Learning to Slow my Practice Down to Achieve More Progress

I began my yoga practice when I was 25. I’ve always been a cardio addict, preferring to do cardio over any strength or flexibility training (thus I was resistant to the idea of spending a whole hour in a yoga class). At that time in my life, I was in my orthopedic residency, so I was short on time juggling a full time job, the outside residency requirements, and my marathon training. If I had any extra time in the week, I wanted to dedicate the time to a few extra miles.

We moved midway through my residency, heading down to the walking district in Cardiff. We were lucky to have friends just a few doors down from our new place. Our friends were going to yoga every night, and often invited us along. After a few declines, I decided to view the time spent in yoga as time with friends vs time I was missing running, and I decided to head to class with them. I had taken a few classes in college and had not enjoyed it, but at Green Flash Yoga in Cardiff there were wonderful teachers and an amazing community, making me enjoy yoga this second time around.

I am definitely stronger vs flexible in my athletic capabilities. Not wanting to look like a beginner, early on in my practice I would muscle my way into any posture variation that the teacher offered. I never wanted to choose the more modified option or use blocks, thinking that this was a clear giveaway that I was new or not as capable as the other more seasoned practitioners. I was also raised to follow instruction from teachers and coaches, so even if a pose didn’t feel right for my body, I would do it.

In addition to not modifying poses, during the first few years of my practice I only took vinyasa and power style yoga classes, figuring if I was going to take the time to go to class, that I should also get a strength workout out of the time spent. I remember missing a class because work ran late and I took the slower flow class, and hating it, deeming it too easy and not a good use of my time. I learned a few years later how wrong I was!

When I left my clinical practice and went out on my own, my schedule all of a sudden became more conducive to taking classes. I used to be in an office 8-6 every day. Now, I had clients scattered during the day and could take 830am boot camps and noon Lagree classes. With the new found freedom in my schedule, I no longer felt so pressured to make my yoga practice my sole strength routine, and began attending evening slow flow classes, which began to completely change my yoga practice.

I learned a lot about my body and movement patterns from these classes, and realized how good it felt to slow down and really focus on my mobility restrictions. Instead of feeling upset after a less intense class, I was finding benefit into each individual movement, focusing on drawing more mobility into my restricted regions and doing something therapeutic for my body, vs forcing myself into postures that in reality I was not ready for. This realization has made me more comfortable modifying postures in classes, skipping postures that don’t feel good in my body, and being comfortable staying present in the four corners of my own mat and worrying more about my practice vs what other practitioners may think. I also now use props in most of my postures.

I encourage everyone to slow down in each posture and think about:

• What is the purpose of this posture?

• What am I supposed to be stretching or strengthening?

• Am I being honest with myself about my capabilities in this posture or am I pushing through some of my mobility restrictions and compensating to make the pose “look more advanced?”

Since slowing down my practice, I have noticed more progress in my mobility, and I have not lost any strength in my more powerful postures (arm balancing.) I don’t miss feeling like I am struggling in any of my postures or creating any pain or potential for injury. Slowing down and focusing on correct movement patterns has changed the way my practice looks and feels for the better.

Has anyone else had any similar experiences or shifts in their practice? Feel free to share!

A Few Of Our Favorite Things

If you follow any of our social media platforms or subscribe to Redefine At Home, you have likely noticed that I frequently use yoga blocks and mats in my series. While these props are not a necessity to complete any of our series, they can be helpful and provide more comfort and ease with the postures.

Yoga Blocks

You may be surprised to hear that this is not one of the categories in fitness equipment where I think spending more money yields a more useful product. I have used dozens of types of yoga blocks, and have found that each serves their purpose in helping me support a posture. I love the Hugger Mugger foam blocks (listed for $16.99 each on most sites), and we use these at the studio that I teach at. I used to have my own pair until my baby Vizsla Miles decided that they were his new favorite chew toy and he destroyed them.

Not wanting to invest in another $40 of yoga blocks while Miles was a puppy (and puppy Chase would soon be coming) I went online and got an inexpensive set for $4.99 each from Sunshine Yoga. This was 6 years ago and I still have them. They are featured in many of my videos! I honestly do not feel any more value in the more expensive brand if you are on a budget or unsure of how often you will use them.

I prefer the foam blocks, I know some people like the cork ones. If I have a choice I always reach for foam. I find the cork ones heavy and more bothersome to move around during my practice, and I also feel like they are too hard for some of the restorative postures. I also prefer the 4 inch blocks vs the 3 inch. I find that they offer more stability and support in my practice.

Yoga Mats

This fitness equipment category is one that I do believe that spending the extra money is beneficial. I am a big fan of the Manduka Pro Mat.

https://www.manduka.com/the-black-mat-pro-black-71.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=(ROI)_Shopping_USA_Branded&utm_term=%7c&utm_content=314332498792&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2IrmBRCJARIsAJZDdxBdjqJ7iBROCcTrCbW4ieryeQBL-JJBgmLjs6vPHTyunVYZT6LOPgcaAuUgEALw_wcB

This mat is on the pricier side of yoga mats but I think it is worth the price. I began my yoga practice on a $10 yoga mat from Target when I was 25. It was terrible. My first studio was on concrete and I quickly realized that this mat was too thin and shifted around way too much during my practice. I upgraded to the $40 Lululemon mat and used that for a year or two. It broke down in many spots and was still too thin and shifty. At that time in my life, I was drowning in student debt, so I stuck with this mat for a few years. When I did teacher training, my parents generously gifted me the Manduka Pro. It’s amazing and completely changed my practice. It is thicker, more stable, and has great grip. It takes a few months to break it (slippery at first) but I have had this mat for over 5 years and it is still like new. I have tried the Pro Lite, and completely prefer the Pro version.

For travel, I love the Manduka travel mat.

https://www.manduka.com/eko-superlite-yoga-mat-charcoal.html?___store=default&refSrc=587&nosto=nosto-page-product1

It has good grip for its lightweight nature, and can fold up into my backpack when I travel. I have had this mat for 3 years, and like the Pro, it is still like new. It has traveled all over the country with me for the past year and a half, and it has held up amazingly. I love spreading it out in airports or on vacation and catching a quick practice.

These are a few of my favorite things! Hope that they can help support you in your personal practice!

Chase and Miles showing off the yoga blocks

Chase and Miles showing off the yoga blocks

Are You Truly Moving With Purpose?

Do you ever feel like you are doing all the right things to heal an injury and your symptoms still persist? You’ve been given countless exercises, stretches, and routines, but after months of consistency you still don’t feel better? It may be that the exercises and stretches that were given to you are in fact the right ones, but you may not be performing them correctly. 

 

Have you ever considered the possibility that you may be simply moving through the motions, without fully focusing on where you are feeling the sensation of a stretch or strength movement? It is very challenging to stay motivated and focused on a routine for months, let alone a couple of weeks. In my case, I went through the same rehabilitation routine (completely unfocused on the purpose of the exercises) for 2 years before deciding to move on from competitive athletics. 

 

In my junior year of high school my right shoulder began to hurt when I threw a ball during softball. Looking back now, I believe the problem really started when I broke my right elbow my freshman year. I believe that I adjusted my upper body mechanics when resuming sports, and the trouble began there. After my shoulder pain started, I began physical therapy several times per week as I was aspiring to play college athletics. I went for at least 1 hour, usually 1.5 hours. I do think that there were some missing components to my treatment (including thoracic mobility), but some of the blame on why I was a physical therapy failure for my shoulder is on me. 

 

During the sessions, I was merely moving through the motions of all the strengthening exercises given to me. As a high school student, I didn’t grasp the importance of what I was doing and how it would help me. I was not paying a bit of attention to where I was feeling the exercise, meaning I was getting zero benefit from the sessions and not changing my movement patterns. I assumed my shoulder was strong since I did physical therapy for years, then came to realize how weak it was in physical therapy school years later. 

 

I was interning at a clinic in San Diego (which eventually became my first job) and I was working through a variety of stabilization exercises with some co workers. With the proper focus and cueing from my coworkers, it became very apparent that I could hardly activate my midback against gravity. I was shocked, and immediately began a diligent upper body/ midbackroutine to improve. 10 years later, I am still consistent at it, and I can do anything I want with my upper body without pain (including push ups, pull ups, and throwing.) 

 

To this day if I get lazy in my routines or in my focus with my exercise, I will feel all my midback exercises shift in my neck, upper trap, and anterior shoulder. It’s a pattern my body wants to go into, and I have to mindfully keep out of it. Some people are surprised that I take group and individual fitness sessions since this is part of my job, but this allotted 45-60 minutes gives me better focus so I can concentrate on what I’m doing and not rush though my exercises. 

 

I would encourage you to slow down your routines and really think about the purpose of each exercise. If you aren’t feeling the exercise or stretch in the correct location, there is little benefit to your time spent. Hopefully you haven’t waited as long as I did to realize this! This topic is part of my inspiration forRedefine At Home, as each posture is described in detail with where you should/ should not feel the exercise. 

 

Feel free to reach out with your experiences! 

 

Carla

Plane Mobility

I began traveling for work in 2018. Over the course of last year I took more flights in a single year than in all my previous years combined. The experience and opportunity have been incredible, though I quickly realized the toll that flying has on my body. After my first trip consisting of a flight, two Uber rides, and time sitting in the airport before my flights, I already could feel my body tightening up. After two months I knew I had to make a more significant effort to make some changes.

I’ve already posted on how I manage my mobility/ flexibility routine around travel, so today I would like to share more about how I try to stay mobile while I’m actually on the plane. For starters, I pick a window seat 90% of the time. I am unable to sleep on the plane (so unfortunate!) so I prefer to have the easier access to the aisle. Here are some of my other strategies:

1)     Before the flight attendants turn the fasten seatbelt sign on, I jump into the aisle and do a few quadricep stretches

2)     During the flight, every 30 min I work in a few stretches/ mobility exercises for my thoracic spine. I like seated cat/ cow, side bend stretches, and seated rotations. These are featured on our Episode 6. It’s easy to stretch while you are reading or watching a movie for those of you who like to multitask.

3)     I bring a tennis or lacrosse ball to work on mobilizing the bottoms of my feet and to place between my shoulder blades to work on thoracic extension.

4)     Hydrate! Your body needs water to function properly. Flying can dehydrate you, so for the health of your orthopedic system, grab water before you get on the flight.

5)     Following up on #4, I make a point to get up about once an hour to use the restroom. This is mostly so I can get up out of my chair, and I pick the one furthest away from my seat. Before sitting back down, catch a few more quick stretches in the aisle.

6)     I have many asymmetrical sitting patterns that I try to be mindful of when I sit. I tend to sit rotated to the left and I will cross my right leg over my left. I’m already up in the 20s for flight count this year, so the detriments of these asymmetrical patterns will build up over time!

7)     Relax! Holding tension in your body is not good for your muscular system. I tend to hold tension in my jaw, upper traps, and hip flexors. When I first started traveling I worked constantly on the plane, which I believe contributed to some tough first months. Now, I pay attention to how I’m feeling. If I’m rested and have already been to yoga, I will work for an hour then take a break and relax. If I’m not, I will spend the whole plane ride reading or watching movies while trying to stay relaxed.

Traveling is hard but there are solutions to help make it easier on your orthopedic system. If you have any other strategies for staying mobile on the plane, let us know!

Best

Carla

How I Work Mobility Into My Travel Routine

As many of you know, I travel a lot for work. In the past 10 days I have been to the East Coast, taken two California flights, and had two round trip drives to LA. So much sitting! I had been fortunate that after graduate school I sat very little for work. I was up walking around in a clinic all day, and when I opened my own practice I was even more active in the beginning. Then last year that all changed. I remember my first week of work travel, and thinking: “How do people do this everyday at a desk job? I can barely handle sitting for one day!” After that first week, my back, hips, calves, IT bands, and shoulders all felt restricted in mobility. I knew that if I was going to continue to travel, I was going to have to make a change in my routine.

 So how do I keep my body mobile during work travel?:

 For short trips (1-2 days)

1)     Before taking off on a work trip of this duration, I make sure to walk or run before heading out on my trip. This can make for an early morning, but it’s worth it to me since sleeping is a static posture and it’s important to get my body moving. Plus, it’s a short trip so I can plan to get to bed early the night before and sleep in the day I get back so I can handle the early morning wake up.

2)     I do not sit in the airport if there are flight delays or if I’m early. I walk the airport, or I stretch in the terminal (will be demonstrated on a Redefine at Home episode).

3)     I plan on arriving to my destination early so I can walk for at least 30 minutes before starting work to find movement after sitting in the car/ plane. 

4)     Before going to sleep, I do a 20 minute mobility routine (many of these stretches will be featured on Redefine at Home) to target key muscle groups that are affected from sitting.

5)     Tips for success: packing snacks/ food will give you more time at the airport and at your destination to spend more time moving and less time searching for food. I always travel with my Manduka travel yoga mat so if there are delays, I have a place to stretch while I wait. You also don’t have to let bad weather get in the way of your mobility plans. Most hotels have gyms and if you are day tripping and it’s raining outside, you can walk the airport before heading out to your destination.

 For longer trips (3+ days)  

1)     I sandwich my travel days for a long trip by taking yoga in San Diego the day of/day before I leave, and the day of/ day after I return (depending on my times)

2)     I look at my schedule prior to departure and pre schedule yoga classes at my destinations. I do all of my research prior to arrival so I know which class times I can realistically make. On days a studio class doesn’t work in my schedule, I do an online class for at least 45 minutes. Right now I use YogaGlo, but I look forward to using Redefine at Home starting in March.

3)     I walk the terminals or stretch on flight layovers. Save the sitting for the plane. And no, I don’t feel awkward about breaking out my yoga mat in the middle of the waiting area. Sometimes I even put on an online class!

4)     I walk or run between meetings.

5)     I set up my Manduka travel mat in my hotel room so if I’m on calls or working, I can multitask and stretch at the same time.

6)     If it’s a particularly long trip, I schedule body work while I’m on the trip. I also try to plan my body work in San Diego strategically between longer trips.

7)     Trips for success: treating flexibility as important as eating and sleeping helps me prioritize this into my schedule so I don’t lose my routine on these longer trips. Did you know that many airports also have yoga rooms? Check it out! Also, pack lacrosse balls so if you have dead time, you can use them for tissue release while you wait. I use Classpass for practicing in physical studios when I travel. You can set your account to have multiple locations where you can take classes.

 I realize that this may seem like a lot of work and effort. But think about all the work and effort it takes to rehabilitate an injury. I would rather play the preventative game vs invest the time later when it’s too late. You only get one body, and I’m committed to taking the best care of mine that I can so I can stay active my whole life.

 I also am someone that tends to be naturally more strong vs flexible. I tend to tighten up very quickly, so I find that I need all of the above to not regress in my mobility training. You may find that you only need 50% of what I need. Let your body be your guide, try out a few tips and see how you feel on your next trip.

 Do you have any other tips/ strategies for how you stay mobile during travel? Let us know!

 

Best,

Carla

My Personal Experiences With Dural Mobility- And How It Saved My Running

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that running is one of the most important things in my life. I treat it just like eating and sleeping, it’s something that I build into each day and without it, I’m not myself. I love the exercise, time in nature, and the stress relief that it brings me. When the day goes perfectly my way, I wake up, and within 10 minutes my dogs and I are on the trails (I sometimes have to settle for a mid day run with my current work schedule, but that’s ok too.)

I started running at a young age. My parents are both avid runners, so I grew up running a few miles with them regularly. In college, I started making plans with my mom and dad to join them in longer distance races. Pretty immediately into starting longer runs, I began a cyclical cycle consisting of getting a lower leg injury, resting for a month, rebuilding my mileage, then 4 months later injuring myself. It was obnoxious, but I was able to work through it and still see progress in my mile times each race.

When I was 23 and in graduate school I broke this cycle for the worse with a more serious injury. I was running stadiums with my husband and I injured myself jumping down from the last few steps. This injury took me completely out of running for 4 months, and took another 2 of slowly rebuilding back into a normal morning run for me (needless to say, I was likely not the most pleasant person to be around those months!). A lot of my symptoms didn’t fit the pattern of any injury that I was being treated for. In regards to sacroiliac dysfunction, I do believe that this was part of the injury, but not the whole picture. My symptoms didn’t completely fit because after a week or so of rehab I could jump, squat, and do Pilates with reciprocal motion without pain. Within a month I could run as fast as I wanted as long as the stride was short. Anytime I tried to lengthen my stride while running, I would feel radiating pain. Then, the focus switched to hamstring. My symptoms also didn’t fit a hamstring strain, as I could hamstring curl, do eccentric hamstring work, stretch my hamstrings, and I didn’t have any tenderness or pain to palpation. Hamstring rehab didn’t change my symptoms at all. It was a mystery, one of my PT’s actually did a case study on it. And for those of you PTs out there, yes, we did try nerve gliding initiated from the foot and it didn’t help, leading me to believe that these residual symptoms were not neural in nature.

After the injury and “recovery,” I would continue to feel radiating hamstring pain, sacral region pain, and pain at the bottom of my foot when I ran. Most days the symptoms were mild, other days more significant. At this time in my life I wasn’t in school anymore and had a clinic job, so I had a consistent schedule and was running in the mornings always. Being a little bit on the obsessive side about my running, especially back then, I would just run through it and it never worsened back to the initial injury, but it definitely limited my pace and the overall enjoyment of the experience.

As described in my previous blog post, I discovered my thoracic mobility impairments in yoga. I began incorporating mobility exercises into days when I didn’t take class, and one day noticed that when my upper back felt more restricted (perhaps from a longer day of sitting), that thoracic flexion recreated the symptoms I felt in my back, hamstring, and foot. The next time I felt these symptoms when running, I did some dural mobility exercises on the trail, and the symptoms ceased. Mystery solved. It was neural tension, but was coming from spinal region neural restrictions vs more distal peripheral nerves. Looking back now that I am further in my career, it seems so much more clear. When I injured myself, I was a graduate student so I was sitting a lot at a desk. I was also running in the mornings, after hours of static posture. A perfect recipe for thoracic spine and neural mobility impairments to get set off by a sacroiliac injury.

The concerning thing to me about this experience, is had I not happened to find yoga and link that dural mobilization helped resolve my symptoms, I likely would have been given all types of labels for an explanation of pain, such as disc herniation (many people have non symptomatic disc bulges, they are not necessarily the source of pain), sciatica, plantar fasciitis, hamstring tendonitis etc. I could have had unneeded injections, medications, and perhaps even surgery. This being said, I believe that dural/neural mobility is highly overlooked in treating orthopedic injuries.

Over the past 7-8 years, I have been able to run everyday without pain. Literally. I don’t usually take rest days unless my travel schedule isn’t conducive to running. I often go 90-120 days straight running and I don’t have any issues anymore at my lower leg or sacrum. This can’t 100% be attributed to improving my neural mobility, as since the injury I have also incorporated much more hip and core stability into my routine. But as far as that plateau in symptoms is concerned, this was the biggest game changer for me after that injury running stairs.

I would encourage anyone struggling with radiating pain, headaches, sacroiliac pain, spinal pain, glute region pain, or plantar fascia region to ask their health care professional if this may be related to a plateau in recovery. It’s worth an ask, as it may be a game changer for you like it was for me.

I love incorporating neural mobility exercises into my client’s routines and into my yoga classes, so much so that I have chosen to post a dural mobility sequence into one of the first four videos that I release on my platform next month. Check out our Instagram page for more previews and information, and feel free to reach out with any questions or to share your story.

 Best,

Carla

Thoughts on Thoracic Mobility

My education at USC and my orthopedic residency were instrumental in teaching me how to be a good physical therapist. However, it has been my yoga practice and my own experiences with injuries that have really fine tuned my understanding of body movement and how closely each region of the body contributes to one another. In turn, I have been able to effectively resolve hundreds of injuries that clients had deemed unfixable.

 I took my first yoga class when I was 26 years old in my hometown of Encinitas where I immediately fell in love with Anusara yoga, a style of yoga that emphasizes back bending based on their principles of what is described as “heart opening”. In one of my first classes we moved into full wheel (a backbend for those of you not familiar with yoga). I remember feeling a pretty intense compressive pressure in my thoracic spine, and was surprised by how challenging the posture was for me. I began realizing how limited my thoracic mobility was when moving into various twists and sidebends, and how many poses were not accessible to me because of my thoracic mobility. Over the next few months I started to connect this immobility to the missing link of why my high school shoulder injury never fully healed. I spent hours in physical therapy, had numerous cortisone injections, and ultimately ceased playing dynamic upper body sports my senior year of high school. Through my undergraduate years I avoided throwing, any weighted dynamic upper body exercise, and any overhead weights. Luckily through yoga, I discovered this significant mobility impairment. Through a regular practice and additional at home work, I now (at 33 years old) can do anything I want to with my upper body, including pull ups, throwing, and push ups. I still avoid deep back bends 95% of the time (I have to be really warmed up to do them right and not collapse into my lumbar spine), but I know that each year my practice changes and someday it may be a more regular option.

 So how does thoracic mobility contribute to shoulder function? When you reach your arms overhead, a certain amount of thoracic extension is required. Without this mobility, you will stress structures in your shoulder to achieve the mobility that your thoracic spine isn’t providing. In addition, if you are limited in thoracic mobility, your ability to engage your midback (lower trapezius, middle trapezius, rhomboids, serratus anterior) will become impaired. In order for the humeral head (the long bone of the arm) to properly move in the glenoid, it works closely with the scapula in a movement called scapular humeral rhythm. My inability to recruit these key muscles for this movement was placing too much load on my rotator cuff by creating an over dominance in my pectoralis minor and upper trapezius. My thoracic mobility will likely always be a work in progress, but it is so much better than it used to be, and my current recreational capabilities are proof of that.

 As I hope you know, my company is working on creating a new online platform which will feature video sequences working on functional movement and range of motion through yoga and exercises. I’ve chosen thoracic mobility as one of the first four videos we are going to release because I believe it is so often overlooked when rehabilitating shoulders, necks, lower backs, hips etc. My own personal story on how I spend years in high school rehabilitating my shoulder and years after avoiding exercise, all to be resolved by improving my thoracic mobility and scapular recruitment, is testimonial to that. I hope that you check out this sequence, it will be accompanied by additional ones in the future for variety and maximal efficacy.

 Keep an eye out for our platform launch, scheduled ETA is March 2019.

 

Best

Carla

The Go-Giver Book Review

Our company has experienced a significant growth over the past 4 months, particularly over the past 8 weeks. It was perfect timing that a client gifted me this book a few weeks ago. As we grow in size and success, I feel that it is important to remember the purpose of why Redefine Health and Fitness was started. This book does an excellent job of guiding how a business can grow in success and influence while remaining generous and giving in nature. I read this book twice the week it was gifted to me. Even if you are not a business owner, the principles that are described can be applied to interactions in everyday life. It's a quick read, enjoy! 

Written by: Carla Pryor CEO, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS, RYT 

WHY DOESN'T MY MIDBACK ENGAGE?

Over the past few months, I have evaluated several clients who demonstrate difficulty engaging their middle trapezius, lower trapezius, and rhomboids. Thinking about their movement dysfunctions and how this impairment contributes to their pain and recreational limitations inspired this blog post. The purpose of this post is to explain common postural impairments that lead to weakening of the midback and loss of motor control in the corresponding muscle groups. I will also list tips to help correct the impairments, and provide guidance on steps you can take to seek consult if further assistance is needed. 

We spend a large amount of time sitting, driving, texting, and working at the computer. Most people lack postural strength and knowledge of proper ergonomics and alignment, thus sit incorrectly for hours each day. The above activities draw the shoulders forward, subsequently protracting the scapula. Over time, the pectoralis minor will adaptively shorten, keeping the head of the humeral anterior in the glenoid (the socket of the joint). The scapula will sit in this protracted position and also anteriorly tilt from the tightness at the pectoralis minor. The rhomboids, middle trapezius, and lower trapezius will adaptively lengthen and weaken. The cross bridging action of the muscle contractile unit is inhibited, preventing the midback musculature from engaging. 

As a person continues to sit with rounded shoulders and protracted scapulae, the tightness in the front of the chest and weakness in the midback will begin to flex the thoracic spine. This action with further protract the scapula and further limit the midback to engage. Over time, the mobility of the thoracic spine will decrease, making these impairments more permanent. 

At this point, the structural consequences of prolonged sitting with incorrect posture can be recognized by the uneducated eye. The person is encouraged to sit up straight, pull their shoulders back etc. The trouble is, the person is unable to do it correctly. With attempts to correct posture, the long term shortening of the pectoralis and hypomobility of the thoracic spine will not immediately change. This person will compensate by hinging into their thoracolumbar junction in an attempt to stand up straight. They will  engage the upper trapezius in attempts to engage the mid back that cannot contract due to its lengthened state fighting against tightness at the reciprocal muscle group. Over time, back pain/ neck pain/ radiating arm pain/ and shoulder pain can occur. 

To properly try to resolve the above postural impairments, a person should first begin with a flexibility program to the pectoralis minor. It is essential during stretching to ensure that the person only feel the stretch through the chest and that they are not hinging into the lower back. A joint mobilization program to the thoracic spine should be implemented, again, being sure that the motion is being drawn by the correct joint spaces. Following mobility based exercises, active range of motion exercises (moving with gravity) should be performed to functionally carryover the achieve range. As one gets stronger, these exercises should be progressed to against gravity, then with resistance, then incorporated into static functional movement, then single plane dynamic movement, and eventually multiplane dynamic movement. Training of the transverse abdominus should complement the above exercises as well to help normalize spinal mechanics. 

From the information above, you can see that it is not as simple as instructing a person who is slouched forward to sit up straight. This person is likely unable to perform the instructed task with proper muscle engagement and they may develop injuries from trying improperly. 

For additional questions/ comments: contact Carla@redefinehealthandfitness.com. 
This is a small part of the detriments of improper sitting, future posts will describe how the above postural impairments also link to dysfunction and pain in the lower body. Please consult with a physician, physical therapist, or qualified wellness professional before beginning a new exercise program. 

FUNCTIONAL STRENGTHENING AFTER STRETCHING TO CARRYOVER MUSCLE LENGTH

Have you ever been to a great yoga session and left feeling flexible and well stretched out, only to wake up the next morning feeling the same muscle tightness as before? Or maybe you have experienced going to a massage therapy session or a chiropractic session and left feeling aligned and relaxed, then woke up the next morning feeling back to stiff and sore? These are common reports heard amongst clientele striving to improve their flexibility, muscle length, and biomechanics through passive treatment options.

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