DISC Sports & Spine is home to some of the most well-known orthopedic spine surgeons in the nation, so it’s no surprise when they’re called on to weigh in on trending health and wellness topics. Recently, GQ caught up with two of DISC’s orthopedic surgeons, Dr. Brandon Hirsch and Dr. Duke Hasson, to get their opinions on stretches that can keep office workers and runners limber.
Dr. Brandon Hirsch is a highly skilled, dual fellowship-trained orthopedic spine surgeon, whose expertise is in minimally invasive treatment of complex degenerative disorders of the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine. He lent his wealth of knowledge to GQ in an article discussing upper back stretches can help improve posture for office workers.
Dr. Hirsch told the magazine that doorway stretches and dead hangs are good moves to incorporate to relieve upper back and chest tightness that can come with sitting all day (like at an office job). But while stretches can help with posture, it’s also important to strengthen the upper back and chest through weight lifting.
Dr. Hirsch completed two prestigious fellowship programs in orthopedic spine surgery. First, he trained under world-renowned spine surgeons at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, where he mastered the latest techniques in outpatient spine surgery from pioneers in the field. Then, he moved on to New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases in Manhattan, where he specialized in complex spinal reconstruction, including treating patients with severe spinal deformities who often required revision surgery.
The number one thing that drew him to the field was the transformative experience patients go through with spine surgery, he said.
“I’ll tell people what I do, and they’ll say ‘that’s scary’ or ‘that’s risky.’ And yeah, there are some of those emotions, but to me the clearest emotion is the gratitude and joy that comes with making really significant differences in a patient's pain and function,” he said.
Dr. Hirsch often sees patients who describe their pain as “worse than any other pain they’ve ever ever felt or could have imagined,” which is why the minimally-invasive surgeries he performs are so rewarding — both for the patient and the doctor.
Dr. Duke Hasson is an orthopedic surgeon fellowship-trained in adult reconstructive surgery who specializes in disorders of the hip and knee, including complex revision surgeries for previous hip and knee replacements, knee arthroscopy, trauma and general musculoskeletal conditions. He is also an expert in the treatment of knee and hip fractures and offers both operative and non-operative solutions depending on the patient's unique needs. He recently provided guidance in a GQ article for hip flexor exercises for runners. He told the magazine that the hip flexors are a group of muscles around the hip joint that are responsible for lifting the leg or ‘flexing’ the hip,” and the most common symptom of tight hip flexors is pain or discomfort in the front of the hip.
“This pain may be noticeable when getting up from a seated position, during stretches or when leaning backward. Tightness across the hip is also a common sensation,” he said. But tight hip flexors limit your range of motion, which can impact your gait, making you run slower and increasing your risk of getting injured during your runs.
At DISC, Dr. Hasson is a leader in robotic joint replacement, using the Mako SmartRobotics™ system for all his hip and knee replacements. This system enables highly accurate 3D CT-based pre-surgical planning, improving implant placement and patient outcomes. He is the only physician in Orange County performing anterior hip replacements using the Mako system, and his commitment to cutting-edge technology reflects his dedication to providing precise and minimally invasive surgical options to enhance recovery and quality of life.
“If there's something out there that can make me a better surgeon and improve my patient outcomes, it makes clear sense to do it robotically because that's what it provides,” he said.
Dr. Hasson found his passion for orthopedics early in life — his father is an orthopedic surgeon who has been the team doctor for Westlake High School in Austin, Texas, for the last 40 years. Growing up, you could find Dr. Hasson on the sidelines or in the training room asking his dad for the latest updates on injured players. Eventually, he made it onto the football field as a Division One college football player.
Playing football taught him how to be a good teammate, he said. “In medicine, you need to be a team player. You have to get along with people in the operating room and you have to be a good leader. Football taught me how to work effectively with others,” he said. “It also taught me persistence and mental toughness.”
His strategy as a surgeon is to “put the personalization back into medicine,” he said. “When someone comes to see me, they know that I'm hearing them, that I'm treating them as a patient with individual needs and experiences.”
While success looks different to everyone, to Dr. Hasson, success is his patients getting back to doing what they love and giving them part of their lives back they had lost due to pain.
“It’s a real joy to see my patients come back into the clinic with a smile on their face, telling me about all the things they’ve done since their surgery,” he said.
Schedule a consultation with Drs. Hasson, Hirsch, or any of the other DISC experts today.