Pain Free Performance — Posture Alignment Therapy

Posture Alignment Therapists, Graduates of Egoscue University

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Cart before the Horse

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The Cart before the Horse….

The other day I got a call from a client who was in such excruciating back pain that she couldn’t make her appointment. She travels from quite a distance and she said she could not get comfortable enough to sit in the car that long. I spoke with her on the phone and gave her some e-cises to do. She called back about an hour later and her pain was significantly better.

When I asked her what she’d been doing before her pain began, I got an earful! She had been shaking out rugs, digging in the garden, mowing, cleaning her house for an upcoming event including a lot of up and down the stairs. When we talked about her Egoscue menu, she said she’d been doing well with it. I learned later that she had not done her Eogscue program before she started her busy and very physical day. Aha, therein lies the problem.

She should have done her Egoscue program BEFORE beginning her activities. Let me tell you why….

The sole purpose of performing an Egoscue program is to change the alignment of the body, creating a pain free body. When muscles aren’t working properly, after an injury or surgery for example, they become imbalanced. They either work too hard and become overly tight or don’t work at all and become loose. Muscles are responsible for keeping our bones in place so both scenarios cause the muscles to pull the bones out of alignment. This creates wear and tear on the joints and pain. Doing the individualized Egoscue program you are prescribed gets those muscles back to doing what they’re supposed to do, which puts the bones back where they belong. If my client had done her Egoscue prior to working so hard, her body would have been prepared – less wear and tear on the joints, less pain.

So, the very best way to enjoy your Egoscue and your new found alignment is to DO YOUR EGOSCUE MENU BEFORE YOU BEGIN YOUR ACTIVITIES! It is our goal to get you back to doing what you love and what you need to do! The body needs to be aligned before you start pushing it. It is the best way to avoid pain, avoid injury and begin to strengthen your alignment –not strengthen your dysfunction. Does that make sense?

So, put the horse (Egoscue) before the cart (your life’s activities) and make your Egoscue menu part of your early morning routine! Your body will thank you.  

Egoscue should be your first stop….

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I was working with a client who happens to be a physician and at the end of his session he said something very powerful about his patients – “This should be their first stop, not their last!”.   So often, people come to us in incredible pain after months or years of trying everything else under the sun, finally experiencing relief with Egoscue.  Why?  Instead of focusing on the symptom, we get to the root of the pain.  We diagnose the underlying cause and provide the specific tools to gently move the body back into the intended alignment, alleviating the pain.  This is not a temporary fix, it’s for life.

It’s what we do.  So, don’t make us the last stop in your search for a pain free life, make Pain Free Performance your first stop.

 

GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!

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Alright!  The snow is melting!  The crocuses are poking through the ground.  The temperature is rising and there are some beautiful sunny days.  IT’S SPRING!  At the risk of sounding like my mother…. GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!!

Perhaps you’ve been inside at the gym this winter.  Let me encourage you to leave the aerobic machine, get out of the gym and go do the real thing!  I know, you love that machine…you’ve grown very close.  Here’s the thing – it’s not near as good as letting your body take you through the motions, rather than the machine.  For example, the treadmill:  the motorized conveyor belt you’re standing and walking on actually does the work for you.  The muscles of the hip are not moving you, they are being moved.  If you hold onto the hand rail, there is even less work through the hips, the back is in an odd position and there is zero trunk rotation to counter the hip movement.  Normally, the hips and trunk twist slightly in opposite directions when we walk or run with opposite arm and leg movement and this is important for balance.

The elliptical machine has its own challenges.  The momentum of the machine is doing all the work and your hips never really extend appropriately for proper gait.  (Hip extension is the leg going behind you and creates the drive that propels us forward in walking and running!)  I often hear “I prefer the elliptical because it’s not as jarring on my back”.  While it seems as though that’s a good thing, your body is being led along and not in the best position.  You are effectively creating some dysfunction – especially if you have alignment issues.

Then, there’s the stair climber.  Most people on the climber are hunched over, leaning way forward at the waist with all their weight, grasping the rail.  Do people really climb stairs that way?  I don’t think so.   Again you are training yourself in a dysfunctional way that will eventually cause injury and pain.  The best thing is to actually go up and down flights of stairs!  Skip the elevator when you can.  If you use the stair climber – keep your hands off the rails and let your arms swing.  This helps with balance and is a better more efficient workout!

The real answer is to get the body functional: a body that has proper strength, stability, mobility, endurance and flexibility in movement.  When we’re functional, we can easily bend, twist, reach, pull, push, squat, duck, jump, climb over and crawl under.  We need all that variety of movement, it is our birthright and where we come from!  Remember how you played as a child?  When we move like that, we decrease pain, feel better, increase metabolic rate, lose weight, tone muscles and improve our mood – Just in time for spring!

Give us a call and let us evaluate your posture and so you may begin your journey to a functional, pain free and active life.  Your playground is waiting!

 

 

Text Neck

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“TEXT NECK”

My cousin’s 17 year old has been complaining of neck pain, headaches, dizziness, shoulder pain and even some anxiety.  As she walked across the parking lot, the cause was clear, she was looking down at her cell phone, head forward, shoulders and upper back rounded forward.  If you are reading this, you might be hunched over a desk or slumped back in a chair or even reading this on your smart phone in roughly the same position.

Whether you are 17 or 70, that position is causing you pain.  The average head weighs 10 to 12 pounds when it is in its neutral position with the ears over the shoulders and shoulders over the hips.  For every inch your head is forward, that weight doubles!  So, that young man on the bike in the picture above is effectively holding up more than 30 pounds!!  We often do this for hours without even thinking – then, we wonder why our upper back is killing us or we can’t move our neck or our shoulders are tight and painful.

The other thing that’s happening when our shoulders and back are so rounded forward is that our diaphragm cannot possibly work efficiently.  If the diaphragm isn’t working then you are not able to take a regular breath, you are not getting enough oxygen and you can end up with headaches, dizziness and yes, even anxiety.

Several years ago, a doctor gave this syndrome a name – “Text Neck” – to grab the attention of our young people.  The problem has been around ever since we began spending more and more time sitting at computers.  Now with cell/smart phones we don’t come out of that stooped position even when we are standing and walking around.

In the blueprint of the body, the ankles, knees, hips, shoulders and head line up along the vertical line of gravity as we look at the body from either side.  We call that “vertically loaded” where all of the muscles front to back, right to left, and inner and outer are working equally to maintain balance.  In order for the body to do this, we need movement, lots of it and all kinds – as big a variety as possible.  Unfortunately, in our 21st century environment, we are getting less and less movement and in a smaller and smaller box.

That is where we can help!  While I’m sure you won’t be throwing out the cell phone anytime soon, we’ve got something that can counteract the painful results of this associated posture.  The Posture Alignment Specialists at Pain Free Performance will help get you out of that small box of activity, and get you standing tall and vertical!  We will evaluate and prescribe an individualized sequence of exercises that re-activate all of those muscles that have gone off-line while texting your friends or sitting at the computer. So, if you are ready to get out of that hunched over position and get out of pain, call us!

SUPINE GROIN PROGRESSIVE

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If I told you there was something you could do for one hour that would help your back pain, your shoulder pain, hip pain and leg pain and all you have to do is lie on the floor, would you do it?  Well there is such a position – it’s called Supine Groin Progressive.  It’s sort of an exercise, but not really because you don’t do anything except lower your leg down through different levels every few minutes while lying there relaxing.  The benefits are amazing…let me explain.

This is the tower.  If you’ve been to Pain Free Performance, you’ve probably seen one.  If not, it looks a little weird, but it’s an amazing postural tool.  You see in the photo that one foot is in the upper level of the tower, the other is over a block.  What do you do?  You just lie there for 5 minutes each level and then do the same thing to the other leg.

What is it doing?

Several things are happening in several different muscles.  Because the floor acts as a template, this puts your head, shoulders, back, hips, legs and feet on an even plane. For most of us, this is not the norm when we are standing.   When you first lie down, you most likely will notice that there is space between your low back and the floor.    Your body will eventually conform and sink into the floor. 

Specifically, the ilio-psoas muscle at the base of the spine will relax and let your low back and pelvis settle back to the floor.  The ilio-psoas starts at the low spine, crosses over the pelvis and attaches to the inside of the upper thigh.  Because a lot of us sit so much, this muscle gets tight and since it is right in the middle of the body, it affects the whole body…especially the mid back and hips. 

How does it work? 

The body remembers this release of muscle tightness and the misalignment that comes with it.   Doing this Egoscue exercise has a cumulative effect on the body and is a great antidote for all those hours of sitting.  Over time, this muscle memory becomes the norm for your body’s posture when standing, running, sitting, or playing! 

If you have questions, call us at Pain Free Performance and schedule a posture evaluation.  The tower is just one exercise that would be a part of a postural exercise prescription.  Each person is given an individualized program based on their postural issues.  We can show you how improving your posture gives you pain relief, restores function and makes a world of difference in how your body feels and how you feel about almost everything.  This is why we do what we do!!!   

               

 

MY FEET ARE KILLING ME!

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At our clinic we hear this at least once a day.

And, some folks have the hardest time believing that foot pain is a posture problem.  Maybe it’s just that our feet are so far from our heads or that we’ve been trained to think of the body in separate parts and symptoms.  However, most likely your foot pain IS a posture problem.

Think of it this way, your feet are the first point of contact with the ground, so there is a lot of pressure from your body weight being pulled by gravity as each foot hits the ground.  The body is an integrated system and when it works properly your feet have a lot of support from your legs, hips and even your back.  They all work together as a team to support your feet, mitigating that gravitational pressure.  When your body is not working properly – meaning your posture is out of whack – then your feet are on their own, without support.

Take a quick look in the mirror.  Is your head bent over forward?  Are your shoulders and upper back rounded forward?  Is one shoulder higher than the other?  What about your hips…is one higher than the other?  These misalignments are created by a myriad of every day occurrences such as being hunched over a desk, operating table, sewing machine or computer; maybe you broke your arm and your shoulder position changed while you were casted or that sprained ankle created a change in your gait to avoid pain, so much so that you ended up with hip pain, leg pain, knee pain and eventually foot pain.

Again, your feet have no support.  They are rolling in, rolling out, slapping flat on the ground without the normal heel, ball, toe push off creating pain as they try to compensate for all the misalignments going on higher up in the body.  So, next time your feet are hurting, check your posture.  Getting the picture? Everything in our bodies is connected and rarely does the point of pain you are experiencing originate there.  Once you correct the misalignment, your foot pain will disappear also.

We know how to get to the root of your foot pain.  We understand the connections and what to do to untangle the postural issues life has created in your body so that you can be pain free.  Call us at Pain Free Performance…we are here to help.

HOW POSTURE CAN EFFECT YOUR ORGANS

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Good posture is one of the healthiest things you can do for your body – inside and out!  Not only will you look better (just like our mother’s told us over and over again….) you will feel better.  Do you know that posture moderates every physiologic function from breathing to hormone production?!

Our high-tech lifestyle does not help matters.  We hunch over our laptops while we work, eat, and sit in the car or in the coffee shop.  We crash on the couch for hours and hours, slouching while we watch entire seasons of Mad Men, House of Cards, Breaking Bad.    It all wreaks havoc on our posture, our body and our overall health.  There’s something called forward head syndrome that comes from the technologically-attached posture I’ve described – shoulders and upper back round forward causing the head to hang over forward.  You get up from your laptop in that position and unfortunately it becomes your posture when you’re up walking around…not good for the body and not the intended design! Look around, you’ll see this posture in a lot of people – young and old.

When we stand, gravity and the weight of our head (about 10 pounds) push down on our bodies all day long.  Our rib cage is designed to protect our organs, be an anchor for muscles and support for the head and neck.  The heads proper position is directly over the rib cage.  When you have forward head posture, there is strain on the rib cage, strain and compression of the organs, strain on the spine. 

While you might be thinking back pain, shoulder pain or maybe neck pain would be the only result, this combination of misalignment of the forward head position can lead to a long list of ailments including: 

  • Headaches develop because the brain is sensitive to oxygen flow – when the head is bent forward, the muscles next to the arteries in the neck and head do not fully assist the uphill travel of blood to the brain, decreasing the flow of oxygen and creating the headache.
  • Shortness of breath can occur when the forward hunched upper body compresses the lungs beneath the rib cage depleting lung capacity by as much as 30%.  It’s difficult to take a full breath and get enough oxygen to all parts of the body.
  • Decreased Spinal Mobility because the weight of the misaligned head is pulling the spine into an unnatural curve, movement is painful and restrictive.
  • Constipation or IBS can occur when the large intestine is compressed and proper digestion is compromised, which can create blockages in lieu of regularity.
  • Plantar Faciitis even!  You won’t believe this but all that misalignment in your upper body can cause foot pain!!  The forward head creates an unstable gait as your body struggles to stay upright and can cause you to constantly put more weight on one of your feet.  The uneven pull of the muscles can cause micro-tears in the connective tissue (fascia) on the bottom of the foot!

So, when you think of posture, you probably don’t think of these maladies but I want to encourage you to see the whole picture of posture and its effect on your health and your quality of life.  That’s the beauty of Egoscue!  At Pain Free Performance we look at the entire body, re-introduce the original design of the musculo-skeletal system (total alignment) to relieve pain, to restore function and give you back your life! 

 

Golf Exercises

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Spring is finally here!  Really!  I see more and more people out at the driving range and on the golf course, and that is great!  What I also see though, is a little alarming…the golfers bodies, especially shoulders, upper back, neck and hips are still frozen and stuck from winter.  Getting that golf ball off the tee and into the air is not a pretty sight and often results in some fairly substantial pain from the musculo-skeletal compensation used to get the job done.  That’s a mouthful, but it means there is a lot of pain in the low back, knees, elbows and shoulders for these golfers because of this. 

Here is a quick sequence of e-cises you can do both before and after golf that will unlock the upper back, hips and shoulders so the body can work as a inter-connected unit rather than disparate parts.  Our Egoscue enthusiasts will recognize these e-cises.  If you are not yet familiar with Egoscue e-cises, and would like to know more about these, give us a call and we’ll give you some pointers.

ARM CIRCLES to strengthen the upper back muscles involved in the ball and socket work while reconnecting the back and pelvis.

ELBOW CURLS to remind the shoulders that they have a hinge function while getting the upper back out of its rounded stooped place.

STANDING OVERHEAD EXTENSION getting all the load-bearing joints to line up in the vertical line and extending the upper back through the neck.

UPPER SPINAL FLOOR TWIST uses rotation of the spine to continue opening and lengthening the mid and upper back while strengthening the hips in the same plane, twists the upper body against the lower body (important for that swing!).

CATS AND DOGS work hips, spine, shoulders and neck in coordinated flexion-extension and asks all the muscles of hips, back shoulders to work bilaterally – both right and left shoulders together at the same time.  This is so important as more and more we use just one side of our bodies predominantly.

Try these both before and after you have played your round of golf.  I can guarantee you’ll feel the difference.  Contact us at Pain Free Performance with any questions.  Enjoy the course!