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Egoscue Total Mobility Workout

3/23/2015

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This Egoscue designed workout is designed to restore total mobility to your body. Total mobility means full joint range of motion along with strength, stability, balance, and coordination required to do everything we are designed to do as humans: run, jump, climb, swim, throw, lift, carry, dance, and play. These 18 minutes of posture exercises will help restore your posture, realign your joints, and improve your movement efficiency while burning calories. Do it today and comment below on what exercises were challenging for you. 

Contact us for more workouts designed for your goals and individual fitness level. 

Related articles:
Why you should never pull your stomach in during exercise
How to fix neck and shoulder pain with Egoscue
Why runners don't get knee arthritis

Tennis elbow - why tennis isn't to blame
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The Kidding Around Workout

3/17/2015

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Rediscover the fun of exercise and get your whole family moving with this quick routine.
Get moving as a family with this group workout that’s fun for adults and kids of all ages. This interactive routine encourages movement of your body’s major joints and also calls upon multiple muscle groups to help improve mobility and balance. Most importantly, this family workout provides a reminder that exercise should be enjoyable and doesn’t have to be complicated. That’s an idea both little ones and grown-ups can embrace. - by Pete Egoscue

Related articles:
Children's declining fitness: what does posture have to do with it?
The magic of motion: bear crawls

Fear - creating a new definition changes everything
The feel good workout

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Simple Airplane Stretches for a Long Flight

3/11/2015

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Relieve the pain that inevitably creeps in during long flights with these simple stretches designed by alignment expert Pete Egoscue.
After two hours of flying, most of us tend to feel pretty uncomfortable. Join alignment expert Pete Egoscue to learn some tips and airplane stretches to help you relieve pain during and after your travel. This video will focus on the pelvis, the back, and the feet so you can leave your flight feeling comfortable and aligned. - Pete Egoscue


Related articles:
Neck curvature and car accidents
Egoscue posture exercises for headaches and sinus relief 
Mogo: the chair of the future?
3 things you must do to be pain free for life
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How Shoulder Posture Affects Running Performance

3/10/2015

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There was recently an article in the New York Times Magazine about running phenom Mary Cain that talked about how talented and dedicated she is to running and breaking records and how her coach Alberto Salazar is trying to carefully guide her to her full potential without injuring her. 

If you've seen the times Mary Cain has run, you quickly realize that she has the potential to set not only every middle to long distance American record but maybe even challenge the world records. Alberto Salazar says she has...
“As much talent as any young athlete I’ve ever seen in running in my life.”
But there is something about Mary that might hold her back from setting more records and could end her career prematurely...her posture. 
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Notice Mary Cain's rounded upper back, forward shoulders, and forward tilted head.
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Genzebe Dibaba has much better upper body posture: her head and shoulders are directly above her hips.
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Mary Cain's shoulders and head are rounded forward, but so is her competitors.
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Bernard Lagat showing good thoracic extension and upright head posture.
The Runner's World article, when talking about the girls lined up at the starting line of the 2001 high school national championships 4x800 meter relay, said this:
With their long ponytails and soft bodies, racing numbers pinned to their hips, none of the girls looked like much — but Cain, a freshman, looked like less. She wore hot pink shorts and a black sports bra, and her shoulders slumped with the impatient awkwardness of being 15.
"Slumped shoulders" is the key word, and while it might have started with the "impatient awkwardness" of being 15, Mary still has the same slumped shoulders today as a much more confident almost 19 year old. The article says when Alberto Salazar first started working with Mary he noticed her upper body:
An obsessive about form, Salazar said that Cain’s lower-body mechanics were excellent, good enough to make her the best in the world, but that her upper body needed work. In particular, if she wanted to reach her potential, she needed to keep her left elbow closer to her body, swing it straight, front to back, instead of out and across her torso. He referred to the elbow as her “chicken wing.”
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Mary Cain's "chicken wing" as her coach Alberto Salazar describes it. Also notice the excessive amount of torso rotation she creates to make up for poor arm swing mechanics.
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Bernard Lagat showing good upright spine and head posture and excellent arm swing meaning he has to use very little torso rotation compared to Mary Cain.
That "chicken wing", which Mary Cain has on both sides with the left more pronounced, is a result of the thoracic flexion and forward shoulders which do not allow proper front to back arm swing because the shoulder joint is out of position. Her coach can drill her over and over about swinging her arms straight forward and back, but it just won't happen until her upper body posture is improved. 
The posture of having thoracic flexion, rounded shoulders, and forward head is very common among runners of all ages and talents and again was clearly shown in a recent Runner's World article titled "The Runners Body". Notice the very rounded forward shoulders, winged scapula, thoracic flexion, and forward head. All very detrimental to both good upper body running mechanics and efficeint breathing. 
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This runner has very fast PRs of 4:34 mile, 15:39 5k, 1:11:27 half marathon, and 2:29:54 marathon, but also forward shoulders and head that are slowing him down.
People often think that this body posture is prevalent in distance runners because they do not do any upper body strength training. While many runners do not spend as much time working on their upper body as they do their legs, many do lift weights including Mary Cain and her Oregon Project teammates as the Runner's World article states:
The dominant philosophy now is that girls, like all other runners, should train to become very strong by lifting heavy weights. 
The reason why lifting weights has not corrected the poor posture is because weight lifting will almost always strengthen a persons' imbalances. Lifting weights tends to strengthen the already strong muscles and the weak muscles get even weaker. This can be seen with athletes of all sports and "sports specific" training will always lead to more imbalances by further strengthening the primary muscles used for the particular sport.

Lebron James's normal posture is one with his feet turned out, knees rotated outward, shoulders and head rounded forward, and he has hip and shoulder imbalances. 

Michael Phelps has one of the worst postures in swimming: posterior pelvis, excessively flexed thoracic spine, collapsed chest, and his shoulders and head are rounded forward. 

​Tiger Woods has had strong hip and shoulder imbalances for years leading to his injuries. He is usually seen standing on one leg or the other, rarely squarely on both feet and hips. 

Peyton Manning's dropped left shoulder causes his head and neck to shift to the right. That along with his rounded shoulders and forward head have lead to his neck issues. 
Throughout all sports and athletes we see some very common posture imbalances: rounded kyphotic thoracic spines, rounded shoulders, forward heads, turned out feet, and hip and shoulder asymmetries. Our modern lifestyles involve a lot of forward flexion (sitting, computer use, texting, video games, driving, watching TV) and very little extension and this is a recipe for thoracic kyphosis, rounded shoulders, and forward head posture. Everyone tends to favor one side of their body and without enough balanced motion to restore function to both sides of our bodies, we tend to get a dominate hip and shoulder. This will show up in one hip and shoulder being lower or more forward than the other. 
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Mary's postural imbalances: feet turned out - left more than right, right shoulder rotated forward, back of hands showing to the front.
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Mary's postural imbalances: head forward, shoulders and upper back rounded forward.
Weight training and playing sports will only strengthen these tendencies and imbalances eventually leading to injury. The above athletes have had to deal with the following injuries:

  • Tiger Woods: knee, achilles tendon, lower back
  • Michael Phelps: back
  • Lebron James: lower back, knee, elbow
  • Felix Hernandez: back, elbow
  • Peyton Manning: knee, neck

All these athletes, including Mary Cain, can correct their postural imbalances with specific posture exercises that restore balance, function, and symmetry to their bodies. Improved posture will lead to more efficient movement, improved biomechanics, increased performance, and decreased chance of injury. 

I do believe Mary Cain has the ability to break every American middle and long distance record and set a world record some day, but she has to stay injury free and rise to her potential, and that's all riding on her shoulders. 

Related articles:
Why runner's don't get knee arthritis
Is training your "core" really helping you?
How to fix chronic knee pain

Why Lebron James cramped up
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Simple Posture Exercises for Office Workers

3/6/2015

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Relieve pain incurred from sitting at a desk with these simple stretches designed by alignment expert Pete Egoscue.
For years people have been trying to redesign workspaces to help alleviate pain associated with sitting for long hours at a desk. In spite of new chairs, desks, shoes, and keyboards, most 9-to-5 workers will suffer from back pain, carpal tunnel, stress, and/or headaches as a result of their workspace fatigue. In this video, join alignment expert Pete Egoscue in some simple stretches and techniques to avoid pain at the office. - Pete Egoscue


Contact us for personalized exercise and stretching routines for both home and office. If you own a business and are looking for ways to lower injury rates and reduce workers compensation claims, contact us to learn how we have many options available to help you. 

Related articles:
Dangers of epidural injections for pain relief
Forward head posture
Cause of back pain never found in 85% of patients. Really?! Why?


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Daily at home pain free stretching routine

3/6/2015

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This routine of posture exercises and stretches are designed for Clackamas County employees for their LifeBalance Wellness Challenge. Doing these stretches daily at home will help restore postural alignment, improve energy, decrease stress, prevent or reverse repetitive stress injuries, and eliminate back, neck, knee, and hip pain. Do these stretches in conjunction with your daily at work pain free stretching routine.
1. Static Back
  • Lie on your back with your legs resting at 90 degrees on a chair or ottoman. 
  • Rest your arms out to your sides at a 45 degree angle with your palms up.
  • Relax your legs and upper body and breathe deeply. 
  • Hold this position for 5 minutes.
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2. Upper Spinal Floor Twist
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  • Lie on your side in the fetal position with your arms straight out in front of you and your knees and hips bent at 90 degrees.
  • Stack your knees one directly atop the other, where they should remain throughout the exercise. 
  • Lift the top arm up toward the ceiling and reach toward the floor. 
  • Turn your head to look in that direction.
  • Do NOT let your knees come apart while moving your arm to the other side. 
  • Use your bottom hand to hold your knees together and keep them stacked on top of one another.
  • Allow your upper body to open up as you breathe and relax your stomach. 
  • Hold for 1 minute. 
  • Repeat on the other side.
3. Cats and Dogs
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  • Start on your hands and knees with your fingers pointed straight ahead.
  • Be sure your hips are directly above your knees and that your shoulders are directly above your hands. 
  • For the Cat position: Pull your hips under, push your upper back toward the ceiling, and pull your chin toward your chest as your breathe out.
  • For the Dog position: Roll your hips forward to put in arch in your lower back, collapse your shoulder blades together, and look up as your breathe in.
  • Move slowly back and forth between the Cat and Dog positions 10 times. 
4. Downward Dog
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  • Start on your hands and knees with your fingers pointed straight ahead.
  • Curl your toes under and lift your knees off the floor pushing your hips towards the ceiling. 
  • Tighten your quads and keep your knees straight as your push your upper body through your arms toward your feet.
  • Tilt your pelvis forward to create an arch in your lower back.
  • Slowly lower your heels toward the floor without losing the arch in your lower back. 
  • Hold for 1 minute.


Contact Matt at Oregon Exercise Therapy for personalized stretching or exercise routines to eliminate pain, recover from injury, avoid surgery, or improve performance. 
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Daily at work pain free stretching routine

3/6/2015

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This routine of posture exercises and stretches are designed for Clackamas County employees for their LifeBalance Wellness Challenge. Doing these stretches daily will help restore postural alignment, improve energy, decrease stress, prevent or reverse repetitive stress injuries, and lower workplace workers compensation costs. 
1. Standing Elbow Curls
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  • Stand against a wall with your heels, hips, upper back, and head touching the wall.
  • Point your feet straight ahead and hip width apart.
  • Place your knuckles against your temples with your palms open and thumbs pointing down. 
  • Pivoting on your knuckles, bring your elbows together to touch as your breathe out, and then pull your elbows back until they touch the wall as you breathe in. 
  • Keep your elbows up at shoulder level and keep your stomach relaxed. 
  • Repeat 25 times. 

2. Standing Quad Stretch
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  • Stand in front of something waist height to hold onto and your back to a chair.
  • Point your feet straight ahead and hip width apart.
  • Lift one foot and rest it on the chair behind you.  
  • Keep your shoulders and hips square and level (don’t let the hip of the bent leg drop).
  • Look down and be sure your thighs are parallel and your bent knee points straight down.
  • Tighten your buttocks and stomach muscles to tilt your pelvis down in the back. 
  • Hold this position for 1 minute.
  • Switch legs and repeat.

3. Counter Stretch

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  • Stand facing a table or counter that is about waist height.
  • Keep your feet pointing straight ahead and hip width apart and rest your hands on the counter in front of you.
  • Keeping your hands on the counter, walk your feet back until your ankles are under your hips. 
  • Keep your elbows straight and tighten your thighs (quads). 
  • Tilt your pelvis forward to create an arch in your low back and drop your chest toward the floor. 
  • Relax your stomach and hold for 1 minute.   

4. Standing Overhead Extension

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  • Stand with your feet pointing straight ahead and hip width apart.
  • Interlace your fingers together and reach your arms overhead, pressing your hands to the ceiling with your palms up. 
  • Look up toward your hands and keep your elbows straight.
  • Keep your ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, and hands in vertical alignment front the side. 
  • Relax your stomach and hold for 1 minute.
Contact Matt at Oregon Exercise Therapy for personalized stretching or exercise routines to eliminate pain. 

Find your Daily at home pain free stretching routine here.
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    About Matt Whitehead

    I'm an Egoscue Institute certified Postural Alignment Specialist (PAS) and Advanced Exercise Therapist (AET), certified personal trainer, PatchFitness performer, FiveFingers wearer, trail runner, mountain biker, dad, music lover, environmentalist, and wanna-be slam dunk champion. I will be providing you with the latest posture exercises to help you live, play, and be pain free.

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WHAT OUR CLIENTS HAVE TO SAY

I really just wanted to express my gratitude for what you do and your great help. And, great help it was!! When one is in constant great pain for as long as I was and so desperate for help...words cannot express what I want to say....how can I thank you enough? You helped change my life. 
– Carrie
I feel soooo limber and free in my hip movements and relaxed in my low back. Outstanding and I'm very impressed with the pdf's and the videos, great support to the client. Wonderful job, keep up the great job. – Mike
It is amazing! I've been in pain for 5 years and worked with other therapists and no one has been able to help me. Working with you I am 95% pain free! It feels so good to not have any pain and be able to walk and do things I haven't been able to do for years. Thank you so much! - Joni
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