Pain Free Performance — Posture Alignment Therapy

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ARTHRITIS

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Perhaps you’ve visited your physician lately because of joint pain, and she tells you that you have arthritis.  Maybe she mentioned “degenerative joint disease” – which sounds even worse!  Well, these two things are basically the same thing – inflammation of the joint.  Many people think that the arthritis diagnosis is inevitable especially as we get older, not realizing that there is something to do to correct it, not just mask the symptoms with pain relievers. 

There are several different kinds of arthritis but we are talking about Osteoarthritis (OA).  This is the most common form of arthritis.  It is often called “wear and tear” arthritis and happens when cartilage in the joint breaks down creating the painful symptoms and joint swelling.

Sometimes OA presents on just one side of the body and not the other.  You might wonder why since both sides of the body are the same age! It all has to do with joint position.  When we are out of alignment (perhaps due to an injury) then we “load” one side of the body differently than the other, favoring the injured side.  When this happens, then that side will “wear” differently and faster which begins the arthritic process.  Sometimes people with osteoarthritis experience pain in all of their joints.  When joints are not lined up, the surfaces of the joints wear unevenly creating friction.  This friction causes inflammation, pain, and stiffness ….arthritis

One of my clients has arthritis in her hands…stiff sore inflamed joints-ouch!  But it’s not really about her hands at all.  Her shoulders are rounded forward, causing her elbow and wrist to be out of alignment.  All the joints are not moving well together and there is friction in every text and email she sends.  So, we’ve got to get her shoulders back into proper alignment, which will get her elbows in place and on down to her wrists and fingers. 

At Pain Free, we teach people how to get their bodies back to the original design – joints back in an equal bilateral position and the rest of the body aligned in strait lines, at 90 degree angles to the line of gravity.   So, don’t despair if you are experiencing arthritis pain – the healing power of your body is amazing!  You just need to know what to do and we’re here to help.

 

 

BELIEVE IN YOUR BODY!

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In case you think that we posture people never injure ourselves or have pain, I have a story for you…

I was cutting firewood last week-end, moving logs so I could cut them with my trusty hand saw.  Some of you might even be happy to know that while moving a particularly large log, I felt my low back strain, and being a guy, I had to finish my task so I just kept going the rest of the afternoon.  By the end of the day my left low back was screaming at me and I could hardly straighten up!

Now, here is where doing what I do gives me an advantage.  Unlike most people, I did not reach for the Advil or think that I had herniated a disk nor think I should just take it easy and go to bed.  I got down on the floor and did my menu – 10 Egoscue e-cises and my back felt 75% better!  I did supine groin stretch, had dinner and then went to bed.

Next morning, I was still stiff and it was difficult to bend over.  I poured my coffee, had some breakfast and did my menu again.  Again, I felt much better and went on to work.  Throughout the day I felt some twinges in that same spot and when I could, I did a few simple e-cises.  When I got home, I did a couple of e-cises, did the tower and then off to bed. 

Upon waking on day two, my back was stiff again but less than before.  I did my menu and the pain was gone!  Throughout the next day, I moved around as usual, bending, twisting – no pain.  One and a half days after straining my back and its back to normal!

That’s how resilient the body is when you give it half a chance!  We all like to do different things and in doing those things, stuff may happen.  If you are doing your menu fairly regularly, you have the tools to handle most any kind of problem that can occur. 

Believe in your body!  It has an amazing inherent strength and ability to heal.  Trust your intuition about what you can do to help yourself – as you listen to your body, you will begin to know.  If something like this happens to you and you’re not quite sure what to do, give us a call and we’ll direct you. This is where we can help.  That’s what we do – give you the tools to re-connect with your physical self, get yourself out of pain and believe in your body.

 

 

CHRONIC INFLAMMATION – WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

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Chronic Inflammation – What Does It Mean?

We tend to think of inflammation as redness, swelling, stiffness and heat. We experience it when we twist our ankle, bump our head, cut or burn ourselves. This type of inflammation is known as acute inflammation. When trauma occurs to the body, our immune system dispatches cells, chemicals, blood and other fluids to protect and heal the damaged tissue. This biological reaction is a brilliant immune response.

However, there is a different type of inflammation that might be damaging your joints and organs without you realizing it. This low level or low-grade inflammation is called chronic inflammation. Unlike acute inflammation, the swelling, stiffness and heat are so subtle that it is almost undetectable. Again, the body is providing this immune response to protect, but when the stimulus is so constant the inflammation begins to work against us.

Chronic inflammation is one of the telltale signs that joints are misaligned. Misaligned joints lose space and their ability to absorb shock, making them susceptible to excess compression, friction and tension. The misaligned joint does not allow the connective tissue in an around the joints to do their job to rehydrate or repair. Eventually chronic inflammation and joint compression escalate and cause stiffness, tenderness, swelling and pain.

By the time you notice the symptoms of chronic inflammation in one joint or region of the body, other areas have already been affected. At the first sign of inflammation, the body begins to compensate to avoid pain.  This is a good thing in the short-term however it can be devastating to our alignment and posture.   Nerves are compressed, which can cause tingling, numbness, and pain. Muscles become fatigued, strained and out of balance which can cause soreness, inflexibility and pain. You may experience neck pain, back pain, shoulder pain, hip pain, and foot pain all because muscle imbalance and misaligned joints are creating it. What is the cause?  POOR POSTURE.

It’s important to understand the effects of chronic inflammation because according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, half of us will develop degenerative joint disease or osteoarthritis as outlined above. Because most current medical treatments do not address the root cause of the disease, joint replacements become almost inevitable.  We provide an alternative to this unsettling prognosis.

The Egoscue method of pain management focuses on joint position and muscle imbalance. In the first two-hour session, we take posture photos, analyze gait, and perform functional movement screens to determine where the muscle imbalances are that are creating misaligned joints and chronic inflammation. By correcting these imbalances, and returning the body to proper alignment, the connective tissue will be allowed to do its job, inflammation will decrease, and you are on your way to keeping your joints for life! You will not only be pain free you will be inflammation free.

 

AWARENESS = HEALTH

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AWARENESS = HEALTH

The human body is a miraculous system.  It has an innate ability to heal itself if we just pay attention to the messages it sends us.  Some messages are easier than others …when we are hot, we sweat; when we are cold, we shiver but when we feel pain, it might be hard to figure out why.

What is the best way to pay attention to the messages that our body is sending us?  Be aware.  It may take a little practice because we are busy, we are overworked and overstressed, we are stoic and we brush aside feelings, experiences, pain, as well as the good stuff because we have things to do.  Well, until we can’t do them anymore.  Because we didn’t heed the signs of things to come, we didn’t experience the pleasures or the pain…we were unaware.   

Pay attention to your pain.  Is it sharp or dull? Is it constant or brought on by certain movements?  What time of day is it?  Be aware. At Pain Free we are posture people.  We understand that joint pain is the body’s message that muscles are out of balance and are pulling the skeletal system out of alignment.  When we are out of alignment, then some muscles get too tight and painful, some atrophy and joints no longer line up properly causing them to wear down compressing the nerves.  Ouch!

If we automatically take pain medication, then we lose important information that our body is sending us.  We are no longer aware of movements that change or decrease the pain which makes it impossible to correct the underlying cause. The Egoscue method provides awareness techniques that enable you determine what is going on in your body and help us create a program to get you back to optimal alignment and out of pain. These are techniques you will keep for the rest of your life!

Practice awareness in all aspects of your life.   Focus on some simple things – as you are walking outdoors, feel the wind in your face, feel your leg muscles tighten, feel the rhythm of your arms swinging; when you are getting ready for your day, really feel the hot shower water hit your body, take a deep breath and let your muscles relax in the steam;  at the end of your day relish each bite of food at dinner and if you are sharing dinner with someone, listen, engage in conversation, enjoy the company.

Instead of rushing through everything to get to the next thing, slow down and experience, enjoy, listen, and feel this amazing life – including the pain.  Awareness is the first step to becoming pain free, reclaiming health and living your life to the fullest.

 

OH MY ACHING FEET! PLANTAR FACIITIS

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Lately, we have been having more and more people come in with plantar fasciitis pain.   It’s a burning pain in the feet that worsens with every step.  Sometimes the pain is so intense it can even feel like the foot is landing on a nail. 

The plantar fascia is the tough sheath of connective tissue that runs from the heel to the toes like a fan on the underside of the feet.  When you have this foot pain it is because there is inflammation in the fascia.  The question to ask is why is the fascia inflamed?  The answer is because there is improper loading at foot strike.  Plantar fasciitis is not a foot problem, it is a posture problem.  Because you are not appropriately using your big leg muscles and hip muscles, you have left your feet to fend for themselves.  The foot is smacking down on the ground with each step bearing the brunt of the entire weight of the body without the support of your legs, hips and back working as a team.  All of these muscles and joints must work together to keep you out of pain.

If you stand sideways in a full length mirror, imagine a plumb line that starts at your ankles and goes straight up.  Do your ankles, knees, hips, shoulders and head line up on the plumb line?  If they don’t, that’s why you have foot pain (and hip pain, shoulder pain, knee pain and who knows what else)!  Now, turn and face that mirror.  Are the shoulders, hips, knees and ankles in parallel horizontal lines and do your feet point straight ahead?  If not, then you cannot use the muscles of your legs, hips and back to help your feet, leaving them at risk for this intense pain called plantar fasciitis. 

You can do something about your foot pain and it’s easy!  You need to get your body’s weight-bearing joints to line up in straight lines and at 90 degree angles which is the intended design of the body.   We are the original all-terrain vehicle!  How do you do it?  The answer is one simple word, one amazing method of pain relief – EGOSCUE.  Call me at Pain Free Performance and I’ll get you started.

 

EMBRACING THE TOWER! (Supine Groin Progressive in the Tower)

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Egoscue Tower ExerciseThe TOWER, as we affectionately call it, is truly an amazing piece of equipment.  It may look menacing but it should not be feared!  The tower helps to re-establish the functional chain reaction of muscles that we need in order to maintain good posture and be pain free.  It’s great because you just lie there and better posture happens just by lowering the leg through different positions!    Yes, it takes time to do it.   Because most of us don’t think anything is happening unless we’re DO-ing something, one might be skeptical that anything could be changing.  Just because you aren’t actively doing something doesn’t mean that the body is inactive. In the tower the body is actually very active while you just lay there!  Really.  For the musculoskeletal system, it’s like going on a long walk with everything working right — without any of your habitual compensations allowed to come into play.

At each level of the tower your hip flexor engages then releases, which then lets the pelvis drop back which then extends the back.  The shoulders open and the head and neck lengthen.  As the pelvis settles to the floor, there is a rotational component at the hip joint between the pelvis and thigh bone, the knee is extended straight which asks all the muscles of posterior leg to lengthen and equalize their pulls as they cross behind the knee.  The ankle stays in a close-packed position the whole time.  All of this happens at each level as you proceed down the tower, as the one leg gets lower in the tower the difference between the two halves of the pelvis gets greater.  This is what happens with each step we take, so in the tower you are spending an hour taking one perfect step.

This one simple exercise is great for all of us considering how much time we spend sitting.  It can lessen the effects of being at a desk at work or school all day or being in the car or on the couch for several hours. It has a cumulative effect – we’re all playing catch-up but soon you’ll be making deposits in your posture account.  It is an important exercise to help alleviate neck pain, back pain, hip pain and knee pain.  I’ve been doing Supine Groin Progressive for 20 years – since before the tower even existed.  I continue to include it in my menu several times a week and each time I finish in the evening, I feel so amazing the next morning I have to ask myself why I don’t do it every day!   So, if your Egoscue therapist suggests the exercise Supine Groin Progressive, I encourage you to consider investing in the time, the tower and yourself.

 

HELPING LOCAL FOSTER TEENS FOR THE HOLIDAYS!

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HELPING LOCAL FOSTER TEENS AT THE HOLIDAYS!

 As a business, we were looking for a way to make our holiday more meaningful by being involved in charitable giving right here in our own community. We wanted to find a group in true need that may not be under the umbrella of another holiday drive, and one of our favorite clients suggested we call her friend at Albemarle County Social Services. 

The answer we got from them was that teenage foster children from Albemarle County are often overlooked because of their age when it comes to holiday giving.  The social workers know these teens, their circumstances and these guys need our help!  We have a list of kids (initials, gender, and age) including their holiday wish lists.  We are not talking big ticket items…these are simple things that will help make a wonderful holiday for them.

Our goal is to mark all of these things off every list for every child.  This is how we plan to do it and we’d love, love, love for you to join in on this wonderful holiday experience!

1.        HELP US UN-DECORATE OUR TREE!!

RIGHT NOW, if you stop by the office, you will see our version of an angel tree – a teenangel tree to be exact!  It is beautiful, if we do say so ourselves – a small scraggly tree with sparkly ornaments – each one holding a short Christmas list of a foster teen.

 Please come by when you are in the neighborhood or if you’re in for your appointment, take an ornament or two and cross off the items on the list by doing a little shopping for a teen!  Drop off the gifts here and Social Services will pick them up from us on Friday, December 14th to make sure the children in need receive them by Christmas!    

 2.        DAY OF GIVING

WHAT:     Day of Giving Gift Exchange for Foster Teens!! 

WHEN:     SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8TH

WHERE:   Pain Free Performance ,  3054 Berkmar Drive, Charlottesville, VA  22901

TIME:       10:00 am to 4:00 pm

HOW IT WORKS:

WE GIVE YOU:  We have ten practitioners who represent many kinds of body work who are giving their time on this day to provide abbreviated treatments at no charge to participants (you!).  Treatments are:  chiropractic, pilates, massage therapy, structural integration, Byron Katie work, Egoscue, personal training, acupuncture, network spinal analysis and more!

 YOU GIVE THE TEENS:  You may choose as many therapies as you’d like to experience  in exchange for bringing one $50.00 gift card for a foster teen!  One $50.00 gift card gets you all the treatments you want!  You will sign up for treatments when you come in that day.

Please call or email Pain Free to let us know you can attend!  But if you forget, come on over anyway!

We feel so fortunate for this connection with the amazing people who work with these great kids through Albemarle County Social Services!  It’s so special to have a charitable focus for holiday giving in our own community. Please help us and the other generous therapists make holiday wishes come true for these teens. 

 Peace,

Cindy, Lisa, Mackie and Kat 

WHAT A PAIN IN THE NECK!!

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Maybe it was the fear generated around the recent storm or the stress of the upcoming holidays and shopping, but we have had an increase in the number of folks coming in with neck pain.  They are always surprised when we don’t do anything to their neck or give them anything to do to their neck.  It’s simple:  the neck is not the problem.  Your neck is the symptom but the problem is more likely a rounded upper back, or the shoulders hinged forward and one shoulder is higher than the other.  Either of those scenarios means that your pelvis is out of balance and out of position.

If you stand sideways in the mirror, there should be a straight vertical line from your ankles to knees to pelvis to shoulder to head.  When you don’t “load vertically” then you are unconsciously asking different muscles to do a job they weren’t designed to do. In the case of your neck, if your head is forward of that vertical line then you have been asking those neck muscles to hold up around 15 pounds!  You don’t ask your arm or shoulder to hold up a  bowling ball for more than a few seconds but that’s what your head sitting on your neck is like and you hold your head like that for hours!  Any wonder your neck hurts??

So, if your neck is hurting, it’s not your neck – it’s your posture.  Call us at Pain Performance and let us help you get your posture back in alignment.  You’ll be surprised at how many other aches and pains will disappear as well!