Posture and Technique
Activate Your Glutes with Bridge Exercise Variations
My last blog, Why do glutes shut off?, outlined the three main reasons your butt muscles stop working - pain, position and lack of use. In this blog I am going to provide more information about this powerful muscle group and demonstrate isolating exercises to...
Why do glutes shut off?
Have you ever been told your glutes don’t work? I have! When I started my posture therapy program, I couldn’t activate my left glutes at all. It’s like they had amnesia, which they did. In other words, my muscles had forgotten how to work. To illustrate, Dr. Stuart...
Tame Your Hip Flexors with the Egoscue Tower
Your hip flexors are vitally important to aligned posture and efficient movement. Your two primary hip flexors are the Psoas and Iliacus muscles. As you can see in this Wikipedia illustration to the right, the Psoas muscle attaches to the spine, then passes in front...
Gravity and Back Pain
Gravity: it’s a constant, unrelenting force. It pushes down on your body all day long. If you are not vertically aligned against this continuous pressure, not only will you fail to build your bones (see my blog Prevent Osteoporosis with Aligned Posture), but you may...
Healing is an Individual Process
Road to Recovery Healing is not a neat and tidy process with well-defined steps from pain to wellness. Instead, it is an individual journey that is unique for each person. The source of chronic pain and the strategies needed for recovery can be simple or complex. Some...
5 Posture Exercises to Build Your Bones
In my last blog, Prevent Osteoporosis with Aligned Posture, I proposed that aligned posture or the lack of it is a risk factor for osteoporosis. When your skeleton is not stacked vertically against gravity, your bones are not being stimulated to grow. As a result,...
Prevent Osteoporosis with Aligned Posture
I'm worried about osteoporosis, as are many of my clients. Osteoporosis is a thinning of the bones, which increases the likelihood of fractures and can lead to disability and death. The diagnosis of osteopenia also denotes decreased bone mass and is a precursor to...
Excel in Sports with Good Technique
As I neared the top of the initial 1.5 mile climb on the Caldera 10 km run course, I found the aid station. I slowed to take a cup of Gatorade. And that's when she passed me. Oh Crap! I had no idea another woman was so close! But I had to hydrate. The next section of...
Improve Core Stability and Posture with Diaphragm Training
The diaphragm has a dual role in the body: respiration and posture. When these actions occur simultaneously, we improve our core stability. This is particularly evident in the lumbar spine. My last blog, My Low Back Hurts Because I Can’t Breathe, described the...
My Low Back Hurts Because I Can’t Breathe!
Did you know that respiration (breathing) and back pain are intimately linked? News to me! A 2006 study found that "the presence of respiratory disease is a stronger predictor for lower back pain than other established risk factors." And "clinical observation supports...
Pain Free Backpacking
It has been over a decade since I've been backpacking due to injury and fear of pain. I am happy to say that my husband and I went out for a successful night last weekend to celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary. Backpacking can be added to my list of can do...
How Fit Are You?
Can you... Complete 50 abdominal crunches in one minute? Squat 2 times your body weight? After reading those two sentences, are you feeling unfit right now? Well, I am! These, however, are just a few of the assessments that some people commonly use to...
Relieve Back Pain with Foundation Training
I continually want to provide you with tools to help you take care of your body and reduce your pain. However, that's not as easy as it sounds. In other words, I know that not every approach is going to work for everyone. So, having a variety of options is essential...
5 Exercises to Reduce Anterior Pelvic Tilt
In my last blog I described the relationship between anterior pelvic tilt, lengthened hamstrings and shortened hip flexors. Additionally, an anterior tilt can lead to excessive curvature in the spine. This is because the lower back increases its arch while the upper...
Treat the Cause, Not the Symptom
I've heard a saying regarding pain in the body, “the victim screams while the criminal is silent.” When Tom Myers, internationally known fascia expert and author of Anatomy Trains, said this, he was referring to the interconnected relationships between the soft...
Meet Jessica!
I believe we are designed to move and play throughout our entire lives. I don’t buy into the idea that we should slow down with age, or that pain, injury and physical restrictions are unavoidable aspects of growing older. So, here’s my philosophy. Our mental mindset, combined with the physical position and condition of the body that we bring into any activity (from walking to skiing to everything in between), determines our chance of hurting when we move. If we have a positive mindset, and if we have proper positioning and move with correct body biomechanics, all activities should be possible.
This is the goal I have for everyone: to overcome pain and limitations so you can Stay in the Game for Life!
Visit The Pain Free Athlete website for additional resources and opportunities.
