Pain Free Performance — Posture Alignment Therapy

Live Pain Free!

balance

Oh, my aching feet!

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Lately, we have had more people come into the office with foot pain.   They say “My feet hurt the minute I get out of bed.”,  “ I’ve got plantar fasciitis.”, or “ I was born with flat feet.”.

You might not know this, but we were all born with flat feet! All babies develop their arches through their infant and toddler years, provided that development is not interrupted.  Today, that development is often interrupted early on. We walk too soon – therefore stop crawling too soon (such an important part of our total body development!) and often times we wear shoes that are too structured – too restricting – too early.  You add all of these possibilities to a more sedentary lifestyle (more technology creating less movement) and our joints deviate which shows up in our feet turning out.  When this happens, the weight during activity is no longer being evenly distributed across the foot and sometimes too much weight is placed on the heel, leading the common complaint of plantar fasciitis.

When standing still, the design of the foot should point straight ahead. With that design, the arches allow the foot to move in every direction and allow us to do whatever we like – walk, run, skip, jump or shuffle sideways.  The design is such that no matter the action, the weight of the body is evenly distributed across the entire foot.  The problem is that our feet no longer point straight ahead naturally.  Most of us think that the natural position of the feet is pointed out by 30-45 degrees.  This is due that interrupted development I mentioned.

The good news is there is a solution. If your joints are misaligned and your feet point out, you can realign them.  Even if your arches have fallen, you can raise them again.  That’s right!  Your flat feet don’t have to be flat.  In infancy and toddlerhood, the actions of crawling and learning to walk compelled our foot muscles to tell our foot bones what they needed to hear in order to develop arches.  Our bones do what our muscles tell them to do (muscles pull bones).  With proper alignment exercises, that process can be duplicated in adulthood.  It requires a realigning of the body over the course of a few months.

That’s where we come in because that’s why we’re here – no matter what the symptom – from your aching feet to your chronic headaches and anything in between. Let’s get started so you can get back to your pain free life!

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!

Hurray! It’s Summertime!

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Living is easy and best of all its vacation time! Most of us drive when we go on vacation, sometimes for hours at a time.  So, by the time we get to that wonderful vacation spot we are in pain and pretty miserable!

That’s because the car is the perfect unilateral instrument; meaning we use only one side of our bodies to operate it.  We use the right foot for the gas and brake pedals and most of us steer with our right hand.  The body, however, is a bilateral system and it needs more stimuli using both sides of the body.  That’s even true for most aspects of our lives – mainly one-sided, the car is just a perfect example.

Take a moment to look down at your feet next time you are standing. Do they point straight ahead?  If not then you are out of balance.  For most of us the feet splay out, one more than the other, which is a clue that the body is not symmetrical or equal one side to the other.

The great thing is even if you are out of balance the body will quickly re-learn how to balance because it is an intelligent system and wants to be balanced.  You can do a few exercises and feel much better!  The exercises below will provide a new stimulus that asks the body to work equally.  You can even do them while you’re at the gas station or at the rest-stop.

STANDING QUAD CONTRACTIONS

Stand with your feet straight ahead

Tighten then relax your thigh muscles (like pushing your knees back, then relax)

Do 3 sets of 15

STANDING ELBOW CURLS

Stand with your feet straight ahead

Place your right hand on your right shoulder; left hand on left shoulder

Touch your elbows together then take them as wide as they’ll go

Do 2 sets of 10

ARM CIRCLES

Stand with your feet straight ahead

Extend your arms out to the side, a little lower than the shoulders

Squeeze your shoulder blades together – lock out your elbows – make a loose fist

Fingers toward the floor, circle the whole arm forward 30 times

Keeping the elbows straight, turn the hands up, fingers toward the sky and circle backward 30 times

COUNTER STRETCH

Place your hands on the roof of your car about a foot apart (SUV owners, use the window sill)

Step back from car about 3-4 feet, get your feet straight ahead then bend from your hips to get your back flat and then put an arch in your low back.

Tighten your thighs and hold that for 30-60 seconds

 

When you have done these 4 exercises, notice how you feel.  You should feel more balanced left to right, a little taller and breathing a little easier!  Do these whenever you can on your trip.  When you get home, look us up and let us help you get straighter, stronger, more balanced and pain free!  Happy trails!

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.  

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!

 

 

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! 

 

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.

 

What Is Pain Free Performance?

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We are a community of people who all share the same vision.  Following our purpose – caring for people – alleviating pain. We are people of integrity, we’re smart, trained and experienced – you are in good hands – we know what we’re doing.  When it comes to Egoscue centered postural therapy we are the real deal. We practice a sound  evidence based approach that has been helping people get out of pain for over 42 years: Egoscue in it’s pure form.
We believe in getting back to the basic design  intended for the human body – your body. It’s not about a quick fix, it’s a journey to living pain free by restoring muscle balance. It’s not something that we do to you – there is some work involved , but it’s good work.
People come to us because they  have heard from a friend or a health care provider that we really get to the why of what is hurting you. From the moment you walk through our door you will experience the difference in our approach to treatment.  You will be greeted with a smile, compassion and understanding along with exceptional postural therapy. Our approach is very different…. in fact many things about us are different. We have made a conscious choice to resist the latest trends, current frenzied marketing approaches, credit cards and the traditional medical office experience.  Yes, we are a professional pain management clinic. However, we are care-givers who will be spending a lot of time with you , focused on your body, your alignment, alleviating your pain — giving you the tools to get back to your life.
Our true purpose is to guide your body back to your original design.  It’s not about orthotics, back braces, medications, injections or surgery.  It’s about teaching you how to undo all that has happened in your body due to the world we live in.  Sitting in the car for hours, or just sitting for hours, leaning over while we work, breaking a bone or two, that bad accident, inactivity, overuse – these things wreck havoc on that “original design”. All of these things have contributed to your pain.. Our passion is to teach you  how to re-educate your muscles to put your body back in alignment.

Our door is always open.  Please feel free to stop by, get a tour, meet our staff and see what we are all about. We look forward to meeting you.

In Good Health,

Cindy, Lisa, Mackie and Kat