Pain Free Performance — Posture Alignment Therapy

Live Pain Free!

Posture Alignment

Things I Wish I Explained Better….

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I often have a conversation with a client that causes me to think – “Wow, I didn’t do a very good job of covering all the information I wanted to!” There is a lot of information we share with clients and it’s a lot to absorb, especially in the beginning.  We also have such a smart group of people who come to Pain Free Performance, we sometimes assume people know things that they don’t.

Here is a smattering of random questions and topics that come up often and might be helpful as you continue your Egoscue journey toward a pain free body! Clients often ask or say….

Can I resume weightlifting?

At first, NO.  We don’t want to strengthen any misalignments.  When your body is ready, we will give you some pointers on how to start with weights again.  You will be surprised at the “work-out” you will get from your Egoscue!

Can I go to Yoga class? Pilates? Tai Chi? Can I jog?

We are all about getting you back to your fullest most pain free life – whatever you love to do! The easy answer is yes, of course.  Talk with your Egoscue therapist regarding your particular issues and your favorite class or activity to make the most of it!

I twisted my ankle (bruised my elbow, tweaked my back) so I’m just going to cancel my appointment.

No, just the opposite! That’s the perfect time for you to come in – this is what we do – treat people in pain!  So, keep your appointment and have your therapist assess the injury and create a program that will enable you to heal faster and keep your newly aligned body on track!

I may not be doing my E-cises correctly and it made my leg hurt so I just stopped doing the program.

Contact us immediately if you feel that your program is causing any pain. We want to know, ask you a few questions and tweak the program if necessary.

I do my e-cises when I get home in the afternoon ……

Do your program in the morning! I know, I know sometimes it’s just not possible but here’s the thing…if you do your E-cises in the morning, you are setting yourself up to have your most aligned body possible to carry out all of the living you have to do during the day!  This means better function, less pain and less possible injury.  Talk with your therapist about how to adjust your program to fit your schedule.

Don’t cherry-pick from your program – do all of the E-cises in the order only!

The order of your Egoscue program is key. The e-cises are prescribed to either wake up certain muscles that are not doing their job or quiet muscles that are overdoing which creates that pesky misalignment, poor function and pain! Depending on your specific issues, there is an important chain of events that must occur by doing the e-cises in order to get you to the best outcome….which is a pain free body!

Do I have to do everything on both sides?

Occasionally, I have a client who ran out of time, or thought because her pain was on the right side that she’d just do the e-cises on the right side. Not with Egoscue.  We are trying to get the two halves of the body to work together as intended.  What you do to one side, you must do to the other.  It is important for regaining muscle balance, symmetry and healing to do the complete program on both sides.  If you’re often running late, talk to us and we can tweak your program to fit those days that are just too busy!

Do I have to do Egoscue the rest of my life?

Yes, but a very doable, shorter version of your program. It will be as easy as brushing your teeth or bathing…a necessary and desirable habit to maintain your pain free functional body!  When you’re ready, your Egoscue therapist will instruct you on how to continue with abbreviated and rotating programs that will keep you aligned and living life to the fullest!

 Speaking of function….

One of the most important things I want our clients to understand is that our job is to improve the way your body functions. Pain relief is the amazing benefit of having a functional body. Pain is the symptom, not the cause.  When the joints in the body are in the proper position and the muscles are balanced – the pain goes away!

 

BACK PAIN

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back-pain-picIf you have ever been faced with back pain, you will do anything for relief! You resort to injections, pain medication, even spinal fusion surgery…anything to stop the back pain.  But these options are all just masking the back pain, they are temporary.  To get lasting real results for your back pain, you must uncover the root of the problem – why do you have the back pain in the first place?

Our backs were designed to be flexible and able to carry weight. The time we spend sitting while working, studying, and relaxing greatly reduces the stimulus we are giving our body – and remember, our body is a stimulus response system.  This inactivity causes our back to loose full range of motion.  Muscles that do not move become muscles that cannot move. What happens? Back pain.

Back pain is a symptom of muscle imbalances over time. Your back pain could stem from something being off in the pelvis, over-contracted stomach muscles, or rounding of the upper back.  Whatever the imbalance, creating symmetry bilaterally and vertically restores proper alignment and your back pain is relieved!  That’s what we do at Pain Free Performance utilizing the Egoscue method.  Let us help you relieve your back pain.

 

KEEP MOVING! by Jessica Powell

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sitting-diseaseAs a culture we have quit moving. Our mornings are a rush to get to work where we will sit for 8 hours a day. We might move to get lunch or take a break from the 9-5 grind, but it is minimal. We come home, eat dinner, and prepare for an evening on the couch of binge watching our current Netflix fix. Everyday  Americans are sitting for 13 hours while we are awake. Combined with the 8 hours of sleep our bodies need to live a healthy lifestyle, we are on average sedentary for 21 hours! You won’t believe what all of this is doing to your body!!!

Our heads are forward, our shoulders and back are rounding, and our knees are phoning in. Our bodies were meant to walk, dance, play on the floor, and run!  At Pain Free, we want to reverse the damage that technology and our culture has done to our bodies. We want to increase our function so that our limitations won’t prevent us from the spontaneous hike our wife invites us on or going skiing with an old friend. What activities have you put aside due to pain?

At Pain Free Performance, we want to get you back to living your best life including all the activities you love. We practice the Egoscue Method, which is a whole body approach to eliminating pain and enhancing your body’s ability to move. We do not focus on the site of the pain because often times it is not the the place of origin. Where is the pain in your body? What feels off or different? We chalk it up to age or irreversible injury. Acknowledge that it is a signal from your body and clue that change needs to occur. Our goal is always to enhance the symmetry in your body with the intent of rebalancing the muscles. When your muscles are balanced, you will be pain free.

Pain Free Performance provides your body with the stimulus it craves to reverse the hours we are inactive. The Egoscue Method will make you feel stronger, eliminate pain, and ultimately allow for your body’s future to not be dictated by physical limitations. We expect you to be hiking mountains, swimming, running, gardening, golfing – whatever you love to do – for the rest of your life. Allow Pain Free Performance to change your expectations of your body and create a life through motion!

THE EGOSCUE HABIT

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We talk a lot about “habits” – good and bad, new and old, conscious and even unconscious. We have a myriad of them that propel us through our days and nights.  Some habits we’d like to break, some we’d like to initiate.  I was recently  gifted the book “The Power of Habit” written by Charles Duhigg.  My mind went immediately to you, my Egoscue clients. How can we utilize this powerful thing (habit) to help us get exactly what we want?  Especially when we want an aligned and pain free body!

Well, if you’re reading this blog, you’re interested in Egoscue. You want to be vital and active and do everything you love to do. Your back pain, leg pain, shoulder pain, sciatica, or neck pain has gotten in the way.  Perhaps you have an Egoscue program.  Is your Egoscue program a habit or are you consciously struggling every day to map out a new plan to accomplish it but not always able to?

The most commonly asked question when clients are in the midst of aligning their body, feeling good and once again able to do their favorite activity is “will I have to do this for the rest of my life”? The answer is always “yes”!  Maintenance, you know.  Like brushing your teeth or bathing.  You get great results from those habits and you understand the consequences if you stop doing them so you do them every day and in the process you have created a habit.

Duhigg says that there is a habit loop – there is something that prompts you to “do” something (time of day, day of week, frame of mind, alarm on our phone for example); then there is the thing you do – the habit – (have a cup of coffee, brush your teeth, take the dog for a walk, shower, do your Egoscue) and then the reward –caffeine stimulant, fresh teeth, happy dog, clean skin, painless body.  See where I’m going with this?

He also says we should pay close attention to our reward because often the habit we attach to it is just a part of it – there might be more to the why of it than we are aware of. For example, back to our list above…

Coffee – gosh, actually I love the sensation of holding the warm cup as I plan my day

Brush my teeth – definitely fear driven – I hate the thought of a painful dental visit

Walk the dog – It is what it is – nothing like the unconditional love of a happy dog!

Shower – my husband thinks I smell amazing and always compliments me

Egoscue – I expect to continue to be active, do everything I want to do (and even some I haven’t done yet) and do it all pain free as I age and I’m getting up there!

Are you following me? What I want to impart to you, is that at Pain Free we are in it for the long haul.  This is life. Literally, all of the above is life – you have your own list.  From here forward let’s get back to experiencing all of it as fluidly and pain free as possible.   My favorite Pete Egoscue quote is: “A pain free, active lifestyle is not only possible, but it is the way you should expect to feel and live, no matter your age, no matter your previous experience”.  I believe this and YOU can believe it.  I will set myself up to live it.  It is my reward. It can be yours too.

Let me help you find the way to make your Egoscue program a habit so that it will work for you! Let’s define your prompts and tune into your rewards of doing your program for your life.  Remember that age is not a factor of function, misalignment is the culprit. The Egoscue Habit makes the lifelong pain free function that  you desire possible!

EGOSCUE AS MEDITATION

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With all of the heartbreaking craziness that is happening in the world recently, it’s no wonder we are all feeling a little unnerved. We watch the accounts on the news in horror, we stop watching but the images remain with us.  We feel worried, immense sadness and compassion for people directly affected and their families, fearful for ourselves and our families. Without being conscious of it, we hold our stress in our bodies and it might come out as the worst headache ever, nagging neck pain, or shoulder pain.  We’re not sleeping well.  We feel awful. It’s painful on every level – physical, mental, spiritual.

This last spring we began a meditation class here in our studio at Pain Free Performance in Charlottesville. We feel it’s an excellent compliment to the Egoscue work we do.  Our clients and friends had been talking more and more about wanting to join a group meditation so we found an inspired teacher and  began weekly meditations –it’s been great!

One of the first things we noticed is that some of the people in our group were claiming their place in the meditation circle with a mat and an Egoscue block. They participated in the guided class in static back!  The rest of us had powered through trying to perfect the more traditional meditation pose of sitting cross-legged with our hands in our laps.  While we were squirming and twisting to keep from cramping up, our friends were deep in pain free meditation.  We switched over pronto!  What we learned is that being in such a restorative physical position (static back) enabled us to be in a more receptive restful mental /spiritual position for meditation.  The results on every level were amazing.

So it got me thinking as I look for some peace and centeredness in these overwhelmingly turbulent times, that not only meditation might be in order but Egoscue as Meditation makes perfect sense.  In the Egoscue world, we teach our clients that their point of pain is not our focus but the alignment of the entire body is our focus.   Every part of the body is connected and interrelated just as is every part of our being – our bodies, our minds, our hearts.  We know how our physical pain can affect our mental status.  We know how our broken spirits can make us stumble physically.

So let me encourage you to use your Egoscue program time to take a few extra breaths;  breathe in strength, health, peace; breathe out fear, pain, worry.  We say it all the time in Egoscue – listen to your body.  Let’s add listen to your heart. Take another moment or two in static back to count your blessings and be grateful.  Not only can we heal our bodies but we can heal our spirits and minds.

In order to be the best advocate for peace for our families, community, country and our world, we have to start with ourselves and decompress, breathe, have faith, be kind, be well. Egoscue as Meditation?  Absolutely.

The Psoas

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The psoas muscle!  Ever hear of it? Most of the people I see in our clinic have never heard of it and yet it is the most important muscle in the body.  Also known as the hip flexor muscle, it joins with the iliacus muscle to form the iliopsoas.

This muscle is the only muscle that attaches/connects the upper, middle and lower body.  For a quick anatomy lesson, it starts at the lumbar vertebrae, goes down on top of and attaches to the inner bowl of the pelvis, then crosses over the top of the thigh bone (femur) and attaches to the inner thigh.

It often does two jobs, one on each side of the body, as it helps stabilize the standing leg while also initiates the swing of the opposite leg while walking.  It is the lead domino and as the lead domino goes, so go the other dominoes.

Many of us have become so sedentary that our hip flexors lose function and shut down.  The hip flexor can and will get too tight, too lose, too weak, too strong or some combination of these traits.  It becomes short and weak as we sit for long periods of time.  Then, when we try to make up for lost time and get in a little movement or exercise –our back flares up, neck starts hurting or we get knee pain.  Maybe we get a case of hip bursitis or plantar fasciitis.  It doesn’t matter what the symptom is or what the diagnosis is, the culprit is our lack of hip flexor function.

So, it’s not your back or knee or foot or neck.  Those are just symptoms. We have to get to the cause to alleviate the symptoms and more often than not the cause is that your iliopsoas has shut down.  Because it attaches to the lumbar vertebrae, the spine and upper body are affected.  It attaches to the pelvis so the hip joint can be affected.  It attaches to the top of the thigh bone so the lower body can be affected.   The psoas is really the most important muscle of the body.  Remember the domino analogy.

The body is an inter-related system so the site of the pain is rarely the source or cause of the pain.  If you are experiencing back pain or neck pain or any other symptom, come let us take a look at you and help you regain your function…and get those hip flexors working!

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.