Pain Relief

April 20, 2010 Pain Relief

The secret to fluid, flexible muscles is… pineapple?!

Overview:

When our tissues get injured, the cells send signals telling your body to produce proteins called Circulating Immune Complexes (CICs). These proteins rush to the scene of the injury and create the pain sensation – warning you not to further injure the area – and build up inflammation to protect the area.

Once the tissue has sufficiently repaired itself, the body sends proteolytic enzymes, produced in our pancreas, to “eat up” the CIC proteins and end the cycle of pain and inflammation. Unfortunately, during our mid 20s, our bodies become markedly less efficient at producing these enzymes, thus allowing inflammation to run rampant.

Systemic inflammation is linked to heart attacks, stroke, arthritis and dementia. The less inflammation you have in your body, the healthier you will be. But if your body isn’t producing the proper enzymes to combat inflammation, what can you do?

The answer is to get these enzymes from substances found in nature, namely papaya (for papain) and pineapple (for bromelain). For optimal effect, the fruits must be eaten raw, preferably between meals to maximize absorption. If pounding down the tropical fruit isn’t your cup of tea, you can purchase vegetable derived digestive enzymes at your local health food store. If taken with a meal, they’ll help you digest your food better; if taken between meals, they’ll help to combat systemic inflammation.

March 26, 2010 Pain Relief

Want Health? Move Your Body!

Movement is absolutely essential to health. It stimulates your central nervous system, increases oxygen flow to the brain, improves circulation, and flushes fluids into and out of cells, among other benefits. In fact, the flexibility of your body is directly correlated to the flexibility of your mind; after all, the body is an expression of your mental state. As Mary Ann Foster states in her book, Somatic Patterning,

“Mental constructs and cultural conditioning create physical fixations that support and maintain rigid beliefs and ideas about who and what we really are.”

In short, if you want to change your life, move your body!

Studies have shown that increased circulation (resulting from movement) contributes to the health of the mitochondria of a cell. Mitochondria are the power-houses of the cellular world; it’s where all your energy is generated in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). They are also active in other cellular processes, such as the control of the cell cycle and cell growth. They have been implicated as playing a role in the human aging process as well (hint: healthy mitochondria = healthy aging!).

Movement also enhances our sense of self and the space around us.

Physical movements are determined by proprioception – the perception of our bodies in space and gravity. There are tiny proprioceptors in the muscle cells of our bodies that gauge tension levels and make constant adjustments to keep us upright.

These mechanoreceptors are actually what determines the flexibility of a muscle, not the physical length of the fibers. When you stretch muscles, the proprioceptors initiate what’s called the “stretch reflex,” causing the muscle to contract once it reaches a certain length, preventing the fibers from tearing and injury. Consistently moving in new, innovative ways generates new neurological patterns through stimulation of the mind-body connection. A shift in self perception results in a change in movement patterns. The best way to shift perception is through playful, non- threatening activities that engage on both the mental and physical levels.

As far as your joints are concerned, motion is like adding oil to a creaking hinge. Repeated movement of the joint warms up the synovial fluid and lubricates the joint capsule. It also creates awareness at the level of your proprioceptors, so moving each joint fully and completely reduces muscle guarding, which translates into increased range of motion, reduced pain, and greater adaptability for your entire body. You will notice, as you begin to explore joint mobility, that your balance and coordination improve, and your reflexes may quicken.

So often, movement in our society is mechanical, industrial, and constrictive.

Rarely do we allow our bodies to truly open up and move in new and creative ways. We try to control the functions, measuring angles, range of motion in joints, and studying form to determine function. We look at a hinge joint, state how it “should” work, and then design exercise machines around this supposed function, specified to an “average” range of motion. We try to define proper function, try to dictate what’s normal for a body, and then we standardize exercises around these principles.

You have a map in your brain, called a Body Map, which determines your body’s potential for movement. Different areas of the body take up greater or lesser amounts of space on this map depending on how much sensory input the brain receives from any given area. The hands and feet, for example, take up a huge portion of your Body Map because so much information is received from them. This mapping system is plastic in nature; sensory input from manual therapy as well as movement serve to change and enlarge this map, giving you increased capacity for movement. The Body Map in your brain is not only limited to the space inside your body; it actually includes the space around you as well.

The potential within us is so great, and yet we imprison it with orderly, regimented movements. Emilie Conrad, founder of Continuum Movement Therapy, posits that the redundancy of our lives – endless repetition of tasks and activities with zero outlet for creativity – could be a contributing factor in neurological degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s due to the complete lack of neurological stimulation. Additionally, regimented movement creates compression, or muscle density, within the bodily tissues. Compression creates an environment of dissonance where fluid is not able to flow into and out of the cells; this kind of situation does not cause disease, but it creates a state in which disease can thrive.

For example, cells that do not have sufficient fluid flow to wash away waste products may become increasingly acidic, and cancer cells thrive in an acidic environment. Additionally, areas of the body experiencing extreme compression are functionally isolated from the whole organism, meaning the flow of movement in the body is blocked.

The surest way to create dis-ease – both mental and physical – is isolation.

With these thoughts in mind, it is imperative to our continued health and well-being to continually develop new ways of moving our bodies and stimulating our minds.

Want a little help figuring out how to get your shimmy-shake on? My Posture Rehab video course will give you step by step instructions for wiggling your way out of pain and restriction into a new, more flexible you.

February 12, 2010 Pain Relief

Pain, Pain, Go Away…The 7 Mistakes That Are Making Your Pain Persist

So often, pain plagues us for years, rearing its ugly head at the most inopportune times, like right before a sporting event, while we’re on vacation, or when the weather finally turns to sun and it’s time to get outside and play.

Even worse, it can be a persistent thorn in your side for years; you might find that you wake each morning covered in aches, stiff, and unwilling to move.

Those who suffer with chronic or acute pain don’t do so willingly. In fact, according to the American Chiropractic Association, Americans spend at least $50 billion each year on back pain, and experts estimate that as much as 80% of the population will experience back pain at some point in their lives.

Most doctors, if they are unable to find a direct medical cause of the pain such as a herniated disk or spinal stenosis, chalk pain up to “just a part of getting older,” leaving patients with little hope of long term healing. The truth is that aging does not have to be accompanied by the myriad aches and pains our Western civilization has come to expect.

In his lecture series, The New Physics of Healing, Deepak Chopra refers to studies done on indigenous tribes where the perception of a person as he or she ages actually increases in value. So, for example, a 30 year-old is much more highly regarded in athletic ability and mental wit than a 20 year-old, and so on and so forth. In this culture, the population did not decline as they aged, but actually improved in cardiovascular health and athletic ability (as measured by their ability to run long distances – their main form of delivering messages between tribes). Similar studies also invalidate the notion that aging necessitates physical and mental decline.

So, if pain isn’t a necessary part of aging, why are so many people plagued by chronic discomfort? Following are the seven reasons I see clients get stuck running in circles, unable to achieve the results they’re dreaming of.

Mistake #1: Continuing to do what doesn’t work

It’s common for someone to try a healing modality because a friend or family member had success with that path. Usually, clients will go to the same therapist that treated the referrer. This is generally a good strategy, but if you’re not getting the results you want, don’t keep flogging a dead horse. It may be that the therapist isn’t a good match for you or that you need someone with slightly different skills. Your body may respond better to a different modality. Don’t be afraid to end treatment if it’s not getting you to where you need to be.

Mistake #2: Assuming there is only one solution

In contrast, some people bounce from practitioner to practitioner, seeking the “miracle cure” that will banish their pain. They try one session of massage, two with an acupuncturist, and then hit up a Rolfer for three sessions, never sticking with anything long enough to evaluate whether or not they’re getting results.

When you set out to heal your body, you have to understand that there is no magic bullet. Accepting that fact will allow you to be proactive and engaged in your healing process. Ask lots of questions and educate yourself about the different therapies. If you’re getting results, however small the measure, keep working with the therapist or modality that is moving you forward. Slowly add additional modalities, one at a time, until you find two or three that have a symbiotic relationship for your body. And, most importantly, keep an open mind. Assuming that you know it all, have tried everything, and that you know what does or doesn’t work will tend to keep you stuck in a rut. You never know what new tidbit of knowledge will be the secret key to unlocking your vitality.

Mistake #3: Not working with the right mentors

Commonly, clients show up asking to be “fixed.” They say, “I just want you to fix me so I can get back to my old life.” I hate to break it to you, but a) you can’t time travel backwards – the body you have now is the body you have to work with from this point forward, and b) no one can “fix” you; it’s an inside job.

Healing pain runs deeper than just “fixing” a sore spot on your body. Pain is intricately linked with our mental and emotional states as well as our physical well being. At the very least, if you are stepping out on your healing journey, it’s essential to have the support of a body mentor, spiritual mentor, and counselor or therapist. You may find that you have several in one category, such as an acupuncturist and structural integrator for your body, or one individual may be ideal. Dealing with all aspects of pain will help you to change the patterns that got you into your current state, developing healthier habits that will support whole body wellness.

Mistake #4: Treating only the symptoms

This could be the most common stumbling block that I see my clients facing. Western medicine, in its endeavor to divide and categorize the body, has given us the false notion that we are some sort of soft machine, a marvel of engineering with interchangeable parts, where organs and tissues can be extracted and replaced with no effect whatsoever on the organism as a whole.

Please don’t get me wrong; western medicine has produced marvels in healing and definitely has its place in the world. Believe me, if I am in a serious car accident and need to be taken to the ER, I want the best MD in the world there to sew me back up!

But, when it comes to back pain, the tendency to want to pinpoint one tiny fulcrum of pain tends to leave the patient struggling and without solution. Here’s why: Your body is intricately linked together; each tiny, microscopic cell is connected to the one next to it, and the one next to that, and so on. Every joint in your body affects the functioning of the joints that immediately surround it. If you injure a joint, there is a ripple effect through the body, much like the rings in a pond when you toss in a stone. It is impossible to focus solely on a knee, a hip, or a facet joint of the spine without also looking at the joints above and below it.

Most treatments only focus on the condition or diagnosis, i.e. sciatica, herniated disc, etc. In reality, your body underwent many stages of misalignment before developing severe conditions and debilitating pain, all starting with an imbalanced physical structure. Treating only the condition equates to treating only the result of the imbalance instead of going directly to the root cause of the pain. And, if there is no medical condition, doctors will often tell you that the pain and discomfort you are experiencing is “just part of getting older.” In fact, it’s usually indicative of an underlying imbalance that will worsen if you don’t intercept it.

I highly recommend working with therapists who take a whole body balance approach to healing pain, such as a structural integrator. Your results will be deeper and tend to last much longer than treatment that only focuses on the symptom.

Mistake #5: Not dealing with pain the first time

We’re all busy, and no one wants to put a halt to their life just because of a little back stiffness, right? Even worse, we don’t want to sound “whiny” or get labeled as a hypochondriac. So, it’s no surprise that most people don’t treat back pain the first time it happens.

Barring any major bodily injury such as a bad fall from a horse or a horrendous car accident, back pain doesn’t come on suddenly or overnight. It’s a progression, a slow deterioration perpetuated by daily habits. If you are experiencing even mild discomfort in your back, neck, and shoulders, it’s a sign that all is not well and if you don’t get treatment immediately, you’re setting yourself up for a much more difficult healing task down the road.

This is exceptionally challenging for athletes to come to grips with as excelling in sports necessitates a tough mentality. If you quit at the first sign of pain and discomfort, it’s unlikely that you’ll make it very far as an athlete; therefore, I recommend that athletes find a solid core of body care professionals, set up a scheduled treatment program, and stick to it (no canceling appointments just because you feel healthy and well this week)! This will help to catch any minor imbalances in their early stages, reducing the risk of greater injury and pain later on.

Mistake #6: Not understanding that healing back pain is a process

In a world of quick fixes and magic cures, we all want to take the fastest road to health that we can. But, like losing weight, healing pain is a process and can take some time. The only way to get from A to B is to put one foot in front of the other, keep walking, and don’t let minor setbacks discourage you. Healing your body is a journey of self discovery, and it can be uncomfortable to say the least. It forces you to take a look at your life, at the areas that are serving you and those which are not. Just like losing weight means letting go of habits that are destroying your health, facing your back pain head on will mean that you must change the way you are living to some degree.

Pain is almost always correlated to an emotional state. There is absolutely a connection between stress and pain, in part because stress causes the body to emit certain neurochemicals that create inflammation and tension, and also because stress causes us to focus less on taking care of our well being (the economic downfall of 2008 saw increased work hours and a corresponding spike in computer related shoulder pain). Dealing with stress goes much deeper than swallowing a pill; it requires us to allocate time for self care and to incorporate practices that support a calm, relaxed state of being, like meditation, qi gong, tai chi, and yoga. All of these take time to have an effect on your body and life. Choosing a program of bodywork, exercise, and stress management and sticking with it is crucial to long term success in healing your pain.

Mistake #7: Not taking action

Making this mistake will most certainly keep you trapped and in pain for years to come. No one can take action on your behalf – no one! If you want to heal your body, you must become an active participant in your healing process, and that means making appointments with experienced bodyworkers, incorporating daily activity into your life, being proactive about stress management, and educating yourself about every single aspect of healing from pain.

Although it’s easier to sit on the couch and wonder why this happened to you, or even to just push through the pain, continuing to do all the same sports and other activities (weekend warriors, I’m looking at you on this one) until you just can’t bear it any longer, refusing to actively seek relief or taking refuge in pain relieving drugs that mask symptoms is the same as choosing to shorten the number of years that you will be physically able to remain active. The choice is entirely yours.

December 4, 2009 Pain Relief

Could Your Feet Be the Source of That Pain In Your Neck?

“The human foot is a work of art and a masterpiece of engineering.”

-Leonardo DaVinci

Okay ladies, I know you love those cute shoes you scored for a screaming deal on Black Friday! The cute heels (that really aren’t too high), peep toe, patten leather…how could you resist, right? Shoes absolutely make the outfit! And, believe me, as a 6’0″ woman who spent years wanting to minimize my height, I’m very aware that finding an attractive flat shoe is much easier said than done.

But, your feet are the foundation for your entire body structure. The human foot is comprised of 26 bones, 33 joints, and over 100 muscles and tendons. All of the tiny structures of your feet combine to create a supportive yet resilient structure that carries you in standing and moving.

Unfortunately, Western society suffers from “Urban Foot Syndrome;” our feet are habitually crammed into poorly designed footwear that cramps and limits the movement of our bones, joints, tendons and ligaments. Further complicating the issue, when our feet fail us and plague us with pain and inflammation due to the fact that they’re squished into faulty footwear, we add more devices, lifts, arch supports, and other “corrective” paraphernalia to our shoes in an effort to prop the foot into a natural position.

All of this stabilization of the foot negates is natural purpose: movement! Have you ever felt a cat’s paw? Have you worked your fingers between their toes, squished around the tiny little bones? If you have, you’ll know how soft and malleable their feet are. If you haven’t had this experience, quick, find a cat, preferably one with clean paws and trimmed claws!

Our feet should be as soft and pliable as the cat’s paw. This would allow us to adapt to uneven surfaces, like rocks, dirt paths, hillsides, tufts of grass, etc. Urban warriors live in a world of paved roads and paths, staircases built into our city trails. Everything is smooth and even, so our feet don’t have much of a chance to feel what it’s like to walk with the earth.

The images below are from a study published in 1905 by the American Journal of Orthopedic Surgery.

Notice how the shod feet have restructured themselves to look exactly like the shape of the shoes. That’s not a natural shape for a human foot! Even more frightening is the below image comparing a modern, high-heeled shoe and ancient Chinese foot binding.

“When a woman wears a high heeled shoe, the anatomy is changed and the pressure is put on the heads of the metatarsals rather than the base where it is designed to be (shown in the picture).” Beverly Hills Aesthetic Foot Surgery

High heels are a form of modern day foot binding. They make our feet appear smaller, cuter, and make women look taller. Rarely does a trip to Nordstrom or Macy’s reveal hot new trends in flexible, natural footwear. Our footwear is mostly driven by the fashion industry, and stilettos aren’t showing any sign of vanishing soon.

Raising the heel any amount affects the posture of the entire body, shifts the balance of weight in the foot, and causes changes to spinal curvature. As you can see in the diagram below, there is a natural plumb line that falls down the lateral side of your body (Figure A). When you are standing with your weight properly balanced over your feet, the spine and back are relaxed and balanced, allowing freedom of movement.

In Figure B, the addition of high heels shifts the plumb line. It’s impossible to stay upright with weight centered over the eye of the foot (the space just in front of your heel) when wearing heels. Instead, it’s necessary to contract the muscles of the lower back, pulling your weight over your center of gravity again. As you can see in Figure C, this causes increased curvature of the lumbar spine (lower back), resulting in back pain and other tension throughout the body.

What does a natural foot look like? Studies done by the American Journal of Orthopedic Surgery show that in native barefoot population of the Philippines and Central Africa, the toes spread easily and naturally to create a wide base of support for standing and walking. Also, you can draw a line from the big toe through the ball and heel of the foot. No such line exists in the shod foot.

The world-record for the marathon was set by Ethiopian Abebe Bikila. He ran it in 2:15:17 at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.

Barefoot.

“People have been running barefoot for millions of years and it has only been since 1972 that people have been wearing shoes with thick, synthetic heels,” said Daniel Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University. Studies and anecdotal evidence alike have shown that the thick-soled, highly supportive shoes popularized by companies such as Nike have done nothing to decrease injury and incidences of plantar fascitis. From a purely functional standpoint, these shoes just don’t make sense.

Your foot was created to be the perfect springboard, propelling you forward with every step. There is a highly sophisticated system of ligaments connecting the bones of the foot. Three arches transfer weight during walking: medial, lateral, and transverse. The medial arch is the one most people are familiar with and is found on the inside of your foot. The lateral arch runs parallel to that, and the transverse arch is just behind your toes.

Your medial arch collapses with each step as the weight of your body comes over it. The ligaments stretch, triggering proprioceptors (cells that tell your body where it is in space and how much each muscle fiber has been stretched). The proprioceptors send a signal to your brain that they’ve been stretched, causing a contraction to take place that propels the arch upwards, and your body forwards.

When you insert an arch support under this amazing structure, it defeats the whole purpose of having an arch in the first place. Yes, now your foot is lifted and you may temporarily experience less back pain, but in the long run, you’ve taken away your gas pedal. Now every step costs you extra tension and more work; you’re no longer moving forward efficiently.

That increased level of tension results in new, different aches and pains. The quadricep muscles become hypertonic – overly contracted – pulling your pelvis forward and causing your hamstrings to shorten in response. This results in…you guessed it! More back pain.

Natural walking feels like floating. It’s as though your body is suspended from an invisible hook in the sky as your feet glide across the earth, stepping effortlessly on hillocks, pebbles, curves and dips in the ground. The Native Americans commented with European settlement that the “white man bruises the earth with his step.” Natural walking allows you to walk with the earth, feeling the texture of the ground beneath your feet.

So how do you get the natural walking effect in an urban jungle?

The challenge for most of us is that, even if it were acceptable to go barefoot everywhere, it’s just not safe. The streets are littered with debris like broken glass and rusty nails, and no one wants a fungal infection from traipsing barefoot through gyms, grocery stores, and other high-traffic locales. But if you’re looking for that barefoot feeling, you’re in luck!

Lately, shoe companies have gotten hip to the fact that the Africans are kicking our butts in the Olympics…barefoot. They’re developing shoes that mimic the experience while still providing protection from the elements. Some of the best picks include the Vibram 5 Finger Technology and Nike Free.

“But I have flat feet…”

So do babies. Arches aren’t created until we start walking as children – and the key word there is created. Adding arch support to flat feet doesn’t create an arch, it props the foot up, like putting a jack under a car with a flat tire.

Arch supports may be appropriate for a time while you work to create a more functional foot, but you’ll want to wean yourself off of them by increasing the time that your foot is without support. Arch supports cause the muscles in your foot to become flaccid and lazy because the wedge is doing all the work. Strengthen your feet by walking barefoot (or in barefoot technology shoes), starting with 15 minutes a day and increasing the time by five minute increments each week. Also, simply laying a towel on a slick floor, such as tile, linoleum, or hardwood, and using your bare foot to scrunch the towel and then spread it out again will work the muscles of the foot, building your arch.

For athletes and other active individuals, I highly recommend training barefoot. I competed in kettlebells and always lifted barefoot – squats, deadlifts, cleans, snatches, keg walks, jerks…you name it, I was doing it barefoot. During competitions, I used a thin, bendable shoe that closely mimicked barefoot lifting. I even traded in my stiff, rigid riding boots for a flexible, moccasin-like boot that protected my foot while still giving me sensory perception and mobility for horseback riding.

You’ll be amazed when you begin to restore your relationship with your feet how your entire body shifts; tension melts, pain disappears, and you have more energy.

October 3, 2009 Healthy Aging

7 Tips to Increase Hip Flexibility

Tight Hips – A Modern Day Epidemic

One of the biggest complaints my clients present during their sessions is tight hips. With the high number of professional computer jockeys in today’s modern world, the common complaints are limited range of motion in the hips and shoulders, pain in the neck, back, and feet.

Sitting all day, especially at an ergonomically challenging computer set up, creates a shortening in your hip flexors (the muscles along the front of your hip and thigh that pull you down into a chair). These muscles in turn pull your lumbar spine forward, causing tension and stiffness in the low back, bracing in your hips and what are known as dysfunctional movement patterns.

Additionally, 99.9% of everyone I see in my office sits incorrectly. I attribute this to a lifetime spent on soft, cushy couches and overstuffed easy chairs. Unfortunately, while plush seating may feel nice for a while, it has the effect of rolling your sacrum under so that your weight isn’t centered over your ischial tuberosities (sitting bones) but rather on the last vertebra of your spine (i.e. your sacrum).

Once your sacrum is jammed, your entire spine compensates. This is why a headache or sore neck is actually located in your pelvis, and why work around the hips and low back will generally result in greater shoulder mobility.

7 Easy Tips to Increase Hip Flexibility:

1. When sitting for prolonged periods, make sure your hips are higher than your knees.

If your knees are higher than your hips, all of your weight falls into your pelvis while the job of holding you upright falls to your hip flexors and the postural stabilizers of your low back.

Instead of bracing your torso to stay upright, place your feet flat on the floor, one foot a few inches in front of the other. By pressing into the ground, you should feel support travel up through your legs and into your low back. Taking the strain off your back is the first step in allowing greater mobility.

2. Do squats – full on, all the way to your heels squats!

Squats force you to mobilize your ankles, knees, hips, and the facet joints in your spine. Most people who haven’t ever trained for this kind of movement find even a basic squat with no weight to be challenging.

When performing the maneuver, make sure your torso doesn’t pitch forward. Holding a small weight, a weighted bar, or a wooden dowel in front of your chest, as in a traditional front squat position, can help you stay upright.

If you are not flexible enough to keep your feet relatively parallel, start with your legs wider apart, feet turned out at 45 degrees. The more you practice squatting, the more willing your body will be to go all the way to the ground.

3. Practice sitting down on the ground and getting up without using your hands.

This is especially helpful for lubricating the hip joints, and it erases the fear that people develop as they age that they will fall and not be able to get back up. It has the added bonus of loosening the lateral rotators of the hip – the muscles that are implicated in sciatica.

Start by finding a way to bring yourself to a seated position on the floor, hands free. Then, get up, also without using your hands. Repeat the exercise several times, finding as many different ways to sit down and stand up as you can.

When the exercise becomes too easy, add a weight. Hold 10-25lbs (or more, if you’re comfortable) at chest height while sitting and standing. This not only mobilizes but also strengthens the joints.

4. When choosing a chair for your computer desk set up, select a firm, flat surface over any padded and contoured seats.

Most chairs are designed for an “average” or “standard” body, and anyone who has ever shopped for the perfect pair of jeans knows that one size does not fit all!

Flat surfaces make it easier for you to sit forward on your sitting bones – your ischial tuberosities. You should feel equal weight on both your right and left tuberosities. If not, try to center yourself as best you can without contorting your body. Just relax down onto the chair.

Sitting on your ischial tuberosities is much more stable than sitting on your sacrum. Your postural stabilizing muscles can easily relax and reduce the bracing along your spine, creating instant mobility for your back (this is absolutely key in resolving back and neck pain!).

5. Take extra deep breaths.

With all the stimulus coming at us from all directions – television, internet, books, MP3 players, digital advertising, children, pets…. – it’s easy to forget to breathe.

When you cease breathing deeply, your diaphragm becomes tight. Anatomically, the fascia of your diaphragm connects directly to your hip flexors, so if your diaphragm is constricted, your hip flexors will be, too.

Take time each and every day to lie quietly on your back. Breathe deeply, relaxing your rib cage, spine, and abdominal muscles. Allow your internal organs to rest heavily into your back. As you become more relaxed, direct your breathing down deeper and deeper into your pelvis, relaxing all of the tension in your low back, sacrum, gluteus muscles, and thighs. As you become more skilled at conscious breathing, you can begin to direct your breath all the way out the bottoms of your feet.

6. Practice dynamic joint mobility – taking each hip joint through a series of repetitive movements designed to increase the range of motion.

This kind of movement increases the flow of synovial fluid, which lubricates the joints. It also provides excellent neurological feedback. Range of motion is a use it or lose it proposition; the more your remind your body that you need to be able to make large, open movements, the more willing your nervous system will be to allow you to do just that.

7. Stretch your hip flexors, especially after long car or airplane trips.

As mentioned previously, sitting shortens the anterior muscles of your hip and thigh. To keep them long and limber, stretch daily, or at least several times a week.

Any maneuver that causes a lengthening along the front of your hip and thigh will lengthen the hip flexors. Some of my favorites include lunges (keep your torso upright – do not allow yourself to fall forward over your front knee) and bridges (a full back bend with hands and feet on the floor – modify this to a shoulder bridge if you aren’t quite ready for this pose).

Get Specific

Want me to personally lead you through exercises to improve your hip mobility, get your shoulders back where they belong, free up your neck and generally feel like you’re ten years younger?

Every video in my Posture Rehab video course is led by me with complete, step-by-step instruction. You won’t find these practices anywhere else (i.e. this isn’t your typical physical therapy experience…not by a long shot). Each one is designed to reset your nervous system, increase flexibility and mobilize your joints.