Pain Free Performance — Posture Alignment Therapy

Live Pain Free!

Foot pain

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! 

 

The Best of Both Worlds

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We humans are social creatures, so we love doing things in groups.  We learn better in groups so any kind of class is a wonderful idea to most of us!  That is especially true for exercise classes. Having people around is stimulating, encouraging and helps us go beyond what we think our limitations are.  This is also true for our classes using the Egoscue Method for postural alignment.

Some of you know about Egoscue from coming to Pain Free Performance because you were in pain and could not find a way out.  Back pain, neck pain, ankle pain, shoulder pain, knee pain – we’ve seen it all!  That is the essence of Egoscue – total body alignment that restores function and relieves pain! 

Egoscue class is a great way to connect with other folks who are enjoying the benefits of a pain free aligned body.  Keep in mind class cannot be specific to each participant’s particular issues.  Most classes meet a couple of times a week and your body needs more training to re-adapt to proper muscular balance for posture.  You guys that have your Egoscue exercise menus know that a body needs the daily reminder of what those muscles are designed to do!

For those of you who haven’t visited us, this postural alignment work is individualized and specific to you, your body, your pain and dysfunction.  Exercises are prescribed (called menus) that have a sequence of muscular activation and/or deactivation best suited to your body.  There are no two bodies alike and there are rarely identical menus.  Class should not be viewed as a “one size fits all” approach to body alignment and pain relief – it should be another fun activity that you participate in because you’re feeling great after doing your menu!

Doing your individual menu gives you a wonderful opportunity to tune into your own body and inner self.  Listening to your body while performing your Egoscue menu is a perfect meditation time or just simply quiet alone time.   If you’re going to class but you don’t have a menu…let me encourage you to get one.  It will change your life and it will make all of the other stuff possible.  

Going to class is great!!!!  Keep at it!  Class, hiking, biking, running, swimming, tennis – move and enjoy what you love to do — your body will like the extra movement and extra attention.  And, do your menu also.  You can have the best of both worlds!  

 

Lyme Disease

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I thought I knew about pain…I have had my share of injuries, I’ve given birth three times and, shoot, my business is called Pain Free Performance!  I have spent my entire career helping others get out of pain.  But, after all of these years, I have a new understanding and appreciation of what it is like to really live in pain every minute of every day and not know the way out. 

One morning last August my alarm clock went off as usual. I attempted to look at the time and turn off the alarm but could not turn my head.  I got out of bed that morning thinking I had a stiff neck.  As the day progressed my neck stiffness eased up but my body ached.  Did I have the flu or maybe I “slept funny”? I got to work and did a few of my Egoscue e-cises to help with the pain.

The next day when I tried to lift my right leg, it felt strange and heavy.  The day after that, I could barely lift my right arm.  The pain was different than any pain I ever experienced and it was not from overuse or a pulled muscle.  Concerned, I went to see the doctor.  After my exam, a lot of research, and some process of elimination, the only thing that seemed to make sense was Lyme disease.  Lyme disease is a tick borne illness and is increasingly prevalent in the Northeast United States. What was strange is that I never saw a tick on me nor did I have a bull’s-eye rash which is a sign of a tick bite in need of treatment.  My Lyme test (a blood test taken at the physician’s office and sent to a regional lab) was negative. 

As days passed my pain became worse.  The pain that I felt in my shoulders was excruciating.  It felt to me like my shoulders were no longer connected properly.   I could not dress myself or lift my arms to wash my hair.  Both of my shoulders were frozen. My left ankle was swollen, some of my fingers were numb and just about every joint in my body hurt.  I tried to continue my Egoscue e-cises but soon I knew I needed more help.

Back to the doctor I go.  I was put on the standard antibiotic for Lyme and re-tested.  My second Lyme test was also negative.  Two months on the antibiotics and nothing had changed… in fact I felt worse.  Because my case was not typical for Lyme disease, and the tests were negative, of course my physician (who leaves no stone unturned) wanted to rule out other medical possibilities for the symptoms.  He even consulted with a Lyme expert in Maryland and suggested that we consult a neurologist, a rheumatologist, and also an endocrinologist. I was convinced that I did not have a neurological issue.  I also felt strongly that I wouldn’t have just gotten up one day with rheumatoid arthritis.  I was in so much pain and I was frustrated and confused.  How did this happen to me? I am typically healthy and active.  Now I can barely get out of bed!

I was at my wit’s end and in so much pain I decided to try a massage just to feel better for a little while. The therapist asked me if I had any medical concerns and I told her what had been going on with the possible Lyme disease.  Her eyes got huge and she told me was in the exact same place herself just six years ago.  She had to quit her nursing job because her pain was so bad that she was not able to work.  She learned quickly that there is not good information or protocol to treat chronic Lyme disease in our traditional medical community, so she had to become an expert in order to find a remedy and regain her life.   I learned so much from her.  Only about 50% of people with Lyme disease get the bull’s-eye rash and only half of the people bitten remember seeing the tick.  The mainstream blood tests for Lyme are not accurate. Antibiotics are usually effective when you are treated soon after being bitten by the tick. Long term antibiotics can be very harmful.

My new friend, Jean Weiss, RN and Certified Massage Therapist, has devoted her life to educating people about Lyme disease.  She has just started a Lyme Disease Support Group and is working with physicians in the area to help treat people in the community with Lyme.  She taught me there is hope.  There are additional treatments for Lyme. There is another more accurate blood test for Lyme that is processed at a lab in California.  Finally I tested positive for Lyme and with Jeans help I am almost back to 100%! 

Sometimes our pain is not musculoskeletal, it’s something else.  At Pain Free we’re the experts at treating musculoskeletal pain and we can always help you with that.  We also want to be good at referring you to other talented practitioners we have the good fortune of knowing who have different expertise… especially when we experience it first-hand! 

 If you or someone you know need help with Lyme disease, want the schedule for the Lyme Disease Support Group or just want to know more, below is the contact information for Jean.  

Jean Weiss

Massage and Wellness

434-960-3869

Jeanweiss100@gmail.com

 

In Good Health,

Cindy

PAIN FREE — IT’S YOUR BIRTHRIGHT!

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Pain Free Performance – It’s the name of our posture clinic in Charlottesville, Virginia and it is also every person’s birthright.  We should be able to do whatever we want free of any kind of chronic musculo-skeletal pain.  For most of us, that is not the case.  We live with pain every day, but the good news is, we don’t have to!

In its truest form, pain is the body’s alarm system.  It is telling us that something is wrong and urging us to do something about it.  When we listen to that alarm, a whole new world awakens!  First, we need to determine what our body is trying to tell us and then take responsibility and be pro-active to regain our health.  That’s where our expertise at Pain Free Performance comes in!

In listening to your pain, is there a position that helps it feel better or decrease?  Is that position associated with an activity?  What happens when you do that activity with perhaps more mindfulness?  Does the pain/symptom increase, decrease or not change? 

The body thrives on movement and it must move to maintain health.  Load bearing joints need to line up in vertical and horizontal lines to allow the body to move without limitation or pain.  So, if you’re in pain, you need some help with alignment to get your body back to its original perfect design.   After all, for thousands of years we have walked, run, danced, crawled, dug, thrown, climbed, swung, jumped and played.  By doing these things, we thrived! There’s no reason we shouldn’t be doing these things all of our lives.  Our technology-oriented society has taken us away from our life of movement and well-being  (hunched over desks in front of computers rather than moving) but we can reclaim our active lifestyles!

So, I ask you, is your back pain, shoulder pain, hip pain, neck pain or knee pain keeping you from doing something that brings you joy or makes you feel good about life?  Are you willing to take some action to change that?  People may be suggesting medication, injections, even surgery but there is another way.  You have to do it, but we’re here to show you how.  It’s your move and your body! 

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.

 

 

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.

 

Dr. Greg Gelburd Discovers Egoscue at Pain Free Performance!

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DR. GELBURD DISCOVERS PAIN FREE PERFORMANCE!

It’s an early morning in Haiti and I’m doing an airbench before clinic. My eyes are closed and I’m concentrating on Cindy Meyers’ words: “push down on your heels and push your lower back into the wall and hold for two minutes”.  I look like a man sitting in a chair without the chair under me. This is a small pause before my very busy medical clinic begins.

How did I come to airbenches in Haiti, doing these and other  postures described in “Pain Free” by Pete Egoscue to help resolve issues in my foot, my lower back and my shoulder? I’ve written this little story to describe to you how postural therapy has rescued me and why I believe many others in Charlottesville would benefit from some time spent with the people at Pain Free Performance where they treat pain with postural alignment.

Seven months ago, I was faced with several muscular skeletal problems that were not going away, the result of one bike collision with a car, 45 years of running with the wrong stride and a slowly aging 60 year old body. My pain was so severe a year ago I hiked down a Glacier National Park mountain backwards for two miles because I couldn’t come down on my right heel, it felt like a knife jabbing my foot! The bears thought I was just wacky but at least they stayed away.  I sought out help from Cindy Meyers, Mackie Boblette, and Kat Draego at Pain Free Performance. In February I saw Cindy for an evaluation and she photographed my body from several angles against a grid background. She showed me where my shoulders and hip bones were off balance, and then how my head was too far forward on my neck and how my gut was not so much full of extra hamburgers as I thought, but it protruded a little because of the lack of curvature in my middle back. She watched me walk and perform some stretches and positions so she could evaluate the way my body moves and from that she gave me a specific regimen to begin to re-balance my body.

Cindy, Mackie and Kat are Postural Alignment Specialists certified by Egoscue University.  Developed over forty years ago by anatomical functionalist Pete Egoscue,  this postural alignment therapy focuses on realigning the entire body. So even though my heels were giving me fits, the fact that my head, shoulders and hips were off kilter is what was causing the overall dysfunction and pain in my feet.

Every two weeks I have spent an hour with Cindy and Mackie for re-evaluation and a new program prescription as my body changes. I spend about 15-20 minutes each day performing these simple but deeply effective isometric postures, strengthening and balancing my skeleton and muscles. The results are amazing! Who knew? Even a vegan diet couldn’t get rid of my gut, but not only is that disappearing but my heel pain is pretty much gone! I’m back to running after a two year hiatus and my foot strike is now mid foot not heel. I’ve even gained an extra half inch back in my height with my spine better supported!

Now my family, office staff and Haitian friends are accustomed to my  airbenches, cat-dog postures and standing shoulder shrugs. I am continuing to make these postures a part of my routine before my work day, before running and other workouts. This is an incredible team of caring and gifted health workers. Their skills and their motivation will keep you going in the right direction until you are as healed as you want to be.

Dr. Greg Gelburd

 

 

 

Go Barefoot!!

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The Egoscue Method is based on the idea that health is motion.  The more we move, the healthier we are, the healthier we stay.  In the poorer regions of our world, people move more.  They may walk to get from one place to another, perhaps they grow their own food and actually harvest the fields to put it on the table – they’re moving because they have to.  They often keep moving longer than we do in our wealthier, more sedentary culture.  We could learn a lot from their lifestyle.

In these cultures, often we see folks going barefoot – while they work, run, play and walk!  People ask me at Pain Free all the time about what kind of shoes they should be wearing.  The answer is in another lesson we could learn from these other cultures– no shoes are the best for your feet!  In May of 2010, Harvard Medical School released a study that found that the more support, more cushioning and more expensive the shoe, the more likely for injury.  The reason?  Most shoes do not allow your foot to go through its natural motion.  The support of a shoe can actually weaken the muscles of the foot and the muscles of the leg and hip that work as a team with the foot.  The muscles of the feet are no different than any other muscles of the body – they need movement and lots of it! If you don’t use them, they become weak and atrophy.

 I am not suggesting that you throw away your orthotics and expensive shoes.  If you need them to walk without pain, then use them.  What I am suggesting is that if your body alignment is good and you can go barefoot, by all means do it. Your feet will thank you for it!