Session No. 2: for your health, with Dr. K
Welcome back to Breaking News (letter), a newsletter focused on the breaking scene and culture. A big thank you to those who subscribed and those returning to read.
This week I’m talking to XFENZ’s Dr. K (Matthew Langaman), one of the most prominent b-boys to come out of New York City this year and a physical therapist when he’s not tearing it up in the cyphers. He runs a program for breakers called ONTHE8, which combines his knowledge as a b-boy and a physical therapist to help dancers reach their performance goals.
We talked about how he views his approach to training, tips to avoid being injured, and what he wishes breakers knew about physical therapy.
Our conversation is edited and condensed for clarity. Thanks for reading!
You were battling in a lot of BC One cyphers this year, and you won Top Notch this year too. How’s everything been for you?
This year’s been really good. I became self-employed with ONTHE8 and it allowed me to have flexibility to travel and basically be at all these places. So, I’m very grateful that I decided to take that leap, even though it’s scary at first.
How has your perspective on breaking and the scene changed since you became a physical therapist?
I look at training differently, but I don’t really look too much at the scene differently.
I do look at the scene like “I have this knowledge and this is a way I can contribute to the scene uniquely,” compared to throwing events or holding practice spots.
My specific position puts me in a role where I can help people stay dancing for longer or avoid unhelpful narratives from doctors that don’t understand what we’re doing.
What are some of those unhelpful narratives?
The most common thing doctors say is “you’ve got to stop dancing, you’re getting old, it’s not worth it for your body.” But they don’t know how meaningful that activity is for that person.
Instead of just spending a quick five minutes looking at them and telling them to stop, maybe they should spend more time to actually understand why they want to do this and how they can get back to doing that in a way that’s safe for them.
Have you ever seen a case where the doctor’s advice to quit breaking was correct?
I haven’t come across that. That would be like, if there were some kind of spinal cord damage, or something serious like a stroke, things where you can’t physically walk.
But for the most part, most surgeries, even some that you might think are serious, I’ve been able to work with people and help them get back to some form of breaking. Maybe not at their prime level, but at a level that they can still dance.
It’s all situational, but I haven’t come across anyone since I started ONTHE8 where it’s just, “Nah, you can’t do this.”
And how have you looked at training differently?
Most of us start breaking during high school years, and you can train every day and not really suffer much consequences.
The way I look at it now is: In order to keep doing this, the body ages and everybody’s going to have to deal with that. But it’s actually controllable, and the way you control that is by using strength training to keep our bodies up to par with the standards of what we’re trying to do.
What do you wish breakers knew about physical therapy?
I wish breakers knew that physical therapy is not just getting massages.
Even though those things are helpful, in order for you to get back to your physical activity, you gotta train up to that standard. And that involves some kind of strength training.
Physical therapy also is not just doing banded exercises – it can look like weight training and at some point should be hard to distinguish from a normal workout versus a “physical therapy” workout.
What do you wish physical therapists knew about breaking?
What I wish physical therapists knew about b-boys is that what we’re doing is not so crazy. There’s other sports that are also as physically demanding on the body. It just looks crazy to you because we’re spinning on our heads.
I’m a fan of your videos where you talk about how to manage injuries and misconceptions that breakers have. What are some of the most common mistakes that you see breakers making?
I notice people tend to skip steps. That’s OK, I’m not saying it’s got to be perfect, because there’s no regiment about how to exactly do what we do. But there’s also a logical way to go about things.
You’re not going to train halos if you’ve never done windmills before. It’s possible, you could probably get it, but 1. It’ll take much longer, and 2. you’re probably going to get hurt doing it that way, versus just learning the basics that lead up to more difficult movements.
What tips do you have to avoid injuries?
Do some kind of training outside of your dancing.
It doesn’t always have to be weights. I have my clients doing explosive movements like jumps, and some calisthenics too. Just have some form of training outside of dancing that helps you develop in areas you don’t get to in dancing, and prepare your body for those specific skills.
And manage the workload that you have. If you’re going 100% at every practice, six days a week, you are eventually going to burn out. Make sure you’re training in a way that your body can keep up with, or take rest weeks at the end of the month where you go lighter.
I feel like most people are getting hurt from overworking. There’s a quote, I forget who it’s from, but it’s “People are getting hurt because they’re doing too much, too soon, and too little, too late.”
Also, one extra tip – rarely would you go to a complete rest when you’re trying to go back into breaking. When you try to go back to breaking after weeks and months of resting, your muscles are de-conditioned to do that thing, so it makes breaking a lot harder.
So you have to do some type of training outside of breaking that will help keep you ready for when you get back to breaking.
Get recc'd:
Elephant Graveyard took the Renegade Rockers 40th Anniversary with some strong sets over the weekend. The crew did so well that they ended up battling against eachother in the semifinals.
This is the finals from Bboy City last Sunday in Texas, between Break Squad and Full Force Crew. Brownout is playing live during the battle and it adds so much to the atmosphere.
Dr. K recommended this trailer from Polar Universal, featuring a group of breakers out of Russia The sets involve a lot of circus style, threading and flexibility-heavy freezes.
“They were exploring outside of the box of what you typically see on the scene nowadays, at least here in the States,” he said.
He also recommended this mixtape:
It’s not breakbeats, but he said he likes to listen to a variety of music when he’s training so the beats at jams stay fresh.
Red Bull BC One put out a short documentary about Hong 10 chasing after a historic third win for the competition in Paris this year.
The Athletic wrote a feature about how Team USA is preparing to compete in the Olympics for breaking, as well as an interesting backstory on how it got to the grand stage.
And check out the latest issue of Film Cypher: