Pain Free Performance — Posture Alignment Therapy

Live Pain Free!

wellness

Straighten….THEN Strengthen!

by

 

That is what I tell my clients when they ask if they should be doing strength training.  The answer is they are already doing strength training!  Most of us do not realize the work that it takes our body to stand up in alignment with the line of gravity – ankles, knees, hips shoulders, and head in vertical and horizontal lines.  It actually requires more strength than we think – just a different kind of strength and in different places.  The paradox is when you have that kind of strength, it feels effortless.

Try this little test:  Stand with your back to the wall, feet 4 to 6 inches apart pointed straight ahead.  Let your butt and shoulder blades lightly touch the wall.  Does your head easily touch the wall?  If it does, great, leave it there.  If it does not, you don’t have to force it back, but it shows that you lack some postural strength.  Set a timer for 3 to 5 minutes and just stand there.  Begin to notice how you feel and where you start to feel tense and uncomfortable.  Do you start to fidget?  All of these are signs that you don’t have the postural strength to stand up straight along the line of gravity. 

Here’s another paradox:  You cannot strengthen those postural muscles by going to the gym and doing what we typically do on those machines or with weights.  Most of the postural muscles are really deep in the body and have been inactive for a while due to compensations.  If you don’t re-activate those postural muscles but go to the gym to lift or whatever, they stay asleep and you strengthen the compensations until they start creating pain or injury. 

Many of our clients are fit active people who participate in strength training and classes but have had to stop because of pain.  Their biggest fear is that because they are not lifting weights or doing the cardio kickboxing class, their bodies will turn to mush and lose muscle tone.  RELAX, that Egoscue program is a strengthening program!  I can guarantee you won’t lose anything.  In most cases, you don’t have to stop doing anything but you’ll have to do your Egoscue program first and then do those lateral raises (or your exercise of choice) a little differently and a bit more consciously.

Then, it’s almost like magic….you’ll feel better, stand taller without effort and you’ll be stronger than ever!

HOW POSTURE THERAPY WORKS

by

HOW POSTURE THERAPY WORKS

I had a client the other day that came in with major pain and I thought I would share his story with you because this visit clearly illustrates how posture therapy works.

“Tom” came to us with left knee pain.  He had tried all kinds of things to help it – yoga, massage, stretching, chiropractic, physical therapy, even medication.  Nothing seemed to help and often his knee hurt as much if not more after these activities.

The focus of our posture work is looking at the body as a unit, as a complete system.  Most people think the problem is where the pain is, but that is hardly ever the case.  Tom’s pain tells us there is an issue with his left knee, but the cause of that knee pain is most likely somewhere else.  How do we find out where the root of the pain is?  Let me take you through our thought process as Posture Alignment Specialists certified by Egoscue University.   

As I said before, we look at the body as a unit, without focusing on the symptom (Tom’s knee pain).   I look at him to see if his ankles, knees, hips and shoulders line up in straight lines and at ninety degree angles.  I’m not thinking about what I can give him to make his knee feel better but I ask myself how is his body working as a unit?

Looking at Tom, the first thing that jumped out at me was that his right hip was an inch higher than the left.  Viewing from the front or back, his right hip was definitely elevated.  Just standing there, I could see that he did not really put equal weight on his right side.  With a hip that is elevated, it is so out of position that it is unable to do its job taking equal weight.

As a little test, I asked him to stand on one leg at a time, bending the other and bringing it up waist high.  Standing on his left side, the painful one, he could balance easily, but he could not balance standing on his right side.  So, I’m thinking that hip elevation is probably the major cause of his left knee pain, but I want to watch him walk first.  When he walks across the room and back I can see that he definitely shifts more onto his left side.  When I ask him if he can feel that he lands harder on his left side, his answer was “yeah, sort of” but when I have him watch himself walk in the mirror, he sees it clearly.

It’s a little strange that he shifts onto his painful side.  Most people shift away from the painful side.  Tom agrees that it doesn’t make any sense to him and has no idea why he would do that.  I explain that with his right hip so out of position, he simply is unable to load his weight equally from left to right.

So, Tom’s thought was “If my left knee hurts because my right hip is elevated, I’ll do some hip exercises to even them out and we’re good, right?”  “Hang on” I explained, “Let’s figure out why that hip is elevated.  Maybe that hip is the problem, but there could be something else going on.”

Often what we see in the clinic is that the client’s upper body position has a huge effect on the ability of the lower body to work properly.  When I look at Tom from his side views, I see his head way forward,  his shoulders hinged forward and his upper body rounded over.  He looks like a big “C”.  Tom’s spine should have three little curves in a gradual “S” shape, not a big “C”.  I put my hands on the top of each side of his pelvis to confirm that his right hip is higher and leaving my hands there I have Tom interlace his fingers together and put his hands behind his head and pull his elbows back as hard as he can.  He grimaces as if this is a bit difficult, then jokes about the only other time he did this, he was talking to a police officer!  But, guess what, with his hands up like that his hips become even.  I have him walk across the room again keeping his hands behind his head and elbows back and as he does that his hips stay level and load equally from left to right.  The hip disparity is gone and he can see it for himself as he walks toward the mirror.  He is amazed.

He laughs, “so all I have to do is walk around like this the rest of my life?”  I said “yeah, and in your neighborhood, they’d think nothing of it!!”  In all seriousness though, we have to get Tom’s upper body in that position without him having to put his hands up to get there.  I could see that Tom got it.

Putting his hands behind his head took his upper back that was stuck in flexion and shoulders that rounded forward and got them into a more extended position, closer to where the body was designed to be.  In this position the rest of his body changed and we could see his hips were level and his walking become equal left to right.

Bottom line:  Tom’s left knee hurts because every step he takes, he makes it work harder than it’s supposed to by putting more weight on it than it should normally get.  Along with that, as he keeps loading that left hip more and more, it gets tighter and tighter and over time stops rotating the way it should, so then the knee has to take up that job.  The knee was never designed to rotate – it’s a hinge.  So he’s not only putting more weight on that side with every step, he’s asking his left knee to do something it was never designed to do — rotate!  That knee is working like crazy taking more weight and twisting with every step – one hard step off a curb and the ACL tears – ouch!!!

Because the right hip is out of position he cannot load evenly left to right.  The right hip is out of position because his upper body is pulling it there.  In order to resolve the knee pain we have to get his upper body and shoulders in a more extended upright position.

All the other people trying to help him were only seeing his knee as the problem and so focused on the knee.  But the cause of his knee pain symptom was not the knee but the position of his upper body.  He could have done and did all kinds of things for his knee (the symptom) nothing changed because the cause of that symptom was not addressed.  We gave him a sequence of exercises to get the upper body more extended and some others to help the hip change position and stabilize so by the end of our session he felt better and walked better than he had in years.

This is not the end of the story.  In fact, it’s just a beginning.  Tom has to do his exercises every day to retrain his body so it will live in the better position.  It’s not a quick fix, but if he does the work, he will begin to stay in that better position and he won’t have knee pain. 

Where you are having pain (symptom) is rarely the actual cause of the problem.  The body works as a unit.  When we observe and treat the whole body as a unit the results can be amazing; some people have said miraculous.  It’s not so much a miracle, it’s just returning to the body’s original design of straight lines and 90 degree angles.  If you would like some help getting your body back to this basic design, give us a call or check out our website.

If you can understand these simple concepts, you don’t have to live with or be afraid of pain.  Pain is just a message that something is wrong and your body is asking for help.  Instead of ignoring it, let’s listen and then respond to it with grace and intelligence.  Believe in your body and honor it by giving it the motion it needs and the results can be truly amazing.

 MACKIE BOBLETTE

BELIEVE IN YOUR BODY!

by

In case you think that we posture people never injure ourselves or have pain, I have a story for you…

I was cutting firewood last week-end, moving logs so I could cut them with my trusty hand saw.  Some of you might even be happy to know that while moving a particularly large log, I felt my low back strain, and being a guy, I had to finish my task so I just kept going the rest of the afternoon.  By the end of the day my left low back was screaming at me and I could hardly straighten up!

Now, here is where doing what I do gives me an advantage.  Unlike most people, I did not reach for the Advil or think that I had herniated a disk nor think I should just take it easy and go to bed.  I got down on the floor and did my menu – 10 Egoscue e-cises and my back felt 75% better!  I did supine groin stretch, had dinner and then went to bed.

Next morning, I was still stiff and it was difficult to bend over.  I poured my coffee, had some breakfast and did my menu again.  Again, I felt much better and went on to work.  Throughout the day I felt some twinges in that same spot and when I could, I did a few simple e-cises.  When I got home, I did a couple of e-cises, did the tower and then off to bed. 

Upon waking on day two, my back was stiff again but less than before.  I did my menu and the pain was gone!  Throughout the next day, I moved around as usual, bending, twisting – no pain.  One and a half days after straining my back and its back to normal!

That’s how resilient the body is when you give it half a chance!  We all like to do different things and in doing those things, stuff may happen.  If you are doing your menu fairly regularly, you have the tools to handle most any kind of problem that can occur. 

Believe in your body!  It has an amazing inherent strength and ability to heal.  Trust your intuition about what you can do to help yourself – as you listen to your body, you will begin to know.  If something like this happens to you and you’re not quite sure what to do, give us a call and we’ll direct you. This is where we can help.  That’s what we do – give you the tools to re-connect with your physical self, get yourself out of pain and believe in your body.

 

 

AWARENESS = HEALTH

by

AWARENESS = HEALTH

The human body is a miraculous system.  It has an innate ability to heal itself if we just pay attention to the messages it sends us.  Some messages are easier than others …when we are hot, we sweat; when we are cold, we shiver but when we feel pain, it might be hard to figure out why.

What is the best way to pay attention to the messages that our body is sending us?  Be aware.  It may take a little practice because we are busy, we are overworked and overstressed, we are stoic and we brush aside feelings, experiences, pain, as well as the good stuff because we have things to do.  Well, until we can’t do them anymore.  Because we didn’t heed the signs of things to come, we didn’t experience the pleasures or the pain…we were unaware.   

Pay attention to your pain.  Is it sharp or dull? Is it constant or brought on by certain movements?  What time of day is it?  Be aware. At Pain Free we are posture people.  We understand that joint pain is the body’s message that muscles are out of balance and are pulling the skeletal system out of alignment.  When we are out of alignment, then some muscles get too tight and painful, some atrophy and joints no longer line up properly causing them to wear down compressing the nerves.  Ouch!

If we automatically take pain medication, then we lose important information that our body is sending us.  We are no longer aware of movements that change or decrease the pain which makes it impossible to correct the underlying cause. The Egoscue method provides awareness techniques that enable you determine what is going on in your body and help us create a program to get you back to optimal alignment and out of pain. These are techniques you will keep for the rest of your life!

Practice awareness in all aspects of your life.   Focus on some simple things – as you are walking outdoors, feel the wind in your face, feel your leg muscles tighten, feel the rhythm of your arms swinging; when you are getting ready for your day, really feel the hot shower water hit your body, take a deep breath and let your muscles relax in the steam;  at the end of your day relish each bite of food at dinner and if you are sharing dinner with someone, listen, engage in conversation, enjoy the company.

Instead of rushing through everything to get to the next thing, slow down and experience, enjoy, listen, and feel this amazing life – including the pain.  Awareness is the first step to becoming pain free, reclaiming health and living your life to the fullest.

 

WELLNESS RETREAT …A GREAT SUCCESS !

by

A huge THANK YOU to all of the participants and practitioners that joined us at Montfair Resort Farm for a day of WELLNESS!

It never ceases to amaze us  how many gifted practitioners we have working in Charlottesville and the surrounding areas.

Our day started with an Egoscue class to bring our bodies into proper alignment.  This was followed by a Restorative Yoga session.   After we were aligned and stretched,  various gifted practitioners shared information about their specific treatment techniques.  These  included Acupuncture, Chiropractic Care, Craniosacral Therapy,  Tai Massage,  Structural Integration, Acupressure and  MELT (myofascial elongation).

We enjoyed a healthy lunch followed by some time to visit and enjoy the beauty of the surroundings.
The picture above is from our  experience  of Tai Chi in the great outdoors.  We followed this with a session on self hypnosis.  After everyone was aligned, stretched, fed and filled  with the peace of meditation,  we had the opportunity to experience a variety of hands on work.

An incredible day!