal, rice cakes, sandwiches and fluids, all consumed while on the bus to start the refueling process. According to Jeff, “a blender is an ‘essential nutrient’ in the life of the team.”

Lance Armstrong & Dr. Jeff SpencerThe following is from July 11th: “Today I spent more time today with the riders than yesterday. Most all of it was proactive work. It’s amazing how much grief can be saved by really doing the proactive homework. Lance is bulletproof, yet we spent 1 1/2 hours tonight proactively sniffing out the hidden stuff that, when discharged, always keeps the body running at peak capacity. The real key is to realize that pain is the last thing to show up and not really the problem. It’s the body’s language that brings to our conscious attention that something needs urgent attention. Had its origin been made visible when it was symptomatically invisible it could have been discharged before pain became an issue. I use a lot of reflex techniques that make the invisible gremlins visible. Nothing makes me happier than to open the closet door, find the bogeyman, drag him out and kick his butt. The reflex tests I use are specific muscle tests that correlate with joint, muscle, reflex, neurologic and organ dysfunction. It’s very cool because when the reflex is positive for dysfunction and the correction is made, the appropriate test can be performed again immediately to confirm that the correction has been made.”

Jeff also added that, “Top performances are always done when the mind is relaxed, the body fresh and with joy in the heart. Too much mental concentration during not competitive time can needlessly consume energy. Worry and performance anxiety can kill any competitor.” In simple terms… don’t worry, be happy.

A note about taping. Some may think that the taping is done as a result of injury but as Dr. Jeff points out, he actually uses tape as a proactive supportive measure. “Most riders and athletes never want to show a weakness and they think that by doing something, like taping, they’re advertising a problem. Not so on our team. We could care less what the outward appearance is we only want to sustained top performances as long as possible” says Jeff. To that he adds, “It’s a funny thing about the body, but it could care less about what we think, it only knows what it needs. Our job is to identify its needs and accommodate them.”

On July 29, 2001 we brought you news of Lance Armstrongs third Tour de France win. One year to the day later, we are doing it again. Isn’t it nice to know you can count on us to bring you chiropractic news from around the globe? We are proud to be a part of your team.

From our archives…
Planet Chiropractic: Lance Armstrong & Jeff Spencer Victorious – Sunday, July 29, 2001
Planet Chiropractic: Lance Armstrong – Behind Every Great Champion – Monday, July 24, 2000

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Interested in Dr. Jeff Spencer and his approach: If you’re a DC, ATC, PT, MD and interested in finding out more about related seminars please call 480.633.3129 and request information about them. They’re hands-on, a lot of fun and very practical. What I teach can be implemented the day after the seminar ends. In the Tour things have to work beyond expectation the first time, be cost effective and on the leading edge of technology. I spend a lot of time researching out what’s new and how I can bring the best results to the team in the least time. That’s what we will be discussing during the seminars. “Winning Protocols Used At The Tour de France”

Dr. Spencer graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Sports Science and later graduated from the Cleveland Chiropractic College, where he received the top clinician of the year award. Jeff had the distinction of being a member of the US Olympic Cycling Team for the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany. He served as a private chiropractor at the 1984, 1996, and 2000 Olympics for Olympic medalists Lance Armstrong, Mark Gorski and Connie Paraskevin-Young.

Jeff’s other distinguished clients include: Golfing sensation Tiger Woods, Motocross superstar Jeremy McGrath, and Indy Car diver Eliseo Salazar.

planetc1.com-news @ 11:15 am | Article ID: 1027966518

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