Dr. Shaker started the Shaker Spine & Sport Institute in 1989. During his more than 27 year career he has accumulated over six (6) post-graduate certifications* in Sports Medicine, Exercise Rehabilitation, Strength Training and Neuromuscular Assessment and Function. He is also one of only a few Doctors skilled in Trigenics® Myoneural Medicine in the US. He received his training from Dr. Allan Austin, the founder of this amazing work. Dr. Austin was impressed with the level of skill and ability of Dr. Shaker and trained him to also teach the work to others in South Miami and Toronto, Canada.
Dr. Shaker’s path toward helping others began as a young boy in Flint, Michigan. He has always had a penchant for questioning the process within the system, trying to understand “why” something presents as it does. This natural curiosity is what fuels his expertise in Orthopedic functional medicine. In high school, Dr. Shaker was a three sport, all state athlete. He excelled academically and athletically due to his own sense of drive and determination. Like many athletes, however, he incurred an injury that left him sidelined. His dad, Paul, was an ex All State Running Back at Flint Northern and went on to play Michigian State University. Paul, a sporting goods salesman who knew everyone, took him to all of the best conventional physicians in the area. None were able to help Dr. Shaker’s injury, nor could they even agree on a diagnosis or treatment protocol. Finally, out of frustration and desperation, father and son were referred by then famous Flint Beecher football coach Mose Lacey to Dr. TJ Lindsay, a chiropractor in a small adjacent town. Dr. Lindsay was able to quickly and definitively put the star athlete back on the field. Dr Shaker knew from a very young age that he wanted to pursue a medical degree. This experience gave him the idea to maybe become a chiropractic physician. It was while Pre Med and playing baseball at USF that Dr Shaker finally decided to become a Chiropractor. Dr. Shaker has spent his career exploring and investigating novel approaches enhancing human function, movement and performance.
The natural adaptation for him as an athlete and physician that understands function and rehabilitation has led to a revered international reputation. The humble beginnings of his Michigan roots have been a mainstay for Dr. Shaker. He has never forgotten his mentors, teachers, and coaches who enabled him to become the man and physician he is. Dr. Shaker has strived to pay that effort forward in his own right. He has mentored countless youth, starting with his treasured nieces and nephews. It has become a mantra for him to give back the lessons he was shown. After one visit with “Shake”, you will know, see and feel the difference.
Dr. Shaker has treated thousands of patients from all walks of life: doctors, lawyers, therapists, clergy, professional athletes, law enforcement, amateur athletes, entertainers, artists, children and seniors. He has treated all ages and all types of pain and injury problems getting people back to their busy life as quickly as possible, returning to their jobs, regular activities, or the athletic arena.
CLICK HERE to review more about his credentials.
PAST MEMBERSHIPS & FORMER CERTIFICATIONS
- *Trigenics
- American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians
- American Chiropractic Rehabilitation Board – Dr. Shaker is level 1 certified by the ACRB.
Affiliations
- The International Federation of Sports Chiropractic
- Florida Chiropractic Association
- Hillsborough County Chiropractic Society
Dr. Shaker has treated thousands of patients from all walks of life: doctors, lawyers, therapists, clergy, professional athletes, law enforcement, amateur athletes, entertainers, artists, children and seniors. He has treated all ages and all types of pain and injury problems getting people back to their busy life as quickly as possible, returning to their jobs or their regular activities.
Because of his personal background and love of sports, he has also treated many world class, professional and elite athletes. These professional and elite athletes consult with Dr. Shaker to treat and prevent injury using various strength and conditioning training techniques. He has worked with athletes such as Tampa Bay Buccaneer’s Brian Kelly, Ryan Nece and Kenyatta Walker, Ellis Wyms, Cosey Coleman, Chicago Bears Running Back Thomas Jones, Atlanta Falcon’s Pro Bowl Running Back Warrick Dunn and Super Bowl MVP Dexter Jackson. Check our Athletes Testimonials, our Pics Page and our Video Page to hear the reviews.
When Dr. Shaker is not working with his patients, he enjoys weight lifting, garden design, orchid growing, antiquing, traveling, reading, architecture, interior design & art collection.
Watch some of our YouTube Videos to see Dr. Shaker using the Trigenics® Treatment.
Family
Shaker Family Portrait (Flint, Michigan)
(from top left to right: mother Rosemary, father Paul, Dr. Shaker, little sisters Mona & Lisa)
Inspiration
“We know very little about Leonardo’s apprenticeship in Verroccio’s workshop, but the short account provided by Vasari confirms that it included architectural and technological design, according to a concept that was being revived on the model of Vitruvius, as re-proposed by Alberti” (Pedretti 14). Having had access to Alberti’s and Vitruvius’ treatises, it is no surprise that Leonardo produced his own version of the Vitruvian man in his notebooks.
This rendering of the Vitruvian Man, completed in 1490, is fundamentally different than others in two ways: The circle and square image overlaid on top of each other to form one image. A key adjustment was made that others had not done and thus were forced to make disproportionate appendages:
“Leonardo’s famous drawings of the Vitruvian proportions of a man’s body first standing inscribed in a square and then with feet and arms outspread inscribed in a circle provides an excellent early example of the way in which his studies of proportion fuse artistic and scientific objectives. It is Leonardo, not Vitruvius, who points out that ‘If you open the legs so as to reduce the stature by one-fourteenth and open and raise your arms so that your middle fingers touch the line through the top of the head, know that the centre of the extremities of the outspread limbs will be the umbilicus, and the space between the legs will make and equilateral triangle’ (Accademia, Venice). Here he provides one of his simplest illustrations of a shifting ‘centre of magnitude’ without a corresponding change of ‘centre of normal gravity’. This remains passing through the central line from the pit of the throat through the umbilicus and pubis between the legs. Leonardo repeatedly distinguishes these two different ‘centres’ of a body, i.e., the centers of ‘magnitude’ and ‘gravity (Keele 252).”
This image provides the perfect example of Leonardo’s keen interest in proportion. In addition, this picture represents a cornerstone of Leonardo’s attempts to relate man to nature. Encyclopaedia Britannica online states, “Leonardo envisaged the great picture chart of the human body he had produced through his anatomical drawings and Vitruvian Man as a cosmografia del minor mondo (cosmography of the microcosm). He believed the workings of the human body to be an analogy for the workings of the universe.”
Click here for more info on leonardo’s vitruvian man.
* The specialty recognition identified herein has been received from a private organization not affiliated with or recognized by the Florida Board of Chiropractic Medicine.