Posture

February 23, 2011 Posture

Back and Neck Pain Relief: How to Instantly Improve Your Posture

The Back and Neck Pain Epidemic

Back and neck pain are becoming more and more common, to the point that we’ve accepted aches in our spine, shoulders and neck as part of normal, everyday life. The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons reports that back pain is the second most common reason for doctor’s office visits and the United States medical bill has soared up 65% since 1998 to a staggering $86 billion dollars per year.

Why are we experiencing this back and neck pain epidemic, you ask? Well, because of the bewitching machine that you and I are just now staring at – the ubiquitous computer.

Look around you and you’ll notice a lot of people who sit with their heads forward, rounded shoulders and a collapsed chest. Computers, television, driving, and almost everything else that we do during our daily lives, make us focus forward and forget about the back half of our bodies. We lose awareness of this space entirely and fall into our front halves.

We don’t live in a world where we must constantly be aware of what’s going on behind us. There’s no tiger stalking us in the bushes, no neighboring tribesman hiding out and waiting to kill us. We’re really pretty safe.

About the only people who have this back space awareness are elite athletes in sports like basketball and soccer where you need “eyes in the back of your head” to tell you what’s going on 360 degrees around your body. The rest of us need to work a little harder to regain this lost personal space. Amazingly, just being aware of our back instantly improves posture! How nice, no forced shoulders back and gut-sucking-in, right?

As an added bonus, people with good posture have less back and neck pain because there is less strain on the spine and the muscles surrounding it.

But there is a caveat: when you forcibly place your body into any given position, you really are just overlaying one pattern on another. You’re not correcting bad posture, and once the tight muscles holding your body upright are released, you’ll resume your previous slouchy ways. We take on postural patterns of tension like layers of an onion.

When it’s totally relaxed and in perfect balance, your body will naturally find a place of ease in gravity, and that will give you beautiful posture.

So, here’s how you can instantly improve your posture and get back and neck pain relief: I want you to lie on the floor (you can put a bolster or pillow under your knees if it’s too much strain on your back) and take a few relaxing breaths. Now, spend some time breathing into your spine. See if you can feel the floor with the entire length of your back – without pressing it into the floor. Really give yourself time for this exercise, a minimum of twenty minutes. With each breath, try to fill more of the lung space in your back.

Ask yourself what else in your body you need to let go of in order to relax your back – chest, stomach, thighs, feet. Don’t judge. Remember, your entire body is intricately connected. While it might not make any sense to you that relaxing your feet could change your breathing in your back, your body understands it.

Play around with breathing into shoulders, hips, even knees and feet, seeing if you can let your body go entirely and be completely supported by the floor. It’s amazing how much we want to hold ourselves up and how much energy can be saved when you let go of excess tension!

When you’ve spent a good amount of time breathing into your back, slowly stand up, close your eyes and check in to see how you feel. You may notice less tension, a feeling of lightness and reduced neck and back pain right away from this exercise.

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November 10, 2010 Posture

What Kind of Shoes Should I Wear for Healthy Feet and Posture?

One of the questions I’m frequently asked by my clients as they limp in with neuromas, plantar fascitis, hammer toes, knee pain and aching backs is, “What kind of shoes are really good for my feet?”

Often, these clients have resorted to wearing those shoes…you know the ones. They look like a small boat and no matter what shiny finish you put on them, they’re never going to look cute with your favorite pair of jeans.

Ironically, these are not the shoes I recommend for healthy feet. Most “healthy” shoes feel like wooden planks strapped to your soles and some even perpetuate harmful foot patterns. If you want to keep your toes (and back!) happy, here are the guidelines for shoes that will treat you right:

Flat

High heels – even just one inch! – change the angle of your body and put extra strain on the balls of your feet, your knees and your back. To avoid these aches and pains, stick to shoes like ballet flats and loafers.

Suggestions: Born Clever, Camper Colibri

Flexible

Your feet were made to bend! Stiff shoes that immobilize the bones of your feet inhibit their natural function, namely shock absorption and balance. If you can’t bend the sole of your shoe, it’s too stiff and it may be causing you to walk unnaturally, contributing to hip, back and neck pain.

Suggestions: Calvin Klein Lexa, Me Too Prissy

Strapped In Tight

Shoes like flip flops or slides that don’t have a back on them cause you to clench your feet to keep from kicking the shoes off or leaving the darn things behind. Make sure your shoes are firmly attached so your feet can relax and function normally.

Suggestions: Born Kelsey, Privo Pateo, Camper Brothers Impala

In short, don’t mess with nature. Your feet are a marvel of engineering and the closer to barefoot you can be, the healthier your body will stay. Of course, if you want to go whole hog and get the closest thing to barefoot you can have while still wearing shoes, check out Vibram Five Fingers and get your gecko feet on!

This week, pay extra attention to your feet. See if you can feel the ground with each step, as though your feet were having a conversation with the earth. Your feet have many nerve endings and are a rich source of information about your environment. Pay attention to their messages and notice how you feel when you’re good and grounded.

And for goodness sake, throw out any shoes lurking in your closet that leave you with bruised soles, pinched toes and blistered heels! Your feet will thank you for it.

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April 9, 2009 Hunched Shoulders

Why Does My Shoulder Clunk?

Are you wondering: why does my shoulder clunk?

Clicking, popping and other joint noises can be alarming. They are rarely a cause for concern, however.

Read on to learn more about shoulder clunking and whether you should be worried about your joint.

Related:

Shoulder Clunking: What Are The Causes?

Does your shoulder make a clunking noise when you move your arm?

The most common cause of a shoulder clunk is lack of space in the joint. You may also have tight shoulder muscles that restrict the movement of your scapula, or shoulder blade.

Shoulder joints are designed for mobility. Your shoulder is a shallow ball and socket joint, similar to your hip. However, your shoulder is much less deep, allowing for tremendous range of motion.

Unfortunately, when shoulder muscles get tight, they can cause clunking, clicking, popping or grinding noises as they move across bony surfaces.

Tight shoulder muscles can also slightly displace the humerus (arm bone) in the shoulder joint, causing clicking and popping. This can also happen when shoulders are weak and lacking integrity, which allows the bone to move around too much in the socket.

How To Fix A Shoulder Clunk

Using the wrong muscles to move your arms and shoulders will cause neck and upper shoulder tension, limiting mobility.

In the past, the majority of the population was engaged in some sort of manual labor. This strengthened the larger muscles of the back and lower scapula.

Your shoulder girdle (the bony structures that make up your shoulder and joint) needs muscular support because it only has one point of bony connection to the rest of your body: your clavicle, or collar bone.

These days, most people spend multiple hours in front of a computer, in cars, watching television, and utilizing fine motor skills to operate cell phones and other hand held devices.

The larger, strength-based muscles of your back and rib cage weaken with this type of lifestyle. Then you’re forced to rely on smaller, less efficient muscles in your neck and upper shoulder. These muscles are designed for fine motor skills — not heavy lifting.

To fix this problem, you’ve got to retrain your body to use its powerful shoulder and back muscles again.

The Bottom Line

To get relief for a clunking shoulder, you have to do two things…

First, you have to create space for the scapula to move.

Second, you have to retrain your body to support the shoulder using the large, postural muscles of the ribs and back.

Pain Free At Any Age

Want more great ways to stay pain-free whether you work in an office or on a mountain top? Click below to get access to my **free** Pain Free At Any Age video series that will help you heal your body in no time.