Pain Free Performance — Posture Alignment Therapy

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Leg Pain

Alignment: Treating the Body as a Whole to alleviate Pain

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Healthcare today is focused on the parts. Our healthcare practitioners are specialized and focus on specific sites and no longer view the body as a whole. As a result, we are missing how each site impacts another directly.

With the Egoscue method, alignment matters. When the position of the head, shoulders, vertebrae, hips, knees, and ankles are in line the forces through the joints are distributed to allow movement with minimal effort. This is the ability to move freely and without pain.

When our body is not in alignment, our joints wear down and uneven load is placed on parts of our body that are not meant to bear the added weight. This dysfunction is often the root of pain.

Many clients find Egoscue after trying other modalities that are not addressing the compensation created by their tissues, muscles, and joints. When we see clients for the first time, their gait and the movement of their body tells the story of a system trying to fix its parts. In order to determine what is causing their neck pain, knee pain, or hip pain we must determine what body part positions are misaligned.

Our job is to release the muscular compensation and strengthen the correct muscles to bring the body into alignment. We do this through specific exercises targeted towards what is off in a client’s specific body. After each exercise, we use gait analysis and functional testing (like an arm circle or reaching to touch the toes) as tests to see how the body is changing. As things become in a better joint position, the body is noticeably moving more fluidly, straighter, and more balanced.

This is why we must consider the body holistically when pain is present. Often the site or location of pain is not the cause. Our goal is to identify the dysfunction and create an integrated muscular skeletal system where movement is freer and function is unlimited.

How long does it take to create pain relief using posture alignment therapy?

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Most of the clients we see are in pain. These clients come to us for relief with their knee pain, back pain, hip pain, and shoulder pain. Oftentimes, our clients have been to chiropractors, physical therapists, doctors, massage therapists, and acupuncturists that have been unable to create a lasting change with their muscle and joint pain. This can be challenging for our clients because their journey for pain relief has already taken weeks and months before we meet our clients for the first time. 

 

In order to create lasting pain relief, as Postural Alignment Specialists that practice The Egoscue Method, we assess the muscular imbalances in their bodies. This begins through a complete health assessment and history to understand the patterns of movement (or lack of movement) that led to pain. We complete postural photos to see how their joint position aligns against a grid to understand how their joints are loading. This can reveal if an elevated shoulder and hip are leading to the back pain or if a forward head position is causing the shoulder pain. Finally, we complete a series of functional testing and gait analysis to determine what muscles are active or inactive that are resulting in muscular compensation and pain. 

 

When our clients leave their first postural alignment session, they can expect to feel a change in their body. This often results in a decrease in pain. If a client’s body has compensated for years, they might notice feeling “lighter” or “straighter” after doing their Egoscue therapy exercises. This is a sign that their body is becoming more functional and balanced. 

 

The work towards alignment and health takes time and effort. Our muscle memory begins to take effect in 90 days and is often the time our clients begin to notice less pain due to their enhanced alignment. Change is not always linear and might result in peaks and valleys. We encourage clients to remain focused on what is changing. Our cells and tissues are constantly adapting and we will continue to adapt new exercises and stimuli to create a change in the muscle structure. One of the great benefits of our bodies is that they are dynamic and constantly in motion. This is why the method works! Now, let’s get moving!

A look into Knee Pain

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As postural alignment specialists and graduates of Egoscue University, our focus is on the position of the client’s load bearing joints. Our shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles bear the weight of our body when standing and moving upright. When we look at our client’s joint position, many of our client’s are surprised by their knee position. 

The load bearing joints of the shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles should align.

Try this:
Stand in front of the mirror
Look at the middle of your thigh bone that is named the femur. Then look at the middle of your knee cap.
Draw an imaginary line from the center of the thigh bone to the middle of the knee cap.
Does the knee turn to the outside of the body or does the knee roll toward the middle of the body?

If the center of your thigh and center of your knee cap are not in line, the rest of your load bearing joints are picking up the work for the uneven load. This uneven load leads to knee pain, arthritis in the knee joint, bursitis, and torn ligaments!

When knees turn out or roll toward the middle of the body, there is significant wear and tear on the knee joint. Imagine going up and down the stairs with the knee cap pointing outward. The friction and demand on the uneven knee joint will lead to knee pain. Over time to avoid the knee pain we begin to sell our house to live on one level or we take the escalator to avoid the movement that leads to pain. This avoidance of triggers will decrease the feeling of the knee pain, but does not address the cause of the knee pain.

Oftentimes the exercise we do to be healthy and support our heart, aggravates our knees and we begin to wonder why. If your knees turn outwards and you cycle or run for 30 minutes, that is 30 minutes that your knee joint is impacted and inflamed. Frequent wear and tear from a misaligned knee exercising on the elliptical, bike, or treadmill will lead to arthritis of the knee and the need for a knee replacement. The exercise is not the enemy, but the position of the knee cap in relation to the thigh bone and pelvis. 

How do we avoid knee replacements, ligament tears, and arthritis? We must consider the muscles that support the thigh bone (femur) and knee cap (patella). Through a postural alignment assessment, we will identify what is off in your body and which muscles need to be activated to bring your body into alignment. By correcting and supporting the position of the lower legs, you will continue to be able to tackle stairs and maintain your heart healthy cardio!

SCIATICA

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Over the holidays, we’ve had a number of clients come in to the clinic with sciatic pain. This symptom can present in very different ways.  For some, it’s a painful sacro-iliac joint that stays in that one hip area and perhaps into the gluteal muscle.  Others will feel a twinge of pain in the hip and then a pain in the calf of the same leg.  The classic sciatic symptom is pain in the hip and all the way down the back of the leg.  At times, this pain can feel debilitating – if you have had that pain, you know what I mean.   Take a deep breath, there is hope without taking pain relievers or having back surgery.

The sciatic nerve is the main nerve that feeds all the other nerves through your legs. Think of it as the main electrical feed that comes out of your spine at the top of the sacrum goes through the pelvis and down the back of both your legs.  Where that nerve comes out of the spine (on either side) and crosses through the pelvis (either side) there is not a lot of clearance.  This makes it imperative that your pelvis is bilateral and symmetrical and your spine is equally bilateral and centered on top of the pelvis.

Sounds simple, right? Well it is and it isn’t.  The pelvis is 3 bones and they can be off in any of the 3 planes of movement and the spine sitting on top that can be off in those same 3 planes.  What holds all this in the proper position?  Muscles.   Lots of them.  And, they all need to work equally as a team.  In order to work as that team, they need a wide variety of movement.  More and more in our culture and environment, we are getting less movement and less variety of movement.

We think driving to the gym and doing a cross-training work out every day is enough. That is good, but nothing compared to what our bodies really need – we need to run, jump, twist, throw, climb, push and pull.  Ideally, we need to do these things for hours every day.  We are not meant to sit still.

Stand normally in front of a full length mirror and look to see where your feet and knees point. Your feet and knee position will tell you a lot about your hips.  If your knees and feet point straight ahead equally, then your pelvis is in a good position; if one or both of either your feet or knees point in different directions, possibly both halves of your pelvis is out of position.  You can change that with a bit of work and the right exercises to get the muscles working appropriately again.

That is what the Egoscue method is all about. It is what we do at Pain Free Performance.  Call us or come and see us and we can enable you to alleviate your sciatic pain.