Pain Free Performance — Posture Alignment Therapy

Live Pain Free!

knee pain

BALANCE….

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At Pain Free, a frequent topic of conversation is balance. Finding the right balance between work and home, healthy lifestyle and indulgence, and with needed relaxation and activity. It’s challenging to have one aspect of our lives come to the forefront decreasing the energy and care we are able to devote to other vital areas. Our bodies do the same thing! When one area of our body is not functioning correctly, it calls on its neighbor muscle groups to achieve an action. When the neighboring muscle groups continue to help, our body becomes imbalanced.

Do you have shoulder pain? Back pain? Knee pain? This is likely stemming from an imbalance somewhere else in the body. One shoulder or hip could be higher. One foot might turn out, while the other is straight. In order to make the body stable, the left and right side should be a reflection of the other.

So how do we restore balance to our muscles? To the muscles that haven’t functioned correctly in months or years? Restoring alignment to the body involves bilateral movements. Our bodies should be completing movements with both right and left sides of our bodies working in unison. The shoulders, hips, knees and ankles should line up vertically. It is the complex underlying muscle network that pulls the bones and makes proper alignment possible. We want to wake up the inactive muscles and remind them that they have a job to do. We want to quiet the muscles that are doing too much.

That’s what we do here at Pain Free Performance. We assist you in bringing your body back to its original design. Through Egoscue, allow us to bring your body and your life back into balance.

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.

 

 

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!

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.

 

SUPINE GROIN PROGRESSIVE

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If I told you there was something you could do for one hour that would help your back pain, your shoulder pain, hip pain and leg pain and all you have to do is lie on the floor, would you do it?  Well there is such a position – it’s called Supine Groin Progressive.  It’s sort of an exercise, but not really because you don’t do anything except lower your leg down through different levels every few minutes while lying there relaxing.  The benefits are amazing…let me explain.

This is the tower.  If you’ve been to Pain Free Performance, you’ve probably seen one.  If not, it looks a little weird, but it’s an amazing postural tool.  You see in the photo that one foot is in the upper level of the tower, the other is over a block.  What do you do?  You just lie there for 5 minutes each level and then do the same thing to the other leg.

What is it doing?

Several things are happening in several different muscles.  Because the floor acts as a template, this puts your head, shoulders, back, hips, legs and feet on an even plane. For most of us, this is not the norm when we are standing.   When you first lie down, you most likely will notice that there is space between your low back and the floor.    Your body will eventually conform and sink into the floor. 

Specifically, the ilio-psoas muscle at the base of the spine will relax and let your low back and pelvis settle back to the floor.  The ilio-psoas starts at the low spine, crosses over the pelvis and attaches to the inside of the upper thigh.  Because a lot of us sit so much, this muscle gets tight and since it is right in the middle of the body, it affects the whole body…especially the mid back and hips. 

How does it work? 

The body remembers this release of muscle tightness and the misalignment that comes with it.   Doing this Egoscue exercise has a cumulative effect on the body and is a great antidote for all those hours of sitting.  Over time, this muscle memory becomes the norm for your body’s posture when standing, running, sitting, or playing! 

If you have questions, call us at Pain Free Performance and schedule a posture evaluation.  The tower is just one exercise that would be a part of a postural exercise prescription.  Each person is given an individualized program based on their postural issues.  We can show you how improving your posture gives you pain relief, restores function and makes a world of difference in how your body feels and how you feel about almost everything.  This is why we do what we do!!!   

               

 

MY FEET ARE KILLING ME!

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At our clinic we hear this at least once a day.

And, some folks have the hardest time believing that foot pain is a posture problem.  Maybe it’s just that our feet are so far from our heads or that we’ve been trained to think of the body in separate parts and symptoms.  However, most likely your foot pain IS a posture problem.

Think of it this way, your feet are the first point of contact with the ground, so there is a lot of pressure from your body weight being pulled by gravity as each foot hits the ground.  The body is an integrated system and when it works properly your feet have a lot of support from your legs, hips and even your back.  They all work together as a team to support your feet, mitigating that gravitational pressure.  When your body is not working properly – meaning your posture is out of whack – then your feet are on their own, without support.

Take a quick look in the mirror.  Is your head bent over forward?  Are your shoulders and upper back rounded forward?  Is one shoulder higher than the other?  What about your hips…is one higher than the other?  These misalignments are created by a myriad of every day occurrences such as being hunched over a desk, operating table, sewing machine or computer; maybe you broke your arm and your shoulder position changed while you were casted or that sprained ankle created a change in your gait to avoid pain, so much so that you ended up with hip pain, leg pain, knee pain and eventually foot pain.

Again, your feet have no support.  They are rolling in, rolling out, slapping flat on the ground without the normal heel, ball, toe push off creating pain as they try to compensate for all the misalignments going on higher up in the body.  So, next time your feet are hurting, check your posture.  Getting the picture? Everything in our bodies is connected and rarely does the point of pain you are experiencing originate there.  Once you correct the misalignment, your foot pain will disappear also.

We know how to get to the root of your foot pain.  We understand the connections and what to do to untangle the postural issues life has created in your body so that you can be pain free.  Call us at Pain Free Performance…we are here to help.

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