Pain Free Performance — Egoscue Certified

Posture Alignment Therapists, Certified by Egoscue University

wellness

Mechanotransduction….

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Have you ever heard of Mechanotransduction? You’re probably saying to yourself, “No, and why do I care?” Because, understanding the meaning gives us one more important reason to keep moving!

Mechanotransduction is the physiological process in which cells sense and respond to mechanical loads.

Again, you might be thinking “So what?”

Basically, what it means is that when you walk, bend, dance or move in any way, your cells are being squished. This bending and squishing of your cells causes the body to convert the cellular response to create structural change.

Why does this matter? In the same way it matters for us to eat healthy foods. The nutrients from foods communicate with our cells and cause them to behave in a particular way. Movement creates a cellular response that can make a weak bone become a strong bone in response to the appropriate “load” through the joints. Your cells respond to balanced movement the way they respond to a healthy diet.

“Feed” your body at the cellular level by moving to stay aligned, balanced and pain free!

Getting Back to Exercise

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Often when clients are feeling better, they want to get back to their exercise routine. In order to create a change in posture, we ask that people hold off on weight lifting or repetitive exercise in the beginning so as not to strengthen any unresolved dysfunction. We completely understand that when the body is becoming aligned and pain has decreased, you are eager to get back to a more physical and active lifestyle.

So the question is: how do you exercise and remain pain free?

If there is an activity you love and want to get back to, you should try it! Listen to your body while doing the activity. If you have concerns about what you feel, acknowledge it. Your body will give you a signal if it is resisting, like pain or restricted range of motion. Our rule of thumb is to complete your Egoscue menu first, in order to align your body the best you can prior to your workout. Always follow up your activity or workout with a few exercises that your therapist recommends for your body or even repeat your menu. This will allow you to the live the life you love and remain pain free.

Remember, the best exercise equipment is your own body. Just walking puts your body in dynamic motion and allows your 200 bones, 230 joints, and 600 muscles to become energized! Not only will walking increase your aerobic response and nourish your joints, but it will maintain something called the “cross crawl pattern” within the brain that’s necessary for maintaining balance.

If you have any questions about getting back to your active lifestyle and remaining pain free, our Egoscue Certified Posture Alignment Specialists at Pain Free Performance will keep you on the right path!

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!

KEEP MOVING! by Jessica Powell

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sitting-diseaseAs a culture we have quit moving. Our mornings are a rush to get to work where we will sit for 8 hours a day. We might move to get lunch or take a break from the 9-5 grind, but it is minimal. We come home, eat dinner, and prepare for an evening on the couch of binge watching our current Netflix fix. Everyday  Americans are sitting for 13 hours while we are awake. Combined with the 8 hours of sleep our bodies need to live a healthy lifestyle, we are on average sedentary for 21 hours! You won’t believe what all of this is doing to your body!!!

Our heads are forward, our shoulders and back are rounding, and our knees are phoning in. Our bodies were meant to walk, dance, play on the floor, and run!  At Pain Free, we want to reverse the damage that technology and our culture has done to our bodies. We want to increase our function so that our limitations won’t prevent us from the spontaneous hike our wife invites us on or going skiing with an old friend. What activities have you put aside due to pain?

At Pain Free Performance, we want to get you back to living your best life including all the activities you love. We practice the Egoscue Method, which is a whole body approach to eliminating pain and enhancing your body’s ability to move. We do not focus on the site of the pain because often times it is not the the place of origin. Where is the pain in your body? What feels off or different? We chalk it up to age or irreversible injury. Acknowledge that it is a signal from your body and clue that change needs to occur. Our goal is always to enhance the symmetry in your body with the intent of rebalancing the muscles. When your muscles are balanced, you will be pain free.

Pain Free Performance provides your body with the stimulus it craves to reverse the hours we are inactive. The Egoscue Method will make you feel stronger, eliminate pain, and ultimately allow for your body’s future to not be dictated by physical limitations. We expect you to be hiking mountains, swimming, running, gardening, golfing – whatever you love to do – for the rest of your life. Allow Pain Free Performance to change your expectations of your body and create a life through motion!

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!

EGOSCUE AS MEDITATION

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With all of the heartbreaking craziness that is happening in the world recently, it’s no wonder we are all feeling a little unnerved. We watch the accounts on the news in horror, we stop watching but the images remain with us.  We feel worried, immense sadness and compassion for people directly affected and their families, fearful for ourselves and our families. Without being conscious of it, we hold our stress in our bodies and it might come out as the worst headache ever, nagging neck pain, or shoulder pain.  We’re not sleeping well.  We feel awful. It’s painful on every level – physical, mental, spiritual.

This last spring we began a meditation class here in our studio at Pain Free Performance in Charlottesville. We feel it’s an excellent compliment to the Egoscue work we do.  Our clients and friends had been talking more and more about wanting to join a group meditation so we found an inspired teacher and  began weekly meditations –it’s been great!

One of the first things we noticed is that some of the people in our group were claiming their place in the meditation circle with a mat and an Egoscue block. They participated in the guided class in static back!  The rest of us had powered through trying to perfect the more traditional meditation pose of sitting cross-legged with our hands in our laps.  While we were squirming and twisting to keep from cramping up, our friends were deep in pain free meditation.  We switched over pronto!  What we learned is that being in such a restorative physical position (static back) enabled us to be in a more receptive restful mental /spiritual position for meditation.  The results on every level were amazing.

So it got me thinking as I look for some peace and centeredness in these overwhelmingly turbulent times, that not only meditation might be in order but Egoscue as Meditation makes perfect sense.  In the Egoscue world, we teach our clients that their point of pain is not our focus but the alignment of the entire body is our focus.   Every part of the body is connected and interrelated just as is every part of our being – our bodies, our minds, our hearts.  We know how our physical pain can affect our mental status.  We know how our broken spirits can make us stumble physically.

So let me encourage you to use your Egoscue program time to take a few extra breaths;  breathe in strength, health, peace; breathe out fear, pain, worry.  We say it all the time in Egoscue – listen to your body.  Let’s add listen to your heart. Take another moment or two in static back to count your blessings and be grateful.  Not only can we heal our bodies but we can heal our spirits and minds.

In order to be the best advocate for peace for our families, community, country and our world, we have to start with ourselves and decompress, breathe, have faith, be kind, be well. Egoscue as Meditation?  Absolutely.

SCIATICA

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Over the holidays, we’ve had a number of clients come in to the clinic with sciatic pain. This symptom can present in very different ways.  For some, it’s a painful sacro-iliac joint that stays in that one hip area and perhaps into the gluteal muscle.  Others will feel a twinge of pain in the hip and then a pain in the calf of the same leg.  The classic sciatic symptom is pain in the hip and all the way down the back of the leg.  At times, this pain can feel debilitating – if you have had that pain, you know what I mean.   Take a deep breath, there is hope without taking pain relievers or having back surgery.

The sciatic nerve is the main nerve that feeds all the other nerves through your legs. Think of it as the main electrical feed that comes out of your spine at the top of the sacrum goes through the pelvis and down the back of both your legs.  Where that nerve comes out of the spine (on either side) and crosses through the pelvis (either side) there is not a lot of clearance.  This makes it imperative that your pelvis is bilateral and symmetrical and your spine is equally bilateral and centered on top of the pelvis.

Sounds simple, right? Well it is and it isn’t.  The pelvis is 3 bones and they can be off in any of the 3 planes of movement and the spine sitting on top that can be off in those same 3 planes.  What holds all this in the proper position?  Muscles.   Lots of them.  And, they all need to work equally as a team.  In order to work as that team, they need a wide variety of movement.  More and more in our culture and environment, we are getting less movement and less variety of movement.

We think driving to the gym and doing a cross-training work out every day is enough. That is good, but nothing compared to what our bodies really need – we need to run, jump, twist, throw, climb, push and pull.  Ideally, we need to do these things for hours every day.  We are not meant to sit still.

Stand normally in front of a full length mirror and look to see where your feet and knees point. Your feet and knee position will tell you a lot about your hips.  If your knees and feet point straight ahead equally, then your pelvis is in a good position; if one or both of either your feet or knees point in different directions, possibly both halves of your pelvis is out of position.  You can change that with a bit of work and the right exercises to get the muscles working appropriately again.

That is what the Egoscue method is all about. It is what we do at Pain Free Performance.  Call us or come and see us and we can enable you to alleviate your sciatic pain.

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!