Pain Free Performance — Egoscue Certified

Posture Alignment Therapists, Certified by Egoscue University

Egoscue therapist

Aging and Egoscue

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What’s trending at Pain Free Performance? Aging….

When I think of the most common conversation that pops up at our clinic these days…it has to be aging. At Pain Free Performance we are made up of a lot of baby boomers, people who are interested in staying active, working hard, retiring well, while enjoying life to the fullest. What I’m hearing (and feeling) is that we don’t like the wrinkles, the diminishing muscle tone, but especially the insinuation that we’re losing physical momentum and there’s nothing we can do about it.  Society has always been fascinated with youth…but weren’t we young not long ago?

Then, something stops us in our tracks. We’re still skiing, golfing, swimming, running but afterwards we can barely move. We twist or land hard doing things we’ve always done and ouch – back pain, heel pain, foot pain, neck pain – where did that come from?!  I can’t tell you how often I hear “I suddenly feel so old”, “I can’t believe I can’t ____ anymore” (just fill in the blank), or “My doctor says I have arthritis…”.

I encourage you NOT to buy into the theory that because you’re a little older, that activity is a thing of the past. There’s a great quote John Elder, of Egoscue University, used in a recent article “If you didn’t know how old you are, you’d have no idea how old you are…”! Forget the number! The best thing we can do for ourselves is keep moving.  Stay active.  Listen to our bodies.  They are amazing – even as we age! The human body has an innate and amazing ability to heal.

Our bodies, young or old, are designed to run, jump, play, swim, move and rest without pain. The pain is an alarm sounding that something in the musculo-skeletal system is out of whack.  Your head should sit squarely on your neck – your ears over shoulders which should line up over your hips, which line up over your knees and on down to your ankles.  If you look at yourself from the side in the mirror and this isn’t happening, you’ve got some muscles that are not doing their job properly.  This creates uneven wear and tear on the joints and is how all of the tendonitis, stenosis, bulging disks and tennis elbow stuff come into play. It could be a result of an injury (ie; putting more weight on one ankle after breaking the other-for years and years) or habitual poor body mechanics or posture (ie; hunched over your computer, phone, steering wheel or easel).  Muscles pull bones – either into or out of alignment…are you getting the picture?

Most often, the missing link to becoming pain free is getting your body aligned so that you can continue to do all of the things you love to do.  Everything else – the meds, the massage, the adjustment – are great, but temporary relief.  Egoscue – it’s real lasting relief. If you have back pain, plantar fasciitis, rotator cuff syndrome, knee pain, arthritis, or wrist pain – don’t blame age, blame alignment!!

We know how to teach you to retrain your muscles so that they are on track – waking up those muscles that aren’t doing enough and quieting those muscles that have been overworking – perfectly pulling your skeletal system back into the design intended and relieving the pain. Let us show you how.

 

 

BACK PAIN

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If you suffer from back pain – the kind of back pain that can go from 0 to 100 in a flash – you innocently reach for something and your back goes into spasm – or you have chronic never-ending back pain that eats away at your work, your play, your sleep, your relationships and every aspect of your life. At best, your back pain is exhausting and debilitating.

I know, you have a diagnosis, your back pain has a name – you have a bulging disk, a herniated disk, scoliosis, spondylolisthesis, maybe even a spinal fusion. I get it that you feel that you just have to suffer with the back pain that you were dealt.  Maybe you take some meds or get an injection or even contemplate surgery if you really want relief from your back pain.  Not so fast.

What we really need to do is stop the back pain before it begins. How do we do that?  First, we have to ask the question, what is the cause of your bulging disk, herniated disk, scoliosis, or spondylolisthesis?  With rare congenital exception, these are maladies that occur second-hand from misalignment elsewhere in the body.

That’s where we come in. To treat your back pain, we actually need to focus on your muscles, not just the bones in your spine.  The spine consists of 33 individual vertebrae that stack one on top of the other encasing the spinal cord. The muscles surrounding the spine – healthy and functional – are the real work horses helping to maintain the balance and erectness of the body.  It’s amazing.  However, if the muscles become inactive, weak or atrophied, other muscles begin compensating – the integrity of the spine becomes compromised – alignment is lost – your excruciating back pain is just one of the possible results.

As a Postural Alignment Specialist certified by Egoscue University, we can unravel the dysfunctions in your body that are causing your back pain and safely return you to a pain free lifestyle. Check out this video on back pain by Pete Egoscue to show you how we would begin that process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6pTC4JvMjc

The human body is amazing and has a miraculous natural ability to heal. Yes, even your back pain. Let us show you how at Pain Free Performance.

 

 

GARDENING SEASON AGAIN!

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Ah yes! It’s time for gardening and yard work.  Finally!  But after just a couple of hours of gardening, my back hurts.  We hear this at Pain Free in the spring, especially as people start getting more active.  They get back pain from what seems to be the simplest most innocuous movements.

We forget that the body is a stimulus-response system (everything we do and eve think has a muscular response in the body). If you’ve been sitting around all winter that inactivity created some less mobile areas in the body.  You may have been active all winter, going to the gym, lifting weights, hours of aerobics, skiing – active!  But moving into the garden we still hear “my back hurts!”.  Those winter activities are great and, even better, fun! However, they don’t get our bodies more functional. What I mean by that is joints lined up vertically and horizontally.  Moving that bag of topsoil requires different movement strength than your weight machine, stair machine, or elliptical. You need to be functional before you are active to stay pain free.

Take weeding for example, Most of us will sit on the ground and start pulling weeds. That sitting position already puts your back in a rounded, flexed position and once you start pulling weeds you force the back muscles to work in that disadvantaged position with no help from the hips and legs (because you’re sitting on them;). Ouch!

WHAT TO DO?!!

BEFORE: Think of your gardening and yardwork as a strength work-out and prepare for it like that.  Do a little warm-up before you go out to get your body functional, lined up vertically and equal right to left.  Try these e-cises:

AIRBENCH

CATS AND DOGS

ARM CIRCLES

ELBOW CURLS

DURING: It’s good to change positions.  Instead of sitting the whole time, kneel or work from your hands and knees, get up and walk around.  Try standing and bend from your hips for a bit.  Change positions every 10-20 minutes.  Your body likes a variety of movement and positions!

AFTER: When you’re done and feeling all proud of yourself, instead of plopping down on the couch, take that much deserved break in static back – everyone’s favorite exercise and so restorative.  If your back pain continues give us a call.  At Pain Free Performance, we are Posture Alignment Specialists certified by Egoscue University — we can help you eliminate that back pain and enjoy your garden!

 

I’VE GOT A HEADACHE!

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I’ve got a headache! How often do you complain of having one?  Daily? Couple times a week? Once a month?  Some headaches are related to allergies, others are migraines and still others are spouse or child related!

No matter how often they occur or what kind, they can be debilitating.  Some people with migraines have to sequester themselves for days in the dark, taking Advil or Excedrin Migraine.  If it’s a really bad one then we bring out the Imitrex or some version of sumatriptan or other prescription drugs.

What if we did something about the cause of the headache instead of just covering it up with drugs?  We are really just masking the problem and not doing anything about its root cause.  Chances are, the cause of your headache is a misalignment of your head, shoulders and upper back.  If you look at yourself in a side view, most of us are rounded forward in our upper backs and shoulders with the head forward of the middle of your shoulder, or your pelvis is forward of your shoulder which rounds your upper back.  In either case, because you are rounded forward, your lungs are being compressed and your heart is being compressed which means your respiratory system and cardiovascular system are having to work extra hard.  Your body knows it has to get blood and oxygen to your brain to keep you alive but because the position of your head, upper back and shoulders is so compromised, the blood vessels and capillaries cannot work efficiently.  They have to expand to get enough blood to the brain for the oxygen carbon dioxide exchange to take place and those capillaries expanding are what cause the headaches!

If we can get your head, shoulder and upper back in the vertical position by fixing your posture then the lungs, heart, blood vessels and capillaries can all work efficiently and no more headaches! Give us a call and we’ll show you exactly what we’re taking about.  We can get your posture into its most aligned and efficient place – giving you the control to end your headaches once and for all.

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!

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.  

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.