DR. SHAWN ALLEN      D.C., DABCO

Diplomate of American Board of Chiropractic Orthopedists

Shawn lives in the Westmont, Illinois area where he has an established chiropractic, conservative orthopedics and sports medicine based practice. He is a 1995 graduate of the National University of Health Sciences and prior to that graduated with his first bachelor of science degree from the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada) in kinesiology. His second degree was achieved in Human Biology while continuing his chiropractic studies. In addition to his "more regular" clientele base, he also works with a broad base of patients including Olympic, professional, para-professional, collegiate and All-American athletes including sprinters, distance runners, swimmers, marathoners, gymnasts, dancers (ballet, modern and ballroom), mixed martial artists, football, wrestling, baseball and Olympic disctance, Sprint and IRONMAN tri-athletes.

He is a board certified Chiropractic Orthopedist; achieved through a three (3) year in-house resident trained program in chiropractic orthopedics through the National University of Health Sciences with additional extensive training in functional neurology. He is currently enrolled and studying in a Post-doctoral functional neurology program through the Carrick Institute. In the recent past Shawn has been an adjunct faculty member with the Lincoln School of Post-Professional Education and an instructor in advanced orthopedics and functional biomechanics at National University in Lombard, Illinois. He now focuses his teaching towards web-based live teleseminars so that he can reach a broader international audience. He embraces the future of teaching. via the internet, where anyone around the world can tap into educational resources. Embracing this forum, in July 2009 he signed on as online internet educational professor on the website www.onlineCE.com with his teaching colleague Dr. Ivo Waerlop a chiropractic neurologist. Together their blend of neuro-orthopedic approaches to injury and disorders offers them a unique platform to teach from.  They continue to add internet iTunes PodCasts, and YouTube videos as well as their weekly blog writing to their educational repertoire in the hopes of spreading their knowledge and clinical experiences far and wide. He is an occasional lecturer/speaker for many fitness, coaching and healthcare companies and associations. He is a former chiropractor for the Chicago Joffrey Ballet professional dance company, former physician for Newman/Haas Indy Car Race team (the late actor Paul Newman) and on occasion the Team Physician and consultant for private athletic teams and individuals. He works seasonally with numerous high schools and colleges treating their athletes who complete in various sports.

For some samples of Dr. Allen's additional work, click both of the logos above (YouTube or The Gait Guys) to head to his blog or to a sample snippets of his lectures at the university level. Presently, he spends much time with his web based venture "The Gait Guys" in publishing active research on gait and human biomechanics, functional rehabilitation, neuromechanics and sport-specific training. Dr. Allen is co-author of the textbook, Pedographs and Gait Analysis: Clinical Applications and Pearls and he has written articles for numerous health and fitness magazines. His practice is heavily referral based from Chicagoland and Tri-State area orthopedists, internists, chiropractors, physical therapists, pilates instructors and personal trainers. He is always touched that there are people from around the country who will fly into Chicago, or drive several hours, just for a trouble-shooting session with him.

Combining a broad spectrum of past sport experience, and in the most recent decade, working with athletes and professional artists of all levels and many disciplines has enriched his knowledge and understanding of the body and its function and malfunction. To best treat an athlete, one must know their sport intimately. Knowing what the sport and its demands "feel like" helps to treat its classic injuries. To this end, in recent years Dr. Allen has undertaken the active study of what he considers some of the most difficult motor skills and athletic endeavors. In 2009 he began what would turn into 3 years of understudy in ballroom dance (Intermediate Bronze in 9 smooth and latin dances) under gifted Nationally recognized instructors.  From this he learned what he had hoped, the complexities, coordination and strength necessary in the lower limbs to perform the often underappreciated complexity of professional dance as well as the art of silent body communication. As Dr. Allen will often share when asked, "There is a reason dancers have the bodies we see.  Dance is why they are some of the best athletes in sports today, even outside of dance. They have unparalleled strength, rhythm, grace, posture, speed, flexibility, body awareness, endurance and more. What more would an athlete want ? ! Some of the greatest athletes of our time have quietly studied dance behind the scenes to gain an edge over the competition." Dr. Allen has also personally embraced the study of formal authentic pilates and most recently several years of understudy in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under a lineage of the Gracie family.  Through these undertakings he has achieved an even higher appreciation and insight into the complexities of human movement, biomechanics and the subsequent physical problems that arise from body asymmetry through these mediums. These studies have no doubt afforded higher clinical insights into injury, body movement flaws and the treatment of sensory-motor impairment.

In early 2013 The Gait Guys revamped their blog coalescing their YouTube Channel, their Blog, Podcasts, DVD and teaching programs, and their Social media sites on FaceBook and Twitter.  WikiGait.com (wikigait.wordpress.com) is his next project in The Gait Guys line, another social media spin purely on the medical and biomechanical side of The Gait Guys.

Dr. Allen lives in the suburbs of Illinois. He enjoys writing, music, podcasts, documentaries, painting, Brazilian jiu jitsu, gardening and reading. His artist site can be found at www.journeymanstudio.com. He is an information junkie of sorts. For him, everything seems to circle around learning new things, gathering and processing information, and then repackaging it into forms to help his patients, athletes, colleagues, teammates, friends and the world through his social media sites.  He grew up playing most sports, from baseball, fastpitch, golf, competitive swimming, basketball, football, cross country running, track and field and street hockey in his birthland of Canada.

Additional Info:

In 2006 he completed several courses, training in PRRT (Primal ReflexRelease technique, www.theprrt.com) a growing technique for reducing reflex trauma-based pain, INMAS (Integrated Neuromuscular Acupoint System) a newer method of incorporating the principles of pain managment acupuncture with Western medicine pain managment methods under the study of world renouned Dr. Yun Tal Ma (see link on this website for this non-traditional "Western" chinese medicine acupuncture) , and a 10 month internship course in MAT training (Muscle Activation Techniques) one of the fastest growing and powerful therapy techniques in professional sports for restoring muscular balance, strength and function to the human frame for the purpose of treating pain and improving sport performance. (To be clear, although he completed all required course work, Dr. Allen chose not to "test out" from the course in MAT, thus he is not officially certified or recognized by the MAT organization and many not be found on their website.  He insists on being clear about this unofficial certification status with the MAT organization so as to not misrepresent himself in the community. His reasoning behind this decision is mostly personal, this way he is not subject to the ongoing financial obligations and oversight of the well respected MAT organization to maintain the certification. As with most things, he is less concerned about the letters behind his name, and more focused on acquiring the knowledge. This has no bearing on his complete respect for the technique as evidenced by his widespread use of it and ongoing personal evolution of it in his practice. Greg Roskopf is a visionary, no question, and Dr. Allen has the highest respect for his work and the evolution of the MAT programs.  Dr. Allen's goal was to learn the information so as to assimilate it into his own techniques and methods to evolve his own methods that best suits his patient and client needs. Dr. Allen highly recommends the MAT program for all medical professionals, therapists and coaches-trainers.  To this end, in order to expand his current knowledge in regards to manual muscle techniques and biomechanics of movement Dr. Allen attended several private seminars in 2008 by Dr. Graig F. Buhler, DC (chiropractic physician for the Utah Jazz professional basketball team and founder of ChiroMAT Technique which is the body of work from Drs. Alan Beardall and Buhler). Dr. Buhler's Advanced Muscle Integration Techniquen (AMIT) is based on advanced concepts in the neuroproprioceptive inhibitory adaptive strategies used by the body following an injury. It provides practitioners a tool to efficiently identify and correct biomechanical imbalances that can lead to chronic pain and/or injury. This approach directs efforts at correcting a cause rather than simply addressing symptoms.
Methods of treatment are scientifically based and well researched. Legitimate data is continuing to emerge to expand in support of AMIT theory and practice. This approach can be used to provide long-standing relief from many common muscle/joint related issues, allow for faster post surgical recovery, prevent injuries, improve sport performance and enhance current exercise programs. It has been utilized with impressive results in our office and in the arena of professional sports.

"Dr. Buhler and the ChiroMAT (AMIT) system is the single biggest reason I was able to play 19 year in the NBA. My body was maintained at a high level of balance which helped me avoid the impact of injuries so common in the league today. The impact has been as great for my family as it was for my career." --John Stockton

Sidebar about MAT and AMIT (from Dr. Buhler's 2009 website): Dr. Craig Buhler (AMIT) and Greg Roskopf (MAT) have worked together for 10 years in conjunction with the Utah Jazz and the Denver Broncos. From the challenges that they were faced upon working together, they were able to enhance each others thought processes in regards to understanding the mechanisms behind athletic injuries. From their relationship came a new paradigm for evaluating and treating biomechanical imbalances that lead to injury. Each went on to develop specialized programs specific to their area of specialty. Greg developed Muscle Activation Techniques (MAT), a biomechanically based program designed for trainers and therapists, while Craig developed AMIT, a neurologically based program designed for chiropractors. Although these programs are different, they both evolved through a similar philosophical foundation. AMIT and MAT are separate programs, however, Greg and Craig are working together in taking the steps to spread their philosophies across the country. These two programs are taking human performance to the next level.

In 2005 Dr. Allen was instrumental with Dr. Waerlop in jumpstarting The Pedorthic Consulting Group, PCG. This company was dissolved in 2006 to morph into the Homunculus Group. PCG helped grow Xtreme Footwerks, Inc. We continue to support of the lab for our occasional orthotic needs. Xtreme Labs is a specialty orthotic lab that continues to produce highly customized orthotics for forefoot and rearfoot variant types whereby typical orthotics seem to fail such foot types in the correction of pain and biomechanical faults.  In 2007 Dr. Allen was approached by the CEO of Vibram USA, a subsidiary of Vibram Internation, and proudly accepted a position as Biomechanics Consultant for Vibram USA to assist them in product research and design (www.vibram.com and www.vibramfivefingers.com).

In early 2007 Dr. Allen attended an intimate intense seminar put on by Dr. Pavel Kolar from Prague, Czech. Dr. Kolar was taught by Professor Karel Lewit and the late Professors Vaclav Vojte and Vladimir Janda, the brilliant grandfathers of manual medicine. His teachings focus on a new method of intrinsic locomotor system stabilization which has spawned a new manual approach to activate the intrinsic system and achieve exciting levels of improved function in a remarkably brief period. Based upon the principles of developmental kinesiology, the neurophysiological aspects of the maturing locomotor system on which the Prague school was established, these techniques are expanding the scope of clinical options in an exciting new direction. Dr. Allen is proud to offer his best understandings and interpretations of Pavel's work and incorporate them into his other manual medicine offerings for his patients.