Pain Free Performance — Posture Alignment Therapy

Posture Alignment Therapists, Graduates of Egoscue University

pain management

Misalignment leads to Neck & TMJ Pain

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Our head is the center and peak of our body. When the head and neck are out of alignment, the weight of our head increases the load on our neck by 10 pounds per every inch that our head is forward. As our culture continues to become tech focused, the root of neck pain and jaw pain are due to our misaligned necks and forward heads. 

 

Our neck is made up of the top part of our spine: the cervical spine. The cervical spine is a slightly concave curve that develops during the first three months of life as infants learn to lift and turn their head. The curve of our neck allows for enhanced mobility of our head. This is why we can turn our head to see something without rotating or turning our spine and shoulders. 

 

Throughout the past 20 years our culture’s behavior has changed. We no longer turn our head to look for cars behind us while driving because our rear cameras alert us when someone is there. Work days have shifted to being predominantly at the computer. The average time an adult spends on their phone is more than three hours per day. The decrease in movement of our neck and increased forward head has led to a loss of the concave cervical curve.  Without the cervical curve of our neck to support our head, our skeletal system shifts and leads to increased tension in the muscles that connect our neck to our shoulders and jaw misalignment.  

 

Within the past few years at our practice, we have seen this increase in clients presenting with neck pain and temporomandibular joints (TMJ) pain.  As the head becomes more flexed forward, the joints that connect our jaw to our head begin to shift in response to the misaligned spine of our neck. The misaligned jaw often is identified by “clicking” or pain from overuse of chewing/talking in a misaligned joint positioning. Often clients with forward head positioning and jaw misalignment present with headaches in conjugation to neck pain and TMJ pain. Forward head positioning leads to decreased blood flow to the brain from poor alignment. It might sound unusual that headaches and jaw pain are connected to your alignment, but as the head shifts forward the cervical spine becomes more flexed, decreasing blood flow to the brain, enhancing strain on the muscles around the neck, and often creating shifts within the jaw.

 

At our practice, we treat the misalignment of the head positioning that creates TMJ pain and neck pain by addressing the body as a unit. We focus to align the body vertically and reduce the flexion of the neck. One example of this would be aligning the body against a wall and placing a block between the knees with active pressure. This position allows the feedback of the wall against the head, shoulders, hips, and ankles. When holding this positioning daily, the muscles of the neck and shoulders begin to relax and have reduced tension and muscular compensation. Overtime, we are able to see a reduction in the flexed position of the head, correct curvature within the spine, and the jaw becomes more aligned.

 

Our goal during a postural alignment therapy evaluation is to identify what is driving the forward head position and jaw misalignment. Through a complete health assessment, functional testing, and gait analysis we can begin to understand the muscular imbalances in a client’s body. This will allow us to identify the muscles that need to be strengthened or released to bring the body into alignment. We do this through corrective exercises that will be done daily at home in the order to address the misaligned neck, forward shoulders, and jaw positioning. Once the body is aligned and the forward head position and shoulders are less rounded, the pain will subside and our clients are able to live a functional pain free life.

THE RIGHT MOVES

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When we hear about healthy lifestyles from our healthcare professionals, three things are always stressed: eating healthy foods, getting adequate sleep and exercising regularly. As you know, we’re into healthy lifestyles at Pain Free and we talk a lot about total body alignment and movement.

Culturally, we are pretty sedentary with only bursts of movement or exercise adding up to maybe 1 or 2 hours a day. Research is now showing that doesn’t meet our body’s daily movement requirements. THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MOVEMENT AND EXERCISE.

EXERCISE typically consists of repetitive motion in a specific area of the body for a specific amount of time. Think treadmill, for example. Our heart rate’s up, one foot in front of the other over and over. We drive to the gym, walk or run on the treadmill for an hour, then we drive back home or work. What are we doing the rest of the day?

MOVEMENT is leaving our car at home and walking to the store to buy our groceries. Our heart rate is up, we’re working our lower body and utilizing our upper body carrying groceries home. Now, that might not be feasible for all of us but it illustrates how our bodies are meant to function. Even if we can’t walk to the store, we just need to change things up a bit to add natural movement back into our lives.

HERE ARE OUR TOP FIVE TIPS TO OPTIMIZE THE WAY YOU MOVE EVERY DAY:

1.) START YOUR DAY MOVING
Begin the day with your Egoscue ecises , take a walk with your coffee, stretch while you read the paper, or step on the trampoline while you watch the news. The more you move, the more your brain will encourage movement throughout the day.

2.) PARK AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE
We hear a lot about 10,000 steps. Instead of stressing over a number, seek any opportunity for movement – all types of movement. Park further away, walk to your destinations, take the stairs, work-in a zumba class – whatever you love to do. The movement will add up. Lasting results begin with subtle changes in the way you move through your life!

3.) CREATE A MORE DYNAMIC WORK STATION
People ask us if standing work desks are really healthier than sitting. Absolutely! Also think about working from the floor, at a coffee table, on a pillow or in any other way you can imagine. If you can’t do this at the office, try it at home. Stand awhile, sit awhile. The take away is, this encourages your body to respond and move in the way it was intended. Your joints will be more fluid, increase your functionality and keep you moving well for a long, long time!

4.) MOVE WHILE YOU WORK
Why not encourage natural movement while taking care of business? Take a walk down the hall or up and down the stairs while you return phone calls. Your heart rate will increase, your feet will be happy, and your mind will be clear and rejuvenated from this much needed movement break. Stand a stretch every hour or so. Keep moving.

5.) SIT ON THE FLOOR
Home after a hard day, maybe you’re planning to catch up on your favorite Netflix series. Instead of plopping on the couch, try the floor. Put your back up against the couch. Cross your legs, or put them straight out in front of you, or pull your knees up to your chest. Better yet, do all of these periodically! Floor sitting allows your hips and knees to bend at angles that are lost in our culture. Using the floor, instead of chairs or the couch, stimulates your muscles to be more flexible, stronger, and more efficient.

It’s not movement OR exercise. While it’s important to know the difference, fill your life with both. As Postural Alignment Therapists at Pain Free Performance, certified by Egoscue University, we teach total body alignment to create your very best function without pain. Incorporate movement in your life the same way. More movement, of all kinds. All of your functional muscles and the resulting properly aligned joints need to be used all day every day in as many ways as possible. Total alignment, total movement, for a totally enjoyable healthy life!

SCOLIOSIS

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At our clinic, we see several clients a week with scoliosis – a curvature of the spine.  Some people are born with scoliosis and for most it develops in puberty when the muscles can’t keep up with the bones during this intense period of growth.  This muscle imbalance is what pulls the spine into an unnatural curve.  Scoliosis can be very painful and without intervention can worsen.  Our clients with scoliosis have often  tried  everything including bracing, rounds of physical therapy  and even spinal surgery placing Harrington rods in the back in an attempt to correct the curve of their spine.  Despite these methods, they continue to have pain in their body caused by this muscular imbalance.

When Egoscue was developed, the idea was simple: activate muscles to pull the bones into an aligned position. When the body is given the correct stimulus, the muscles will pull the bones into a straight position. When the bones are aligned, the friction on our joints when we move will be decreased. Your spine is subject to the same rules!  By rebalancing the muscles of your back, your spine will load correctly and decrease the curve of scoliosis.

During the initial evaluation, your Egoscue therapist will analyze the curve of the spine by taking photos, palpating the joint position, and completing functional tests to see how the body obtains a specific movement. This will allow your Egoscue therapist to not only feel and see the curve, but also to determine which muscles are overworking and which are not doing enough to align your body and your spine correctly.  Your Egoscue e-cise menu will have a series of exercises designed to activate the specific muscle groups in your body that are needed to decrease the curve of your spine. When your body – including your spine – is aligned and symmetrical it will move with ease and without pain!

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!

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!

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!

 

 

Golf Exercises

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Spring is finally here!  Really!  I see more and more people out at the driving range and on the golf course, and that is great!  What I also see though, is a little alarming…the golfers bodies, especially shoulders, upper back, neck and hips are still frozen and stuck from winter.  Getting that golf ball off the tee and into the air is not a pretty sight and often results in some fairly substantial pain from the musculo-skeletal compensation used to get the job done.  That’s a mouthful, but it means there is a lot of pain in the low back, knees, elbows and shoulders for these golfers because of this. 

Here is a quick sequence of e-cises you can do both before and after golf that will unlock the upper back, hips and shoulders so the body can work as a inter-connected unit rather than disparate parts.  Our Egoscue enthusiasts will recognize these e-cises.  If you are not yet familiar with Egoscue e-cises, and would like to know more about these, give us a call and we’ll give you some pointers.

ARM CIRCLES to strengthen the upper back muscles involved in the ball and socket work while reconnecting the back and pelvis.

ELBOW CURLS to remind the shoulders that they have a hinge function while getting the upper back out of its rounded stooped place.

STANDING OVERHEAD EXTENSION getting all the load-bearing joints to line up in the vertical line and extending the upper back through the neck.

UPPER SPINAL FLOOR TWIST uses rotation of the spine to continue opening and lengthening the mid and upper back while strengthening the hips in the same plane, twists the upper body against the lower body (important for that swing!).

CATS AND DOGS work hips, spine, shoulders and neck in coordinated flexion-extension and asks all the muscles of hips, back shoulders to work bilaterally – both right and left shoulders together at the same time.  This is so important as more and more we use just one side of our bodies predominantly.

Try these both before and after you have played your round of golf.  I can guarantee you’ll feel the difference.  Contact us at Pain Free Performance with any questions.  Enjoy the course!