Sukie Baxter

February 20, 2013 Posture

Head Forward Posture, Overcoming Injury and What’s the Best Organ to Detox First?

Q. Hello Sukie,

Thank you for your efforts in trying to make us more flexible and relieve us from our backaches.

For my part, I’ve been suffering from lower back pain in the night and immediately prior to leaving the bed in the morning. The pain would disappear after a few minutes once I was up. It’s been like this for several years now. I went to a massage therapist, a physiotherapist and a osteotherapist without much results. The only thing that seem to work is stretching the muscles attached to my lower back but i just started that a week ago, just before stumbling onto your blog.

On top of that, a few times a year without really knowing why, I hurt my back with as a result a really sharp pain in the middle of my back about an inch left of the spine. The pain is worst when I try to lower my head. And it would last for a few weeks at a time.

Thanks for reading this description of my back problems and I will continue to try the exercises in your videos.

– Eric

Hi Eric,

You’re on the right track with the stretching of your back muscles. Dynamic movements are even better, like the traditional cat/cow spine mobilization from yoga. Motion is lotion – it’s said so often that it’s a cliche, but it’s true. When you move your body, you’re pumping fluid into the tissues which brings nutrients to your cells and flushes waste products away. Movement lubricates your joints like adding WD-40.

If your back is feeling stiff at night, you might try adding some heat for 30 minutes or so and then performing some gentle movement and stretching exercises.

Most people wake up a little stiff in the morning. You shouldn’t be in pain and you should feel loose after you’ve been up and moving around for 10-15 minutes. If not, you probably have some systemic inflammation going on. Take a look at your diet and make sure you’re not eating processed or chemical laden foods. Alcohol can also be a culprit, even small amounts, particularly if you’re sensitive to it. White flour and white sugar are the biggest culprits.

You can also add in some anti-inflammatory foods like ginger and turmeric. I love adding fresh ginger to a big glass of green veggie juice because it’s the fastest way for the body to absorb it. You can also take a teaspoon or so of fresh, chopped ginger, but it is really spicy!

As for the pain in the left side of your back, it sounds like a rib dislocating. Ribs are flexible and move in and out of their joints at the spine fairly easily. If your hips are out of balance or your spine is twisted or rotated, the ribs will also be twisted and more likely to “pop out.” You might be able to keep this from happening by balancing your body through strength training and stretching, but you might also need the help of a qualified bodyworker to get things realigned. Rolfing or structural integration is really effective for taking these twists and rotations out of your body.

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Q. Was asking about my head being tilted forward – been working at opening my chest (I’m a woman) it’s working great and maybe as a result my head is tilted forward- asking what can I stretch to have it aligned with my shoulders –

The video with the dowel is straining my trapezius and then maybe it should until I get looser?

– Safia

Hi Safia,

Opening your chest shouldn’t worsen head forward posture. Without looking at you, I can’t say for sure what’s going on, but it might be that your rib cage is depressed. When the rib cage collapses down on your hips, it usually causes your belly to pooch forward and your upper chest to get flat. You might develop a kyphosis in your upper spine – increased curvature of the mid back, like the beginning of a hunch back.

The rib cage collapses down and then your head has no support. The neck is forced into a forward angle and the head rests in front of the midline.

To fix this, work on exercises that strengthen the muscles between your shoulder blades, your rhomboids, latissimus, and serratus posterior inferior. Serratus anterior is also a good one to work (the muscle under your armpits). Rows and push ups are helpful for these but make sure you sit up straight and don’t hunch your back or you’ll just be making the problem worse.

Also, strengthening your abdominal muscles will help to support your rib cage. For this, I love carrying weights overhead. You can start with crosswalks – lock one weight out in your right arm and hold another weight at your side in your left hand. Walk for as far as you can (try for about a block) and then switch sides. You’ll be engaging every muscle in your body to support the weight.

Note: You have to use a heavy weight that’s challenging to get any benefit from this! For some people, that might be 15 lbs. For others, it might be 50 lbs. But pink 2 lb dumbbells aren’t gonna do it.

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Q. Hello Sukie, Nice to meet you. I am 56 yr female that has just discovered I have Tietze’s syndrome. I am not sure if you can help. Rib movement of any kind while symptoms are aggravated is not suggested. Maybe this would be helpful after inflammation goes away.

– Teresa

Hi Teresa,

I’m honestly not personally familiar with Tietze’s Syndrome. However, it appears that it’s periodic inflammation of the costal cartilage and the causes are not well understood.

If I were you, I would focus on decreasing inflammation in my body and mobilizing my joints when not experiencing an inflammatory episode. You can mobilize joints from the inside out by taking them through a full range of motion, but you would want to start slowly to make sure the movement didn’t exacerbate your pain. It would probably be best to find a movement specialist in your area who could work specifically with you.

Adding anti-inflammatory foods into your diet might also help, but you definitely want to be working closely with a holistic or naturopathic doctor on this. Herbs like ginger and turmeric are powerful and might interfere with medications.

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Q. Hi Sukie,

I am just frustrated with not being able to move comfortably. I was an athlete growing up…playing football, basketball and baseball in high school. Injuries started to pile up and not having trainers on staff meant we just sort of played through injuries or rehabbed them on our own. Fast forward 12 years and now I am almost 30 but my body feels like it is 60!! I go to yoga, lift, do calisthenics, just started with kettlebells and I run. I am trying to figure out what my best course of action is to not only get in shape and shed some fat, but also move efficiently and pain free and not feel like a stiff tree anymore!!

Looking forward to your emails and reading through your blog.

– Jeff

Hey Jeff,

You’re on the right track! I’d also suggest looking into dynamic joint mobility to help restore your range of motion and cutting back on inflammatory foods like sugar, white flour, starchy foods, fried stuff and anything processed. Add in a ton of green veggies and you should notice a difference right away.

You might also back off on the workouts, give your body time to heal. This is the hardest thing for athletes, but rest is super important, especially when you’ve had a lot of past injuries. Maybe mix in a few active recovery days, days where you work with things like Indian Clubs (not club bells but the super light Indian Clubs designed for mobility) and do gentle yoga. By gentle yoga, I mean the class for senior citizens! No flow yoga or power yoga on those days. You just want to move your body extremely gently and let it recover from your activity.

You will actually see better gains by backing off.

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Q. Hi Sukie,

Not really sure where to start…so I need some time to take it all in. I’m 44 love my life however really crazy down lately because I’m stuck in a major rut of no energy, drinking way too much alcohol using the excuse that’s it’s my escape from my kiddos! Got no energy, and have sooo many resources to turn to but have remorse each time over the confusion of where to start. Way too many choices and my “ADD” sets in and I do nothing but the same thing I did yesterday out of bad habit. I start out ok in the morning and by nighttime I’m volcanic in my own explosion of anger. I have an amazing husband, great family and sometimes need to pinch myself because I have it all and deserve none of it…In any event, I’m praying that all the confusion in my head can be sorted out and I could start feeling better and focused on living clean & well for the sake of all my loving peeps. I love Kris Carr’s emails and wisdom and have been addicted to Oprah’s lifeclass/masterclass ie. Feel like Tom Shadyac and want to run from all this worldly chaos of so many American choices. In any event, I need to detox really soon and should start w/? my liver, colon, stomach, brain most likely…

Blessings,

Michelle (Philly)

Hi Michelle,

It sounds like you’re stuck in a downward spiral and don’t really have a direction to point to get yourself out. On the one hand, you say you love your life, but on the other, you’re stressed out and engaging in self sabotaging behavior. Believe me, I get it and there is no judgment, but you really have to back away and take a look at your actions here.

When you feel lost and directionless like this, it’s really easy to look to a detox or cleanse to “fix everything” and get you back on track. And likely you do need to detox your body a bit.

But I guarantee that if you don’t figure out what’s triggering this negative behavior before you detox, you’ll just rebound back into drinking too much alcohol and feeling like crap.

Your body is actually constantly in detox mode. Every chance it gets, it’s breaking down old, useless cells and rebuilding new ones. You can just speed this process by giving it good, clean foods consistently and removing toxic substances from your diet. You don’t even have to do it all at once. You could just give up sugar for now, for example.

But before you start making those changes, you have to figure out what it is in your life that you’re really trying to escape from. You say it’s your kids, but I think there’s probably more to it than that. Is it the mind numbing routine? Constant bickering? Sheer boredom? Lack of creative expression? No time for you?

Grab a journal and start writing. Or, get thee to therapy. Go for long walks in the woods. Sit and meditate. Do whatever it takes, but figure out what you’re running from. Fix that and you won’t need to escape from your life anymore. Then detox will happen naturally and effortlessly.

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February 6, 2013 Uncategorized

Simple Exercise to Decompress Your Spine

Are you stuck at a desk job, sitting all day long? That’s probably THE biggest complaint I hear on a daily basis. You go to work and sit for eight hours, getting up just long enough to fetch lunch (if you’re lucky) and then right back to sitting again. And at the end of the day, you’re so tired from sitting, you collapse on the couch and sit some more!

Believe it or not, sitting still is exhausting, especially if you’re doing it wrong. I definitely know all about this. Before I went off to Rolfing School, I pretty much worked exclusively in offices, answering phones and managing a never ending tornado of paper. My back has never hurt so much as it did daily when I was working in front of a computer all the time.

Of course, you should have a good strength and stretching program in place to make sure all your muscles are getting worked on a regular basis, but if you need a little quick relief for your aching back, try this simple stretch.

Sidenote: the brilliance in this stretch (called Child’s Pose in yoga) is not in flopping down into it, limp as a noodle. Reach out behind you with your tailbone while at the same time stretching your fingertips further in front of you on the mat. This gives your spine a gentle traction and creates space between each of the vertebra.

And for an extra bonus, I show you how you can get some very gentle spinal traction just using the ground and nothing else. Basically, you start from a seated position and roll your back down on to the floor, imagining that you’re setting down one vertebra at a time and then stretching as much as you can before setting the next one down. By the time you’ve got your back all laid out on the floor, you’re getting a gentle stretch down the length of your spine that you can hold for five to ten minutes, or longer if you like!

Of course, if you have spinal injuries of any sort, check with your doctor before doing any type of exercise, including these. You don’t want to put yourself in danger of further damaging your back!

January 30, 2013 Posture

Posture Exercise to Fix a Hunched Back

I’m lucky. Despite all the stiffness I had my whole life in my legs and hips, I’ve always been fairly flexible in the shoulders and upper back. But a lot of people aren’t so fortunate.

Men, in particular, tend to have tight, stiff shoulders because they genetically have more muscle mass in their upper bodies than women. And, a lot of men work that muscle mass trying to get better definition (do I hear bicep curls, anyone?). The more density you build, the tighter your shoulders will get. In fact, the tendon of the bicep muscle is a huge culprit in forward rounded shoulders, pulling the scapula (shoulder blade) forward and down, causing “winging” in the back and putting strain on the tiny muscles that support the neck.

But all of us are prone to a hunched over back, these days, from all the sitting at computers and driving that we do. Anything that pulls our eyes forward also pulls our heads forward, which in turn causes a hunch-back like rounding to our upper spines. Yikes! I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t want to look – and feel – like Quasimodo when I’m fifty.

Usually the tightness causing a rounded upper back is not actually in the back. It’s the muscles of the chest and rib cage that pull you forward and down. You can get a lot of relief for your hunched back by mobilizing your shoulders, i.e. taking them through a full range of motion.

You may not know this, but your shoulder joint is one of the most mobile in your body. You can make a huuuuuuuge arc with your arms and hands, but most of us never do because we live in a modern world and don’t have to swing from trees, throw spears or fight off tigers (I’m not sure if shoulder mobility would help in a tiger fight, but it can’t hurt, right?).

Anyhow, use the exercise below to regain your lost range of motion. You’ll need a wooden dowel of some kind – a broomstick works fine. Space your hands wide enough on the dowel that you can make a full circle all the way around. I will warn you, a lot of people are shocked when I show them this exercise because it looks like I’m hyper-mobile or hyper-extending my joints. I’m not! Everyone – barring major injury or surgery – should have this much shoulder flexibility.

If you simply CAN’T make the full circle, do as much as you can comfortably. Don’t force your arms up and around. Do this daily using as much range of motion as you can and you’ll quickly recover your flexibility.

One more thing…if you have injured your shoulder or had surgery, take it slowwwwww! Scar tissue is really tough to mobilize. You can do it, but you don’t want to force anything because you’ll just risk tearing a muscle or tissue and setting yourself back months or years. And you will probably need to incorporate some kind of bodywork to help release that tight scar tissue and speed up the mobilization process.

Okay, ready, set, go!

January 23, 2013 Pain Relief

Neck Pain Relief with a Simple Stretch

Do you ever wake up and just feel like you slept wrong? Like your neck was in some crazy unnatural position all night, or maybe the cat was dancing on your head?

And then you’re super careful all day, making no sudden movements lest you tweak a muscle and make your whole neck spasm. It’s all good as long as you don’t do anything crazy, like, oh, say, turn your head, right?

Yeah, that’s not really a good way to spend your day. At the very least, you’re going to be terrifying every other driver on the road when you change lanes without looking to see if there’s a car in the way.

So, let’s get that fixed, shall we? Give this simple neck stretch a try. This video shows you one run through of a three part stretch, but you can do each part up to three times, so if your neck is really stiff, wash, rinse and repeat. Preferably daily. Your neck will thank you.

January 2, 2013 Posture

Tight Hamstrings? Try This Hamstring Stretch to Increase Flexibility in 30 Seconds or Less…

The other kids used to laugh at me in high school P.E. When you’re a kid, you’re supposed to be flexible, but I never was. While everyone else was easily putting their foreheads on their knees, I couldn’t even touch my toes.

And when I started rowing on the crew team in college, my coach yelled at me nearly every day to stretch my tight hamstrings that were sabotaging my technique and slowing the whole boat down.

Stretch I did, but no matter what I tried those tight hamstrings just wouldn’t let go. What little flexibility I gained from a session of good ol’ fashioned static stretching usually disappeared in a few hours or days, leaving me just as stiff and tight as before.

My legs wouldn’t even go straight because my hamstrings were so tight, keeping my knees permanently bent.

Fast forward to today and while I wouldn’t claim to be the most bendy person in the world, I can stretch my legs out in front of me, fold forward and put my head squarely on my knees with my fingers comfortably wrapped around my feet.

Ahhhhh…I can’t even begin to tell you how good it feels to be loose and limber. But that’s beside the point. What I want to share with you is the technique I used that finally got my hamstrings to let go – and it definitely wasn’t just “stretch more.”

Best of all, you can use this technique to increase flexibility in just 30 seconds. Don’t believe me? Keep reading and see for yourself.

Hamstrings are actually three large muscles that originate at the base of your pelvis on the ischial tuberosity, or sits bone (these are the two sharp bones in your butt that get quite sore when you’ve been sitting on bleachers for a long time).

The muscles travel down the back of the leg and attach below the knee joint, making these guys a multi-joint muscle. They both extend your hip (think ballerina doing an arabesque) and flex the knee (i.e. curl your heel up behind you). Hamstrings are the antagonist to your quadriceps, the four large muscles that run down the front of the leg. Antagonist means that they do exactly the opposite movements, so your quads flex your hips – that’s why they’re known as hip flexors – and extend your knee. Think kicking your leg straight out in front of you.

And speaking of, if you can’t extend your leg out in front of you, you’re a victim of tight hamstrings, especially if your back hunches over like Quasimodo when you try to do it. Likewise, if you can’t straighten your leg at the knee, your hamstrings are tight, and probably your gastrocs and soleus muscles as well (the muscles of your calf).

Fortunately, I have a quick fix for you. You see, it’s super important to remember when trying to increase flexibility that your muscles are plenty long enough. It’s your nervous system that’s freaking out, thinking you’re going to tear something or go to far into a stretch and not have the strength to get back out. You have to teach your brain to chill out a little.

The pain or pulling you feel when you stretch a muscle is actually something called the stretch reflex – your nervous system is telling the muscle you’re stretching to contract so it doesn’t get over lengthened, so, in essence, you’re fighting yourself. But, if we use a little trick called proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF), we can override the stretch reflex and safely gain a few inches of flexibility relatively quickly.

This video shows you how to apply PNF principles to your hamstrings, and you’ll see the dramatic results you can get with just 30 seconds or so of stretching this way…

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